Karen

1. The smell of Coppertone Waterbabies

To quote master wordsmith Nelly, “It’s getting hot in hurr.”

Today was 89 degrees! Last week it was 25 degrees cooler, but this week it’s starting to feel a lot like summer. I try to take Connor out nice and early to wear her little booty out, but before we go, I slather this sunscreen all over her and myself. This stuff always makes me think of summer and long lazy days at the beach. I love it.

2. Turn and learn

I mentioned this Ted Talk in the last Saturday Surfing, but if you missed it, please watch it now. Or whenever you can. I think it’s so helpful!

The gist of it is to think of the things in your life that you’d like to change as opportunities to learn. Like, for example, if you’re bad at time management (LIKE ME!!!), instead of thinking, “I must be broken. I’m so bad at time management. There’s for sure something wrong with me,” think of it instead as a chance for you to learn some of the myriad of helpful time management tips and skills that are out there. (And no, you are not broken.) Eventually, you’ll hit on a tip or technique that works for you and helps you get better.

3. MAC Studio Fix mixed with MAC Strobe Cream

Why do I always try to reinvent the wheel when this combo is such an oldie but a goodie?

I’ve been sheering it out, so it’s more Strobe Cream and less Studio Fix Foundation, but it’s still just enough to give me a little bit of even-ness and a lot of glow.

4. Ayesha’s Home Kitchen on Food Network

Don’t know if you’re watching the basketball ? playoffs right now, but the Warriors are in it (yay, Bay Area!), and one of the players, Stephen Curry, is married to Ayesha Curry, the young lady who hosts this show.

She’s absolutely adorable, and so are her daughters. I haven’t tried any of her recipes yet, but I’m definitely going to, maybe as soon as this weekend.

I like that she takes shortcuts. Like, sometimes she’ll use boxed cake mix or a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store, and she’ll jooj them up.

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So…what is the Monday Poll?

Excellent question! It isn’t, contrary to its name, an actual poll, like with little clicky buttons. It’s just a list of five more or less random questions I’ve been posting on this blog every Monday morning for the past quadrillion years (since 2007). I love reading your answers, and it helps me get my week off to a good start.

1. What are the names of your furbabies, and how did they acquire their monikers?

“Tabs” is short of “Fussy Tabby,” which was the first name we gave him he earned, but it didn’t quite stick. For a while, he was also “FT” (further shortened from “Fussy Tabby”), and that morphed into “Tabs.”

2. Have you ever worn a celebrity scent, and if so, which ones?

I’ve worn a few… Don’t laugh! Some of them are pretty good. I actually really loved Britney Spears’ Midnight Fantasy, the bedazzled Britney Spears one. I wore that religiously for a couple months.

3. Your favorite/least favorite types of cheese?

Favorites: fresh mozzarella, brie and any cheddar with bite. Oh, and cream cheese. (Does that even count as a cheese?)

Least favorites: Swiss…although I do like the holes, go figure. Just not the taste itself. And any wimpy, mild cheddar.

4. Are you a good salesperson?

Girlfriend, I could sell cats to a crazy dog lady.

5. Who makes the best brow pencil?

I’m partial to the one by NARS at the moment. Not too harsh, stays on forever, has a skinny twist-up tip so the strokes look like real eyebrow hairs. ??

Food amnesia is a thing

Good morning, friends! I hope you had a hoppy Easter. Happy Monday, too! I spent yesterday cooking, eating, hanging out, and not thinking about counting carbs, ha ha ha! It was great.

I didn’t really have a lot of time to prep for the Easter meal, so I ended up making most of the same dishes I made last Easter, even tough nobody in my family seemed to remember that any of the dishes were repeats, which is fine with me because if this food amnesia happens every year and I can make the same dishes over and over again, it’ll be like a new experience every time. ?

I made a roast chicken and rosemary potatoes dish from Laura in the Kitchen, which was really easy and delicious. Try it sometime! It’s not even really a special occasion dish. It’s like a weekday dinner dish, but it’s good enough for company. I also made corn pudding from one of my favorite sites — Recipe Tin Eats.

What else? Oh! — corned beef and cabbage, because my dad was craving it. I made it with my Instant Pot, which, by the way, I fell in love with once again. I hadn’t used it in a long time and forgot just how wonderfully tender it cooks meat.

Dessert. Ha ha. That’s usually my favorite part, right? But this year I decided that I had a lot going on, so I had to pull back a little. As much as I was tempted to make a carrot cake, I bought a pre-made dessert and doctored it up instead. So, I got a cheesecake from Trader Joe’s and made a homemade strawberry glaze to go on top.

The glaze was a winner. I’m definitely gonna do that again. But the cheesecake? Don’t ever trust TJ’s to make your cheesecake for a special occasion, nuh-uh. The cheesecake was dense, flavorless and MAN! — the part of me that loves pretty food pictures was kind of aggravated that one half of the cheesecake crust was lopsided, and the filling was collapsed around the edges… It was straight-up ugly, so yeah, if you want something pretty to pop in your feed, don’t trust a TJ’s cheesecake to take care of that.

Thank you for putting up with my food talk! ? I know it isn’t makeup or skin care, but it’s sort of related in that it’s also creative and usually visual at the same time. You’re just not putting it all over your face (most of the time). You’re putting in your tum-tum.

It’s a new week, and the sun is out. That always helps, doesn’t it? I hope you’re feeling refreshed and hopeful.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Question time! Here they are to copy/paste with your answers in a comment. Talk to you soon.

1. What are the names of your furbabies, and how did they acquire their monikers?
2. Have you ever worn a celebrity scent, and if so, which ones?
3. Your most favorite/least favorite types of cheese?
4. Are you a good salesperson?
5. Who makes the best brow pencil?

So…guess what?

For the first time in forever, I put on heels AND a dress to leave my house.

Yup, BOTH.

I know! I can’t even remember the last time I did that when it didn’t involve some kind of event, but I did it yesterday before going to the dentist, because I was actually feeling kinda feisty and, well…kinda cute, which never happens to me prior to leaving for the dentist.

To make a long story even longer, I did some yoga (a 10-minute flow; that’s the routine down below) before leaving for the appointment, and that just made me feel a little better and less anxious than usual — actually, almost enthusiastic (!) about seeing the dentist.

Anyway, feeling really good about myself, I put on my dress, my heels, got in the car, got on the freeway, and that’s when I realized that my knees and shins were hella dry.

(Don’t ask me why I realized this on the freeway.)

I totally forgot to put on lotion before leaving the house…

I know! When you don’t wear a dress in forever and you’re out of practice, you forget these things.

Then I remembered that I recently tossed the “emergency” lotion I usually keep in my car because it expired, so I didn’t have anything to moisturize myself with other than nude lipsticks and a Clinique Superbalm Lip Balm.

I thought, “Hmm… The Superbalm would be shiny, but it might work,” so when I got to the dentist’s office, I squeezed out a generous amount, and slathered it all over my knees and shins.

(I tried to warm it up first, though, by rubbing it between my fingers and palms.)

Lo and behold, it totally worked! So there’s a beauty hack for ya. Try your lip balm if you’re ever stuck somewhere with dry skin and don’t have any lotion.

On that note, today’s beauty (and otherwise) reading…

• Multicolored rainbow/Skittles manicures have been around forever, but since Instagram apparently just discovered them, they’re now a “thing.” LOL!
• Sephora and fashion line Moschino are doing a fun collection where the liquid highlighters look like highlighter markers, and the makeup removers look like erasers. There’s also a nail polish in a Wite-Out bottle! — which is what I used to do with *real* Wite-Out when I was a kid.
• 25 secrets your nail tech wishes you already knew
• The Black Opal Aksanti collection helps girls in the Congo.
• This woman found a lock of Charlotte Brontë’s braided hair encased in a ring in her attic… All I have in my attic are ghosts ? and dust mites!
• Because El Hub, Connor Claire and Tabs are all part Irish, here are 10 Irish Good Friday traditions you’ve never heard of.
• And because my first-born cat son ? is also hardcore GoT ⚔️? enthusiast, here are some awesome homemade Games of Thrones-inspired pet beds.
• Fun fact about Game of Thrones: Jon Snow wears high heels.
• Speaking of felines, have you heard about the mysterious wild cats of Britain?
• Cats get acne, too.

I adore Hindash’s work and can’t wait to try this!

You know how much I love her, but I love her even more because she says the words, “flute backstory,” in this video.

How to look more amazing up-close and in person

Best Ted Talk I watched this week

I did this workout just the other day! Super challenging, but I felt great at the end of it.

I’ve been doing this 10-minute yoga flow after workouts for my upper back, and it has helped with the wonkiness a lot.

Now I’m off to go take the coywolf to a local Easter egg hunt. Have a great Saturday and a ? happy (early) ? Easter.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Girlfriend, THIS IS TOTALLY A THING. People are getting their scalps injected with Botox to make their scalp perspire less, and therefore help their blowouts last longer.

As someone who used to pride herself on how long she could tolerate going between hair washes — seriously, there was a time in my life when I could gleefully go six days without washing my hair — this may have appealed to me more at one time than it does now.

If nothing else, I would’ve SERIOUSLY considered it, but I don’t think I would have gone through with it because I don’t like needles… They freak me out. Also, knowing me, if I did get a scalp injection, it would probably leave me with a twitchy left eyelid for six months. I would’ve been better off just living with 12 pounds of dry shampoo in my hair, which is what I used to do.

Now, I’m an everyday hair washer… Yeah, I know, but my hair isn’t dyed anymore. I’m transitioning back to my natural color, so I don’t really have to worry about hair color fading, which is one good thing about growing out your grays. I’m also kind of addicted now to that clean scalp feeling. Granted, I don’t shampoo every night. I alternate shampoo every other day with a conditioner wash, which is still more hair washing than I’ve done in years…which just goes to show you: NEVER SAY NEVER.

Anyway, tangent city, HERE WE COME. ?

Now, back to the question at hand… Would you ever get Botox in your head so your blowouts could last longer? Inquiring minds want to know!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Happy Good Friday. TGIF.