Amy's Favorite Beauty Things

So anyone who knows me understands how incredibly into beauty items.  I never leave my nails "naked" and always wash makeup off before going to bed.

I just told 3 lies in two lines.  Shame. On. Me.

However, I do have a few beauty products that I LOVE, and for what it's worth, I want to share them with you.

I have to post this product first because after 3 visits to Poulsbo, I finally got it. The first two visits were (by my own mistake) during times the shop wasn't open.  Some time after high school my lips developed a reaction to everything known to man that is made for lips except simple vaseline.  Within 30 minutes of putting on chapstick, lipstick, lip gloss, etc. my lips would slough off and make me look like a leper.  (My apologies to lepers for any disrespect with that comment.)

Okay, this fancy stuff is made with a base of lanolin.  For new moms out there...yes, that's the wonderful product in Lansinoh, your best friend right now.  Also, the stuff is made in the USA!  Wahoo!  I bought mine at a cute boutique called Modern Mercantile in Poulsbo, WA on the main street for those of you in the area.

Visit www.thelanocompany.com for more details!

Because of this lip gloss, I get to feel a little more girly now and have some shimmer on my lips.  Hooray!

My favorite hand lotion:  Vaseline Intensive Care Healthy Hand & Nail

I feel like I don't need to add much to this one. It smells great and doesn't leave my skin greasy. Lasts forever.

Next topic: Face Stuff

Ugh, skin stuff.  Oh my goodness.  I went through some awful stages growing up where my skin rebelled against every single lotion, cleanser, makeup, etc. that I tried.  Not much fun.  However, as an adult I have a regimen of some pretty great stuff.

1.  Benzoyl Peroxide Cleanser
Not glamorous, but awesome.  For a cleanser I go with the powerful Desquam-X which is a benzoyl peroxide wash. I'm not sure if you can get this over-the-counter, but it's worth asking your doc about.  A couple months into pregnancy I ran out and the doctor said, "I don't think you really need to refill this. Your skin looks fine."  Ugh, I know. It's because I use this stuff daily!  I was out of it for about a week and my skin started to break out again.  If there's one thing you don't do to a pregnant woman, it's mess with her clear skin. 

2.  Toner-
Something not all women use, but they should. Toner helps get soap and cleanser residue off skin and preps it for lotion.  I've found that the toners with hazelnut and witchhazel not only smell amazing, but leave my skin feeling great and tingly, but not burning.  There is a fairly inexpensive brand that I really like.  Thayer's Witch Hazel toner, alcohol free of course.

I found it at Amazon.com and the kind I bought has rose petal in it too. Smells lovely.

3.  Finally, a fantastic and nearly perfect face lotion.  Credentials Hydrating Complex Creme
Seriously, I've been using this stuff for years. I love the way it smells, lasts forever, doesn't make my skin greasy.  It's just amazing.  It's sold at high end beauty stores, but I, again, found it on Amazon.

It's about the plainest packaging I've ever seen, but I guess if the product is awesome you don't need a pretty label.

And last but not least....

 4. Vitamin E stick
I use this under my eyes before putting concealer on or at night. It's great in the winter when I get dry red areas around my eyes.  You can buy it many places, but I get it on Amazon.  No, Amazon doesn't pay me.  The kind I've ordered is below.

Reviva Vitamin E Stick- it's the cheapest and works exactly like the higher price kinds I've tried before

Recent Pics

I haven't posted anything since July!  You know what, I'm okay with that. Blogging does not come naturally for me.  Especially with the discovery of Pinterest, I tend to spend on-line time checking email, researching baby stuff, or browsing exciting Pins.  Not blogging.  I do have friends that are prolific bloggers.  That's gotta count for something.

So some recent photos should make up for my lack of blogging over the last 6 months.

Last year Daniel and I bought a copper-colored tree which just blows the minds of local friends.  They can't comprehend what it would look like or why we don't have a "real" tree.  I should note that most people in the Pacific NW don't understand why anyone would buy an artificial tree. Seems like it's sacrilegious in some way in this area to not go "real."

Well a couple of our reasons are: 
1.  We can take this tree with us for the next few years until we get tired of it.
2.  I don't know how to take care of an artificial tree and I tend to kill small plants, let alone huge trees.
3.  I am convinced most things will spontaneously combust (observes my husband...and I agree with him) and aren't real trees very flammable?
4.  Copper trees are different and we thought it'd be fun to be different!

So here's a photo of our fake tree, which we love

See!  It really is beautiful!

One of my favorite ornaments

I would have an entire Nutcracker themed tree if I had enough ornaments.

To keep with the Christmastime theme, here are some other highlights of December:

Daniel took me to see the Pacific NW Ballet's Nutcracker this year! I've wanted to go since we moved out to the area.  I love the ballet and this is a world-renowned production.  The sets and costumes were designed by Maurice Sendak, also known for writing and illustrating Where the Wild Things Are.  So you can imagine how wonderful this ballet was, not just because of the dancing!

Stopping for a pic on our walk back to the ferry

In front of the giant Christmas tree at the ballet

Also, we got to go back to Kansas for Christmas.  A real treat.  I really enjoyed the time with family and friends, but time flew by quickly.  This also was the last trip we get to take before Baby Warren arrives in March!

Travis and Elizabeth picked us up at the airport in KC and we enjoyed a fantastic dinner at Oklahoma Joe's.

Caught a few moments with Barry and Paige

My wonderful BSC friends threw a surprise baby shower!

Also got to enjoy a family baby shower when home.  Very special!

 

My first sewn garment...and it stayed together!

Daniel gave me a sewing machine for my birthday last year and up to this point I've only done the basics:
pillow covers
labor gowns (instead of ugly blue hospital gowns!)
re-sewn a drape into pillow covers
baby lamb (mission aborted b/c the tail is coming out the lamb's rear and the ears are on backwards)
a bit more, but nothing exciting...

So when Daniel told me the theme for Hail & Farewell, the annual family practice celebration for incoming and outgoing residents, I was sure that I was meant to sew my own outfit.  1920's here I come.  I figured the dresses were easy enough to make since they're basically long potato sacks with embellishments.

I was able to start the dress when I was in Wichita so my mom and I worked on most of it together!

Here is the end result!

Now excuse my shoes, please. They're a bit ridiculous, but I got lots of compliments and I felt like any of my other pumps just wouldn't finish off the outfit.  The morning of the event I cut off a ruffle that I originally thought would be nice on the bottom and sewed on a couple layers of fringe.  I'm just happy to report that no seems ripped throughout the evening of dinner, socializing and dancing!

Now Daniel's outfit for a 1920's hobo was a different story.  He hadn't planned any costume until literally 2 hours before and somehow he was able to pull together that look out of his own closet and our costume box.  Doesn't every late 20's couple have a costume box?

I mean that's a snazzy dresser.  Glasses without lenses, nice vest, one fingerless glove and to top it off, that's a black crow toy in his front pocket.  The crow is great except for when you hit a speed bump a week later and can't figure out why your trunk is screeching.

We ended the fun night at Denny's.  You just can't beat going to Denny's (other acceptable variations are Shari's, IHOP, or any truck-stop diner) after 1030pm. 

the end to a good night at Denny's

Have you seen this girl?

We recently hired an Education Coordinator at my workplace, the Kitsap Humane Society.  As a side note, we hired one of my friend's named Julie and she's awesome and will be a great Education Coordinator.  (No, she's wasn't hired just because she's my friend, but that's a bonus!)

One of our first tasks was to sort through education and volunteer files that I inherited when I took over the Volunteer department.  To give you some perspective, when I was hired as the department assistant over a year ago I asked my then boss what was in a certain file cabinet and she answered, "I haven't really gone through those."  She had enough on her plate, for sure, so I don't fault her for that.  However, Julie and I felt that if we were going to start her out on the right foot, we should know what resources we had...or didn't have.  So we dug in.

And we found the gem photo above.  Good ol' Lark Voorhies.  Lisa Turtle, I found you.  Apparently, the previous Volunteer and Education Coordinators didn't like throwing anything away so we found the KIND NEWSLETTER with an article about Lark.  That's when Saved By the Bell was all the rage.

Side note: I can still enjoy a couple good SBTB episodes in the morning here.  I guess syndication can last for-e-ver.

I have to say that the winner in the files was a pamphlet from 1979.  Yup, believe it or not most of the files we found here from 1993 and before.  Is that when computers were invented?

I'm an excellent healer!

I'm happy to announce that after 4 long, but not as long as I expected them to feel, months the ortho surgeon said, "yep, it's healed."

That's right folks.  The projected 6 month to a year recovery is not quite as bad as I thought it was going to be!  After 4 months my achilles tendon is back up and running (well, I'm not supposed to run quite yet) and now I just have to continue strengthening my leg. 

I've got to tell you, not being able to move like I wanted to was really tough.  There were the comical parts of recovery, for example:

 

 

Exhibit A:  The shower chair

 The shower chair is like being stuck in that tacky scene in Flashdance day after day after day.  I had to roll myself in an office chair to the shower then stick both feet in and somehow lift myself and stand on my one good leg b/c I couldn't put pressure on my healing foot and balance enough to stand like a normal grown-up.  Man, was I glad to get rid of that.

Then there was the funny part of recovery involving vacation.  We planned a trip to Hawaii and bought tickets literally the week before I busted myself.  Not being able to walk with out a boot makes getting into the ocean very tricky.  Behold Exhibit B:

The 3-legged crab walk.

The 3-legged crab walk was the only way for me to get in the water and out without taking Daniel out in the process.  We tried having him support me while I tried to hop down to the water.  But in sand that. does. not. work.  So I threw away my pride and was the "28 year old girl scooting on her butt down to the water on a public beach."  For all those witnessing this site, you're welcome.  (Side note:  when I crawled back up to the towel out of the water I got applause from a group adults near us.)

This was also around the time that we decided to move houses. Now ladies, if you ever want to come up with a huge task that is physically demanding and then have a terrific excuse to not do any of the physically demanding parts, then you should rupture your achilles.  I packed as many boxes as possible...but I didn't have to lift them!  We had some really great friends chip in to help with the move to a new place.  It's a pretty great house with a HUGE backyard for the dogs, a half-court basketball court, 2 bed/2bath, AND A CRAFT ROOM!!!!  They didn't advertise it as a craft room, but I commandeered that sucker the minute we walked in.  A couple photos of our place for your enjoyment:

Oops! I guess I only have a picture of my Charlie sunning himself upstairs.

So long story short, while I still have a lot of physical therapy stuff to work on to increase strength, balance, range-of-motion, I'm back up and moving. I went to Zumba a few times and came home to reflect to Daniel that dancing with one bad foot "must be what normal people feel like when they try to dance."  That sounds snotty, I know, but man, I used to be a really good dancer.  I have continued teaching tap classes throughout the ordeal, although now I'm sure I'll be better b/c it's not reassuring looking into your child's tap class and seeing both the teacher (me) and the teaching assistant both on crutches. That's a true story.

Happy summer to all and keep writing your blogs.  I love reading them!
Oh, and here's my new favorite photo of my husband and me from a recent "one of my best friends is marrying my brother-in-law"'s weddings. 

July 2nd, 2011  Rhonda and Russell's wedding