Knitting Projects

I love knitting, but I secretly hate blocking my projects. A lot of it has to do with the fact that I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing when I block an item. I have put off sharing a hat I made last spring because I still have yet to block it. After finishing two other projects in the last couple weeks, I decided just to photograph it anyways.

First thing I knit was another tea tote. I'd sadly lost the blue one I made several years ago (with lots of tea inside it!). I kept hoping it would turn up, but it has not, so I big the bullet and made a new one.

Posing with a tea bag.

A few tea bags stuffed inside. This bag could have used some blocking, but I knew I was going to overfill it, so there didn't seem much point.

 Next up is the hat I made last spring, which needs to be blocked so that the pattern really pops. Knowing me, I'll probably just wear it like this anyways. Ravelry page for it is here.

It has a lovely pointy almost floral pattern to it.

Front and side views of the hat:

Finally, I decided to whip up a nice big, chunky cowl from some yarn Maggie had given me. Sadly, the two skeins I had weren't enough and I had to hunt down a third. As you can see, the colorway of the third skein was not at all the same. But, I decided I could live with it.

One of the reasons I chose this pattern in particular is that it's supposed to be the right size/shape to comfortably wear as a hood/snood. This was sort of a trial run to see if I like having a cowl with a hood, as there's one or two patterns I'd really like to make, but I wanted to make sure I'd actually wear them before I put the effort into making them.

So that's what has been going on in my knitting world. Right now I'm trying to plug away at my socks and ignore the siren call of mittens and leg warmers.

Fruit and Coconut Popsicles

There's nothing more wonderful on a hot day than a frozen treat. This has been a particularly hot summer (that is regrettably still not over yet!) so I've been eating a lot of ice cream and popsicles. After going through my second box of fruity popsicles from Trader Joe's, it occurred to me that I could probably make my own pretty easily. One of the reasons I'd been eating popsicles in particular is that there tend to be more non-dairy options. I love me some ice cream, but my lactose intolerance does not. I dug through my Evernote stash of recipes and found two that both used coconut milk and frozen fruit. Then I picked up a couple of popsicle molds from the dollar store and went to work!

Fruit and Coconut Popsicle ready for consumption!

The combination of the coconut milk and fruit is delightful because you not only get a sweet, fruity pop, but the coconut milk adds a lovely creaminess and texture. My first batch of pops I made following the instructions from this recipe exactly: Frozen Coconut Creamsicles. I did as they suggested and blended the coconut milk and fruit together so they didn't look as pretty, but they tasted great. The next time I made them, I also referenced this recipe: Berry Coconut Milk Ice Pops. The addition of the spices was a good idea, I thought. So, after a bit of taste testing, here is my perfected recipe for Fruit and Coconut Popsicles!

Fruit and Coconut Popsicles
Makes 8 popsicles
1 can coconut milk
2 cups fresh or frozen fruit (I've stuck to berries with good results)
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons honey
dash of cardamom (to taste)
dash of cinnamon (to taste)

Popsicle mix ready to go into the freezer.

1. If you're using frozen fruit, measure it and let it sit until it defrosts and comes closer to room temperature. This makes it easier to blend into everything else.

2. Put the coconut milk, vanilla, honey, and spices in a blender. Blend until combined and a little frothy.

3. Add fruit to the blender. Blend well. You don't want any big berry chunks.

4. Pour into popsicle molds. If you don't have molds, dixie cups with popsicle sticks will always work.

5. Let freeze for at least four hours.

6. Enjoy!

They're super easy to make and oh so delicious. I learned the hard way the first time not to try and blend the honey with the fruit, because the cold just makes it gloop up and not blend. I do like the blender only method though because it's quicker and less of a mess than heating up the berries and sugar on the stove top.

Hope you like these popsicles as much as I do!

Opening Night Make-up Look

Opening night for a show is always a chance to dress up, which usually means it's also a chance to do something fun with my make-up. The show I just opened is Sondheim's A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to The Forum, a farcical musical comedy. In our version, we've highlighted the wealthiest character as always wearing gold and also having gold coins all over his house. I used this as the inspiration for my eye make-up.

Since it had to get me through the whole day, I started off by doing a something a little more subtle. I did a base of Maybelline Eye Studio Color Tatoo Metal 24hr Eyeshadow in 65 Gold Rush, with a bit of gold powder eye shadow, wet n wild Color Icon Shimmer Eyeshadow in C30 Golddigger and Sephora Collection Colorful Eyeshadow in No 72 Movie popcorn, on top to set it. I then lined my upper lids with e.l.f. Essential Expert Liquid Liner in #4210 Copper. I smudged a tiny bit of a black-brown liner on my lower lids just to define them, and topped it all off with some mascara.

After the performances, but before the opening night reception, I quickly added some black wings with the e.l.f. Essential Expert Liquid Liner in #21706 Charcoal and highlighted the inner corner of my eyes with e.l.f. Essential Jumbo Eyeshadow Stick in #21631 Little Miss Thing. It turned out to be a nice dramatic look that was pretty simple to accomplish.

Here are a couple photos of the finished look I snapped when I got home:

Close-up of the eyes. The camera washed out the look a little bit.

Look of the full face (lipstick is gone in this photo).

There is also now a photo up on Facebook of me looking impossibly tall next to the rest of the stage management team for the show.

From left to right: PA Chelsea, ASM Maegan, SM Rachel (me!), Sub-SM Lauria, Waredrobe/PA Jess

Outfit of the Day: Black and White

I got a lot of compliments on my outfit today and it was particularly fun, so I thought I'd share.

A little blurry, but I think it was because the mirror was dusty.

I'm wearing my new skeleton leggings (got them here), a shirt dress I've had for so long I no longer remember where I got it, and a bandanna that was a bargain buy from Walmart. I was also wearing my new black boots that you can't see, but which helped finish off the outfit with a tough edge.

Super comfy and it looked like I actually put some effort into getting dressed, which is always nice. Wearing a bandana like this is one of my new favorite things because it's just the bandanna with the help of two bobby pins and not only does it look cute and get all my hair up, but it also hides third or fourth day hair if I need it to. (Today was third day hair.)

The Care and Keeping of Makeup Brushes

Despite the fact that I have been too busy (or sometimes unmotivated) to blog, my page views keep climbing and I have now passed 8,500 views! As someone who mostly blogs for myself, it's really awesomely fantastic to know that there are people out there reading what I wrote. Because I haven't been blogging lately, I have quite the backlog of things I want to write about. But, I decided to do a blog today on something much more current.

I never used to use makeup brushes much, but then I bought a few e.l.f. brushes and became a convert. I find that my eye shadow looks better when I use a brush and having nice brushes to apply my face powder, blush, and highlighter makes a world of difference. While I own 15 different brushes (plus extras of my favorites), there are five that I use every day.

My favorite e.l.f. brushes.

1. e.l.f. Essential Total Face Brush : I use this brush to apply my Physician's Formula pressed powder. It gives me nice, even coverage that is easily buildable. I also use it to help clear away any fallout from my eye shadow.
2. e.l.f. Essential Bronzing Brush : So it is called a bronzing brush, but I basically use it for everything that goes on my face besides powder. I use it to contour, to highlight, to apply blush, and, if I use it, to apply bronzer. The angle of it makes it great to apply to targeted areas on my face.
3.  e.l.f. Essential Eyeshadow Brush : This is the brush I use to apply shadow to my upper lid. It's great for a subtle wash of color, or for packing on a lot of color on the outer corner. You will never apply shadow with one of those eye shadow applicator sponges once you use this brush.
4.  e.l.f. Essential Blending Eye Brush : My other favorite shadow brush, I use this one to dust color over my entire lid all the way up to my eye brow. It is also the one I use to get highlight in the inner corner of my eye and it is great at blending.
5. e.l.f. professional Concealer Brush : As someone with constant acne, this brush is a life saver. It does it's job marvelously and applies targeted spots of concealer with ease.

Honorable mention: e.l.f. Essential Smudge Brush : I do not use this brush every day, but it is the most used of all the rest of my brushes. I use it to pick up concentrated color and pack it over my liner. Sometimes it's just to reinforce whatever color I put down, other times it's to change it (like putting hunter green over brown).

There are of course so many different companies that make brushes, in every price range, but I love these because they are so affordable and effective (you can purchase all 6 brushes I mentioned for only $8!). Whatever brushes you choose to use, these shapes/sizes I think are highly useful.

As a brush owner, you are supposed to keep them nice and clean. First, because you don't want yesterday's product on your face, but also because over time, bacteria will build up on them, and no one wants to put bacteria all over their face. Now, I will confess that I do not clean my brushes as often as I should. After I use them, I always give them a cursory clean on a tissue or towel to remove the excess product, but I rarely remember to deep clean them. The reason I avoided it is because I found it to be so annoying and time consuming to do. Well, no more! I happened to see a "cheap trick" that absolutely works!

Presenting, Zote soap! It's a Mexican laundry soap and it is AMAZING. You can buy it on Amazon, but go to Walmart- it's only a dollar there! Cleaning your brushes with this is the easiest thing in the world. First, get your brush wet (avoiding the farrow- where the bristles go into the brush). Then swipe it along the soap to get some on the bristles. Swirl it in your hand so that it suds up. You can swipe again if needed. You'll see all the product come out in the suds. Rinse. For my larger brushes, I put a little bit of soapy water in a dish and swirled it in that before getting more soap on the brush and swirling it in my hand. For some of the really, really dirty brushes, I'd swirl, rinse, and swirl again. Once they're clean, gently squeeze the excess water out of the the bristles and let dry. It's best to dry them with the bristles down so that water doesn't get up in the farrow and make the bristles fall out. I solved this by pinning my brushes to a wire hanger with clothes pins. Worked like a charm!

Isn't that so simple?! Get it wet, get it soapy, rinse, dry. Done.

I found this so much easier than the oil + dawn method and much more effective than any of the brush cleaners I'd used. You should absolutely go out and buy a bar. It's one dollar and it will last you a very long time.

Super fancy hanger + clothespins drying rack. Always dry with bristles down.

Warning: It does have a very light fragrance, so if you're sensitive to fragrances, you may want to do a spot test with the soap somewhere before you use it. However, my brushes rinsed very clean, so I don't think much soap, if any, remained on the brush anyways, but better safe than sorry when dealing with your face.

Ruby Red lips that don't move

All dressed up with somewhere to go.

Last night I went to my first ever Feb Club. It's a Yale tradition centered around Seniors having parties every night in February. It has since expanded to Feb Club Emeritus, where Yalies across the world get together and have parties throughout February. The Boston Feb Club Emeritus this year was on the last night of February at The Vault, a cool bar downtown that's in an old bank building. I had initially wanted to wear a dress, but I decided it was too cold and not worth freezing my butt off. I still wanted to make a statement, though, and a red lip was an easy addition to my work look that would elevate it. I also wanted to make sure my lip color would last the night and that I wouldn't have to worry about it rubbing off while I drank or ate.

My solution was to layer two different lipsticks. I started by applying CoverGirl Outlast Lipstain in Wild Berry Wink 440. I love this lip stain; it's what I wore for my wedding! It is a nice, vibrant red and, once it dries, it does not move until you take it off with a make-up wipe. Why didn't I just put this on and call it a day? Well, I've found that when my lips aren't super healthy (chapped, dry, etc) it can go on a little patchy. But I had a feeling it would make a great base and help whatever I put on top of it go the distance. I put on two coats of this, letting it dry thoroughly after each coat.

Snuggled in a blanket on the couch.

On top of the stain, I layered L'Oreal Colour Riche Lip Liner in Always Red. It is a bit of a deeper and truer red than the lip stain. I've had great luck with this lip pencil's staying power on it's own, which is part of the reason I chose it instead of one of my other lip liners. When I applied the stain, I was very careful to stay within the lines of my lips. With the pencil, I allowed myself to overdraw just the tiniest bit, especially on my top lip (which is quite thin).

The result was a long lasting, vibrant red! Just for fun, I took a picture after coming home and eating a late-night snack. I paid zero attention to not smudging my lipstick, but it hardly moved at all. Clearly the combo of the lip stain and lip liner is a winner!

Happy (Snowy) Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day from snowy, snowy New England. I've totally lost count of how many snow storms we've had. Another one just started, and there's a rumor there could be yet another one a few days after this one is over. We were already at around 60 inches of snow for this winter. There is snow EVERYWHERE.

Anyways, Happy Valentine's Day from my red lips to you! Stay warm, dry, and safe!

Apologies for the messy hair and blurry photo. My camera phone has not been cooperative lately.

On my lips:
Beautique Lipliner in Real Red 7142002 (Sally Beauty for only $2.19)
N.Y.C. Ultra Moist Lip Wear in 308 Retro Red (Total steal at only 99 cents from CVS)