Month: February 2020

Knitting and Updates

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Hi all! I’ve been fairly absent around here, for the usual reasons. I just don’t have a lot of time for blogging, or haven’t, and also haven’t had a ton of photos for the blog either.

A few updates in this post as well as a finished object. First of all, one of the reasons that I have been absent is that I recently received a promotion at work, but along with that comes having to learn a whole lot of new things, leaving me pretty much an exhausted puddle of brain by the evenings. I also had to change my work hours for a time, and since I was working later, just wasn’t home at all while it was light enough for a decent photo. My hours are back to normal, I’m beginning to absorb and get more comfortable with new work tasks, and it’s beginning to get lighter outside. I’d say we are on the upswing.

As for content, Mr. Ink and I purchased each other new computers for christmas as we both needed an upgrade desperately. Once I had a new computer, I quickly purchased a video game that I am pretty obsessed with right now. Like everything else I’ve ever been obsessed with, I know that I can ride this wave and it will slow down at some point. But, for a time there, I really got pretty intense. And honestly, it was a good mindless way to occupy my brain goo evenings.

In other things, we’ve actually been going out more and socializing more than we had been there for quite some time. This is because a cousin of mine moved to the area. It’s been a delight. One way to gain an appreciation for the city I’ve lived in for years now is to show it and share it with someone new. Mr. Ink has also found this to be the case. So, now, if I want to grab lunch during work hours with a friend, I can call my cousin and we go grab lunch. When we want to have company for dinner, we can give her a call and Mr. Ink will make us dinner. Earlier this month she asked if we’d like to go see Tig Notaro with her. We did very much want to do that, and then some. So, we took her to one of our favorite local dive bars, a place where we can order food across the street and have it delivered to the bar. Much talk of all the other places we’d like to share with her ensued. Then off to see Tig Notaro and laugh until our cheeks hurt. Mr. Ink and I agreed that this was one of our favorite nights out in quite a long time, and continued to grin the rest of the evening.

We’ve also had some issues with the dogs. Fury has allergies and itchy skin which we are trying to get a handle on. It wakes her up at night multiple times which means it wakes us up too, so we run on less sleep than normal. We’ve also had a few episodes of Rose and her ongoing digestive upsets, the one she had this week came to a head and required a trip to urgent care, antibiotics, and stomach protectant. Thankfully she’s now on the mend again. Luckily the dogs are doing great together, play together regularly, and really show no discontent with each other, so Fury as an addition has been fantastic. I was doing training with her which she passed with flying colors, and I need to pick another class but also I was so tired from all the things so I decided to take a little break. We’ll get back to it shortly.

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There’s your obligatory dog photo.

And now on to the knitting. Anything I have been knitting lately is with Miss Marja’s yarn. For this one I used a bulky 3 ply and wanted to make a scarf, but ended up with a cowl instead.

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I very much enjoyed the gentle color changes in this one. I used the one row scarf pattern, and once I realized that I didn’t have scarf amounts, I just sewed the ends together.

And after all that, that’s it from here. It’s the end of the month so tomorrow will bring the first of two project pan posts and then I do have one more finished handknit to show off. Hopefully, I will get motivated enough to start something else new and that would be a good photo op as well. Have a great weekend!

Another paintbox cowl

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I had a great time working on Marja’s paintbox cowl. We chose a solid blue handspun and paired it with a chainply handspun, both Marja’s yarn creations. It took me a lot longer than it typically would, mostly because I am not knitting a ton right now, as I just want to play computer games when I get home. I know myself well enough to know that like any other hobby obsession, it’s good to just let it run its course.

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So, here’s the deal. I took this photo midday while at work because trying to take a photo in the dark doesn’t show off the yarn very well. But, it looks wrinkly. Sorry about the not-great photo, it does look great when worn!

 

February Beauty Balance

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Last month I moved 11 products out of my collection, adding nothing in. This month I added nothing in again, or rather, will add nothing in. Since I am doing a replacements only no buy for at least this month and next, it doesn’t matter when I list my empties, as there won’t be anything incoming to balance it with.

So, once resolving my 3 panning projects, it is convenient to do an empties post and move those products into the recycling bin.

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This month I beat out my totals from last month. I had 11 products leave last month, this month I have 12. So, 23 in 2 months.

I finished a perfume sample, it was from Phlur. It smelled very floral, as the brand name suggests. When putting this on initially it is so strong, but thankfully settles down into a nice lasting fragrance that sticks around most of the day. I’ve been alternating perfumes through about 3 different scents, this being one of them, and I’ve really enjoyed this one thoroughly.

Next up, 4 mini nyx liquid lipsticks. The brown one has gone off. I am disappointed about it. I loved the color but only wore it once! It was from the 2018 nyx advent calendar. The other 3 I just don’t love the formula of, so they are going to Miss Butterfly.

I finished my bare minerals matte foundation in my rolling project pan, I enjoy that foundation pretty well, but also have bare pro foundation to work through now so I won’t be repurchasing it any time soon.

I used a youth to the people kale and green tea moisturizer, it was a nice, light, gel type formula that I loved. I love Belif just as much so I’ll probably stick with that since I can now get that at ulta, but I did love the youth to the people option as well.

I finished up a wet n wild primer spray, mostly I used this as a spray to wet my brush with. I’ve been using it for ages, but also ended up with a number of sprays in my collection, so I decided to finish this one so I could make more room.

The Farmacy honeymoon glow is a product I loved. It’s pricey, but this lasted me 8 months, so I feel like that’s not such a bad price when I consider the amount of use I got out of it. I won’t repurchase immediately as I’ve got some other resurfacing products to use up first, but I may decided to purchase this in the future.

I finally finished up the very last but of my Mary Kay satin hands exfoliator, and this is an item I won’t repurchase simply because I am now quite opposed to MLMs.

The Body Drench lotion is something I keep at work, and this is my third purchase of this item. I love the formula, and the scent is light enough not to bother me at work, so I’ll repurchase this once I am done with the first aid beauty one I currently have at work.

And finally, a hairspray. I got this free during one of the ulta hair events. It did not really have the hold I was looking for that works best for my rather wild poofy super short cut. The hold is a bit too gentle for that. But I didn’t waste it! However, now that I’ve gone back to a high hold spray, I am experiencing the learning curve of putting less spray on my hair each day.

That’s it, 23 products in the last month and a half. I’ll save my empties until after the 10th of next month as well. I’d be super pleased if I could add another 10 items, but that might be a bit of a challenge. We’ll see how it goes.

Partners in Cream Project Pan

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A project where I attempt to get use out of cream products since liquids and creams go off faster than powder. Here’s where I started:

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I easily finished up the wet n wild primer spray, it was no trouble at all to finish. So, I’ve chosen a product to replace that.

The ciate liquid shadow I had in this project to see if I wanted to declutter it. I don’t want to declutter it. In fact, I found that it worked very well for me as an eyeshadow topper particularly when a shimmer shadow I used was a bit too dark for my lids. I am happy to own this and happy to keep using it regularly. As such, I am rolling it out of this project.

The Bare Minerals primer saw a bit of use, and I have to really bend the package to get product out of it, but it is by no means gone yet. I use this once or twice a week, so not often at all. Maybe by next month I’ll be done.

As for the sleek makeup cream contour, I am working on the middle contour shade. I got a ton used up, want to see? I hope you can see even though there is a shadow on the pan:

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Just a tiny bit left now. I’ll continue to use this palette and leave it in the project, working on the darker shade next.

I am adding in both of my becca first light primers. One is so close to being done if it felt like cheating to add just that in. Plus, I love the product but have other travel sizes to use. I’d like to finish these up so I can free up two little spaces on my vanity. And, I am going to finally attempt to finish the bite beauty travel-size lipstick I was attempting to pan at the end of last year. I doubt it’ll take me long.

A pretty nice start for a first update with the likelihood of being done with the bare minerals and one of the becca primers and possibly the bite beauty lipstick too by the next update.

Quick Knitting Update

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I haven’t got too much to say at the moment, I played computer games this weekend way more than I knit. But it’s been awhile since I’ve shown off this project, I got two more chunks done since the last photo.

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As of today, it lives at work. I am desperately close to finishing the previous work project, so hopefully, I’ll have an update on that this weekend. I am just loving how the colors flow on this project, really fun, pretty, and interesting!

2020 Rolling Project Pan update 1

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Last month I started a rolling project pan using specific prompts. My prompts to start the project were:

Prompts:
1.  A product with cute packaging
2.  An expensive product
3.  A product in loose form
4.  A drugstore product
5.  A product I bought because of youtube
6.  An old favorite

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And these are the projects I chose. Here’s a spoiler, I did finish one item so I needed a new prompt. The new prompt is:

7.  A product you haven’t used in a while.

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Let’s start with the new prompt first, I chose the l’oreal silkissime liner in cobalt blue. I am not trying to finish this one, but my goal will be to work my way through it until I can no longer see the L’oreal label toward the top. So, that’s still a bit of work. I rarely use this liner and I think it needs to see some action in my collection.

My product with cute packaging is the pretty vulgar powder. I started with this weighing 80 grams and it now weighs 76, so progress was certainly made. I’ll keep at it. If I haven’t used it up by the summer, I may have to roll it back out as it does nothing for oil control. But it does set my makeup nicely and it’s great to use this time of year.

My expensive product is the hourglass ambient lighting powder in dim light. I have used this almost every day. My goal is to hit pan. No pan yet…

My product in loose form was the bare minerals powder foundation, that is now used up.

My drugstore product is the NYX brow powder pencil. I used about halfway to the lettering, so progress was made.

The product I bought because of youtube is the CYO lifeproof foundation. I did make progress on this, but I also worked hard on finishing up a different foundation this month, so I think I can make my progress on this go a bit quicker next month. I am hoping to use this up, but it’s another one that needs to roll out if the weather warms. So we’ll see how far I can get!

And, the hula bronzer sample is my old favorite. I’ve used it daily, I don’t see a lot of progress. The goal is to use this one up, so it might be some time yet!

Not a bad start for a rolling project. I have a feeling that I won’t be able to roll in anything new next month. But, I’ll keep after it and see how far I can get. Sometimes I am surprised!

Protect Your Meatsuit project pan update 1

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So, you may recall I began a small project pan using body care or skincare types of items. Bascially, non-makeup items. I’ve now been at it for a month and it’s time for an update.

I chose 5 items to work on.

The Sol de Janero shower gel I did make the tiniest bit of progress on. I was surprised, as I have used this almost every single day. Honestly, it’s such a lovely, rich, and beautifully scented product that a little really goes a long way. So it  may take me a year to finish this off.

The next item is my cleanser-I made a much bigger amount of progress on this than I anticipated. So much so that I am genuinely wondering if I had the original mark incorrect. No matter, we will see how it goes this month and have a better idea of that soon.

I did use both face masks this month. I am not positive I used them once a week, and progress isn’t huge, but I did use them, which means I made progress, far more so than if I’d continued to ignore them in my collection as I have been doing.

Then there’s the body exfoliator. I only used this once this month. I think it would be easy for me to finish up, there’s not much in there. But I concentrated on the shower gel instead. Perhaps I’ll set a goal to use this once a week and see how I get on with it.

So, I can’t roll anything new in this month, but I did make nice progress on each item so that’s good enough for me.