Pixel Imperfect

Well, we've been trying to eat a little healthier. At the grocery store yesterday, K-Swiss looked in the cart and said, a little unsure, "There sure are a lot of vegetables in there...." I assured him there was meat in the freezer and we were not going vegetarian. Last night I roasted some chicken and carrots and put some aside for his lunch (I'm having spinach salad and some tuna). I have this super awesome Starwars lunchbox but, sadly, my lunch didn't fit in there.  K-Swiss's did! I added a sandwich baggie with two cookies and thought about leaving a note that said something along the lines of Don't trade your lunch! Be a good boy! I love you! But I didn't. However, when he left for work this morning with his lunch box and the book his reading during downtime at work, it was so cute I was inspired to take a "First Day of School" type photo. In classic FDoS photo style, his eyes are closed. I decided not to remedy that.

I don't actually wear the same makeup everyday, but on most work days, its something similar to this. Details: Hard Candy Glamoflauge in Medium under the eyes, around the nose, a touch between the brows.* Everyday Minerals Matte Base in Winged Butter, dusted all over* Blush on apples and dragged every so slightly towards temple and very minimal Bronzer under the cheekbone nearest the ears. Both from the I Dream of Sugar palette. I usually wear more bronzer when my hair is down, but I'm still not to sure about my application.* Femme Couture Cake Liner in Charcoal (I use the lighter shade) on brows*, upper lash line, and waterline Urban Decay cream shadow in Mushroom patted and blended into lid Taupy-shimmery brown from I Dream of Sugar Palette dusted all over lid Shimmery white from I Dream of Sugar Palette dusted under brows. Curled lashes and one coat of Covergirl Pro Super Thick Lash mascara* Medicated Berry Blistex on Lips Items with a star are items

Stargirl goes a little glitter crazy with the makeup: and Tiffasaurus grows some facial hair (Okay, there MAY have been booze involved)

Sorry I haven't blogged, it's been an odd week. Anyway, I just got some new fishies for my tank!!! I've had only a few Long-finned Zebra Danios for the longest time. Today I added some Golden Algae Eaters and Red Minor Tetras. Please note that the pics make my tank look a tad cloudy, but it isn't at all. Below you can see the tetras right above the rock cave, there is one golden attached to the front of the tank (near top center) and one attached to the heater (back right). The danios tend to cluster top left and then dart around the top of the aquarium. And yes, the background of my tank includes a handful of mini pin-up posters. The danios: The Tetras and one golden (he likes to hang out on the rock when he's not nomming on the walls) I love love love having a fish tank. Fish are probably my favorite pets. You've seen my betta, Dovahkiin . I'm planning on getting him a 5 gallon tank and a couple friends (there are a couple friends

I did some serious shopping over the past week and I come to you with the most amazing Collective Haul! My camera is on the fritz again, so we're just using stock photos from Google Images. :\  Details below the photos!!! from  Urban Decay : Found this bad boy on Craigslist SO FUCKING CUTE! More pics and details after the jump!

On Sunday I finished Week 1 of C25k. Outside. Holy fuck it was cold. My ears hurt so bad!! Arrgg. Also, I don't have quite enough safe space to run, so I had to double back. Luckily it was Sunday morning in the south. I'm pretty sure everyone and their MeeMaw was safely ensconced in the pews at Redbud Southern Baptist and had no means of observing me fling myself awkwardly down the street. And awkwardly fling I did. I do not like running outside. Maybe it won't be so bad in the spring, but I don't like it one bit. But, I suppose I'll keep doing it. I hear it's better training than running indoors. Week 1 was not super challenging for me. There were times when I just wanted to stop running and just finish up with a leisurely stroll, but it wasn't OHGODOHGOD I'M GOING TO DIE. It was more like, Arrhhhh! This sucks! >:[ This week we're running for 90 seconds and walking for 60. I expect this to be much more challenging. I don't normal

Last week I was running a couple errands. I popped into Walgreens to buy a few things to treat my awful chapped lips. As always, I stopped in the polish section. Sally Hansen Ice Queen caught my eye almost immediately. Beautiful silver and "holographic" glitters combined with chunky blue and lavender hexagons. For a mere $1.99, it was most definitely coming home with me. A couple days later, I was grocery shopping at Wal-Mart and, of course, stopped to check out the polish. To my surprise I saw the exact nail polish I had just purchased from Walgreens. Except it wasn't Sally Hansen. It was NYC Starry Starry Glitter. And it wasn't $1.99. It was $0.93. Well, I had to buy it to find out it they were, in fact, the same. The bottles, with flash The bottles, without flash (you can see the touch of "holographic"* glitter in here.) A swatch of each, with flash A swatch of each, without flash Can you tell the difference between th

I don't have the greatest photo to show this off. This picture was actually taken for Reddit (because of the earrings). But my makeup looks good in this photo so I wanted to talk about it.  I'm a little shiny and my blush is worn off. I've only been wearing lip balm today. But my eyes are exactly how I did them this morning and my concealer (Hard Candy Glamoflauge) is going strong. I primed my lids with Urban Decay Primer potion and applied HiP cream crayon in Authentic all over the lid. These are a bit tough to work with. Maybe it's because mine is old, but it's not super creamy. It's not dried up, but it's just challenging to blend. I topped it with a green shadow from the Coastal Scents 78 piece palette. Also used an ivory shade to highlight. Blue nameless liquid liner from a Wal-Mart gift set. Yeah, you heard me. The baked shadow gift set that sold for $10 over Christmas. K-Swiss's sister gave it to me for Christmas and had some really excellen

5 Makeup Products I Can't Live Without There are days that I don't wear a whole lot of makeup, but chances are, I'd still wear these five. A liquid concealer My go-to: Hard Candy Glamoflauge in Medium I'm not a huge fan of cream concealers. I feel like the consistency causes you to tug a bit much, which is a fierce no-no around the eye. I use concealer every day under the eyes, around the nose and over any blemishes. Hard Candy Glamoflauge is super pigmented and very intense. You need the tiniest dot to work with. It covers extremely well. In the summer time I'll occasionally mix a dash of this with moisturizer for tinted moisturizer. If I have no access to eye primer, I'll also smooth this over my lids. Face Powder My go-to: Everyday Minerals Matte Foundation in Winged Butter I prefer powders to liquids for foundation because I want a super matte finish. With EM Matte foundation I get great coverage (for my needs) and a very matte finish. I'll

KONAD GIVEAWAY! I know, right? How awesome. Apparently NailPolishCanada.com is doing a few giveaways through various bloggers. You can check out two of them below: http://whimsicalglam.blogspot.com/2012/01/konad-starter-kit-giveaway.html http://www.thethingaboutdaisies.com/2012/01/giveaway-konad-stamping-nail-art-kit.html Konading is time consuming but super fun. See loads of images of what you can do  here .

I recently discovered that Netflix has workout videos. There are 31 workouts on  Netflix ,  pilates ,  yoga ,  abs . But I prefer  dance workouts . I don't know if they are as effective, but they just seem more fun to me. Less drudgery. I've adopted one as my "WAKE THE FUCK UP" video. Morning routine: Get cat butt out of my face. Roll out of bed Feed cats* and refill water bottle** Pants off dance off Well, I don't sleep with pants anyway. I trudge bleary-eyed up the stairs and tune Netflix to Dance Off the Inches . It's super-effective at waking me up and warming me up. It's only 15 minutes and the women are, of course, annoyingly cheerful. It doesn't get me sweating and there are a couple moves that I just can't do. But it's kinda fun, especially since I like Zumba. It does a great job of waking me up. And it's an excellent distractor from the cats trying to murder each other. * Optional step: forget that Louis is in t

Yesterday my sister managed to talk me into doing a 5k with her. In TWO MONTHS. Actually, it's in 7.5 weeks. I won't be done with my damn couch-to-5k program. But I will have just finished Week 8. And the last week is Week 9. So... I mean, there is pretty good chance that I won't die. No promises. I've noticed a few things about runners. I mean aside from the fact that they're super fit. They LOVE to run. Looooove it. They don't skip running when they go on vacation. I HATE going to the gym. I mean once I'm there, it's not so bad. But I would just as well have stay at home. So, we're doing this shit now. Because I want to be one of those nutty runners by the time I turn 30. An acquaintance once told me that she wore around, I think she said a size 4 or 6 before she turned thirty. A few years later the pounds started piling on. She wasn't super unhealthy, but neither did she exercise. I was aghast when she told me this. I'd seen p

I realize that my experiences with weight is not as significant of many others. Like the people who have lost 100lbs or 250lbs. But it was extremely significant to me. ------  Starting in September 2007, I experienced a 50% weight gain. It's much more shocking to put weight into percentage points. If I say I gained 50 lbs, people will think it's a lot of weight, but they won't grasp what it meant to me. 50% of my weight. It was a lot, it was depressing and I hated myself. Although I was already depressed, so that didn't help. Finally in Fall of 2009, I lost most of the weight. My will never be the same though. This is why I've started running and why I want to be fitter. I want to have my old body back. Or something like it. One interesting occurrence: while I was struggling with my weight, I felt a weird kind of kinship with other women.  I was allowed into the club of people who were allowed to complain about their figure. I didn't even realize t

It's not the easiest thing in the world to find holographic nail polish at the drugstore. They don't come out that often. But every once in a while you'll find a couple gems. Recently I spotted these two at Walgreens. Wet n Wild's Blue Wants To Be A Millionaire and Hannah Pinktana. The collection also included Buffy the Violet Slayer and SaGreena The Teenage Witch. Yeesh! At only two bucks a pop, I had to snag these. I used Blue Wants To Be A Millionaire for my first manicure. I think it's easier to see the holo-goodness of the glitter in images without flash. With flash . Without flash   Oooh, pretty sparkles! Of course, after having a manicure for a couple days one of two things happen. Some of the nails chip or wear down OR I get bored and have to mix it up. These did not chip in the two days I had them. All my manicures have a base of Total Rx Stuck On You and are topped with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-Chip Top Co

I can't run. I've never been able to run for 30 seconds without choking. Today, I took my first step to ameliorate this deficiency. I've heard of Couch-to-5K from a co-worker who wanted to start running. "All my skinny friends are runners," she said. I'm already pretty skinny, actually, but not fit. No not at all. But I want to be! So. Running. Couch-to-5K. Right. I researched proper running form and how to prep a non-runner for running. I washed my workout capris and made sure I had a sports bra that would keep me from bouncing (I wore two, actually). I kept myself hydrated the night before. I dug out my mp3 player and loaded Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy onto it. Then, this is where things veer off from the typical: I actually went to the gym. I know, I know. Pretty exciting. Then when I got there, it looked like all the treadmills were taken. Bummer. I'll just take an eliptica-- Oh. No wait, there is a free one. DAMNIT. Stepped o

What do Maybelline Bouncy blushes have in common with my Zumba class today? 1) almost half the women in today's class wore blush colored tops. My top was Hot Tamale. The woman standing next to me was wearing Peach Satin. The instructor wore Pink Plum. 2) I forgot my sports bra today. Instead of saying "fuck it!" and going home, I just kept on the bra I was wearing. It had pretty good support, but still... Kinda, yeah, bouncy. Anyway, yeah most of the women were wearing very similar outfits today. It felt like we were in a show, what with the same outfits and the choreographed dance movies. Insert segue I realized something today about ladies at the gym. When I was younger I used to scoff at women who worked out in full makeup. Who the fuck puts on makeup to work out, I thought? While waiting for Zumba to start, I looked in the mirror and wiped away a mascara flake. Then I took a step outside of my body and realized what I looked like. My makeup was perfect, rea

Why is anorexia considered worse than obesity? If there were as many anorexics in the country as there are obese individuals, shit would hit the fan. I'm not saying that either is NOT a problem. Both are serious problems. Both can be mental issues. Anorexia is definitely a mental issue. Many obese people are emotional eaters. They don't eat because they're hungry, they eat to forget, to feel better, etc. Both cause serious health issues. Yet, no one is telling the fatties to go to the doctor or to get mental help. No, in fact we are celebrating overweight women in our country (dunno about celebrating overweight men. I haven't seen it). "Love your body!" they say. "This is the way God mad you!" Yeah, I'm pretty sure Mickey D's had a hand there. Feeding your kids french fries and Coca-cola at age four certainly isn't helping them out.

Boy, oh boy, did I ever haul some polishes over the holiday break! Sally's had a sale. Ulta had a sale. Found a few on clearance at Walmart and Target. It's nonsense. The great thing about polish is that it never ever really goes bad . If you buy some polish thinner, you shouldn't ever need to throw out any of your lacquers.  Here's some additional info on the immortality of nail polish, confirmed by OPI Director of R&D. Also, please don't use nail polish remove to thin out your polish. It can destroy your nail polish (I know, I know! I used to do it, too.) You can get some thinner from Sally's for around $3 . So, there's my justification for buying new nail polish when I clearly have plenty. But, I've been making good use of my latest finds and I haven't left the house without a manicure since New Years. I also own several fauxnad plates including the coveted Hot Topic fauxnad set , so I've been playing around with nail stamping,

A couple years ago, I used the Swag Bucks search option every time I needed to Google something. For some unknown reason, I didn't keep it up. I'd completely forgotten about my Swag Bucks account until today, when r /beermoney , a subreddit about easy ways to make small cash, was featured on r/subredditoftheday . Hmmm, well, let's try this out again. Couldn't hurt. I logged into my Swag Bucks account to find that I had almost 500 Swag Bucks! I immediately cashed in 400SB for a $25 restaurants.com giftcard which we'll be using at the Portofino's! Pretty sweet. Well I've discovered a couple ways to make some quick and easy Swag Bucks 1) Daily Polls - This take about 2 seconds to answer a simple question. You get 1 Swag Bucks 2) NOSO - These are various opportunities, coupons, survey companies. You can click through and after viewing all the offers you will earn 2 Swag Bucks 3) SwagTV - Have this running while you do something else, like redditi

My sister recently showed me draft.blogger.com and today is my first day using it. It's super clean and very nice. I'm a fan. I particularly like the "Stats" page. I love looking at blog stats, but I got tired of logging into a second site to do it. Stats didn't matter much to me anyway. However, Draft tracks everything for you! :) Looking at my MaryCommentary stats, I discovered something interesting. My DIY Pore Strips  post has, by far, the most page views: almost 19k page views. My next highest page has a little over 2k! Top five search words for my blog?  Pore Strips DIY Pore Strips Biore Pore Strips Pore Strip Nose Strip I decided to check "Traffic Sources"... Reddit. WHAT? REDDIT? Let's check this out. Someone linked to my website from REDDIT! Now, to be honest it's not a lot of upvotes. But still. Very cool. Now, let's analyze why that was such a good post. It's well thoug

My sister swoons for chivalry. I try to be a bit more independent. I don't like the idea of anyone who isn't paid to do so waiting on me hand and foot. On a date, she refused to get in the car because the young gentleman did not open her car door. She patiently stood by the passenger sidedoor as the young man got in the car, saw her, pushed her door open from the inside, rolled his eyes, got out and opened her door for her. I particularly love this story. I think he could have done without the eye roll, though. She once asked a friend if she ever ought to open her own doors and he replied " Not if there is a young man within dashing distance. " I probably rolled my eyes at that. And yet, simply from habit due to the men I was raised around and the men I spent most of my time with as a young adult, I often find myself pausing to the side of doors waiting for K-Swiss to open them. I quickly shake myself out the stupor and reach for the handle myself. If the doo

First Week: Karen and Sandra were gone from the 2nd to the 7th. It sucked. One thing I love about my office is the camaraderie. So, it sucks when you're alone. Sam got me a betta fish, though . I felt less lonely. I finished the Skyrim main quest line and began playing Fallout New Vegas again. It was really freaking cool to see how your decisions affect everyone in the Wasteland. For the record, I went Independent. I did a cheater no-kill in which I toted ED-E and Boone everywhere. I ran away while they shot people. Second Week: We were off on December 8th for a Catholic holiday. Those days are always special because K-Swiss and I are both off on a weekday together :) On my birthday, we had our annual IR office Christmas Lunch. We went to a pub/cafe thing in Cramerton. When we returned for cake, I got a cat . George is still unsure about the newcomer. George is concerned Louis might usurp her. K-Swiss was quite ill this week. Third Week: I realized I'd skipped the

Well, Tiff does a New Year survey every year. It's so neat, sometimes cringe-worthy, to go back and look at where you were this time two, three, even ten years ago. I thought I'd start doing one this year. Speaking of "ten years" this summer will mark ONE DECADE of MaryCommentary!!! How crazy is that? 2011: In The Beginning Where did you bring in the New Year? I had to go into my emails to check. I was in Belmont, NC. Who were you with?  K-Swiss, Rebecca, Nathalie and Jim. A small section of K-Swiss's Agora Band (a group of Belmont people with whom he makes music and merriment). Did you kiss anyone at midnight?  K-Swiss, of course :) Did you make any resolutions? Probably to work out regularly and eat healthier. That's the same every year. If so did you keep them? Nah. I never do. 2011: Your Love Life* Relationship Status: Had my 4 year anniversary with K-Swiss. For our anniversary (Sept 27) we got each other rings. Wedding rings, actually, but

As it stands, I work three days a week. Every day when I get to work, Chrome opens to Shuffle My Life . I click [play] and it suggest something new. The week before I left for Christmas, SML told me to buy a Rubik's cube and learn to solve it. K-Swiss and I worked on it together. He found the algorithm and we worked on memorizing it. I'm very good at memorizing. I worked until the twists and turns were second nature. I can solve it without looking at any notes now. I'm beginning to learn to solve it by understanding WHY you make the twists and turns instead of just "because". How else can you learn? Today's shuffle my life is super easy (see above image). I recommend you try it out for a while. It's a good thing to do something new every day. Shuffle My Life is my Project Enrichment.

I love having a full fridge, but I fucking hate cooking. Well most of the time. Anyway, K-Swiss did the dishes finally so I had to cook. I made a pretty sweet broccoli casserole, modified from a recipe I found online. Big pack of frozen broc and cauliflower (I think it was around 18 oz?) 2 tablespoons of butter 1 can of condensed cream of mushroom soup 1 can of condensed cheddar cheese soup A shake or two each of chili powder, garlic powder and onion powder. To taste or something. 1 cup of white rice, cooked 1 cup shredded Cheddar One or two cooked chicken breasts, chopped up. (I baked mine) Preheat oven to 350. Butter down a 9x9 pan (mine was actually 8x8x2 but whatever). Steam the broccoli n the microwave. (8 minutes) In a skillet, melt the butter, toss in the two soups and mix it all up. Add spices, rice, chicken and broccoli. Mix mix mix. Pour into buttered baking dish. Top with a handful or so of cheese. Cover with foil. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove pan, uncover