Hello again! It’s time for another post on TNT-Tauna.com Click on the banner above to head over there and see what Style Essentials I recommend you need to pick up to make this school year your most stylish! Please let me know what you think in the comments and follow me there (and here!) to stay up to date with all my posts. Thanks!
Hello!
Here’s another post for y’all on TNT-Tauna.com ! This time I discussed the perfect sunglasses for your face shape. Click on the picture below and see if you can find a new style! Let me know what you think of this post and please follow me here, on TNT-Tauna.com, and on Instagram/Twitter: @missal_leigh
Hey all,
Just wanted to direct you all to a review I just posted on Yelp for Pinkie’s Nail Salon in Lafayette, California. Please read it, lemme know what you think! Have you been there before, if so, what did you think? Read it here.
Hey all!
I’ve posted another new article on TNT-Tauna.com! If you’ve seen my pictures on Instagram: @missal_leigh , you know I am PALE & I sunburn VERY easily – I have picture evidence you can check out. Due to this “condition” and wanting to take care of my skin while I’m young, sunscreen is an essential part of my everyday routine, especially because I live in Southern California. After doing some research I found 4 Organic brands of sunscreen that I wanted to spread the word about – please check out the post & let me know what you think! Organic Sunscreen: 4 Brands to Try Now
Please head over to Tnt-Tauna.com and read my latest post over there – 5 Summer Nail Polish Colors to Try!
Thank you for supporting all my adventures, please follow me on Instagram/Twitter: @missal_leigh
Hello again! I was doing a pretty good job of keeping you all updated with my Mani Monday’s but then life took over & I got too busy to post. I even got too busy to change my mani some Monday’s – eek! #firstworldproblems! Here’s a collection of the Mani Monday’s I didn’t post on here, I tried to include how many likes each got just to see which look was most popular. Please follow me on Instagram @missal_leigh if you want the most up to date info on what I’ve got going on! 
What do you think?! Any particular favorites? If you’d like to see tutorials on any of the actual nail art projects, please let me know in the comments below. I’d love to chat!
Oh my goodness – this book! Amazing! This novel was recommended to me by a family friend so it’s not a book that came from my book list unfortunately, I really need to start working on that, but still a great read none the less. My only gripe was with some of the story line choices at the end, but I’ll get to that eventually.
Plot:
This story follows a family through their matriarch’s battle with fitting in and how through a series of wild events she ends up missing. The family has to come together to figure out what happened to her and how to bring the family back together.
Initial Thoughts/Characters:
Where’d You Go, Bernadette? is classified as a “Missing Person/Mother & Daughter” story. I was somewhat skeptical because the daughter in the story, Bee, is barely a teenager and I was worried I wouldn’t be able to relate to the “plight” of today’s teenager. Wow, was I wrong! Bee is smart, sassy, and very mature for her age. She’s a lot more outspoken than I was at her age, but I definitely can identify with the way she stands up for herself and the relationship she has with her mom. Some of the altercations she gets into I can see myself getting into now as an adult, so at first I was a little thrown off that a child was getting into them, but in the context of the story it works.
I also adore Bernadette. For better or worse I see quite a lot of myself in this character. She means well but is eccentric and that leads to anti-social tendencies, not because she isn’t friendly or kind, but simply because she doesn’t wanna put up with other people’s shit. Like myself, she’s known for wearing her sunglasses at all times and drives a car that Bee refers to as “The Princess & the Pea” because it’s such a bumpy ride – much like how my car is named “Little Indy” after the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland.
Overall:
These characters were extremely well crafted. You can tell Maria Semple put a lot of time and effort into creating her story. Each character is complex and 3 dimensional. The dialogue flows easily like a conversation between people you’d see every day.
This story kept me highly engaged. I couldn’t put it down. While some parts were slower than others, others literally had me yelling out loud, “Holy shit! I can’t believe this is happening!” However, then the story got really fantastical. I was slightly disappointed because the start of the story seemed so real and I felt such a connection to it but once it started to wrap up everything became so far from reality. At that point it started to feel like a typical fiction story where everything wraps up perfectly and it’s the happiest of endings for the main characters, not really reality.
Despite my distaste for the wrap up of this novel, the journey to get there was beyond exciting. I would highly recommend “Where’d You Go, Bernadette?”.
Favorite Quotes:
“The smallest [boat] has 150 passengers, which translates into me being trapped with 149 other people who will uniquely annoy the hell out of me with their rudeness, waste, idiotic questions, incessant yammering, creepy food requests, boring small talk, etc. Or worse, they might turn their curiosity toward me, and expect pleasantry in return. I’m getting a panic attack just thinking about it. A little social anxiety never hurt anyone, am I right?” – Bernadette (pg. 10)
“There isn’t assigned seating at the dining room, and they have tables for four. That means the three of us can sit down and if we pile the extra chair with our gloves and hats, nobody can sit with us!” – Bernadette (pg. 42)
“Maybe that’s what religion is, hurling yourself off a cliff and trusting that something bigger will take care of you and carry you to the right place. I don’t know if it’s possible to feel everything all at once, so much that you think you’re going to burst…I felt so full of love for everything. But at the same time, I felt so hung out to dry there, like nobody could ever understand. I felt so alone in this world, and so loved at the same time.” – Bee (pg. 199)
Have you read this novel? Based on this review, do you have any interest in picking this up? Please let me know in the comments!
I know, I’m the worst at updating this 😦 I said I was going to do better & then…I didn’t.
About 6 months ago I went to a formal event and I wanted to show you the tools I used to get this hair look.
For the hair, I started with clean wet hair and used the 1. Drybar Blow Dryer.
I’m a freak about protecting my hair from heat damage so I used 3 kinds of products to create a concoction of heat and split end protector.
2. Suave Professionals Keratin Infusion Heat Defense Leave in Conditioner.
3. Redken Extreme Anti Snap Leave in Treatment for Distressed Hair.
4. Drybar Hot Toddy Heat Protector Frizz Fighter
After drying, I parted my hair on my preferred side then started curling using the
5. Drybar The 3-Day Bender 1″ Barrel Curling Iron
This was my first time using it and it first it was kind of confusing because it has a special twisting clamp but after a few pieces, I quickly got the hang of it and it was amazing! No more straining my wrist twisting this way and that way to get the perfect curl, or trying to figure out if the hair had been in too long/not long enough. The clamp releases when all the hair has passed through it and been evenly heated. I can do a video and more thorough review on this product if anyone would like that.
After everything has been curled, just pin the curls into rosettes and voila! I can do a more thorough tutorial on the rosettes if requested.
Please let me know what your thoughts are on this look and any of the products mentioned!
Last week I did a gel nail mini review of an at home gel nail system called Nailuv. They claim the nails will last 2 weeks, so I skipped a Mani Monday this week so see if these babies would continue holding up. What do you think?!
I’m really pleased with the results of the quality at this point. My nails feel strong and there’s no chipping. I have noticed the color changing a bit from nude to grey and now they kind of just look dirty 
that might be just this particular color and honestly it doesn’t bother me that much lol. I’m weird. Also I feel like the tips are showing some wear, but not on top. It’s strange but it looks like the middle layer is fading o something. Again, that’s not really something that bothers me. I will probably take this color off soon though just because I want to play with other colors from this set. Yes, I will be jumping right back into another Nailuv gel set! I enjoyed using the system and my nails have held up wonderfully, in my opinion.
I’ll post about the removal process and how that goes! Any thoughts on at home gel nail sets like this one…have you seen other brands hold up better? Let me know in the comments and as always please feel free to follow me on Twitter and Instagram @missal_leigh
Again, I’m ashamed of the length of time it has taken to get this post up. New Year’s resolution number one: be a better blogger! That’s been my resolution for about the last 3 years though, so we’ll see how it goes this year.
Anyways, Yellowcard. Yellowcard and I have a rather interesting history. I started liking them when Ocean Avenue came out in 2003. Just like every other teen at the time, I was obsessed with the song “Ocean Avenue”. While I enjoyed the other songs and really connected to the lyrics, I didn’t know why. I hadn’t experienced anything like what the songs were talking about, there was just something about them. As I got older and experienced more things, I found myself going back to Yellowcard and seeing deeper connections to songs I’d always loved. My relationship never really grew past Ocean Avenue. I own Lights and Sounds, but I never bothered to find any of their older music or buy new music beyond Lights and Sounds. Despite this, Yellowcard always had a special place in my heart and I always considered them one of my favorite bands.
Yellowcard was another concert on my bucket list, much like Fall Out Boy. The events that unfolded were unbelievable! My friend and I didn’t arrive that early because we’d been told by other YC fans that people don’t really line up beforehand – wrong. There were two fairly long lines already in progress. One of them was the “Pass the Line” line, people bought $20 of merch from the HOB store to get in before the regular ticketed people. We ran to the store to look around but the stuff was kind of expensive and we had nowhere to put anything. As we were walking around an employee came over & gave us a discount, now we only had to spend $10 to get in the VIP line. Yay! We were still looking around when a few minutes later he came over and just GAVE US the VIP passes! We were speechless! We ran to get in line and had barely been there for 30 seconds when the same guy found us and brought us into the venue, letting us cut the ENTIRE line! I know without him there’s no way we would’ve been in the front row. I’m so thankful and amazed at his kindness. I sincerely hope I’m not getting him in trouble, he should get a raise! Unfortunately I don’t remember his name, but I know his name tag said he was from Orange, CA 🙂
My friend Jeri & me with our “Pass the Line” voucher, generously gifted to us!
*Note: The show ran about an hour late, with no explanation. I was really not happy about that. I understand things happen, but at least come out and tell the crowd an ETA.
Opening act:
Honestly I don’t even remember the guys name, but he was an odd duck. It was some guy who used to be in the band Thursday (I think) trying to launch a solo career, or something. I was not impressed. The only song I enjoyed was one he sang that was originally performed by his band. I’m pretty sure dude was drunk the entire set, he did a lot of cursing and mumbling and just…being weird.
Main event:
Yellowcard more than made up for the weird opening act and the lateness. They were fantastic. Full of energy, clearly passionate, and they just seemed really grateful, thankful, and happy that after 10+ years in the music industry there was a full crowd of people singing along to every word of their songs. I mentioned in the Maroon 5/Kelly Clarkson post that I really appreciate when artists are clearly passionate about their work. To add on to that, I also really appreciate when artists are really grateful for their fans. The guys of YC could NOT stop thanking the audience for being there. It was really sweet and heart warming. It made me glad to have spent my hard earned money on tickets to their show. Everyone in the band is super talented. I’ve always loved YC because of the inclusion of the violin. I also think the material they write about is really interesting. From songs about 9/11 to the movie Big Fish…a lot of topics get covered beyond the traditional ones.
The set up of the show was totally cool for those who aren’t opposed to surprises. It started out with an acoustic set of Ocean Avenue which they played straight through, just like the album. I enjoyed 99% of the acoustic versions of the songs, but was wishing I could hear the songs as I first fell in love with them. The band obviously knew people were wishing this because they made several jokes about how being acoustic meant they couldn’t really “rock out” and then….they took a break and came back out and played a TON more songs from Ocean Avenue AND their other albums – all with electric instruments. IT WAS SO COOL! I basically got two concerts in one night and all my little teenage dreams were fulfilled. That was my favorite part of the night. I was happy they thought ahead to what the audience would want. I was very pleased at how focused they seemed on keeping the crowd happy.
Speaking of the crowd, they were pretty pleasant at this show. No pushing/shoving/crowding, and I was in the front row right alongside the fence. HOB has a no crowd surfing policy that of course people were breaking. That kind of upset me because the rule was obviously put in place for a good reason & you don’t HAVE to crowd surf to have a good time. There was no need for people to do that. I felt bad for the bouncers who were working that event because the crowd surfers were giving them sass and just being difficult.
On a non music related note, the guys in YC are really hot. Really. I never noticed this before, probably because I was 12-13 when Ocean Avenue came out and they were already in their 20’s and I probably thought that was really old. Ugh, my young self would think I’M old now 😦 Tragic. Moving on, their hotness is only enhanced by their personalities, which I really connected with when they talked to the audience and joked around with each other on stage. Obviously as a fan girl, I have a special place in my heart for lead singer/guitarists like Ryan Key, but violinist/back up singer Sean Mackin is definitely giving him a run for his money. Also, I got to meet LP, the drummer, after the show 😀 SUPER STOKED!
Final thoughts:
Although I’m sure it doesn’t need to be said again – this show was fantastic! Way better than Fall Out Boy and only a hair shy of what I experienced at Maroon 5/Kelly Clarkson – but that was my fault, because I didn’t know ALL the YC music so I was kind of out of the loop for some songs. If you ever get the chance to see Yellowcard, GO! Go to their show & bring me with you! These guys were so high energy, full of life, passionate, and inspiring. I hope I can see them again! Here’s some video and a slideshow of pictures, enjoy!
“Ocean Avenue – Acoustic”
“Only One”
“Here I Am Alive” One of my absolute favorites!!!!
“Ocean Avenue” with electric instruments
Miss Al-Leigh 
