Month: July 2020

Foster 2.0

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It’s that time again! Foster dog 2.0 has entered our lives.

Maybe she’s even 2.1. We had committed to a different dog, a dog I was extremely eager to take on. But over the weeks leading up to her transport it became clear that she was too aggressive to be transported and put in a foster home at this time. We are sad we couldn’t give her a new life with a pit stop at our place, but we are also grateful to our rescue for making sure our dogs and home stays safe.

The rescue owner, when telling me that the dog we committed to could not come, offered us Laynie, a young mom with a litter of pups also coming in to rescue.

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Laynie is just over 30 pounds, and the rescue has her listed as a mountain cur mix. I think this is a pretty accurate guess. Her babies are old enough for adoption, but we found out that she is heartworm positive. So, she needs to stay with us long enough to get her through heartworm treatment and a spay.

Thankfully, she hasn’t had the treatment yet which means we can go out and go for walks and stuff.

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It’s hot here, so she hides behind the couch to stay cool after we go for walks.

We are very glad to be able to provide her a spot between her before life and her forever home. Sadly, one of Laynie’s babies has now passed away due to parvo, and another baby fights for her life. I hope for the best for them, but fear the worst. The rescue is busy right now, while our family has the easy job of just caring for mom.

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And really, she is a pretty girl!

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July Beauty Balance Part 2

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Yesterday we talked about my empties, which brought me to 49 items leaving my collection over what entered in this year.

Now we talk about the incoming items.

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This is kind of a funny one. I am now at 43 items leaving over what entered my collection.

The first item is CYO lifeproof foundation which left my collection earlier this year when Miss Butterfly decided she wanted it. After using it a few times, and using some of her other foundations, she has now decided (much to my happiness) that she actually would prefer not to wear makeup other than mascara. So, she returned to me a foundation I truly love.

While I didn’t need the Pond’s cleansing balm, I had been wanting to try it. But I’d never found it in store. And of course, going to stores is really unusual at this point. So, when I happened upon it in a store, I decided I’d pick it up. It’ll get used up pretty quickly and I am glad to finally get an opportunity to give it a try.

2 more products that have been on my too try list is the moroccanoil beach wave mousse. I got a travel size of it. The criticisms of this mousse leave me to believe that I will love it. Grainy, sticky, too textured, those are all really ideal descriptions for someone with my type of short hair that I am asking to stick right up in the air! Also, the too faced peach perfect powder I’ve been eager to try for a long time.

Along with that was a couple of samples, another Belif aqua bomb (because I will never pass it up, it’s my favorite!) and a fragrance sample.

So at the end of these incoming items, I am at 43 leaving my collection over what has entered.

And that’s all for this month. Next month I’ve decided to place a yes style order. I’ve wanted to explore various brands from there for ages and never pulled the trigger. I have now done so, and so that’ll be the incoming items next month. Hopefully I can keep up with my outgoing items so it’s not too big a drain on my outgoing count!

July Beauty Balance part 1

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Here are my July empties. I’ll post incoming items tomorrow.

During my previous update, I had a total of 38 items leaving my collection over what came into my collection. It actually was a pretty cruddy update, in the sense that I had quite a few incoming items. I do have incoming items this month, but not too overwhelmingly so.

Here are my empties:

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Starting top left, I finished a second Garnier miceller cleanser. I do not like this product, this is the last in my collection, hope to never receive it as a sample again.

I also have a teal eyeliner that went off. I have tried sharpening it past the point where it’s gone off, but the product itself has gone fully off. I used to use this a lot, and I am sad I didn’t continue to do so. On the other hand, I have plenty of teal eyeshadows in my collection that would serve a similar purpose. So, I won’t be on the hunt for another teal liner.

I finished my travel size becca first light primer. I love this product, and it’s in the running for a repurchase someday when I finish all my other primers.

I finished 3 perfume samples all of which I enjoyed and also won’t purchase.

I have a sample size of it cosmetics cc cream (original formula) and while I do like the it cosmetics cc creams, this shade, light, is actually not that good on me despite the fact that light shade in the matte and illuminating formulas are fine on me. No repurchase and look forward to finishing up the other container in my collection.

I finished my AOA studios setting powder. At only a dollar, this is a perfectly serviceable setting powder and I might repurchase if I was making another AOA order. I’d pick up a few of them at a time in that case, as there really isn’t much product in there.

I finished up The Ordinary glycolic acid toner and I’ve already repurchased.

I finished the IGK texture spray which I liked but is not my favorite, won’t repurchase.

I finished my Big Sexy Hair hairspray, which I am very likely to repurchase but I’ve got travel sizes and hairspray backups to work through first.

Then there’s two sachets which do not count. One was a hair cc cream by Alterna which I liked a lot and the other was a tula exfoliating pad which was deceiving. I thought it would be some sort of proper chemical exfoliant but it was one of those weird ones with the product that balls up on your skin to cause a physical exfoliation. Hard pass.

This leaves 49 items leaving my collection over what entered it for the month of July.  My incoming items are a bit more reasonable this month but I’ll still add them in a separate post. That being said, 49 is certainly not where I’ll stay for the month, that number will be going back down a bit.

Partners in cream Project Pan update 6

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In last month’s post, I didn’t truly finish anything up beyond a couple of perfume samples. And I ended up rolling in a couple more almost finished samples so I could take one more month to make a decision about what I wanted to pan next. Here’s the photo from last month.

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I had finished two perfume samples, not finished a third, and rolled in a fourth.

This month, I managed to finish all perfume samples plus the Becca First Light Primer.

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That leaves 3 items for updates. My It cosmetics matte cc cream has made so much progress that I can now see through the tube. In my experience, shortly I will be unable to use the pump anymore and will need to cut open the package. But, I also believe that finishing it from this point does take a good long time, probably about a month of use, and, I am a bit trying to savor this one for use when I am physically at work. That’ll be about 10 days total between now and the next update. So, this one might not be done before then.

Next up would be my Touch in Sol No Poreblem primer. I’ve really tried to concentrate on this one once the becca primer was done, but I don’t think I really made more progress than other months. That being said, steady progress is worthwhile progress as well, and progress remains pretty steady.

My rose facial spray is also in the steady progress category. I wasn’t sure it would be as I’ve been skipping this on the days I am physically at work. Instead I use a stronger holding setting spray because of mask use. This rose spray is really a seriously large amount, and I bet it takes another 6 months to finish this up.

So, I then needed to roll in two new items for this project. I have chosen a clarins facial sunscreen. I want to get this used up as it’s almost a year old. But typically I leave it out of my routine as it’s not a favorite of mine. I need to concentrate on it so I can get it finished up.

Then, I’ve got my two faced born this way foundation. This is typically too dark on me, and remains so now. I’ve used it to darken various foundations before. And last year I tried to pan it toward the end of the summer after finishing up a too dark mac foundation, but you can see on the two progress lines that I didn’t get very far. The progress remains at the bottom line, and since I don’t have a darker shade to work on, I genuinely do believe I can get this one worked through this year if I concentrate on it. I’ll lighten it a bit until I spend more time outside (soon) and then maybe even be able to use it full on for a bit. I’ll be extremely pleased to get this one used up if I can!

All in all a successful and steady progress type of update. Just like I prefer them! Looking forward to continued steady progress over the upcoming month, and trying not to stress about the fact that I currently have 3 foundations in various projects right now!

What’s In Progress Today?

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When I finished up my nightshift shawl, I wasn’t in the mood to go hunt down a proper pattern and yarn combo. So, I used a couple things that were already wound up and sitting near my living room chair. One was a chain ply yarn that Miss Marja made, and the other was a 3 ply yarn I made out of fleece I processed myself.

I decided on the simplest of the simple scarves, and just did a 1×1 rib knit alternating the yarn colors. It’s always a hit.

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I’d say it’s coming along quite nicely and I definitely appreciate the pairing of the grey with the greens and purples. I am approaching the halfway point, according to the amount of Marja’s handspun I have available for it. I had 2 balls of yarn and I am almost done with the first.

At some point, I’ll need to take a closer look at my stash and my patterns to see what I want to knit next, but this will definitely do for now.

Pan Those Eyeshadows Update 3

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My roulette style eyeshadow panning project continues on with considerable progress. I made some changes last month that really worked for me. Last month I decided that I’d work on an eyeshadow for 30 uses or hitting pan, whichever came first. Unsurprisingly, since overall, makeup is still something fairly new to my life, I am generally needing to get to the entire 30 uses as I am not hitting pan before that.

I have really enjoyed the project this month, I love that it keeps me both focused and creative, thinking of new ways to wear these eyeshadows. Here’s the swatch color scheme I was working with over the past month:

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I ended up finishing my 30 uses of both of the top two swatches. Here’s what the palettes look like now:

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I’ve circled the shadows that were actually in the project. A considerable dip was made in both of them, though pan was not hit. However, I did hit surprise pan in two shadows in the Nyx birthday palette. Prior to this challenge, neither of those shadows had pan showing. So, really, while I didn’t hit pan on the shadows I brought in to the project, two pans were hit anyhow.

Working my way down the swatch, the third color is Colourpor Bye Bye Birdie palette, color Nevermore. So far in this project I have used it 17 times. Only 13 uses left until I can roll it out.

The fourth color is the same palette, color Heron Chic. This one I’ve used 21 times, only 9 uses left.

Below that we have my Too Faced christmas palette, the color is Make a Wish. I’ve used this one only 9 times, so the 21 times I need to finish this isn’t likely to happen in the upcoming month!

And finally, the sixth color is from the Revlon Maverick palette, and I’ve used it 17 times. I actually think it’s possible I’ll hit pan on that one prior to my 30 uses, it’s very powdery.

Since I rolled out two shadows, I had the opportunity to roll in two more. My roulette app chose my Urban Decay Born to Run palette, color Big Sky, and Too Faced Sweet Peach palette, color Georgia.

Here’s the swatches:

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The almost invisible color is Sweet Peach Georgia and the last color is Big Sky from Born to Run. I am so excited about the pop of blue, and I am excited to try pairing it with the magenta Heron Chic color. I think that might make for a very nice look and a great way to get use out of both colors at once.

Sweet Peach Georgia might be finished this month as well, as I can use it as a transition shade with each and every look.

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I’ve circled each of the 6 colors in the photo above. My focus will be finishing up Heron Chic, then finishingup Nevermore, ideally rolling that entire palette out next month. I do think I can manage to complete both of those, though it might be a bit of a push. I am anticipating that Georgia and the matte color from the Revlon Maverick palette might get pan in them prior to the end of the month as well. as I’ve already got good dips in both.

I really cannot stress enough how enjoyable I’ve found this little project of mine. I eagerly work through my shadows and every time I look at a new palette I want, I weigh that want against my desire to work through my shadows roulette style. And the new thing generally comes up as something I would pass on since I likely wouldn’t roll it in quickly. I don’t know how long this motivation will last, but I am extremely pleased with it right now, and that’s more than I could hope for. Can’t wait to update again next month!

Nightshift

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I’ve been following a lot of folks who have made the nighshift shawl and I’ve always enjoyed how they turned out. I finally decided instead of just following and drooling over finished objects, it’s time for me to knit one of my own.

I did not end up following along with the proper color sequence. Instead, I decided to use a bunch of handpsun yarn I had, most of which had 100 yards or less per color.

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It turned out bright and cheery and scrappy. I enjoyed it so much that I have another shawl’s worth of handspun already wound up and waiting for me to start one with predominately pink and purple tones. I doubt I’ll start it today, but likely at some point this week.

In other types of news, I really enjoy blocking a shawl in the summer. Once soaked, I can often set it out in the sun and it’s done drying in no time since the heat is so high here!

We were looking forward to our next foster dog, a blue-eyed gal that I’d already fallen hard for. But, alas, her mental health just isn’t what it needs to be to come to us and get adopted out. I am thankful for the rescue she’s currently at being honest about the situation and not putting us and our dogs in danger. I hope for the best for her. Sometimes rescue is sad.

But, our rescue, knowing how much we were looking forward to our next foster dog, hooked us up with a mamma dog that needs placement. Her puppies are also coming to our rescue and will go to a different foster home. So, we again get to look forward to fostering and are hoping that an arrangement can be made for our foster dog to be here soon!

Between the Pans

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I am still knitting, though I had been dividing my time between two different projects so progress looked slower. Now that I think about it, the second project never even made it to an in progress photo and blog post. It is close enough to being done now that I will just wait until I have another finished object to post.

But, I did show off my striped bias shawl made out of laceweight silk and a leftover ball of gorgeous handspun I had in stash. Now it’s complete.

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This is a strong “will knit again” project. I like the drape of it, I like the pops of color in the handspun, the knitting of it was very pleasant, and it’s soft and going to feel fantastic around my neck in the winter. And in fact, I do have enough of the laceweight yarn to pair it with another handspun ball of leftovers.