From My Vanity

Beauty, Skincare, and a bit of Lifestyle

FREE eBook on Preparing for Job Interviews!

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Hey all! I hope everyone is having a wonderful day off for Labor Day! 🙂 I just wanted to share some exciting news with you. I won’t bore you with a long post, so let’s get right to it!

My dad, Ron McCurdy, recently published his own ebook “how to” on preparing for job interviews and getting a job. It’s called Do You Even Have a Parachute?: The Job Seeker’s Quick Guide.
It’s a short and to the point book filled with tips and tricks on how to preparing for an interview and what to do after you’ve left the interview appointment. Here’s the description of the book…

This book as the ultimate resource for job hunting, just as a parachute is the ultimate resource for skydiving. The goal of this book is not to give you a hundred or so pages to read through in order for you to be prepared to find a job or career. The goal is to give you a condensed version of the valuable details you will need to be the best one for the job. It’s something you can carry with you and, right before the interview, brush up on fine points. 

As years are added to life and one goes through struggling situations, wisdom is gained-along with some gray hair! There is a rose with every thorn life hits you with. So this book will give you a little history of what many years of first-hand experience has brought forth, and hopefully you will understand that the same thing can be accomplished by anyone with a little self-motivation. The author has 27 years of experience dealing with many different jobs and interviews, as well as interviewing many different clientele for himself. He has personally searched for jobs from almost every avenue! This book is a wealth of information for anyone that wants to start or accelerate his/her career. IT IS A MUST HAVE BOOK FOR EVERYONE’S LIBRARY…

In this economy, this book can be a gem if you’re trying to get a job! And the really exciting news I wanted to share with you today is that this book is available for FREE today!

It’s for today only, so make sure you take advantage of this great deal and keep it in your Kindle for when you are getting ready to go into a job interview. It might help you land that job that will support your family!

If you get my dad’s book, please let me know in the comments below! I’d love to hear from you 😀

Alone Yet Not Alone gives today’s teens wonderful role-models to look up to! (Book Review & Giveaway)

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I am SO excited to bring you my review for this book today. It’s a very special book – one I have loved ever since I first read it, around the age of 10. And not only is this in easy-to-read novel for kids, but it’s also being made into a movie and will be coming out later this year! More on that later, so keep reading to the end. Don’t miss the giveaway at the end, either!

About the Author:

Tracy Leininger Craven loves history and retelling real-life stories in her historical fiction books. She also loves spending her free time in the great outdoors with her husband David and their four children.


About the Book:

Settled in the Blue Mountains of Pennsylvania, deep within America’s new frontier, the Leininger family celebrates the blessings of a beautiful homestead and bountiful harvest. That is, until tragedy strikes with the beginning of the French and Indian War and the devastating raid known as the Penn’s Creek Massacre.

The lives of this simple, God-fearing family are forever altered when Barbara and Regina, two young sisters, are carried away by the Delaware tribe. Driven by their faith in God and the powerful bonds of family, Barbara and Regina hold firmly to the belief that they are never alone, even in their darkest hour, and that they will be reunited again.

Rich in historical details, Alone Yet Not Alone is an inspirational, true story of a family caught in the cross fire of the French and Indian War. 

My Review:

I first read Alone Yet Not Alone – the original full-length novel – back when I was around 10 years old…and completely feel in love with every aspect of this book! From the characters and the suspense to the fact that it was a true story — this actually happened to two sisters!! I totally became enthralled with everything about this book. And I’ve read it so many times over the years…I’ve long lost count!

So, when I found out that Alone Yet Not Alone was coming out on film – and had a special ‘movie edition’ book for younger readers (8-12) – I was beyond excited! I immediately agreed to review this book, when it was offered to me, and was so excited to read it. I’ve given it to my younger sisters to read, and am looking forward to hearing their feedback on it. Because this is rewritten for teen and preteen readers, it is much shorter than the full-length novel I own, and so made it an easier – and quicker – read. The author did an excellent job of not leaving out any details, but still making it easier for younger readers to understand everything that’s going on. Another really fun aspect of the book is that in the middle, it has a bunch of pictures from the movie included. This was REALLY neat, as it let the reader picture all the characters easily. And it got me excited for the film to release!

The story was amazing! I really cannot say enough good things about this book. And the fact that the characters written about were real is even more amazing. Barbara really did go through all those harrowing adventures to escape her life as an Indian, and Regina really did endure over 9 years of living with the Indians and still kept her Christian faith strong. It’s such an AMAZING story, filled with characters that give a wonderful testimony of Christ, that I – as a Christian – am greatly encouraged after reading about these heroines of Faith. Barbara and Regina make wonderful role-models for today’s teens!

All in all, I love Alone Yet Not Alone and will be reading it for years to come – and keeping this new, special edition handy when I have kids. If they end up being a bookworm like their mom, Alone Yet Not Alone is one book that I want them to fall in love with, just as I have done. Now I am just waiting on pins and needles for the movie to come out!! 🙂

About the MOVIE!

A crew has been hard at work turning this amazing, true story account into a film. And the waiting is almost over! Next month – September 27th – the movie will be released in theaters! I am SO excited about its upcoming release! It sounds like they have kept very true to the book, and the original novel, so I cannot wait to sit down and watch this well-loved story come to life right in front of me!

Families will love this film based on a true story! Awarded 5 Doves from the Dove Foundation!

Alone Yet Not Alone is starring: Kelly Greyson, Natalie Racoosin, Clay Walker, Jenn Gotzon, Joanie Stewart, Ozzie Torres, Tony Wade.

For more information on the website – and to keep up with announcements as its release date approaches – check out the following sites!

Book Giveaway:

So for today’s giveaway, all you have to do is enter in the Rafflecopter form below in order to get a chance to win your own paperback copy of Alone Yet Not Alone and read it so you’re ready for when the movie releases on September 27th! This giveaway will run until September 10th at midnight.

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Grace Unplugged – a book AND a movie coming out soon! (Movie Giveaway)

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About the Book:

Grace Trey is an eighteen-year-old singer as passionate about her Christian faith as she is her phenomenal, God-given musical talent. Both traits come from her father, one-hit wonder Johnny Tray who found Jesus after losing his chart success two decades ago.

When Grace encounters her own music break of a lifetime, the sudden dive into the “real world” puts her deeper beliefs to the test. Pop superstardom is just within reach but appears to require some spiritual compromise. Will Grace reject her faith, or will she own it?

Book releases on September 1st

Information about the author…

About the Movie:
Having just turned 18, Grace Trey aspires to more than just singing at her church, where the worship leader is her father—a former pop star. So, with the help of Mossy, her dad’s former manager, Grace records a cover version of her dad’s old Top-10 hit, runs off to Los Angeles, and begins to taste the kind of stardom she’s always dreamed about.
Yet with each rung of the ladder she climbs, Grace feels more and more pressure to compromise her values, further straining her relationship with her parents. Will everything she experiences lead her to reject her faith … or rediscover it? GRACE UNPLUGGED opens in theaters October 4.
Information on the movie…

Website  /   IMDB  / Facebook
Trailer:
Book Giveaway:

It’s been a while since I have done a giveaway – so thank y’all SO much for having patience with me! So for today’s giveaway, all you have to do is enter in the Rafflecopter form below in order to get a chance to win your own paperback copy of Grace Unplugged and read it so you’re ready for when the movie releases on October 4th! This giveaway will run until September 2nd at midnight.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Another Big, Exciting Announcement!

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Okay, so I got really good at being consistent with posting on my blog…and then I disappeared again last week. There was a VERY good reason for this, however, and I’ve been looking forward to telling y’all about it! So, what’s the exciting news??

I 
AM
ENGAGED!

Yes! I am! And it’s a really fun and special proposal story….or, at least I thought so. (And I guess that’s whats important. If you care to hear the story, keep reading to find out how he did it… 🙂

He flew in and surprised me. I had no idea that he was coming into town! (For those of you who missed my courtship announcement post, my boyfriend is in the military and had to move across the country a few months ago.) So we had talked the night before and everything sounded normal – I didn’t suspect a thing.

The next day – August 10th – my older brother left to have lunch with an old friend that was passing through town on his way somewhere. I had known this for a while, and so thought nothing of it when they told me that he was going to have the friend stop by the house to meet the family before continuing on his way.

So, since somebody was coming over, I got semi-ready and presentable (because I figured, why get all prettied up when my boyfriend was two thousand miles away, right? :-P) and continued on with dinner preparations like normal.

As we were just finishing up with dinner, Aaron got home. My chair at the table was facing away from the door and so when my brother said, “Hey Mom, come meet Adam.” I turned around and was SHOCKED to see Dan walk into the room.

SHOCKED!

He walked up to me and immediately got down on one knee and proposed to me. 🙂 It was the most AMAZING moment ever and one that I couldn’t believe was happening at that moment. Of course I said “YES!!” and my joy continued to rise when he said that he was staying for a whole week!

He left yesterday (Saturday) and while I miss him like crazy, it feels AMAZING to be engaged to marry this guy! Having his ring on my finger is an awesome reminder that, while he’s not at my side yet, there’s going to be a day in the near future (spring/summer of 2014) when he won’t leave me anymore. 🙂

So, yeah, that is why I didn’t post this past week. I was soaking up every moment I had with my fiance! I plan to continue on with my usual schedule/posts from now on. 🙂

A facial wash free of chemicals and full of natural goodness! (Product Review)

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It’s been a little while since I’ve done a product review, but I am slowly but surely getting back into the swing of things. I’ve been discovering and looking into a lot of fun things for my blog, so be prepared as I work to take Legacy of a Writer to a new level and broaden its scope a bit. 🙂

I was given the opportunity to review Citrus Clear‘s Gentle Cleanser face wash. First off, let me explain what Citrus Clear is. This company is a “…natural and holistic treatment for acne, sensitive skin and all skin types.” Citrus Clear offers natural acne products such as face washes, moisturizers, and acne treatments that are targeted to meet the needs of those looking to get rid of acne. On their home page they say, “We are known for being the most ‘natural acne treatment’. We value each of our unique formulas, and ensure that only the most potent citrus juices, extracts, tinctures and peels are used in our acne products. Our natural skin care is made for all skin types.” They have a line for both Acne Control and Sensitive Skin.

I was very excited to get the opportunity to review this, as I have recently become very interested in facial products – especially for cleaning my face. I have struggled with acne for as long as I can remember. It has been really, really bad the past 6 or more years, but recently – with a lot of research about acne and the products that help fight against it – I am almost acne free. Almost. I have a lot of scaring and dark pigmentation from when I used to break out really bad, and I still get one or two every week or so. But compared to how I used to be – it’s like night and day for me!

Now that you know a little bit of history about the company and about my dealings with acne, we can continue on with this review. 🙂 I don’t consider myself to have sensitive skin – though since beginning my acne regimen my skin tends to be more dry than oily. But since Citrus Clear’s gentle cleanser was for sensitive skin, I thought it would be a perfect fit.

Well, I had a very interesting experience with the cleanser. To begin with, when I first tried to pump some of the product in my hand, it wouldn’t work. I tried for several minutes, but no matter how many times I pumped the nozzle, nothing came out. I finally unscrewed the top and discovered that the straw that brings product up from the bottom and into the nozzle was way too long and had been bent in order to fit it into the bottle. Because it was bent, there was no way for the product to squeeze through the straw and get to the top, so that’s why I wasn’t able to get any product out. This all was really odd! Because it was bent and prohibiting the product from getting out, I am thinking that this was just a malfunction during the making of the product, so I cut the straw enough to allow the product to get into the straw, and tried again.

For some reason, I still could barely get any product out when I pumped the nozzle. Maybe the whole nozzle was broken or had a malfunction during processing, but in order to use the product I had to unscrew the cap and just swipe the product that clung to the straw, onto my hand. Not very sanitary, I know, but…I was out of options! 😛

The sensitive face wash smells delicious! Just as they describe it, it smells like tahitian lime. Yummy! The face wash had little white beads inside that worked to gently exfoliate my face, which I liked. I hadn’t used an exfoliate for some time, and I missed using it and knowing that it was helping get all the dead skin cells off my face. The only thing I was well aware of while using this product is that I should NOT get it in my eyes. I made the mistake of swiping it over my eyes and I guess my eyes weren’t closed enough…regardless, they started  to sting! After that, I made sure to keep my eyes closed and not use the wash around my face, and I never had it get in my eyes after that.

I used it for about a week or more, and was really enjoying it. I always love trying new things! But then I started to notice that the skin at the corners of my eyes were getting really dry. I thought this was really weird, since I’ve never had a problem with dry skin on my eyelids. As the days progressed, I started seeing more dry patches on my eyes until basically my whole eyelid was dry, flaky, and painful to the touch. They were noticeably red and my mom asked me what I was using that was different. That’s when I realized that I had switched up my usual night time facial wash with the Citrus Clear one.

I stopped using it after that, and after a few days, my eyelids were back to normal – not dry, flaky, or anything. So weird! I find it hard to believe that something that’s so ‘natural’ would have such a negative effect on me….which makes me think maybe there was a product that I was allergic to – since I started getting dry lids almost as soon as I started, and it stopped immediately after I stopped.

All in all, I have to say that I did not like the face wash. I wanted to like it – I really did! But there was something in this product that evidently did NOT like me! So I am not able to use this or give it a positive review. The only thing I can say is that maybe I was allergic to something in this product, and maybe you won’t be.

There are a lot of positive things about Citrus Clear products – from their not using chemicals in their products to their line for acne treatment. But, just for me personally, I will not be using these products in the future.

If you are interested in looking into it (maybe you know what you are and are not allergic to, unlike me), there are many ways to connect with Citrus Clear.

If you decide to look into Citrus Clear, let me know. Or if you already have your facial regimen down pat, feel free to share what you use in the comments below. I love learning what regimens people use to control acne – or any other skin problem you might have!

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Finally! The Big Update! :-)

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Greetings everyone! Long time, never see, ehh?

I know I really disappeared from my blog and the whole book/blogging world for the better part of this year, and I do apologize for that! And that is the whole reason of this post—to explain what has kept me so busy for the past 7 months!

Right now I am trying to sort through backed up emails (talk about a headache!) and begin to start planning posts for my blog. I’m not sure exactly what my schedule will be like on my blog—I know I won’t be posting as frequently as before or with as many book reviews, but as soon as I get a feel for how often I’ll be posting, or maybe even have a weekly schedule, I’ll be sure to let y’all know!

So, I might as well dive right into my update. 🙂 In the middle of December last year, my life took a very big and a very unexpected turn! I don’t know how to say it to build up any suspense (lol!) so I’ll just saying it like it is.

A single Navy guy who was being stationed here for a few months was visiting our Church…and in the middle of December he asked my dad if he could court me.

🙂

We started slow–since neither my parents or I were very familiar with the guy (he’d only been visiting our church a few months), and we called it the “get to know each other” stage. Or, for more simplicity, it was like a “pre-courtship”. He came over and visited with me and the family on a weekly basis, and I got to know him more. Then in the middle of March we began “officially courting”.

😀

Here’s a picture of us, if you’re curious. His name is Dan (which is funny, since I have a brother named Danny, and Uncle named Danny, and three cousins who have names beginning with “Dan”). Since he’s in the Navy, we had a lot of ups and downs around the time that he got his orders. For a while we thought he’d get stationed in my home town, then we thought he’d be just a few states away…it was really crazy for several weeks. There were many, many prayers for God to work in our situation and place Dan where HE wanted him to be.

And when the dust finally settled, we found out he was to be stationed in California.

And for those of you who may not know, I live in Florida.

It wasn’t what we had wanted or hoped for, but after some time to adjust to the whole idea, we both agreed that it shouldn’t be what we wanted for us, but what God wanted for us. And, if you knew the whole story with all it’s crazy twists and turns, you would agree with us that God really wanted Dan out in California.

So, as you can imagine, with the reality facing us that he would be leaving very soon, we spent as much time together as we possible could. And while I am unspeakably thankful for that time we had….it seemed to pass far too quickly!

It’s now been 16 days since Dan left, and while sometimes I think I’m getting used to the whole “long distance” relationship….there are still days that I wish there weren’t over 2,000 miles separating us.

🙁

But, I keep looking on the bright side of things — while we are separated now, it’s only for a season. 🙂

So! Yeah, this whole courtship has been the main reason I have not had time to blog or read at all the last few months. We were spending a lot of time together before we found out where he was going to be stationed–because we knew the possibility of him being stationed somewhere far away. (Though neither of us ever imagined California!) So then when we found out it’d be in CA, we spent every spare moment together.

Cosmetology has also been taking up the rest of my time the last few months. This year I’ve been going to school all morning, coming home around 1 o’clock or so. It’s been a really fun experience and I’ve been learning a lot! I’ve discovered I love doing hair styles, cutting hair, and even coloring….but don’t enjoy highlighting, perms, or relaxers as much. But we learn everything and, hey, even if I don’t particularly enjoy it, I still need to know how to do it well. 🙂

I’m set to graduate out of Cosmetology school in December, Lord willing. It’s exciting that I’m more than halfway over–it seems I’ve been going to Cosmetology school for ages! But it’s been a great experience and one I will look back on with fond memories. 🙂

Well, I think that’s about it. Those are really the only two things that have been engulfing my time this year. I hope y’all forgive me for disappearing on you this year. Lord willing, I’m back and will soon be in the swing of things. I can’t wait to get back to visiting all the blogs I used to read on a daily basis. While I won’t be able to commit the time to it that I used to, I will be doing as much as my time will allow. 🙂

So! with all that said, I’d love to hear from y’all! Especially if we used to communicate last year before I disappeared. 😛 How is your blog doing? Any big changes in your life? Can’t wait to hear from ya!

A pen that makes writing easier! (Review & Giveaway)

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I know, I know, it’s been a while! Wish I could stop and chat with y’all for a bit, but right now I’ve got a review and giveaway to bring to you. (I promise, a “chatting” post with an update on my life IS coming! 😉

Have you ever heard of the “UGLee Pen” before? Well, I certainly hadn’t! But they are pretty darn cool! According to them, an UGLee Pen—created by Dr. James Lee—helps people who “…experience pain and discomfort when writing, for example those with arthritis, carpal tunnel syndrome, etc…”

I was given some of the pens to try out. While it isn’t the most sleek and attractive pen I’ve ever seen, it is definitely very comfortable to write with! I had a little trouble, in the beginning, with getting the ink to flow evenly, but I think that was just a “new pen syndrome” and once I started using it, it worked great.

I don’t know what kind of “case” is around the pen, but I really like it. While it isn’t sticky at all, it is made with this kind of gel-ish pad that almost seems to stick to you…almost. If that makes sense at all. It’s really hard to explain, but once you see one and try one, you’ll understand what I’m getting at right away!

The UGLee Pen is said to be the best writing utensil for children who are learning to write and are developing fine motor skills, as well as helpful for special-needs children who find it hard to hold a pen or pencil properly.

And, hey, this is ESPECIALLY good for those of you who write a lot. As it helps keep your hands and fingers from cramping!

What’s not to loose by using these pens, right?? 🙂

So you ready to try to win some for your own?? All you have to do is enter in the Rafflecopter form below, and in two weeks I will select a winner and these pens will be sent right to your front door. 🙂

Giveaway ends at midnight on May the 30th.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.