A bouquet of fresh picked wildflowers for you, my friend, courtesy of the “floral artisans” at the local playground.
Translation: Connor and the other little girl she was playing with ran up and down every hill plucking every yellow flower in sight when we were at the playground the other day, and when I was handed the final bouquet, my first thought was, “Oh, this is so pretty. I wonder how many dogs have pee’d on these flowers.” ?
Got a few things on my mind today that I wanted to chat with you about, including expanding my makeup knowledge with a couple of new books, and a snazzy styling tool that will forever change the way you see flat irons.
Also, there’s a healthy, yummy, easy chicken recipe at the end that I think everyone — even the pickiest eaters — will love. It’s so good that if Tabs were around, I’m sure he’d try to steal the food off my plate.
Y.U.M.
As I know you know, this last month I was reminded that life is blisteringly (and unfairly) short. To put it mildly, this has lit a fire ? under my @ss, and now I want to learn as much as I can about anything and everything — all of my interests. One of those interests, of course, is makeup.
I mean, I do know a thing or two about it already, but there’s a whole wide world of techniques and history and beauty vocabulary that I’ve yet to discover.
Kevin James Bennett, MUA and outspoken dude
This month I’ve been reading a couple of books that were recommend by makeup artist Kevin James Bennett. He’s an Emmy award-winning MUA and a somewhat controversial presence on social media because he goes for the jugular when it comes to calling out what he sees is wrong about current beauty influencer culture.
While I don’t have the mental bandwidth to deal with that aspect of his content (again, life is short), I love the technical information he provides on his Instagram and his blog.
He wrote a list of his most-used makeup reference books, and I picked up two of them from Amazon: Color: A Course in Mastering the Art of Mixing Color by Betty Edwards, and The Makeup Artist Handbook by Gretchen Davis and Mindy Hall.
I’ve only been able to skim a few chapters in Color so far, but they were fascinating! The book dives deeply into the art and science of color mixing and explores the vocabulary and theory behind it.
I want to be able to understand the “why” behind which colors “go” best with which colors in makeup, photography and life in general.
The other book, The Makeup Artist Handbook, is like a succinct manual on everything you’d ever need to know and own to do makeup on a production set. It’s written for professionals and working artists in the industry and covers a wide array of things I’ll probably never need to do (like creating a beard! FROM SCRATCH!), but they’re still fun to know.
I think from a casual makeup lover’s standpoint, the chapters on beauty makeup and natural makeup for photography and film are the most useful and helpful, so I can’t wait to dive into that.
Mini flat irons are a thing
Check out this funky little piece of equipment I picked up recently at Ulta. It’s a mini flat iron!
LOOK HOW THIN THE PLATES ARE! They’re so skinny.
I had no idea that mini flat irons were even a thing until I recently looked for different ways to smooth the crazy rogue baby hairs around my hairline (because I know that plucking them isn’t a long-term solution).
They’re typically used to tame very short hairstyles like pixie cuts because the ultra-thinness of the plates lets you get closer to the scalp than a traditional flat iron.
I used it for the first time yesterday, and yeah — you can indeed get close to your roots.
Like, uncomfortably close.
On the one hand, awesome. On the other, I’m deathly afraid I’m going to accidentally burn myself.
It helped to smooth down my baby hairs, though, so that’s a plus. I’ll have to do it a few more times to get into a flow… (If you see me rocking a Disney Princess Band-Aid across my forehead in the next few days, you’ll know what happened.)
Culinary denial
Here’s something that only occurred to me after I gave birth to Connor: I’m going to have to make dinner for her every night FOR THE NEXT 18 YEARS.
Why didn’t anybody point this out to me at the baby shower?
I’m forever searching for dinner recipes to add to the rotation, so I made this baked roll-up chicken the other night for the first time from a recipe on the fantastic skinnytaste.com.
The main reason I wanted to try it was because it said that the total time it would take from start to finish, including prep time, was 35 minutes.
While it was absolutely delicious, and everyone gobbled them up…there’s no way in hell it was a 30-minute meal. It took about an hour from start to finish.
Granted, I had to crush some gluten-free crackers to make the breadcrumbs. (Side note: Banging the sh*t out of crackers with a rolling pin is strangely therapeutic. You should try it sometime.) And I also had to thinly slice a few of the thicker cutlets, which took a while.
Still, I’d make it again.
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
Girl, did you ever watch Master Chef Junior? Unbelievable what those kids come up with. You need to get CC in the kitchen with you to start her out! Some of the best memories of my childhood were being in the kitchen with my mom cooking and baking. Of special note was frosting and decorating cutout Christmas cookies until the wee hours in the morning.
Now that I’m older and single, I have to come up with ideas for simple, yet healthy and “unprocessed”, meals FOR ONE. I got an InstantPot and that’s fun, but now finding going into Trader Joe’s and simply picking up all the fixings at my fingertips for things I’ve just sampled is my new go-to. EZ, PZ!
And all the cooking blogs, oh my! Read, copy, paste to my trusty iPad, and I have it made for new things to try. So, yeah, now I’m craving my brunch. I eat two meals a day at 11ish and 4ish and NOW, time for that morning coffee!
Make your best day,
Take care,
Love,
L
❤️
I’ve never seen that show. I do have her cook and bake with me whenever she asks. The other day we made “cupcakes,” which were really gluten free banana bread muffins. I’m making an effort to teach her how to handle herself in the kitchen because I had to learn all of it on my own (thank you, Internet). You’re so lucky to have those special childhood memories.
What new things have you found at Trader Joe’s?
P.S. Baby is at preschool, and Tabs’ ashes are coming home in just a few. We’ll be back to where we started, just me and him. Full circle.
I love this well-rounded post, Karen!
Those MUA books evoke the technique nerd in me; it’s great that you’re delving further into your passion/craft. 😉
So it seems that skinny mini can also flatten armpit hair, beards, etc., IF you ever needed it for that. ;D
Thanks, friend!
I *just* received another book today by the legendary Way Bandy. Super excited to read it. If you have any books that you can recommend please send the titles my way.
Hmm, I wonder if anybody actually used the iron for beards, because I can see that working.
You may already have it, but Kevin Aucoin’s “Making Faces” was a bible for me when I first started out. I loved that it came out before the social media tidal wave and the fact that KA excelled in high fashion so the looks ranged from beauty to creative, and on real people.
Oh yeah, that’s a good one. I do have it! It’s around here somewhere (I think in the boxes of books that we brought over from our old place which I still have to sort out, LOL).
P.S. Where did you purchase the Van’s GF crackers?? I’ve been looking for GF crust material for cheese cakes and while I normally make the crust from scratch with soaked nuts/figs, someone in my family has a severe nut allergy, so I’m looking for an alternative! Thank you, Karen!
From Safeway! I’m pretty sure you guys have them out your way, yeah? I remember one being in Kaneohe. Out of all the stores in my area Safeway has the most extensive gluten-free selection of products.
You can also order the crackers online from Amazon and Walmart. 🙂
Yay, Safeway! Have one right down the street on Beretania. 😉
Perfect, thank you!
I’ve been to that Safeway, LOL!
If you can find it, try the Simple Mills gluten-free crackers. They’re REALLY good.
I don’t know, Karen. Creating a beard from scratch might come in handy for costume parties around Halloween time. You never know! LOL!
I also like to delve deep into the why’s and how things work, so I might pick up the first book just to get a better grasp of colour mixing. I have a really, really pale olive colouring (I wear the lighest shades in foundation), and most colours don’t appear on me the way I want them to because of my undertones and the depth of my skin. I think this book would come in handy for me.
LOL! And who knows, it might be one of those life skills that I never knew I was good at. Maybe I’m a beard whisperer and don’t even know it yet. ?
Oh, and about the book, just from a quick skim I’ve seen a lot of detail and pics on mixing. I think you’ll enjoy it!
Many thanks for the info. I’ll definitely check it out!
You’re welcome!
What are you reading these days?
I really want to read more about makeup too, but both books seem much too advanced for me. I can barely paint my own face, I´d need something that starts much easier and less technical.
Oh, and cooking… every single night… it is worth than the 5 am wakeup calls from the kids. I never enjoyed cooking much, but knowing that you don’t really have a choice makes me despise it.
That’s why I’m all about 30-minute meals. You get in, you get out, and it’s not too stressful.
OOooooh, I want to read that color book. I’m fascinated with color. I keep a color wheel in my closet. It doesn’t help me get dressed but sometimes it gives me a boost of inspiration.
Also, dinner every freaking night. My advice is to get in a rotation of sorts. Not necessarily every Tuesday is taco night but something along those lines. Have a quesadilla night, a pizza night (I make a homemade dough and add lots of veggies so it has nutritional value), do your peeps like breakfast? have a breakfast night–. Have a clean out the fridge night–people can eat whatever they want as long as its a leftover. Have a stir fry night. There that’s five nights for you. Add a couple of takeout nights and you’re golden.
In all seriousness though, we eat a lot of fish not just because we love it but because it cooks so fast. Ten minutes and we’re eating. Explore fish recipes. I like fish tacos and a spicy fish sandwich with lettuce and tomato.
I love fish! I stopped eating seafood when I got pregnant and for the first couple years after I had the baby because for some reason being with child screwed up my taste buds for a while and fish grossed me out. But I’m back to eating it again!
If you have any go-to recipes please send them along.
I love the dandelions! I remember doing that for my mom. My favorite was making necklaces out of clover flowers with her (also Quincy loved clover).
I know some of the color theory and stuff from art classes but they look like good books! I had to draw wrinkles on myself for a school play once, LOL. And baby powder through the hair to look gray.
I can’t cook to save my life. I want to take classes because I love eating home-cooked meals.
Hi Chelsea,
I couldn’t cook either until my 30s. Everything I learned about cooking, I learned from the internet. Seriously! The most useful and practical tips I’ve learned are from Laura in the Kitchen (she does videos on YouTube and is fun and easy to watch). I think her recipes are great for beginners, because the ingredients are things you can find at almost all grocery stores, she uses common measurements and she shows you shortcuts along the way. Watch a few of her videos and you’ll learn a lot. Her food is delicious, too, and easy.
Hey Karen, if you aren’t following this genius already, you may want to check her out–she has been a makeup artist for many years, way before Photoshop, and she has some really cool pics from back in the day.
https://www.instagram.com/phylliscohen_archives/
Hi Sandy,
Yes! I’m a fan. I definitely recognize some of the pics. It’s interesting to see how many other artists have drawn inspiration from her work!
Well if it had rained recently, probably the dandelions were cleaned enough.
About those makeup books, they look amazing, specially the one of color theory, I feel I can do a lot of stuff with color, so I’ll look for it.
And about cooking, a friend wrote this piece and I think it truly shows what I feel about cooking: https://medium.com/@lilyhoffmann/my-therapeutic-relationship-with-food-cc7803f36f32
For me cooking as putting makeup is therapeutic because I control what to do and how, and even if something gets wrong I know I can start again. But yes I get it about not liking it and trying to do the fastest thing possible, I mean one of my favorites cooking shows is 30 minutes meals.
Sending you hugs.
Hi! I actually really love cooking, too, especially baking. I wish I had more time to do both.
How are things? Will you be in Germany much longer?
Oh God I misread then, but the point of cooking fast it’s still true, we always need to have fast dishes.
Things are flowing here in Germany, just thinking about what to do after this. I miss my family, my friends and the warm weather, now I understand why people love to sunbath.
I return to Mexico on August so there’s still plenty of time here in Europe.
I would miss the warm weather, too. I bet when you go back home the heat is going to seem *that* much hotter.
Will you be in Germany that whole time, or will you have the opportunity to travel?
Oh, my gosh – so many excellent topics in this post! I also love the Color book cover and it looks like both are very interesting reads. A couple of years ago, I had to learn much more about measuring and matching color than I’d ever want to. Your book seems much more entertaining. 🙂
Your chicken looks delish and I said the same thing. Not a chance a normal person can pound out (or cut) chicken breast and make roll ups in a half hour. I diy my gf breadcrumbs, too (one of my friends is gf). I find that the Good Thins crackers work well – I don’t know if you’ve tried them but there are a lot of varieties and flavors. It gets worse about dinner, btw. I still make it but the boys are never around to eat it. And to add insult to injury, when they are home, they prefer to grab cereal. Grrrr. I actually just texted them to please finish the ribs. $550 million says they’ll still be in the fridge when I get home. 🙂
I am cracking through them one page at a time. I’ve tried to schedule blocks of time specifically just reading (like I did in college) but DAYUM I can only sneak in 10 or 15 minutes at a time. I can’t believe there was a period in my life when I could block out three hours to read or four! The color book is really good. Apparently the author is also famous for another book called Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. Have you ever heard of it?
Oh, thanks for the heads up on the Good Thins crackers. I’ll see if I can find them at Safeway next time I’m there. If you ever see Simple Mills give those a try. They’re really good too!
I’ve never heard of it but it definitely sounds interesting. I’d probably benefit from it – I have to literally turn the direction diagrams (or the map, etc) “upside down” so it matches real life. Otherwise my poor brain has trouble making the calculation.
I haven’t seen Simple Mills but will keep an eye out! How is El Hub doing with the gf? Is he feeling better/adjusting OK to the new diet? It’s a really big change so I hope he’s seeing some benefit!
I’m late to the party! I’d really like to check out that color book. I’m not great with color and I’d love to learn more.
I do all the cooking for my family. People often don’t realize how much work it is to plan meals, make shopping lists, and then cook it all! I’ve found a couple of tricks to help out during the week. First, I try to to do any prep I can all together. For example, if I have to chop a bunch of vegetables for several meal, I’ll do it all at once so I have stuff ready to go later in the week.
Another trick is to make a larger batch of protein and use it for two meals. One of my favorite things to do is make a roast of some kind (usually a pork roast due to food allergies). We will have the roast one night and then I’ll use the leftovers for either tacos or a “salad bar”. Salad bar nights can be so fun. I pick a theme (Mexican, Italian, etc.), and put out a bunch of different options and let everyone create their own salads. So the protein is whatever leftovers I made and then I’ll do a variety of greens, some nuts, dried fruit, cheese, tomatoes, etc. A lot of these toppings are also easy to keep on-hand for multiple salad bars and/or great for lunches.
I also really like sheet pan meals. There’s a ton of recipes out there and it’s nice to just throw it all on there and put it in the oven. Good luck!