Month: March 2015

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Horseshoes and Hand Grenades

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I almost managed to get a post up this weekend. Then my crazy week spilled over. I tend not to post much about my personal life on my blog but after being asked by project patrol (who was asked by Emilyannlou) to list five controversial things about myself I might as well put some of the reasons why my blog has been lacking in … frivolity… lately as well. Tomorrow i will be going on my third make that fourth job interview in a week with a third company. I love my current job so i’m not really looking to switch but trying to save for a house on a retail income isnt the easiest thing. Also this happened this week.

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Not the nails though two people now have been distracted by them when i showed them my snazzy new engagement ring. As a side note my Jamberry party that i posted about a while ago went swimmingly and i decided to become a consultant so if you want to browse the catalog feel free. Now i just have to learn that i cannot, sand, strip furniture, paint, varnish and or  play with caustic chemicals, without taking my ring off… luckily I have a lovely dancing baby Groot who appears to be made just for holding rings.

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All hail king Groot

Luckily thanks to a dear friend of mine things should be back on track for my blog here shortly. I’m back on mostly day shifts (hooooray, i’m such a morning person those night shifts were seriously screwing with me) and I’ve got some projects with my friend lined up as she redecorates and refinishes some furniture in her house.

So on to those “controversial” things that project patrol passed on to me. I thought the Liebster was hard. First off let me start by saying I’m a super boring person. Secondly without trying to be all righteous, I’m just not a very judgmental person. So I don’t find a lot of things “controversial”…. But here it is I’ve wracked my brain… All of the controversy…

1. Let’s start with a big one… If anything is “controversial” about me it’s this.

I live in the Bible Belt. I was raised in an … (Let’s call it) unreligious house. In high school I attended (by my own choice) a Unitarian Universalist youth group program called Religious Exploration. We learned not only about Unitarianism (within Christianity the unity as opposed to trinity of God) and universalism (universal salvation)

A friend of mine who is still very active in the church explained Unitarian Universalism very well recently

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we also learned about Christianity’s roots, Catholicism, the various sects of Christianity,  Judaism and its various sects, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism… You name it we learned it. I had the chance to speak to imams and rabbis, priests and reverends. What did I learn from all of this? I really don’t like organized religion.

I loved my church as a learning tool it taught me the difference between agnostic and atheist… Or agnostic atheist as the case may be, and in the UU church being just that is absolutely fine.

2. I do not now have, nor do I have plans to have any children. I’m pushing 30 and in a long term, stable relationship. Yes I have time to change my mind. No I’m not going to.

3. I’m a college drop out. Not just a college drop out, a drop out with about 16 credit hours left… It’s a long story I’m not going to go into it.

4. I’ve mentioned it before but i’ll do it again for the sake of new readers. I work in the cosmetics industry. I love my job. I love the products, I love the people, I love gathering information and testing things out…. You know what I hate. Urban Decay eye shadow. I know how could I? They have cute (read: contrived)  names, they have amazing pigmentation, they have colors you cant find anywhere else (and have to buy a whole $60 pallet just to get that one color). They also have the worst fallout in the industry. I understand there is a trade off. High pigmentation means a good bit of fallout. But UD is next-level, so-much-graffiti-on-your-cheeks, you look like that chick from guardians of the galaxy fall out (that was a throw back color, do they even make graffiti anymore? god I’m old). Yes they make primer, and they sell a lot of it because of this, and yes it helps… sort of… but eye shadow should stand on its own and even with primer you get stupid amounts of fallout. sooooo…… just go buy some MAC or Stila… except kitten it has just as much fallout (but it’s so damned pretty it’s worth it)… ok my product rant  is done… i apologize.

Regular programming should resume shortly

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That thing I should have done two weeks ago

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Yes, I’m finally getting around to writing my post for the Liebster award that CaliforniaFlour graciously awarded me with. I’ve been putting it off and making excuses, but mostly I’ve been trying to make it perfect. As a wise person once said perfect is the enemy of good so I’m just going to go for it.

A bit about how the Liebster works first. There are variations on the rules which you can find here. But essential it is an award given to bloggers by bloggers. It’s pretty simple. You have to answer questions posed to you by the person who awarded you, you then award other bloggers of your choice (preferably people with a low subscriber count, depending on the rules you follow 200 or less) then you ask them questions in turn.

So First things first let me answer the questions posed to me by CaliforniaFlour.

  1. Do you live in your hometown/ would you ever move back?

    I’m a military brat so I’ve never really had a “home” town but I’ve been in my current city for a very long time and would consider it my home. I do love it here.

  2. What choices brought you into your current occupation (or life stand point if you don’t have an occupation)?

    I currently work in the cosmetics industry… a bit odd as I didn’t even wear much makeup five years ago but after seeing the things you could do with it I decided to try it as a hobby and then just fell into it as a career

  3. Where can you be entirely calm and at peace, away from the world? Your nook.

    My nook is curled up in bed with a book

  4. Will you share an idea that can help humanity leave a smaller footprint? (There I go again with Wall-E)

    Make old things new again. If I think I can find something at a thrift store instead of newly made then I would much rather buy it there. My desk, and my dining chairs are prime examples but I like to do that with a lot of my décor too. Also use tea towels instead of paper towels. That’s been standard practice in my parents’ home for as long as I can remember.

  5. What small thing makes you smile every time?

    My cat J

  6. What is your drink preference, be specific? Wine or Beer, if non alc. than your “go-to”.

    I’m not much of an alcohol person but in true (adoptive) southern fashion you can’t beat an ice cold, fresh made, lemonade.

  7. Do you advertise your blog through other social media sites such as Instagram, Pinterest, or Facebook?

    I have a facebook for TinyBows https://www.facebook.com/Ittybittytinybows (you can totally like it if you want J ) I do have twitter and Instagram but have never gotten the hang of them and I’m on pinterest as Tiny Bows but it’s a lot of personal pins (just things I like and ideas for future projects and makeup looks) mixed in with pins from my blog

  8. How long does it typically take you to make a post, from idea-to-submit?

    It varies a great deal depending on the post. Sometimes I’ll write them a good bit ahead of time and just schedule them to post automatically but generally I’ll do my project on Monday or Tuesday write on Wednesday or Thursday then post on Friday or Saturday.

  9. What is your comfort food?

    I don’t really have a go to but I do love to make (and eat) my apparently famous chicken alfredo… and mac and cheese… and Dublin coddle(oooooh I know what’s for dinner tonight now)… and peanut butter cookies… darn, I see some food blogs coming up, of course CaliforniaFlour got me on that.

  10. Pajamas and delivery all weekend or hit all social spots?

    I’m a super home body, I basically live in my pajamas if I’m not working.

 

I’ve only been doing this blog thing for about six months so needless to say my subscriber count is low. In fact I had no idea anyone was reading my blog let alone reading it enough to award me with something. So this is pretty awesome… but the number of people I’m subscribed to is rather low as well since I’m so new, so the awarding people thing has been rather hard for me. I’ve only managed to scrounge together seven people with “low” (high by comparison to me) subscriber counts… Then I threw in a couple of others that I just adore… simply because I love their blogs and look forward to reading them every time they post anything, also because they are very active in the blogging community and very interactive with their subscribers and in their comment threads.

So here are my awardees

SweetSassyMolassie : Cross stitchery and Miscellaneous Curiosities (Cross Stitch, need I say more!)

Project Patrol: Always on the lookout (wonderful DIY home projects)

Half priced Hippie: Clean eating, Clean living (also there are random shenanigans)

DaytoDaywithM&A (Thrifty finds and yummy food and just day to day stuff)

HippiewithAHipProblem: Makeup, Motherhood and Medication (also sooo much M.A.C.)

LetsFaceTheMusic: Renovating an old house by a musical couple who want to spend the rest of their lives there (jealous of this house)

Aroon Melane: Fashion, Food and Beauty (and wonderful Outfit of the Days)

ByLauren Haley: Madness, Sparkle and Creative flare (The best blog about navigating the world as a young woman with an unseen illness)

FoundThisPaintedThat: Decorating solutions for the dollar challenged (one of the first blogs I subscribed to and still one of my favorites. She has actually already received a Liebster so I’ll just link you here)

Now on to my questions for my awarded bloggers, which despite having so much trouble finding blogs to award has actually been the hardest part. Do I ask the deep questions? Do I ask shallow question? So how about I just sit down and write and not worry about it… that sounds like a plan.

1 What made you decide to start a blog?

2 Who, or what is your biggest blogging influence?

3 How do you decide what to write about?

4. When did you start blogging/ how long have you been blogging?

Ok enough blogging questions

5 Where is the best place you have ever been, vacation, restaurant, museum, etc?

6. What is the best dish you have ever eaten?

7 What is your biggest fear?

8 What is your hidden talent?

9 What is your biggest accomplishment?

10 what is your favorite time waster? (be specific: mine is either cross stitching at the moment… or borderlands… borderlands is going to win at time wasting tonight)

I have to thank CaliforniaFlour for awarding me with this again. You should definitely go check out her blog, be prepared to get hungry. And please go check out all of the blogs I’ve awarded and for that matter who they award it’s a way to find new things to read and for blogs to find new subscribers. I’m hoping ill find some more blogs to follow with this post as well. I found some to follow with CaliforniaFlour’s post (unfortunately all of them had already been awarded lol). So please comment and like and maybe even subscribe if you like my content. It’s the only way I know that you are out there.

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Spring Fever

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Update: I would like to thank everyone for their readership, likes, subscriptions, and comments. ProjectPatrol won this giveaway and I encourage everyone to get out there and check out her amazing home improvement DIY projects. I would also encourage you to check out CaliforniaFlour (yummy food and easy DIY decorating… peppermint bark need I say more) and DarlyDarly’s wonderful outfit of the day and beauty tutorial blogs.

It never fails. When stress gets to me I get sick, and so it is again.

I said I would have a blog post up about how the lovely CaliforniaFlour awarded me with a liebster but here I lay in bed Sunday morning with no motivation and lots of cough syrup in my system.

So instead I’m going to do a quick post on what I’m going to be doing while im laying in bed sick.

A few weeks ago I “attended” an online jamberry party and placed an order with them. Now I’m obsessed. As someone who’s job it is to be judged on appearance I’ve always fallen a little flat where my nails were concerned. They are short and thin, brittle and pealing.

When I can be bothered to paint them paint lasts about a day, even with a good base and top coat.

 I’ll stick to nude polishes because this is what they look like after two days of using immense amounts of alcohol, hand sanitizer, makeup remover, glass cleaner, various creams and oils.

But then these lovely things came into my life

I don’t normally get over the moon about products. Generally because it may work for me but that’s no guarantee it will work for you. Such was the case with the fragrance I reviewed… I might like it but everyone’s nose is different. However, these are… And I can’t over state this… Amazing…

No one is paying me to say this, no one gave me free stuff to say this… I just like it. The picture above was my first try at putting them on it went surprisingly well, and super easy.

These are my current set. I’ve had them on for over a week in this picture (and they are still on now) as you can tell the added strength the wrap gives my nails has allowed them to grow out. And no it doesn’t damage them at all when I finally take them off.

At any rate I thought I would share all this information with you guys in case you’ve been on the fence about them as I was before I was invited to a party.  If you happen to brows Jamberry and want to order anything you can do so through my party here.

I also figured I would do a little give away to my readers, I have a couple accent sheets I would love to send out to someone. All you need to do is leave a comment on this post telling me what your favorite TinyBows post of the last 6 months of blogging is.