Month: October 2020

Foster #3

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It’s been a little busy around our place! On Friday night we received our third foster dog. It’s been quite a ride, let me tell you!

She looks much bigger, but she’s only about 30 pounds.

This little sweetheart is the face we agreed to foster. We had been told she was an 18 month old dog. And while that’s technically on the younger side for our family, we decided to go with it. Now, most fosters coming in from Louisiana (as all our fosters have) who are over a year old are heartworm positive. So, I was both delighted and confused when her tests came back heartworm negative. We were pleased that foster #3 would not have to go through the painful and difficult heartworm treatment while in our care.

When she arrived, I noticed she acted an awful lot like a puppy. On Saturday morning, the rest of my family was out of the house while I wrangled dogs on my own. The first day with a new foster is always a challenge. Our resident dogs are getting used to the new face and learning how to interact with her, and the new foster is learning boundaries from our resident dogs. It’s often a a bit of a fraught time, there’s generally some growling and teeth, but it’s also an interesting process to me. But handling it on my own was a challenge.

I also noticed that despite how many times I was taking her outside, she was struggling to communicate when she needed to go out. There was pee. In the house. Which I HATE. (But it’s also part of fostering!) Thankfully all of that was on our vinyl tile which makes clean up easy.

Can you even be mad at this face?!

So, by the time I took her to the foster meet and greet so that folks could come look at some of our available dogs, I was a little at my wits end. To top it off, right before I left I got a message from our rescue owner saying that she was seeing two different birthdates on her paperwork, one putting her at 18 months and one putting her at 7 months. I, not being well versed in these sorts of things, told the rescue owner that I’d put her closer to the 7 months mark as she’s totally a puppy in every way. And this would explain why she tested negative for heartworm, she wasn’t actually very old.

While at the meet and greet, I decided on a game plan. She hadn’t relaxed all morning, just in a constant state of running, playing, and peeing. So, I decided that while our family does not foster puppies, if I had inadvertently fostered a puppy, I was going to treat her like a puppy. I pulled out an extra kennel and put it in the living room. And I put her on a schedule. Outside to pee, praise and treats, play time with our dogs, into the kennel for a rest. Repeat as necessary. And it worked!

She soon lost the car ride skepticism seen here, car rides lead to fun adventures!

Once all was said and done, and after the rescue owner viewed her sister, we decided she’s more likely a year old. She’s got all her adult teeth. She acts like a puppy because she was picked up as a stray and put in a shelter so she just hasn’t had the opportunity to learn things that puppies learn. She’s learning all those things in our house. She is clumsy and goofy and funny. She’s confident and playful and very active. She falls right on her face a lot. She falls off couches and beds. She sometimes can’t figure out how to get up on a couch or bed. She definitely cannot do a flight of stairs. It’s just….good chaos a lot of the time with her in the house!

But, I am proud to say, after 4 days in our home, she’s improved dramatically. She manages to go outside to do her business. She has learned that she doesn’t have to expend all her energy indefinitely, she will get regular play time and she can burn her energy then. She’s learning that clean fresh water will always be available so it’s not necessary to drink two buckets of it when she can find it, nor does she have to lick the grass in the morning. She’s learning boundaries with other dogs (even if she doesn’t always listen to them.) But best of all? She’s learning to rest outside the kennel.

A tired dog is a good dog.

And honestly? That’s the sweetest part of all of this.

This was a foster we were highly unprepared for. Foster #1 was sweet and mellow. Foster #2 was busy but pretty well trained. Each foster will teach us new ways of caring for them, and that’s one of the reasons I enjoy it so much. But, we certainly have been unprepared for the multitude of lessons this foster has taught us. We will be going to the dog park every day until she finds her family I think. But, our dogs like her quite well, and they enjoy having fosters in the home. And she’s cute and sweet and full of funny antics. So we’ll keep on loving and training her until her forever home can be found!

October Beauty Balance Part Empties

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So, in my previous October beauty balance post I had 41 items leaving my collection over what entered it. And it was my hope to make that up in my empties. Which I did!

This was actually a very serious empties month. I worked through a lot of items. In fact, my total is 14. So, I ended up with 55 items out of my collection over what entered this year.

Let’s go through the empties real quick.

Rusk hair mousse, I didn’t like this that much nor will I repurchase. But it had a nice scent unlike the mousse I am working on now.

The Ordinary Azelaic Acid Suspension, I’ve gone through a few of these, but have decided to try something new, so I won’t repurchase at this time.

Cerave Skin Renewing Night Cream-I really enjoy this and will absolutely repurchase, though I do not need to at this time.

L’Oreal Double Extend tubing mascara. I used this up really, and enjoyed it quite a bit. I do want another tubing mascara in my life.

Too Faced mascara-this sample size came to me a bit dry and I’ve decided to declutter it. I gave it to Miss Butterfly to see what she can do with it.

Kate Somerville Exfolicate cleanser-I liked this quite a bit, it has a great scent and does work nicely. But, I won’t repurchase, I don’t feel like cleansers are a good place to get the exfoliating step done. I’ll stick with less expensive cleansers.

Becca undereye color corrector-I will likely repurchase this at some point. I just haven’t done so yet. But I do really like the product.

Bite Beauty agave lip mask-sadly they’ve reformulated these. I haven’t tried the new formulation. I like the lanolin so I’ve switched to Lanolips for now.

I finished an eyebrow pencil that was pretty terrible in both color and formulation. Would not repurchase and can’t even be bothered to remember the brand name. It came in a subscription box.

Dermalogica sunscreen-this was just a small sample that I liked well enough. It had kind of a powder smell to it. It worked well under makeup. But, I wouldn’t purchase, I am kind of fond of some K and J beauty sunscreens and I’ll keep up with those instead.

Tocca Maya rollerball perfume, used up in 2 months. I didn’t love the scent, and the scent didn’t stick around. So, I wouldn’t purchase.

One tiny pan of frankenhighlighter that I created myself, now all my frankenhighlighters are gone and I couldn’t be more happy about that.

I’ve also got a couple samples of Purito Deep Sea Pure water cream that I really enjoyed. In fact, Purito is a brand I will be exploring more for skincare in the future as I have truly enjoyed their products.

I’ve got a haircare order coming in soon, but I also have 5 or 6 products I know will be empty by next month. So, I am hoping to keep up with my more out over what comes in goals through the end of the year. It will be interesting to see what my final yearly total is this year (especially since I have a particular penchant for advent calendars) and then to see if I can do better in the next year.

Woad Dyeing

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Since I’ve been generally uninspired about a lot of knitting/crafting lately, I’ve been trying to fill my time with other creative pursuits when possible. Meaning that even though I know many of those creative pursuits won’t stick the way knitting and spinning did, doing them makes me feel more creative and probably works my brain in a way that is healthy.

This weekend I had a woad dyeing class at our local botanical gardens. Woad is like a lighter version of indigo, grown in Europe, and while it doesn’t get as rich and deep a blue, it does get a nice denim blue.

We learned to make a vat of woad dye and we were given a hemp apron to dye. We were then shown a few shibori dyeing techniques and allowed to go to town on our apron.

Here’s what my apron looked like before the first dip in the dye bath:

I used clothes pins, tongue depressors, chopsticks, and rubber bands to create my negative space. I went in quite aggressively with my negative space as our instructor told us that more is better.

And here’s what I ended up with!

This is currently in it’s unwashed state, and the white may get brighter once I wash it.

We were also given the opportunity to bring something we’d like to add to the dye vat, and so I brought some white handspun I’d created years ago. It’s a 2 ply laceweight yarn out of a corriedale fleece I processed.

This also turned out so beautifully! The skein is also in a prewashed state so it may fade down a bit, but honestly, I will probably knit it up like this and then wash it before blocking.

There were only 3 attendees in this class due to the pandemic. I have to say, being willing to take some classes during this time frame has been nice, each class I’ve taken gets more individual attention than any of these classes might get otherwise.

But, the other thing I am noticing is that I haven’t got the passion I used to have for fiber arts in general, and that’s a bit odd for me. The other attendees were quite passionate about dyeing and natural dyeing and fiber arts in general and wanted to talk about what wheel I have and what kind of fleece I used and so on but I just wanted to create this new thing I’d never done before, without getting into the weeds about my other hobbies. But I recognized myself in them, I was them, wanting to hear all the details and discuss different wheels and so on. I just have lost my passion for it right now, and that’s strange, disappointing, and leaving me a bit bereft, what am I if not someone who works with yarn in some way?

Maybe I still am, but it certainly doesn’t feel like it right now. While I have had, previously, times in which I feel like I lose mojo for a bit, this one is so much more pronounced. I know I keep complaining about it, but it’s just so odd!

The class was fun. I’ll not be taking up natural dyeing. This was not my new passion. Maybe I’ll take the basket weaving class next.

October Beauty Balance

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This will be another 2 parter, with the incoming items in one post and the empties in another. First of all, last month I ended the month with 51 items leaving my collection over what entered it.

I did have a number of new items throughout the month though, in two separate orders, due to the 21 days of beauty sale.

I was running out of moisturizers so I picked up a few new ones. The standard belif moisturizing eye bomb is at the top, then a couple of face moisturizers to try.

I picked up an item for Miss Butterfly, and along with that came the facial spray. And, the belief travel size moisturizer came free with my purchases.

Then there’s two items that I am not going to count. The first is the clarins eye cream, and I am not counting it because I already finished it. The second is the mac mascara which was billed as a tubing mascara but absolutely is not. And, it’s going to Miss Butterfly because I get awful transfer from it. So, in the above photo, 5 items count toward my totals, bringing me back down to 46.

And then there’s this, I picked up the serum and the lip balm, and the other three items came for free. That’s another 5, bringing me down to 41 items in over what left my collection this year. I am hoping to be able to make up for this in my empties, next post.

Partners in Cream Project Pan update 9

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Last month I was unable to finish any items in my partners in cream project. This month I finished two items! Here’s where I was last month:

And let’s discuss this month’s progress:

From the top, left to right. I have my Clarins sunscreen I’ve been working on for a few months now. I keep saying it stings my eyes, and I keep using it on my face anyhow. I ran into a situation at the dog park the other day where I couldn’t even see anymore it stung so bad. So, I am back to trying to use this more as a body sunscreen. I did not mark a new mark on this item since I am kind of at that point where I have to fold it in half to get product out of it.

Next up is my No Poreblem primer. It’s done! I’ve scraped it out with a spatula. This was a good primer and it grew on me over time. I do not regret using it.

I also have my rollerball sample size of Tocca Maya perfume. It was fine, not something I would purchase, and I finished it.

My born this way foundation had a lot of progress this month and I am really hoping to finish next month. I think I am getting close, as the product doesn’t actually come out of the pump too well anymore. I really do like this foundation and if I didn’t have loads of other foundations, I’d probably repurchase it in a shade more appropriate for me on the regular.

I also have made continued steady progress on my facial spray.

Now that the weather is cooling (sort of!) it’s time to start rolling in more cream makeup, so I am adding back in my sleek palette of cream contour. I’ll be concentrating on the darkest shade. I might use the bronzer from time to time as well, but once that darker contour is gone I am probably going to call it quits on this palette.

And finally I’ve decided to add in another primer since I finished the no poreblem primer. I want to keep working through my primers quite consistently. So, I have added this juice beauty primer to this project.

Goals for next update-definitely hoping to finish the foundation and a stretch goal will be the sunscreen. This should leave room for other cream makeup products I’d like to be concentrating on during the cooler months.

Eyeshadow Roulette Project update

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It’s time for another roulette project update. a recap of the rules thus far, I randomly choose eyeshadow colors to focus on throughout each month. I use them for 30 uses or until I hit pan, whichever comes first.

Current rule-when I roll out a color, I am rolling in either a single or something from my Urban Decay Born To Run palette. I will be doing so until I hit pan on one of my BTR palette colors.

Here’s the color swatches I was using last month:

And a photo of the eyeshadows as they are currently:

I circled in blue the two colors which rolled out. The first is at the top in my NYX Happy Birthday Palette. I hit pan on it so I can roll it out. It took me a total of 18 uses on this to hit pan. It did have a nice dip in it when I rolled it in. That’s now 3 pans showing in this palette, rendering it officially well used!

Then there’s a NYX single from the 2018 advent calendar. I hit my 30 uses on this one, and that left it with a nice significant dip. Pan wouldn’t have been far behind but for now this rolls out.

I then ended up rolling in two BTR palette colors, my new swatches look like this:

So, at the very top I’ve got my NYX advent calendar pink shimmer-I used it only twice this month giving me a total of 16 uses since rolling it in.

Next is Violet Voss Sugar Crystals color Mint Choco. I have changed how I am using this a bit and as such, got 8 uses from it this month giving me a total of 10 uses in this project. I am now actually packing this on my waterline when wearing a neutral look to add a pop of color and I really like the effect.

Third down is Violet Voss Sugar Crystals palette color Sherbet. I used this 8 times this month, giving me a total use tally of 10 in this project.

The next three are all from my Born To Run palette, the first is Hell Ride. This is, quite frankly, a “miss” color in this palette. It blends away to nothing or to an ugly not quite brown shade. I have decided that the best way to make this work is packed all over the lid with a topper shade over it. I have used it 3 times.

Then we’ve got Baja which is a definite hit color in this palette, a nice matte orange it pairs beautifully with much of the palette colors. I have used it 4 times.

Finally, Double Life is a coppery shade over a blackened base. Strangely, while it goes on the lid that way, at the end of the day I am left with just the coppery part and the blackened part disappears. I used this 7 times this month for a total of 10 uses in this project.

In the BTR palette I’ve been regularly using a few other colors as well, Blaze, Weekender, Riff, Ignite, and Still Shot are all featuring in my looks quite regularly.

For goals, since the only color that is anywhere near being rolled out and still it’s a stretch, I am going to concentrate on the pink shimmery NYX single. At only 16 uses I’ve got a heck of a way to go on it and I do not think I’ll be able to hit pan on it as it’s harder pressed than the other NYX shimmer single which I did use 30 times. I think I’ll try to pair it will hell ride and mint choco in hopes to get uses out of those two colors as well. Meanwhile, I’ll concentrate on using Sherbet as an inner corner highlight, as it’s so light it’s not really useful otherwise.

I admit that I am starting to feel slightly burned out on this project after a number of months with it and these days I am pulling out other palettes from time to time to have a play with them. So, if progress here slows down, that’s likely why! And in the end, it’s already been successful as the point is use what I have and don’t purchase more. It’s now been 5 months without new eyeshadow and that still seems JUST FINE with me!

Festival of Stitches update

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It’s been nice to get a little knitting mojo back after such a long break. First it was video games, then it was just having so much to do in the evenings after work, interfering with knitting. Things are slowly calming down a bit and progress is being made.

For my Festival of Stitches shawl, I have now worked through “clue 3” which takes us to the mosaic stitches on both sides of the shawl. I like how the pattern is written, with one side having the green color as the background color and the other side having the pink color as the background color.

As you can see at the top on the right hand side I have also begun clue 4. This clue is a cable clue, and while it was written to be done in the pink color, I have chosen to knit it in the green since the pink color isn’t likely to cable all that well. The handspun is just enough thinner to make it not ideal for a cable clue. I don’t think that changing the color will change the overall effect of the colors in the shawl, and I’ve plenty of yarn. This pattern is particularly good at indicating how much yarn to use of each color during a clue so it gives me confidence that I can continue knitting in the colors I prefer.

I am still enjoying this project and even though I haven’t had much in the way of finished objects this year, I think I may get a nice amount of use out of this one once it is complete.

Rolling Project Pan Update #9

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I wasn’t absolutely positive I’d get to roll in a new prompt and product this month, but the spoiler is, I did finish one thing! Here’s my list as it stood last month:

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
7.  A product you haven’t used in a while.
8. A product of your choosing
9. A product from a previous project.
10. A unique product
11. A product you don’t like
12. A product you bought online.
13. A product you received as a gift.

And the photo from last month where I’d rolled in a new eyeliner and my urban decay born to run palette.

Here’s my progress this month:

4. A drugstore product is my nyx eyebrow pencil, and to be honest, I didn’t use it much this past month. I’ve got one I don’t like as much and it’s darker and close to being finished, so I’ve sort of concentrated on that instead. It did get sharpened at least once though.

6. An Old Favorite is my hula bronzer, travel size. Last month I had concentrated on the other side of the bronzer, not increasing the pan. This month I actually chose to work my way toward side pan and the pan has increased quite a bit. I do hope to fully hit side pan in the upcoming month as well as continuing to increase the pan on this product.

8. A product of my choosing is my it cosmetics cc cream which I will really be concentrating on using up this month. I want this officially out of my collection at the end of this month. It’s close now!

10. A Unique product was my last pan of frankenhighlighter I made a few years ago. I finished it up this month so I can roll something new in.

12. A product I bought online was my UD liner, my goal is to use it until I hit the “24” which looks like it’ll take about another month. It’s an extremely creamy eyeliner so it disappears quite quickly when I am using it regularly. On the other hand, I haven’t been using it all that regularly despite using color tones of shadows that really work with it.

13. A product I received as a gift is my UD Born to Run palette, it’s probably the only makeup gift I own. My goal with this is to hit pan in one of the shadows. At the moment, Big Sky is the closest to pan since it was the first one to show up in my eyeshadow roulette project. If I were to guess, it’ll either be that color or a setting shade that gets pan first.

Now I get to choose my new product which is:

14. A product I’d recommend to anyone. This is a colourpop supershock shadow. They are so easy to use and impactful. No real skill is needed with these and that’s part of why they are so fantastic. I chose the color in the photo above because it makes a good topper. I pulled it out when deciding on a product figuring I’d use it until I hit pan. I decided to put it on my eyes to remind myself what it looked like. And I immediately hit pan. Hah. So, I smooshed it all back evenly in the pan and my goal again will be to hit pan.

I am really enjoying this rolling project, I like rolling in some items that are a little easier to hit a goal on while keeping a few longer term items going as well. I love the prompts! I love looking around my collection for something that matches the next prompt. I like thinking about upcoming prompts and what I might choose. This is absolutely a fun time for me in my makeup world!

Protect Your Meatsuit Project Pan Finale

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I warned last month that I was probably going to wrap this project up this month. Mostly because I feel like it has served it’s purpose, both in keeping me using products I hadn’t previously used and kept me from purchasing new products of a similar nature.

Here’s my photo from last month:

I really had thought I’d be done with 3 items out of the 4 left. That didn’t quite happen. But, it’s too close to spend an entire month on and I just don’t feel like coming back and showing you a bunch of empty products 3 weeks after I finished them next month.

As a reminder, I rolled out the hair styling cream last month and gave it to Miss Butterfly.

I finished the Kate Somerville cleanser,bthat was an easy finish.

The Elemis face mask I had hoped to finish due to having more remote work days, but in the end, work was too busy and we had some unexpected stuff come up there that kept me from my remote work. In the end, I have been using it still on the weekends. BUT, I really am ridiculously close to finishing.

The shower gel is still holding on, I’ve now had a solid 9 months of use and am working on my 10th month. I think it’ll be gone quite soon now, but I am happy to keep using it until it’s completely finished.

I did make some actual progress on my toner this time, but since the hotter weather is mostly over, I won’t see too much progress on this again until next spring/summer.

And that’s a wrap! I didn’t actually finish a ton of things in this project, almost everything I chose was a longer term item. But, it did keep me concentrating on things and not making additional purchase, and that’s exactly what I am looking for.