Pennsylvania International Pageants April 2014 - Part 2 - Interviews and Pageat

Pageant day arrived.  We had interviews very early in the morning.  Given that the hairstylist (Barbie) and I kept talking, I was amazed that I was on time :-)

Next up - the pageant!

Opening number, fun fashion (sorry, no Mrs competed, so no photos here), fitness, on stage interview, gown and crowning.  As outgoing queens, we appeared in opening, on stage interview, our farewells, and crowning.

Being interview after opening number

Ashlee interviewing the new Teen queen

Rachel interviewing the new Miss queen

Me interviewing a heart attack survivor - a very touching story from the beautiful  Danielle 

Backstage fun with comfy shoes before on stage interviews

Ashlee's Farewell

Rachel's Farewell

My farewell

New Queens

Cessna Girls!

One of our last shots before crowning the new queens!  Love these girls!

with Hubby after crowning

With Sheri (Mrs PA Intl 2009) and Susan (Mrs. PA Intl 2008)

Pennsylvania International Pageants April 2014: Orientation, Mall Autograph Signing, Friendly's, and Dessert Party

Although I have not blogged in quite some time, I decided to play catch up!

A week after my baby shower, I passed along my title to a lucky new woman.

Here are photos from the perspective of the outgoing queens!  We had a blast enjoying our last moments as a titleholders together and enjoyed the show from a very different perspective.

Morning photo before meeting Ashley for an awesome breakfast at our favorite place - Crepery!

We had customized gift bags for all the contestants - each bag was embroidered with the logo and the contestant's first name.

Ready for Orientation

Mrs. Contestants

Miss Contestants

Car ride to lunch

Queenies (my nickname for Rachel and Ashley) having fun in the backseat of my car

Friendly's Restaurant

Flowers from Beth, a close friend

Mall Appearance

with Susan, Mrs. PA International 2008 and a very close friend

Our whole year - always having fun!!!

Dessert Party - Gifts for the Cessna's, the most incredible directors!!!

Cake with the Queenies

My Eye Make Up Favorites

Eye Primar

Fran Krauss taught me about these first two products:

Prime Time Primar from Bare Minerals either HERE or HERE:

Eye Liner

Estee Lauder's Double Wear Pencils are my most used.  I own onyx (black), coffee (dark brown) and a midnight blue (blue/navy).

Lancome Art Liner is terrific, but I feel that the L'Oreal or NYX Studio Liquid Liner are alternatives at a much lower cost.
I find that the Art Liner is rarely in stock in dark brown; same for the L'Oreal.  So tonight, using my 20% Ulta discount, I purchased NYX.  I only tried it on my hand, but I LOVE this brown color that I purchased. 

Eyeshadow

Now this is difficult because there are so many good options on the market right now.
Urban Decay's Naked 1 Palette (I did not like palette 2).  Also, palette 3 and their matte palette both look great, but I have already moved onto Stila.

Stila's Palettes are great because, like Naked Palette, they have fabulous pigmentation.
I use In the Light:

 And when there was an Ulta sale, I purchased two eyeshadow quads from Bare Minerals.  WOW - these are awesome, especially because I only paid $15 for each quad!  I own The Truth and The A List:

For Brittani's wedding, I wanted to create a soft purple look for her (her wedding colors were purple).  I found this POP Beauty palette on Beauty.com at a 20% discount (sign up for their emails - they are the only site that every once in awhile offers Nars cosmetics and other high end brands at a full 20% discount - this never happens at Ulta).
The Amethyst Palette - LOVE THIS PALETTE!

Mascara

I have always been a Lancome fan, however, I have been CAREFULLY using only one mascara recently: Bare Minerals Lash Domination
You must CAREFULLY use this.  It took me over a month of practice and I still get big black racoon eyes.  It is a big brush and I have small eyes, so if you are not careful, you will end up with a mess.  However, no mascara has ever come as close to making my lashes so long and full.  I love it that much that I will not recommend any other brand at this point (but if you have naturally long and awesome lashes, then go to Lancome so you can avoid the mess because that is a downfall of this mascara).