Pixel Imperfect

No matter how dedicated I become to Mary Kay -- and believe me, I can't wait for a complete switch out of my entire skin care regimen -- I will always be in love with my Ponds Dry Skin Cream**. It ranks 7th in Total Beauty's 19 Awesome Face Moisturizers , above some high end brands (Benefit, Origins, Estee Lauder) and even a doctor recommended brand (Cetaphil, I've never heard of a brand more recommended to friends by derms than Cetaphil). It says you can use it during the day, but I only ever use it at night. Every night, after washing my face I use acne cream (if needed), eye cream, and then I slather this stuff all over my face and neck and massage it in. I'm pretty generous. I don't want it all to absorb into my skin, because then my face would feel dry again. I mean, I don't coat my face with the cream, but my skin feels soft, maybe even a little oily to the touch. That way, I feel like my skin absorbs the cream all night. I wake up and my face isn't o

Kind of a "things I'm loving".... Found about this on twitter . See the lovely Violet LeBeaux's Top 10! In no particular order: Mascara, Black eyeliner, Taro bubble tea, Hershy's Dark Chocolate Kisses, T-Rex Squishable (available from squishable.com. GET ONE!), stiletto heels, yoga pants, dangly earrings, cute or nerdy undies, Special K bars Also, no particulars to how I just threw these on here. They're all over the place! P.S. The jewelry is available from the In Pursuit store: http://tiffanyanne.etsy.com Spring Blooms: Iris Earrings $6.00 from In Pursuit (Spring Blooms Collection: Free shipping to US/Can, $3.00 int'l) Purple Earrings $7.00 from In Pursuit (Shipping, US/$2 Int'l/$6)

I have recently made the decision to become a Mary Kay Beauty Consultant. While I'm starting out, I'm working closely with my recruiter and my director and other ladies. My recruiter, Jenny, is someone I have known from the very first day I stepped foot on Abbey grounds. She was working for Admissions, giving prospective and future students tours of the Abbey. She was fun and energetic, honest and refreshing. That was over six years ago. She's now married and a mom, but she's still got all those wonderful qualities that made me want to be friends when we first met. The more and more I research, read, and talk about Mary Kay there more intrigued and interested I get. Let me say that about 4 or 5 years ago, when I was a waitress in Greenville, I considered working with Avon, after all, I knew I already loved the products. My mother is so in love with Avon! I met with an Avon Representative over lunch. She was kind and positive, but essentially I was to give her $10

Sometime last year, I purchased the Too Faced Decades of Glamour Beauty Wardrobe from TJ Maxx. Check out this post for some really great pix. Up until recently, I'd only used the eye shadows, blush, bronzer and highlighter. I'd loved all of them. Particularly the absolutely lovely highlighter and the Label Whore eye shadow. It's so unique! Yesterday, I pulled out the mini sample of the Too Faced Lash Injection (apologies to twitter followers. I di d not in fact use BADgal today . Don't know why I thought I was using Benefit.) I wasn't even sure if it was still usable. But the little label on side declared that I had six good months after opening in which the product was still usable. (The Period After Opening image is pictured below. Check out this link for more info about cosmetics labels.) So, I opened my mascara. The actual mascara looked okay. I took a whiff. It didn't smell funky. Sometimes mascara can smell if it goes off. I hadn't opened it before, s

I'm not sure why, but I'm completely loving having a random schedule. Last week I worked Monday-Saturday, which is unusual actually. But a good portion of it was training. This week, I worked Monday, Wednesday and will work on Saturday. Next week(21-27), I'll work Monday-Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. The week after that (Mar 28-Apr3), Sunday, Monday and Friday. And the hours range from 8-3:15p, 10-6p, or 3-10:30p. It's nutty. All over the place. But I like having weekdays off when I can go to the store and not be mobbed. I like not passing out by 10pm every night. Most of all, my lifestyle is more casual. So I'm more relaxed with this schedule. Also, if you don't follow me on twitter, I am far more active on Twitter than I am with blogging. Sorry!  It's just that, twitter takes about ten seconds.

So I tried a few new products recently with some rather unpleasant results . I was disappointed to say the least. I'm on a bit of an anti-aging kick lately. Oh, yes, I can hear you: "ANTI-AGING? You're only twenty-five!" Yeah yeah, and I look twenty. I realize. But I'm five years to thirty, and I figure now is a good time to start thinking about how to postpone fine lines before more start popping up. I have a few, but they don't bother me too much. My skin care routine, pre-kick, consisted of makeup remover, cleanser, occasional mask, toner, acne med (preventative, usually), eye cream, and moisturizer. I wanted to toss some anti-aging serum in the mix. Anyway, I got samples of Clinique SuperDefense and SuperRescue -- "of course I'll come back and purchase this fifty dollar two ounce tub" ... actually, I might if it did amazing things. Like clear up my skin completely. They're day and night moisturizers. I used both on Monday night and again

I would love to make a delightful post for right now. I really would. In fact, I've taken many photos off of my camera, tweaked them ever so slightly in Picasa -- I am no wizard, just trying to make the coloring look less yellow (I failed). And saved them, intending to upload the photos and post a blog. Unfortunately,  K-Swiss, along with Pete and Tim, is in the middle of slaughtering terrorists. Or, occasionally, being terrorists. Still slaughtering though. Uploads will have to wait until later. Today, I cooked five dishes. Spaghetti (ever so easy), risotto with carrots and broccoli*, couscous with sauteed mushrooms and Parmesan cheese, homemade mac'n'cheese, and split pea soup. Some black beans are simmering on the stove as we speak. In about 1 hour, they'll be made into black refried beans. Then we'll go purchase some tortilla chips and have a yummy snack. :-) More shocking than actually doing all this cooking (which I only did so I could be lazy for the

Okay, I get it now. Denim leggings are like my jeans that I need K-Swiss's assistance to remove at night. TMI? Too bad. I can get them most of the way off, but sometimes I need him to grab the ankles of my jeans and yank. They're really tight. And that's the way I like them. Jeggings are not just skinny jeans, they're the super skinny "lord have mercy, how'd she even get those britches on" jeans. God love 'em. I wonder how long they'll be in fashion. Now that I'm thin again (yay for no longer having to starve myself!) I really like wearing fitted clothes. I used to hide behind sweaters and baggy jeans. Or, sometimes I would forget and I'd just throw on a tank top. Then I'd see a photo of myself from that time and throw up a little in my mouth. Okay, yes. I'm sorry if you think that's harsh or wrong and "women should learn to love their bodies!!!" But I hated my body. Not because of society or fashion mags. But be

Many of you know that I have left my RuffleJob. If you are just learning this now, I'll just say it's a long story. Or rather, I don't feel like blogging about it. But know that I left the company on good terms. I wasn't fired or anything. Okay! On with the blog! I recently got a job at Walgreens. I was actually quite happy with this. I worked at Walgreens in the past and really enjoyed it. One of the things I like most now is the new uniform. When I started in 2007, Management wore gray vests, Photo wore white smocks, Beauty wore black smocks, and regular clerks wore blue smocks. Walgreens surveyed customers and found that most customers thought the different colored vests/smocks were confusing. So the uniform changed. All hourly employees would wear blue polos and management would wear woven blue button down shirts. These were issued by Walgreens and have "Walgreens" embroidered on the back, just below the neck. They are changing this again so that clerks ma

Hordes of items from the Miley and Max collection is on clearance at Walmart right now. Most of these items are downright god-awful. Some of it, however, is worth purchasing. Especially now that it's between $3-$7 -- at my Walmart, at least. Prices may vary. If you're curious, get off your ass and just go to Walmart. I wound up with three items from the collection, but I may return for a couple more. Miley Cyrus & Max Azria - Junior Skinny Twill Pants in Black At a mere $5.00, you can't really go wrong with these pants. Especially black. Who doesn't love black skinny pants? Other options are Purple, Charcoal and Taupe (actually, I'm not sure if it was called Taupe. But it was taupe-y colored). Pair these with a sweater, a boyfriend cardigan or a long-sleeved tee and boots, tall or ankle, whichever floats your boat. Add a fun scarf for a little texture. Fun, simple, flop-proof. What's not to love? Miley Cyrus and Max Azria - Junior Denim Leggings I

Mmmm.... beans and rice. So simple, but ridiculously yummy! I haven't had black beans and rice in a really long time. I picked up a bag of dried black beans at the store today, intent on making it all from scratch. I hear it tastes better, and it's better for you. Anyway, it's cheaper. So, I've got about 2 lbs of dried black beans, which is like, what?, six lbs cooked? That's nuts! What the hell am I going to do with all these freaking beans???? Okay, well tomorrow, I'm going to cook some. I'm going to make black beans and rice for dinner and also some refried black beans to stick in the fridge for munching. REFRIED BLACK BEANS! WHAAAT? Well, what, you think I'm going to go out and buy pinto beans when I have TWO POUNDS OF BLACK BEANS just sitting in my cupboard? TWO POUNDS? Clearly, I don't cook that often. I'm also going to make homemade flour tortillas! It looks super easy: just cut shortening into flour. Add some water. Mix. Knead. Let sit.