A few months ago, I shared a story about makeup. Makeup: A Purge and Purchase Story was fun to experience, and fun to write about. I was surprised by the comment thread my makeup questions spurred on my Facebook page. Quite a few people had opinions, and some joined me on my shopping trip.
This morning I woke up and decided I would do my hair and makeup for my Facebook Live video. I was announcing the winner of the Scavenger Hunt Contest I had going on all week. I didn’t just want a “like and share” contest. I wanted people to follow links to my different areas of expertise, one page for my jewellery making business, Tish’s Treasures, another my Facebook Author page, Tish MacWebber’s Author Facebook Page, and here, on my blog.
People showed interest, but not everyone participated. Some tried to do all of the steps, and others liked the pages. I made my first Facebook live videos this week. I found that the one I made from my personal Facebook page was the one that had the most interaction, so I am learning as I am trying new things. I have watched them after recording, just to hear what I sounded like, and to learn. I will keep working on them, as they are another way to reach out to people that might not want to spend their time hunting for different pages.
That being said, at some point in the future, I am going to make the leap from this Blog page to my own website. That will be a new step for me, outside of my comfort zone. I want to combine the Bling, Blog, and Books I am creating on to a website. I will be looking for help to do this, and I know that people in the communities I am involved with in my social media circles will point me in the right direction so I can figure it all out. I am doing all of the work myself, since this page launched for the second time. I had help at the start and took over when I was ready to take the reins. It has been a bumpy ride at times, but so much fun.
Now for the makeup. I am going to share a series of selfies I took this morning while getting ready for my video shoot. That sounds bigger than it was. It was less than five minutes long. I am still not used to how things are flipped on the laptop. It is another thing to work at until I am great at it.
Before I started. No glasses selfie.
This is what my Evil Twin looks like. I “flipped” this pic. My sisters are twins. This is as close as I can get.
Foundation, blush and eyeshadow applied.
Foundation, blush, and eyeshadow applied on the evil twin. I know it is a selfie. and I have MY glasses off, I wish it wasn’t blurry…
Now with Mascara
With Mascara, on the Evil Twin.
Close up! Lips have been found! I hardly recognize myself!
Hair done.
Hair done, and glasses back on.
Ready to shoot my video!
This happens to be the second tube of mascara I have tried. I miss my wonder-curl mascara, they don’t make it anymore. I will give them each another try before blogging my thoughts. I also tried a new eye makeup remover. I have not found one that completely cleans mascara from my lashes, ever. Any tips will be appreciated with this in mind. I asked about this today on my personal Facebook page, and it became quite a thread. I am always happy to see another person’s point of view. 😉
If you have ever wondered why I picked the “Angry Tomato” pic for this series, there are a few reasons. One is that it made me laugh, out loud. I reacted to it, so I decided it would work. Another is because I am fighting my way to living a healthier lifestyle, and I wanted a kitchen themed picture for this series. I try to do the cooking and cleaning on the weekends, I find it had to work at during the work week. I have had some success this year in my spring cleaning challenge, but as of yet, I have not finished. I choose not to dwell on what I have not done and try to move forward because of what I have done.
I am planning my day out, dreading the return to work tomorrow. I am a firm believer that there should be less week and more weekend. I do not have the power or the budget to sustain a lifestyle that does not include a day job, so the reality is, I have to keep the day job, even if I would rather devote all of my time to being creative and writing.
Which brings me to my books. I have started them, yes. I have had an idea (finally) this morning about where to continue as I plan to write some more today. I don’t know if I will succeed in writing enough to complete the weekend challenge I joined, but I am going to see what I could do. That is how I entered. This doesn’t count, as it is not progressing on my book. I will add it to the word count as a side project, because it is writing, nonetheless. I do have deadlines with my blog, too, though and I have to do my best to keep up with it here for myself, and for my followers. Thank you to those who are taking the time to read my Blog, and welcome to any people who are new here. I write at least twice a week, and this is one of my regular categories. Me vs the weekend. 🙂
Yesterday I got up early, bought and delivered a birthday present to a friend. Her birthday had been the day before, and I wanted to make sure I got to see her. We had a good talk, but as she was working it wasn’t the same as a real visit. I am going to try and pop over again today, as I think it would be nice.
I then tackled some indoor gardening projects. I have read online that spiders and other bugs do not like mint plants. A few weeks ago, I had bought six different mint plants, and my husband replanted them into new pots for me. I have noticed that they were drying up. I am still trying to figure out a watering schedule for them. I watered them from the top yesterday when I was finished, and just before I started writing I watered them from the bottom. I will have to do some online research. While I was working yesterday I found a green “leaf eater” bug, which my husband buried in the dirt saying that it is a leaf eater, that should be the end of it. I have my doubts. I also found an inchworm in another one, and that was successfully relocated outside on a leaf from that plant. Late last night I got him to move a ladybug back outside for me. The ants and spiders are not found as frequently inside, so that is a bonus. I am hoping it works and more bugs stay outside.
Something else was a little confusing. There is a spearmint plant amongst the varieties I bought, and around the base of the pot on the shelf that I have it on are a lot of hard, black dots. It is either droppings from a critter or the plant went to seed because it was so dry. I am not sure, the black bits are no bigger than granulated sugar pieces. They may indeed be little seeds. I may gather them up and plant them, to see what comes up!
My husband worked a few extra hours yesterday. He has been doing that on one of his days off to help with our budget. I am not going to write about my work here, at least not this week, I had a frustrating week. I am going to leave it at that, and it is also the reason I did not do any over time at my work this week. Sometimes I do. This week it just wasn’t going to happen.
After he was done, we picked up a few groceries. He made us subs for lunch and he barbequed some wieners for supper. We then headed out to spend time with some friends. He had a guys gaming night, and I watched a movie with another friend and called it a ladies night. Sometimes it is important to plan activities apart. Other times, like today, we will spend more time together. It is OK to not spend every single minute with your significant other when you have free time. It is healthy to have different friends, hobbies and activities. There is still a common ground for the things you enjoy doing together, but a little break here and there is something we all need.
For prep cooking today I am making Bangin’ Ranch Drums. It is a Trim Healthy Mama recipe. I love it, and my husband is OK with it in the rotation, but like with all of the THM recipes, he doesn’t want it all the time. We also got buns for barbequed cheeseburgers and sloppy joes. I have some THM sloppy joe mix already made in my freezer. He likes Manwich. On this, I am OK with him making his own supper. If I am to be on plan when I eat it, I will have it with salad, not on a bun. I may make some green bean fries this week too, as I do enjoy them as a side with the chicken. I am still working on everything all at once but trying to be realistic at the same time.
Today I will be continuing the cat sitting job. I also did some plant care there yesterday, they have one houseplant and it needed TLC. I don’t know about the plant boxes on the deck, though. They look like they have had a rough summer, and I am not sure if they can be rescued. I may try, just to surprise my friends when they come home. I will see how the day goes. It is very dry, there is a no fire ban here province wide. If I do work on the outdoor plants, I will have to remember to water them. If they don’t read this, it will be a nice surprise. If they do, I make no promises. It may be beyond saving.
I am a member of the Fredericton Science Fiction Society. The FSFS gets together a little less frequently than it used to, but today we are going to meet up at a local ice cream shop. My husband is a member too, and the group usually has potluck events year round. With a ban on fires, we decided it would be better to go have ice cream instead of an outdoor BBQ at a local park today. Air conditioning may or may not have been a deciding factor in this plan.
We have to do some cleaning. While I was working on my indoor gardening yesterday, my husband was trimming the lawn. He didn’t mow it yet. It is still very dry so there may not be a rush for that. He is amused that I think we should water it with the garden hose. It is turning brown. I just want it to be healthy, and not be so dry it is at risk for burning. There was a thunderstorm last night, but we need more rain to remove the risk of fires, sooner rather than later.
All in all a busy weekend, but thankfully, it has been going at a slower pace this week. It is a holiday tomorrow, and I look forward to the holiday pay that I *may have* already spent yesterday. It is OK. I will forfeit it to the budget since I went ahead and bought some extras. It’s all about compromise and doing what you can to make life enjoyable with what you have to work with. Weekends are supposed to be fun and relaxing. I think I snuck a little of each in this weekend, so it is a win for me! What did you do this weekend?
Once in a blue moon, I get the idea to buy makeup. Usually, there is an event that I will be attending as the reason for this thought to cross my mind. This time my motivations were different. I am spring cleaning my home, and I had decided that I have too much makeup for the rare occasion that I wear it. I decided it was time to purge it.
I made it official. I shared my plan on Facebook. Then I got scared. Full on panic. I was worried that if I threw it all out, I would not be able to replace all of the components within my budget. So I gathered it up to have ready to purge after I bought the new makeup.
Since I had made this a public announcement, I started getting comments. I decided that I would make use of $85.oo in Optimum Points and buy my new makeup at Shoppers Drug Mart. I was advised which store to choose in the city, there are two, and then I was asked if I went yet or not. A few friends wanted to help. I felt at this point that it was becoming more of an event than a shopping trip on the other side of the city.
One of my friends is trained in makeup application. She was joining me to get a few hours break from being a full-time Mom. She had asked me a few weeks ago that if there was anything that I was doing, she would gladly join me to get a break. She lives outside of the city, and we don’t see each other as much as we used to, so I thought it would be a perfect girls day out if she was available. She made arrangements, and I would be picking her up the next day. We decided that if our mutual friend felt up to it, that we would take her too, or if not, we would visit her before the day trip was over. By this time another friend had asked if she could join us. So, a party of 4 showed up at the store the next day.
I had decided before we got there that I was going to need a skin care routine. I don’t really have one, and I wanted to replace the skin cleansers I had been using because they had expired. The lady I was consulting with helped me with all of my choices. She was amazing! She walked me through the basics and helped me pick colours and brands that some friends had recommended, but I had never heard of before. It was an adventure! One friend joined the shopping spree and found the store to be quite impressive, as I did. Our other friends were with another consultant, and one of them, the friend I was giving a day out of the mommy land, she was getting a makeover.
Those of us that were shopping got a bonus lip gloss and 2 free movie admission tickets. That was really great! His & Hers gift for her shopping. Win-win!
When we finished there, it was time to really take a hard look at the old makeup and force me to purge it. There was a Starbucks next door, so we went in there with my 2 large Ziploc bags full of my older makeup.
We got our drinks and snacks and found a table. When we were settled in, we made a plan of attack. Certain things needed to be tossed. Others could be donated, my friend has a teenager. As discussed in detail on my Facebook wall, you can clean powdered makeup with alcohol. 90% was recommended, the kind you have to ask for. You wet the powder and wipe off the top layer of the powdered makeup with a tissue. The rest of the powder is then left to evaporate the alcohol, and it is clean and able to be used safely again. Makeup that was in decent shape was put into a donate pile.
All the old mascara was tossed, as it was all more than 3 months old. Any colours or products I wasn’t certain about, were set aside to compare to my new makeup at the end. I would say that the donate/toss makeup amounted to 2/3 of the total makeup I had there before I went shopping.
Left: to toss Right: to donate
After we all went home, I then began planning phase 2 of this plan I had hatched. I needed to find a way to keep all of the new and old makeup organized. I went on a few different trips to some local stores and found bits and pieces to pull together my very own cosmetics counter in my Master Bathroom.
This is the final result of my organization phase:
Tish’s Organized Cosmetics Counter
Tish’s Organized Cosmetics Counter
Obviously, I did not buy all of the product shown here for $85.00 in Optimum points. With the points, you have to pay the taxes when you redeem them. So I think I made good use of the points, and I am using the cleansing routine now on a daily basis.
The pic below shows what I kept, in the Ziploc bag, and what is new is placed on the counter. This is the final result of the purge and purchase:
New and To Keep Makeup.
I have also purchased Vichy Skin Cleansing, Toning, and Moisturizing products, not shown. I am happy with my purchases, although I find the new lip stain ( the 2nd tube from the right) to be a little bright. I guess that means I will have to go shopping again…
When I take the time to actually do my makeup and have a reason to put it on, I will write about the experience, with before and after pics. I have lots of before pics to choose from. What a fun afternoon we had. Do you have any organization tips for your cosmetics? What product is in your must have list?
This weekend is jam packed with so many things to do that I cannot possibly do them all. I started off on Saturday with going to a few yard sales. I found some great deals! I got a Pampered Chef Meat breaking tool, for cooking ground beef. (I was SO happy when I found it, I have wanted to try one for a while. I hope it is as good as I think it will be. I am fighting the early stages of carpal tunnel in my wrists, and anything that helps me do more in the kitchen with less aggravation to my wrists is a good thing.
I found a Rankin Family cd, bought the DVD of Love, Actually, a movie I am interested in watching. I bought a new to me Guy Gavriel Kay book. He is a Canadian Author, and I have read other books by him.
After this, I bought a cheeseburger to go with my coffee as this yard sale was in support of a local SPCA. We also visited the dogs and cats that were available for adoption. One of the cats I really liked was adopted by the end of the day. Good news for that beautiful tabby.
The next yard sale was in a parking lot and had several vendors. I found a set of 4 margarita glasses, and my new wine glass, aka a Thundermug. Hee hee hee. I will probably not use it for wine, I think it would hold a whole bottle! It sure got a laugh out of the lady I was buying it from! I do like beer mugs for other drinks, and it will hold a lot of GGMS over ice, the way it is supposed to be enjoyed.
The third yard sale was a moving sale. We were nearing the time of day when they start closing the yard sales by then. I found a little stand alone cabinet for my Master bathroom. It is wooden, with a door, and three shelves inside. It has flowers painted on the door. For $10.00 I consider it the deal of the day! I was able to find a few jewellery display stands there too. I was very pleased with my purchases yesterday. Then we did some more shopping when my husband was done his overtime.
We went to the Scott’s Nursery, the local year round gardening store. I wanted peppermint plants. I bought six different types,( Spearmint, Pineapple Mint, Strawberry Mint, Chocolate Mint, Berries and Cream Mint, and Moroccan Mint). They will be transplanted into their new clay pots today, and distributed around the mini home in an effort to keep bugs from wanting to be inside my home. It does not seem to have any effect on the housefly that is buzzing around. Time to buy an actual fly swatter, as the flyers are not packing a big enough punch against this stubborn pest.
I am working on a gift for someone very special. I have taken the week off from writing my book, and I am hoping to have it finished in that time. So I will write here when I get a chance, but it may be minimal because this project is going to take a lot of time. I will also post about the finished project when it is completed.
I have to run out to the Freddy Beach Market, which used to be called The Northside Market. I am visiting a friend there briefly and getting some ground beef. We get it there once or twice a month. It is a farmer we buy it from, and they are there every weekend. My friend owns a yarn store and is branching out with a table at this market. I hope it works well for her.
So other than missing out on a free movie downtown, and going to a bar to see an up and coming band with a friend, it has been a really busy weekend so far, and it’s not over yet. We will be going to see Despicable Me 3 tonight, and I am looking forward to it. I love the Minions! And there is supposed to be an evil villain dance off in it too!
Why does there always seem to be more things to do than there is time for on the weekends? What did YOU do this weekend?
It’s here! The first official weekend of the summer! I am gearing up to run errands and host a BBQ today. I have been working hard at my Spring Cleaning Challenge, and I am literally at the finish line! I have made it to the Master Bedroom and Bathroom.
Last weekend, I worked really hard to have the floors done, the guest room ready, and the main bathroom was cleaned. When I did this, I had to move things out of the way. I moved them into the master bedroom. A pile gathered on my bed. When it was time to crawl into that bed, the only logical place to temporarily store these items was in the sunken bathtub in the master bathroom.
This means I made a lot of progress in most of the house, but not all. Today I plan to work on that. The word purge is now in my weekend plans again, and it does not refer to food in any way.
I have been working on this project since last fall. I started with my clothing. I then went through the kitchen and didn’t have a lot to purge there, but rather spent time cleaning and organizing. I have purged my makeup to make room for new makeup. I am still in the middle of writing about that experience. Today I plan to purge and organize my craft supplies.
I have decided that I am not going to do this alone. I have asked a friend to help me with this chore. It is not going to be a hard thing to do, but it may prove to be difficult. Remember when I wrote I had purged my makeup? I gathered it all up and then was unable to throw it out until I bought the new makeup. I wanted to start with a clean palette, but I was very worried that I would not be able to afford to replace everything, and I decided to not throw it out until I had done the shopping so I would not be left without a critical item for my new makeup collection.
As I wrote, I am working on that story, and I plan to have it published sometime this week. If the zit I treated that promptly decided to cause a skin reaction to the treatment and blew up over my face would kindly heal and let me feel like I can safely try my new makeup on, that would be fantastic.
When I went through my clothing, I did it all on my own. I reduced my wardrobe by 50%. I donated it to a friend who upcycles fabric. So far, the only items I have really missed were some of the more lightweight tank tops that I gave away. One of my errands today is to replace those tank tops. I have some, but I have not had a clothing shopping budget regularly for many years. We have been working insanely hard on our household budget, and we are making some changes to that. I am looking forward to the days when I don’t feel guilty about buying a new article of clothing to wear. Or about buying a new book or magazine. Things I like to buy from time to time. Mostly beading magazines, and more recently, a writing magazine. It will also be useful to know what I have on hand for craft supplies, so I don’t purchase items that I don’t need because I don’t know what I have in my stash.
The last area of my house that needs TLC is my office, a corner of my living room. I have been building up to getting this area ready for spring cleaning. It is where I plan to do my writing, and a fitting final task for all of the cleaning I am doing to prepare for writing. I have organized the desk several times since I moved here, and it is long overdue. Time to fire up the paper shredder when I am ready to tackle the last big area. I am really proud of how much I have accomplished this year with my cleaning projects, and although I still have some smaller areas to work on after my deadline, the larger, more complicated projects will be done and over with, so I can feel confident about my home not falling apart when I start writing my book. Maybe I will even be able to make time for more creative projects after it is all finished.
Phase 2 will be starting when I am settling into writing my book. With the larger cleaning projects being finished, I will have to switch gears and get the maintenance cleaning done, to keep my home from ever becoming a disaster like it was when I decided to start the spring cleaning for real this year.
I also hope that this weekend is a start of more entertaining at my house. I am feeling good about it, and not too embarrassed when I look around at the progress I have made here, the last 6 months. Time to get going and finish this stage, so I can close the chapter of Spring Cleaning 2017, and open a new book to start writing it.
I hope my friend enjoys bouncing the house with me this afternoon, I need the extra push when it comes to purging craft supplies. She is invited to stay for the BBQ as a thank you for her taking the time to help me out. What are you working on this weekend?
