With a CH

easy summer beauty

Much like NYC, the Midwest has its own crazy brand of humidity and oppressive heat. Real talk, I don’t remember the last time I dried my hair. There is no point. Literally none. To complement my DGAF approach to my hair, I have come up with an equally easy summer beauty routine for my face.

Admittedly I’ve never worn much makeup, but there is nothing like a heat index of 114 degrees fahrenheit to make you rethink putting on foundation or doing anything but dying. Here are my tips for summer beauty to look hot but stay cool. See what I did there?

best summer beauty products

one // two // three // four // five // six // seven // eight

Since the beginning of this year, I have been on a total rampage to clean up my makeup kit to only include clean products. If you’re new here, I have an obsession with green everything. I have enough working against me already, and I don’t want to be putting toxins on my skin. Plus, I like being neurotic (kidding). If you’re new to the game you can check out my archives here or check out Credo Beauty’s handy Clean Beauty Swaps.

On your typical day, I’ll conceal my eyes with the RMS un-coverup, fill in my brows, throw on a few coats of mascara and use some highlighter. When I’m feeling fancy, I’ll add some bronzer and blush to the equation. Recently, I’ve been into my first routine with a bright lip because it makes it look like you’re wearing a lot of makeup and that you’ve put some effort in. You don’t need to tell anyone you actually put the lipstick on while driving. That can just be our little secret.

I’m really loving the cream blush and bronzer. They’re super hydrating without making my face feel greasy. Also, since it is so freaking hot, they don’t run or look ridiculous if you’re sweating like a whore in church and added bonus, they look super natural. When you get the hang of applying them, you’ll look like a Victoria’s Secret model.

The best part about this, is that it is easy and combined with my low maintenance hair, I’m ready to go in 15 minutes. Which is good, because this girl is interested in sleep.

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how to: buy a house online

If you’re reading this and you have yet to read this post, please do that first and then the title of this will make a bit more sense. Thank you.

I have had more than a few people IRL and via email ask me how to buy a house online. Or if it is real life. Or what the hell is wrong with us. In fact, people at work call it the “eBay house”. No, we did not buy it on eBay. However, a coworker of mine did buy a house on Craiglist apparently. So there’s that. Welcome to 2015! Back to how to buy a house online…

craftsman house front porch

via

Below are the things you will need to make this happen:

  1. Complete and utter disregard for what you think buying a house should be like
  2. All of the money in the world (note: we do not have this so I will let you know how it works out)
  3. Cool as a cucumber attitude (or a good mix of Lexapro + Xanax)

Please note, after having gone going through this process, the three items above are listed on personal experience. I basically fell ass-backwards into this entire thing. I do not recommend that. At all. Ever. (see: #2)

By now you’re probably thinking “okay Christin, how the eff do you buy a house online. Just tell me!” and I’m like “hold your damn horses, I’m about to tell you”. To make this easier, and ensure I don’t ramble on and on, I’m going to follow the list format. So here it goes:

  1. Troll the MLS (you’ll need the help of a realtor) or look at sites like auction.com (not eBay)
  2. Once you find a house you like, you can drive by it unlimited times but you likely can never, ever go inside (see: #2 + #3 above)
  3. Think about committing felony B+E to see inside said home
  4. Participate in online auction by bidding against other people
  5. Win action and wire money to auction.com (not all of it, just some earnest money)
  6. When the auction company sends you the paperwork, find an attorney that costs a ton of money (like we did) to review all the legalese to make sure you aren’t getting completely screwed
  7. Sign paperwork and feel sick
  8. Wait approximately 3 months for closing due to liens on house, etc.
  9. Get a lot of cash (rob a bank, whatever) because you have to pay in cash for an auction house. Yes, just like on those TV shows.
  10. Meanwhile, you go make friends with the neighbors across the street who are so nice and let you go inside their house. While you’re there, get the scoop on the people who used to live in your house. Spoiler alert: even though they’ve been foreclosed on, they still “live” there!
  11. Immediately get insurance since you have “tenants”
  12. Send boyfriend to house to talk to said “tenants” and pray that they simply leave and you don’t have to evict them
  13. Cue three longest weeks of your life
  14. Congratulations! You’ve bought a house online! Since it looks like the inside of an episode of Hoarders, you won’t go inside for a week or so but when you do, you see how much potential your new home has and start pinning a ton.

Are there any questions?

we bought a house!

For those of you who may have missed the news, we bought a house! In Kansas! On the internet! Yes, you can buy houses on the internet. You can buy anything on the internet, duh. Needless to say, it is a total renovation and a huge undertaking but we’re so excited.

We have to be out of our apartment in less than 40 days, and there is still so much to be done. Like what, you say? Well here is a bit of a list:

  • Move the current kitchen to the dining room and the dining room to the kitchen
  • Close the random side door that goes outside from the kitchen
  • Literally tear down everything
  • Close the sunroom to make an office
  • Refinish all the hardwood floors
  • Add a bathroom in the Master
  • Completely renovate the downstairs bath
  • All new windows
  • Exterior paint
  • Interior paint
  • Master closet
  • Adding a laundry room above the garage and a door that goes to said room off of the upstairs loft
  • New slider in the kitchen
  • Add a door in the kitchen to the garage

In the meantime, I thought you would enjoy to see some pictures of the before because everyone loves a shit show, right? Below is a photo from the kitchen now looking into the “new kitchen”.

christin's kitchen renovation

It’s pretty, isn’t it? The fridge came with the joint. Needless to say, we’re totally designing around that piece. It is a real showstopper. We stole about 2′ from the wall on the left from the downstairs bath because I would rather have a bigger kitchen than a guest bath. #decisions

This is the “old kitchen” and it was super small and gross and I can’t even. This will be the dining room. Since the photo below was taken, we have knocked out the wall to the right of the door (that is the one that is stupid and is gone) so that the stairs are open and it doesn’t feel as cramped.

christin's kitchen renovation, with a ch

I will obviously be live blogging this whole process, with updates to come as we have them. There should be a lot going on in the next coming weeks, so get ready for the big reveal sometime in September. Until then, check back here for these amazing before photos because everyone loves a good before photo.

our apartment therapy feature

The day has finally come, and gone but I had been waiting to share this with you forever, so here it is! Our NYC apartment on Apartment Therapy. We are the second episode in their series called “the A line” where they film two different apartments with the same layout in the same building to see how different people approach the space. I’d say our episode is a bit more drastic than the others, but I’ll let you all be the judge of that.

Christin and AJ apartment therapy

 

I honestly cannot believe this is live and I could not be more thrilled with how it turned out. To be honest, the comments on the article are killing me. Please watch the video and let me know what you guys think!