The "Christmas Time is Here!" Tag

     Hello Everyone!

     I was tagged by the lovely Stephanie from Stephanie's Look to do this super fun Christmas tag! It was created by Hope from beautyandbliss and I absolutely love the questions! Now you can finally get a peak into what my holiday season looks like. I hope you enjoy!

1. What is your favorite thing about Christmas?

I love every single thing! I love the extra time I get to spend with family and friends, the way it looks outside after it snows, all of the traditions that my family has around the holidays, and of course baking lots of yummy treats!

2. When you were a kid, what did you leave for Santa on Christmas Eve?

This is such a fun memory for me. I used to leave the traditional milk and sugar cookies but I also left carrots for the reindeer! We would always by the carrots with leaves still on them and 'Rudolph' would always seem to make a mess all over the living room! I thought it was hilarious!

3. Do you and/or your family have any Christmas Traditions?

YES! 

1. All of the girls in my family have craft night. We normally make an ornament but this year we painted pottery!

2. We decorate gingerbread houses with my cousin!

3. We have a white elephant gift exchange after Christmas dinner and this year's theme is "As Seen On TV"! I'm still looking for the perfect gift.

4. We see a movie on Christmas Day with my cousin. 

5. We celebrate Christmas Eve at my house!

6.  My Nana, cousin and I have a huge shopping day at the department store where my aunt works. I look forward to it every year!

4. When decorating, do you go all out or just do a small amount of decorating?

I definitely think my family is right in the middle. Everywhere you look in our house you are reminded of the holiday but we don't have millions of lights and blow-up Santa's in the front yard! :D

5. What is your favorite Christmas dinner food?

My family has a very similar dinner to Thanksgiving. We have ham, turkey, mashed potatoes all the works so I look forward to all of it! :)

6. What is your favorite Christmas movie?

Elf all the way! Jerome will even do the escalator move in public during this time of year. You'd think I'd get embarrassed but to this day it still cracks me up!

7. What is your favorite Christmas song?

I hate to admit it but the entire Justin Bieber Christmas album...

8. What as your favorite gift you've ever received?

Without a doubt my vanity Jerome got me last year! If you want to see it it's in video number one of my makeup collection series. He completely surprised me to the point where I was in tears! He even went the extra mile and had it all built and set up in my room by the time I got home Christmas night. What a sweetheart! My parents also got me my Macbook Pro a few years ago so that is definitely a close second.

9. What is your favorite Christmas memory?

I think a lot of people will relate to this one: just racing down the hall Christmas morning as soon as I opened my eyes. I also loved opening those chocolate advent calendars!

10. Does it snow where you live?

Definitely! We just had a huge storm over the last few days and ended up with like 8" total! To be honest I really do love it- mainly when I'm inside and in front of the fire place though. :)

11. Do you own an "ugly holiday sweater"?

I can't say that I own anything too ugly but I do own one of those baggy holiday sweaters that looks like it could be from my grandpa! Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. ;)

12. Hot chocolate or eggnog?

Hot chocolate for sure! I've given eggnog it's fair shot but I am not a fan.

13. Have you ever been kissed under a mistletoe?

As long as Jerome and I have been together, we haven't! Maybe this year will be the first time!

I tag EVERYONE along with these beauty girls!

1. Emily Eddington
2. Lindseyland22
3. Jen Luv's Reviews
4. CarahAmelie
5. Inspiredmom824
6. Leeshyeternally
7. Leighannsays
8. Thrift Thick

Merry Christmas!

Love, Lacey

My Recent Camera Upgrade!

     Hello Everyone! Today I am here to bring you up-to-date on my entire camera story and experience. I wanted to post something like this to explain to you why I decided it was time for an upgrade and what camera I ended up going with. Now let's start at the very beginning…

     I posted my very first YouTube video on April 26th of this year after recording on a tiny little JVC camcorder that had been floating around my house for ages. Keep in mind that even though I thought I was on the right track (the camera had an HD sticker on the side) it was FAR from good quality… I will say that I was very proud of my first video but during that whole day and a half of filming and editing something clicked. I FELL IN LOVE WITH MAKING VIDEOS! It was instantaneous which is why I found myself waltzing around my local Best Buy the very next day. I realized that if I am going to be putting my time and effort into these videos I wanted them to be as good as I could make them- and that started with having a quality camera. Call me impulsive but I ended up choosing and purchasing the Canon EOS Rebel T3i along with everything I needed to start my YouTube journey that very same day!

     From day one I was experiencing issues with my Canon. When I would sit down to record, it was automatically shutting off when I was in mid-sentence! It only did this every once in awhile in the very beginning but little did I know it would get WAY worse! That wasn't the only thing that I was disappointed in… It also didn't have auto-focus. If you aren't familiar auto-focus it just helps keep you (or whatever you are doing) constantly in focus and without it you only have a select window which stays crystal clear. This was probably a mistake on my part due to my lack of research before buying but I knew this was a widely used camera across the beauty community so I went with my gut instinct.

     Just recently the shutting off problem got intolerable! It's supposed to record for 10-15 minutes once the button is pressed but mine would stop within 40 seconds and it was very inconsistent. I finally took it into Best Buy to have it looked at and after the run around of buying a new SD card and calling Canon directly, the manager agreed to let me exchange my T3i for another camera entirely. Thanks to the warranty that I purchased, this wasn't a problem and now it was time to do a little more research. Talk about intimidating!

     I searched the internet for about a day and had my mind set on either a Sony or Canon Vixia camcorder because they seemed to have everything I needed but boy was I wrong! Thanks to an amazing sales associate (Chris) I finally decided on the Canon EOS 70D which was a complete shock. Not only was I set on a camcorder, I wasn't expecting to spend nearly that much but I am 100% happy with my decision. Chris ended up being another YouTuber (how cool is that?!)  and he was so much help in making me realize that this camera would be an amazing investment. It is a camera that has only been out a few months and one of the only DSLR's to come out with auto-focus. It takes AMAZING photos and literally encompasses everything that I was looking for.

   To make a long story short I went from a Canon EOS Rebel T3i to a Canon EOS 70D and who knows what the future holds. Will I be looking into lighting, microphones, etc. next? What ever it is I know that I will be extremely happy shooting videos with this amazing new device that I am very grateful to have.

     I hope this post was informational and helpful for you guys. I went to my Facebook page to ask if you would be interested in hearing this story and many of you were! As always I will have this camera listed in the description boxes of all my future videos.

Have a wonderful day!

Love, Lacey