Karen

I got my hair done last Sunday by my friend Alis, and we chatted about all kinds of interesting things, like “gifts from the universe,” while she did my roots and touched up my highlights.

You know how the universe sometimes floats these beautiful and unexpected gifts your way? — whether they be deeply discounted couches from Pottery Barn or random advice from strangers? Well, I recently got a gem of parenting advice from the guy who delivered our new washer last week.

I wish I knew his name… I don’t think he introduced himself.

Anyway, let’s call him Elvis, because he kind of looked like an Elvis.

Elvis was super nice, and I knew he’d be cool when Connor called out a sing-songy “Hiiiii!” when he first walked through the door, because Elvis said, “Hiiiiiii!” right back. And then he continued to answer “hi” every time Connor said it, which must’ve happened about 20 more times during the half hour Elvis was here.

While Elvis was setting up the washer, we made small talk. He asked how many kids I have, and I answered, “Two, if you count my cat.” 🙂 HAHA! You know Tabs totally counts. He’ll be Connor’s kuya, which is the word for “older brother” in Tagalog, always and forever.

I asked Elvis how many kids he has, and he said eight. EIGHT! (My response: “DUDE! You’ve been busy!”). His youngest kids are nine-year-old twins, and his oldest is 25.

[Continue reading…]

Oh! I wish I never fell in love with Tom Ford Radiant Moisture Souffle! It’s $98 for a 1.7-oz. jar, which is relatively tame on the grand scale of Tom Ford prices (his Intensive Infusion Ultra Rich Moisturizer is $253 for a 1-oz. jar), but still, it’s CRAY.

I think it came out with the Summer 2016 collection, but Connor was an infant at the time, and I was overwhelmed and outta my mind…so even though I knew it was something special and loved the hell out of it, I stuck it on a shelf for months.

The more I use it, the more I realize that I need to be conservative about it and parse it out, because it’s hard to find. The only place I’m seeing it in stock now is Saks.

Basically, it’s THE BEST pre-makeup face cream for dry skin that I’ve ever found. It moisturizes, gives a soft pearly glow and smooths pores, so it does a bit of everything I like in a pre-makeup face cream, and it doesn’t feel like a heavy silicone face blanket. Everything I ever try to layer on top of it — foundation, tinted moisturizer, powder, blush, whatever — looks SO MUCH SMOOTHER.

Also, in my dream world, someone will have already made a $30 knockoff, because, I mean, if MAC can basically dupe Tom Ford’s heavenly brow pencil, there has to be somebody out there who could do that for this cream. I’m just sayin’… Keeping my fingers crossed! 🙂

What’s a pricey product you wish you never fell in love with?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. FIRE UPDATE: The situation is still fluid. Between 10-15 miles north of us is still in the cat’s maw. It’s very bad up there, and thousands of people are being evacuated every hour. San Rafael, which is the neighboring town to Novato, had the worst air quality in the nation yesterday because of the smoke from the nearby fires. It’s like fog all day long here, except that the fog is smoke. There are more than a dozen wildfires burning across Sonoma and Napa Counties, all over the small hills and towns around Wine Country, with very few of them contained, and a lot depends now on the weather. The forecast is saying that the winds are going to pick up again tonight, which makes the fires harder to contain in these dry hills and open space… We’re just hoping for the best.

Hey, so I bought a couch. It only took five or six 15 years.

I feel like I’ve been talking about wanting a new couch for an inordinate amount of time (I guess I have furniture commitment issues), but I finally went there, and it arrived last Saturday.

I know it’s just a thing, but that thing is gloriously comfortable. The second the delivery dudes peace’d out, I plunked down on it for five minutes, but those five minutes spiraled into six hours and a full season of Girls.

Sh*t, man, that couch is comfortable.

It’s the PB Comfort Slipcovered 3-piece L-shaped sectional with English arms from Pottery Barn, and apparently those English arms are a THING. I didn’t know they were a thing until I ordered the couch two months ago, and speaking of the ordering, there’s a whole story to that, but first, what are English arms?

Well, in case you’re as equally home decor-challenged as I am, English arms are slightly curved, and I guess they have a more traditional vibe than square arms… Who knew?!

It took took me a long time to realize that what I wanted was a slipcovered couch, but that’s not the main reason I bought it. I bought it because the price was crazy reduced.

It was during a sale about two months ago, and I don’t know if this particular fabric, Sunbrella Performance Herringbone in Tweed Gray, was being discontinued, or if there was some kind of inventory error, but for some reason this particular style was only $795, while it’s listed on the Pottery Barn website right now for $5,945 (!).

[Continue reading…]

So…what is the Monday Poll?

Well, it isn’t exactly a poll. It’s more of a constantly evolving (devolving?), somewhat random list of questions I’ve been putting out to readers every Monday morning for the past 10 (!) years. (It’s like a kickstart for your brain.) I’ve always enjoyed reading your answers in the comments, and I hope you enjoy reading mine.

1. What did you eat for breakfast this morning?

Two frozen waffles with creamy peanut butter (NOT crunchy) and raisins on top.

I haven’t had it in months, but I ate it ALL THE TIME when I was pregnant with Connor. I got an extreme craving for it the other day, so I think I’m back on the frozen waffles train again.

2. Your favorite children’s television show back in the day?

Honestly, are you gonna make me pick just one?? Because that’s cruel. 🙂 Television was the unpaid babysitter of my childhood years. We watched A LOT of TV. Limited screen time was not a thing in my family.

That said, I really loved The Electric Company. And Mr. Wizard’s World. And Jem. And The Smurfs and Voltron.

3. What’s the first word that comes to mind right now.

Guacamole!

4. Who was the first person you ever had a crush on?

A kid named Brian in my first grade class. I even wrote down “I love Brian” on my bed sheet because I was soooo into him. LOL! My mom found it and couldn’t read my writing, so she kept hounding me. “Who is this boy? What’s his name?” And I just got freaked out and didn’t tell her. So she and my dad did detective work! They put on their detective caps and went through the list of kids in my first grade class, looking for all of the little boys whose names started with a “B.” Eventually, they came upon a boy named Brandon, and then they were like, “Do you like Brandon? Do you have a crush on Brandon?” kinda teasing me — you know how parents do sometimes — and I, being super sensitive and all, didn’t know how to say, “Please stop teasing me. I don’t like it.” I just wanted to hide in my room and cry, because I was embarrassed and confused about my feelings for Brian, so I said, “Yes.”

And to this day they still think I liked some dude named Brandon.

5. What’s worse — losing your makeup bag on a trip, or losing your luggage?

Both would be fairly terrible, but losing my luggage would be waaaaay worse…because I can pretty much restock a makeup bag from scratch with my eyes closed.

Happy Monday

Good morning, friend! I’m glad you could stop by this morning. I hope all is going well. It’s nice to see you. 🙂

Oh, guess who finally got a new couch!!!!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen