PJs at TJs 2014

A weekend in Phoenix with 20 some odd lady friends was exactly the get away I needed. When I found out I was pregnant with Garrison, I didn't think I would be able to go this year. Then I thought maybe I could handle it--after traveling with a toddler I thought an infant would be much easier (spoiler alert: I was right!). But then J got laid off & finances were dodgy, but he got a job, so I decided to register. Registration opened at the exact same time as my pre-registration appointment at the hospital, so as soon as it was over, I was frantically PayPal-ing Kelly. Thankfully Medical City was quick and I snagged a spot.

Kelly explains it much better than I will, but I love that this party is completely nonexclusive. EVERYONE is invited. You don't have to have a blog, or Twitter much, or know anyone in particular, or like certain things... well, I suppose you really should like hanging out in comfy clothes with snacks. But beyond that, it's an open invitation. But it's small. Which makes it so much less scary. You can wander around talking to everyone easily.

I'm sure I've said all this before.

So on Friday, Garrison & I headed to the airport. Other than a gate change that required taking a shuttle to a whole new terminal 10 min before we were supposed to board and then a 30 minute delay, we had an uneventful flight. I got my rental car without hassle & went to get a bite to eat & buy a car charger for my dying phone. And also some diaper cream. Switching G over to disposables for the weekend led to a horrible rashy booty. 

But G was fussy so I stopped for a diaper change. Oh. Oh boy. Now, back seat diaper changes aren't new to me, but this baby had a blow out, and apparently I was changing things mid-blow. Yeah. It was messy. Thank goodness for leather seats, ok?

Then I shopped, picked up Kammah, we drove through rush hour traffic to the party house and... well, hung out & chatted. Low key. Good food. In bed by 11. Oh yeah, it was rad.

Saturday was more of the same. Donuts for breakfast, shopping, Red Robin for lunch, trip to Ulta, then prepping for the party.

Muumuu & make-up.

Kelly had a makeup artist come & teach us tricks. She helped make sense of highlighting & contouring. First, the bronzer she choose was way darker than I would have imagined would work on my pasty face. Then she said to imagine an E & a 3 on each side of my face, starting at my hairline, then under my cheeks, then under my jaw. Ok, it was so simple. I tried once I got home & boom! I have cheekbones! 

So it was just a nice, quiet weekend with friends. Some people that I only get to see at this party. Some friends I see all the time. And people that it feels like I see all the time because we tweet all the time. I met some new people, and re-met folks that I haven't seen since the one time I met them in Austin at the only Blathering I've attended. And I wasn't pregnant! Everyone was so wonderful & welcoming to Garrison, which is one of the things that I've never really appreciated about PJs before, because I haven't needed to take advantage of the "bring a baby" (well, not on the OUTSIDE) clause. But everyone was willing to hold him so I could go stuff my face, or pee alone, or play with make up, or gaze longingly at the cake. 

This weekend is still one of the highlights of my year. I hope Kelly continues to do it for a long, long, long time. 

Naked & Chocolate

My desire for eye-shadow is well documented. There are 2 palettes that I've got my eyes on for potential holiday gifts. To myself. For being awesome.

Urban Decay Naked 3 OK, I'm not much into neutrals. I feel like if I'm going to spend the time to do my makeup, I want to see my makeup. I like colors, though after my July experiment, I'm glad to own some matte neutrals for blending and whatnot. Also, what I love best about Urban Decay are the fabulously pigmented wild colors with fun names. I somehow don't own a single UD palette however and this seems like an oversight. I've avoided Naked 1& 2 so far because... well, they're pretty, but I couldn't imagine getting much use out of them. I wasn't too fussed about Naked 3 when I first heard about it because come on! How many neutral palettes do we need? Well, for me the answer is 2. My matte one & this one. Warm pinks & coppery browns are much more my kind of neutral. These are nudes that actually seem like my skin tones.

Too Faced Chocolate Tin
Eye-shadow made with chocolate? OK, do I really have to make a case for this one? Well, again, pretty warm colors. Not just neutrals. Oh, AND THEY SMELL GOOD. That is all.

The last day of JULY!

So, I decided to go out with a bang. I saw this on Pinterest, and though the watermark leads to an unfindable blog (bowsandartsays.blogspot.com?), I still decided to brave it and attempt to recreate this. Yes, because I'm crazy, or bored, or just want to put to use all the colors I own at once.

Now, prepare yourself, because I took a lot of pictures. The basic process was: put on primer, then a little bit of each color, not trying to keep it in a tiny line. Once I had all the colors, I went back with makeup remover to clean up everything, trying to get the nice, neat, crisp little line pictured there. Then I messed it all up putting liquid/gel liner on my way-too-crinkly eyelids, used more makeup remover, then concealer and nude shadow with a contrast in the crease, mascara and forgot all about the white on the lower waterline and glitter. How could I forget glitter?!? 

My favorite primer in the whole wide world
that I found because of Brightest Bulb in the Box

ridiculously cheap Love My Lips red
 lipstick, to make the red redder

Sephora's Cherry on Top,
matte red

And so it begins

Milani blush/bronzer duo that
I use as eyeshadow,
because neither of those colors
belong anywhere
other than my eyeids

There really are 2 colors there

I really needed access to my friend
Kathleen's makeup for this.
My yellow isn't very yellowy
(top right). More gold-ish.

Getting the yellow to show up
was hard, so I used the NYX milk
pencil under it for added oomph. T
hat's oomph. Not very oomphy

I'm running out of eyelid. Also,
too much light. Sorry.

I've always been quite pleased with
this little duo, even if I don't wear
poison green eyeshadow often. 

Cream eyeliner 

Finally looks like a rainbow

For an inexpensive palette, I love
this thing. The colors are pretty rich
and with primer, they last all day

ROYGBP

Next step: makeup remover, applied very carefully with a q-tip and toilet paper (not pictured).

Not quite as thin or crisp
 as I'd hoped
Story of my life

Then I ruined everything with this eyeliner: 

I got it all over my lashes, which created quite a mess. There was more touch-ups and reapplying and touching up and then re-re-applying and then I put on Kat Von D's tattoo cover-up concealer, MAC's Yogurt eyeshadow (which is as close to my skin color as I've yet to find), some Clinique blush in Mocha Pink as a contour, Tarte mascara, my Urban Decay brow box powders and called it good.

Then I went to the grocery store. Because why the heck not?

Are you sick of my eyeballs yet?

Day 23: Naked & purple-ish, in The City

So, I did all the same stuff as the day before, but I added this fantastically sparkly purple shadow that was a sample called Cuddlefish from Fyrinnae.com. Super fun colors and a really easy way to try lots of colors for not a lot of money. Check it out. Buy stuff. Then tell me all about it. Anyway, I didn't do much blending, and it shows, so you know, there it is. Things look better when I take the time to do it right. Who knew?

Day 24: Actually naked, due to exhastion
So, we spent Tuesday running around San Francisco and the day was wonderful. Unfortunately, I wound up with an overstimulated, overtired baby at the end of it who woke up every hour-ish, as though she were a wee tiny infant again. No sleep for mama means I spent all my free time trying to nap with her, not putting on makeup. However, she was adorable in her bunny suit eating a Pop Tart.

Day 25: More Hello Kitty
This little shadow quad is wonderful and I finally decided to try the dark sparkly brown in there. It's got gold glitter. Looky.

It turned out ok, not as scary dark or sparkly as I thought. I added pink from my MAC Briar Rose blush because... I was bored. So in pictures it looks very... charcoaly on my face, but trust me, it was brown. Glasses on my head is the new look, as I couldn't be bothered to try to find them if I put them down. Also, dude, I have freckles.

Day Whatever Am I still doing this?:
MOAR PURPLE!! This purple is so sparkly, which just doesn't come through in pictures, but I love it. Now, to really get the full effect though, you have to use a primer/base of some sort. Like this (picture from Twitter a long time ago):

Also, I stopped after braiding half of my hair to do my makeup apparently. Good for me.

Day 27: Grey & Black, again
Same dress, same look, different stuff.

Day 28: Just mascara with smudgy liner
I couldn't be bothered this day. Just couldn't find the energy to do more than this. Then I cried a lot saying goodbyes to my family, so putting mascara on was a GREAT idea.

Day 29: HOME AGAIN!
So, good thing I'm home, because my luggage didn't make it on the same plane I did, and so all my makeup was being held hostage. Well, all the makeup from my trip. Which is fine, because I was getting bored of that stuff anyway. So I tried to use 2 shades of brown and wound up with a monochromatic mess. Blech. Maybe I should go back on vacation.

Day 30: Green on green, Avon failure
So, I have this neat eyeshadow/eyeliner combo thing in a pretty springish green that I like, and the shadow always looks really neat when I test it on my hand. And then I put it on my eyelids and guess what? It's not nearly so nice. This picture was taken AS SOON AS I finished putting everything on. The shadow (which is creamy in the tube, put on with a lip gloss style applicator) is already creased and fading and practically gone. Boo. Hiss.