Disclaimer: All products mentioned in this post were purchased by me. I am including my referral link for Vitacost and The Honest Company.
I had to go back and look, and it's been about six months since I did my post talking about going cruelty-free. I thought it would be a good time to post an update on my progress.
Cosmetics
I had started going cruelty-free a while before I actually mentioned it on my blog, so there really wasn't much of a transition needed when it came to my makeup. The vast majority of my makeup was already cruelty-free, and a lot of what wasn't was already added to my blog sale.
Since then, my next step was to pull out the rest of my items that weren't cruelty-free. I've got quite a few of them in my container of products I'm trying to use it. I use a Stila Smudgestick liner every day to try and finish them. I have to point out that it's really annoying that these liners can't be rolled back down. I have no way of knowing how close to being gone they are. I have this feeling that one day I'm going to line one eye and discover that the product is gone before I line the other one.
Bath and Body
Like with my cosmetics, most of my bath and body products were already cruelty-free. I believe all of my shower gels were already cruelty-free when I made my announcement. The same thing is true of shampoo and conditioners, barring a bunch of samples that I still have and occasionally grab for traveling. Skincare was almost there when it comes to main products. One of my acne treatments is still by Neutrogena because I had stocked up a long time ago, buying something like four tubes. I'm on my last one. Just like with shampoos and conditioners, I also have a stash of samples that I keep around.
When I started working on my stash of lotion in January, I went through and pulled out all of the lotions from brands that I wasn't sure about or knew wasn't cruelty-free. At this point, all of those are gone.
My next challenge to tackle is hair dye. I had several boxes that I needed to use up, but they are finally gone. I recently purchased a box of Herbatint hair dye from Vitacost (referral link). I haven't tried it yet, so I don't know if it is a brand that I'll stick with. I hope it works well for me because most of the cruelty-free hair dyes that I've seen are henna based, and I would prefer to avoid that route, since using henna means I can't go back to regular dyes until it has completely grown out.
Deodorant is another one of my trouble areas. Most cruelty-free options are also natural, which haven't worked for me so far. I've read somewhere that switching to natural deodorants requires a detox period of about two weeks before they become effective. I'm not willing to do that when I'm working. A detox attempt might happen this summer if I can find a stretch of time when I'm not going to be terrified of smelling terribly in public. I've also got a lot of deodorants that I need to work my way through before I try any others.
Home Products
This is the area where I've been making progress a lot more slowly. I've already done a post on The Honest Company (referral link) dishwasher pods, which I love. Several of their other products have also made it into my regular routine. I didn't particularly like their dish soap, so I'm testing out a different one now. Dish soap is a crucial product for me. I have always used Dawn dish soap, and I use it for more than just dishes. I use it to mix up my own shower cleaner and even use it in laundry to boost my regular detergent when I feel it is needed.
I don't think my home products will ever be completely cruelty-free. I don't have access to much of it locally, and I'm not willing to sacrifice quality either. I'll continue to experiment and replace what I can, but I'm definitely making baby steps in this area.
Are you going cruelty-free? What trouble areas have you had? If you aren't going cruelty-free, that's okay too. I'd love to know what other steps you might be taking to improve yourself or the world (recycling, exercising, eating better, etc)?
Disclaimer: All products mentioned in this post were purchased by me. I included my referral links for Vitacost and The Honest Company.
Showing posts with label Random Thoughts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Random Thoughts. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Happy New Year! Reflection and New Goals
Happy New Year everyone!
Another year has come and gone. I've been thinking about things that I want to focus on and accomplish in 2014, and I thought it would be a good idea to look back at my resolutions that I made for this year.
Here were my blogging goals:
Another year has come and gone. I've been thinking about things that I want to focus on and accomplish in 2014, and I thought it would be a good idea to look back at my resolutions that I made for this year.
Here were my blogging goals:
- Increase my number of readers - I did this. I have over 200 GFC followers and almost 150 on Bloglovin'. I didn't grow a ton, but that's okay. I'm not dedicating myself to growing my numbers as much as a lot of bloggers do.
- Post more consistently - I was really good about this for about the first 6 months of 2013. After that, things fell off again, and I was much more inconsistent.
- Improve the quality of my pictures and content - I feel a little more comfortable with both of these. My light box helps. I want to find different bulbs for it though. When I broke one of the original ones, I tried two different sets of bulbs. The first pulled really yellow, and the second set pulls a little blue.
- Make my posts more personal - I don't think I really did this.
- Reducing my makeup collection - I failed miserably at this, which isn't really a shock.
- Shopping my stash - I did an okay job of this. I did sort through and add a lot of items to my blog sale. (ANOTHER SHAMELESS PLUG: You can check out my blog sale here! I'm willing to negotiate, so let me know if you are interested in anything.)
- Buy less - Hmmmmm...I probably failed at this one too. I think I was a little more selective than I have been in the past, but I still bought a lot and bought some products that I shouldn't have.
- Get better organized and declutter - I made some decent strides with this. My office is still a mess more often than not, but things are starting to find homes. I also found some new pieces for other spots in the house that have made a big difference.
- Get into better routines - This didn't happen. I still don't have very good everyday/weekly routines.
- Eat better, exercise more, blah, blah, blah... - Sadly, my weight has gone up over the past year. That being said, I do feel like I'm eating a little bit better. My fiance and I started buying a community co-op produce bag every two weeks that encourages us to eat more fresh fruit and vegetables.
- Be more consistent with blog posts - I'm going to try this one again. I'm going to work on scheduling posts for once a week. If I get far enough ahead, I'll try and tack on extra posts.
- Reduce my stash of skincare, haircare, and body products - This is more realistic than trying to reduce my makeup stash. I have way too many body lotions. I picked up too many haircare/styling products throughout the year, and I don't use them enough to justify having them all. I also have a skincare routine that I'm pretty comfortable with, so I need to finish off the extras.
- Continue on my cruelty-free journey - I'm pretty happy with how far I've come with going cruelty-free, but there's always improvements to make. I want to finish off some products that I already own that aren't cruelty-free. I'm also working on replacing a lot of my home items with cruelty-free options.
- Condense my wardrobe - I'm not quite ready to commit to a 10-item wardrobe, but I do want to limit my wardrobe. Instead of buying a ton of stuff, I want to start choosing a few nice pieces, particularly for work.
- Keep decluttering/organizing - I go through phases with decluttering, but I do feel like I'm slowly winning the war. I want to keep making progress.
- Try for those routines again - I've come to the conclusion that I like the idea of routines, but I need to work towards making my own. The Fly Lady ones are great, but I don't think they will work for me completely. If I come up with something that I stick with, I'll let you know.
- Enjoy life more - There's too many days when I feel like I'm just floating through life or I'm in a funk. I'd like to work on changing that this year.
Sunday, August 18, 2013
Blog Sale and Thirty-One Gifts!
Disclaimer: I include links to my direct selling site for Thirty-One Gifts, for which I am an Independent Consultant. I do not get any compensation unless someone actually makes a purchase through my direct site.
I've got multiple post ideas floating around in my head, but I haven't actually gotten any written up yet. I promise I'll get some up soon.
In the meantime, I finally got around to updating my blog sale. I added a bunch of new items and dropped some prices. I've got several brand new Tarte items listed. I added some L'Oreal Infallible eye shadows (several were LE). I've also got a bunch of mineral eye shadows and blushes up for sale. It's a broad range of products to choose from. I think there's around 40 pictures total.
Teaser pictures:
I also wanted to mention a couple of other things. The first one is that I recently became a consultant for Thirty-One Gifts, which is a direct selling company that sells bags, totes, and other organizing items (most of which can be personalized with embroidery). I personally signed up because I wanted the bags myself! I plan to do posts on some of their products. That being said, I promise to you that I will not do any posts talking up products that I don't like, and I will not let it take over my blog. This is still primarily a makeup blog. It's just something that I am genuinely excited about. For example, I LOVE my new purse:
It's a great size. I carry way too many things around with me on a regular basis, and this bag holds it easily. If you look at the left side pocket, that's a water bottle sticking out of the top. I have the rosette (a separate item) pinned on because it's cute AND it lets me know which outside pocket has my keys, phone, and sunglasses.
Enough of that...
The other thing that I wanted to mention what that I'm on a kick again of wanting to get organized with my life, and I think I'm going to start a series of posts about it. They won't be on a schedule yet because the ideas are still forming, and I actually have to make some organizing progress to show all of you (I do want to show all of you my shower solution, but you'll have to excuse the fact that my bathroom/shower are not magazine ready. It needs to be remodeled, but my fiance and I don't have the money for that yet).
To wrap up this post, I'm going to state the obvious. Summer is coming to an end. School has started back up here, which means work will be starting back up for me. It's a good and bad thing. Life will get busier again, but I'll also have more reason to play with my makeup stash since I'll be doing more than going to the grocery store.
Since this was a bit of a rambling update post, what's new with all of you ladies? Anything fun or exciting going on?
Disclaimer: I included links to my direct selling site for Thirty-One Gifts, for which I am an Independent Consultant. I do not get any compensation unless someone actually makes a purchase through my direct site.
I've got multiple post ideas floating around in my head, but I haven't actually gotten any written up yet. I promise I'll get some up soon.
In the meantime, I finally got around to updating my blog sale. I added a bunch of new items and dropped some prices. I've got several brand new Tarte items listed. I added some L'Oreal Infallible eye shadows (several were LE). I've also got a bunch of mineral eye shadows and blushes up for sale. It's a broad range of products to choose from. I think there's around 40 pictures total.
Teaser pictures:
I also wanted to mention a couple of other things. The first one is that I recently became a consultant for Thirty-One Gifts, which is a direct selling company that sells bags, totes, and other organizing items (most of which can be personalized with embroidery). I personally signed up because I wanted the bags myself! I plan to do posts on some of their products. That being said, I promise to you that I will not do any posts talking up products that I don't like, and I will not let it take over my blog. This is still primarily a makeup blog. It's just something that I am genuinely excited about. For example, I LOVE my new purse:
 |
| Retro Metro Bag in Spirit Black with Small Rosette Clip in Pink |
It's a great size. I carry way too many things around with me on a regular basis, and this bag holds it easily. If you look at the left side pocket, that's a water bottle sticking out of the top. I have the rosette (a separate item) pinned on because it's cute AND it lets me know which outside pocket has my keys, phone, and sunglasses.
- If you haven't heard of Thirty-One Gifts before, you can check out their products here.
- If you decide that there's something that you HAVE to have (Note: the monthly special for August is if you spend $35, you can get any purse for half price), I would appreciate you shopping through my Online Kick-Off Party (ends on August 30) using this link.
- Otherwise, you can buy it through me using this link.
- If you want a lot of stuff, I can set up an online and/or catalog party and make you the hostess, which means you could earn some Hostess Rewards!
Enough of that...
The other thing that I wanted to mention what that I'm on a kick again of wanting to get organized with my life, and I think I'm going to start a series of posts about it. They won't be on a schedule yet because the ideas are still forming, and I actually have to make some organizing progress to show all of you (I do want to show all of you my shower solution, but you'll have to excuse the fact that my bathroom/shower are not magazine ready. It needs to be remodeled, but my fiance and I don't have the money for that yet).
To wrap up this post, I'm going to state the obvious. Summer is coming to an end. School has started back up here, which means work will be starting back up for me. It's a good and bad thing. Life will get busier again, but I'll also have more reason to play with my makeup stash since I'll be doing more than going to the grocery store.
Since this was a bit of a rambling update post, what's new with all of you ladies? Anything fun or exciting going on?
Disclaimer: I included links to my direct selling site for Thirty-One Gifts, for which I am an Independent Consultant. I do not get any compensation unless someone actually makes a purchase through my direct site.
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
New Year, Blog-iversary, Goals
Happy New Year everyone!
I can't help but be a little cliche here...2012 went by so fast!
I hope you had a wonderful and safe New Year's Eve. Mine was spent at home with my fiance watching a movie. We're not very exciting, but it was an enjoyable, relaxing night before winter break ends and we have to go back to work.
It is officially my blog-iversary (my first post might actually say January 2, but that's because I decided to create a new Blogger account after publishing my first post, so it got taken down and reposted). I've had a lot of fun over the past year, and I look forward to improving during the course of this year.
Here are some of my blogging goals for this year:
I can't help but be a little cliche here...2012 went by so fast!
I hope you had a wonderful and safe New Year's Eve. Mine was spent at home with my fiance watching a movie. We're not very exciting, but it was an enjoyable, relaxing night before winter break ends and we have to go back to work.
It is officially my blog-iversary (my first post might actually say January 2, but that's because I decided to create a new Blogger account after publishing my first post, so it got taken down and reposted). I've had a lot of fun over the past year, and I look forward to improving during the course of this year.
Here are some of my blogging goals for this year:
- Increase my number of readers - This is pretty much a given for any blogger. We work hard at what we are doing, and we want people to see and read it.
- Post more consistently - I went through time periods when I didn't post much at all, and I'd like to try not to do that this year. My goal is to post at least 1-2 times a week.
- Improve the quality of my pictures and content - I think my pictures have improved a bit this year, but I know I have a lot of room for improvement. I want to get more consistent on how I format and organize my posts as well. They still feel a bit haphazard to me.
- Make my posts more personal - This has been hard for me over the past year. I'm guessing most of you reading my blog don't know much of anything about me. As an educator (yes, I consider myself an educator even as a substitute teacher), I'm used to being pretty private about things, especially things published online. I need to work on finding a better balance.
- Reducing my makeup collection - This is going to be a hard one for me. It might be more realistic to aim for keeping my makeup collection at approximately the same size.
- Shopping my stash - This might actually help with the previous goal. I want to work my way back through the products that I have to determine if I really need to keep them or if they can get added to my blog sale. (SHAMELESS PLUG: You can check out my blog sale here! I'm willing to negotiate, so let me know if you are interested in anything.)
- Buy less - This is definitely connected to the first goal. I'm a sucker for new products (even more so when they are limited edition). I'm also a sucker for sales. If I can get a good price on it, I want it, even if I don't need it. I also had a horrible spending binge at the end of 2012. There were just too many good sales that I couldn't pass up.
- Get better organized and declutter - This includes my makeup collection and the rest of my house. I actually made some progress with this goal over the past week. The closet in my home office was overflowing with empty shipping boxes and other items because they weren't organized. All of the empty shipping boxes are now gone, and the items in the closet are in a much better order. I'm also going through my giant stack of magazines pulling out the things I want to keep and getting rid of everything else.
- Get into better routines - I love the concept created by the FlyLady, and I tried doing some of it last year, but then I got busy (and slightly depressed), and I let everything slide again. It's time to give it another try!
- Eat better, exercise more, blah, blah, blah... - Yep, another cliche and something I will probably fail at, but it's always worth a shot, right?
Friday, October 12, 2012
Random Thoughts - Volume 3
Summer Tan
I got more tan this summer than I have in years. I'm still fair, but I'm not as fair as usual. I wasn't trying to get a tan either; it just happened naturally because of coaching color guard. I enjoyed my tan for a while, but I'm completely over it now. I'm ready to get back to my normal foundations. I'm ready for my blushes to look the way I expect when I apply them. Does anyone else feel this way or am I an oddball on this one?
Ottlite
I had a Conair makeup mirror that I've used for the last year, and the bulb blew out last month. It was a specialized bulb that wasn't even listed on Conair's website, so I would have had to call in to reorder it. I didn't love the light the mirror gave anyway, so I used it as an excuse to upgrade. I picked up an Ottlite makeup mirror from a seller on Amazon for around $45. If you aren't familiar, Ottlite is known primiarly for crafting lamps, and they advertise giving true-to-life color. So far, I really like it. The lighting is definitely better than the old mirror I had. It's still not perfect, but it's probably the best I can do with the space I have available and for a reasonable price.
On my searching for the best deal for this mirror online, I also discovered that joann.com was having a 50% off sale on all of their Ottlite products. I jumped at the opportunity and ordered a lamp that I hoped would help me take better pictures for this blog. I'm still playing with it, so I haven't decided how much it helps or the best way to use it yet.
Here's a look at both the regular lamp and the makeup mirror. Please excuse the view of the bathroom counter and messy makeup table.
I hope you are all having a nice fall season! Feel free to share any of the random thoughts bouncing around in your heads. I love knowing I'm not the only one whose brain functions like a pinball machine on a regular basis.
I got more tan this summer than I have in years. I'm still fair, but I'm not as fair as usual. I wasn't trying to get a tan either; it just happened naturally because of coaching color guard. I enjoyed my tan for a while, but I'm completely over it now. I'm ready to get back to my normal foundations. I'm ready for my blushes to look the way I expect when I apply them. Does anyone else feel this way or am I an oddball on this one?
Ottlite
I had a Conair makeup mirror that I've used for the last year, and the bulb blew out last month. It was a specialized bulb that wasn't even listed on Conair's website, so I would have had to call in to reorder it. I didn't love the light the mirror gave anyway, so I used it as an excuse to upgrade. I picked up an Ottlite makeup mirror from a seller on Amazon for around $45. If you aren't familiar, Ottlite is known primiarly for crafting lamps, and they advertise giving true-to-life color. So far, I really like it. The lighting is definitely better than the old mirror I had. It's still not perfect, but it's probably the best I can do with the space I have available and for a reasonable price.
On my searching for the best deal for this mirror online, I also discovered that joann.com was having a 50% off sale on all of their Ottlite products. I jumped at the opportunity and ordered a lamp that I hoped would help me take better pictures for this blog. I'm still playing with it, so I haven't decided how much it helps or the best way to use it yet.
Here's a look at both the regular lamp and the makeup mirror. Please excuse the view of the bathroom counter and messy makeup table.
I hope you are all having a nice fall season! Feel free to share any of the random thoughts bouncing around in your heads. I love knowing I'm not the only one whose brain functions like a pinball machine on a regular basis.
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Random Thoughts - Volume 2
Additions I want/need to make to my blog...
I've had some things on my mental blog to-do list for a while now that I haven't quite gotten to yet. I know I need to add a disclosure statement. I haven't worried about it too much yet because I haven't had anything sent to me for review, and I don't expect to get anything sent to me any time soon. That being said, it still needs to be done.
I want to add an "About Me" page, and I've tried writing it a couple of times. Each time I try, I get stuck. It always ends up sounding like rambling and completely irrelevant. What do you look for on an "About Me" page?
Other goals are to start using my Twitter account and create a facebook page for my blog.
The one thing that I was able to accomplish for my blog a couple of months ago was an avatar picture. I never like pictures that I take of myself, so that was out. I don't have any EOTD pictures that I like enough to look at every time I got to my blog dashboard. I came up with the brainstorm to take pictures of the amaryllis flowers my fiance and I had blooming in our sunroom. I them played with the colors in Picasa to match my blog theme. I was pretty happy with the result.
I made another haul...
On Monday I traveled up to the school that I taught at the past two years to visit with my former co-workers before the school year ended. I took advantage of being near better shopping and stopped at a Big Lots, two CVSs, two Walgreens, and two WalMarts looking for makeup/beauty items I can't get in my town. I picked up a ton of Philosophy cosmetics at Big Lots...I would have preferred picking up a few things, testing them out, and going back for more, BUT since I couldn't do that...I grabbed everything that I thought I might like. I also got some LE stuff that my CVS isn't carrying yet (and might not get at all).
I should be getting some haul/first impressions posts up over the new few days. I especially want to get up posts on the Philosophy items since I'm guessing those will sell out relatively quickly. To help get them up more quickly, I did a couple of massive picture taking sessions. I did one taking pictures of the brand-new products before I stuck my fingers in them, and today I took swatch pictures of everything.
Brushes need washing...
I've been so busy lately, I haven't had the chance to wash my brushes in a long time. I washed a few brushes a couple of weeks ago, but I didn't get to all of them. I am now completely out of clean flat-shader brushes, and I have a lot of them. When I took pictures of my May MyGlam bag, I realized that I haven't even washed my April MyGlam brushes yet. Oops! That is one of my many projects that I want to get to today.
Summer is here!
The school year is officially over, so my schedule is going to slow down a little bit. I'm excited for the down time to work on my blog and work on projects around the house. Beyond that, I don't have any super exciting summer plans. Are you doing anything exciting this summer?
Keep your eyes peeled for my Philosophy cosmetics posts. There's some really good things that you should definitely check out if you have a Big Lots near you!
I've had some things on my mental blog to-do list for a while now that I haven't quite gotten to yet. I know I need to add a disclosure statement. I haven't worried about it too much yet because I haven't had anything sent to me for review, and I don't expect to get anything sent to me any time soon. That being said, it still needs to be done.
I want to add an "About Me" page, and I've tried writing it a couple of times. Each time I try, I get stuck. It always ends up sounding like rambling and completely irrelevant. What do you look for on an "About Me" page?
Other goals are to start using my Twitter account and create a facebook page for my blog.
The one thing that I was able to accomplish for my blog a couple of months ago was an avatar picture. I never like pictures that I take of myself, so that was out. I don't have any EOTD pictures that I like enough to look at every time I got to my blog dashboard. I came up with the brainstorm to take pictures of the amaryllis flowers my fiance and I had blooming in our sunroom. I them played with the colors in Picasa to match my blog theme. I was pretty happy with the result.
I made another haul...
On Monday I traveled up to the school that I taught at the past two years to visit with my former co-workers before the school year ended. I took advantage of being near better shopping and stopped at a Big Lots, two CVSs, two Walgreens, and two WalMarts looking for makeup/beauty items I can't get in my town. I picked up a ton of Philosophy cosmetics at Big Lots...I would have preferred picking up a few things, testing them out, and going back for more, BUT since I couldn't do that...I grabbed everything that I thought I might like. I also got some LE stuff that my CVS isn't carrying yet (and might not get at all).
I should be getting some haul/first impressions posts up over the new few days. I especially want to get up posts on the Philosophy items since I'm guessing those will sell out relatively quickly. To help get them up more quickly, I did a couple of massive picture taking sessions. I did one taking pictures of the brand-new products before I stuck my fingers in them, and today I took swatch pictures of everything.
Brushes need washing...
I've been so busy lately, I haven't had the chance to wash my brushes in a long time. I washed a few brushes a couple of weeks ago, but I didn't get to all of them. I am now completely out of clean flat-shader brushes, and I have a lot of them. When I took pictures of my May MyGlam bag, I realized that I haven't even washed my April MyGlam brushes yet. Oops! That is one of my many projects that I want to get to today.
Summer is here!
The school year is officially over, so my schedule is going to slow down a little bit. I'm excited for the down time to work on my blog and work on projects around the house. Beyond that, I don't have any super exciting summer plans. Are you doing anything exciting this summer?
Keep your eyes peeled for my Philosophy cosmetics posts. There's some really good things that you should definitely check out if you have a Big Lots near you!
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Random Thoughts
I love reading The Peach's Saturday Randomness posts, so I'm using her idea. :-) I originally planned to title these posts "Weekend Rambling," but I realized that I would be terrible at keeping up with scheduled posts like that. I'll maybe just keep a draft of this type of post running constantly, add to it when I think of something to add, and post it when it gets to a decent length.
Comments
I originally intended to reply to all comments, but I haven't followed through on it. Please know that I appreciate the comments I receive. It makes me really happy when I see emails letting me know that I've received a new comment, but I don't always feel the need to respond to them. What do you ladies think? Is it necessary/proper etiquette to reply to every comment left? How do you deal with comments?
GFC
The demise of GFC for everyplace but blogger blogs has created a little bit of a dilemma for me. I've already hinted at it a couple of times, but I'm plotting my first giveaway. I want to keep it simple, so I planned on the only requirements being to follow me on GFC and leave a comment. Does it still make sense to do giveaways this way since people not on blogger would need to create a blogger account? Is there a better way?
Photo Editing
I read somewhere about Picasa photo editing software. I started using it over the weekend, and I'm really liking it. I was thrilled when I saw that it has a function to straighten crooked pictures. I had been missing that function using Photobucket. I think I'll be able to keep my photos a bit more organized this way too.
I also started watermarking my photos. I don't know that anyone would ever decide to steal content from my blog, but it's a simple change that is extra assurance that it won't happen. I did my first tagged photos with the name of my blog since my URL is rather long, but I'll probably switch to my URL for all future posts since it is better assurance that people can't steal my content.
Formatting
My bachelor's degree is in journalism, and I supervised a school newspaper during the two previous school years. Why am I bringing this up? My lack of consistency, which is so necessary with a newspaper, is bothering me with my blog. I use picture captions in some instances but not others. Sometimes I include prices other times I don't. Same with linking to where I purchased something. Even though it is bothering me, I'm not going to stress about it too much at this point. I figure most of these things will work themselves out over time when I figure out what works for me.
No-Buy
I didn't post anything official, figuring I would fail miserably, but I've been on a no-buy for the month of March. So far, I've made it, and it's the downhill slope of the month. This weeks 40% off Physicians Formula sale at CVS was really tempting me, but I was in there yesterday and resisted. I'm also worried about going on a buying binge when my no-buy is over, and I shouldn't do that either.
My Makeup Setup
I was going to leave this post picture-free, but it just looked so bland. Instead, I figured I would post a picture of my makeup area.
My fiance and I bought a home back in August that is large enough for both of us to have an office. Mine had this desk and shelves already in place. I love having the room to spread out my collection. I use it a lot better now than I did when it was all shoved into a small bathroom. My laptop sits on the small desk in the bottom right corner of the pictures (yes, my computer desk is smaller than my makeup desk). I like being able to play youtube videos while I'm getting ready in the morning or being able to grab things from my collection when I am writing blog posts. It's still a work in progress, but my current setup works well for the time being.
I hope all of you ladies are enjoying beautiful spring weather. It has been gorgeous here lately!
Comments
I originally intended to reply to all comments, but I haven't followed through on it. Please know that I appreciate the comments I receive. It makes me really happy when I see emails letting me know that I've received a new comment, but I don't always feel the need to respond to them. What do you ladies think? Is it necessary/proper etiquette to reply to every comment left? How do you deal with comments?
GFC
The demise of GFC for everyplace but blogger blogs has created a little bit of a dilemma for me. I've already hinted at it a couple of times, but I'm plotting my first giveaway. I want to keep it simple, so I planned on the only requirements being to follow me on GFC and leave a comment. Does it still make sense to do giveaways this way since people not on blogger would need to create a blogger account? Is there a better way?
Photo Editing
I read somewhere about Picasa photo editing software. I started using it over the weekend, and I'm really liking it. I was thrilled when I saw that it has a function to straighten crooked pictures. I had been missing that function using Photobucket. I think I'll be able to keep my photos a bit more organized this way too.
I also started watermarking my photos. I don't know that anyone would ever decide to steal content from my blog, but it's a simple change that is extra assurance that it won't happen. I did my first tagged photos with the name of my blog since my URL is rather long, but I'll probably switch to my URL for all future posts since it is better assurance that people can't steal my content.
Formatting
My bachelor's degree is in journalism, and I supervised a school newspaper during the two previous school years. Why am I bringing this up? My lack of consistency, which is so necessary with a newspaper, is bothering me with my blog. I use picture captions in some instances but not others. Sometimes I include prices other times I don't. Same with linking to where I purchased something. Even though it is bothering me, I'm not going to stress about it too much at this point. I figure most of these things will work themselves out over time when I figure out what works for me.
No-Buy
I didn't post anything official, figuring I would fail miserably, but I've been on a no-buy for the month of March. So far, I've made it, and it's the downhill slope of the month. This weeks 40% off Physicians Formula sale at CVS was really tempting me, but I was in there yesterday and resisted. I'm also worried about going on a buying binge when my no-buy is over, and I shouldn't do that either.
My Makeup Setup
I was going to leave this post picture-free, but it just looked so bland. Instead, I figured I would post a picture of my makeup area.
My fiance and I bought a home back in August that is large enough for both of us to have an office. Mine had this desk and shelves already in place. I love having the room to spread out my collection. I use it a lot better now than I did when it was all shoved into a small bathroom. My laptop sits on the small desk in the bottom right corner of the pictures (yes, my computer desk is smaller than my makeup desk). I like being able to play youtube videos while I'm getting ready in the morning or being able to grab things from my collection when I am writing blog posts. It's still a work in progress, but my current setup works well for the time being.
I hope all of you ladies are enjoying beautiful spring weather. It has been gorgeous here lately!
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