I have a Tarte Obsession!

Hi Lovies!

Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend and my East Coasters stayed safe during Irene.

I'm glad I could introduce a few of you to Birchbox and thanks for feedback on Tone It Up. I am starting the plan mid September after Austin City Limits Music Festival. I will keep everyone posted!

The other day I went into Ulta looking for just a new Bronzer and found a makeup line I am completely obsessed with. Tarte!!

I currently use their Recreate Foundation with Wrinkle Rewind Technology, Park Avenue Princess Bronzer, Clean Slate Natural Face Primer and Smooth Operator Micronized Clay Finishing Powder.




Tarte products are formulated without parabens, phthalates and synthetic fragrances. I can definitely tell the difference in the quality of the makeup on my skin compared to MAC and Makeup HD that I have used in the past.
I plan on adding their mascara, blush & eye shadows into my makeup collection very soon.

Here is a picture of myself wearing the JewelMint "Astoria" Necklace I talked about in my last post.



Excuse the photo being so blurry. I need a new camera but as you can still tell the necklace is gorgeous! I get so many compliments. I highly recommend JewelMint

If you follow me on Instagram "erinscogin" you probably have already seen this next post
Another new favorite thing of mine to do is put fresh Mint & Strawberries in my water. It works best if you let your water sit in the fridge over night with the strawberries and mint to really let the flavors take.
Much better for you than the artificial flavored stuff!





Spending the rest of the day relaxing, catching up on blogs and watching for tonight. So pumped for TrueBlood, Jersey Shore and the VMAs

August Birchbox, Jewelmint & Tone It Up

I hope you guys have not forgotten about me!! I am still here I promise. I am really active on twitter (erinscogin) is my handle. I wish I could be more active on my blog and I will really try to.

Working for a start-up does take a lot of time! We are on track to get our 3rd round of Venture Funding after this quarter. It is so exciting to be on track to take a company Public. Hello reaping the rewards from my stock options :)

I recently signed up for Birchbox and I love it so I had to share! Birchbox is service where you pay $10.00 a month and receive a box full of 4-5 deluxe samples and always a "little something extra".

My first box arrived this month.





The samples I received this month included;








Not everyone will receive the same Birchbox. When you register you fill out a Beauty Profile which helps to determine which samples may interest you the most.
If you would like to order any full size version of the products in your Birchbox. You will receive free shipping on those items.

Now onto another monthly service I signed up for JewelMint

JewelMint is a member's only site. Once you are a member you gain access to pieces of jewelry priced at $29.99 shipping included! You fill out a style profile which allows JewelMint to offer suggestions for your "showroom". You are not limited to the choices you can purchase any piece of jewelry offered on the website.
If you choose to not purchase a piece of jewelry for the month simply login between the 1-5th of month and select "skip this month" and you will not be charged.

I purchased my first item this month. The "Astoria Necklace".







I have received so many compliments on it even at the gas station lol. I will post a picture of me wearing it very soon!

Now that I've covered beauty and fashion, onto Fitness!!

Has anyone out there tried the Tone It Up Diet Plan ?



I have been seeing this pop up all over the blog and twitter world.

Karena & Katrina are regularly featured in Self & Shape magazine. I immediately recognized the two girls from there.

I follow the Tone It Up plan on their twitter Tone It Up and also their Youtube Page offers videos full of free recipes and work out routines Tone It Up channel.

Purchasing the actual diet plan full of recipes and tips also gives you access to a Community where Tone It Up members come together to post progress.

I am about 99% sure I am going to purchase the plan but any real life feedback would be great!

I'm Engaged!

Hello Readers it has been awhile, please forgive!

I have some huge major life changes to share!

I'm Engaged!!



After 4 1/2 years David finally popped the question!

In the morning we went to Zilker Park Nature & Science Center as well as the Botanical Gardens










After Zilker Park we hiked up to a cliff over looking the 360 Bridge and the Lake



David proposed on the Cliff!



To celebrate we had a nice Dinner at Eddie V's.



We are thrilled! There is no set date yet we are thinking late 2012.

My other major news is I have changed jobs. I now work for a New York City based Startup that opened an office here in Austin this month! I am Account Manager and love my job!

On my first day we played Settlers of Catan



I won the game!! My prize for winning... a trip to New York!

Hair Band Sing-Along

Alamo Drafthouse is a fun place in Austin that serves drinks & food with a waiter while you watch a movie. You write your order on a piece of paper and set it up like a little flag when you need the waiter to come around.

They hold special events like Classic Movies and Sing Alongs!

My friends & I went to a Hair Band 80s Power Ballad Sing-Along.

In our minds we imagined the night going something like this



We ended up going looking more like this



Our 80s Shoes




Alamo Drafthouse provided Lighters to sway in the dark and cupcakes



We played Air Guitar on our Legs



And saw Half Naked Men Dance around on stage in their pink tighy whities

Long Time, No Blog

Okay I'll admit it. I lost my motivation for blogging. It has been around 4 months since my last post and around that long as well that I have been keeping up with all my blogs I would read regularly.

I hope I still have some readers out there!

I am hoping this post will get me back into the blog world on a regular basis.

Things have been going good in the Texan Couture world. I still love my job as a Technical Recruiter that I started back in July. I am extremely busy unlike my old job where I could blog in my office all day. Between working, exercise, balancing my new amazing friends here and time with David. Blogging just slipped through the cracks.

David & I recently took a trip to Denver last week and we had an amazing time! We visited our friends Jeff & Casie while also exploring the city on our own.

We had an amazing meal I will never forget at Panzano



It is a 4 star restaurant and everything was delicious!

David & I shared calamari, Grilled Cesar Salad, and Tiramisu with Viogner wine

My main course was Scallops with Pasta



We had plans to visit Red Rocks, Coors Brewery and a couple of other places but it started snowing pretty good in Denver making these places hard to drive to so we settled for staying at our friends house in Littleton and having a snow day!



David & Jeff putting together the body parts for our Snowman



The finished product



We also discovered a cute authentic French place Crepes N Crepes . The radio station was even all in French it was so cute!




We are thinking of planning a trip back to Denver during the Spring so we can experience white water rafting and hiking!

I have another fun post about a night out with girls at Alamo Drafthouse where we sang 80s Power Ballads but I will save that for next time!

Now I'm off to attempt to catch up on my favorite blogs while watching the Grammys

Zoe’s Kitchen, my new obsession

I love Zoe's Kitchen. I know it s a chain so I have no idea what took me so long to discover this place.  But it is my new favorite spot for a healthy cheap meal. I went on Friday night with David then back again with David’s family on Saturday.

on Friday we had Hummus as an appetizer

I had a Veggie Pita Pizza that also came with a small Greek salad and I had an unsweetened tea to drink.

 

 

David had a chicken pita with a side potato salad

Everything was so delicious I want to try the whole menu!

I apologize for the small pictures I'm now using Windows Live Writer to edit the blog so I can do posts offline and hopefully be able to write more and publish from my desktop. Any tips on how to make pics bigger with Windows Live Writer?

Austin City Limits & Marathon Announcement

Before we get to my long overdue quick recap of the 2010 Austin City Limits Music Festival!

I have some news I would like to share! I have registered to run the Austin Marathon on February 20, 2011! I am so excited this will be my very first marathon! I bought a training program from Active Trainer and it wasn't that great so after a little research I found this great website Marathon Rookie that has 16 week training plan that I will doing. I officially start my training the first of November. The training schedule on Marathon Rookie has the marathon happening on a Saturday but mine will be on Sunday so I need to tweak it just a bit.

Now on to ACL. At the last minute I was able to get wrist bands at face value thanks to Davids coworkers.

My favorite performances were Miike Snow & Vampire Weekend

Here a video I took of Vampire Weekend doing A-Punk.







I did take a ton of pictures but it really is way too much to post on here. Enjoy the video.



I hope to keep my blog in much better shape while I document my marathon training! I still have a new layout in the works look for that soon as well!