Thursday Thoughts - You can see through water all the way up to the sky

1. Forever mood and T-shirt of the day via True Hand Society in Fishtown

2. I went to the post office and grocery store on Monday. The irony of following a car with a sticker on it that says "I stand against socialism" driving on a public road in a town doing intense infrastructure upgrades on a barrier island connected to everything by bridges. 

3. Insert upside down smiley face here. If you said one goddamn thing out loud via your mouth hole or on social media about Hilary's emails, I expect to hear from your ass today. 

Also, reminder, because fuck. People are acting like slavery and segregation with 300 years ago and that every system in the country has not been stacked against Black people in a million ways since up to and including today. Stop. Read something true from scholars. 

4. The extreme laziness still gets me after all these years. They walk a few times a day and have a longer beach walk of 45 min to an hour, which they can spend running off-leash if no one is around. 

5. Beach walks this week.

6. I haven't felt like reading this week, which is unfortunate since I have 13 Netgalley books that publish in March and three books in for me at the library and still I want to purchase several other books. Whyyyyy. I need to read what I have and stop requesting things from the library. Thanks to Show Us Your Books peeps. Have you read through the posts? I need to get to the last five myself this morning. I have felt like eating ice cream.

7. I reported recently that I started using tretinoin on my face. Today I would like to report that I've already stopped that and am on to snail mucus serum. Yes, that's correct. My annual February nervous breakdown skincare overhaul has arrived right on schedule.

8. Reminder if you are single or with someone and think Valentine's Day is a ridiculous concept or a drag: I also think it is a ridiculous concept, but celebrating love of all kinds is not. We should do that at every opportunity. Image via thesweetfeminist

9. Reminder via Lalah Delia

10. Or at like 4:45. I mean I'll do it and do it right either time but come on, man.

Friday eve. I'm into it.

What appears beyond the hyphen in Thursday Thoughts titles is what I'm listening to when I'm starting this - this week is God of Ocean Tides by Counting Crows which I have heard every time I have been in my car because apple music is not shuffling

Friday Five for Feet 2.5.2021

Friday five for feet. Are we excited? My heels are always cracked and my feet look terrible on the bottom like an always barefoot sea hag ogre. Until now. I've used some of my stay at home time over the past 10+ freaking months to figure out what the hell works. Here it is for me. There are some $ things on here. This is not a bargain basement list. I am now running a pedicure palace in my home where I am the only customer so I consider this an investment in my business. I got off the ground easy because I've been running a nail salon in my home since I was like 15. Boom. The two amazon links are affiliates. 

1. Foot tub. I've had the massagers, electric, whatever. Not for me. Just give me a roomy enough for water and soaking, like this one. I also keep one outside at the shore to rinse feet off. For inside soaks, I throw a towel under it  so when I pull my feet out to do other steps in this regimen I'm not getting water everywhere.

2. Special soaking mixture for foot tub. Hear me out. Some Dr. Teal's pink himalayan soak, about half a cup of vinegar, a cup of listerine, and a few drops of lavender. It sounds weird, I know, but it works. I sit back and read and let it do its thing. I soak every two weeks. 

3. The dead skin trio. I scrub a dub dub with my trusty pumice stone, then get busy with my cheese grater for feet. You might know this as a foot rasp? I prefer cheese grater for feet because that's what it is. You can use on wet or dry feet. I dry. Resist the urge to go wild with this or you will be walking around on bloody stumps. Go slow and use light pressure. When I'm done with that, I use this little Cala jobby that I found in Homegoods to even things out. I use these as necessary - don't always soak my feet first. 

4. The Bookman 1802 Goats. I got the Walking on Clouds goat milk heel polish and the pure goat milk cuticle serum on my BFF Laura's recommendation. They are excellent. I doused myself in the cuticle serum the first time so use con cuidado. The Sally Hansen cuticle remover followed by this is chef's kiss for cuticles. And cuticle maintenance is important for everyone, not just femmes. I do cuticle maintenance on nails and toes once a week. I will use the serum more often if my cuticles are looking raggedy. I use the heel polish every two weeks when I do the foot soak. 

5. Beauty Counter melting body balm. I got it during a big sale and it was half off praise the lord but honestly will buy it at full price because it works. I will pay for shit that works vs. trying a million less expensive things that don't and added up end up being more than the thing I didn't want to spend money on. If you don't know anyone who sells it I buy through Steph, always have & always will. The only thing that has actually addressed the cracked heels. I've tried every damn foot lotion, straight oils, you name it. I use this every day before I put socks on. When we go back to non-sock times, I will apply before bed. 

I'm happy that I have gotten my feet looking human, and staying that way. I've failed in the maintenance in the past. I'm on top of this shit now.

Happy Friday! What feet products make your list? 

Friday Five 10.30.2020

 
1. I made my first soup of the season yesterday - a simple vegetarian eight can soup (rotel with mild green chiles, petite diced tomatoes, corn, green beans, Campbell's vegetable soup, sliced whole potatoes, mixed veggies, vegetarian chili beans = don't drain any of the liquids) with some veggie base and spices of course. I doubled everything to make a larger batch. This freezes well. 

2. For over a year I have made hard boiled eggs via air fryer and will never make them another way again. They come out perfect every time and I don't have to babysit them. After pre-heating, I put eight or nine in my air fryer, and cook at 260 for 15 minutes. 

3. I love outtake photos. My old dogs this morning with Maedop's tongue out.

4. New shore art from AlmaBoheme. It coordinates with my newest tattoo and with the shore house logo TWSSQuoteShop did for me. 

5. I am comfortable recommending this to everyone. I have sensitive skin and it's okay for me. It is a beautiful experience. I put it on like a scrub and leave it on for five minutes, then rinse and carry on with my nightly routine. I use it three times a week. If you are a TJ shopper, don't sleep on this. 

Happy weekend to you all, be safe TOTing if you're doing that or handing out candy - mask up and don't crowd! - and happy wedding day to my cousin Kristine!

Thursday Thoughts: Planet Earth is blue and there's nothing I can do

1. What is personal space?

2. Should we talk about the weather? Or just roast silently? Unless you're in my house, in which case you need blankets once MFD gets in front of the thermostat.

3. The kind people at Maple Holistics sent me their Apple Cider Vinegar Shampoo to try in mid-June. You know I never report back on things until I've had them in circulation for at least a month. I like this one as much as I like the tea tree shampoo, and I used the ACV with the tea tree conditioner. The apple cider vinegar shampoo is of course free of sulfates and parabens and is great for color treated hair - it does a great job of clarifying without stripping your head of color. My hair and scalp feel super clean post-wash. And one of my favorite things about this company is their recycling program - for every six empty bottles you return by mail, you get a free shampoo or they make a donation to the environmentally friendly charity of your choice. The returned bottles are chipped, melted down, and re-formulated into new bottles for their products. This.is.how.you.do.it, beauty companies. Come on. Get with this.

4. Steph and I will post about ways we're struggling with sustainability on Wednesday, 7/24, and how we did overall for Plastic Free July on Wednesday, 7/31. If you post about those things on Instagram, use the hashtag #sustainablestephs and tag us! Steph is here and I'm here.

5. I love seeing a Mural Arts project in progress in Suburban Station.

6. Love this sticker I saw yesterday while running an errand at lunch.

7. I've gone back to using old school blue tub Noxema on my face a few nights a week. I slather it on and let it mostly sink in for 15 minutes before rubbing it in and washing the remaining off. Bruce and Ben are so confused when it's on.

8. The demonization of brown people by this administration and the lengths that GOP congresspeople will go to avoid it and regular citizens will go to ignore or excuse it is fucking vile. Go back to your own country...said by a President of the United States, to members of Congress with the implication that it trickles down...while trump holds a rally and American citizens high on hate and what they have been told is righteousness chant send her back. It is so fucking fascist I have no idea how Congress is standing for it and the American people are not alarmed by it. Ugly and un-American too.

9. Reminder:

10. Ecards:

What appears after the hyphen in Thursday Thoughts is a song lyric to whatever I'm listening to when I start to write the post. This week is Space Oddity by David Bowie

Thank you, next

I always share when I find a product or method or recipe I love. I tend to not share the things I don't love mostly because once I'm done with something, I'm done. I'm decisive and move on. I’ve had some on my mind recently though so the time is now.

You’ll notice these all fall into the health & beauty category. As we know, this shit is expensive so when it doesn’t work it’s frustrating, which is why I only buy beauty products where I can return them like at Rite Aid, Nordstrom, Sephora, etc.

1. Neutrogena micellar water. In general, my face does not love Neutrogena products but I was in need, it was on sale, and how can you fuck up micellar water? By making it smell like feet, that’s how. I don’t even like when feet smell like feet, so I sure as shit don’t want something being applied to my face smelling like feet.

2. Charlotte Tilbury matte lipstick. I know it’s a cult favorite, but it was like applying the entire Sahara Desert to my lips and it didn’t look good either. MAC matte is much better for me.

3. Kiehl’s sunflower color preserve shampoo and conditioner. I hate washing my hair so to wash it and have it still feel gross is not cool.

4. CND vinylux weekly polish. I paint my nails weekly at home. I rarely have problems with chipping. This was chipped within six hours. Banned for life.

5. The Body Shop Vitamin E Face Wash. I love the Vitamin E toner. The face wash left an oil slick that could be surfed.

What have you used and disliked lately?

Thursday Thoughts - I wish I was the messenger and all the news was good

1. Philly is in bloom and it is fabulous. The fountains are back on too and when that happens life is good.

2. Isn't this the happiest dish towel ever?

3. Can you even with this dog?

4. I love the Nile Livingston Grace tribute art to Grace Jones at Mission Taqueria. I saw it at lunch on Monday and it's perfect. Go have some mahi mahi tacos and see it.

5. My library tote runneth over. I have three books out from the Ocean City library right now too and I'm late on a few Netgalley ARCs. I like to read them before the publish date.

6. I love the ladies at MAC and I'm glad one opened on Chestnut. I can't recall the last time I bought a new lip color, I've been a good anti-consumer and have used four up over the past few months. I ran out of my daily Twig and replaced it with Plumful at MAC for summer. I also got Charlotte Tilbury lipstick in pillow talk to replace another and will leave the other two un-replaced. I'm trying the Coola sun silk sunscreen drops this year. I will report back on those. Sunscreen every day or bust, friends.

7. Monday night I went to Dad & Carol's for an impromptu dinner of their Easter leftovers and saw my niece and nephew and My brother and Aubrey. Tuesday I got to sit and chat with Michelle for an hour. Last night I had dinner and talked for hours with my friend of 38 years. It's been a good My People week in my world.

8. I also did reasonably well in the To Do department: finally got the Screen building people on the phone to rebuild two at the shore, ordered the bulk of my shore house needs before summer for delivery this weekend from Amazon thanks to the generous gift card from my Mom & Rich, picked out a color to paint our bedroom at home, did laundry, and packed for this weekend. We are hurtling towards Memorial Day and we still have a lot left to do at the shore. I am probably going to have to take a day off sometime soon.

9. Reminder: I want women to grant themselves this permission so hard.

10. Ecards.

That will be all. 

What appears after the hyphen in Thursday Thoughts is a song lyric to whatever I'm listening to when I start to write the post. This week is Wishlist by Pearl Jam

TWTW - the one with the great purge

Friday was my work from home day this week. At lunch I hit the library and post office. My canine coworkers weren't working very hard all day and that was frustrating. We went to Mom & Rich's for dinner Friday night and I came home with a bag of cookies that I ate like a rabid raccoon all weekend. Also: nails are Essie Merino Cool, Bruce gets his feelings hurt so easily, and Bender finally sleeps with me.

Saturday Aside from changing the sheets and starting a new book, I spent all of Saturday dealing with the tremendous amount of clothes I have. Like, a full eight hour workday, at the end of which I felt incredibly satisfied. The only things I didn't touch were underwear and scarves. I was so tired I just couldn't do it. More on this whole thing tomorrow.

Sunday was early weekly food prep followed by a Marshalls run in which I bought only what I went there to buy. This week I ran out of sheet masks, exfoliator, and serum. Sheet masks - I felt terrible about the single use/overly packaged nature of those so I got three apply masks and saved $8. I also saved $8 on an exfoliator and saved $16 on serum. I can go back to my Kleem next time. When I got back from there I took Bruce and Bender for a walk sans coat and it was glorious. 

I finished going through my scarves and underwear and reorganized my bedroom shelves before calling it a day and settling down with MFD to watch the Hulu version of Frye fright and True Detective episode five. Reading, tea, and snacks rounded out the night. 

Weekly food prep: Breakfast is scrambled eggs, lunch is tuna over a bed of spinach topped with tomatoes, and Sunday dinner was buffalo chicken dip, pigs in a blanket, and veggies & dip. No cares for the Super Bowl, much love for dips, always. Dinners this week are chili from the freezer and baked chicken with green beans. Plenty of veggies cut up (including carrot quarters for the dogs), and this week's fruit theme is yellow and what was on sale. 

Realizations from clothes clean out tomorrow.

How was yours? 

About Face

Friday is the day:

Mood lighter, weekend in sight.

Remove stick from ass.

It's been a while since I've done a haiku, and also a while since I talked about my face regimen so I decided to combine those things today.

It has not been a while since I was glad it was Friday, and surprise! I'm glad it's Friday today. The day started with Gus falling out of bed at 5:41, Bender escaping the yard into the street where my neighbor was thankfully standing at 7:59, and telling the train conductor to have a good night at 8:47 (the man behind me repeated me then we all laughed).

I never talk about any facial product unless I've been using it for at least a month, but preferably three. All of these are over the three month mark unless noted. Nothing pisses me off more than people who use facial products for five minutes and are like omg life changing use this. No.

For reference, my skin is a combo of normal to dry and very sensitive. My skin changed when I turned 38 or 39 and I spent a while adapting to that. Product-wise, I like to keep the price low where I can, but after a few hellish incidents I stepped away from a lot of cheaper products I was using, started doing my research and am much happier with calm, mostly behaving skin to boot. The extra money is worth it to not be kvetching about my face all the time and most of my products last a long time. Amazon links are affiliate links.

Morning

Cleanser: I typically just rub my face with water in the shower but if I was a lazy a-hole who did not wash the night before I get some SkinLab Micellar Cleansing Water out.

Serum: Kleem Organics Vitamin C Serum for Face. I love this. Like, love love never gonna give you up 10 out of 10 would marry love. It's great on my skin and in warmer months I sometimes skip a heavier moisturizer in the morning and am fine with just this. For around $20, that is great.

Eye: Kleem Organics Anti Aging Eye Cream. I love this except for how it comes out. You have to practice control and I'm not always careful so there’s user error. If you are not a wild animal like me, you should be fine if you buy it.

Moisturizer: MAC Complete Comfort Creme. Throughout my life my most troubling skin care component to figure out has always been moisturizer. This feels great, does not clog my pores, does its job keeping my skin flake and dry patch free, and does not make me break out. I did a lot of research before I found this and bought it. If you're like me, when this shit costs like $30 for moisturizer you have to scour the ends of the earth before investing and be ruthless in returning what does not work.

Sunscreen: After moisturizer, all year, every day regardless of forecast. I change my sunscreen up a lot. Right now it's Clarins. Regardless of the brand it's SPF 30 or 40. My face does not respond well to 50.

Evening

Eye makeup remover: Camomile Gentle from The Body Shop if necessary, otherwise micellar water. My eyes are super sensitive and most eye makeup removers are not good for me.

Cleanser: The Body Shop Drops of Youth Gentle Foam Wash. Not drying, does the job.

Toner: The Body Shop Vitamin E Hydrating Toner. Once upon a time I was obsessively toning my skin and stripped off its outer layer. What an idiot. This is effective and gentle.

Anti-aging serum: The Ordinary Granactive Retinoid 2% Emulsion. This is cheap as hell. I was using a Kleem Organics Retinoid cream which I also liked but I swapped it out for this. I love it.

Eye: Kleem Organics Anti Aging Eye Cream. Love story as seen above.

Moisturizer: MAC Complete Comfort Creme.

Sometimes

Exfoliate: Either belif Pore Cleanser Bubble Foam or The Body Shop Drops of Youth Liquid Peel, 2x a week, usually at night

Mask: Once a week. I'm into Saturday night sheet masks lately but they are not the best for the environment so I should wean myself off of these.

Jade roller: I used Debbie's that she got in her FabFitFun box (Sherrie Matthews Acupuncture) then bought the same one for half price on Poshmark. I love it but I was not paying $45 for it. If you want one, check Poshmark or Ebay. I’ve only been using this for about three weeks.

Always

I have a set of flannel cloths from Etsy (those of you who can do these things could make them at home, I ordered mine on Etsy here) that I use for eye makeup remover, micellar water, toner, etc., so I'm not using and tossing facial wipes or cotton balls. I love them, they just go in the wash with my towels and not into landfills.

This concludes my Not a Beautician, Only Doing What Works For Me and Always Interested in What Works For Others Also Use Less Single Use Items TED Talk.

Have a great weekend!