Sunday, November 4, 2018

Musings - October 2018

Hello! This month included the most beautiful skies - whether over Michigan or Puerto Rico. I'm always in love with October blue.
Books: It was a decent month for reading, due in part to the business trip to Puerto Rico. Sit down! I avoided the airport bookstore!!! (Mostly because my bags were already super heavy on the way there with business stuff.) But since we took a few days extra vacation, the resort allowed me to "little free library" a book from their collection - which is dense reading and I'm still working on. (It's amusing that I borrowed a harder book than those I brought!) Check out the On The Shelf area of the blog for good quotes. Enjoy!

I did manage to finish 3 books a week (keeping up the streak) over the month:

- Get Rich, Lucky Bitch by Denise Duffield-Thomas  - this was a good self-improvement read. Perfect for a beach! (I took a picture with it off the beach from a cabana at Rio Mar in Puerto Rico)
- It's Not About You, It's About Bacon: Relationship Marketing in a Social Media World by Brian Basilico by Laura Shapiro - has held up to the test of time
- The Greensmith Girls: A Supernatural Witch Cozy Mystery by Raven Snow (Kindle Unlimited)  which is about the most perfect cosy mystery ever. 

With these three, I've clocked in 47 books for the year.

Gratitude: Tropical rainforests. Vacations. Apps that are fun to use. Bacardi Mixology training and certification. Being treated as though I matter by people I love. Corn mazes - and I still want to know why they aren't Maize Mazes. Purring kittens. Gorgeous full moons.

Listening: All the podcasts. Dave Ramsey podcasts. Chalene Johnson's podcast. Duct Tape Marketing podcast. Marketing Over Coffee podcast. Christy Wright's Business Boutique podcast. Susan Hyatt's Rich Coaches podcast. NPR's Money Planet podcast.

Perfume: Two things -  Diptyque's Ofresia. It's  reminiscent of a garden.  I do like French perfume. And a simple Caroline Herrera body cream called Good Girl which I got as a free gift from Ulta. I find hot places with multiple showers a day (Puerto Rico tourist adventures) not good for perfume but a bit of scent with lotion works well.

Recipes: The Freezer Cobbler was made about 3 times this month at the kidlets' request. It is our go-to quick dessert.

 I also dreamed up a casserole. (It might be a Midwestern thing.) I'm not sure it qualifies as a "recipe". I basically lined a glass pan with overlapping rows of Mrs. T's Pierogies and then added chopped peppers and onions.Then covered it in Garlic Cream of Mushroom soup (a la Green Bean Casserole) and baked for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. In the last 5 minutes, I covered the top in bacon. This is not a healthy recipe nor vegetarian. But, it's warm and filling for the fall months and super easy.


Self-Care: Last month I mentioned my slight soap obsession (hello, Villainess Soaps). Well, I opened up the full sizes last month with Pearl Diver. This month it was Krakatoa. (I have a tropical theme happening - the book I borrowed is about Hawaii.) The scent is GORGEOUS. And the soap lasts a surprisingly long time - like a MONTH per bar!

And this month I continued to try face oils on a schedule. (I tend to just try whatever I feel like that day.) Specific oils for evening and morning. Every day. It's a continuation of last month with just a few additions and a switch out.  For the month. I grouped them in the photo but the Facial Mist goes with both:
- Day -I'm sampling Juice Beauty's Stem Cellular  Anti-Wrinkle Booster Serum around the eyes. The rest of the face was like last month:  Physician's Formula oil + TonyMoly Green Tea Lotion (both grocery store bargains) until the Green Tea ran out mid-month. Then I switched out to H2O+ Beauty's Infinity Youth Serum with the oil and Juice beauty product. (I got the H2O+ on clearance with a coupon for $21 - which I don't mind spending to try something new!) It's all okay. None of it is a miracle in a bottle, so far, just nice to use. 
- Night - Little Barn Apothecary oil + a bargain bought Lumene Vitamin C night cream over a layer of Predire Eye Care Ant-Aging Night Serum. (And NO, I did not pay retail for it! I picked it up for about 1/10th that price on a Vegas business trip last fall.)


Things 12 said: Make more cobbler.


Watching: Bull. Blackish. Fresh Off the Boat. American Housewife. Orange is the New Black. (Best quote from Kate Mulgrew, formerly of Star Trek - "We are living in the future.")

Random: Dog is re-trained. It took a few days at the vet and a food switch! Boom! He also got a great new haircut.

 Fun fact: Neck wrinkles on women used to be called Venus lines. 

Take-away - Life is largely what you allow. If you don't like something, you need to change it. (Small changes count.)



Original musings posts you may enjoy:


All photos by moi! And you can tell...
Juice Beauty is a staple in my beauty cabinet. I stray, I try other things - but it's my favorite "foundation" (I used the CC Cream) and great skin care. If you like Juice Beaty too, here is a link. I do get a small commission (at no cost to you) when you use these links which helps support this blog.

- Skin Care by Juice Beauty
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