Ha-gee-may-mahsh-day

Guess where I’m going??

I’M GOING TO…..

before I say where, I have to show you the after!
I’m dark! With a slight {accidental} ombre think going with my ends. And lest you think I’m really that white (though, I am really that white). I moved a little to the right and look at that! a little more color in the skin. Not so ghostly.

Before and after side by side since I was told its subtle.

I’m really loving the dark. It has a lot of dimension to it and even my old color comes through a bit and offers a little highlight here and there. Only a few people actually noticed at work so it made me think even more that it wasn’t as noticeable but every time I’d walk in the restroom I’d see myself in the mirror and think how obvious it was.

Speaking of work, today is my last day and I couldn’t be more relieved. If there ever was a long week in my life, it was this week. It drug on. It didn’t help that I thought it was Friday on Wednesday AND Thursday. Talk about a moral killer. Another killer is them believing things will fall apart once I leave so they’re piling on the work so I can get it all done before I go. Only thing is, its work that isn’t due for another 2 weeks that they think I should do.

Needless to say, I’ve been busy and pretty upset (since Tuesday) where I almost walked out without returning. I only stayed because I like the people in my office and I didn’t want to leave them in a lurch, but if I were in the main office, I would have walked out without looking back. I’m doing everything in my power to be kind and do as much work as my office is asking me to do, but its proving more and more difficult as I ruminate on Tuesday’s events.

I’m so thankful its over after today. That’s all I’ll say on the matter before letting it rest.

…back to where I’m going.

JAPAN!!!

I leave tomorrow!! I can’t even tell you how excited I am. It’s my first time there and I’ve been attempting to learn anything with the language and it’s proving harder than I thought. Ha-gee-may-mahsh-day, Emily des… is Nice to meet you, I’m Emily. …and well, that’s about as far as I’ve learned.

I cannot wait to see as much as I can about this culture. Just listening to the podcasts and videos to help learn has me so intrigued. I should be blogging while I’m there and I’m so eager to share the trip with you.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Did you think it was Hawaii?

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Raindrops on roses

Hello there. <—said like Julie Andrews. The song popped into my head as I waited for Windows Live Writer to load (best blogging program eveeeeer!) so it had to be incorporated into the post, though it has no relevance whatsoever.

My weekend was a mix of so many things. I almost got into a very bad car accident… and it would have been my fault.. never something you want to be your fault. Pulling out in front of car I didn’t see coming, while putting on my sunglasses (which kept me from looking left since I thought I was clear) left them blaring their horn at me and my heart beating a mile a minute.

I heard that horn repeated in my head for the next 30 minutes, it shook me that bad. I’m so thankful I escaped the wreck, and thankful that even though they were screaming at me, that they were paying attention when I wasn’t.

After, I raced to the clothing store to return a torn sweater, but forgot the receipt. urgh! Then raced to a day spa to have me some stuff done.

{TMI..maybe?}

IF you get waxed, which do you prefer? Hard wax? Or soft wax w/strips?

I’m a hard wax girl. It works best on me, more gentle too. I called to make the appointment and I asked the girl 5 times if the esthetician used hard wax. First she said no, then changed it to yes every time. I stressed I didn’t want to come up there (35 minutes away) if she used strips. The girl assured me, she used hard wax. OK.

I walked into the room and the first thing I asked was if she used hard wax. Nope! I wasn’t happy, and the esthetician got to hear it. Long story short, she claimed she was very good at what she did, so I let her do her way. It was fine, but once was enough.

After her, I went to another girl to get my eyelashes tinted. First time ever getting it done and the only reason I did it was because going to Mexico next week, I don’t want to bother with mascara if I’ll be in the water and this would take care of it. Well, it stung..not just a baby sting, but full on, what the heck is happening, sting.. for 10 minutes straight. Apparently this isn’t normal (as my esthetician SIL told me) nor is it normal to have so much smudging below my eyes.

Goth Emily, anyone?
The girl did a sloppy job. Once I got home, I cleaned it all up and they look fine now…but once is enough. Then! I mentioned I need a hair stylist and she referred me to their one and only stylist in the salon. I talked to her and I’ve never had a more awkward conversation where the person didn’t listen to a word I said. I said no red or golden, she said red and golden. I said I want color that’s a rich chocolate and she said she’ll color it in the middle of red and golden.. and this went on for over 5 minutes. All I saw was oil and water.

My weekend had several good points too, lest you think I’m griping about it all. A lot revolves around breakfast food. I’ve been eating a lot of breakfast foods. Exploding omelet with way too many ingredients, is the way to go.

I also have to give a big huge thank you to Angie {and her husband} Phil for helping me with my first Vimeo upload. They held my hand, walking me through how to compress it and upload it to Vimeo, Thursday night. For pretty much 4 hours they helped me by answering all my questions, looking up tutorials, getting out their PC (since they’re Mac peeps) and being more than patient as I got it all worked out. They’re the sweetest ever.

I’m counting down the days to Mexico! 5 more days!!! Woot!

Happy Monday, my fellow friends!

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Vanity filled

via

Is this vain? Is this smart? Is this putting way too much thought into it?
Hard to say, but what I've decided to do..or at least cut back considerably in doing is drinking out of a straw. Random, right?

I bought this nifty new water bottle to replace my, older than I care to admit one, that has a straw in it. At first I thought it was so cool. I no longer had to hoist the bottle up with the fear of it dribbling down my face, chest and lap (cause that was happening) but I started to pay attention to the lip pucker...and there's a lot of lip pucker. I drink almost a gallon of water a day out of it so imagine, if you will how often I'm sucking down on that straw. 
By week 2 is when I noticed that it simulated a smoker. {do you think I'm crazy yet?} Maybe you do, but I'm around a lot of smokers and I see the horrible lines they have around their mouths from the constant pucker and heck if I (the non smoker that I am) will have those lines from drinking out of a straw! I'm getting wrinkles regardless. You all know, if you've been around for awhile, I've been talking a bit about them on my face and neck. Its natural, its going to happen, but I certainly don't want to speed up the process over a silly straw!
After moving the straw to the left side of my mouth...then the right side..then not fully putting my lips on it and having it spray all over me and looking like a fool, I decided to take the lid off every time and drink like its a glass of water. Surprisingly, I'm almost doubled my water intake because of it.
Feel free to call me silly or superficial, I don't mind. I prefer to age gracefully…not to mention slowly. I'm sure someone will say, 'so you won't kiss because it may cause wrinkles?' and no... I'll happily kiss for 30 minutes and not think once about any wrinkles forming, but a straw? There's no enjoyment in those wrinkles.
have you thought of this? 
- I never did in my 20's but I'm in my 30's now and I'm a lot more aware of what can affect and damage my skin. 
Speaking of vanity, I put the 'pin it' button on the blog for the cookies, Friday. Just in case anyone wanted to pin it and have it be a quick easy way and now its on each and every post and I can't remove it! I've gone into HTML and searched all over for it and can't find a way to take it out, so I promise, I'm not so conceded that I think you'll want to pin every single post I put up.
And seriously, if you know how to find it in my HTML, tell me and I'll send you a cookie!







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Filling them in

I felt compelled to show you just how much filling in {my} eyebrows really makes a difference. Since quite a few of you mentioned you don’t do it, I thought I’d let you see how it can change the look making it more complete, so to speak.

When I took the first set of pictures, I did it with greasy hair and after only one cup of coffee. Not something I recommend doing (the only having one cup of coffee first, that is). To say I looked like a hot mess is an understatement. What’s sad is I even had my ‘full makeup’ on minus the ‘eyebrows’. So after quite a bit of inner turmoil of, ‘to show myself as the less than perfect person that I am, or maintain my pristine image on here’, I made the judgment call to retake them the next morning.

Eyebrows are the first thing I do in the morning, which now that I think of it, maybe shouldn’t be. I’m barely half awake when I’m doing them, but none the less they are. I brush them first before filling them in, then brush again to smooth them all out.

First picture is of them not brushed or filled in and as you can see, they’re just messy.
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Ok, I can’t believe I’m doing this but you need to see what my messy eyebrows look like without grooming, which means showing the hot mess picture.
…my point has been proven.

Second is of them brushed only. A little better but still sparse in some areas and still not quite looking as good as they can. My face doesn’t have the shape I’m wanting.

The third and final has them completely filled in. Completing the whole look for me that I’m going for.

Do you see the difference? It’s a big difference, right?! Even if you don’t fill them in at least brush them. It will keep them from being all kinds of crazy.

What’s your eyebrow routine? Since a lot of you don’t fill them in, do you have something else you do for them? Also, did you know, if you tweeze your eyebrows too much, the hairs won’t grow back, therefore leaving you with thin to non existent eyebrows!??

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Calling all beauties

Yes, I’m talking to you.

I need your smarts
your expertise
your know how
your insight
your brains when it comes to beauty products.

I have used the same stuff for years. Makeup, face wash, moisturizer. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it, right? Well, I’m thinking it’s a bit broken.

My sister in law is an esthetician (oh my gosh, I spelled that right on the first try…*cough* any way..) and she recommended M2 and SkinCeuticals for a face wash. Both very different w/M2 getting very mixed reviews. She uses M2 and it works just fine for her.


I used to use Purity for years and years but it was time to move on from it as I felt it wasn’t cleaning as deeply as I needed.

What face wash do you use that’s gentle (I have skin that whines like a baby but will dry like the desert), that still gives a deep clean and that isn’t really a drying agent. The SkinCeuticals is ok, but I’m not seeing fantastic results for the price I paid.

Let’s move on to makeup.

This to me, is more serious because I’ve been stuck in the same makeup for years…meaning, I’ve used the same makeup for years…yes I need to throw it away. With that said, I’m DYING for a good, no, GREAT eyebrow filler. Whether it’s a pencil, powder and brush, tattoo…ok, I don’t want a tattoo, but something that you love and that’s worked for you, that doesn’t look like your eyebrows went from a soft brown to black. >>finger pointing at self<<

I use (present tense) Models Prefer eyebrow pencil…and it’s a bit harsh. Some days I wonder if its as obvious to others as it is to me that my eyebrows went 3 shades darker..and then I tell myself that yes, most likely they do notice and I run to the bathroom and cry.

Ok, not an actual portrayal but that’s beside the point. I’m on my last pencil and they don’t sell these anymore and I’m stressing over what to get to replace it.

I. NEED. YOU!

Let’s continue on to the under eyes and a little something called bags..and dark circles..and permanent sunspots that were obtained thanks to birth control and sun exposure. Being told that you look like you have 2 black eyes is very enjoyable, says no one ever.

SO! What I’ve been using for years *cough* and years, is Mally Cancellation Concealer System…the same one. It works alright but I would really love something new that works beautifully. That’s smooth and brightening and that would work like a charm…and that isn’t 5 years old.

Ladies, will you help?! Will you share your beauty favorites and finds?

I need your best face wash
your best eyebrow filler
and your best under eye concealer/brightener

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