Friday Funnies

Red Lips

This another lip color ideas post.  For some reason now that I'm 36 I'm finally getting around to experimenting with make up. 

Guess I'm a slow bloomer.  Anyway as I've been searching for my favorite fall lip I've taken to either using this all brown Chocolicious shade, or using it and then adding the Mac Ruby woo. 

Which do you prefer?

Husband Jeans

Forget the "boyfriend jean" trend.  We've got her larger, wiser comrade right here.

Boyfriend jean says you are sexy enough to borrow his pants.  Husband jean says you've had enough of his children that you no longer fit into your own.

No matter if his legs are nearly a foot longer than yours!   Get on this trend while it's hot and you'll always have warm weather clothing despite body fluctuations :).

All About That Tile

We've been making progress through the house in all our hard floor areas.

A few people have asked for color choices and purchase info.  All our selections are from Home Depot in this house,  as we grouped it all together for a pro discount. 

Below I've got a picture of both the tile and grout.  We started with the earth colored grout but decided it was too light for the look we were going for and switched to the Tobacco Brown.   I think both match the tile well, just give two different looks.  We decided to go for the pre color mixed grout (5 buckets) in order to make sure it matches across the whole project.   For a smaller one batch project you could probably mix your own.

Homes and Introversion

Sometimes I wonder where my obsession with comfort and dwelling and sensory crave for the texture of siding and floors comes from.  Home is such a loaded word and it doesn't always make sense that one goes there in search of people.  It's dubbed as the more noble use for the term.  But this introvert doesn't seek that.

As I crawled within myself this morning to face, rail against,  but eventually absorb the newest development in my life I breathed in the denim smell of my well - worn couch.  I felt the flat stitched seams brush my cheek and knew that this house was holding me.

When we first moved in I beat it.  I could throw a punch in an empty room with the hardy dry wall simply, silently blocking my move.  My sore knuckles found they were no match but the steady house was there.  Did four walls know why the place triggered my panic or stirred up my memories?  Probably no.  But they held their solid ground without flinch.

Did it feel sorry for the smells and the damage it had in store for me?  Of course not.  Because even if it had a heart that heart knew I needed the scrubbing,  the ripping and the pounding to find my way back to meaning, anyhow.

The sun shines through these windows.   And the pipes pump fresh washing water to reset ourselves after a campout.  The laundry spinning,  the dishwasher chugging,  and the food cooling at a monotonous hum.  I am held by the structure and home in my heart.

Still I rise, One of my favorite poems

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may tread me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise. 

Maya Angelou

Front yard Fall foliage

My little guy was happy to pose with this fleeting color of the season.

Beauty is everywhere.

Speed Bumps on the road to finding yourself

I tried two possible titles in my head while thinking of this post.  One was 'Detours' on the path to finding yourself.  But in my pollyanish, hope for magic-type thinking I decided that there are no detours, or coincidences, just lessons on the way.  I will not count experiences or time during my life wasted.  I will search out what I learned.  So there are speedbumps, but the path is all a true one.

Call it a mid-life crisis (although I don't plan to die at 70) but a lot of brain, heart, and spiritual changes started for me in my mid 30's.  Now that I've been knee deep in it for a few years, I have climbed out a bit to view the changes and make some observations.  One of the things I learned at the beginning of that journey is the vulnerability to addiction or numbing that we have when we try to avoid pain.  And change is painful.  Or at least I was afraid it would be so I quickly sought out friends, experiences, and distractions in as large a measure as I could find to drown out the quiet urges of change and the beautiful stretching that was needed.

At the time I thought this *was* the change:  having new friends and exploring new topics.  Over the course of time as the newness wore off and life happened I realized the patterns I was repeating and the running I was doing in all those distractions.  Mercifully (and a little painfully) I am back at the same point on the outside looking in at those distractions, while missing them, also starkly facing the work on myself that is still here a year later.

It's painful but a cleansing sort of pain.  A courageous pain that says I am strong enough to grow, I am of enough worth to go through painful change, and I have potential to create value for the world around me.  This is what I want to believe, although I get discouraged.

I'm reading.  A LOT of reading.  And I've been mocked about my "book of the week" as admittedly many are of the self-help variety.  But while I don't subscribe to any one "Secret" or magical change antidote the multiple messages are coming together in my categorical mind and I'm vetting out the nuggets that my soul needs.  I *needed* to grow, I love (although fear) growing and I look forward to having peace about what good that enables my heart to do.

Art is Possible (in a tiny home)

I found an accent chair in a collection on chairish (cute, right?) and I've been thinking over the last week how one could design a whole room around a chair--seriously.  These things are like buttah! And I realized the connection between furniture as art and the tiny house movement I do love to follow and blog about.

ordering info

When I think about tiny house design I think about the wood I'd like on the wall or the placement of the fireplace because every object and every spot counts.  The tables, the colors, the placement of each functional item, is the ART of the tiny home.  Extra decorative objects are out of the question as is storage for some kind of rotating display.  When objects are pared down the significance and need to be useful of each greatly goes up.

I think it would be perfect right in place of that wicker chair.

One of my favorite features I'd draw into a small house design is a small but central wood burning stove.  The warmth is both real and symbolic and I like to have that central theme.  Every time I pictured this chair I fell in love with I pictured it in relation to my wood burning stove.  So that is where I see it.

Wouldn't it be bright and splashy in the glass walled room below?

How would you design a home or a room around a single object?  Leave me a comment and let me know.

Brown/red lipstick

So...I was attempting selfies this morning so I could blog about the way I found my perfect red lip color.

4 year olds like their part in a photo op it turns out so I got a twofer: a sunny pic with me and my boy and a little glimpse of the self created lip color.

Here's the secret.   I colored in my whole lip with brown eyeliner first.  Then I applied this one layer of MAC's Ruby Woo.  It is advertised as a very universally flattering red, but I was disappointed with the tone when it first arrived. 

Perhaps if your skin tone is like mine and good reds are hard to come by you'd benefit from adding some brown or black liner underneath.  Try it!

P.S. MAC lipstick is about double the price of what you'll find at the local grocery store but the texture and ability to last ALL day probably make it worth about the same when it's all said and done.  No one is paying me to say this.  Just my trial and error opinion.

Proven, Measurable ways to be Pro-life

I don't believe in gory pictures.  I don't believe in shaming.  This is why I don't believe in shaming.  Here are some helpful ways to contribute to the world to prevent child death and suffering.

Photo from the Gates foundation

1.  Vote and advocate for access to birth control for women everywhere. (Source).  An adult body for the mother and a few years of spacing can save the lives of second, third, etc. children.

2.  Work to prevent child marriages (the subsequent childbirth in immature bodies is a top killer of those children).

3.  Support adoptive and foster families.  Take in a meal.  Throw a baby shower.  Offer to trade babysitting.  Listen when they are stressed.

4.  Support feeding hungry people everywhere--whether at your local food bank, or internationally.

5.  Support causes that work to prevent diseases that kill the young and vulnerable.

6.  Be a feminist.  Studies have found that the more women are in leadership positions the more funding and attention that goes to directly improve the lives of children.

Goals for this Week

1.  Make GC meme's

2.  Finish Hardibacker board laying, and taping and sealing.

3.  Vacuum the downstairs and stairway.

4.  Add three songs to my Fall playlist (suggestions welcome!)

5.  Walk with Casey at least 3 mornings. (one down)

6.  Get all the clean laundry put away.

How about you?  I am always inspired by Money Saving Mom's goals I thought I'd join in this week.

LDS General Conference meme's

It's that time of year again.  I'll add to this post as I make them.

Feeling This

Sunday: the poem

In a fit of pain, I wrote this poem.  The last year as my faith has grown and evolved and the presence of real, life friendships has been lacking I came to depend more and more on online side-groups that discussed religious topics.  I don't regret the choice because I think it helped me grow, but it caused me a different kind of pain and cognitive dissonance.  And in the end strengthened my view that real life religious communities are good for us.  So here it is:

Sunday  by Bobi Jensen

I have nowhere to go on a Sunday,
The leaves of judgement have turned brown.
In the places of refuge I stumble,
It's all the same Scarlet Letter
    when viewed from the dirt of the ground.

There is nowhere to go on a Sunday
When faces are all you call home.
Faces that go from sympathy and understanding
to the cruel garish face of a clown.

Oh where would I go on a Sunday,
If all of the world had my back?
Would I go to a place I am calm or
the place where the sinners wear a crown?

I sold my soul for a place to have Sunday.
In the rearview it seems so pathetic.
That one day crushed my dreams
     and one day made me whole
     and one day wasn't quite what it seemed.

When I save myself it'll be on a Sunday.
I'll turn my back on belief that is vain.
I'll say no to the prickly pear reasons
to play the "Please love me" game.

I'll go where I'm needed to give.
Where my kids find that they need to grow.
Where they see from my ashes their roots take a hold,
and where "faces" aren't all you call home.

Oh God, please redeem those past Sundays.
I'm ready to find my way forward.
Wash me clean in the blood of my own demise
and let the clear water flow through to hold.

I don't think my life is just Sundays,
it's the cool wash of Saturday too.
It's the songs and the rides and the
sleep of weeknights,
And a routine love that holds True.

The Velvet Couch

I take my House Beautiful reading and perusing quite seriously--although I borrow it from the library.  So, I may get my decorating trends a month or year late, but I get them all the same.

And in my last issue it seemed that 5 out of the 6 rooms/homes featured had velvet covering the couch.  Sure, the designs, shapes, sizes, and colors varied.  But still I was surprised that a trend could be that strong that the editors would see no need for any fabric variation that month.  Not that I'm criticizing.  Pretty much it made me want my own velvet couch like yesterday.

So, I had to do some research...

Eclectic Living Room

 

 

Modern Sofas by San Francisco Furniture

 

 

 

 

Transitional Sofas by New York Furniture

 

 

 

 

 

Modern Sofas by Minneapolis Furniture

 

 

 

 

 

Transitional Sofas by Reston Furniture &Accessories Cymax

 

 

 

 

Contemporary Sofas by Lawndale Furniture & Accessories Modern Furniture Warehouse

 

 

 

Sofas by Los Angeles Furniture and Accessories ModShop - LA, OC, NY, Palm Springs & Miami

 

 

 

 

 

 

Traditional Sofas by Brooklyn Furniture

 

 

 

 

Scrumptious, right?  Which color and style combo would you pick?