I received lots of great gifts for Christmas, and some great gift cards too. YAY! So, I ran to Sephora and purchased the Urban Decay Naked Basics Eye Palette. I will tell you why I love this palette. First, I think I’ve mentioned before that I am as old as dirt. I think, and this is my personal opinion, that a woman over 50 has no business wearing shimmery eyeshadow. It just emphasizes the wrinkles, and that’s a look I try to avoid. I do not wear anything that is frosty, or shimmery, or metallic, or sparkly, or glittery, or. . . you get the picture. I am strictly a matte finish girl. And I use the term “girl” loosely here. So, I was immediately attracted to the Urban Decay Naked Basics because as you can see from the picture, they are all nice, conservative, matte shades. Another plus, is that I usually try not to purchase palettes because I end up only using one or two of the colors and that’s it. Urban Decay’s world-famous Naked Palette has a lot of colors I would never use, with a price of $50. The basics palette is $27, and I have used every shade. Now, to be perfectly honest, the last shade is waaaaaaaay to dark for me to use as an eyeshadow but you know what? I can use it as an eyeliner, so it is not wasted. And the Venus shade may have a tinge of shimmer, but it’s enough for an old hag like me to get away with.

The pigment is great and the shadows go on smoothly. I am really impressed with the shadows and the packaging is sleek with sort of a smooth suede finish. It’s not too big to have with my other eyeshadows, and it would be great for travel, or to stick in your purse.

Did you get any beauty gifts for Christmas? Please share your finds with me in the comment section.

I got some really great deals in December at shoes.com, and then I realized I had never blogged about this site before. I have previously blogged about zappos.com. And although I do love Zappos, I love shoes.com even more. And here’s why.

First, shoes.com is on Ebates. Ebates was one of my very first posts on this blog. If you don’t know about Ebates, please go back and read that post. I don’t order anything online without first going through Ebates. Shoes.com is normally 8.5 percent cash back on Ebates. Sometimes it is as much as 20 percent cash back, and that is when I strike. I got an adorable pair of boots for myself in December, when Ebates was 20 percent cash back, and shoes.com had 25% off sale on everything on the site. Cha-ching.

Then, hubby wanted some new shoes. Now I don’t know about you and shoes, but his shoes are way more expensive than my shoes. So we went on shoes.com, and they were still having the 25% off sale, plus the Ebates at 20% cash back, and I even found a coupon code for even more off. I purchased two pair of shoes for him and saved over $140 by going through Ebates, and purchasing them on shoes.com, with the sale they were offering and the coupon code.

Now, I will let you in on a little secret. Zappos has videos on every shoe they sell. If I find a shoe I like on shoes.com, I go to zappos.com and watch the video so I can actually see the shoe in action. So between that and reading the reviews on both sites, it’s easy to decide if it is a good deal. And just like zappos.com, shoes.com offers free shipping, and free return shipping. That is a very smart feature in ordering a shoe because most people really don’t know if they will like a shoe until they try it on.

Shoes.com carries all major brands. I hope you check it out and add shoes.com to your list of go-to sites.

Whoo-hoooo! It’s New Year’s Eve.  If you are boring like me you will be staying home. If you lead a more exciting life, please scroll down to the last app I am recommending.

If you prefer to watch a movie instead of Ryan Seacrest, the Official Times Square New Year’s Eve app is for you. It will keep you up to date on the countdown, and even provides a live web cam so you get to see all the action.

You can upload a photo and send to all your friends to wish them a Happy New Year.

From the developer:

Join millions of revelers around the world to celebrate New Year’s Eve LIVE. The Official Times Square Ball App is your exclusive access to be part of the activities in Times Square as you watch the LIVE co-hosted official show featuring opening ceremonies, musical performances, celebrity appearances, hourly countdowns and the midnight Ball Drop!

Don’t wait until December 31st to enjoy the Times Square Ball App. Download today!

Features:
•Participate in the celebration by submitting your New Year’s photo for friends, family and other revelers to vote on their favorites and possibly be selected to be seen on the Toshiba Vision screen atop One Times Square directly beneath the Waterford Crystal New Year’s Eve Ball on December 31st! The selected photos will also be featured on the LIVE Show.
•Discover everything you need to know about the Times Square New Year’s Eve Celebration including the history, news, weather, photos, map and event schedule.
•Send New Year’s Eve ecards and share photos with friends and family.
•Watch live streaming of the events in Times Square leading up to New Year’s Eve throughout December as well as the highlight promo and other exclusive video content.
•Customize your Toshiba Countdown Clock with your personal photo and time zone.

Next up is the Horns 2010 app. Don’t let the year fool you. I looked through a lot of horn apps to find the perfect one for ringing in the new year. And you can really go crazy by making all the horns go off at once! My test drive has driven the hubby crazy! Oh, and it’s free.

Lastly, to those of you who are going out tonight, please, please, please call a cab if you have anything to drink. Better safe than sorry. Getting arrested is no fun.

Taxi Magic is a free app that allows you to contact a cab company in your area, and even tracks your cab so you will know how close it is to arriving to take you home.

From the developer:

Free electronic taxi booking nationwide with the award-winning Taxi Magic app.

Taxi Magic is revolutionizing the taxi industry with the first online taxi booking service directly integrated into taxi dispatch systems, so no phone call is needed.

– Find taxis based on your location.
– Book a taxi in a few quick taps.
– Track the arrival of your taxi through dispatch updates and a map view.
– Charge the ride to your credit card.
– Expense the trip with an e-receipt.

Recent top app awards include CNET, Wired, Business Insider, and SFWeekly.

‘Magic Booking’ is available with 75 leading taxi fleets in over 50 major U.S. cities, with tap-to-call fleets in over 4,000 cities across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.

Alexandria | Ann Arbor | Arlington | Atlanta | Baltimore | Bethesda | Boston | Boulder | Buffalo | Charlotte | Charlottesville | Chicago | Clearwater | Cleveland | Colorado Springs | Columbus | Dallas | Denver | Des Moines | Fairfax | Fort Worth | Ft. Collins | Ft. Myers | Honolulu | Houston | Jacksonville | Kansas City | Los Angeles | Loudon County | Memphis | Milwaukee | Minneapolis-St. Paul | Monterrey | Naples | Nashville | New Orleans | Orange County | Orlando | Palm Springs | Phoenix | Pittsburgh | Portland | Sacramento | San Diego | San Francisco | San Jose | Seattle | St. Louis | Tucson | Waltham | Washington

The Taxi Magic app and booking service are free. If you want to pay for the taxi ride with a credit card through the app and receive an e-receipt there is a $1.50 documentation charge.

Whether traveling to a new city or out on the town at home, Taxi Magic is the essential taxi application.

If Taxi Magic is not available in your area, you can call AAA Tipsy Tow at 1-800-222-4357, and they will take you home and even tow your vehicle within three miles for free. There is a charge for towing if you are further away than three miles. Seriously people, I want you all to have fun but be responsible.  There are lots of people sitting in prison today who never thought they would get arrested for drunk driving.  There are also lots of families destroyed because a drunk driver killed their loved one. It is very easy to have fun AND be responsible.  I say this with love.

Happy New Year!

Years ago I was completely fed up with the cardboard ornament boxes I was using. They were not sturdy, and way too big. So I searched and found these Snapware boxes. I think I ordered mine from a website with the word “organize” in it, but I’ve searched and all the sites with those names are either not selling this brand anymore or are out of stock. You can read reviews about these boxes on qvc.com, or amazon.com, but in researching for this post, I found the best price is at kmart.com.

Every year now, I get so excited when I get these out of my closet. That’s right, I keep them in my closet now instead of the attic. They take up so little room, and all stack on top of each other so you can have a ton of ornaments just stacked up in one corner of your closet. An added plus for me because it gets very, very hot in my attic!

Each tray snaps together, and you can use cardboard dividers to separate. That is also a good feature because you can use the cardboard or remove it depending on the size of your ornaments. I stack them up four trays to a handle, and while decorating or undoing the tree, I can spread each tray out to see what I am working with.

I have two sets of four of the larger containers for normal size ornaments, and two sets of four of the smaller containers for my smaller ornaments, or flat ornaments that I can stack all together in one tray.

Let me know if you have tried these or have another great storage system for your ornaments in the comment section.