Showing posts with label make-up. Show all posts
Showing posts with label make-up. Show all posts

Monday, January 28, 2019

Musings - January 2019

Here's the round up of the first month of January. I hope your year had beautiful start. 

Books: I got all flummuxed on what to read! I still want to try to do 50+ books for the year, but then I read where someone said the book you start the year with IS your year. And well, at the time, I was reading both an older social media book and Midnight in the Garden fo Good and Evil - I obviously didn't want to start my year with either outdated info or deception, so I had to go to my bookshelf. And there was the book I was meant to read, LaRae Quy's Mental Toughness for Women Leaders. She's ex-FBI. Since it's 52 tips, I guess you could read and concentrate on one per week but I decided this book would be the perfect way to start my year. And then I finished Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. (I prefer the movie. Sacrilege, I know.) Which is clearly less than the four books I should have read for the month but still not a bad start to the year.


Gratitude: Trying new things. Good chiropractors. Fun restaurants. Unexpected boxes. Cool co-work spaces. Purring cats. Cleared roads. Amazing friends. New ventures. Soft snow.

Listening: Even more podcasts! I went to a luncheon that had Interview Valet's president as a guest and learned about more podcasts! Southern Lady Code is my new favorite as I mourn the coming end of the Bombshell Businesswoman.
Perfume:  Most weekdays I've been wearing  Les Perfumes de Rosine Majalis  and Dirtyque's Ofresia.

Recipes: I'm honestly not sure I cooked most of the month. (Okay, cobbler was made, but the kidlets pretty much require that.) Things have been very busy. The only exception was New Years Day. We made something delicous and sweet to start the year with sweet success.  

 Fruit pizza!

 Super delicious and easy. 
- 1 container of crescent rolls (I get the reduced calorie kind)
- 1 jar of Nutella
- Your choice of fruit

Unroll the crescent rolls as a single sheet and bake. Allow to cool. Top with Nutella and then your favorite fruit. At our house, that's strawberries (17 loves them) and raspberries (12 loves them) plus blackberries for me. Most the rest of the house eats a combo of fruits.

Self-Care: The soap love continues. My new favorite day is "new soap day" when I open up one of the Cellar Door Bath Supply soaps. The only - tiny - criticism I have is the dark colors do make a bit of a mess in the bath. But they smell gorgeous and lather beautifully enough to double as shave cream.

 The great face oil experiment continues with specific oils for evening and morning. (Sad update - no one this month mentioned thinking I'm years uounger than I am.) Every day. Here's the 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. While I like to experiment - that pretty much is my standard and it continues to serve me very well. 
- Night - I've kept using  Predire Eye Care Ant-Aging Night Serum. (And reminder, I did not pay retail for it! I picked it up for about 1/10th that price on a Vegas business trip last fall.) I'm still using Little Barn Apothecary oil  plus Juice beauty nutrient cream as my skin has started to chap with the winter weather change. 


Things 12 said: We went ice skating. 12 was magnificent. I clung to the side of the rink for 5 turns. I fell 4 times and had to visit the chiropractor a few extra times the next week. But when I asked what the best part of her week was, she said ice skating - so there is that.

 There was also cross-country skiing! My second time. 12 and 13 took the hills like champions, and Guy was amazing. I fell. A lot. But like life - it counts that you keep trying to get up.
- 12: How many times DID you fall?
- Me: I gave up counting after 5, Little.
- 12: You did keep getting back up.
- Me: And that is what counts in skiing and most all of life.

 Side note - snow is MUCH softer than ice, if you have to fall on something. 


Watching: Tidelands which has the most gorgeous soundtrack ever. (The mythology is a touch wobbly but it's a good Netflix watch.) I caught up on Bull and Criminal Minds. And then I re-started The Americans from the beginning.  

Random: I made things! A gallery that teaches fused glass classes has opened up near me; I've taken a few classes now. Last month, ornaments. This month, pendants. 

 Here they are unfired and fired. Strangely, I almost prefer the unfired. Something about the sharp edges appeal to me. 

Take-away - Your life is made up of the every day. It's the small habits that that make you or break you. Want to change? Start with one small thing and build it. And never step away from the opportunity to do something new.

 PS - January 21st is the day that marks the fall of resolutions. If you need a kick to start back up, I have a digital book that can help! (Click here to read more.) 




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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Thursday, September 20, 2018

To My Girls - Part 1

I wasn't blessed with a daughter. Instead, I got something else. I got beautiful nieces; amazing cousins young enough to be my daughters; and then in mid-adulthood when I'd stopped dreaming of a daughter, three wonderful #NotMyDaughters. Most of "my girls" are grown or close to it.  (Except the youngest, not pictured due to age.) 


My girls, it wasn't always possible for me to be a daily part of your lives, but I did what I could from wherever I was (picking you up at school, having you  overnight  - 529 accounts for some, helping some get into and succeed at higher education, and the care and feeding of all of you whenever possible.) I promise I was always there with my heart open, whether you realized it or not. As you blossom into amazing women, I know you have less even need to me. But, I am here at Bunny Haven Manor when you do need me. You have my number, and my home is open to you, as it has always been. I'm here when you need me. That's what #NotTheMommas are for.

When you go out in the world, I always want you to remember to be 3 things above everything else:
- Be smart
- Be kind
- Be brave
However important those 3 things are, they are not everything you might need to be or know in this world. Sometimes I worry that time or distance may mean that you will need something and I won't be there to help or you won't think to turn to me. The best thing I can think to do is to "arm" you with knowledge to succeed on your own terms. So, I'm going to do a few posts on what I consider basic life knowledge you should have. You spent enough time with me that you were not raised by wolves - however, there may be subtleties of life knowledge still to explore.


We'll start with 11 rules for being and staying pretty. Not because it's the most important, but, because in many ways it is the easiest. There will be other parts where we'll tackle finances, cooking, and cleaning - possibly more. (And you all know I have my own life rules. ) But we will start here, with being and staying pretty.

Some of what I'll tell you is common sense. Some of it science will prove wrong. It's okay, later science will prove it right again. 
1) Pretty is as pretty does. In the end, how people will remember you has less to do with how you look than how you treat them. And ugly shows through. Practice being gracious. 




2) Sunscreen. Every burn and tan ages your skin. Especially areas that don't have much natural protection - like your neck and chest and the top of your hands. Every day. Hats when you can. Sunglasses. The sun is changing. It will not be kind to us at any time soon.


3) Don't contaminate your skin. What you put on your skin is absorbed into your body. Synthetic fragrances can disrupt your hormones (and more importantly, potentially your children's). Have care in what you buy with fragrance - perfume, make-up, skin care.



There are so many options for natural perfumes! Sometimes I wear them and you tell me you like that scent. Lucy B, Margot Elena (Library of Flowers, Toykomilk, Love + Toast, Lollia, The Cottage Greenhouse), Tsi-La, In Fiore, Strange Invisible Perfumes, and many more every day.


From point 2, look at natural options for lotions, soaps, and sunscreens as well. Zum, Mrs Meyers, Jason, Alba, Kiss My Face are fantastic options. 



Many of the colors in cheap make-up have toxic elements. No reason to use those when you live in what is the golden era of natural makeup! Au Natural Cosmetics, IT Cosmetics, Iila, Bare Minerals, Tarte, Laura Mercier, 100% Pure, Juice Beauty, French Girl - and those are just a few I've tried! (You can order a good number direct and others via Ulta. Some, like Burt's Bees are mostly natural and available from the drug store.) There will be more. The world is awakening to how to use the gifts we've been given on this planet. (Yes, darlings, I know about Vapour Beauty. Their customer service is rude and the product has issues with tubes. Nope.)


You can buy expensive Lush masks or wasteful single use sheets. Or you can buy good quality clay + matcha dry and add a few things.... honey for moisture and anti-bacterial; strawberries for moisture, antioxidant and mildly astringent; yogurt (plain) for moisturizing and skin brightening; egg white for skin tightening; maple syrup (organic) for anti-aging; a simple addition of rose water to add scent to a dry mask.  Dry masks (a mix of clay, etc.) are economical and last a good bit. Then you just mix them up when you want them.



4) Wash your face. Coco Chanel once said something to the effect of "A woman without perfume is a woman without a future." She didn't just mean scent. She meant self-care. Even if you didn't wear make up, wash your face at the end of every day to take the day off (sweat, dead skin, dirt, etc.) This small act of self-care means something. (And you don't have to wash your face 2x a day, especially if your skin is dry - just a simple splash of water and a swipe of witch hazel prep your skin for moisturizer.)



Keep point 3 in mind when you pick what to wash with. And make sure you have something to delicately remove your eye makeup because of point 5.



5) Your skin is not infinitely elastic. You will find that out in your 40s that you should've done, so start doing them now:

     - Use your ring finger to pat creams and lotions into your eye area. 
      - Remove your eye makeup gently. Without rubbing and pulling.
     - Whatever cream or lotion you put on your face, put on your neck as well.
     - Use an upward motion to put on creams, lotions, oils or make-up.
     - Frownies are a fairly awesome way to help keep between brow lines down
   - Sleep on your back. Side sleepers will get wrinkles on that side first (uneven wrinkling, weird - and let's not talk about what it does to the chest area.) Stomach sleepers will age/wrinkle even faster.

6) Your hair needs good care. Quality shampoo and conditioner is required. Cheap hair care can give you issues with color and breakage. (Reminder - dry shampoo only goes on the roots for oil, unless you need texture.) Have a light hand with the amount of extra heat (drying, curling, straightening) and chemicals you use.



7) Lasers and tweezers are your friend. (Also good light and a strong mirror. Make sure you have those.) Threading is also good. Wax can be weird, especially if you have wavy hair. (But NADS are good in an upper lip emergency.) Shaving - and don't be fooled by micro-dermabrasion facials, it's a razor - is a last resort. And never the chemical options - see point 3 if you have forgotten. (I'm not telling you this to make you attractive to men - or women - I'm telling you this because some of us just don't like dark hair on light skin. And I've tried nearly every option on the planet.) The faster you get it permanently handled, the faster you can get to quick showers and faster prep time. Life enhancing!




8) Drink water. Preferably without fake crap in it like flavors and artificial sugar. (Also stop with the diet soda! Gallstones. Gout. Cancer. Use sugar or stevia or honey.) And if you drink tea - drink organic, as it doesn't get rinsed off of pesticides before being made into tea. (You don't want to drink hot pesticide water.) Eat fruit, but not too much, and plenty of veggies. Yes, this is a beauty tip. You can eat crap in your teens and twenties. But by your thirties, they start to show up as extra weight and wrinkles. The easiest beauty tip is to eat better things and better quality younger.


9) You are prettier than you realize. Stop using filters. Just take your picture. Someday you will realize you are beautiful. 



10) Don't spend too much time on trends like those strange overdone, painted in eyebrows. They aren't flattering and don't look natural. And my glory - the upkeep! There are better ways to spend your time.



11) Always do something you love. If you can't make a living with it, then give yourself time to do it. That happiness will show on the outside!




Please remember 3 things, my darlings: I believe in you. I love you. And, I am proud of you. Always.
Pictures are via Instagram, Gingertown photography


And for 100% transparency, I think I'm supposed to mention that:
1) I do own stock in Hain Celestial - which creates the Jason and Alba lines. I own that stock because I like the products. That's how I invest and also why I share.
2) I do get an affiliate link benefit from this link - Skin Care by Juice Beauty 

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Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Musings - April 2018

It was a double travel month book-ended at the front and back of the month - which always seems to mean I run out of time - so I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date! (April!)

 Books: Well, I didn't read everything in the picture but I did read more books than that! I finally managed to finish off The Way of the Witch - I do not recommend it, a mis-mash of mythologies and too wordy, to boot! (Off it went to my little free library!) On the subject of mythology, I finished Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology which was a grand retelling of the myths. I finished Finding Your Dream Network by J. Kelly Huey on the way home; and Career Kred by Ryan Rhoten on the way to Fort Worth. (And then spent quality time with the author at a Barnes & Noble later in the month!) I also discovered the Rylee Adamson series which is completely binge-worthy! The first 2 I picked up in paperback, and then I discovered Kindle Unlimited... $9.99 a month, and you can check out 10 books at a time! I powered through the whole 10 book series over the month + the first two books of the follow up series. Kindle Unlimited is very dangerous...

 Gratitude: Lilac blooms. Unexpected parties. Kittens.
Listening to new podcasts. Bouquets of tulips. Clip-on earrings. Business insights by smart women. Quiet time while traveling. Good travel companions. Crazy laughter from "double chicken" and bi-pedal beavers.

 Listening: Land of podcasts -->Marketing over Coffee. Susan Hyatt. Business Boutique. Chalene Johnson. Plus a whole lot of music by Halsey. (Castle is my new ringtone. Just saying...)

 Perfumes: I continue to try to kill off the  Paper Flowers from Love and Toast - which I found out is by the same nose as my beloved Library of Flowers! I love that she created budget friendly and more exclusive options! My go-to alternative for the month was Pacifica's Jasmine Lime. This is a wonderful time to love natural products - there are more every day! The options are never-ending. Temptation is here, too, as I've found new perfume to try which I am on count down to buy!

 Recipes: Something new month continues! I made Applesauce Bread. Similar to standard zucchini bread in recipe, but spiced out like Jericho's Apple Pie.
3 beaten eggs
3/4 cup of oil (EVOO)
2 cusp sugar 
1 tbsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
3 cups flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp clove
2 cups applesauce

Mix the beaten eggs and oil together, then add sugar and vanilla. Slowly hand blend all of the dry ingredients into the liquid/sugar mix. (I mix up all the dry ingredients, except the sugar, in a separate bowl.) When everything else is mixed, add the applesauce. Pour into 1 large flat pan or 2 loaf pans.

Bake at 325 for 1 hour.  When a fork comes out clean, the bread is done.  

Self-Care: From last month's fun surprise box from Kismet, I pulled out the Kismet bronzer to try while I was in Fort Worth (pale legs aren't a Texas thing.) It's fantastic! Easy to apply, non-streaky. You couldn't ask for more. And, while attending 2 marketing conferences, I managed to meet two separate people who specialize in natural beauty! Now I have two new lines I want to try!
- Au Naturale Cosmetics (colors look gorgeous!)
- Wild West Skincare (organic at the next level)

 Stress: Being forced to listen - for hours - to the others' inanity at a volume usually reserved for stadium concerts. Oyi. Headsets only go so far.

 Things 11 Told Me: 
- See the pile of pink glitter on the beach? It's a dead mermaid.
- Everyone knows that if you have a yellow dot on the inside white part of your left eye, you're a clone.

 Watching: So much HGTV and Chopped. Crazy amounts at every hotel. I recognize a watermelon radish on sight now!
Random: 1) So, 18 (the artistic one) won an art award! And 2) if you are going to Fort Worth, I recommend the restaurant Reata. Oh my! The food is amazing - there's also a great rooftop bar and a cigar bar! 

 Take-away - Sometimes you only improve by inches. And that's okay. Give yourself the grace of time.
Original musings posts you may enjoy:


All photos by moi! And you can tell...

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Saturday, March 31, 2018

Musings - March 2018

New things are good, right? (That is, after all, what spring is about, new beginnings and trying new things.) This was one of those months when I tried a bunch of new things. Some of them were awesome (Kismet Cosmetics) and some were "interesting*. This may be because next month is my birthday. And it may be because I'm trying to make some positive changes.

 Books: I'm still doing the thing where I read 10 pages per book a night of 3 books - one history, one fiction, and one business. (Except the JR Ward book which I just read straight through because mind-candy!) Which means, I'm making slow going on some of the longer books - especially if I have to miss a night due to exhaustion. As noted, I finished out J.R. Ward's The Beast (which, if you haven't been reading her whole series is just too involved to jump in.) It was on sale at the store - and sometimes a girl needs a treat. I also, finished out Amber Hurdle's The Bombshell Business Woman. (I would have edited it differently to be a lot less personal upfront, but after about chapter 3 - it's filled with solid business advice and a ton of resources. This one should be a must buy for entrepreneurs and small businesses, especially those in the service sector. It now sits squarely on my business book shelf.) The Way of the Witch is actually 3 novels in one. And I'm through the first 2. And here's my thought - the author is in love with long and unusual words that get in the way of the story. Also, so far, the  first and third are the better books. The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn by Retha Warnicke is a very dense history book filled with superfluous names; this is one of the books that is benefiting from the 10 pages a day per book as it makes the information chunk very manageable. Local Dollars, Local Sense by Michael Shuman is an interesting premise of investing local that I started apres the Hurdle book.
Gratitude: So, I decided that I needed to re-align with a more pervasive spirit of gratitude. Which is why I re-connected with a gratitude journal a business friend wrote a few years ago. A nice nightly reminder to take 5 minutes and think about gratitude. And right now, I'm grateful for lilac buds, sunrises, beautiful skies, gracious friends, and the annual JC Penny dress sale.

 Listening: The Bombshell Business Woman (podcast), Chalene Johnson (podcast), Susan Hyatt (podcast), Marketing Over Coffee (podcast) and tons of jazz. (Pandora is the best.)

 Perfumes: This is the apex of my scented life. I've reached the point where I have upstairs perfume, downstairs perfume, purse perfume, and emergency office perfume. And that means I am certainly not sticking with any one scent! The emergency office perfume is a variety of DSH Perfume samples which I bought for that purpose. The current purse perfume is Pacifica's Tunisian Jasmine Lime roll-on. Upstairs is Paper Flowers. And, downstairs, I finished off the Magazine Street. Which was both sad, as I don't see a re-purchase in my near future due to pricepoint, and fun because now I get to try more stuff!

 Recipes: One word for our recent late spring cold spell - casserole! I made the superfood, super nutritious quinoa casserole again. And folks, there is a secret to making quinoa. Rinse it first.  Here's the quinoa casserole recipe:
- Make quinoa according to package instructions. (I like red quinoa - which I rinse - and then make in the ratio of 1.5 cups quinoa to 3 cups of boiling water.)
- Cut and saute 1 sweet onion in a bit of olive oil (5-7 minutes)
- Cut the crowns off 2 heads of broccoli, rinse and separate the florets. Then throw them in the onion pan. After 2 minutes, add 1/4 cup of water and cover. Take off heat after 5 minutes.
- Add pre-cooked, butternut squash cut into squares to the onion/broccoli pan.
- In a large bowl - combine everything. Add 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese.
- Transfer everything to a very lightly greased (EVOO) casserole pan. Top with 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese.
- Bake it for 20 minutes or so at 350 degrees (until cheese is bubbly and melty)

 This is nutritious, surprisingly delicious and stores well for about a week in the fridge. In total it takes about 1 hour to make this but it's an easy hour.

Self-care: A couple of my brands had sales for various holidays. My favorite was from Kismet Cosmetics. I've bought a few lipsticks from them and I really want to like them as a start up US brand. (Since last time I shopped them, they now have this really cool new service were you send your picture and they help you pick your best lipstick color.) They had this nifty idea about a surprise box. You set your $ of purchase and the box, depending on your amount, had between 2 and 5 new products to try. I ended up with Country Roads lipstick, which is not a color I would have tried but works for summer/fall. I'm trying out the new bronzer next week in Texas, too. (Midwest pale legs versus a warm weather climate!) We will see how that goes.

 The other thing I tried is a new (to me) fashion line called Cabi. A business friend, Elisabeth, introduced me to the idea of personal styling for those of us who are regular working people. I got a few new (and awesome) cardigans and jackets. (See top picture for a bit of one of the pretty color cardigans.) The price point is higher than I usually go, but not by much, and with Elisabeth's help I've chosen things coordinate with what I currently have - extending my wardrobe and making my style more current with these flattering wardrobe additions.

 Stress: Do you ever think about how much of your stress is from your own thoughts? Sometimes I do! And a recent article I read about negative thoughts has given me a good bit of food for thought on that line plus a few new tools for dealing with stress you make yourself. 

 Things 11 Told Me: 
- Anything is travel sized (1 - she's not wrong; 2 - I guess the idea of travel sized is lost on 11 year olds as they grab the full-sized version for a sleep-over and forget to bring the item home)

 Watching: Designated Survivor, Queen Sugar, Nikita. (Apparently I'm trying to channel Maggie Q. Maybe it will make me want to exercise more!)

 Random: Adventure ahead. You just have to choose it.

*Take-away - Chinese fortune cookie definition - "May you live in interesting times". You get to decide how if it is meant well or as a mild curse.
Original musings posts you may enjoy:


All photos by moi! And you can tell...

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