Wednesday, February 27, 2019

Musing - February 2019

Welcome to the month of love! February was super cold (thanks polar vortex) and it is still lovely in many ways. (Mostly soap and people.)

Books: Late bloomer over here! I just read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland! It was a lovely read. Quick but with lines that make you think later. And because I was sick for a few days, I read books about death - Apprentice in Death and Dark In Death by JD Robb. I'm still working  my way through The Now Revolution. 


Gratitude: Good Asian food. Good chiropractors. New soap. Quiet hotel rooms. Purring cats. Organized things. Amazing friends. Washing machines. Changes. Groomed dogs. Tulips. Pasta ready when I get home.

Listening: Southern Lady Code is confirmed as my new favorite podcast. (There is a book coming soon!) And I've been listening to a lot of Dave Ramsey and Entre Leadership and Marketing Over Coffee and Household Name. And I highly recommend Rethinking Leadership, Episode 31 Dealing with Negativity. For music, I've been Florence and the Machine or Halsey. (Probably in a bit of a rut there....)
Perfume:  Same as last month, most weekdays I've been wearing  Les Perfumes de Rosine Majalis  and Dirtyque's Ofresia. (Boring! I know. But I'm about to run out of both and am finishing them.)

Recipes: I made a round of Lavender cookies for Artistic Girl's 19th birthday.  And zucchini bread for 13's good grades. But nothing super new or interesting. Somehow I seemed to make a lot of pasta this month.
Self-Care: The soap love may have achieved neverending status. My new favorite day is "new soap day" when I open up one of the Cellar Door Bath Supply soaps. This month's main sop was Birchwood Spiced Rum.

In addition to the continued great face oil experiment, I also grabbed a clearance new face cream and mask duo to try. Here's the updated day and night routine:

- Day -I'm still using Juice Beauty's Stem Cellular  Anti-Wrinkle Booster Serum around the eyes. And I'm still totally Juice Beauty for the day. Serum, oil, eye cream, CC cream. That pretty much is my standard and it continues to serve me very well.  (Although, now that I use more oils - I don't think I like the Juice Beauty oil as much as some of the other oils for feel. Efficacy to be determined.) 
- Night - I've kept using  Predire Eye Care Ant-Aging Night Serum. (And reminder, I did not pay retail for it! ) I'm still using Little Barn Apothecary oil  plus Juice Beauty nutrient cream to keep neck wrinkles at bay as well as Juice Beauty's anti-wrinkle cream on my forehead. I tried the Peter Thomas Roth' Fountain of Youth set mid-month. The mask does something I've never felt before - it heats up! Lots of different kinds of oils in the mask and the cream so it's weird to rinse the mask off. I don't think I'd like a larger size. But it was fun to try something different!

Things 12 said: 12 and I love the same type juice - orange, no pulp. Usually, I don't mind if she drinks all of it. But mid-month, I was sick and that's all I wanted. My first day after being sick, I came home from work to her drinking a glass of juice.

- Me: Are you drinking my orange juice?
- 12: Just a little bit.
- Me: But it's MY juice
- 12: But I'm just having a little bit
- Me: Yes, but it's MY juice. What if I wanted it?
- 12: But I'm just having a little bit.
- Me: (I relented because I was only teasing) - It's fine. You can finish it.
- 12: That's good because I already did.
- Me: I thought you said you just had a little bit!
- 12: Yes, I did. But there was only a little bit left.
She is a character. She'd even already put the juice container in the recycling!

Watching: I finished The Americans - which was weirdly comforting with the Russian language use. And I've begun a serious binge of  Grimm. I have a serious love of mythology and fairytales - I'm not sure if you'd enjoy Grim as much if you don't. (At least so far from Season 1 & 2.) I am a little weirded out that none of the actors match the look of the origins of their creatures but it's a global mixing pot.

Random:  The polar vortex. So, Guy and I have not spent that much working time together. Usually he works outside the home and I work at home. And...we have very different work styles. Much like night kayaking, I'm going to call it a testiment to our relationship that we both survived working from home the few days of polar vortex non-starting cars.


Take-away - Be present. Life isn't lived in the future. Don't spend your life here but paying attention to unreal things and other people's lives. 


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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Monday, February 25, 2019

Scenes from Philadelphia

Guy and I took a quick business trip to Philadelphia in late December to look at some equipment for his shop. And while we were in that lovely city, we enjoyed the food and art a good bit!

 It started with the window boxes on the street. So very pretty! We took a lovely stroll down a street and around a corner with 2 great restaurants:
- The Belgian Cafe
- OCF Coffee House
We had a very relaxed and delicious breakfast at the Coffee House, went to see the equipment, toured a historical prison (Eastern State Penitentiary) - which was surprisingly interesting, had a lovely lunch at The Belgian Cafe (best vegetarian burger I have had in my life and LOVELY desserts).  

 I really should have paid attention to the name of the street because while Philadelphia has beautiful murals on many walls, the one on that street was exceptional. The mural appeared to be a garden! It was a full block long and wrapped around the end of the block. It actually looked very life-like!  (Also, notice the cobbled streets. Aren't those awesome?)

 We also went to the Viking exhibit at the Franklin Institute, which was fascintating. Great place to take kids, lots of hands on activities. And I made Guy pose for a picture! Or two.
We stayed at a lovely hotel as well. Which was amazing considering Guy didn't make a reservation. I can now, whole-heartedly, recommend HotelTonight.com - we got a great deal and stayed right downtown at Le Meridien.

 Getting there was interesting as we passed THROUGH mountains! Blue Mountain, Kittatinny Mountain, Tuscarora Mountain, and Allegahny Mountain.  Which made me wonder how we name these things....

 Side note - we also discovered I hate driving on curvy roads. 

 Take-away - Go somehere new. Take someone you love. Have an adventure. (Picture from a zoo trip a few years ago. It's my motto!)


 Other posts you might enjoy:
- Musings - October 2018
- A Texas Weekend
- And Again, Please
- The Crescent City
All photos by moi! And you can tell...
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