How to make our own tinted moisturizer

I love my mineral makeup, but lately, it's been looking pretty bad on my skin by the end of the day. I need something that wears better, even if it disappears my the middle of the day. I really like TMs, especially the Cover Girl Smoothers one, and wore one today and was much happier at the end of the day with the look of my skin. I do like less coverage too, so I was reading a review on makeupalley and the reviewer mentioned that she maded her own tm. I found the ehow and wikihow articles on how to make them and it really worked.

Ingredients
Olay Complete SPF 30 moisturizer
Everyday Minerals Original Glo in Ivory.

Obviously more mmu in relation to lotion will give you a heavier finish. i used 2 squirts of Olay and used 2 shakes of the mmu and mixed it in my hand until blended and smoothed onto my face and am really impressed with the finish and level of coverage. It's my skin, but a little more even. I still need a undereye concealer and a little facial concealer on a couple of areas and its a bit shiny, so I'll cover it with either EDM Silk Dust or EDM Natural Reflection Fair. Yep, I am impressed and I just used makeup I had sitting around. I think mixing it with a moisturizer does give me a better finish than applying it dry since the powder can sometimes highlight my lines and make my pores look more noticable.

Makeup today and the first wearable muslin

I realized today that I like to think about makeup and what I'm wearing and I like to compare my coloring to that of others and find out what colors work for other that might work for me. So anyway, today I washed my face with Garnier Fructis Detoxifying gel cleanser and used 10% BP and Eucerin Calming SPF 15 face lotion. I used Oil of Olay Age Effect Eye cream too. This is my typical day routine and its been keeping me pretty acne free since I stopped the Tazorac for reasons I will NOT get into. Oh, and I used the Monistat Chaffing Lotion as a primer. It really does make the makeup last longer and go on smoother.

Concealer: Loreal Age Perfect yellow concealer and over it Revlon Age Defying Cream Concealer in light and over that is the now discontinued Vital Radiance Age Spot concealer in medium. I find that without the Age Spot concealer, I get a weird raccoon eye effect and with it, it just looks a little yellow.

Foundation: Mineral Basics in Light-Medium. This is a pretty awesome color choice for me and it doesn't sink into the pores or lines until late in the day, but the product is a bit expensive... Over this is the Finishing dust from Mineral Basics.

Mascara: Loreal Featherlash in True Brown. This is a nice natural looking mascara, it can clump a bit, but doesn't smear by the end of the day like NYC Lengthening does (although that one looks awesome and natural at first).

Eyes: I used a cougar brown WetnWild eye pencil on my brows. I used Jane gel eyeliner in brown and for eyeshadows I used Rimmel eyeshadow in Delicate Rose and ELF gold eye shadow and Meow Cosmetics Marroon loose eyeshadow.

Blush: I used the Everyday Minerals Natural blush and NYC Mosaic Blush in Pink Glow.

So here's the Muslin of Vogue 2354

and here's a closeup...

I don't think I'll do this one for the graduation dress, I like it, but it highlights the hips a bit too much, lol.

Graduation Dress

So graduation is August 8th at 4 pm in Denton and there's a reception afterward. I haven't received my tickets or information yet, but I looked at the site and they say they don't send that sort of stuff out until 3 weeks prior so I shouldn't get it until next week. This gives me plenty of time to diet and sew something. I've narrowed it down to 3 dresses.

Vogue 2354 (a vintage vogue)

An old McCalls pattern like this vintage vogue

and this modern Maggy London Butterick 4657.

So now I'm starting the muslins. I've got 3-4 weeks until the ceremony, so I've got time to make up a wearable muslin and then buy some nice fabric to make the graduation dress in. I've already cut out the 40s style one from an old dark blue sheet and I think I will sew it tonight and see how it comes together. The Mccalls will wait until tomorrow and this weekend, I will do the Butterick. Then I'll decide which one I like best and then buy some properly nice and summery fabric. I'm thinking something pastel, like a lavender or light yellow, or maybe something with a bold print. I think I may even go to Golden D'or to pick it up since they have quite a variety of nice and reasonably priced fabric. I do miss the fabric area in Seoul sometimes, now that was variety, but didn't make up for the less savory aspects of that country for me. sigh.

Sewing and a Job Search

So I continue to look for a job and sew. I just added this nifty toolbar to the lefthand side so you all can access my latest reviews. I suppose it's more efficient that way.

Now about the job search. My problem I think is that I like too many aspects of librarianship. My first love was public libraries, then I worked in an archive and loved that, then worked with a public library as a VISTA and decided I liked that better. Then I worked at Eastfield and decided to go for academic libraries. Sigh. I am sort of too malleable. There are many pros and cons to the various types of traditional librarianship. (Ya'll will notice, I'm totally not looking at Corporate, Law, or Medical librarianship.)

Academic
Pro: Lifelong learning environment, 2nd Masters degree encouraged, pays the best on average for starting vs number of positions, lots of vacation, looks good on the resume
Con: heavy competition for positions, hefty interview process, can be a bit boring when helping a class on a project and they all want to look up the same thing, not the most room for advancement, usually one role (IE systems, aquisitions, reference, cataloging), answering to the college

Public
Pro: Lots of positions, room for advancement, can be exciting depending on who oversees you, variety of tasks, variety of places, the public, reader's advisory, working with local organizsations, newsletter, speaking before groups
Con: Low paying, doesn't look as good on the resume, lower paying, lack of excitment based on your supervisor's perception of your ideas, the public, not many opportunties for reference, answering to local government

Archive
Pro: Organizing things, touching history, not having to be on every day, can still organize activities, get to speak before local groups and can still put together something like a newsletter based on the institution
Con: No chance to work with the public, few jobs, doesn't usually pay as well, lots of minutiae, begging for collections, unpredictable level of work, not much room for advancement, the para-professionals and assistants get to do the fun work most of the time, would be good to have archival certification or degree

Well, I am most excited about public libraries. It's something I am really interested in because most of the time I am a people person. Some days I just don't want to deal with it, but others are great. I know that I eventually want to be a library director and so accepting a public library position is what I should look for. Hopefully somewhere I can stay for 5 years while I gain experience and then go off elsewhere looking for a director job. I just know that I want to be the one in charge, lol. It's strange, when I can younger, I dreaded being in charge and telling people (except my siblings) what to do. I also hated talking to strange people and I'm kinda okay with it in professional settings. I'm still kinda agoraphobic in groups when it's not work-related. Yes, I hate going out in public. If I didn't force myself to do things, I would never leave the house except for work and the occaisonal shopping trip.

Anyway, so I have just about convinced myself only to apply for public library positions until thee end of the month when I will broaden my focus again and I think my focus for the week will be on jobs in the Southeastern US, yes, I think it would be nice to live out there. I think I would like to live in a city or a small town only if within easy reach of a city and hopefully something natury like the ocean or a protected forrest. I've been applying for some more rural positions, but maybe I should stop and look only at the cities...

Bentos: The Freshmaker

My newest obsession is a bento. I saw them in Korea and I'm wanting to bring my lunch into work so I can eat more healthily and stuff. Now the point of a bento is to eat small amounts. It is automatic portion control. I bought a less than totally cute bento from ebay that will take 2-3 weeks to arrive. I ordered it on Sunday, so we'll see how long it will take until it gets here. I think I'll paint it or something to make it cuter. I really wanted pink paisley, but could only find these wacky cartoon characters and flowers. Hmmm. So until it arrives, I'm using normal tupperware sorts of things. I make thai dumpings (basically egg rolls) yesterday along with a tortilla soup without tortillas. It's basically a chicken soup with tomatoes and chilis. Yum. I also brought a dollop of sour cream. So to go with the dumpling and soup is cherry tomatoes and green grapes. So this is sort of healthy.

My rice didn't go so good and I used garlic salt in it so I can't exactly make it into rice pudding since those flavors would not meld. I accidently put the rice into the water before it boiled and I ended up with mushy, sticky rice. I tossed it with a bit of oil and will try it tonight and see how it goes.

Hmm. I also made this mini crustless quiches in foil cupcake tins. They are pretty good too. I did not however share with my family because they always complain about my cooking. So even though they kept mentioning how good it smelled and how hungry they were, I neglected to offer them sustanance. But they ALWAYS complain about my food, so I don't feel too badly about starving them. There was plenty of food to eat, just not mine.

Here are a couple of good blogs:

• http://lunchinabox.net/
• http://mmmbento.livejournal.com/
• http://www.cookingcute.com/recipes.htm
• http://pikkopots.blogspot.com/

New Sewing Patterns

So I went to Hancocks Fabrics to pick up an upholstery needle and some heavy duty black thread for my convertible top and noticed that much of the fabric was 50% off and I resisted it :smiles proudly:. It was rather difficult, but I decided to use the fabric I already own before buying anymore on impulse. The same does not hold true for patterns. Butterick was .99, Simplicity 1.99, and Vogue 3.99.

I bought...

Butterick 4985

Butterick 5214

Butterick 5209

Butterick 5178

Vogue 1042

The only one I've cut out is the 40s style Butterick 5209. I think I'll make it with the sleeves for 4th of July. Hmm, now I have to plan something to wear it to... Maybe a family picnic or we could go out to some fireworks.

Delayed Update

Everything is going well in Korea. I'm enjoying my time for the most part and am discovering some online free pattern sources because while I tried to sew without a pattern, I do like patterns. I've also found that its only .06 a copy at kinkos and it took me over 30 minutes to find the kinkos, but was easy once I got there. So my project for this week is Burda 7911, a wrap pattern that is free from Burda. I hate thye sleeves and its a bit long, but I think it will go well. I tapes the pages (printed on A4) yesterday and cut it out. Tonight the plan is to decide what modifications I want to make , like cap sleeves and shorter length and taking it in a bit at the sides, and then I will cut from my actual fabric (a green and white flowered cotton). Tomorrow I will sew it up and then on Thursday, I will do the finishing touches so on Friday, I can wear it with my jeans. I will sew the VA Museum pattern after that even though I know I wlready gave it a chance and failed. Everything deserves a second chance, right?