Cheap Thrills: LBD

Last Cheap Thrill of 2011, so let's go out on a party note with a Little Black Dress (LBD) edition. We're posting  this a couple of days early, since some of these sales are going on now and quantities may be limited. This is the time when many of us are getting invitations to holiday parties, and the first question that runs through my mind is, "What am I going to wear?" That's when I turn to my trusty, and ever-growing, LBD collection. Dress it up with some bling and heels, dress it down with a cardigan and flats - you can't go wrong with the LBD.

Like us ladies, LBDs come in all shapes and sizes. I found a variety of dresses for my Cheap Thrillers, keeping the price at $100 and under. I try to keep most Cheap Thrills to $50 (ish) and under, but bumped it up to $100 because these aren't just one-time party dresses. The LBD  is an item you can keep in your wardrobe beyond the party season and can re-wear on other occasions. Like your bff chola, the LBD will have your back when you need her.

Swanky Sweepin' Volume 13

Daily:

Nope.

Single:

Be an Astronaut for a day Ends 12/29

Trip to Hawaii Ends 12/29

$100 45 winners, ends 12/31

$500 of tea I have to pee just thinking about it. Ends 12/31

Free Pizza They're giving away a ton of them (I already won one). Ends 12/31

$6400 toilet. Yes. Ends 12/31

Taxidermy workshop No transportation, ends 12/31

Birchbox: December

Ho-Ho-Ho, the December Birchboxes are here!

It looks like the Grinch may have made off with Charlotte's box this month, but mine made it safe and sound. Okay, Charlotte, look away from your monitor and skip the following sentence. This was one of my favorite Birchboxes ever! One product in particular sent me over the moon, but we'll get into that in just a bit.

Crafty Crackers

Running out of time and money, but still have some more gifts to buy?

Let's get craftin'!

Here's a list of DIY present ideas for us to try:

A Bow Ring

"Floating Book" Shelf

Sugar Scrub

Bath Bomb

Custom Glass Jars (or cups)

Fake Book iPhone Case

For your word nerd friends

Cute Mirror

Jars on Stands

Cuter than it sounds.

Mittens From Sweaters

Solid Perfume

Chocolate Spoons

Homemade Vanilla Extract

Mmm

Get Nailed: This Little Light of Mine

There are many things I love about Christmas, but my absolute favorite thing is the lights! I love them so much that I went a little overboard and painted them on my nails! I was originally inspired by TheBeautyDepartment's fun and unique tutorial where Lauren uses actual string for her string of lights. I am not that ambitious, nor do I have string on hand, so I improvised.

1. Prep your nails with a good base coat. I got a new one when I took advantage of Milani's Cyber Monday sale (I went a little too far buying bought 26 polishes), and I love it so far. It really gives you a smooth canvas to work with!

2. Apply your base color. I went for a fun, holiday gold O.P.I., which happens to be a super rare polish that I found laying around Heather's desk.

3. Next, I took my new Nail Art Polish in Black (also by Milani of course), and made loops to resemble a string of Christmas lights (minus the lights).

4. I used three more of new Milani glitter polishes to dot on lights. You can use any color you want, just have fun with it!

5. Follow with a good top coat, and voila, you've got some fun(ky) Christmas nails!

Swanky Sweepin' Volume 12

Daily:

Coffee Maker 150 given away A DAY. Ends 12/31

Box of Chocolate 15 winners a day, ends 12/31

Hello Kitty sunglasses 5 winners, ends 1/6

Money that's what I want. Lots of prizes, get a free code. Ends 12/31

Electronic Shtuff Ends 12/31, $1 million in prizes. I've won great stuff from them before!

Gift card 92 winners (Coach, Sephora, etc). Ends

Welcome to Tamale Town

Whore(der)s and friends gathered together this past weekend to make Tamales! Tamales, say it with me, Tuh-mall-eez (well, actually it's more like ta-mahl-ess -vanessa). To most people, tamales are these amazing masa-rittos filled with your choice of delicioso meat. To Heather and I (crazy Caucasians), they are a blank slate for our culinary craziness! While Vanessa's awesome mom Maria made Puerco y Chilé Tamales (please say that with the correct amount of Mexican), Vanessa made Bacon & Cheese and Limón Sweet Masa Tamales.

On the other side of the tamale spectrum, are Heather and I. While I made Berries & Cream Tamales (an idea I stole from Heather), Sugar & Brown Sugar Tamales, and Hash Brown-Cheese-Bacon-Casserole Tamales; Heather made Egg-Cheese-Green Peppers-Zucchini Tamales, and Peanut Butter-Jelly Tamales. Yes, Peanut Butter & Jelly.... To make things more fun, the sweet masa was a pink flamingo hot pink. So not only did we have deliciously disturbing fillings, the outside looked offensive as well. My Hispanic Grandmother would have slapped me with my own tamale if she knew what type of blasphemy was occurring over in the Tamale Town Kitchen. Who knew tamales could be so exciting?

Cheap Thrills: Bottoms Up!

 

Let's crack the bubbly and pour ourselves a glass of Christmas cheer! I'm so excited for holiday drinks, we're doing Cheap Thrills a day early this week. Many of us will be giving and receiving some adult goodies, nothing that will make us blush - I'm talking adult beverages and all the goodies that go along with them. We've worked hard all year, and it's time to let our hair down and raise our glasses, so let's see what I've dug up to serve as inspiration. 

Swanky Sweepin' Volume 11

Sorry, my list is a little short and not as exciting this week. IHATEBUSYWEEKS. I will make it up to you, my pretties.

Daily:

Auntie Anne's Pretzels and a bunch of other prizes, ends 12/21

Fandango tickets Lots to win. Ends 12/31

Cheap Thrills: Members Only

I'm still recovering from the last action packed edition of Cheap Thrills, so this week I'm gonna take it a little easier and we're going to explore membership gift ideas. There are tons of options, so don't be limited by what I list here! When it comes to things like museums, zoos, wineries, etc., check your area for local deals. Yelp and Four Square are good starting points, since they'll give you reviews and tip you off to any deals and specials going on. Flip up those jacket collars, and let's get to it!

And the Winners Are...

First Place goes to:
True Random Number Generator Min: Max: Result: 8 Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Congratulations Maddy, you have won TWO free Vapur Anti-Bottles!

Second Place goes to :
True Random Number Generator Min: Max: Result: 14 Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Congratulations Normita77, you have won ONE free Vapur Anti-Bottle!


Please check your e-mail for the announcement and confirmation!

**Yes, there were "29" comments, but one was removed by the author leaving me with 28! Random numbers were generated on November 9, 2011 with random number generator www.random.org.**


Picture thanks to SammyDVintage

DIY Beauty: Pumpkin Foot Scrub

During the summer, when flip-flops and bare feet abound, I keep a careful watch on the state of my feet. Pedicures, polish and copious amounts of pampering keep them pretty and camera ready. Then come fall and winter and my poor, neglected feet start to resemble hooves.

Since I'm saving all my extra cash for Christmas presents and an iPad (*ahem* hope you're reading this, Santa), I decided to skip the nail salon and research some DIY treatments instead. I found a pumpkin foot scrub that sounded interesting and was made from ingredients I already had at home.

Get Nailed: Out Damn Spot!

So usually I write about how i did me some awesome nails, but this week, I'm writing how to undo these damn nails I did last week! Imagine my surprise went I went to remove my O.P.I. nail polish, and it didn't come off! What is this world coming to when you can't even count on O.P.I nail polish ?? ?Okay, maybe that was a bit dramatic, but I looked like I fingered the Hulk. Yeah, I said that, now deal with it.

I don't know if any of you have ever suffered the embarrassment of the dreaded "Nail Stain". It usually occurs when you don't use a base polish, use a really cheap polish, or a heavily pigmented polish. I never knew how to completely remove the polish stain, so I usually just painted over it, but this time I ventured  to my magic machine (the computer), and researched (aka Googled) the hell out of it.

I found the simplest way to remove the stain is this:

1) Remove as much as you possibly can with Nail Polish Remover.

2) Get  a cheap manicure kit, and go to town! No seriously, buff and smooth your nails with buffer stick (I may have made that name up) push back your cuticles and cut them with the cuticle pusher/cutter, which is super easy (even thought it looks scary). Next clip and/or file your nails as necessary. Lastly use the "Shine aka Side 2" of the "buffer stick" to polish your nails, and voila, the stains are gone! At most, this took me 10 minutes for both hands.

                                

    IT STARTED LIKE THIS

(DON'T JUDGE ME, I WASN'T DONE CLEANING THEM UP YET)

Fit for a Drag Queen - An Etsy Treasury of Holiday Party Wear

There's lots of fancy parties this time of the year... and when I think of fancy I think sparkles. Here's a new Etsy Treasury list of fun, glittery party wear, all for $25 or less!

A Drag Queen's Delight

photo: the legendary Divine

Snugglekins - An Etsy Treasury of Comfort

With the cold weather and early nightfall all I want to do is lay in bed and lounge around, don't you? Slippers, robe, snuggly blanket, and a nice hot cup of tea, yes please.

Here's a new Etsy Treasury list of just that, all for under $35: Snugglekins

Swanky Sweepin' Volume 10

Daily:

Zappos lots of instant win prizes, ends 12/31

Single:
$250 gift card 60 winners, ends 12/24
Trip to NYC and makeover by Sally Hansen, ends 12/11
Free Shoe Dazzle for 6 months ends 12/9
$25,000 ends 12/26, a bunch of other prizes as well!
$1000 Spanx shopping spree so you can suck it in full time, ends 12/31
TV 17 winners, ends 1/30/12
A mixer 40 winners, ends 1/30/12
Smashbox makeup 30 winners, ends 1/30/12
Louis Vuitton bag ends 12/21
A trip to Hawaii Wizard style. Ends 12/10

Get Nailed: That's a Wrap

Yay, December is finally here, and all I can think about is presents...err the presence of Christ. The Wisemen brought presents to Jesus (is it weird that I pronounce it Jesús in my head?) so maybe Christmas really is all about presents? Well whatever your take on presents and Christmas (or Hanukkah for that matter) is, I decided to paint my nails like a present in anticipation of the holidays.

What you will need:

Clear base coat

Solid Polish

Clear top coat

Nail Pen or Nail polish with an art brush
A gem or glitter polish

Cheap Thrills: Santa Stumper

Christmas decorations have been up for weeks and I started making my holiday playlist on Spotify... it's official - the Christmas season is upon us. Lots of us will find ourselves scratching our heads over what to get certain people on our gift lists. Office gift exchanges, family parties, dinner parties with friends - occasions where you need something between a stocking stuffer and a gifty-gift. And then there are the people that fall into a miscellaneous category (baby/pet sitters, regular delivery people, hair stylists, etc.), while you could lump those all together into the "gift card" category, wouldn't it be more fun to let me hunt around for other ideas that might inspire you to think outside the gift card box?

This week I'm bringing you Cheap Thrills that might help you deal with those hard-to-shop-for holiday gifts, without resorting to a ho-hum box of chocolate or a tired old coffee mug. There's a big list ahead, hold on to your candy canes!