The time of year to clean and purge is upon us, and I have started with my makeup. I will admit that I had a difficult time choosing what to keep and what to toss. I made some tough choices, but that is what happens when I don’t set boundaries and take in things I really don’t need. Let me explain.
Since starting my part-time job, I have been given a lot of product samples. There were a bunch of makeup testers destined for the trash if I didn’t take them home. I went through the pile, found out how to safely disinfect them and clean them to make them safe for me to use, bagged them up and took them home.
I got the cleaning supplies for them. Do you know what happened next? They sat on top of my vanity for several months, in the bag.
Photo by Tish MacWebber
Photo by Tish MacWebber
Photo by Tish MacWebber
Before the cleaning and purging. Photos by Tish MacWebber
Why did I leave them there?
Since I have become more intentional and focused on the makeup I am selling, I have been struggling with what to do with my other makeup. On one hand, I love the products I had bought, and I was given a great gift to help me practice and get better with makeup application.
On the other hand, I want to use only the makeup from my company to promote what I love, and help people learn how to use it. I thought about just using all of the makeup I had in my Adventures With Makeup Club, since it was adding to what I have to work with in the art of makeup.
I started purging. It took an hour or so, and then I had some indecision about some if the makeup I had been hanging on to.
One thing about me is that when I make a decision, I take action. I may think about it, and sleep on it first, but I do take action once that decision is made.
I left the garbage bag out, and thought about the few items I was uncertain about keeping.
Before I went to bed, I made my decision. Even though it hurt a little, I tossed almost all of the makeup I had that was not from my makeup company. I still wonder if that was the right thing to do, but it made organizing my makeup easier than if I had kept some of the other products.
Creating space for the products I want to tell people about, and share my adventures with, has made the adventure easier to think about. Plus it was a great start to the purging of what I do not need to hold on to.
Tidy.
Neat.
Organized.
My husband moved my collection to the top, safe from Jazzy the cat.
Functional.
I was able to make room.
My Face Cleanser has a home.
Eyeshadows all together.
Blushes and setting powder.
Mascara, eyeliners and eye primer.
Lipsticks.
My Tish*ology
Foundations.
Cleanser and toner
Brushes, blenders and a mask.
What is in that case? I’ll write about it next time.
Tidy and Organized. Photos by Tish MacWebber
Now that I am organized, I feel so much better about investing in my business. It is tidy and organized, so that I can find what I need quickly and easily when I want to enhance my natural beauty with the accessory of makeup.
It is time to revive this category on my blog. My last entry was in 2019, and coincidentally enough, I was preparing for company. It is a year and a half since I wrote it, and my how things have changed.
I have been working part time at a day job. I work a lot of weekends, and that is okay, because it is what I was hired for. It is in the beauty industry, and relates to my direct marketing jobs with clothing and makeup. I wasn’t kidding when I wrote about changes.
One thing stays the same. I am still working on cleaning and organizing my home. This year, I am trying new tactics. I am not trying to finish one job before I start the next. I am working on multiple areas at once. I get it to the end of one phase, and I move on. I am slowly making progress, more than I have in the past.
I am giving myself grace. I don’t have any deadlines for company at the moment, but I am working on it anyway. I have been watching Cas from the Clutterbug on Youtube, and something she said made sense. It changed how I look at the whole concept of cleaning. I need to retrain my brain, to understand that I will be cleaning because I love to live in a beautiful, inviting home. I am a long way from getting to this goal, but I have made some small steps in the right direction.
I grumble under my breath as I put trash where it belongs. In the trash. Not all over the kitchen. Sometimes I get lazy about it, and other times I am picking up after my husband. The point is not who dropped it, but that it needs to be taken care of. It could be a bread tie or the seal from a milk carton. Nothing to cause the kitchen to be deemed unsanitary, but just enough to make my eye twitch as I grumble on the way to the garbage can.
I am not cleaning the dishes every day, but I am working on getting there. We use the dishwasher frequently, we take turns with it. The same goes for laundry. As I am working on changing my mindset in other areas of my life, I am finding it is easier to do in terms of housekeeping too. I want to have a home that welcomes me when I get home from work. It isn’t there yet, but I know I am going to find my way.
I am also watching a month-long declutter series on Youtube, set up by The Minimal Mom. I am not a minimalist, but I do see the value in having fewer things. I am working on how to incorporate some of the things I learn into my lifestyle. Last week it was about the kitchen, and this week it is about clothing. There will be a week about paper clutter, and I am not sure what the other week will cover. I am watching and learning.
One thing about choosing the word BALANCE for my word of 2021 is that I need to continue learning, but to also take more action. The learning is no good to me if I just absorb information and never do anything with it. I am trying new things, and this year I am learning about Bullet Journalling. I feel like it might be an answer I have been searching for. I am still setting it up, and I have 2. The good news is that it is helping to relieve my tension as I am working on it.
Yesterday I worked. I took the evening to catch up on TV and relax. Today I took my time. I slept in, watched Mass For Shut-ins on TV, and a few more shows. I went to an online book club meeting, and will be attending a weekly goal setting meeting, also online, later this evening. In between the meetings, I am working on dishes and laundry. Changing the bed. Things I can start and walk away from or things that can be finished in a short amount of time. I decided to take a few minutes to share about my weekend because I am working on getting back into the blogging, and I really used to have fun with this category.
When I get these chores done, I can then work on a creative project as a reward. I need to make time for crafts and writing so that I find inner joy in more of my days. Being creative brings me to life. I need to allow myself time for this so that I can cope with and manage the things which aren’t so much fun.
I also used my face cleanser machine for the first time today. I am learning about skincare, and I want to improve how I take care of myself, too. This will be done over time, by making time to do it. It is important to do something for me, and while one of my two bullet journals will be for my health, the other is for me. My lifestyle, goals, and ideas. Things I need to write somewhere so that I don’t forget about them. With so much on my mind, I am finding I am forgetting things, and I am trying to find a way to build the habit of writing things down, in a pretty and functional space.
All things considered, I feel like this weekend is a win. I am not at the end, yet, but I am going to keep working on things so that I can complete the plans I set out to do. Working on finding a balance in all areas of my life is the tone I have set for 2021. I really feel like I am on the right path.
As another weekend comes to a close, I am going to spend a few moments with a quick summary for you. I had the Lobster and Gouda Grilled Cheese with the crock of Lobster Poutine in good company at Claudine’s Eatery Friday evening. We had family visiting this past weekend, and it was very nice to spend time together.
Saturday started slowly with a visit to Sweet Belgian Desire for a late brunch. I had the Omelet Florentine with a side Greek salad and coffee. It was delicious and on plan. We then ran a few errands, and I bought a stability ball. I will let you know how I make out with that purchase once it is assembled and I get a chance to try it out.
We then had a BBQ Saturday evening. My guests were quite happily entertained with 2 back to back live stream concerts from home. I also enjoyed watching them. The Celtic Colours International Festival is well known for the music and concerts held yearly in Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada. If you love traditional Cape Breton music and want to experience it firsthand, I highly recommend planning a trip to see some of the shows live. If you can’t be there in person, like us, they pick one concert per night of the Festival and live stream it online. They don’t reveal which one until the day of the broadcast. It is available for 24 hours after the live stream is ended. I started the Friday show and the Grand Finale was able to be watched also last night. I am glad we found it, it was a pleasant way to spend time together. I am able to use the tv and stereo for my computer, so it was a full-sized concert with surround sound that we watched from my living room. It is nice to be able to watch events like that on my TV with excellent sound quality.
This morning started with coffee and tea at my kitchen table. My family left for the next visit after that. It wasn’t a rushed morning. Roy and I watched a couple of TV shows together, and then we went to get a few groceries. After this, I took a nap. Sometimes, Sunday afternoon is meant for taking a nap. Today was one of those days. When I woke up, a friend had delivered some coffee K-cups for my Keurig. I will gladly add them to my stash, and enjoy them. We then went out to supper. I was craving Chinese food. Since we were planning to go to Oromocto for Kingsman: The Golden Circle to see it in the early show, we chose to eat supper at Diamond House Chinese Restaurant, also in Oromocto. We had combos and enjoyed the meal. We had to hurry for the movie, it had just started when we got there. We met up with our friends, chatted a bit in the parking lot after, and came home.
We ate out more than usual this weekend. However, it was not an ordinary weekend. I am going to be cooking tomorrow as I am not going to make it to Zumba, and I have things that need to be made. I have leftover tossed salad saved in 2 mason jars to help start the week’s lunches off in the right direction. I still have my picnic lunch ingredients too. All was not lost in the planning this weekend. I can also say that the cleaning is progressing nicely. The dishes are being kept up and I still have a lot of organizing to do. I made progress throughout the week like I needed to do. The trick will be to start back at it right away this week. Today, I needed to rest for the upcoming week. And that is a wrap for this week. I think I won again. 🙂
