Life as I know it

my thoughts and expressions in paragraph form...

On the 10th day of Christmas…

I’m SO in the Christmas spirit, finally. All the decorations up, shopping *almost* done, I love it. Now let’s just get a little snow and I’ll be happy.

Today I’m listing my top 10 favorite makeup items. Cant think of a good idea for a gift? Buy 1 or 2 of the items below and I’m sure you will make someone very happy!

1. Diorshow blackout mascara

2. Makeup Forever HD primer

3. Anastasia brow powder duo

4. Nars multiple stick

5. MAC lipglass

6. Benefit Moonbeam highlighter

7. Urban Decay liquid liner in perversion

8. False lashes- Ardell brand is cheap and look great

9. Makeup forever HD foundation

10. Tarte shimmer bronzer in Park Ave Princess

Happy shopping!

Hey Holiday Spirit, I’ve misplaced you.

Most wonderful time of the year? Holly jolly Christmas? Magic in the air? I feel like Faith Hill belting out, “where are you Christmas?!”. I know, it’s only December 1st but typically I am a Christmas fanatic by this time. This year I am just not feeling it yet! It bothers me that I feel a lack of spirit, but there are many reasons for this: 1) it’s been like 67 degrees outside! Sorry, but I need some snow and my down coat to feel that christmassy air. 2) I’ve been consumed with wedding planning that I need to mentally shift gears. 3) I REALLY don’t feel like going up to the attic to pull down all of my decorations. Lazy, yes. 4) I have yet to watch Elf or Home Alone and those two movies ALWAYS make me feel like the season has begun!

So- my agenda for the weekend is to SNAP out of it. Christmas only comes once a year and I need to appreciate the next 25 days of this special time. Maybe I’ll start today by saying Merry Christmas to everyone I see. (except all the Jewish people around… Happy holidays to them!)

Why, thank you.

So many people have such warm and thoughtful sentiments in regards to what they are thankful for. I easily could write the same, but I’m feeling a little concise this morning. Usually my gushy self could ramble on on occasion like this but I’m going to try a different approach. Let’s break it down to 2 categories; non-material and material. Let’s be honest, we all ARE thankful for some assets we have in our lives that make our days so much easier. Here we go:

Non-material:
I’m thankful for…
My amazing fiancé, my friends, my family and my friends who are my family, being employed, people who make me laugh, my vision (weird one I know but being blind would be difficult), having a hot shower every morning, and music.

Material:
I’m thankful for…
Makeup, my iPhone, my MacBook, having a company car, my engagement ring, and coffee.

Everyday I’m thankful for these things but it is nice to be able to reflect on the past year and recognize all of these gifts we have in our lives.

6 months later… I’m still ob.sess.ed with my ring. That is all.

6 months later… I’m still ob.sess.ed with my ring. That is all.

It’s all very sad. I have refrained from utilizing any social media forum to express my opinion about the horrifying events that have been brought to light in the last week regarding my alma mater. Mainly because I could not wrap my head around the news about the scandal. I hate even writing that word in the same paragraph that I’m writing about Penn State. I have a variety of feelings that I have dealt with over the last week, and I think the best way to depict how I feel is this: The danger in having so much pride and faith in anything is the incredible let down you experience when things aren’t as you expected. This terrible sequence of events does not define Penn State. It does not take away from the amazing University that it is, the great culture that “Happy Valley” is, and the memories I, and so many of my friends, have formed while at this school. A few sick individual’s actions, or lack thereof, does NOT encompass what Penn State is about. It really disturbs me how the media has transformed this story into a Joe Paterno story. How many times throughout the last week did you hear the name of the sick criminal, Jerry BASTARD Sandusky? Very few. But alas, this is our world and people make money off of talk-worthy stories and focus on people in power positions that are easier targets. I feel that the BOT made the right decision and needed to make changes in order to make a statement that PSU was making steps in the RIGHT direction. But I do not agree with the way in which some of these decisions were made. People made choices, poor choices, and should have stepped up and done more. Without a doubt. And I guess all that’s left to say is… how pathetically sad.

It’s all very sad. I have refrained from utilizing any social media forum to express my opinion about the horrifying events that have been brought to light in the last week regarding my alma mater. Mainly because I could not wrap my head around the news about the scandal. I hate even writing that word in the same paragraph that I’m writing about Penn State. I have a variety of feelings that I have dealt with over the last week, and I think the best way to depict how I feel is this:

The danger in having so much pride and faith in anything is the incredible let down you experience when things aren’t as you expected.


This terrible sequence of events does not define Penn State. It does not take away from the amazing University that it is, the great culture that “Happy Valley” is, and the memories I, and so many of my friends, have formed while at this school. A few sick individual’s actions, or lack thereof, does NOT encompass what Penn State is about. It really disturbs me how the media has transformed this story into a Joe Paterno story. How many times throughout the last week did you hear the name of the sick criminal, Jerry BASTARD Sandusky? Very few. But alas, this is our world and people make money off of talk-worthy stories and focus on people in power positions that are easier targets. I feel that the BOT made the right decision and needed to make changes in order to make a statement that PSU was making steps in the RIGHT direction. But I do not agree with the way in which some of these decisions were made. People made choices, poor choices, and should have stepped up and done more. Without a doubt. And I guess all that’s left to say is… how pathetically sad.

The future is bright!…but I do appreciate the past.

So I had a moment last weekend when I chatted with some of my favorite “‘freshman’ Thetas” at our local Manhattan Penn State Sports bar that we alumni frequent to watch the games on Saturdays. Everyone that I hadn’t seen was congratulating me about the engagement and asking about wedding plans and I just had to take a deep breath because it hit me. In the last 5 months I have had those “wow(!) I’m engaged” moments but for some reason this particular moment was different. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that I was surrounded by people that were a part of my life when I first met Mark, and when things were just beginning between us as a couple. It made me think about how far we’ve come individually as well as a couple. The fact that I’ve been with Mark for over 4 and 1/2 years has provided me with a lot of experiences, growth and understanding of what it really means to be there for someone through thick and thin. Although college is so SO different than “real life”, I couldn’t be happier with where we are in our relationship and I feel like I owe Penn State for finding my soul mate. While talking to these girls that have just graduated and they have so much to look forward to as single hot things in NYC I couldn’t help but smirk with they were like “ERIN, you’re so OLD! you’re getting MARRIED?!” because I sometimes can’t believe it either! As the “senior Theta” in their minds, I felt like I had to give some sort of wise words when talking about this whole marriage thing. I saved the long speech but I simply said that everyone is different and when you find the right person, you just know. But when you DO find that person, keep them close! Like Mark… I wouldn’t let that bastard get away. HA! I felt like this was an appropriate time to write this post because of the big day tomorrow with our engagement party. I anticipate many people asking me, “has it hit you yet?” and after reflecting on this moment, my answer will be an affirmative “yes”. Although I think Erin Taylor has a nice simple ring to it, I can’t wait to be MRS. Erin Taylor Reinhart.

Switching things up

So I have been terrible at updating my blog. I feel like I have so many things going on in my life that I have trouble narrowing down a subject matter into an easy to read, concise blogpost. I have tried to keep this blog makeup focused but there are a lot of other VERY exciting things I’d like to write about. SO, from now on I am going to simply post about a variety of aspects of my engaged/makeup artist/sales rep/social life. Hope that this makes for more posts and more readers.

First, this weekend is my “engagement” party. I use quotes because I consider my REAL party to be the one Mark so graciously planned the night he proposed! My future mother-in-law was kind enough to throw this party for us and really make It a nice event. 140 ppl! This weekend will be a great opportunity to meet Mark’s huge italian family… And an excuse for me to rock a very cute Shoshanna hot pink party dress. It will be bittersweet because my sister, my MOH, cannot attend. I know she will be there in spirit!

As far as how the wedding planning is going, I have to say it’s going really well so far. I have the dress (sorry it’s a secret), asked my bridesmaids, venue, church, florist, invitations, save-the-dates and photographer all lined up! I feel good about my planning and am tryinggggg not to stress myself out. The biggest thing I need to lock down is music. Mark and I are SUCH music people and really would like both a dj and a band. We shall see….

soulhunting: my boy is perfect <3 I have this. I am fortunate.

soulhunting:

my boy is perfect <3

I have this. I am fortunate.

Smokey eye and pink lips. Embracing my non-tan self. Get the look&#8230;Eyes: Print and Black-tyed shadows (Mac). Lips: Fuschia liner and Viva Glam Gaga lipglass (Mac)

Smokey eye and pink lips. Embracing my non-tan self. Get the look…Eyes: Print and Black-tyed shadows (Mac). Lips: Fuschia liner and Viva Glam Gaga lipglass (Mac)