Just For Fun

Hey there, friend. Happy Saturday! Rosie girl sends sweet greetings…

This is her happy face, I swear. ? Her body language says she loves me, but her RBF says otherwise, ha ha ha!

Connor and I talked about it at length yesterday when we were hunting for wildflowers in our neighborhood (“Mama, Rosie likes you, but she loves me the most because she chose *me* as her special person.”)

If you’re in Northern California in the spring, you’ll see these purple flowers everywhere — blooming all over the hills, along roads, and even in the middle of parking lots! I think they’re called lupine (?), and there’s huge patches of them where we live.

I noticed yesterday that some of the flowers have pods on the stems that look like mini peas. I grabbed a few pods hoping to grow some in our front yard someday. Ya never know!

When we got back from our walk, we put our wildflower bouquet in a jar of water on the kitchen windowsill, and then Connor helped me bake a funky-lookin’ gluten-free blueberry lemon loaf.

It’s rustic looking, a.k.a. “photogenically challenged,” so while it’s not the prettiest, it’s melt-in-your-mouth perfection with a cup of Earl Grey tea.

Hmm… Now that I think about it, a slice sounds good for breakfast, so while I get my yum on, please enjoy your reading for the week.

• Fun fact: A group of lemurs is called a “conspiracy.” Also, lemurs do something called “stink flirting.”
• What happens when your signature scent goes mainstream? (Me: I keep wearing it.)
• Has your skin been breaking out since you’ve been staying in? Here are some reasons why your skin has been going nuts during the quarantine.
• Meghan Markle’s wedding day makeup artist, Daniel Martin, says every bride needs this blush. (Hint: It’s by La Goddess Charlotte T).
• How self-isolation changed one woman’s relationship with her makeup.
• Allegedly, these are the best lipsticks for ladies (and gents) with medium skin tones.
• TikTok is bringing in the next wave of social media-based beauty influencers.

A tutorial with, not one, but two different eye looks! And it’s with one of my favorite UD palettes, Born to Run.

Please note the presence of the diva fan.

Another one, BECAUSE I LOVE HER!

So much big hair. I kinda want to do this just for fun.

Probably not a great idea to watch this while my tummy’s rumbling, but what the haaaaay.

My favorite was “cookie”.

Current isolation theme song

I wish I was hanging out with the background singers.

Whatcha got planned for today?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

These are strange times… We should probably document it. ?

I bet many of us are doing a lot of the same things (Movie rentals? Zoom meetings? Taking walks outside? Going for drives? Waiting in long lines at Target and Trader Joe’s?). I’m curious, how do you spend your weekdays? Do you have any new family routines? What do you do on the weekends? What’s a typical shelter-in-place day like for you? Let me know in the comments.

Perhaps one day we’ll be able to look back at our answers and laugh about it… Hopefully. ?

Here’s what it’s like at Casa de MBB on a typical weekday. I’ve been sheltering with El Hub, Connor and PGR (Pretty Girl Rosie), who, collectively, are known as “the coworkers.”

We maintain a strict schedule. It starts at 5:15 when El Hub gets up for work. His commute only takes a minute, because all he does is go downstairs to his computer in the dining room.

I get up a few minutes later and go downstairs to get my coffee, make a bite to eat, and then I go back upstairs to my desk, where I check my email, glance at the news (yuck), fill out any paperwork or pay any bills (bluh), before I do my makeup or write a new blog post.

We’ve tried to keep Connor’s regular preschool schedule through all this to retain some sense of normalcy for her, and that’s been great (but keeping a schedule also helps us too). Her day starts around 7:45 with breakfast (like an Eggo waffle with sliced strawberries, blackberries or blueberries, and maple syrup) and some quiet relaxing music (Spotify is great for this).

Connor’s (home) school starts promptly at 9 on the dot.

Structure helps my sanity, because without it my day devolves into meandering casually from a workout into a long walk around the neighborhood into baking cookies into the next thing into the next thing… Before I know it, it’s dinner, and I haven’t gotten anything done, so structure is good for both me and Connor.

With our schedule, we all know what’s coming next, so there’s a rhythm to our day.

It also eases the load of watching Connor and trying to get work done. El Hub and I each have set hours where we watch Connor, and we pass her back and forth (kinda like a basketball, ha!), so that the other person can have blocks of uninterrupted time for work and to concentrate.

El Hub usually has her first in the morning, so he feeds breakfast, gets her dressed and does her hair…which has resulted in some CRAZY daddy hairstyles, ha ha ha! We’ve learned to just go with it. ?

I can usually get a workout in during this time, which is a relatively new thing for me, but those early morning sweat sessions are, no joke, completely necessary for my mood, and if I don’t exercise, I’m crabby for the rest of the day (El Hub would attest to this).

Heading off the crankiness has become more challenging every day we’ve been cooped up, so I absolutely NEED help, and the workouts help.

I have until 9am to finish, clean up, eat and complete any writing or other tasks, and then I take over on Connor duty.

At 9, we start homeschool preschool, which I should be technically calling “crisis schooling,” because that’s what the preschool administrators call it. For a couple hours, we stay busy indoors. I help her with an art project or with a simple lesson (like numbers, colors, letters or shapes), and then we read books. Then, we’ll do some kind of tactile activity — usually making lunch, but sometimes it’s baking or engineering (Play-Doh).

Before lunch, we’ll go outside for an hour or so for some outdoor play. She’ll ride her bike, water the plants or do sidewalk chalk, and sometimes we’ll take a walk. We try to emphasize the daily school theme during our time outside, so if the theme is spring flowers, we point out all of the flowers we find.

At noon, we all break for lunch in the living room, which is when El Hub takes over again. He’ll help her with her lunch and get her ready for rest time (otherwise known as “the golden hour!”), which is from 1 to 3, during which time Connor quietly reads, naps or plays in her room.

After rest time, the school day is mostly over. One or both of us will take Connor outside to play again, and then I’ll usually start dinner around 4. If I wait much later than that, I tend to get hungry and maybe more than a little cranky…

Side note: I am SO SICK OF MY OWN COOKING. I don’t mind making a meal, but we’ve basically been existing on the same three dishes for so long that I’m over it, and I miss how much better food tastes when someone else makes it for you!

A few nights ago, El Hub and I fell asleep listing all of the takeout food we wanted to eat (“honey walnut shrimp with vegetable chow mein; carnitas burritos with extra guac, sour cream and cheese; pad thai and yellow chicken curry…).

Anywho! After everyone’s fed, I’ll sneak in a few household chores, then take a shower, then prep for the next day.

After Connor goes to bed at 8, I’ll watch a little TV, then pass out between 9 and 10.

And then we get up the next day and do it over again!

The days are definitely blending into each other…although Saturdays and Sundays are a bit looser, since there’s no “school” on those days.

It’s weird to not have something to “do” or to drive to on the weekends, right? We would usually treat ourselves to a movie or a dinner or a trip to the bookstore or window shopping at a mall, but now that we don’t have those, we end up doing things like sewing homemade masks or taking stock of the food in the pantry… Whee!

What has sheltering-in-place been like for you?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. TGIF!

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. Favorite skin care brands?

Kate Somerville, Skinceuticals, Neutrogena and Aveeno.

2. Favorite pair of shoes?

My black, white and pink Nike running shoes.

3. Favorite candy?

See’s Milk Chocolate Butterscotch Squares, which I’m missing something FIERCE right now.

4. Favorite ice cream?

It’s a tossup between Baskin-Robbins Pistachio Almond and Häagen-Dazs Dulce de Leche…

5. Your car?

A silver Mazda 3, which I haven’t driven in three weeks.

6. Favorite holiday?

Halloween, because you get to dress up and eat candy. Plus, I don’t have to cook or host, HA HA HA!

7. Night owl or early bird?

I’m a night owl by nature, but I play an early bird on TV (a.k.a. I wake up early out of necessity).

8. Favorite day of the week?

Caturday! ?

9. Tattoos?

Just fake temporary tats of cats.

10. Do you like vegetables?

I love me some veggies! ??? And I love how I feel after eating them. Side note: I just recently learned that bitter melon (which I don’t care for) is a fruit, not a vegetable. *mind blown*

11. Do you wear glasses?

Yup, for distance. ?

12. Favorite season?

Fall in the Bay Area.

The adventure continues! How many weeks of quarantine is this? I’ve lost track. Is this the fourth or the fifth week?

How was your Easter? ? Ours was nice and low key. We kept it simple. After an Easter egg hunt, we packed into the car and went looking for a good place to have a picnic.

El Hub grabbed his fishing gear, and we drove out to Marin French Cheese, which we like going to normally (pre-covid), and the last time we went a few weeks ago the deli was closed, but the pond and picnic tables were still accessible. Not this time though. The whole place was closed and off limits.

After that we tried Nicasio Reservoir, but that was also closed. There were orange traffic cones and Health Department warning signs at every turnout…

Not ready to give up, we drove back into town and found a perfect grass-covered area of landscaping in the middle of an empty parking lot! SCORE. Necessity is the mother of invention. ?

Happy Monday, friend. Have a wonderful week. ❤️

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Here are the questions to copy/paste with your answers in a comment. Talk to ya soon.

1. Favorite skin card brands?
2. Favorite pair of shoes?
3. Favorite candy?
4. Favorite ice cream?
5. Your car?
6. Favorite holiday?
7. Night owl or early bird?
8. Favorite day of the week?
9. Tattoos?
10. Do you like vegetables?
11. Do you wear glasses?
12. Favorite season?

Welcome to Saturday, mi amiga! ? At least I think it’s Saturday… I really don’t know. The days have been blurring together lately, so I’m like 75% sure? — which is good enough for now, ha ha ha.

OK, so, last night I had the weirdest dream. I was cutting my hair at home during, strangely enough, the daytime, and not in the dead of night, which would seem more likely given my history with spontaneous haircuts, and instead of trimming the ends, touching up the layers or slicing some sassy side-swept bangs, I put a bowl on top of my head, and gave myself a bowl cut.

A. BOWL. CUT. ?

via GIPHY

Shockingly, it ended up looking good, like a legit salon professional pulled it off. My hair was even on both sides, and the bowl shape was perfectly round. After I was done, I blew it out so the strands would lay all sleek and smooth, then went out into the world to show off my new ‘do.

I WAS WORKING THAT BOWL CUT, TOO, tossing my mane around in slow motion like it was a Pantene commercial. I guess that’s what happens when you read a lot of articles on how to cut your own hair at home…

There are a couple of them in today’s list of links, but none are devoted solely to the perfect at-home bowl cut, in case you were wondering. ?

• “Behind every successful man is a strong woman color-correcting his butt.” <---- Best line I read all week.
• Experts say that sticking to your regular routines — including putting on makeup — can help boost your mood, even during uncertain times like these.
• Ulta is furloughing employees, and their executives are forgoing their salaries.
• The Makeup Museum is launching a new exhibit online called Generations of Beauty, with the goal of supporting lonely seniors (shout-out to the grandparents!) during the pandemic.
• Guess what? Professional hair stylists do not recommend burning off your split ends with, ya know, fire. ? Here are their pro tips for doing a not-so-terrible job of cutting your own hair at home. ?
• Oh, and if you need a pair of clippers for your haircut, here are the best ones, according to the Chicago Tribune.
• Factories that used to make perfume, tees and cars are now making supplies to help in the coronavirus crisis.
• Note to self: When we can all go out and play again, smell all of these perfumes with rose notes, and add the ones I love ❤️ to my collection.

Apparently, videos with choreography to Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September” are a thing.

Here’s another one!

Look at these littles!

Allegedly, when I play this video, I play it for Connor, but really, I’m the one who loves dancing to it, ha ha ha!

We will meet again (also, please note the Queen’s orange lipstick).

My favorite Madonna video of all time

Don’t stop believing.

I love you, Lisa, but truth be told, I mostly watched this to see your cat. ?

Be extra nice to yourself, today, ok? And drop me a line in the comments to let me know what you’re up to for Easter. We’re still sheltering-in-place here at home… I’ll be making an easy Easter brunch for us. Got plans for strawberry scones, a breakfast egg and sausage casserole and gluten-free blueberry pancakes.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Are you going through any beauty service withdrawals right now?

Because I am. I ran into my neighbor the other day (not literally; we obeyed the 6-ft rule), and the first thing she said was, “Look. JUST LOOK!” while pointing at the top of her head, where a fresh crop of grays had sprung up since the shelter-in-place order started. She said she really, REALLY misses visiting the salon.

I told her I felt her pain… I’m desperately missing the salon, but not for a hair coloring service (I started growing out my grays last year). I want a haircut, because this thing on my head is out of control! My last cut was almost a year ago when Tabs passed away, and now the layers have grown out, so I feel like I’m wearing a wet golden retriever on my head. ?

Man, I should’ve made an appointment back in February.

On the glass-half-full side, I’ve never been happier about growing out my grays! ? Seriously, if someone would’ve told me a year ago it would actually come in handy during an upcoming global pandemic crisis, I would NOT have believed them, but ya know…here we are.

What beauty services are you missing right now?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen