Dash it all!

This weekend I finally got fed up using the dremels we have in the salon and decided to buy my own. For some background: We use the cordless, rotary dremels with the sanding attachment in the salon to  "grind," aka file, dog's nails. It makes them shorter, smoother, and there's less of a chance of quicking them (cutting too far and making them bleed). Well, the ones in the salon get dropped all the time, don't get charged regularly enough, get over-worked, and are basically garbage. Tonya recently decided that groomers need to buy their own (just like they do with everything else) but that the bathers could continue to use the ones PetSmart owns (just like we do with everything else). However, I do so many nail grinds on the weekends and I was just so tired of futzing around trying to find a charged battery and a head that actually works on high and low. So, I decided that I was going to use my tip money and just buy my own- they're only $20 at Wal-Mart anyways. I present, my dremel!

Since it's mine, I can horde it, not let anyone else use it, and make sure it's always fully charged when I go in to work. I figured it was also a good investment anyways since it could come in handy for other sorts of artsy/theatery projects and all I would have to do is buy the proper attachment for the job.

I also finally returned my watch that didn't fit. :( It was double sad because I just wasn't thrilled about any of the other watches they had at Target and couldn't find one to get to replace it. I wandered around the store for a while and saw that this hat was wicked on sale and decided to buy it as a consolation.

It's fun and colorful, which was basically the point of the watch. It is just slightly less functional, and I'll probably still be on the lookout for a fun, colorful watch. I wore it today, though, and I'm enjoying it very much.

After watching so many of Kandee's videos where she uses contouring, I decided I needed to get myself a darker "bronzing" powder to contour with, since I already have lots of options for blush and highlights. I poked around a bit and realized that one of the drugstore brands she was advocating called e.l.f was wicked cheap and sold at Target. I also discovered that they sold the Burt's Bees Citrus Facial Scrub I've been planning on buying for less than Wal-mart. So it was off the Target yesterday after work!

I got a couple random things, like a reusable bag that fits nicely in my purse and a little blue, tin bucket to put my cotton balls in. I also got this ADORABLE teal watch that tragically is just a little too small when I took it out of the packaging, so I'm going to have to return it. :(

And of course I got the amazing Citrus Scrub which smells like Christmas when you're using it!

As far as make-up, I splurged on a navy blue eyeliner from Rimmel London because a) I had a coupon and b) my old blue pencil is being really wonky and unusable. Then I had fun in the e.l.f section and got a black liquid liner, cream blush, and a dark powder for contouring. I've been meaning to get a liquid liner, since I feel like it's a staple I should probably have and it's also much easier to do winged liner with, which I've been dying to try out. A cream blush is also something I've been toying with the idea of getting, and it's triple the fun, because you can use it on your eyes and lips too. I may end up using it mostly for a highlighter though as I got a very pale color. I agonized forever about which powder to get, because I wanted to make sure it was dark enough to make a difference, but not so dark that it shouted, "Rachel's trying to contour!!!"

The two things I didn't get which I'm going to go back for is a set of brushes and one of their cream eye shadows. I was torn on which color to get of the eye shadow when I was there, but after looking at the colors from the convenience of my computer, I've settled on pewter. As to the brushes, I was initially going to buy the set, but it's out of stock, so I'm going to have to buy them separately and that took more sitting in front of the computer.

It was a great day for make-up, though I'm still tragically sad about the watch being a bust because it is SO CUTE.

In which I take a walk.

I've been feeling rather sluggish and out of shape recently, and since the weather has been nicer, I decided to go on a walk yesterday. Roger Williams Park being close, that is of course where I chose to walk. However, instead of the normal way I get there (down Elmwood Ave. to the main entrance) I decided to get there by going down Park St. and in the back of the park. The problem being, I didn't actually bother to look at a map before I left home and so I had no idea where the park actually intersected with the street. At one point, I started wandering off down the side of Route 10- not a good idea! Luckily, I had my very smart phone with me and I google mapped myself. I was able to figure out how to get to the park and was able to take quite a nice stroll (stroll is misleading- I walked quite fast so as to sweat and get my heart rate up). I took this picture about a third of the way through my walk.

I also took a more "artsy" photo of my shadow as I was walking, but the angle of the sun etc. made me look like I had huge hips/legs and a tiny upper body/head. Not pleasant. So I decided not to put that one up on the interwebs.

After consulting my phone a few more times, I was able to find my way north through the park and to the main entrance. I then went home along Elmwood (all uphill unfortunately). It was a nice walk all in all and I hope to continue to take more of them. Today is back to being cold, though, and it is much harder to motivate myself to go on walks when it's below 50 degrees out. :( The other downside of my walk was that I had a very early, labor intensive work day today, so now my body is all tired and sore. But I guess that's sorta the point. I'm a weakling right now and I need to get back in shape so that if I do end up working summer stock I can actually pull my weight without feeling like I'm going to die.

In other news, it's a no go on the Rocky Hill job. According to Maureen, "they just hired the first person they could," and apparently that wasn't me. :(

Work, work, and more work

Mike and I have had a crazy last few days. Friday, Saturday, Sunday I had my regular shifts at PetSmart being a bather. Very messy days to put it delicately. And then Monday, I not only had my regular 6am-12pm stocking shift, I then drove out to Newport to help Mike et al load in a show for Island Moving Company at Rosecliff. We were there until after 9pm. Tuesday, I went out there again to lend a hand, followed by inventory Tuesday night. And of course, inventory ended up being one of those really long ones and we were there until just after 5am. Whew. Then I slept a lot. :)

Yesterday was all about applying for different jobs. First, I had to get in my app for Theater at Monmouth's summer internship program. They don't pay much/at all, but it seems like a really wonderful theater that I'd be able to learn a ton from. But of course their application deadline was March 1st, the day after all the crazy workness, so I had to hustle last night to get it done. Also last night, I had to fix up my non-theater resume for Rocky Hill. Apparently one of English teachers left mid-year and they need to replace her. All her classes have been picked up by various faculty, but the ones covering her two American Lit classes can't keep doing it and they need someone who can come in and just do those two classes. So they asked Maureen if I'd be interested, seeing as they've already interviewed me once for basically that job. It's a good way to see if it's something I'd actually like doing and a sort of on the job interview for a possible position next year. But we'll see, she had me send her my resume and I haven't heard anything since. No idea if they put feelers out to other people, how much they'll pay, etc. I'm very nervous about it since it's not like anything I've ever done before, but that's not a bad thing. And, depending on how it goes, it'd let me drop some of my hours at PetSmart and open up more time for theater, which is definitely a good thing.

So yes. The past week has been all about WORK! And now I should really be applying to more summer stock, but I need a break! Just one night maybe?

5 Loads of Laundry and a Chrstimas Tree!

I was pleasantly productive yesterday and part of today. I got five, yes five!, loads of laundry done yesterday. Three were human laundry and two were piggy laundry, per usual. This of course meant that I also cleaned their cage, vacuumed, etc. Today I cleaned the bathroom (and got all the shelves super white!) and the humidifier. The humidifier was DISGUSTING. Tons of build-up. I think I haven't cleaned it since we moved here, and the water here tends to have more gunk in it than the water did at Maureen's. Which resulted in a lot of ew.

The other thing we did yesterday was finally get rid of the Christmas Tree. I know, I know, it's almost March, but we just hadn't gotten rid of it yet! We missed the curbside tree pick-ups (and would have had to take all the tinsel off- no thanks!) so we figured we'd just throw it in the dumpster for the apartment. But, we knew it was going to be really annoying to get it out of the apartment. And it was. We got pine needles EVERYWHERE. In the spare room, in the kitchen, on the stove, in the building's spare room, in the downstairs hall, on the stairs, in the upstairs hall, and in the vestibule. So then once we crammed the tree into the dumpster we had to go back and sweep up/vacuum all the common spaces. And then all of our spaces. And then pick the pine needles up off the stove. It was a lot of fun. Um, not. But it smells like pine everywhere now!

In other news, someone in the building got Indian food last night and it really made me want Indian food. :(

Hay!!! *happy dance*

I finally got the hay for the piggies today. I was a little nervous because I agreed to buy it without actually know what kind of hay it was (I just specified that it couldn't be alfalfa, it had to be a grass hay). And then, when I got it from Emily tonight, it was bundled in a bag so that it wouldn't get hay all over the car, so I couldn't actually see the quality of the hay. Well, once I got home I cracked open the bag and it's amazing! It's green and soft and fragrant and (I presume) delicious. I'm so excited! And it was only $10!!! Also great, I was able to plop it right into the empty box my last order of hay came in.

Can you tell I'm excited?

At last! Organization.

I've always been fond of make-up, as I feel that it is like personal art. Some people don't make much of a statement with it, but it truly can be an expression of you and how you're feeling. I love doing lots of fun and crazy things with eye make-up. Because of Lilly's job at Clinique, I got some better quality make-up recently and got back into really playing around with my make-up. That, plus discovering Kandee's blog and youtube channel, inspired me to reorganize my make-up to make it easier to use and encourage me to branch out day to day. Up until a week ago, I kept all the make-up I used most in this bag:

On the right was all the eye shadow and colored eye pencils, and everything else was on the right. I had another make-up bag that held the stuff I hardly ever used. This worked out great for traveling, or when I used to not be able to do my make-up in the bathroom (college, living at Maureen's, etc.). But after seeing one of Kandee's videos where she talked about how she organized her stuff when she was doing a tutorial, I realized I needed to do an overhaul. Meet the new and improved make-up storage:

I have a jar for implements, one for eye liner, one for mascara, and one for lipstick. Some of the extra stuff is in little Clinique bags. Then all my eyeshadow, foundation, and blush etc. are in the rectangular containers. Soon I'm going to get a nice glass jar for the cotton balls. Irony is, I've been sick and off-work the past couple days so I haven't had a chance to use it yet, but I'm still very excited about it. :) It looks much prettier and I'm hoping it will be much easier to find/use everything when it's set up this way.