zhen

Not a good picture of my recent "Oregon setback." Two years after co-chairing the whole thing, Bon and I found ourselves with a much lighter job at this year's ACUW fashion show: silent auction runners. Whee! That gave us a lot of time to meander around the pre-show boutique, where I found these.

My grandparents, who named me after the gemstone, probably turned in their graves as I parted with hard-earned Oregon cash to own this double-strand of what they would call "not-so-good pearls." But I've been after pink-toned pearls for so long that when the woman draped them artfully around my neck in 100 different ways in under 60 seconds, I grabbed them. Before someone else did.

In other, but related, news, here's a Candied update because I haven't done one in forever:

We got married. That cost a lot. But because we insisted on not being ridiculous with the details, and because our parents, families, and friends are so generous, we are not in debt. Credit cards are well under control, and now our joint priorities are refinancing our mortgage and building up our rainy day savings fund (people in the know suggest anywhere from three to eight months of living expenses - I think six is a good middle ground.) My own personal short-term savings are geared toward getting Scott a wedding band he can actually wear (sadly the one we picked out before the wedding caused some problems because of the material), and Oregon in October. We invested in a WiiFit (happily it sees a lot of use, from Scott anyway) and are budgeting for a new stackable washer/dryer (and possibly a more streamlined water heater).

That's it for now. On the one hand, I should have nothing new to report for awhile (because of the October Savings Fund) but on the other hand, saving in itself is quite an adventure ...

WHAT

They discontinued Sap Moss?

THEY DISCONTINUED SAP MOSS?

...

I am the (bad) kind of shopper who sets out to buy something - but, upon finding out that the store is out or no longer carries what I needed, will browse till I see something I like, and create a need for it on the spot.

Voila, Brilliant Universal Styling Creme, which I use less to style and more to tame. It is a really thick, sticky goo that will take care of those flyaways but also make your head into a Lego-warrior helmet if you don't heed the directions on the back: use a very small amount. I love the scent of Aveda products, but if you're not into a spicy, slightly earthy scent (and by earthy I mean the good clean smell of freshly tilled earth, as in dirt), leave the hair products alone.

...

I can't believe they discontinued Sap Moss!

face

Got free makeup demo by Bev Kaneshige @ Bridal Expo tonight. We're pretty much done with everything, so we only went because we had free tix and wanted to eat cake. And jellybeans. And fried mini filets of fish with a shoyu-scallion sauce from Kahala Catering. And more cake. Even if we had paid to get in, it would have been well worth it. We ate what would have been our money's worth.

Sucky bathroom lighting won't show the nice color job Bev did with my eyes. She's been doing my makeup for years and is one of two artists whose makeup I really like. The other, as far as I know, flew away to the mainland with her talent, and I went through two or three pros before finding Bev.

If you've stumbled on this blog because you Googled "ItalSteam review" or "ItalSteam sucks," which is how I get most of my hits, and have for some reason read this much of this entry, I should explain that I am not a model (I love the stage and camera but am about a foot too short and a mile too silly to model anything but my own collection of offensive t-shirts) but over the years have been given several opportunities to participate in pageants, fashion shows, an odd public appearance or two, photo shoots, and weddings - hence the need for a really good makeup artist.

With my own wedding coming up, I am more thankful than ever for Bev because much as I enjoy goofing off for the cam, I never mastered the art of makeup. It requires a patience, a precision, a proclivity to perfectionism that I just don't possess. It would probably take me hours (frustrated ones, at that) to create what she can whip up in 25 minutes.

No one ever taught me how to apply makeup. My first "favorite lipstick" was a frosted lilac color, and it took someone telling me directly that I looked like a corpse to get me to stop wearing it. During the whole pageant year, I know the directors were cringing at the thought of me representing them without owning a single clue as to how - or why - I should probably get my brows waxed and wear some eyeliner. At the very least.

Makeup notes:

I remember, in San Francisco, the Berkeley girl who ran away with the title. She sat in the corner twenty minutes before our opening number, serenely applying her own makeup. She didn't demand counter space. She didn't need special lighting. She sat there on the cold floor of the dressing room in the Palace of Fine Arts with her toolbox of brushes and palettes, choosing colors, dusting them on, penciling them in, blotting, and staring at herself very evenly in the mirror.

I remember the first time I ever wore professionally applied makeup. The lashes were so heavy I could barely see. But the girls applauded the artist - said she'd brought out my inner beauty. Actually, she'd brought out my aversion to mascara. Oh well.

I remember the first time I did a winged eye - black Almay pencil from Longs Drugs. And the first time I did my own eyeshadow and liked it - Body & Soul's Cadet Blue smudged with Dream. (I haven't done good lips yet. Ever.)

I remember my cousin shoplifting a tube of Maybelline Kissing Potion when we were about 10. While I was really, really scared for her, I really, really wished I'd gotten one too.

I remember sneakily trying to apply my aunt's Cover Girl powder to my own face when I was little - she said, taking it away, Someday you'll have to wear this, so enjoy your own face now.

Does anyone have to? Of course there are those days where you look in the mirror and think going outside barefaced would be as horrible as going outside unclothed. But unless you've gotten punched in the face or spent all night crying, chances are, you don't have to put any makeup on. We do it to ourselves, that mindset - covering our faces so regularly that bare days seem ugly.

Enjoy your own face now - plain, made-up, smooth, wrinkled - come to think of it, that's some of the best advice my aunt ever gave me.

skint??

The BF said I couldn't have a BlackBerry. The next day he said we couldn't eat out. Are we worse off than I thought?? Okay, okay - internet on the phone is unnecessary. But a chicken caesar salad?

luddite in the house

This is so not the time, but I really want a Blackberry.

The facts:

I have progressed (or, let's say, would like to progress) beyond blogging with a cat in my lap.
I am not hip (or app-needy) enough to explore iPhone territory.
I need something text-capable, so why not to the whole nine web yards?
I have no true burning need for such a toy and so all of the aforementioned facts are useless.

Sigh.

I am getting a new phone, though, along with a brand-spanking-new plan that I hopefully will not hate with such a passion as the one I do now.

blendable wine

blendable wine
Originally uploaded by damned_cat

In Ms. Vickie's birthday/happy November gift: Bare Escentuals Blendable Wine Shadow Collection. Base: Chardonnay. Highlight: Pinot Noir. Outer shadow: Merlot.

Experimented with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir - a nice everyday combo. Add Merlot for drama. Highly recommended: BE contour brush. I take mine EVERYWHERE.

Previously loved BE hues: Shantung and Soft Focus Explore.

This is not a good pic of the Wine Collection, btw. It is, however, a very good pic of my strange bathroom lighting.

V sent all sorts of good advice about my latest purchase(s). I ... disregarded the parts about returning stuff but wholeheartedly embraced the parts about keeping stuff!


Sigh.


Just so we're clear, I really needed these shoes. And I actually think I should be congratulated for buying them. I have accepted and embraced the advent of my thirties; I have accepted the need for comfort shoes. I'm on my feet all day, but while the dress code for teachers here in the islands is pretty lax, I don't want to go to slippers or sneakers.


Would link to an image of the actual shoe but I can't find it anymore. So it was either wildly popular and sold out completely or it was too ugly to remain on virtual shelves. The basic shape is like this, but the design is sort of a cross between cowboy boot and saddle shoe.


P.S. It was on major sale.


In other candied_news ... oh good, there is no other candied_news. Large quantities of money are being painfully saved and then rapidly spent in preparation for the wedding and so we're trying to be good. Trying is always the operative word, isn't it?

me LIKEY

Task: Find and purchase the last groomsman's shirt online.

Derailed by: these.

They'd certainly help me get free Veteran's Day shipping.

:P

making faces

lm
Originally uploaded by damned_cat

If I won a magical ticket to spend an hour with anyone in the world, living or dead, I'd resurrect Kevyn Aucoin and ask him to teach me a few tricks. Did that sound as sacrilegious as I think it did?

I've had my makeup professionally done a number of times by a number of different people, and I've only truly loved it twice. I always more or less like it, just because it is so fun to wear a different face, but as far as really loving the work, only twice. Once was for a photo shoot back in 2000 and once was last weekend, for P's wedding. The first time I ever had it done was for a project photo shoot, and I looked too different - hideously different. The makeup artist who did my face for the photo shoot I loved, moved away shortly after I met her. The one who did me for P's wedding is also my makeup artist for mine. (She was part of my wedding gift to P. Hehe.)

$95 is what I think my current favorite makeup artist said it would cost for a 1.5-hour lesson on makeup application. I'm considering this because I am the girl who can apply half the eyeshadow in the pan and still look bare-faced in photos. Case in point, the above photo. I went out with a beautiful gold Laura Mercier shadow on Halloween. I applied liberally and with (careful) enthusiasm. In the mirror, nice. In photos, nothing.

About the photo thing, I know self-portraiture is probably not very rock n' roll but it's just so git-danged fun, and I would like the photographs I take of my swiftly passing youth to include some documentation of my person. Since S. does not take pictures, period, I take pictures of us, which means taking pictures of myself sometimes. Except for Halloween, this isn't the reason I want my CFMA to teach me how to put on a face. I would like to be able to do it myself for parties, for photo shoots, for ops like the New Orleans one I am still crossing my fingers for, and for good old fashioned girly fun. I am not a model, and no one ever taught me anything; I get by with Leslie Blodgett tutorials and youtube videos, and it would be painfully obvious that I need real instruction, except nothing I applied myself even shows up on camera. So.

Just some thoughts. All the makeup I did not buy on today's excursion to the mall is haunting me.

although i miss her ...

Things I would go out and buy this second (or maybe, you know, when the mall opens) if Vickie were here, so it's kind of a good thing she isn't:

- A Tokidoki bag. Not a little purse, a big honkin' BAG. They're so freaking cute I don't care that they're five minutes away from passe.

- A good pair of jeans. I have a perverse desire to see what this 7 For All Mankind hoo-ha is all about, but even in my shopping fantasies I am a little more realistic than $200/pr denim. Peahen was strutting in Lucky Brand this past weekend; she says it's the only denim she wears these days. So, fantasy bag item 2: dark-wash Luckys. (Luckies?)

- Maia highlights. I want to do Something To My Hair and if I'm going to fork over a kidney to pay for it, it's not gonna be another $70 bang trim.

- A necklace to replace the one I love but have decided to stop wearing. I'd pick a slightly different one, of course, but what I really love is the toggle-style closure and the choker fit, and similar designs seem to be abundant at the store I hate but whose designs I love.

That was fun. Anyway, quick reality check: Peahen gave me a beautiful lariat-style heart necklace from Tiffany as a maid of honor gift. We also got awesome manicures and I've managed to keep mine intact so far. I wish I could be as extravagant with my own girls. But I have six to Peahen's one, so.

Shoe news: nothing cute on the horizon but I am going to buy a $40 pair of New Balance runners today if I can make it to Sam's Club in time (and if they still have my size.) I actually wore down a pair of running shoes. This calls for a soda!

Just kidding.

i crumble

Was tooling around What Claudia Wore and she mentioned Jenny Humphrey and I knew who she was talking about, ONOZ.

Dang that Mart!!

I swear I will never, ever pick up a GG book. I draw the line there.

That evil guy on GG is still nowhere near the cockroachiosity of Spencer Pratt, though. Just had to say that.

fiddle-dee-dee

Who knew the mall didn't open till 10 a.m.? Sure on most shopping days past I've been in bed till 10 a.m., so how I was ever to learn this is a mystery, but today, I woke up early (as I have every day of Fall Break), Post Office'd it, and then moseyed on to the mall. Which, excepting Old Navy, was closed.

While killing time in ON, I picked out a bunch of $5 tanks, two pairs of jeans, three baby outfits, and a dog costume (bat, because they only make honeybee in XXS, think Elle Woods' chihuahua Bruiser in "Legally Blonde") before I realized I was being ridiculous and bought only one t-shirt, a cheap Halloween special (although not as cheap as the pallets and pallets of bright orange "3 for $6!" tees in the front of the store). Oh, and the baby outfits? They'd go on the shelf next to the tennis racket and biography of Abigail Adams I own, the "we may need these things later" shelf.