Where I Have Been and A Tribute to my Mom.

I am not sure if many of you have noticed, but I have been absent from my blog for the past couple of weeks or more. It is not because I have given up on my blog and posts at all, but it is due to events that were happening in my life at that time. The past couple of months, my mother, whom I live with, has been in and out of the hospital. On her last hospital visit this past week she passed away. She was one of the closest people  to me and my inspiration. Here is her story and some of her favorite makeup products...

Debbie Vaughn

May 14, 1954 - February 29, 2012

I have always been close with my mom, closer with her than any of my other family members. She is the one who passed on her love of all things makeup, hair, fashion, and shopping to me. 

About 5 years ago, my mom was diagnosed with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. This is a lung condition that turns the normal lung tissue into scar tissue, hardening it, with no known cause. This condition made it so my mom was barley able to breath and needed to be on high doses of oxygen in order to walk the shortest distances. There is no known cure for this disease besides a lung transplant. And, in September of 2008 my mom was able to receive a life saving double lung transplant. It was like she was born again. She began doing things and going places that she would have never been able to do or go before. 

Prior to this, my mom had never worn any makeup besides some mascara and maybe some lipstick. After her lung transplant is when she really got into makeup. She started going to Ulta and Sephora and bringing back brands like Urban Decay (one of her favorites), Too Faced, and Smashbox. It was her doing all of this that really inspired me to start wearing and experimenting more with makeup. We loved going on trips to Ulta and trying on all of the makeup together. Not only did she love makeup but she loved anything with sparkles or very dramatic dark colors. 

I want to share with you some of her favorite items of makeup. 

Here is a picture of some makeup products that she used often. 

Like I said she was a BIG fan of Urban Decay, especially their eye shadows and the Naked Palette. She also  really loved the Kat Von D line of makeup. I think she liked how dark and dramatic her eye shadows are! 

One of her favorite lip combos that she wore every single day was Victoria's Secret Limelight lipstick paired with Victoria's Secret Beauty Rush lip gloss in Grapefruit Blast. She loved both of these lip products because of the massive amount of sparkles in them. haha

 Back in November, my mom caught a bad case of Bronchitis and after about a week she seemed to have gotten over it. In late December, she noticed that her breathing was becoming more labored and that certain activities were making her more out of breath than previous. She had to go to the hospital and they said that her body had started to reject her lungs. The doctors tried multiple procedures and drugs, but her breathing never improved. She finally passed away from her chronic rejection on February 29th. 

I had never expected this to happen and it seemed like her health declined so quickly. She was invincible to me. 

Although her physical being is gone now, I feel and know that she will always be with me watching over me. It almost gives me a sense of calm that she will be able to protect and watch over me far better than she has ever been able to since she is in Heaven and on God's team now. :)

Even though her internet and computer usage was almost completely non-existent, she understood and appreciated what I was doing with this blog that I started up. I know she would have loved to be featured on my blog and share with you guys her favorite makeup products. 

As for now I will be back to blogging and have started working on a few posts. The next couple of months are going to be hard though because I will be having to go through all of my mom's things as well as looking for a new apartment. I have missed all of my fellow bloggers and can't wait to get back into contact with all of you!