Month: August 2018

A Finished Thing

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Yep, that Soda Water scarf is complete. It was a great knit, I really enjoyed it. Do I wish I had enough yarn to have made a longer more dramatic scarf? Absolutely. But, it’s a serviceable length and the knitting of it was fun. I completely used up that yarn and it’s out of my stash. All good things.

Mr. Ink and I are on vacation. Miss Butterfly is in school. It’s awfully quiet around here. The 10-day forecast is basically a 50% chance of rain 100% of the time. It’s currently raining. I took those photos in the rain. It always rains when Mr. Ink takes time off work to dig.

My main goal for this week is to get rid of the stress twitch in my eyelid muscle from work-related stress. Once I go back, that twitch is likely to stick around until November so I really want to get some relief this week. I woke up early this morning because I was having work-related stress dreams so we aren’t there yet!

My other goal for this week off is to get a few project pan related posts up on the blog. And the final goal is to finish Scottish Stripes which I am really doing well working toward.

I should also add goals like cleaning and so on, but I am not going to add them. When I feel inspired, I’ll do some of that. This vacation isn’t for that. And that’s all from me, have a fantastic weekend my friends!

Pan That Palette

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It’s time to play Pan That Palette.

clinique palette

I purchased this palette on deep discount after the 2017 holiday season. It was my first palette purchase ever, and I had not even remotely gotten into makeup yet. I thought it was pretty, and it was on sale, and my daughter liked makeup. So I bought it.

8 months later I have multiple beautiful eyeshadow palettes which perform so much better than this one. This one doesn’t even perform as well as the nice little Clinique eyeshadow duos I used to get as gifts for purchasing skincare in my younger years.

We have gotten some gentle use out of it though, and then some far more serious use in one shade that Miss Butterfly has decided is her perfect eyebrow color. She has hit pan using it to fill in her eyebrows. Here’s how it looks now:

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It is our plan now to pan a number of these shades and once that is done, we’ll feel as if we’ve gotten our use out of it. This is a long-term plan, but we do want to make significant progress as we go along. Working left to right, top to bottom, I’ll give you a brief overview of the shades and how we plan to use them.

Column 1: a pink and a white sparkly eyeshadow. Both of these are too intensely sparkly to use as an inner corner and brow bone highlight. My plan is to use both of these as an actual highlighter on the cheekbones as they don’t perform well on the eyelids either.

Column 2: The top color is a decent shimmer in a brown tone. Below that is a darker brown, and I can try to use that in my eyebrows, even if it is a bit on the intense side color wise.

Column 3: The top color is a color I use in my eyebrows with pretty good results so far. Looks a bit intense when I first apply it but by the time I get to work it fades out into an appropriate eyebrow color for me. Below that is another tan shimmer, not nearly as intense as the shimmer in the column before it.

Column 4: Top shade is one I will not touch as Miss Butterfly has already hit pan on it using it as an eyebrow shade. She says it leans toward purple but she can work with that. Below that is a nice burgundy shade, one of the shades I appreciate best. It’s got some shimmer but that is barely noticeable and it looks pretty good in the crease.

Column 5: These two shadows pair well together. There’s a matte grey on top that works as a transition shade, and then a slate blue toned shimmer that I can get away with in the crease. I suspect this is the combo that I’ll be concentrating on most for eyeshadow itself initially. I can pair these two with more intense shimmers elsewhere in my collection making these two shades very wearable.

Column 6: At the top, another color that I may be able to use in my eyebrows. Below it is a color I haven’t experimented with much yet, so I’ll see how that can be used.

Column 7: At the top is another color I suspect Miss Butterfly may be able to use in her eyebrows, we’ll have to wait for her opinion on that one. I won’t touch it until she tells me if it works for her or not. Then below it is what I would have hoped could be an all over lid color for setting the base but it’s way too shimmery for that. I am hoping to be able to use it as an inner corner and browbone highlight, but it is VERY subtle for such a use. It may be one shade that’s a complete throwaway shade.

So, I need to start this Pan That Palette by using it for a week for eyeshadow and then just plain using it regularly for a highlighter and eyebrow color. I’ll try to keep it in a pretty regular rotation, using it during the week and commit to wearing it at least once a week when it’s not in my shop my stash for the week. In the upcoming month, I am hoping to see Miss Butterfly expand her pan on her eyebrow color and I want to see a significant dip in the pink highlighter shade.

My Teen Picks my Makeup

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Miss Butterfly sat at my desk Monday morning and said “Mom, I really want to pick your makeup for a day!” I told her I thought she could do that no problem. But that she had to remember that she was pulling it for a work day so she couldn’t go too crazy.

Now, in reality, I think one of the reasons she wanted to choose for me is that I am always so focused on using up certain products that she thinks I should sometimes spend time with other products. As she tells me, I should spend time with products I LIKE. I retort that I like most of my products. I just also choose to concentrate on one at a time for the most part.

Anyhow, she chose my products and we got a photo. Then she ended up changing out the eyeshadow choice, but it was already dark and another photo could not be taken. BTW, she really wanted to be IN the photo, so she staged it and then got in the picture.

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As you can see, she wanted to go BRIGHT with the eyeshadow. Her insistence was that I use blue. I MUST use blue. And I had to use some of the Laura Lee party animal palette, the super brights. Then, after watching me struggle last evening, trying to plan my look, she decided she didn’t like anything I was coming up with. I’d been swatching on the back of my hand, putting colors together between the Alamar and the LL palette. She saw that I was leaning away from using a blue matte from LL palette. And then she decided to change it up. She told me that I could substitute chocolate gold for the alamar palette, but I HAD to use a blue matte from the LL palette.

Here’s a quick photo of chocolate gold for reference.

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What I ended up doing was using the matte browns from Chocolate Gold, then I used the light blue matte from the LL palette in my crease and outer corner. Then I took the yellow gold shade from chocolate gold and popped that on my lid. I finished up with a more muted metallic from chocolate gold in my inner corner to draw everything together, and ended up with a look I could live with, even at work. Though I really did think “I should be going to a disco maybe?” I also chose to wear glasses today, so that I was a little hidden. It’s highly unusual for me to truly feel like I can’t rock a particular bright eye look, but man, this was a serious stretch. On the other hand, with hooded eyes, that blue matte isn’t all that noticeable.

Here’s what else she chose:

-Tarte poreless primer-I love it but rarely use it, so she thought I should.
-Nars eyeshadow primer-I got it in a subscription box and hadn’t tried it yet, so she thought I should.
-Too Faced natural eyes blush and bronzer-she doesn’t see me wearing it much yet, even though I regularly do. Also, she thought the subtle blush would work well with bright colored eyes.
-Laura Mercier translucent powder-I am so busy panning the clinique powder that I never touch this one anymore. She wanted a change.
-Wet n Wild photofocus foundation-she knows every time I use it I LOVE how my skin looks, and she’s tired of seeing me in the UD all nighter.
-Wet n Wild highlighter-this is a highlighter she purchased but doesn’t like on her skin. She thinks I should pan it, but I don’t want to. She’s forcing me to use it here, in hopes I’ll change my mind.
-Hoola Bronzer-I use this more as a contour and she decided I should take a break from the wet n wild one I am trying to pan.
-Wet n wild avenging amethyst mascara-She wanted me to wear purple mascara but relented the next morning when she decided it didn’t actually work with my eye look. Instead, I wore regular mascara from wander beauty.
-Maybelline age rewind concealer-I tend to switch up my concealers regularly at this point, but this one is my favorite so she chose it for me.
-L’Oreal Silkissime black liner-I am so busy panning a brown liner I rarely remember to use a black, and she thought this look called for it. She was right, smudged out over the blue on the lower lash line it was a perfect choice.
-Chella eyebrow pomade-I’ve been really trying to use some eyeshadow in my brows (more on that Thursday) and she decided instead I should be using a proper brow product.
-And for lip products she chose my new makeup forever lipstick from a subscription box paired with maybelline liner of some sort, and buxom gloss over top.

All in all, the look works well enough for me. It has the added advantage of incorporating the yellow gold color of the too faced chocolate gold palette I planned on trying this week anyhow. I would not have chosen to pair it with blue, but that’s ok. She chose to pull me way out of my comfort zone, and I think that’s funny because she is not one to go for a bright look herself. But she wants to put that bright look on me.

 

Progress

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I am making tons of progress on my cabled scarf, in fact I am now knitting in the final ball of yarn. It’s not going to be quite as long as I had hoped, but I think with a good blocking it’ll be long enough to be scarf like.

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It’s been an entirely enjoyable knit. The yarn is reasonably nice, and definitely nicely colored. I had one set back when I realized one of the balls of yarn was certainly a different dye lot than the others, so I ripped back and alternated rows. That seems to have cleared up the issue entirely. Now it’s just knit until I finish.

I am hoping to have another knitted finished object as well, my scottish stripes scarf from ages ago is nearing a finish. Since I am on vacation starting Thursday I intend to complete that project too.

Our visit with sister in law was lovely, too quick but quite lovely. The morning of the day she arrived, Mr. Ink and I headed out to purchase a mattress for the daybed, as I’d given the daybed mattress to Miss Butterfly when she got her loft bed. On our way home we drove by the new neighbor’s house, and they were out. So, Mr. Ink slowed down and I introduced myself. Turns out, new neighbor guy has been in landscaping for the past 20 years. I said “Mr. Ink is thrilled to hear this! You’ll have to take a look over the fence to see why.” New neighbor quickly retorts “How could I? You can’t see ANYTHING back there through the volunteer trees!” This bodes well for Mr. Ink. Who is, technically, still his skeptical self. “What if he’s one of those BAD landscapers?” he asked me. I said “Who cares? It’ll still be an improvement over what is currently going on!”

Indeed, as I sat out on the patio with sister in law during her visit, we heard the chicken coop coming down in the neighbors back yard, and then the chainsaw and some of the most egregious volunteer trees right in the middle of the yard coming down. The fence line hasn’t been tackled yet, but this is not surprising since they are also redoing the inside of the house right now. One thing I can say, this is a couple that is highly motivated, which, again, is a vast improvement over the half finished projects and started hobbies that were then left to die in the backyard from previous neighbors.

Speaking of highly motivated, Mr. Ink is still at it in the yard. After losing like 10 trees this year due to insane and awful spring weather, Mr. Ink is preparing to put new trees in this fall. Sometimes Lizzie helps.

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Check out this cute helper!

That’s it for today! I’ll have another post up tomorrow, one in which Miss Butterfly chooses my makeup for the day. It was…..interesting.

Shopping the Stash for the Week

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It’s a short week for me, and it’s the last week of my summer project pan. So I fear that this stash shopping is becoming quite repetitive. With vacation the last half of the week, I suspect I won’t even wear a ton of makeup. But, Miss Butterfly has been begging me to use her chocolate gold palette for a week. I keep not doing so because I don’t want to use up something that is exclusively hers. I mean, you don’t really have the resources, at 14, to just go out and purchase whatever you want. Her argument is that she regularly uses my makeup, so why wouldn’t hers be up for grabs as well?

I am choosing her chocolate gold palette this week because it’s a short week and because I think I can pair the shimmers in it with the quad I am desperately trying to finish panning this month. I can use other crease and transition shades, leaving the ones that come with chocolate gold to Miss Butterfly. Then I can just use shimmer shades in the palette which tend to last longer anyhow to create looks for the week. I think it’ll work.

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For primers-I’ve got the becca undereye primer, the mac primer I am trying to use up for the face, and wet n wild’s photofocus eye primer for my lids. Since I added and then took out this product from my summer project pan I wanted to at least know how far I got with it this summer. I’ve been using it very rarely but Miss Butterfly uses it regularly.

Below the palette is two eyeliners, one leaning green/brown that I am trying to pan and the other a charcoal color for looks that require a cooler tone. Below that is a nyx brow pencil I’ve been using. It’s a bit warm toned for me, so I am using it to outline my brows and then filling in my brows with eyeshadow. More on that later in the week. Below that is wander beauty mascara I got in a subscription box. I like this mascara but it does take some time to build up. No instant results like marc jacobs or lash paradise. But no flaking like those two either.

Urban Decay all nighter is still in my rotation. But on days I don’t really want something that heavy (remember, vacation time!) I pulled out bare minerals. Then we’ve got the wet n wild contour palette I am working on finishing up along with my makeup revolution blush I am trying to hit pan on.

That’s it for this week. If I were to predict the shimmers I want to try this week, I’ll choose only 3 for the 3 days I work this week. I really want to try that bright pink shade, the green shade calls to me, and then I want to get some use out of the gold shade. Trying anything else will be a bonus. I guess I should have pulled out some glitter glue for this week, I’ll do that as soon as I am done here.

Mid August Empties

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We’ve been using up products like crazy around here, and the stash of empties was getting so large that I feared I’d have to split the empties post into two parts. This is mostly because we get subscription bags, which means quite a lot of sample sizes. Since those are easy to go through, they’ve really accumulated this month. And because we  have company staying in the room where I keep my empties, I decided to just get an empties post up and get rid of these items.

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Let’s work left to right, top to bottom as usual.

Ulta sent, with Miss Butterfly’s birthday palette, a sample size of Herbal Essences coconut conditioner, which she just finished up. I think she liked it quite well, though she hasn’t asked me to purchase a full size for her.

Miss Butterfly received a bunch of the studio 35 beauty nail polish remover wipes. Since we are project polishing, we ended up using these. They are non acetone, and work fantastically well, until they don’t. It’s such an odd experience. One wipe will remove all the nail polish on one hand. But the amount of time the wipe is exposed to air seems to be what makes it less effective. At first that nail polish disappears immediately, but by the last two fingers it’s taking real effort. And then another wipe needed to be used for the next hand. So, not our favorites really.

Below that I’ve got two hand creams. The first is Cake and it smelled like vanilla cake. I got this in a subscription box. The bottle it came in is terrible to use up, the product does not come out easily and it feels like such a waste. The product itself is nice enough, but I would not repurchase. The second hand cream is Mary Kay and it’s been hanging around for about 2 years now. I figured I’d focus on it and get it used up as there are plenty of hand creams I like better.

I have a lot of deva curl products from the time frame I was trying to get my longer hair to curl up again. I am over that now, I will work with what I’ve got. But, I still need to use up those products. Thing is, these type of products are meant for keeping curls moisturized and locked in place, so it works pretty well to keep frizz at bay in straight hair with a fair amount of texture too. So, I was able to use this in my hair with good results. That’s good, because I’ve got a couple more of this type of thing floating around.

Never in my life have I used up an entire lip pencil until now! But now I have, and I feel confident I will use more. More Ulta brand? Maybe, maybe not. I liked it well enough but there are lots of other brands to try.

Then there are three products from a subscription box. The Josie Maron whipped argon oil face butter was wonderful! I really loved this product. It’s high on the list of moisturizers I would happily repurchase and use in the future. I just have enough in my stash now to keep me going.

Below that is the Caudalie essence. I used it up, but I am not sure it really did anything spectacular for me.

Then there’s answer from black volume gold radiance cream. This product was such a hard pass from me. A moisturizer that was gel-like in texture and advertised as not sticky but was so sticky it was unpleasant to use. Just not a thing I ever really want to have to use again. I see it as a repeat item in one of my subscription boxes and I really hope once was enough for me.

And that’s it, half my beauty empties for this month, and in about a week you’ll get to see the rest if you like.

And a Finished Object

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Look at this! It’s the featherweight cardi all done!

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In true to me fashion, I wanted 3/4 length sleeves so I knit them that way. And then when I blocked the thing, it turns out they were full-length sleeves. So, I’ve got that going for me! I am pretty pleased to have yet another sweater finish under my belt this year.

In other news, our neighbors out back sold their home. Mr. Ink has been wishing to do something about all their junk trees around the edges of their yard, it drives him crazy. They did not keep a tidy yard though their home was lovely. Mr. In being precisely the opposite was always annoyed. Anyhow, old neighbors moved out Thursday, so he thought he’d stealthily take to cutting branches out of the junk trees, specifically the ones which were hanging over into our yard.

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He was stealthy, but his activity was cut short when he noticed that the new owners had shown up. Now I guess he just gets to hope that the new owners feel strongly about trees like he does. I won’t hold my breath! He did get a couple of the offending branches out, so there’s that.

Today we head to the local furniture store to get a mattress for the guest room. I gave the guest room mattress to Miss Butterfly when she got her loft bed. We didn’t do anything about it because we so rarely have overnight company. But we’ve got overnight company tonight! Other than that though, it’ll be hanging out with Lizzie and cleaning the house and crafting today, and I am up early and quite excited about it.

New Project

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That featherweight cardigan is blocking, and after I cast off I realized I had nothing else in progress or planned. So, I had to think quickly. I realized I’d purchased the Soda Water scarf pattern awhile back, started it with some dark colored yarn, realized the cables weren’t very obvious and ripped it back out. In my hopes to continue working on projects with patterns already in my pattern stash, I decided to start that project over again with a yarn from stash.

The yarn is variegated and I worried this would mean that the cables wouldn’t be very visible, but I think the colors are close enough that the cables still work. This picture is a little off because I took it rather early in the morning while it was very wet and fairly dark out.

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Even with that being the case, I think the cables work pretty well. I am really enjoying this knit. I think it’s going pretty quickly so far, and I hope to keep that momentum up.

We were supposed to leave on vacation next week, traveling to Boston area to visit Mr. Ink’s brother and sister in law. Unfortunately, Mr. Ink’s sister in law is currently in KCMO with her ailing mother, so the trip is off. We will rebook it at a time that everyone can enjoy a visit. But, I got a call from sister in law saying she’d like to come to visit for a brief time this weekend to take a break from caretaking. So, that’s happening, and we are all quite thrilled. A little unexpected excitement this weekend, and a little unexpected downtime next week. (Which I could really use since work is nutty right now.)

That’s about it from my little corner of the world! How’s it going in yours?

So Close

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At this point, I am SO CLOSE to being done with my featherweight cardigan. Check it out!

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All I’ve got left is a bit more ribbing on a sleeve for the knitting portion. Then I’ll need to sew up the gaps under the arms, weave in the ends, and block it. And then I’ll officially again have more knit from my stash than I’ve spun this year.

The second sleeve went rather quickly this week, and that’s because Miss Butterfly is having a very high school week. It has hit so hard. She’s had large amounts of homework in the evening, and we’ve been having trouble with our modem and router so getting on the internet has been difficult, and she needs to do that to complete her work. On top of that, likely due to the spotty internet, she also lost a number of paragraphs for her assignment that she’d already written, causing her to need to rewrite. She has had a frustrating few weekends. Thankfully, we have gotten a new router so the internet is up and running again. And, I’ve taught her how to work on her writing somewhere safe before she puts it in her online programs and saves. Many worthwhile high school lessons learned this week.

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And…many late nights in which I am monitoring homework and knitting sleeves. We are both pretty exhausted. This is all for debate class, which is a higher level class and she’s one of only 4 freshmen in the class in the first place. I think it’s a valuable class because she gets a taste of what high school really can be like, and she gets this particular class off her list early when she has a little more time to devote to it. It’s challenging, and we are tired, but I don’t think it has resulted in major regret about taking the class yet.

All in all, it’s been an interesting week. Not a bad week, just interesting. But the knitting has benefited from this. I am excited to have a new sweater just in time for autumn weather.

What I’m Spinning

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While I am still desperately trying to keep my knitting totals way ahead of my spinning totals and failing at the moment, this is not the time of year where I can just not spin. I tend to put my wheel away in the fall and do large amounts of knitting in the winter. I don’t want to give up spinning entirely during the time frame I really want to spin!

So I began another spinning project. I pulled out these fibers I dyed while decluttering the secret stash.

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The yellow went into some batts, but the two blue colors made it into my next spinning project. I divided them and have begun spinning them into a three-ply yarn.

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The wool on these is pretty rough and I am not sure what I’ll be able to make out of the finished object but for now, just working on the process of spinning is enjoyable. I just pick up on the spinning project when I can’t keep knitting sweater sleeves. It’s a nice way to keep motivated. This is bobbin number 1 so progress is a bit on the slow side.

That’s it from here in crafty news!

Surprise Finish

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Well, it’s not a surprise to me, but it may be a surprise to you, my dear readers. I never mentioned I was going to knit it and I showed no in progress photos.

I’ve got a couple goals with my stash, in addition to knitting more of it than I spin. One is to begin knitting the balls of yarn I’ve wound but never made it to finished object. The other is to work on knitting the oldest handspuns in stash.

This project is the first, a yarn I wound into a ball but tried knitting into various projects, none of which I was pleased with. I decided I needed to choose a pattern that didn’t matter. Meaning, any color situation would work, any gauge would work, and almost any yarn would work. I found that in this little ruffled Spiral Scarf. It took me 3 days to knit. The pattern is easy if short rows are your jam, and I had only 280 yards of yarn so I knew it would be a very short project.

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I really like how this turned out. Knitting it was really enjoyable as well, as I had the color changing nature of handspun to keep me engaged through the process. I will for sure knit another one of these.

Now that this little palette cleanser project is off the needles, I am back at the handspun featherweight sweater that’s been on the needles a little bit too long! I’ve only got the sleeves to knit so I don’t think the finish is too far off. But, I always find the sleeve knitting a little rough. I am trying to power through at this point since it’ll give me a nice finished object yardage boost.

I realized that early on this year I challenged myself to knit 40 items in 2018. I have knit 15. That’s….not really enough. I am really going to need to step up my game and move some smaller yardage yarns from my stash if I truly want to hit that goal! Much more planning is needed. But for now, finish another sweater. My makeup habit is getting in the way of my knitting habit!

 

Shopping the Stash for the Week

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It’s another week, and so it’s time for another weekly makeup plan. I agonized over this one, would you believe it? I had decided to use a particular palette I really love, but I think because it’s midway through August and my summer project pan is drawing to a close, I ended up going a different direction.

I decided to pull in almost all of my small eyeshadows instead. One of the wet n wild quads is in my project pan, plus I got a little quad in a subscription box I wanted to try out.

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Headed vaguely left to right:

Primers: I’ll be getting more use out of the becca undereye primer this week. I also pulled the mac primer I’ve been working on, it’s almost gone. Then I also got a Becca matifying primer in a subscription box, so I pulled that too in case I have the opportunity to see how that works.

Foundation and concealer: I am still working on panning the Urban Decay all nighter foundation, and I am still far from done. I don’t think that it will get rolled into the next project pan, to be honest. I’ll still try to pan it after this month but I don’t want to be working this hard at it when I have other foundations I actually love. On that note, I threw in my Hourglass Illusion skin tint for this week, I miss it and I want to use it. I also pulled my maybelline age rewind concealer back in this week, again because I miss it and want to use it.

Below all that is blushes: I am going to keep working at the makeup revolution blush, but I also added in my tarte blush for something a little more muted. I also received a pixie blush/highlighter combo in a subscription box, but it works best as a blush topper/highlighter. I’ll play with that a bit more this week.

I am still working on that Hermes perfume, I think it’ll be gone this week. And, I pulled in the nyx eyeshadow brow pencil again as it’s so easy to use. Still working on my wet n wild contour palette too, especially since I want to use up as much as possible in the next two weeks.

Eyeshadows: At the top is my tarte tarteist pro to go palette, I haven’t used it much and am eager to wear it again. To the right of that is a super tiny quad I got in my subscription box, I can’t wait to try it. Below that is a pacifica palette I’ve used twice maybe, and below that the wet n wild shadow I am working on panning. In the top corner is an ella eden eyeshadow that doesn’t make for a great eyeshadow, but does make for a good blush topper. Maybe I’ll get to using that, and maybe not.

Eyeliners: I also received a brown gel pot eyeliner, I don’t hold much hope for it being any good but I’ll give it a try this week. It might be better in the eyebrows or as a base for the eyelid for shadow. I also pulled in both my jonteblu eyeliner that is charcoal colored and the style sepia I am trying to pan.

Lip products: I’ve got a maybelline lip liner, my only lip liner now. Then I’ve got the maybelline nude matte lipstick I am trying to pan. I received two lip products in subscription boxes, a sample size of makeup forever, and then a smashbox full size brown colored metallic which looks awful on me. I’ll see if I can manage to use my brown ofra lipstick and add the smashbox metallic lipstick in the middle, but I am not holding my breath. It’ll just be an experiment for this week. And finally, I added my L’oreal infallible lip paint in that hot pink because I haven’t used it since the wedding in May and I have pulled some neutral tones for this week.

The only thing left to talk about now is my wander beauty mascara. My mark jacobs mascara is beginning to flake on me, as all my most favorite mascaras begin to do. So, I pulled this one out to try.

That’s it for this week, this feels like a lot of product, but most are things I won’t want to wear more than once at a time anyhow. They aren’t things I can spend a week with. So, it makes sense to group them together.

Today we’ll be doing some back to school shopping so I’ll probably even wear makeup today, giving me yet another opportunity to wear one of these shadows. Ok for real, that’s it from me today. Have a great week!

800 Yards

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Finishing an 800-yard project went a long way to bringing me close to even in my knit/spin totals this year. Adding the 800 yards of knitting has me at 6.22 miles knit and 6.8 miles spun. That’s fantastic news! I would like to fully even that out before finishing another spinning project, but I would also like to spin the two projects in various bags sitting in my living room. I do NOT want them to end up back in secret stash where I could forget them. Even if I do get more spinning done before I even out the totals, I am sure that as soon as the colder weather hits, I’ll be able to get back on track with attempting to knit double the amount I’ve spun this year.

Now on to that finished object. I finished that Nix shawl that I’d decided in November that I didn’t like. Upon picking it back up, I realized I must have been angsty at that time. Because it was a perfectly lovely knit. It was lovely the whole way through!

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And it turned into a perfectly lovely large shawl! I am thrilled this project is finally finished, though once I really got started, it went quite quickly. I am also quite pleased with how nice the color combination turned out. It’s bright and cheery and looks just as nice as I had hoped it would when I chose those three yarns to go together all those years ago in New Mexico.

Palette Update

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If you are watching/reading my makeup posts, you’ll remember that earlier this week I expressed some disappointment in the Sydney Grace eyeshadow bundle I purchased, and some trepidation about the free bundle I received with the bundle I spent last week experimenting with.

For reference, here it is:

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To be clear, the brighter yellow, and the copper shimmer to the right of that yellow are not Sydney Grace colors. The yellow is Vanessa’s Vanity and the copper is Elizabeth Mott. Now, the three transition looking mattes the row above the yellow all lean quite yellow on the skin, so I felt like those two colors fit right into the bundle so I added them.

I am SO VERY PLEASED to report that my enjoyment of this eyeshadow bundle is complete. I love it. It looks gorgeous on my eyes, and that light green shimmer (middle top row) is stunning and stays on my eyes beautifully. This bundle is precisely the bundle I was hoping for in the quality I had expected according to reviews of the company I’d seen all over the internet.

Now, I purchased a glitter glue this weekend as well, but I wanted to try this bundle without it. And it was great. But, I also discovered that I LOVE glitter glue! Glitter glue is clearly the hooded eye gal’s secret. No more glitter/shimmer transfer far above the crease, it’s amazing stuff!

One more thing I love about this bundle is how versatile it is. I’ve taken it cool toned using the darker colors or warmed it up with yellows. I can go for a more metallic eyelid, an entirely matte look, or concentrate on the green tones, playing them up completely. I am definitely happy with this bundle, and even if the other bundle never works out as I want it to, the purchase will have been worth it for this bundle.

That’s it for the makeup talk this week. I’ve got a finished knitted object to post about tomorrow, and I am thrilled!

Updates

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This’ll be a full post with no crafty content. It’s been busy this week. Miss Butterfly headed to HS for the first time yesterday, so we’ve been swamped with preparation. Knitting time has been very light. And I am exhausted.

Sunday Miss Butterfly and I went shopping, we spent a lot of time on that. In the end, we only got a few staple items so, despite the fact that we were out for so long, it wasn’t that exciting of a trip.

Then in the evening, we decided to do our nails. She wanted to choose something for school the next day. So I did her nails and then her toenails. I grabbed photos because I’d made her two bowls of ice water for her nails, but she didn’t tolerate this well at all. So here she is with her partly painted feet on my legs attempting to stick her hands in the ice water.

Despite being unable to sit still and unable to put her hands in the ice water, she didn’t ruin her manicure too badly. After two weeks of project polish, we decided we could let go of 3 nail polishes. The color and the formula weren’t great on all three. I don’t know if this is partly because they are old, or just cheap. But, no matter what, they weren’t for us and we were happy to let them go. Working on these projects with Miss Butterfly have been eye-opening to her. She’s ended up realizing that maybe collecting JUST to collect isn’t the best idea. She’s realized that you want products around that you actually desire to use and look forward to using. Forcing her to use the products she’s hoarding has made her realize hoarding products isn’t the best strategy. All three of the nail polishes we tossed on Sunday were her choice to toss.  I feel like even two weeks in we’ve managed to get more out of project polish than I expected to.

While we were doing our nails, Lizzie was under the table bored. Here’s what that looks like:

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But, Miss Butterfly rectified this with lost of hide and seek, Lizzie’s favorite game. This is what Lizzie looks like when she’s playing games:

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The moods of Lizzie are extreme.

Yesterday Miss Butterfly began school. Now, I’d taken time off at the end of July as it was absolutely required we check in and pick up her schedule. Yesterday morning Miss Butterfly couldn’t find her schedule, which caused us a quick panic until I found it on her desk where she’d stored it for safe keeping. She’d highlighted and color-coded her classes to make it easier to see which ones were this semester. Turns out, she didn’t need that schedule as they handed her a copy as she walked in the door. Since they did not indicate this may have been updated, she stuck to her original color-coded schedule.

She then indicated that she hadn’t been on the roster for a couple classes, and then I realized that I’d received unexcused absence notifications for a few classes. Turns out, she was following the wrong schedule. No harm done though, with her new class schedule, she gets 2 classes and a lunch with her best friend! Prior to this, she got no classes or lunch with her best friend.

That morning was pretty crazy too, she was clearly feeling anxious and this became clear when she had to apply eyeshadow for the third time, as the first two looks didn’t work for her. And, she changed her outfit twice. She was looking great as she was ready to head out the door though!

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We had open house yesterday evening, so we did get to meet and touch base with the teachers she missed out on going to class with. When asked about her day, she said “Meh” but then proceeded to tell me all about it, and in particular about debate class. I met her (totally geeky and dad jokey) debate teacher, and he loved how she laughed at all his jokes. Apparently, she was the only one. She’s in a class with only 4 freshmen, the rest are upperclassmen, so it’ll be an interesting class for her. One of the other freshmen is a new gal, so she’s decided she’ll align herself with the new gal right from the start.

For me, I did manage to finish flick carding all that wool this weekend. It was a dirty dusty job, but one I was super happy to complete. Now I have two bags of flick carded locks in the living room, and three bags of dyed top divided out for a 3 ply in my living room. I am going to have to break out the wheel again soon!

I am also getting pretty close to being done with the shawl I just picked up again. The rows are super long now though, so it feels like it is slowing down significantly. I hope to have it finished and blocking this weekend.

It all feels like it’s part of the start of school like we are working our way into a season change as well. Even though it’s still hot and in the middle of summer. We’ve started another puzzle and the games have come off the shelves. I guess we are all thinking our way into autumn.

Have a great week!

Shopping the Stash for the Week

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Before I post a picture of what I’ve pulled for the upcoming week, I want to talk a little bit about last week’s eyeshadows.

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These are from Sydney Grace which has pretty good reviews, particularly for their matte shadows. And, I’d agree with that assessment, the mattes are really nice. But I am not that impressed with their shimmers, not even a little bit. And I am SOOOO disappointed, I’ll be honest. They don’t seem to pop on my eyes, and they seem to disappear throughout the day. I’ve tried two kinds of primer and I’ve tried setting the primer and not setting the primer, and I get the same result. I am going to pick up a glitter glue next and try that. But, I am not overly pleased. My next complaint?  It’s not about the eyeshadows themselves, but my own choices. I picked this bundle up assuming it would be on the pink and blue end of the spectrum, but in reality, these are really close to the colors and the idea of the Tarte be a mermaid and make waves palette. Now, I LOVE that palette, and I have it in my head to try to pan that palette, but I didn’t really need another full set of similar colors. On the other hand, it’s not all bad news. As I mentioned, the mattes are great and I can easily use the mattes with other collections. The brown mattes are a nice cool toned brown, which is very different from most of my collection.

Now, let’s move on to what I chose this week.

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It almost pains me to say this, but my eyeshadow selection on the left side there are from…Sydney Grace. Ugh. You see, I picked up last weeks bundle during a huge sale they were running where I received this bundle for free. I should also mention that two of those shadows are not Sydney Grace. The yellow one is Vanessa’s Vanity and to the right of the yellow is a coppery shimmer from Elizabeth Mott. It’s just that they looked nice all together so I put them together. I am thankful that this bundle actually doesn’t contain much in the way of shimmers since I really like the mattes from this company. And, I can also say that there’s no way I’ve got anything like this color story in my collection. I think it’s fair to say that I will be less disappointed with this collection than I was last week. But I guess only time will tell.

On to the rest of what I pulled. Still panning the UD all nighter foundation, and honestly, I think real progress is being made now. Even the container feels lighter. But, for the days where I just can’t stand it, I’ve pulled my Bare Minerals matte foundation. It’s been a while since I’ve touched the Clinique powder so I pulled that out this week as well.

Miss Butterfly had some opinions on makeup this week. First, she asked me if I could stop trying to pan the benefit dandelion twinkle highlighter as she liked how it looked on her skin. So, I am going to do that, leaving that one to her and I’ll explore other highlighters. Then, she decided that the benefit hoola bronzer she wanted so badly and I got her for Easter doesn’t look great on her. She prefers the butter bronzer. So I am going to experiment with that on myself. And while I am experimenting, why not try out how that Pur contour and highlight palette looks on days I am not wearing UD all nighter?

The blushes I chose this week are nice warmer toned blushes, I figured with the eyeshadow bundle that may look best. I am still working on the mac primer sample and the Hermes perfume sample. I added in a becca undereye primer that I’ve used a ton but not lately. I want to see if I add it back in this week, does it make a difference for me now?

I’ve pulled the typical marc jacobs mascara, which I adore. And then for eyebrows, I pulled the Chella cream I really love and then a nyx pencil that is warmer toned. I don’t love it, but I want to use it up and if I am already going warm toned in general, this may be a good week to get some use out of it.

I pulled two eyeliners out, the style sepia brown/green which will be great for this week, and then if I want to do something crazy with the yellow eyeshadow, it might be fun to add a pop of teal at some point.

And finally, I pulled two nail polishes. Sunday night I’ll go for that metallic color again, and then I also pulled a white shimmer color from the project polish in case I need a second color this week. To be honest, I am trying to stick predominately to two nail polish colors so that I can see actual progress but I’ll throw in another color here and there to keep it interesting.

That’s it for this week! It’s going to be a week for boxy charm and ipsy so it’s likely I’ll get to play with some new things next week!

Flick Carding

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I wasn’t entirely correct about that callous on my finger from flick carding. There’s still a blister under there. Which is disappointing because I really wanted to go whole hog on the last fleece to be flick carded in my secret stash.

But, I did take Thursday off to be with Miss Butterfly, and despite the fact that we were mostly working on her stuff and her room, I did find time for flick carding. Between that day off and doing an hour or so of flick carding last evening, I feel like I am making steady progress.

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The black bin is the locks still needing to be carded. The full bag is flick carded locks and they’ve been squished down so often that I can’t fit anymore into that bag without wool spilling out the top. The mostly empty bag was yesterday evening’s progress. There’s still a fair amount to go, but progress is made. I hope to spend a little more time with it this evening. But, flick carding is an awfully dusty job requiring a shower after the fact, so I am saving it for the evening.

This is a nice light colored fleece with some additional grey running through here and there. It’s good, but it’s not stunning. The last fleece was far more interesting to flick card and to spin. I purchased this already washed, and the person washing it certainly washed it far harder than I would have. It’s kind of a pain to pick the locks out from the balls of wool that were washed, and this is leaving me quite a lot of waste. My own washing technique became a technique in which I take a lot of time before washing to preserve the structure of the locks to make flick carding so much easier. And there’s a lot less waste. This fleece also has a lot of second cuts floating around in the washed wool, where my own technique would have all of that removed before the washing happened. Does my way save time? Not necessarily, the time is either taken on the front end or the back end. But, for me, it tends to keep me more motivated about the processing after washing the fleece.

I haven’t been spinning at all since I am hoping to get some knitting projects done again to even out those yearly totals. But it’s hard to have flick carded fleece around and not spin it just to see how it’s going to spin up! I am giving myself the goal of finishing one knitting project first. I’ve got three active projects on the needles.

As a nail polish update, I ended up changing out my nail color on Thursday. So, I went from Sunday evening to Thursday evening, totally a record for me. And, the honest truth is I could have gotten at least one more day out of that manicure, it was starting to crumble at the very edges, but not enough to have to remove. I just had the time and wanted to change it out. I have a hot pink on now, which is a color I love, but I think I’ll change it out again on Sunday evening. It’s a nice Sunday evening routine when I have the time for it, and going into the week with a fresh manicure is pleasant.

Let’s see, what else? Work. It’s going surprisingly well right now. I mean, there are all the little emergencies of a week of work going on, but despite the fact we are short staffed, everyone is chipping in nicely and things are rolling along. I don’t know if I mentioned it or not, but I was able to get rid of one overwhelming project that takes up a large portion of my time. I didn’t have to give it to someone on my team or even someone in my department, or even someone at my university! I gave it to another university entirely. She and I communicate about it regularly still, she still has questions, but the daily work of it isn’t on me anymore and that leaves me a lot more time to actually train and manage my team. It’s an amazing feeling! Prior to this, I was so overburdened that I couldn’t get through my days getting everything done. I just had to prioritize my projects and hope for the best. And let other things drop, and see where they landed. This upcoming week I believe we’ll be conducting interviews for a new person for my team, and that’ll be exciting as well.

Miss Butterfly begins high school on Monday. She’s a teenager with all the teenage angst and irritations, but she also has a fairly positive attitude that I think will serve her well. She’s nervous, just as I would be, but I feel confident that once she gets settled in, she’ll be fine.

This morning I am enjoying a very quiet morning. Miss Butterfly is hanging out with her father, and Mr. Ink is at work. This leaves me and the dog, and there’s nothing Lizzie likes more than a quiet Saturday morning with Mom. I am convinced of this, as she gets grumpy if it doesn’t work out for me. She had a vet check this week, and besides an infected eyelid, which she now has drops for, she’s a pretty healthy old lady.

That’s it from here! Tomorrow will be a makeup post, and then I don’t know what else will get posted this week since I am still plugging away at a shawl that is growing bigger but not getting finished awfully fast. Have a great weekend!

 

Second Shawl Update

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Within two days of the first photo, here’s where I am on the Nix shawl:

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Not too shabby! Progress has been easy and fun, and the color combo does play as well as I imagined it would together. Maybe even better.

In beauty news, as you know, I am trying to use up nail polish. I got frustrated with my manicure only lasting 2 days at a time, that’s a LOT of time on nails, so I looked up tips and tricks to make polish stay on longer. On Sunday evening I got a shower, braided my hair, and then did my nails. The only thing I did differently this time was soak my fingers in ice water after they dried for 2 minutes post top coat application. Well, that, and use newer nail polish which clearly was a much nicer formula than what I had been trying to apply to my nails. Anyhow-point being it’s Wednesday, and my nails look fantastic. Still. And you all know how much I use my hands. It’s unbelievable.

Planning for the weekend-after flick carding and giving myself quite a blister, I decided what I’d most like to do this weekend is more flick carding. Sound crazy? Well, it’s not. Here’s the deal. I was careful not to pop that blister, and it ended up becoming a pretty serious callous. So really, flick carding NOW while that’s still on my hand, would be perfect. I’ve got 8 ounces to get through I believe, though it could be more, and if I get that done there’ll only be one fleece left in my stash that isn’t flick carded. (And should be combed anyhow.) Everything else that needs flick carding will be done. That would be a pretty incredible accomplishment for this summer.

Miss Butterfly is already bugging me to go shopping, and we likely will, though I really feel like we need to take inventory of what she already has in her closet. Back to school shopping is fun for her, but I also need to remind her that she got a lot of nice things while out with my mom, and she doesn’t NEED a ridiculous closet. Maybe I’ll just make her go to the thrift store again, we had decent luck there in the past.

That’s really it from here. Have a great week my friends!

More Secret Stash

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Yesterday Miss Butterfly and I were rearranging her room, making decisions about what to keep in there and what to move, and then rearranging my craft room to accommodate what she was giving up. Namely, we moved a table I was using as a makeup set up for us both and moved in her desk which is slimmer and makes the craft room larger as it takes up less space. It also has drawers which are highly convenient.

Because she’d done much of her room rearranging on her own, the craft room was a disaster area. She had basically used it to dump everything she didn’t want in her own room. So, we worked on cleaning that up and I came across a project I’d started ages ago.

The pattern is called Nix, and I started it in November 2017. I remember clearly working a few rows, deciding I hated the pattern and then moving it to my craft room so I could decide what to do with it. One of those situations where I wasn’t sure if I was going to frog or keep going. But, the craft room isn’t where I keep my yarn and between thinking I hated the pattern and it being in the craft room which is “secret stash” I never picked it back up.

Until yesterday. I must have been in a mood sometime in November of 2017 because that pattern is just fine. Lovely, easy, pleasant to work. I don’t know why I had a fit over it!

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I am enjoying the project immensely now! The real reason I picked it back up was that the pattern cost money and the yarn was already wound into balls. Meaning, I didn’t feel like spending money on a pattern and I didn’t feel like winding new yarn. This ended up being perfect, with the added benefit of having it out of the craft room.

The yarn is from the wool festival in Taos I went to 5 years ago now. I bought it so that all those colors would go together but never found the perfect pattern. I think my intention had been to make it into a color affection shawl but I never got around to it. I still would like to make another color affection shawl someday, but I think a drapier yarn would be best for that pattern. The yarn for this pattern are singles and they are wool. A bit scratchy and rustic but beautifully dyed. They are knitting up very bouncy and squishy. I suspect this one is going to pill like mad at some point, but it looks pretty nice so far. It has surprisingly good stitch definition for singles.

What else did I do yesterday? Let’s see. I prepped for my next spin, even though I am unsure of when I might start that. I took Miss Butterfly shopping for stuff for her new room set up. Specifically, we were looking for a cool desk chair to match her room, but we were unsuccessful. However, we did manage to find her a bedding set that she liked and that matched, and I picked up a new tablecloth. So, the trip wasn’t entirely unsuccessful, just not as successful as we’d have hoped. And since I know that kid, I didn’t want to rush into a chair choice only to find out she wanted to return it later. This is a thing she does to me often. I also painted my nails and did a much better job on those than I generally do so that was pleasant, we’ll see how long they last.

And finally, here’s a photo from yesterday morning, Lizzie isn’t thrilled to pieces about the new loft bed.

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Of course, it’s no fair that Miss Butterfly is holding her treat. Lizzie eventually got that treat by using the pillows on the floor as a launching point to jump for it. Smart doggo, she figured out a way!

Shopping the Stash for the Week

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It’s that time again, time to pull out makeup I plan to use in the upcoming week. I really enjoy doing this on a Sunday, especially if it’s a relaxing day. It kind of gives me an opportunity to consider what is going on during the week, what makeup would be appropriate for those activities, and what makeup I’d like to play with in the mornings. It also feels like when I pull specific items, that gives me some focus and instead of flailing around trying to make decisions at 5:30 a.m. I am far quicker about pulling myself together.

Here’s what I’ve chosen for this week:

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Let’s first talk about the eyeshadow palette, as I tend to do. It’s the basis for my routine each morning, and so everything revolves around that choice. My choice this week is eyeshadow singles, the Taylor Bundle from Sydney Grace. That almost filled this magnetic palette completely except for 2 open spaces, which I filled with a morphe single that’s just for setting primer and a metallic single from Vanessa’s Vanity I already had but fit the tones in the Sydney Grace bundle. I am pretty excited to spend the week with these shadows, the photo isn’t really showing the color perfectly on my computer, this bundle is a bit cooler-toned than most of the colors in my collection. It’s got nice pinks and dusty blue shades and I think I can get a bunch of lovely looks out of this.

I can see that I pulled quite a bit for this week, clearly, I am feeling makeup ambitious. Let’s now go left to right.

I pulled out my wet n wild photofocus eyeshadow primer for this week. I have been using mac paint pot for quite some time now, but I fear I am coming down with a cold and that generally means dry sensitive skin for me. Paint pot is going to be too drying this week.

I pulled out two concealers, both the tarte shape tape and the bare minerals bareskin concealer.

Below that is a sample of mac prep and prime primer to try. I often forget to use primer entirely, but if I could get my act together and use it, I’d know if I really felt it necessary regularly.

I pulled 3 lip products, one is a buxom gloss, the other a too faced liquid lip, and the final product is the Maybelline nude color lipstick I am working at panning this summer.

The dandelion twinkle highlighter is also a project pan product, and while I am panning a highlighter that isn’t in a palette, the butter bronzer is a good companion item.

For foundations, I’ve pulled the urban decay all nighter as I am still trying to pan that one, but on Monday we’ve got a very long day and the bare minerals powder foundation will hold up better for me.

I finished my YSL Mon Paris sample last week so I am on to Hermes Eau des Merveilles Bleue sample for this week. However, if I do come down with a cold, it won’t see much use I also get very sensitive to scents when feeling unwell.

Above the palette, I’ve got two products that are in my current project pan, the contour palette from wet n wild which great progress has been made on, and a makeup revolution blush that would probably last me 3 years with everyday use.

Below the palette I’ve got an assortment of pencil items. 2 eyeliners, a black silkissime liner, and a charcoal grey jonteblu eyeliner. I also have my Nyx eyeshadow eyebrow pencil and a nude L’oreal infallible eyeliner for my water line. And finally, an ulta lip pencil that is so close to being finished that it has broken off its base and when I twist it up, it no longer goes down on its own.

I pulled my L’Oreal infallible setting spray for this week, and my marc jacobs mascara paired with my bad gal bang for lower lashes.

And finally, making a debut appearance in shop the stash for the week is two nail colors. These are both in my current project polish, and since they both go very nicely with the look I’ll be going for this week, I pulled them out and added them here. I don’t seem to be able to keep polish on for more than 2, maybe 3 days, so it’s completely natural for me to choose more than one color for the week. (Maybe I’ll get better at this with time like I have with makeup in general, or maybe 2-3 days is normal, or maybe I am just hard on my nails. I don’t know, but project polish should tell me eventually!)

Looking forward to seeing how the week goes with these Sydney Grace eyeshadows, I just love concentrating on a palette for one week. But, not gonna lie, it’ll be hard to top my enjoyment of last week’s sweet peach palette! That palette was a lovely gift and I couldn’t seem to create something I didn’t like!

All On Her Own

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For years Miss Butterfly has been asking for a loft bed. It’s not an illogical request since her room is small. And the bed she was in was a very old frame (4 generations used it) that doesn’t properly fit a modern mattress, so the mattress she was using was Mr. Ink’s when he was a kid. Not sure how old it was then. It was beat up and falling apart. There’s no way to get a modern mattress to fit, My mom and I measured and looked together. It’s just not possible. But, I’d been telling her I wasn’t purchasing her a loft bed. Especially since we’d gone to the trouble of painting her bedframe and setting it up.

The requests didn’t stop, and so while I was perusing our local Nextdoor site, I came upon someone trying to sell a loft bed frame for a low price. I contacted her and on Thursday evening we headed over there with the truck to look it over. Miss Butterfly deemed it worthy of her room, so we loaded it up in the truck, paid for it, and set off.

However, Mr. Ink and I were tired, it was getting late, and we decided we weren’t going to set that bed up until the next day. We just pulled the truck into the garage and called it good.

Miss Butterfly, excited about this new purchase, felt differently. She began rearranging her room, moving things about, and measuring to make sure the bed would fit where she wanted it. The next morning I received the following picture via text:

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Somehow this child had managed to take down and move her mattress, box spring, and the entire old beframe. Then she’d gone out to the garage and brought in the pieces for the loft bed from the truck. And she began assembling it as well. With no instructions to be had.

After this photo, I received no more photos, but I did receive a text informing me that she was done and that there were two missing screws, but she thought it was fine. She refused to send pictures because she wanted it to be a surprise. I did ask her to please check with Mr. Ink at lunchtime that she had done everything correctly. She had.

When I got home, she was super proud to show me her new loft bed area, which she has decorated with christmas lights. She even managed to pull the mattress off the daybed in the guest room and get it up on that loft bed all by herself. That kid will get a job done when she wants a job done, no question!

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Now I guess I need to consider finding another mattress for the daybed. And, at some point, I’ll shop for sheets so I can have the ones that match the daybed back. I am even considering getting her this cool teal colored chair I saw in a shop as a surprise, I think she’d get a kick out of that. I miss the pretty old bedframe and the more traditional looking room, but she’s certainly made this her own space, and I think that’s important too.

Done and Dusted

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I know full well that when I put my mind to something, I usually manage to complete that something. But I really didn’t realize how far I’d get with the craft room delcutter of secret stash so quickly after I decided to do it. I hadn’t set out to do it quickly, but once I got started, it has been tough to slow down.

I am particularly happy I managed to decide to work on it right before TdF, as I had not been even a little inspired about TdF prior to that. It gave me a goal and some focus, and I managed to get so much done! Let’s review that, shall we?

First of all, the new thing. I finished up all the Corriedale fleece from TdF. It may have been 4 days after TdF when I wrapped that project up, but no matter.

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There you have it, that’s 1,530 yards of 3 ply yarn which I took from washed fleece to handspun yarn in a very short amount of time. I mean, I did have a few vacation days thrown in there, which helped immensely. But, that was easily the fastest I’ve ever processed a fleece.

This ended up being a pretty good declutter too because once I was done with the flick carding, I realized the huge pink bag I’d been storing the fleece in had large holes in the bottom of it from being used so much before I stuck the fleece in there. It’s probably why I stuck the fleece in there to store it in the first place. So, instead of finding a place for the bag, I got to toss the bag. One more item decluttered.

So, if you count the other two projects from TdF, the massive amount of red, and the cram pot dyed colorful locks I flick carded and spun then plied with silk, the grand total of yardage spun for TdF (and 4 days after) is 4,160.

That’s….amazing. That’s a TON of yarn. Really. And to think that amount of fiber was just sitting in my secret stash, while I pretended it didn’t even exist.

What is left in my secret stash? A couple things. A bag full of fleece/locks I intend to destash at some point. Another bag of 8 ounces of CVM/Romeldale that needs to be flick carded and spun. 2 leftover fleeces. Meaning, I made full projects out of the yarn I spun with them, but there’s still more left over sitting in my stash. A black wensleydale fleece. A box of wool samples of various breeds to work through someday. And, a container full of stuff for drum carding or making rolags. Though that is greatly reduced as well.

But for now, I shall knit. I’ve got two larger projects on the needles. The handspun sweater, which is sitting at home:

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You may remember that I ripped out the collar and the ribbing to add length. I am now working the ribbing again, and it’s close to being done.

And then there’s this, Scottish Stripes, out of handspun and I absolutely love it. Even though it somehow ended up in hibernation for a bit. Here’s the last photo I took of it:

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This photo is from May, so it really does need to be back in my rotation, and it’s a great work lunch project. It’s moving along again. I would like to finish one of these before the end of August, and then cast on a Lintilla out of the colorful handspun above, as that would make for a perfect vacation knit. We’ll see how it goes!

That’s it from here, happy Friday!

 

What Stayed Gone?

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You may remember that I sent some makeup and product with Miss Butterfly for my mom to try. I figured it might be fun to review what stayed there and what came home.

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In addition to what is pictured, I also sent some Almay eye makeup remover pads for waterproof eye makeup. And Miss Butterfly brought a number of lip products to include some Clinique chubby stick samples I’d given to her a while back.

Right off the bat, mom liked a few things. For instance, the eye makeup remover pads were a hit, and the age rewind concealer worked for her as well.

I believe that the coty airspun powder stayed there as well, having been enjoyed. Which is great, as I am trying to work through a number of other powders in my stash right now, and that way this powder can get some use. Also, I love it, so it’s fun to share that love, even from a distance.

Now, the rest left to right. All of this is simply reported by Miss Butterfly, so I am not sure of its accuracy. The purple-colored wet n wild eyeshadow stayed, but it sounded like Miss Butterfly forced that one on my poor mom.

The ulta eyebrow gel stayed willingly, according to Miss Butterfly, and the elf eyebrow pencil less willingly but I can attest that it really only had the tiniest amount left in it anyhow.

The jonteblu charcoal colored eyeliner returned to me, and I’ve been using it myself from time to time when I want a black color rather than brown, but less harsh than a real true black. It’s not my favorite, but I am happy to have some use from it from time to time.

The blush returned to me, as Mom already had blush. I think Miss Butterfly wanted it to stay, and maybe because it’s not a color Miss Butterfly can wear and look good in. But I can, so I am perfectly happy to have it back.

The blush brush returned, but the eyebrow brush stayed from what I can tell. At least, it doesn’t seem to have made it back into my brush collection.

The Clinique eyeshadow duo stayed, but I think this was another force by Miss Butterfly, and the brown toned wet n wild shadow returned. It’s still in my project pan, and I have used it since it returned to me.

Also, many of the Clinique chubby sticks stayed, Miss Butterfly says mom liked those, and I believe Miss Butterfly only kept two for herself. And also gave Mom another lipstick of some sort from her stash.

And then, Miss Butterfly returned with a few things. I believe a lipstick and some foundation which I think is the Maybelline age rewind foundation. Since that’s not something I’ve tried yet, Miss Butterfly encouraged me to give it a try. I did so, and it oxidized way lighter than what it looks like in the bottle! I’ve never seen that happen before. I have a lot of experience with foundation going significantly darker, but not lighter! So, I told Miss Butterfly she’d better give that one a try, as it was VERY clear to me why it wasn’t working for Mom.

Thankfully, though Miss Butterfly has been told she can wear some makeup once she starts HS, letting her experiment with makeup quite a lot prior to being able to wear it out has REALLY toned down her desire to wear it at all. She’s finally convinced that full glam isn’t really for daily wear and that her skin looks pretty good without makeup, and she’s quite happy with some mascara and a swipe of a lip color. Allowing her to experiment heavily has also allowed her to see herself as confident in almost no makeup, and for that I am grateful.

In any case, I am glad I sent a few things out there. Sort of like sending favorite toys when Miss Butterfly was younger, hopefully, it gave everyone a moment of connection. And for me, it was fun to see what stayed and what came back home.

Project Polish

/ shellssells / 4 Comments

One thing in my beauty routine that has been sadly lacking is the wearing of nail polish. Miss Butterfly has a ton of nail polishes, and I added to that collection a bit at the end of last year. I had full intentions of wearing nail polish more often at that point, but it didn’t really happen. I know why too, I am not great at sitting still doing nothing with my hands, and so am often uninspired to sit down and do my nails.

But, I also like the look of polish on, and it helps me keep my nail-biting in check during stressful work times. Seriously, if my nails are painted, I take so much better care of them!

So, then I thought about project panning, and how much I enjoy that process. And how much I enjoy watching others go through that process. I figured I could do the same with nail polish, as a way to motivate me to sit down and paint my nails regularly. I also realized I’d need to get Miss Butterfly involved because the bulk of the polish is hers and I don’t think it would be very nice to say “I am going to use up all your nail polish!” without her prior approval or in a way that failed to involve her.

So I explained my idea and asked if she’d like to be involved. She did want to be involved. And after registering her for high school, we headed to Sally’s for some nail polish swatching wheels. And we delighted in running through our collection and picking polishes out. Here are our wheels:

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The one on the left is what we’ve chosen to start with using up. The second one is the rest of the polish in our collective collection. We’ve got an overabundance of magenta colored polish it seems, but most of those polishes are sample sizes and should get used up quickly. Miss Butterfly had a great time painting these swatch wheels and would have painted more if we had more polishes to use.

We’ve set down some rules. No more purchasing polish until some of these are used up. This isn’t a tough rule to follow, as it’s not a huge temptation for either of us. The second rule is that if both of us decide we hate the color or the polish, we can just get rid of it. The orange may be the first to go. It actively annoys Miss Butterfly to see it on my hands, and I don’t like it much either. Then Mr. Ink informed us that he didn’t like the color, which Miss Butterfly absolutely crowed about. Perhaps I can try painting my toenails with it. Or using it to mark progress on our polish bottles. Because I totally forgot to do that.

Here is our starting point on the bottles:

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You’ll see that most of these bottles are full or almost full. That’s because we just don’t use them! But we are going to seriously try now. I doubt I’ll have monthly updates on this, and it’ll be a rolling project, we’ll roll in new colors as we roll out the old ones. We added a glitter at the last minute since it may be fun to have a topper for some of these shades. And, the iridescent white may work as a topper for some of these as well. This should help get us experimenting with other pairings as well.

I painted my nails after we arranged all this, but Miss Butterfly didn’t paint hers. She tells me she has to grow out her nails first. Then, she painted my toenails, using the metallic gold color, which hasn’t been done in probably 20 years, and I painted her toenails that iridescent blue. So again, my urge to use up products we’ve got around the house is working in a collaborative way to also spend more time with my kiddo, which is a real win for all involved!