Just For Fun

I think everybody does it sometimes when they’re either feeling creative, or frazzled, or they’re running out of a certain product.

Let me set the stage for you: two days ago. Easter Sunday. 9:45 a.m. I’d just finished a run on the treadmill and was putting the finishing touches on a quiche (yes, I made a quiche, and it wasn’t terrible) when I bumped into El Hub in the kitchen, who said, “You know we have to leave here at 11, right?” And I said, “Yeah.” And he was like, “That means you should probably aim for 10:30.” And I said, “Yeah, whatever. I’ll be done by 10:30. Don’t even worry about it, la-la-la-la-la…”

Then I went about my business, until I looked up at the clock and thought, “Hmm… I have to take a shower, I have to put on makeup, I want to do my hair. How am I going to do everything by 11?” So I stopped taking my sweet time and started hustling my butt.

While I was doing my makeup, after I’d applied Diorskin Nude Air Serum foundation, I looked at what was left on the back of my hand and thought, “I really like how this stuff looks on my skin, how it blurs my pores and doesn’t sit in my fine lines and wrinkles…”

EUREKA!

“Why don’t I just use this as my under-eye concealer!?”

So I mixed it with some YSL Touche Éclat highlighter and patted the combo under my eyes with a finger, and I really like how it turned out. They made a great improv concealer that didn’t settle into my fine lines, and didn’t look cakey or heavy. 🙂

I also happened to have some lipstick left on the back of my hand, so I mixed it with the Diorskin Nude foundation, too, and applied that as my blush.

When was the last time you used a beauty product for something other than its intended purpose?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Happy Tuesday, by the way. How’s it going this morning?

You might be wondering, “So what in tarnation is this Monday Poll thing anyway!?”

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 seven 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 are three pieces of advice you would give to a younger woman?
   1. Definitely drink a ton of water, she said holding up her Bkr. When I don’t drink enough water, everything is a little more difficult. My skin gives me a hard time, my brain doesn’t work as quickly…

      See, it’s not firing right now because I haven’t had enough water.

   2. Choose the people around you carefully (that’s one of those things I learned the hard way). Positive people with a good outlook will lift you up, and every spirit needs lifting sometimes.
   3. You don’t have to do everything yourself (again, another lesson learned the hard way). For many, many years I felt like I was the only one in the proverbial boat, like everything was entirely up to me to figure out and do, but it’s OK to ask for help. It’s OK to need help (everyone does), and everything doesn’t have to be hard.
2. Nail charms (dangly or otherwise) — yes or no?
   Oh, hell no. Tabs would go insane. He’d never leave my nails alone.

   Plus, I don’t keep my claws long enough to have cute little charms. They’d always be rattling all over the place, and even if I did keep my nails long enough, the charms would click and clack on my keyboard.

   I can’t even think about it… It would drive me nuts!

3. Are you looking forward to anything this week?
   I’m looking forward to going out on another mid-week movie date. El Hub and I did that last week. We went to see a new horror movie called It Follows, and it was kind of nice (the date, not the movie; THE MOVIE WAS SCARY!).

   I think it was last Tuesday or Wednesday night. It was just us, and three other dudes on a bromance date, in the entire movie theater. It was cool.

4. Ripped jeans or boyfriend jeans?
   Ripped jeans.
5. What do your sunglasses look like?
   Mine are a beige pair of oversized cat eye sunglasses by Tory Burch.

   Got them last year on sale, and I love ’em, but I’m thinking about switching to a pair of super cute Kate Spade aviators that I tried on at Nordstrom last week.

   Yup, major life dilemmas…

6. Last weird dream you had?
   It was this past weekend. I dreamed that El Hub and I broke up! — and then I married Prince.

   And he was so weird!

   It was really weird being married to Prince…and I was completely heartbroken. I just wanted to go back to El Hub.

   Dang, it was the weirdest dream…

Your turn. 🙂 Just copy and paste the following questions into a comment with your answers. I look forward to reading ’em!

1. What are three pieces of advice you would give to a younger woman?
2. Nail charms (dangly or otherwise) — yes or no?
3. Are you looking forward to anything this week?
4. Ripped jeans or boyfriend jeans?
5. What do your sunglasses look like?
6. Last weird dream you had?

I’ve been trying to think of a few words of wisdom this morning, but I have no wisdom at all, LOL!

OK, I might have something here… Here’s a tidbit that may or may not help you this week (probably not), but if you slice potatoes for a scalloped potato dish and plan on storing the slices in your refrigerator overnight, you gotta stick those freaking potato slices in a bowl of water, because they’ll turn brown if you don’t. This I learned last weekend when I made scalloped potatoes for Easter.

Happy Monday, my friend! I hope that your jeans make your butt look great and that you have a wonderful, stress-free week. 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Hello and happy Friday, my friend! Here, have a Pink Power Smoothie. 🙂

It’s a good day — no, a GREAT day — for an open thread, where we’ll talk about anything — makeup, cats, skincare, food (although I don’t know how much help I’ll be in that department), blogging, photography, pineapples, what have you… It’s like coffee talk, except we’ll have smoothies.

Warm up those fingers, and I’ll meet you in the comments! The open thread starts right meow…

How to Make a Pink Power Smoothie

Adapted from Oh She Glows

Incidentally, I feel ready to take on the freakin’ world when I have one of these bad boys for breakfast, and it holds me over till lunch. My version leaves out the coconut oil…because that was just a little too rich for my tum, but even without it, it’s still filling.

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup water or coconut water
   1/2 medium avocado (pit removed)
   2 celery stalks, diced
   1/2 cup frozen strawberries
   1/2 cup frozen raspberries
   1 small/medium lightly steamed beet, ends trimmed and diced
   1 lemon, juiced
   1 tsp of honey (or to taste)

Directions:

Wash and lightly steam the beet (you could leave the beet raw, but my blender can’t handle that ish), then chop, chop, chop it!

Place in a blender and blend on high until smooooove.

Add more honey if you like.

Slurp it all up, YUM!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. TGIF!

You might be wondering, “So what in tarnation is this Monday Poll thing anyway!?”

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 seven 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. Where were you in 1999, and what were you doing?
   Gurl, I think I was living at home again. I’d just finished college and moved back home with my parents, partially because I missed them, and partially because I wanted to save some money while I looked for a job.

   Ugh! — it was a rough transition, but we worked it out. Essentially, I went from living on my own for four or five years to living under my parents’ rules and roof.

   That’s not usually easy.

2. Have you ever ridden a Razor scooter?
   The funny thing is, I can totally picture myself on one of those things (and falling off, of course), but I’ve never ridden one before.
3. Do you rock climb?
   Again, I can see myself doing it, but I never got around to learning.

   I guess it’s never too late to give it a try.

4. What’s on your keychain?
   I have my house keys, my car keys, and a fun little toy camera charm that I got from a museum store. When you press the little shutter button, it makes a “CLICK!” sound, and you can see the flash. 🙂
5. What’s your biggest nail polish pet peeve?
   Oh, boy. Well, most of the time I do my own fingers and toes, but every once in a while I’ll actually spend the money to go get a pedicure, and when I do, inevitably, I’ll do something weird to mess up the polish literally, like, seconds after I leave the salon.

   This has happened on many occasions… You’d think that it would teach me a lesson to not get pedicures at all, or maybe I should call somebody to pick me up and just carry me home or something, but nooo.

Your turn. 🙂 Just copy and paste the following questions into a comment with your answers. I look forward to reading ’em!

1. Where were you in 1999, and what were you doing?
2. Have you ever ridden a Razor scooter?
3. Do you rock climb?
4. What’s on your keychain?
5. What’s your biggest nail polish pet peeve?

Happy Monday, my friend! 🙂 I hope your week got off to a great start. I’m just chugging along out here in Novato…

I have some catching up to do this week. I didn’t do any housecleaning last week whatsoever, or any, like, basic life necessity chores.

You know how it is sometimes…

In tastier news, though, I’m very excited because last night between dinner and The Walking Dead finale (OMG! One of my fave episodes EVER!), I prepped some noms for the week to make me less likely to eat junk food. I made cauliflower soup and crispy quinoa cakes (better than high-sodium processed food). I also made a pitcher of fruit-infused water, because I notice that when I have one in the fridge, I drink more agua.

How are things going with you?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen