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.
It is with great pleasure that I am sharing my newest Makeup Monday Spring 2019 Eyes and Nails blog post with you all. A while ago, I had this idea when a friend recommended a product. While I was planning this post, the idea grew with the addition of more products. As a result, before I knew it, I was going to need time to gather a large number of pics to share this idea here. Let’s get to it!
One reason I kept delaying this post was that I needed to take close-up pics of my eyes.
I love my blue eyes, however, I don’t love the lines and bags under them. So one of the first products I added to the list was the Garnier Skin Active Clearly Brighter Eyes Anti-Puff Eye Roller. It claims to reduce the look of puffiness and dark circles. Brightens and refreshes with Vitamin C, Caffeine and an Antioxidant Complex. Since I am already using the Garnier Skinactive Micellar Water makeup remover for my eyes, when I don’t use the Vichy eye makeup remover, I am trying this eye roller product also.
It is recommended to keep this product in the fridge, so into the drawer it went with my insulin. I keep it in the box, to keep it from rolling around in there too much. The product says when you use it on a regular basis, more benefits will be seen. At this time I have used it twice. Since using it, I am not sure if it is helping or not. Let me know in the comments what you think about it.
Products used. In this pic, note #7 product and the pic of me. I have applied it under my right eye, where the #7 is. #6 is the eye shadow base coat or primer by essence, applied before the eye shadows 1-5 above.
Revlon Photoready Eye Art
I had seen my friend apply this product while we were at work, and I tried to pay attention. She has had a lot more practice than I have had with it. The amount of products I am testing in this Makeup Monday Spring 2019 Eye and Nails post required quantity over quality. Don’t worry, in 2 weeks I am going to write another one based on the votes from this week’s post. It will be a quality based post, for a final look, voted on by you! I really do have a plan here, and it took a while to think it all up before I was able to take action.
I have the pic below ready with the colours numbered as above, 1-5. Here are the product colours and numbers.
1 Burnished Bling – 090
2 Green Glimmer – 010
3 Peach Prism – 060
4 Steel Spark – 110
5 Lilac Luster 020
My pyramid of eye shadow trials.
I love the way it makes my eyes sparkle!
These pics show the base coat and the sparkle paint on top. Using my ring fingers to smooth out the essence primer and the base colour eye shadows was recommended from the videos I watched. I used the brush to apply the sparkle. I watched some YouTube videos and gave it a go. The top pics were taken on a different day, and the bottom 8 pics were all taken today. My eyes are tired, but I learned a valuable tip while watching the videos. Sephora makeup videos have a lot of useful information in them, and they recommend to hold the cotton pad with the eye makeup remover on your lid for 30 seconds before wiping the eye makeup off. I have not tried this with full eye makeup on, no mascara or eyeliner, but it worked really well to remove this product.
Sorry 4 & 5 are out of order in the first pic, I hope it doesn’t confuse anyone!
My friend doesn’t use the base coat, just the sparkles. I like using both and learned to let it dry between applications. If it is on for more than a few hours, my eyelids feel heavy, and after a while, I need to take it off. I would totally wear it for a photo shoot or a night out on the town. I mean, it is sparkly eyes!
Time for a little polish
Since I had 5 different colours of eyeshadow to try, I thought it would be fun to do my nails to match…you guessed it…all 5 colours! I know there are trends in nail art, and I don’t necessarily follow or understand them all.
As an author, I find it adds something to my day spent typing away at the keyboard if my nails are sporting polish. It makes the typing seem more important, more professional, and makes me smile when I see the colours flashing on the keys.
Here is the description pic for the nailpolish. As I am displaying fingers from both hands in this set, my husband was recruited to take these pics. He did a great job, and we didn’t even need any retakes!
Makeup Monday Nail Polish Details
As you can see I had fun with this too. With the Wet ‘n’ Wild sparkles on my right hand, I am giving my own spin to a nail polish trend. Who knows, maybe it will catch on!
The last pic shows the nail polish bottles, and my hands all polished up. It was a lot of fun to work on this blog post, and I look forward to using these products over the spring and summer.
Makeup Monday Pretty Polish for Spring 2019!
Now I need your help, please!
I am planning another Makeup Monday blog in 2 weeks to try out some more ( I used points to get as much as I could!) makeup out. Since I now have so many choices, I would love to know what look you want to see me put together for this post. I am going to create a poll for people to vote on below. There will be one for eyes and a separate one for nails. What do you want to see for my new spring look?
Help me to choose by filling out the following 2 surveys.
I am asking for emails just for my own curiosity. I am not planning to send any emails out to the participants of this quiz. It is just for fun! Please help me choose the colours for my next Makeup Monday Blog post. Deadline is next Monday, May 29th at midnight in my time zone. 1 hour ahead of EST. The next Makeup Monday will be ready on Monday May 6th! I look forward to completing my spring look with your help!
