Amazing art

I just recently discovered the amazing design, architecture, photography and art website Enpundit. If you've never heard of it you MUST check it out! It features really mind blowing, amazing, creative artists and their unique work.

Here are just two that blew me away!

3D sidewalk chalk art by Edgar Muller

Here's how he did it...

Here are two more fun ones!

See more of his work here.

These are NOT photographs but drawings done with a mechanical pencil by Hong Kong based artist Paul Lung. Amazing!

 See more of his work here!

This has nothing to do with art, maybe a tiny bit with architecture but nevertheless... it just blew my mind when I saw it! Check this out... the most densely populated land in the world!

Kowloon “Walled City” in Hong Kong was the most densely populated land in history, containing 33,000 residents within just 6.5 acres (last recorded in 1987).

Yikes! How do you tell someone where you live? "I'm 12 rows over and 10 up?"

Birch Box!

I got my very first Birch Box this weekend. I didn't think that I was going to get one for this month (May) because I only signed up for it two weeks ago but I did and I was so excited when it came!

Birch Box is a subscription cosmetic service that sends you monthly samples of luxury products like; cosmetics, hair and body products, perfume and skin care. My friend Paige told me about it when she was here visiting (read about our Amish Country adventure here!). Her sister got her a gift subscription for Christmas.

Paige has always been a total product junkie, buying and trying the newest designer brands of makeup, perfume and skin care. At first I didn't think that it was for me since I'm a total drug store cosmetics kinda girl but after thinking about it for a few weeks I thought I'd just give it a try. I think I've just actually gotten to the point of being sick of the cheap stuff and wanting and needing products that really work for me. Guess my age has finally caught up to me and that my skin has gotten to the point where I need my moisturizer and makeup to have that extra oomph in it. Ya know, the magical special sauce that diminishes fine lines and all that good stuff. Sigh.

A monthly subscription costs you $10 a month and you can cancel it at any time. You can also buy a gift subscription for yourself or a friend for 3, 6 or 12 months. There's a bit of a wait to sign up though. Not sure what that's about. If it's to make it seem exclusive or that they really are so swarmed with people trying to sign up that they need to slow down enrollment.

Anyway, I figured why not give it a shot for a few months? At the very least I'd have a bunch of new products to try and might actually find a few that work wonders for me!

 Even the box it arrives in is cute!

 May's theme was Gossip Girl with samples "inspired by the series and Manhattan's chicest events".

 Everything is so cute about the Birch Box. The mailing box, the inner box 

and the contents inside- all so cute.

Okay so here's what was in the box:

Algenist- Regenerative Anti-Aging Moisturizer- full size price $90
Color Club nail polish in Clambake Coral- full size price $8
Kerastase- Cristalliste Lumiere Liquide- full size price $42
     -serum that adds shine to hair
Miracle Skin Transformer- full size price $34
     -tinted body lotion, erases blemishes
Kerastase Cristalliste Bain Cristal- full size price $36
     -shampoo
Kerastase Cristalliste Lait Cristal- full size price $39
      -conditioner
Thank you notecard.

Not everyone gets all the same stuff. There seems to be a wide variety between products that people get which I find strange. I would think that it'd just be easier to give everyone all the same stuff but I'm sure they're dealing with filling thousands of orders and at some point would run out of samples and need to offer other items.

I haven't tried any of the products yet but I'll check back in later with a review. The nail polish looks really cute, a perfect summery color. I'm excited to try the moisturizer. I've been looking for a really good one!

Memorial Day Recap

Hey everyone! Had a great Memorial Day weekend. The weather was super hot and humid, a perfect kick off to summer. Of course our A/C decided to kick the bucket on Friday. Well, it didn't really completely die. It seems to kind of work a little, enough to keep downstairs a respectable temp. It's still warmer than we'd like but not so bad. Now upstairs is a different story. The A/C doesn't seem to work at all up there so it's been hot, hot, hot. Calling the repair people today!

Saturday we went to a birthday party in Pittsburgh. That night Dave and I went to dinner and a movie (the Avengers in 3D = 3 hours of non-stop explosions). It was our first "date night" and was a lot of fun. Cameron got up at his usual time (5 a.m.) so we watched the sun rise over downtown Pittsburgh. The view from my in-laws condo on top of Mount Washington is amazing!

Cameron basks in the glow of the morning sun.

On Monday we went to the Memorial Day parade. It was Cameron's first parade! I thought he'd be scared of the loud drums from the marching bands but he didn't bat an eye. The next three photos were taken by my mother-in-law.

 Cam made a new furry friend at the parade.

Our neighborhood pool opened this weekend so we checked that out for the first time after the parade. It was a lot of fun and not ridiculously crowded like we assumed it was going to be. I'm excited to have such easy access to a pool (right down the street from our house), especially for Cameron since he loves the water so much!

Cameron contemplates his attack on the kiddie pool.

 What kind of madness have you brought me into?

In between all of that Dave finished mulching the front yard (there were a few plant beds left), mulched around our mailbox and Cameron's playhouse and re-seeded a patch of grass. Phew! That's a lot of hard work in very humid, 90 degree weather! It all looks so, so, so nice though.

It's OK Thursday!

Last week I gave Adventures of Newlyweds "Friday's Letters" a try and had a really good time reading and getting comments from other linkers. So this week I'm giving "It's OK Thursday" a spin!

"It's OK Thursday" is a feature that Amber from Brunch with Amber does every... you guessed it... Thursday! For those of you bloggers out there who have never linked up and done one of these- give it a try! It's fun to read others posts and I've noticed that I find a bunch of great blogs that I might not have otherwise come across and vice versa- they find mine! :)

It's OK...

...to grab a toy off the shelf at Target, open it and give it to your screaming baby in order to be able to shop just a few minutes longer.

...to scrub the spit up stain off your shirt with a wet wipe instead of changing your shirt even though it (and you) kinda smell like baby vom.

...that you go to Hot Yoga and think "Why do I put myself through this", "This sucks", "This is not relaxing" and "Really? Put my head where?" during the entire class instead of "clearing your mind" like you're instructed to.

...that you don't buy into the whole mind, body, spirit "thing" of yoga and just go to get limber and hopefully lose a few LB's because it's hotter (and smellier) than hell in there!

Photo A Day May: Days 20- 24

Day 24: Something new

Day 23: Technology

Day 22: Something you can't live without

Day 21: Pink