Sweet Meadow Farm Adventure!

My piggies are spoiled. You probably knew that by now, but if not, here is some proof for you. On Friday, I drove an hour out to Sherborn, MA to pick up pellets and hay for the boys. Specifically, I drove to Sweet Meadow Farm. I can get pellets and hay in bulk from them which is so amazing. Not only do they LOVE the pellets and hay from Sweet Meadow (like, really. Neal nearly refuses to eat any other pellets), but it's also so much more economical to buy them in larger quantities. The reason why I drove out there is that it was cheaper to drive the 2 hours round trip than to pay for the exorbitant shipping. Anyways, here is my excursion in photo form.

This is (part of) the view when you drive up to the farm. Lots of paddocks and stables. And of course, a couple horses.

This is the 40lbs of hay in the back seat of the car.

Lovely, soft, green Timothy Hay.

Neal and Mozzie go right in to get a taste.

If you were wondering, this is what 50lbs of pellets looks like.

Hay and pellets all over the floor when I was done putting it in better containers for storage.

Bonus photo of Jack being a shoulder pig since he wasn't in the other photo.

Yarn! + My Trader Joe's Addiction

Go away, I'm sleeping.

I swear, Mozzie was sleeping like this almost all day today. He was like this when I left this morning to go help Lauria, he was like this when I got home, and he went back to this as soon as he was finished with veg.

Not to be derailed by cute piggies, today we dyed some more yarn for the "Year at the Farm" Sock Club and packaged up all the dry yarn we had died yesterday. This was our dye set-up:

Silly sun ruined the photo.

In the pot on the left was some yarn we died for Julie since we had some extra dye we couldn't use for the sock yarn. Like I mentioned yesterday, dying yarn reminded me a lot of dying eggs. You get your water and add some vinegar to get the pH balance correct. Different colors of dye need different pHs. Lauria said that normally you want to start with cold water and heat it up slowly with the yarn in it for the best result. We wanted something a bit different for the sock club yarn, though, so we actually started with warm water. Before the yarn goes into the dye, you have to soak it. It helps the dye saturate more evenly. We then measured exactly how much dye we put in so that we could make sure each dye lot was fairly consistent. Once the yarn is in, you slowly bring it to almost a boil. Then, depending on the color, you may need to let it cool in order to finish soaking up all the dye. Once it's done, you pull it out and gently squeeze the water out of it. We used the washer to get some more water out before hanging it to dry. All in all, though a process to be sure, it was actually fairly simple. I can't tell you anything specific about how it turned out, but it was LOVELY! I really am proud of both the colors we've done so far. 

When we ran out of yarn to dye and package up, I helped Lauria with some other Juniper Moon Farm related stuff. I got to help her name three of the fall yarn lines. It was really fun but also really hard. There were some colors we just stared at forever and had no idea what to call them. That's usually when we called in Julie to help us.

After playing with yarn (okay, for some of us it was work, but it felt like play) I ran up to Nashua to pick up my new glasses and popped into Trader Joe's. Mike and I may have a teensy weensy Trader Joe's obsession. There's a few things that we really love getting there. One of them is almonds. Specifically, the Dark Chocolate Almond Bits. They are AMAZING. If you have a Trader Joe's by you, then you MUST go out and buy some of these stat!

Food of the gods. Crunchy, chocolaty, and delicious.

Another thing we've been getting a lot of at Trader Joe's is salsa. We go through a lot of salsa. Mostly for nachos, but also on other Mexican food. Today I picked up three different kinds of salsa:

My favorite in the middle :)

On the left is one that Mike really likes, the Double Roasted Salsa. It's very tomato-y, but not chunky, and fairly hot. The middle one, the Corn and Chile Tomato-less Salsa, is my favorite. It's very sweet, but with a nice bite. The one on the right is a new one for us to try. It's supposed to be medium to mild.

I also impulse bought these at the register:

A big wallop of ginger for your taste buds.

Every time I go into Trader Joe's I think about buying these. Today, I finally did. And I'm so glad I did! They're the size and shape of Altoids, but they're not minty at all. They're just delightfully spicy and gingery. I love ginger, which is part of the reason I got them, but I'm also hoping they'll help settle my stomach on the T. I have ginger chews that I usually eat on the train, but it seems silly sometimes to eat them on the T, or they're too hard to get to. So these seem like they might be perfect. Even if they don't work for that, they're really tasty.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I must admit, any holiday that features food moves it near the top of my favorites list. The only thing better is when it's food AND make-up (ie Halloween). All that to say, I really love St. Patrick's Day. It is all about food and drinks (well, I mean, not really, but for someone like me, that's basically what it comes down to).

All that St. Patrick's-y goodness ready to pop out.

I got up early this morning to start the corned beef and make Irish Soda Bread for breakfast. I'd already spent a good chunk of time last night prepping all the vegetables for dinner so that Mike would be able to throw them easily when it came time for them to go in. [You can find my recipe for Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage here.] We had such a huge brisket (almost 6 lbs) that everything just barely fit into the crock pot.

The reason why I had to have Mike put all the vegetables in was because I was off helping Lauria dye the next quarter's Year At the Farm Sock Club Yarn. I can't tell you about the colorways we've been working on, but I am loving them all so far. Lauria had me help with the actual process of dying yarn this time which was really fun. It's surprisingly similar to dying eggs. Just, more yarn-y. ;) Depending on how tomorrow goes, I may talk more about the whole dye process, without any spoilers about what colorways we're doing for April, May, and June.

I showed my St. Patrick's Day pride today by wearing my shamrock socks, a green shirt, my shamrock necklace, my green St. Christopher medallion, and green mascara.

Sock! (I forgot to take a picture until they were off and dirty.)

Unfortunately, the green mascara would not show up well in photos. To tell the truth, it doesn't show up a ton in person either, but it's still fun.

More green swag

I had a nice stout with my dinner of corned beef, but I decided to make a special green cocktail for St. Patrick's Day. I saw the recipe online a few days ago and, because I had everything on hand, I figured it was worth a try. The Nest calls it a Captain Nemo; I modified it ever so slightly to make my life easier, but the contents (and result) is the same.

Delicious green cocktail

Captain Nemo
3 parts Triple Sec
1 part Blue Curaco
4 parts Sweet and Sour Mix
1 part Orange Juice

Shake with ice and strain into a glass. I don't have any fancy stemware, so I just poured it into a rocks glass but you could drink it out of whatever you like!

I'll probably drink something with Bailey's in it too before the night is over, because I can't let St. Patrick's Day pass by without drinking some of the Irish cream I have in the house!

Three Random Beauty Looks

This post has no particular direction, other than the fact it is very broadly about make-up. I found a draft hanging out and because it was from so long ago, I have no idea what I intended to say about these looks. The first two looks were in the post and then I added the third because I found the photos on the computer and, again, have no idea what I was going to say about them.

So, this first look seems to be from sometime before Seminar opened (second week in September) because my hair is still pretty long.

Rocking my straw fedora.

A lovely bronze eye.

This next set appears to be from during Marvelous Wonderettes (in July). I can tell because of the costumes in the background!

Not sure what I was trying to showcase in this photo. But this is the sweater I almost always wear backstage. I got it super on clearance at Old Navy for $3 the summer I went to Williamstown (2012).

And now I'm going to smile at you!

Another bronze eye, but much less warm.

And these photos say there are from mid-December. I have a strong suspicion that I used the Maybelline Eye Studio Color Tattoo 24HR Cream Gel Shadow in Tenacious Teal (which I reviewed here). It seemed a shame to let the photos of such a colorful look to got to waste, even if I don't remember anything about it.

Wearing my birthday sweater!

Close-up: eyes open

Close-up: eyes closed

And that's your random hump-day post!

Beauty Review: Wet n Wild Mega Liner

I have been loving the winged liner look for almost a year now. I do it with shadow, with pencils, and, most often, with liquid liner. Lately I've been branching into colors other than black and charcoal. Which is why I made the wet n wild Mega Liner Liquid Eyeliner in 862A Indigo Blue one of my impulse purchases at CVS the other day. (You may recall the other thing I bought was the wet n wild Fergie Eyeshadow Primer.) I've already worn it twice since I purchased it and I must say I do really love the bright indigo blue. I took a few pictures the last time I wore it to include in my review. I kept the rest of the look fairly understated to let the blue really do the talking.

As I said, I do really love the color pay-off of this product. And the price point ($3) is pretty hard to beat. And, despite not being the "waterproof" formula," the liner stayed put. It didn't smudge or transfer at all when I wore it and it took more than water to remove it at the end of the day. I would at least consider it water resistant. Unfortunately, it was a little difficult to apply. The tube and brush is nearly identical to the e.l.f. Essential Liquid Liner, but it doesn't go on nearly as smoothly. After struggling a little bit with it, I realized that the issue was that it dries really quickly. This may sound like a good thing, but in fact it would start to dry on the brush as I was applying, making it difficult to get a nice, clean line. So, on the one hand, you don't have to worry about it getting everywhere while you're applying it, but on the other, you really have to work fast each time you take the brush out of the tube. I certainly don't regret this purchase by any means, but I probably won't buy any more of the wet n wild Mega Liners. I'll stick with the e.l.f. Essential Liquid Liners.

New Haircut

I gave you a sneak peek in my last post of my new haircut. Here's another, slightly better photo of my new 'do.

I went fairly short again and also went back to my preferred red. Rather than go to an expensive salon, I just went to good old Super Cuts. And I have to say, I like this cut just as much, if not more, as the one that cost twice as much. I asked for a chin length bob, with layers, fringe, and lots of texture. Here were the two images I brought with me to help explain what I wanted:

Found here

Found here

As always, I'm having to figure out what products to use and how to style my new cut. I have yet to discover the product that gives me exactly the right piece-y, touseled look, but I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually. In the meantime, I'm having fun playing with all my different options. And I must say, I really do love having my hair nice and short. Everything is just that much easier. Even up-do's will be easier at this length than at the weird in-between length my hair had grown out to.

And, finally, I hit 4,000 pageviews today! I find that totally astounding. It's really crazy to me to think there are people out there who wouldn't know me from Adam walking down the street that are reading my blog. Here's to 4,000 more!

Beauty Review: Wet n Wild Fergie Eyeshadow Primer

Take on the Day Eyeshadow Primer

Last week during tech I had to run to CVS. I was a little bit grumpy about it, so I decided to treat myself to something. Wet n wild was having a buy one get one 50% off sale and their prices are so delightful that I chose to get something from them. I got their Mega Liner Liquid Eyeliner in indigo blue (edit: review up now!) and their new "Take on the Day" Eyeshadow Primer from their new Fergie collection. The consistency is somewhat like a tinted moisturizer and goes on smoothly. It doesn't color the lid much, just makes a nice, even toned base for the shadow. I've been using e.l.f.'s Cream Eyeshadow as a base for quite some time now, and while I do really like how it enhances whatever I put on top, it doesn't stop my eyeshadow from creasing. It's definitely a marked improvement over just eyeshadow, but after about 8 hours, the shadow starts to gather in the crease. Well, with the wet n wild primer underneath, I can go all day without any creases. It's amazing! I put it on in the morning under my look last Saturday, and when I got home from the cast party around midnight, my shadow was still crease free. And you really can't beat the price. At only $5, it's a bargain compared to most eyeshadow primers. This has definitely become a staple item for me.

And the other thing, a sneak peak at my new 'do!

Kathy St. George called it "sassy-fras."

Update 4/11/14: I just wanted to update this post to say that I've been using the Eyeshadow Primer for over a month now and I love it more than ever! On Wednesday, I was out of the house for over 16 hours and when I came home, my eye make-up looked just was good as it had when I left in the morning. My eyeshadow stays where I put it and I've also noticed that it dramatically reduces the amount of transfer I get from mascara and eye liner (it's eliminated it to basically none at all). And because it doesn't really take much product to cover your lid, it seems like it's going to last quite a while, making it even more economical.