Things You Can't Do

At 25 years old, there are plenty of things I haven't done. I haven't jumped out of a plane with or without a parachute, for example. I also haven't base jumped. I haven't had a driver's license, and I haven't punched anyone in the face. I haven't spent the night in a graveyard or slept with someone over the age of 35 or even planted my own tree.

But do you know what I have done?

I've worn pink eyeshadow.

This is the story of the pink eyeshadow, and how it came to be that I bought my sister a ... (I wanna call it a "thing" ...) ... wait. How about this? 

This is the story of how, and why I bought my sister pink eyeshadow.

Last Christmas, my little brother was dating a girl who was adorable, and wonderful, and totally the wrong girl for him. We had Christmas at my mom's house. Me, my older sister, my little brother, my mom, my sister's two sons, my husband and my little brother's girlfriend all crowded into my mommy's humble abode, tearing at wrapping paper, Rusty making shocked sounds because my husband bought me a Kindle, my husband making shocked sounds because I bought him a Ninja Turtles wall-hanging. When it came time for me to open my gift from my little brother's girlfriend, I shredded the paper to reveal an L.A. Colors eyeshadow palette. It had a dandelion color, blue, green, yellow, and pink. I sat there and thought to myself, "When am I ever gonna wear pink eyeshadow? It doesn't go with anything, it won't stand on its own against my brown eyes. Ugh." 

So, I took the little palette home and didn't touch it for about six months. I was busy not wearing makeup. I wore lighter shades of shadow, lined my eyes, and glued stars under my eyes. (I should go ahead and insert here that I work as a playground monitor at an elementary school).

My sister and I decided (I can't remember when) to have a weekly coffee date. We weren't particularly close as adolescents and young adults, but once I divorced my first husband, I realized that what I was feeling was the overwhelming need to be closer to my family, and so weekly coffee started happening. Well, one morning I decided to wear the pink eyeshadow on the outer corners of my eyes, and a nice gold on the inner corners. My sister said it looked good, so I kept wearing it.

One of the things she said to me, that stuck with me, was, "I can't wear pink eyeshadow." And all I wanted to know was WHY?! What makes you think you can't wear something as uproariously flamboyant as pink eyeshadow?

Tiny Target Haul

My first haul video. Went to Target looking for Sally Hansen's Complete Salon Manicure in 140 Snow Globe. I talk about how disappointed I am in it. Also bought Cover Girl Clump Crusher. Haven't tried it yet, but plan on it in the morning. Also picked up Sally Hansen's Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear in 4860-21 White On. Lastly, Sally Hansen Moisturizing Nail Polish Remover.

BTW Just before the 5 minute mark, I drop the nail polish remover bottle (closed) on my laptop. Good plan. Lots of noise. Just FYI.

MAC Greensmoke

My big sister is the one person I can share my makeup thoughts with. She is the person I emulated as a child, as a teenager, as a young adult. One of the only things she's done that I haven't is had children, but we are on our way to remedying that. 
I turned twenty-six last week, on Thursday. The night before, my husband and I went out to dinner and had a movie night. We watched the American version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo with Rooney Mara. I'd already watched the Swedish version on Netflix, and I love both. The books were incredible, as well. He also bought me The Muppets, which I must admit, was worth all the not-so-good movie-ness of the beginning to get to the Muppet Telethon. 
The next morning, Thursday morning, Mom & I went shopping. She got me The Incredibles while we were out, which was awesome. I bought Good/Evil Harry Potter cards and had a conversation with the girl at Game Daze about how everyone wanted to punch Dolores Umbridge in the face. I got my nails fixed (the woman who'd done them on Wednesday had, apparently, messed them up, and they were causing pain). The fixer, who did an incredible job, painted the tips of my nails this beautiful metallic green color that I would never have found on my own. Ma had to help me. 

I do so love this green.

We rounded out our shopping at Wal-Mart (where I bought yellow nail polish from L'Oreal (shade 101: Tweet Me), and then my sweet little brother picked Mom & I up and we went to our respective homes. Dinner that night was a success: Lasagna made with sweet Italian sausage and a TON of cheese graced my plate, and it also ended up in my tummy. My mom is a wonderful cook.
Laughter, love, and fun took place in the family room of my mom's house. I, and all the people I love, sat in that room for a couple of hours, just talking and enjoying the night. 

MAC Greensmoke has to be the favorite gift I received that wasn't from my husband. My sister and I have talked about makeup a lot -- she never expected me to love makeup as I do, and I must admit that it is probably odd for people who've known me all my life (tom-boy and all) to have a weird obsession with makeup. So, Reneé bought me a makeup bag (that I have yet to use) and, sitting in one of the side pockets was a small MAC shadow -- Greensmoke. Oh, I love it. It is this gray glitter shadow with a bit of a slight green hue to it. 

Greensmoke. So Pretty.

Stock photo for the win. However, the stock photo doesn't do it justice. I'd post a swatch, but I'm at work and the pan is at home. I do love it, though, and it is my very first MAC product. I've used it 3 times -- twice on me and once on Dee for work. It doesn't have as strong as a color payoff right away that I'd like, but at the same time, you can build on it. I'm not sure how I feel about building, as I am not a contractor, but I think the color is grand once it's bold enough.

Well, that's my little post for today. I hope to post more often (as I say every time I forget to post for months and months) but ... hopefully big changes are on the way.

Detour

I took a detour this morning on my way to work. The hustle and bustle of Roger was a bit much, so I turned down a little road called Fremont. I spent 3 of my childhood years in a little duplex there, next door to my grandmother. I had my headphones plugged into my phone, listening to Incubus (Morning View, in case you were wondering). It was as I passed that little duplex that I heard a sound. It was loud enough, or perhaps deep enough in my brain, that it caused me to stop, to pull the earphone out of my ear. I stood there a moment, in front of the mailbox that had been replaced when Dad hit it, and took in my surroundings. I learned to ride my bike right over there. We used to play under that tree. You remember that weird little ravine that we went into over behind the houses? Nana had those glass pots & pans. They were that weird brown color. Do you remember those? I miss those things. I miss those little things, the lack of responsibility from our childhood. I wouldn't go back, but I do miss some of those things. I stood there for a few minutes, looking around, smelling the smells of childhood. I put my earphone back in, smiling at the memories of being a child, smiling at the girl I was then, smiling at the woman I am now.
I thought, maybe, you'd like to know that I believe that I was called by my child-self this morning. I believe that she, in her own way, reached out and tugged on my shirt. She wanted my attention, if just to remember her and revel in her loss. She's still here with me in a way, but I won't ever be her again. I won't ever be that carefree, that sweetly ignorant. I'm going to have to find a way to reconnect with her again, but for now, I will just remember that little girl in the dark blue, floral dress that didn't match the socks and shoes I wore, but Ma still let me take school pictures in it. The blunt bangs that hung across my tiny forehead, the small hands that were slow to move, the little decisions that I refused to make as I got older.
I need her to know that I miss her like mad, and that I wish I could find her again. I will. Just give me time.

New Year's Eve ...

I don't have a camera. I have a cellphone, and I have a webcam, but I don't have a camera. I know a lot of the makeup guru ladies have super-cool cameras and ultra-good electronics for their guru-ing, but I don't. It becomes one of those things where, if I want a picture of something, I better be prepared for something low-quality that will probably not turn out the way I want it to. For example:

my eyelashes from New Year's Eve. The photo looks messy and unprofessional, when, truly, that is how I felt when I took it. Can't really complain. The wing on the edge of my eye there is a red from my 120 Palette, much much lighter than I would have liked it to have been. Then, we'll take this photo into consideration:

Look. At. That. Mess. It looks awful. Granted, I shouldn't have waited until 2 a.m. when I was taking it off to photograph it, its still a crappy quality. 

The point of this post is to make light of the fact that I'm new at this. I still don't know what I'm doing, and I'm doing the best I can. To those of you who read my ramblings, thank you. Also, I know I screw up, but I would be more than happy to read what you all think of what I'm doing ... so far. Feel free to send me messages or leave comments to assist me in this weird little journey. 

Now, I'm going back to writing about Razoul and Jasmine, post-Aladdin-beheading. Mmm I love writing.

One other thing: Happy New Year. My resolution is to, in the immortal words of my sister, 'come down with baby.' What's yours?

Months

I know I shouldn't do it, but I can go literally months without remembering to update my blog. I love doing the blog, and I was considering updating recently, and then, Christmas planning happened. And Christmas shopping happened. Hell, the whole damn holiday season happened. I've completed my gift for my husband ...

and finished my Christmas shopping before December 24 this year. Very, very exciting stuff. Shopped for my nephews, my brother, my sister, my Ma, and I even had some money to buy some random things for myself. I bought a palette that, apparently Ulta doesn't have on their website anymore, otherwise I'd link it. Since they don't have it on there anymore, I'll try to photograph it after I give it to myself on Christmas. ^.^

I'm itching to buy at least one of the Hunger Games inspired nail polish from China Glaze -- Electrify or Harvest Moon.

Alas, I must go and get ready for shopping. Eesh. I don't have to shop, but Ma does, and I love to go along.

So Enjoy!

Procrastination Nation

It's been almost a month since I last posted. Gosh, I am such an awful blogger. I get so tied up in my everyday monotony and forget that I have a blog that loves to be updated. ::pets blog:: I'm so sorry, honey.

Here's some updates from the past month:

Halloween happened. I love Halloween. It is my favorite holiday because no one expects anything. You can dress up as whatever or whomever you want and become someone new for however many different events you want. As a child, you get candy for going door to door, shouting "Trick-Or-Treat" and your parents condone it. In fact, they help you be a hooligan. There is no better holiday than Halloween.

I went to my sister's Murder Mystery Party as Hot for Teacher. The original costume I had planned was Coco Chanel, but the zipper on my LBD broke at the last moment, and, after some crying and frustration, I put on a pair of jeans, some heels, a low-cut shirt, and some very vampy makeup and left the house with my husband. He went as the scariest thing he could think of: himself. I didn't think he was scary, but he & our friend Killjoy (a gamertag nickname) stood in the entryway and were scary as could be. The hostess ended up being the murderer, after a chilling tale of broken love and deceit.

The weekend before Halloween, my best friend, Dee, decided she was going to a party as a slutty zombie I believe it was. I was the first person she thought of to do her makeup, which, while exhilarating, was also quite scary. I am still not used to being the person these ladies go to for advice.

Anyway. She came over and I did her makeup, made her pallid and a bit gory, and got blood on myself and my porch in the process.

Isn't she adorable?

The weekend before Halloween, the school I work at had our annual Fall Festival, where the kids got to come, in costume, and play games and get candy and see each other all glammed up in exchange for food and money to assist both our school and the Thanksgiving Food Drive we do every year. I went, with a very simple Mehron Clown White mask with rainbow shadow over:

The kids loved it and it was a TON of fun to do. It turned out a lot better than I thought it would, and I was told that it looked nothing like me. I intend on doing masks like this for years to come, not only for myself but for those around me.

On Halloween (a Monday) I went to work as a tree. (Totally not joking.) The kids thought I was Mother Nature, which was a huge compliment, and I love when they have opinions about things. I just love them, really.

Meet Hemingway, my sparkly blackbird I bought at Michaels

when he flew off the top of a box at me.

The weird color on my face in the above picture is Maybelline's Antique Jade shadow. The branches on my face are a random brown from my BH Cosmetics 120 Palette, and the leaves are drawn on with Wet'n'Wild eyeliner, filled in with a green from the same palette. The leaves in my hair are from work and home, and I bobby pinned them into my hair after tousling it with Schwarzkopf's got2b ultra glued invincible styling gel #4 for vertical styles. 

... I have no idea what else I've done in the past month. Ridiculous! I did buy the Nails Inc. magnetic nail polish in Houses of Parliament, which I am super excited about. It was something I learned about on xSparkage's YouTube channel. She was super geeked about it, and I wanted to know what the deal was, so I went out and bought it. Yeah, it's exorbitantly priced, (the final price was $17.46 at Sephora) but I love it. 

Check out my chipped nail polish and the wonderful
blurring effect caused by shaking like a leaf!

But I do love it. It is fun to play with, and if you talk with your hands, you get a lot of compliments. The magnetic effect is that it causes those little stripes you see in my lovely blurry photo. I've only used it once, but I'm in love, and I think it'll become a staple in my nail polish box.

This morning, my sister texted me to ask if I'd like to go to Ulta with her so she could pick up some makeup she'd run out of and been needing. We stopped at Starbucks where I got a Salted Caramel Mocha (delicious) and we sat and talked for a little while about the happenings in our lives. 

Then, Ulta. We got there a few minutes after they opened, and wandered for a little while. We were looking at ... I believe it was Urban Decay eyeshadow, and I mentioned that the orange in one of the palettes didn't look right to me, and she sort of scoffed at me. "This coming from a girl with a rainbow on her face," she said, smiling. I laughed, since she was right. I am a huge fan of using the weirdest colors of eyeshadow I can find, yellows, oranges, greens ... you name it, I've probably worn it.

I saw they were having a sale on NYX products, and remembered that I needed a NYX sharpener for my jumbo eye pencil in Milk (^.^) and, since they were having a buy one get one 50% off sale, I went ahead and got a jumbo eye pencil in Pots & Pans (#603). It is amazing, and I hope to use it a TON. On a side note, I draw on my hands a LOT. The darker patch you see below the NYX pencil swatch is from this morning, when I swatched a purple shadow pencil from Ulta and hated how it looked. 

This post is ultra, mega, super long so I am going to quit while I'm ahead. While I'm going to try to keep updating as often as I can, I am just terrible at it. I hope to get better. Until next time ^.^