Thursday 31 January 2013

Project 100 Pan Update 5

I have a confession to make. I bought something this month. In my defense it was a limited edition product and I needed it. It's a L'oreal taupe eye shadow (Tender Caramel) and we all know that you can never have enough taupe eye shadows. Plus, it's shimmery but doesn't make my eyelids look crepey, which makes it more of a must have. 

I'm at the point where this Project Pan is starting to feel endless. I feel like it's taking me so, so long. On the plus side, I really haven't wanted to buy anything lately. Chai is very active now and wants to walk when we are at the shopping centre, so I avoid going out as much as possible and when I do go out I get in and out as quickly as possible, so don't get the chance to look at make-up. When I'm not looking at it all the time I don't want to buy anything. Bonus.

59. Corrynne's Detox Paste
60. Soap and Glory Off Your Face wipes
61. Ardell clear brow gel
62. Innoxa Ultimate Lash mascara
63. Yes to Cucumbers Soothing face wipes
64. Invisible Zinc Environmental Skin Protector
65. Prestige clear brow gel
66. Imperial Leather Coconut and Tiare Flower body wash
67. Dove Wild Rose deodorant

Wednesday 30 January 2013

Beauty Blogger Tag

I saw this on Chel's blog and since I'm all about doing tags at the moment, here it is.  
 
Why did you start blogging and how long have you been blogging for?
I've been blogging for 4 and 1/2 years. I started back in 2008 when my crohn's disease was really bad. I was stuck at home, isolated, lonely and unable to go out much. When I did I had nothing to talk about cause I didn't do anything and all people wanted to speak to me about was my disease. Beauty blogging gave me a connection with the world and I could pretend that I was well and healthy. It was the space where I could feel normal and escape from the reality of my life at that time.

Whose blog did you fall in love with first?
The first blog that I can remember reading was Tine's blog, Beautyholics Anonymous

What was the first blogosphere hyped about product you bought and was it worth the hype?
I have no idea! At a guess I'd say it would have been a MAC lipgloss. MAC was new to Perth and I had only heard about it from blogs. At that time I only had two lip glosses then I bought Spite and Lust, which are still favourites.

What are your favourite five things about blogging and being a beauty blogger?
1. It allows me to talk about make-up and skin care as much as I want to. None of my friends share my passion for all things beauty, so online is the only place I can chat to my hearts content.

2. I've met some wonderful people and been lucky enough to meet a few of them in person too.
3. I've also found some amazing products that I wouldn't have known about if it hadn't been for blogs.
4. It gives me an outlet where I can forget about the world and shut off for a while.

5. Learning about all sorts of new products, I'm always hunting for something better. 

What have you learnt from being a beauty blogger?Honesty is the best policy. The reputation of your blog is based on you being honest, so don't risk loosing readers just to keep a brand happy, it's not worth it. Different things work for different people so just because something doesn't work for me doesn't mean it won't work for someone else.

Have you changed anything since being a beauty blogger?
No, I was always interested in make-up and skin care, blogging just gave me somewhere to chat about it.

What advice would you give to a beauty blogger just starting out?
Write about the products you love. If you want to get more publicity for your blog don't try to use other blogs to do it, it just annoys people. By all means write comments on other blogs but don't post links to your blog without their permission.

Name your top five brands!
1. Models Prefer
2. Physician's Formula
3. Carmex
4. Original and Mineral

5. Audra James

Recommend your top five favourite beauty products!
1. Lip balm
2.
Asian BB (The Face Shop make my favourite one)
3. Anti-aging serum
4. Concealer
5. Mascara

Tag other beauty bloggers to do this tag!
Anyone who wants to! If you do, please put the link below so that I can read your post.

Friday 25 January 2013

FFS Friday - The FIFO Widow

It's just struck me that I forgot to add my link to Sarah's FFS Friday post last week. FFS.

I am so over home opens. FFS.

The last few haven't been too bad because hubby has been home to help, but Saturday he had to work so I had to do it all myself. FFS.

Saturdays home open went for an hour and 45 minutes, right at Chai's sleep time. FFS.

I was still recovering from gastro, so thankfully I had Mum here and she looked after Chai so I could get the house sorted. Not FFS.

Then I went down and spent the day at Mum's, which was really nice. Not FFS.

Monday hubby got the sack. FFS.

We knew it was coming, he was a casual and the job was supposed to end in November, so we've been lucky he got to stay there so long, however it meant that he was suddenly unemployed. FFS.

He'd heard about another job coming up and has been trying to put in the application since last Wednesday. It's been a bloody nightmare. FFS.

Firstly I couldn't get the printer to work so couldn't print out any of the forms. FFS.

I finally got it working, printed out the forms, hubby filled them in and I faxed them off. Hubby rang up to see if they had the forms and they hadn't received them. FFS.

I faxed them through again then couldn't get through to anyone to find out if they'd been received or not. FFS.

Hubby finally got through to someone on Monday but they couldn't tell him if they'd got the forms or not. FFS.

Tuesday morning he decided the only option was to go in there and speak to someone. FFS.

They offered him work doing 4 weeks away and 1 week home. FFS.

He refused and said he wants equal swings (2 weeks on 2 weeks off), which they said they couldn't offer him. FFS.

When he told them the name of the supervisor who had asked him to apply for the job, everything changed. FFS.

By mid afternoon they'd checked his references and booked him in for a medical. FFS.

Just goes to show it's not what you know. FFS.

Tuesday arvo the estate agent came to speak to us about where we are going to go next with the house. He told me that I have it too clean and tidy. FFS.

He said that I clean and tidy it to 110% and it only needs to be 85%. FFS.

This means I've been going through all this hell for no reason at all. FFS.

I still don't understand how a house can be too clean though. And I don't understand how I can have the house less clean and tidy. FFS.

Wednesday hubby had his medical. He had to fill in reams and reams of paperwork for it and the medical took 2 1/2 hours! FFS.

Then he had to drop a whole pile of other paperwork back to the office. FFS.

Thursday we were waiting on a phone call confirming that hubby had passed his medical. He rang the company who did the medical and they said the results were sent through at 10am. By lunchtime we hadn't received a phone call so rang the office, left a message which they didn't return. FFS.

He called them back at 3.30pm, they checked then said they hadn't received the medical results yet. Hubby told them that he'd been told the results were sent through at 10am, so they checked again and found them. FFS.

Which now makes it official. As of next week I'll be a single mother, fifo widow for 2 weeks out of every 4. FFS.

The good thing is that hubby will be doing equal swings, so working for 2 weeks then having 2 weeks off. Not FFS.

It also means that we can go ahead with moving down south. Not FFS.

My main concern is how Chai will cope. He has never spent a night away from either of us and I'm worried that he won't like not having Daddy around. But I'll deal with it as it comes and we've agreed that if Chai can't handle it hubby will find a job locally. 

 Who knew that applying for a job was a full time job. If hubby hadn't had this week off work there is no way he would have got this job as he wouldn't have been able to do all the running around and follow up required. Crazy. FFS.

And that concludes my whinge for the week. Have a beautiful long weekend everyone. It's my brothers birthday on Saturday and he says we should all be grateful that we get a long weekend to celebrate his birthday, hehe.

 
Dear Baby G

Wednesday 23 January 2013

Brands you don't hear much about: Kjaer Weis

I thought I'd start writing about some of the products and brands that you don't hear much about. I'm starting off with a brand that I've never seen featured on a blog before Kjaer Weis. In Australia Kjaer Weis is available at Mecca Cosmetica. When I first looked at it I thought the products were ridiculously expensive, $62 for a lip tint and $68 for a cream blush is excessive, but then I realised that the products are refillable and the refills cost $28 and $30 respectively, which is very reasonable. 
The Kjaer Weis line has three different products, lip tint, eye shadow and cream blush. I have a cream blush in Sun Touched and a lip tint in Passionate.
As you can see from the photos, the packaging is beautiful, even the box that they come in is gorgeous. I don't usually carry these around with me though because they are quite heavy and I don't want to scratch the pretty case.



In these photo's (at least on my monitor) the blush looks slightly coral tinted, however it's not, it's a dusty pink. Out of all the cream blushes that I own this is one of my favourites. It has a sheer, buildable colour that gives a very natural colour to my pale skin. Unlike a lot of cream blushes, this lasts all day without me needing to touch it up.

In my opinion the name Lip Tint is deceiving. I expect a lip tint to stain my lips and be long lasting. This does neither of those things, I would call it a tinted lip balm. I get at most, a few hours wear before I need to reapply, which definitely puts it in the lip balm category.
Despite that, this is a gorgeous balm that I'll happily repurchase. It gives a beautiful soft wash of sheer colour and is very hydrating. I like to use this over lip stains as it helps to brighten up the colour and keep my lips from getting dry. 
The colour is a gorgeous soft pink that looks very natural. It has no fragrance or flavour. I can't imagine using this up very quickly as it is a large 2.4 grams.

I purchased these products myself.

Monday 21 January 2013

Top twelve of 2012

I was tagged by Birkin Bag Beauty to do this post, which is funny as I'd already started writing it, not realising that it was a tag (I am so behind on my blog reading!).

1. Models Prefer Professional Anti-Wrinkle Concealer - Dark circles are the bane of my life so I'm always on the hunt for a great concealer. Whilst I love my Bobbi Brown Corrector, for some reason I still feel the need to try new products, just to see if there is something better. My Models Prefer concealer is just as good as my holy grail BB Corrector. Even better, it only costs $11.99.

2. Sukin Hydrating Lip Treatment - This is now one of my favourite lip balms. I misplaced it a few weeks ago (Chai had hidden it in his toy box) and panicked, which is a sure sign of how much I love it. Usually when I misplace a lip balm I just go to my lip balm case and get another one out. 

3. Models Prefer Airbrush Brush - I have two of these brushes. I use them to apply my foundation and blush. They are really soft and make my foundation look flawless.

4. Physician's Formula Happy Booster Powders - Aside from the gorgeous hearts all over them these are really pretty and work well. I have the translucent powder, rose blush and bronzer and love them all.

5. Tangle Teezer - The best hair brush I've ever used.

6. Audra James Bespoke Perfume - I had an Audra perfume made towards the end of last year and it's the nicest thing I've ever smelled. Audra sends out a questionnaire and then custom blends a perfume according to your answers. My scent is calming, cheering and is perfect for me. I can't recommend this enough!

7. Rimmel Scandal Eyes Taupe Kohl Kajal pencil - Years ago Revlon made a matte, light taupe eyeliner that I loved. They discontinued it and I have been on the hunt for a taupe eyeliner ever since. Nothing has been the right shade, it's been shimmery, too dark, too warm or just not right. Finally a few weeks ago I found Rimmel's Scandal Eyes Taupe pencil and I've finally found a replacement for the Revlon version! Taupe eye pencils are great for pale girls like me, I use it to line underneath my eye and it gives my lashes definition without looking obvious, so it's great for a natural look. I was so tempted to buy a back-up, but considering they've just been released I'm sure that's not necessary.

8. Orofluido Hair Oil - I've tried lots of different hair oils and leave in treatments, this is by far the best for my fine hair. It hydrates my hair without weighing it down or making it feel oily or greasy. Plus it smells amazing.

9. Tom Ford Pink Dusk Lipstick -This is the perfect pink for me. It was love at first swipe and one of the few lipsticks that I'll repurchase when I finish it. Or to be more correct, it's one of the few lipsticks that I'll actually finish!

10. Tisserand Fragrances - My first introduction to Tisserand was when I purchased the Survival Kit from Echolife. It contains three different blends for stress, sleep and energy. They all work really well and I use them a lot. The kit is a bargain for only $28.70 with free shipping. After buying this kit I realised that Tisserand have a lot of other lovely products that I'm intending to try. I later purchased the Wild Rose Perfume, it's heavenly. If you love the scent of roses this is definitely one to buy.

11. 1 Skin Solution lip balms - These are my favourite tinted lip balms ever. Why you ask. I'll tell you. Not only are the colours beautiful and long lasting, leaving behind a stain on my lips once the balm has worn off, they are hydrating and the best bit, they smell and taste amazing! Raylene came up with the most wonderful flavour combinations (such as Strawberry Rose Champagne and Coconut Plum), much nicer than the usual flavours. She also makes a beautiful Vanilla flavoured lip balm and a petrolatum free Mojito balm. If you are a lip balm lover you need to try these balms.

12. Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain - This is one product that actually lives up to the hype. It's hydrating as you would expect a balm to be, has great colour and wears off to leave a stain of colour behind. Perfection.

That's it for my favourite products from 2012, if you have posted your favourite products, please link below so I can read all about them and add everything to my wishlist.

Friday 18 January 2013

FFS Friday - Struck Down In My Prime

In an effort to sell our house we got the ceiling painted last week. Friday night hubby saw a tiny spider on it and decided that it needed to die. FFS.

He got the tea towel, whacked the spider with it and was then surprised that it left a dark mark on the white roof. FFS.

Trying to get the mark off he wiped the roof with the tea towel, which then left another mark on the roof. FFS.

After that he then decided that he wanted to be grumpy so went around the house inspecting the walls for chips. FFS.

(You may recall that he painted the whole house prior to putting it on the market. FFS.)

Naturally there are several chips so then he started carrying on at me like it was my fault, asking how each chip got there and then telling me that I have to keep a closer eye on Chai to stop him chipping the walls. FFS.

Lucky for hubby I chose to ignore him and let him rant until he got it out of his system. FFS.

Last year I had an ultrasound. I had to drink a litre of water and hold it for an hour. They were running 1/2 an hour late so by the time I had the test I was extremely uncomfortable and couldn't even lie down. FFS.

For some unknown reason the sonographer decided to check my kidney prior to me going to the toilet and then wrote on the report that it was distended (probably cause I'd had a litre of water in my bladder for an hour and a half). She didn't bother checking it after I'd gone to the loo. FFS.

When the Dr saw the report he suspected that everything was fine however to be sure that it was he said I needed to have a follow up ultrasound. FFS.

I couldn't get Mum to come up to look after Chai until last week, so went and had the test. The guy who did the ultrasound was amazingly thorough and was really surprised when I explained to him what had happened. Not FFS.

Unsurprisingly my kidneys are both fine. What a waste of time. FFS.

After constantly complaining about the child locks in the kitchen, hubby got new ones. FFS.

He put them on 2 of the cupboards and I told him not to change the one on the third cupboard, but he ignored me and changed it. FFS.

This now means that when we want to open that particular cupboard we have to undo 2 child locks before we can open the cupboard. FFS.

Naturally that's the cupboard that we use the most. FFS.

Every time I see her MIL asks me what size clothes Chai wears. When I answer her she never believes me so is constantly buying him size 4 or 5 clothes (he is a size 1). FFS.

The last time she came down she bought a pile of size 4 - 5 clothes and insisted that they would fit him. She didn't believe me when I told her they would be too big and made him try everything on. FFS.

She was extremely surprised when it was all too big and tried to convince me that they really did fit him, even though the t-shirts came down to his knees and the shorts were falling off as he walked. FFS. 

You may remember me complaining about my G Shock watch last year. I bought it and two weeks later had to return it as the paint was chipping off the face. I've had it back about three weeks now, worn it no more than four times and the paint is chipping off again. FFS.

Wednesday I was struck down in my prime - with gastro. FFS.

I had the foresight to be struck down in the early hours of the morning, before hubby left for work, so he took the day off to look after Chai. Not FFS.

In typical hubby style he decided to use the day off to do all sorts of things, then got frustrated when doing these things was difficult with a toddler in tow. FFS.

I had to remind him that he was having the day off to look after Chai, not to do all his running around. That sorted him. FFS.

You know those people who just don't get that you sms them cause you don't want to talk? Mum is one of them. FFS.

I sent her a message Wednesday night to see if she could come and help with Chai on Thursday, so she immediately rang me. FFS.

And then wanted to chat, even though I told her I was sick. FFS.

But she came to help and stayed Thursday night. Not FFS.

As I sit here trying to type this, Chai is in bed next to me pressing keys, kicking me and generally making life difficult. FFS.

And that concludes my whinge for the week. Have a beautiful weekend :)
 
Dear Baby GW

Wednesday 16 January 2013

Sunshine Award

 


The Sunshine Award was awarded to me by the lovely Mandy from Make Me Up.

The Sunshine Award is an award given by bloggers to other bloggers. The recipients of the Sunshine Award are: “Bloggers who positively and creatively inspire others in the blogsphere”.

The way the award works is this: Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them. Answer questions about yourself. Select 10 of your favourite bloggers, link their blogs to your post and let them know they have been awarded the Sunshine Award!
 
1. Favourite Time of The Year?

Winter. I love winter and wet cold weather. You'll never hear me complaining about it being too cold or wet. 

2. Favourite Festive Movie?
I don't have one. 


3. What Is Your Passion?

What a question! I'm passionate about a lot of things. Life, love, family, make-up.

4. Favourite Colour?

Blue.

5. Favourite Time Of The Day?

When bub is sleeping and the house is quiet and when he wakes up from his nap and gives me a huge grin. I really need to stop calling him bub because he's not a baby anymore. 

6. Favourite Flower?

Roses and gerberas.

7. Favourite Non-Alcoholic Beverage?

Boring, but water. I don't drink cool drink and rarely drink juice. I do like Chai latte's, however my favourite drink is water. 

8. Favourite Physical Activity?
Walking, dancing and martial arts. 


9. Favourite Vacation?

I don't have one. I've been to some beautiful places but I can't say any of them have been favourites. Having said that, I always love going to Margaret River, it's so beautiful down there.

Monday 14 January 2013

Project 100 Pan Update 4

I've finally reached the halfway point of P100P. For a while there I felt like I'd never get there, but I did! 

I've been thinking constantly about what I'll do when P100P is over and I'm coming up with a plan. So far I've decided three things. I'll stick to a $25 per week budget, I'll mainly buy online and I will only buy products that I need or that I'm totally in love with and don't have anything similar in my collection.

I'm also going to go through everything I have and get rid of anything that I don't think I'll use or that I don't love. The products I'm not sure about I'll use for a few weeks and if I don't love them then out they go. 

The other thing I'm going to do is put all my make-up away, fill one make-up bag with products and use them exclusively until they are gone. That way I'll actually use things up and thus slowly reduce the amount of products I have. I'll do the same with skincare. 

I've finally finished all my perfume sample vials and am now working on the little sample containers.  I'm also slowly working my way through my skin care samples. I still have a tub of samples but it's not as full as it was before I started P100P.

Now on to the products I've finished this month.
 47 - Ten samples




48 - Redwin Organics vanilla and kakadu plum moisturiser
49 - Palmers Eventone Age Spot hand cream
50 - Vanilla Essence Spray Toner
51 - Estee Lauder Verite Soothing Spray Toner
52 - MooGoo Eczema and Psoriasis balm
53 - The Body Shop Moringa shower gel
54 - MD Visage Multi Action cleanser
55 - Shampoo
56 - Conditioner
57 - Haus of Gloi Coconut Creme lip balm
58 - Korres Shimmering Eyeshadow

Friday 11 January 2013

FFS Friday - I'm back!

After an unplanned hiatus I am back! You'll all be pleased to know that there was no miraculous escape required. The BIL's visit went really well, he's cleaned up his lifestyle and is happy, so Chai loved him. Naturally there were a few moments though.

The week of christmas was a heatwave in WA. FFS.

It was so hot I was convinced someone had forgotten to tell me that I'd died and gone to hell. FFS.

BIL spent a good deal of time telling me how much he dislikes living in Australia. FFS.

Coming from someone who was born and raised in Australia and has never lived overseas, I find this quite strange, so I told him what I tell everyone who tells me they don't like living here, "if you don't like it, leave." Pretty simple really. FFS.

He also spent a good deal of time trying to get us into his latest network marketing scheme and talking about 'residual income'. FFS.

We even sat through a 20 minute DVD about it. FFS.

As is typical with those type of schemes, it didn't give any information about the scheme, it just talked about getting rich. FFS.

If it was that easy everyone would be doing it. FFS.

We had a bit of time with in PIL's over the christmas break. FFS.

I could go on about it for hours, but I'll keep it brief and tell you about two things.

MIL informed me that Chai is more intelligent than her cocky. FFS.

I said that I should hope my son is more intelligent than a bird. FFS.

Not content to leave it there, she went on to tell me that the reason my son is smarter than a bird is because she spent years trying to get the bird to say BIL's name and he couldn't, however Chai picked it up straight away. FFS.

I've long suspected Chai is a genius. FFS.

On christmas day hubby, BIL and the PILs were all sitting outside and Chai was playing. I heard MIL let out a huge scream so went racing out the front to see what was wrong. FFS.

There was nothing wrong. FFS.

Chai had walked onto our driveway and MIL thought he was going to get run over by a car so she screamed. He wasn't anywhere near the road and hubby was right next to him. FFS.

 Chai has now figured out how to open all the doors in our house. FFS.

No room is sacred. FFS.

I now regularly find him playing with the water in the toilet. FFS.

Naturally, the toilet safety locks are out of stock everywhere. FFS.

He's also figured out how to open the child safety locks so I had to get different ones. FFS.

Hubby has constantly complained about them since I got them. FFS.

Maybe he'd rather Chai smash all our plates and cut himself on the broken glass. FFS.

Today I was driving slowly through a carpark (as I do when I don't want to kill the pedestrians) when a huge truck came up behind me and started beeping his horn. FFS.

So I did the only wise thing and slowed down even more. FFS.

Stupid man kept on beeping his horn when I stopped to avoid running over a family with two children in a pram. FFS.

What an idiot. FFS.

Last I saw him he was stuck at a roundabout behind a car that wasn't moving. Hahahaha. Not FFS.

Have a great weekend!!!!

Dear Baby G

Wednesday 9 January 2013

Dear Chai

Today you are 22 months old! You are growing up so fast! You've got really adventurous this month, trying new things and being so proud of yourself when you manage it. 

You now go down the slide sitting on your bottom. You did it for the first time today and were so pleased, you giggled the whole time you were on the slide. You also went on a big swing for the first time. You only fell off once (when you forgot to hang on with both hands), but thankfully you landed on your feet. You are very good at climbing and can climb up ladders and the horizontal climbing things at the playground.

To my distress you can now open all the doors in our house, so I often find you playing in the toilet, either flushing it over and over again, or climbing on it trying to reach all the things on the windowsill. You also like to dance on the toilet. As if that's not clever enough, you also figured out how to open the child locks in the kitchen so I had to get different ones.

You are going to make a wonderful big brother because you love babies are so gentle with them. You gently stroke their heads and get so excited.  

Thomas the Tank Engine and Timmy Time are your favourite tv shows, you watch them over and over again. You call Thomas Did Did and love anything with Thomas on it, so we got you lots of Thomas clothes. 

You are saying more and more words and will try to say most words that we ask you to. When you wake up from a sleep you don't cry any more, you just call out Mumma until I come into the room. You now only wake up once a night and for the past week have been sleeping in until 6am which is nice. 

My beautiful boy, I love you more than words can say.