Just For Fun

Whenever something good happens, I pick up a rock. Then I bring it home.

It’s a little ritual I use to help me remember special moments in my life, and I have rocks from all over the world.

Including Spain! I picked them up off the ground in a tiny town in Spain on the day El Hub asked me to marry him. Funny story: Those rocks almost didn’t make it back to California, because on that same trip, after we left Spain, El Hub and I took a old, slow-moving overnight train to Portugal, where I packed up the rocks and a few other souvenirs into a flimsy cardboard box, which we shipped from a Lisbon post office.

At the last moment before taping up the box, I wrapped the contents in a thin sea foam green floral maxi dress I got at an H&M in Spain (This was before the chain had arrived in the U.S., and their clothes were very exotic to me.), just in case the box ripped open.

It’s a good thing I did because that box didn’t arrive in California for more than a month after we returned from Europe. I’d pretty much given up on seeing any of those souvenirs again until the box, broken and torn at the corners, showed up on our doorstep one day.

Somehow, thanks to a bit of shipping luck and that protective sea foam green dress, everything was still in the box, including my rocks.

Oh! — and I also have a red rock I picked up from the front of the OB-GYN’s office on the day I saw Connor’s heartbeat on the ultrasound the very first time. The rock reminds me of how happy and utterly terrified I felt when I saw that teeny, tiny white blip on the screen. I wondered, was this my only chance to have a child? And would she make it past the dangerous first few weeks? (Even on that day, I knew she was going to be a girl. Don’t ask me how, but I did.)

The polished green beauties at the top are the most recent additions to my collection, gathered from Moonstone Beach on the morning of my 44th birthday after I finished a jog along the beach.

Now they’ll always remind me of beachcombing and how loosey-goosey I felt after that run. They’ll go on my windowsill for a few months, and after that, into the special box where I keep the rest of my rocks! 🙂

How about you? Do you have any memory rituals? Little things you do to remember meaningful events?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

This is the last week of Connor’s first year of preschool.

Wow! I can’t believe it’s already June. It feels like I took a breath, and BAM! — she’s a full-on little kid.

Over the past year, Coywolf has discovered a love for ballet, drawing and counting. Her favorite things are currently Disney princesses, her collection of “treasures” (unusual rocks, coins, dried flowers and sticks), fishing with Dad, and slumber parties with Mom.

She’s also still obsessed with Doc McStuffins and has gone so far as to open her own medical clinic for toys in the living room, where she also occasionally tends to human patients with the help of her magic stethoscope.

Having a doctor on staff sure has come in handy, too. Yesterday she took El Hub’s temperature, and he had a fever of 199 degrees!

Apparently, he had a bad case of Mondayitis, which she promptly added to The Big Book of Boo-Boos.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

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. Fruit OR vegetables?

Ooh! Tough one… I have a sweet tooth, so I generally prefer the taste fruit, but I always feel so much better, both physically and mentally, after I eat a massive bowl of vegetables…so I’d go with veggies, if I had to choose one.

2. Ulta OR Sephora?

You know I love me some Sephora…but I gotta give it to Ulta because of their variety (I really like that I can get MAC and drugstore stuff there, and I know that some Ulta stores even carry Chanel, which is awesome!), and I also think they have a waaaay better rewards program.

3. Have you ever had a pet who disliked your significant other?

Nope. Also, Tabs loved El Hub to pieces. Anytime El Hub called his name from anywhere inside or outside of the house, Tabs came running.

4. Wearing perfume or cologne while you’re working out in a public place: a do or a don’t?

It’s a do! Go for it! I certainly don’t mind when someone lifting weights next to me smells really good. Just please don’t douse yourself to the point where your Drakkar Noir fills every square inch of the room, thanks.

5. Do you like your water with or without ice?

With ice. Yummy tasting ice. I have zero tolerance for ice that tastes weird (you know what I mean if you’re the same way). I also like ice because I love biting down on it, for some weird reason.

Don’t know why, but it’s very satisfying to me.

Hearst Castle, San Simeon, California

My birthday trip to the coast last weekend was tons of fun, and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Hearst Castle. All my years in California, and I had no idea just how huge and opulent and…huge it is. It’s huge! In fact, the tour we took, referred to as the Grand Rooms tour, is just one of many tours available of different parts of the estate. We didn’t even see the upstairs of the castle!

I highly recommend seeing the castle if you’re ever visiting that part of California. It’s a truly remarkable architectural wonder.

(Oh, yeah, and there are also wild zebras.)

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Hiya, friend. Good morning from beautiful Cambria on the Central California coast. I’m here for a few days for a short birthday trip. Hearst Castle is 15 minutes away, and we’re headed there for a tour soon.

I’ve had this quote from Coco Chanel bookmarked for a while, and it’s been on my mind for a couple of days because I’ve been thinking a lot about gratefulness. When I remember to be grateful for everything and everyone in my life, the lighter my soul feels and the fuller my well becomes.

And it’s not just about being grateful for the good things. That’s easy. I think it’s harder to remember that even the challenges in life are chances to learn, so I try to remember to don my gratefulness goggles to learn how to be more empathetic, kinder, patient and graceful.

Speaking of things I’m grateful for today and every day… Thank you for stopping by. I know that you could spend this moment on your weekend reading anything you want, but you chose to stop by MBB, and that’s a precious gift — the gift of someone’s time, and I’m so grateful for it.

• Is it just me, or is Target doing a major push to expand their beauty section? It seems like every week they have a new line I’ve never heard of before. The latest is London-based Makeup Obsession, a brand known for affordable, pigmented products. Their Gloss is about $6, palettes are between $10 and $15, and highlighter is $5.
• These are the best makeup vanities, according to interior designers. Some of them are decently affordable, too.
• In case you were wondering what a memoji is…
• My makeup boo, Sir John, has a new collection collab coming out with a Disney Lion King movie theme.
• 4 makeup artists break down their personal skin care routines
• And because I’m not-so-secretly obsessed, here are 12 of Meghan Markle’s favorite beauty products.
• This is what happens when you empower an AI neural network to name cats.
• The state of New York has banned declawing cats.
• Does one really need sunscreen for their hair?

Been bouncing to this all week long

Love me some Mel Robbins

You’re welcome.

Oh, and before I leave for a bit, FYI, just in case you didn’t know, if you tell a three-year-old little girl who’s obsessed with Disney princesses that you’re going to “Hearst Castle,” she’s going to repeatedly ask if she’s going to meet Belle, Jasmine and Cinderella. 🙂

Have a wonderful rest of your weekend. Talk to you soon.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

As I sit here, with sweat pouring down my face, my body feeling worked over, and my legs and arms and legs completely useless — dagnabbit, I feel good.

Actually, more than good. I feel great. Even though my rubbery limbs have been utterly defeated, I think I could still sprint across a football field (IF I had to chase down Keanu). This is what it’s like to do a workout with fitness trainer Sydney Cummings on YouTube. At the end, you’re completely spent, but your spirit is totally energized.

I’ve been doing Sydney’s videos for a couple weeks, and I’m hooked!

Let’s do some bear crawls, girl!

Sydney’s a certified personal trainer, a nutrition specialist and a former university high jumper, and her workouts are THE BEST I’ve found on YouTube.

She posts a new workout every day (!), and there are dozens to choose from. Every session is different, which keeps them interesting and always makes them a challenge. She does a combination of HIIT (high-intensity interval training), bodyweight (exercises that use your own weight to provide resistance against gravity), cardio, stretching, and weights workouts, and every one — whether it’s 30, 40 50 or 60 minutes long — leaves me dripping in sweat and feeling strong and accomplished.

The videos — not gonna lie — are definitely challenging, but Sydney often shows modified versions of specific movements for newbies (which I appreciate, because some days I need to take it down a level). She also thoroughly describes how to position your body and what your muscles should feel like as you move through each exercise.

The time flies, too. The workouts are over quickly because you’re working hard at a decent clip, usually with 15-30 seconds of rest every 30-45 second burst of hard effort. I did a 50-minute boot camp style video this morning, and even though it REALLY challenged me (bear crawls!) from start to finish, it was like I blinked, and it was over. I never feel like the classes drag on because they keep you moving.

Just crushed this one!

Most of all, I really appreciate Sydney’s positive, upbeat style. She’s positive, but not, like, in an overly perky faux saccharine sweet way, and she pushes you hard, but it makes you believe you can push through those last few reps, even when your limbs are quivering like salt shakers.

Even though I’m just in my living room when I do the videos, usually at some obscene time in the morning, I feel like Sydney is with me, personally guiding me and encouraging me to push through my limits.

I was so sore the day after doing this mini band workout…
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See, this is why one should tidy up their desk multiple times a week, as opposed to only doing it before Mercury goes into retrograde, because they just might find a treasure trove of random gift cards!

Over the years, I’ve learned that there are three types of gift card people in this world.

1. The people that spend their gift cards decisively and right away without any hesitation.
2. The people who hoard their gift cards, allegedly for a rainy day, but end up holding on to them for months or years. (Ahem! Yours truly.)
3. The people who totally forget about or lose their gift cards and end up frittering away what was essentially free money. (I hate to admit it, but I’ve been this person, too.)

Why do I hoard gift cards for so long? — because honestly it makes no sense. I like to shop.

No, I loooove to shop. I could get an honorary Ivy League PhD in the shopping arts, LOL! And I especially love that I get to pick exactly what I want when I use a gift card, because I’m super picky about…well, almost everything.

(And this is why it took me more than 10 years to finally decide on a new couch.)

But with great power comes great responsibility. Do you spend the gift card on something you need, or do you spend it on something you want? And if you go with something you need, do you play it safe, or do you get the thing you’ve been lusting after forever but never would have gotten yourself in a million years?

For example, say you suddenly get a $400 gift card to spend solely (ha ha) on shoes. Do you buy a single pair of Jimmy Choo glitter heels (SWOON), or do you go the practical route and buy the four pairs of Nike running shoes that you know you love and wear all the time (and that you know you’ll eventually go through over several years)?

As you can probably guess, those “Choose Your Own Adventure” books were a great source of vexation for Little Karen when she was a kid.

All of this is to say that I’ve been sitting on a Nordstrom gift card for months.

I know I should probably use it to replace my favorite Blank NYC faux leather jacket, which I’ve worn and loved for years. It held up well, but the pseudo-leather is falling off in huge flakes on the back of the collar, and I don’t think there’s a good way to fix it. Thankfully, I found out that Nordstrom still sells the exact same jacket.

I’ve hesitated to pull the trigger, though, because part of me thinks that even though I’ll wear it all the time…why not look around for something new and different?

Beyond that, should I even use the gift card get a jacket? I could use it instead on that Chantecaille foundation I’ve wanted for a while…

I think that maybe because gift cards feel like getting free money it ups the ante on the final decision. There’s more pressure.

Another funny thing I’ve noticed about gift cards — and I know I can’t be the only person who does this — once I finally get around to spending one, I still keep the physical card, instead of throwing it away.

Why I do this, I don’t know, but it results in a whole mess of confusion.

[I guess it’s kind of like going to the Chanel counter and leaving with your purchases in a Chanel bag? That is, you know the bag is disposable, but you keep it around anyway because it says Chanel? I MAY OR MAY NOT KEEP THIS, DECIDE LATER.]
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