A Friday Find- Faded Glory Maxi Dress for $14.99!

Yay, it's finally Friday! I wanted to do a quick post on this cute dress I found, at Walmart of all places. I would like to turn this into a recurring series featuring something fabulous for under $25. 

 Faded Glory Dress- On Rollback for $14.99

I found this dress on a trip to Walmart to pick up some makeup and I wandered over to the women's clothing. This is such a cute dress for the price and it fits really well. I didn't get a chance to snap a picture of me wearing it yet but I will soon. The one I got is white and navy stripes. I love that you could dress it down with flip flops or dress it up with a platform sandal! Every once in a while Walmart surprises me with a nice piece like this dress.

(Photo courtesy of walmart.com)

Top 5 Summer Beauty Essentials

I'll come out and say it, summer is a rough time to try and look good. If you live pretty much anywhere in the United States with the exception of a few places it's a problem you deal with. Between the humidity, rain, and extreme heat getting anything to stay on can be a nightmare! I especially have a hard time in the summer because I always get such oily skin and on top of that my legs always seem to be extremely dry. I have compiled this little list of essentials that I use to combat these two problems and threw in a little extra something!

One: Clean and Clear Oil Absorbing Sheets $4.99

As I mentioned before I get really oily skin in the summer due to the heat and humidity. These little sheets are a lifesaver this time of year! They work so well and the best part is that you can use them after you put your makeup on and they won't mess it up.

Two: Neutrogena Oil-Free Cleansing Wipes $5.99

These are actually something that I use year round but continuing with the oily skin problem, these are a great buy. They really do get your skin clean and also double to remove makeup. I use them every night and when I skip a night I really notice a difference in how my skin feels the next morning. 

Three: Almay Truly Lasting Color Foundation $10.79

Foundation is the only kind of makeup that I use everyday and I have used this one for probably seven years now. I love that it has SPF and is also hypo-allergenic. It doesn't clog my pores or make me break out and it stays on even in water or extreme heat. It's very beach friendly which is great for me because I am a freak who wears makeup everywhere. I always get compliments when I wear this too, it covers up a multitude of sins! If you are looking for a lightweight foundation, this probably isn't for you though. 

Four: Victoria's Secret Body Butter $5 (On sale!)

Back to the dry legs problem, I swear by VS Body Butter. It makes your skin so soft and smooth. I have extremely dry legs and the fact that anything makes them smooth amazes me. The awesome scents they come in are an added bonus too. I found this Endless Sunset at the Semi-Annual sale for only $5!

Five: A bright, fun nail polish! $1.99 to $9.00

Pedicures are usually the very first thing on my list for summer. You don't want to be wearing cute sandals and not have cute toes too! I love any bright orangey-red nail polishes for this season. I typically get OPI Cajun Shrimp but for this post the picture is Sinful Colors Big Daddy. This shade is very similar to the one I usually use and I would say it is actually more of an orange than it appears in the picture! This Sinful Colors polish is only $1.99. 

I love these items because they work and also don't break the bank! I hope this list is helpful and maybe you've found some new products to try. What are you summer beauty problems and fixes? What would you add to the list? I would love to know!

(All pictures in the post are mine.)

Blog Overhaul

After asking some of the ladies in my blog tribe to give me feedback on my blog design and layout, the main thing I heard was that it was busy. I agreed and needed to simplify. I ditched the loud background and the hard to read font, and decided to go for something very simple. I am trying to make An American Girl more reader friendly and easy to navigate. I also went through and deleted most posts that were older than 2012, considering they were almost all from 2011 or 2010 that means 99% are gone. I wasn't sure I wanted to go that far but I felt it was necessary. I really want this blog to grow up and be more professional, so that's what happened. I hope all of my readers will stick around to see what changes come in the future! 

I also hope everyone likes the new header, I actually made it myself! 

Easy Chicken Fajita Nachos

I don't think I have ever posted a recipe on this blog before but since I am trying to document my journey into being a domestic lady, I thought I would give it a shot. Beware that there are no set ingredient limits to this because it's really all about your personal preference and how many you are feeding. This is pretty much a dinner portion for one or possibly a small appetizer. I was just trying to make a quick meal for myself, which was intended to be chicken fajitas in the tortillas as usual but I forgot to buy them and ended up coming up with this. I am sure there are other more sophisticated versions of this but these are 100% mine and so are the pictures!

There are just a few ingredients for this and they can be altered to your tastes. I used Tyson Grilled and Ready Fajita Chicken Breast Strips (pictured above), green pepper, and red pepper for the main part. For toppings just shredded Monterrey Jack cheese and sour cream. I also just used what tortilla chips we had on hand. 

I started out sauteing the vegetables in a skillet with a little olive oil over a medium high heat. I still like my vegetables to be a little crunchy, so I didn't wait too long until I added the chicken. 

The chicken strips that I used are already fully cooked so it's really just about heating them up. I also didn't add any spices to my vegetables or chicken besides pepper. I cooked this mixture over high heat for about eight minutes and then it was all done! After the veggies and chicken were done I chopped them up pretty finely to make it more of a nacho dish. To plate I just used a medium bowl and lined the bottom with the tortilla chips, put the mixture on top, and then added the sour cream and shredded cheese. It was quick, easy, and it tasted good! 

I know this is a rough post, but I'm new to this kind of blogging! If you do happen to try it out and it goes well or you have any suggestions, I always welcome comments. :)

Leaving on a Jet Plane!

Well tomorrow morning I leave for Montana! At 5:15 to be exact. Four airports in less than six hours! I'm hoping I can keep on top of things. I'm still not packed so I definitely dropped the ball there! This is just a week long trip but I'm very to excited to see where I'll be living starting in August. We also get to see the apartment while I'm there so I'm ready to start figuring out what I want to do with the place. I have already picked up a few things from Hobby Lobby but Evan didn't like the cross that I wanted to put in our bedroom. Who knew a guy that tries to wear t-shirts with holes in them and a hat he washes once a decade would have such a strong opinion on home decor? I did snap a couple of pictures of them though!

I got this for only $13!

This is my favorite but Evan didn't like it. He said it was too girly but I think the colors are gender neutral enough to build our bedroom around it. 

That was just a quick update! I'll have a lot of time on my hands when I get out there so expect some more posts next week. I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Love in a Box Swap

This month I decided to participate in the Love in a Box swap that is hosted by Kimberly at Kimberly's Chronicle and Megan from Lush to Blush. I really don't remember how I found it, sometimes I just go look at blogs and end up clicking away and don't know where I'm going. Unfortunately this was the last month for it but I still had a great time! 

I was paired with Kristen at Simply Strive and I'm so happy I was. We happened to have similar likes so I think we were able to give each other some great things. In my emails I mentioned my upcoming move to Montana and how I was trying to expand my cooking since Evan will probably want to eat and also that I was getting more and more into beauty lately. That's a story for another time but she sent me some awesome stuff.

First off, sorry for the bad pictures. My iPhone hasn't had a back on it for over a year now and was also dropped in a porta-potty so it's not the best. Anyways, she included two cooking magazines, one her favorite face masks, and also a package of the cutest chocolates ever.

The magazines, EveryDay with Rachel Ray and allrecipes, have already come in handy. There are so many things I will be trying when I get out to Montana! There was also an article in EveryDay about traveling to Alaska, and that might have to happen soon too. 

The chocolates were called Sweet Little Things by Lindt and were so good! They were all eaten very quickly, I even shared but the bag was thrown away before I could get a picture.

The face mask was probably my favorite thing I received though. It's Alba Botanical even advanced deep sea facial mask. I almost always have red cheeks for some reason, which no one ever sees because I always have foundation on. Thank goodness for that! But as soon as I used this I noticed even after being completely make-up free the redness was gone and my skin really did look more even. I would say that it lasted almost three days after I used it also. Just for fun I'm going to put up a picture of me with the mask on so now no one can use it for blackmail. Haha.

I really enjoyed doing this and I hope I can find another swap to do or maybe this one will come back! Do y'all know of any good swaps to participate in? If so, what are your favorites?

Weekly Wellness

This post is going to be part of a new series I decided to write. I want to feature one wellness post a week because I am trying to not just lose weight but get healthier overall. 

Redbook is just about the only magazine I read these days. I feel like it may be a little mature for me but I like things that I realistic and helpful for real life. In the June issue there was a workout plan that talked about alternating walking and jogging in the beginning to work your way up to running the full time, here is the link to that:  http://www.redbookmag.com/health-wellness/advice/how-to-become-a-runner-and-lose-weight#slide-1.

I thought this sounded easy enough, you know I've lost twenty pounds, my job requires me to basically be running 24/7. WRONG. The 30 second intervals I spent running were terrible and I mainly remembered why I hate it so much. It also doesn't help that my road is more of just a giant pothole. I do plan on sticking to this though because I know it will make some improvements in the long run. 

(Also, that picture isn't mine.)