The Christmas Pie Post

You've read the title. You know what's coming. Ok listen. This is what happened. Right after Christmas time I went into a food coma and then promptly started a diet in January. You probably know the story because you are such a loyal reader. So I just, you know, couldn't risk writing a whole post about pies because I was in such a FRAGILE state.

Its fine now though, so in honor of SUPER PI DAY it's time to show you how the Christmas pies I made almost three months ago turned out. I made four pies for Christmas day. The first and best pie was the Spiced Apple Pie with Fluted Round Cutouts. Guess which one is mine.

  

Here is the Chocolate-Pecan Pie which actually turned out to be the same as a Kentucky Derby pie. Who knew? It's a ton of sugar plus a ton of corn syrup (liquid sugar) plus chocolate. I think it needed to be cooked much longer because the chocolate chunks never melted. This pie was very disappointing. IMO.

 

This pie was actually not on the 25 Perfect Pies list. It's called a Vanilla Bean Cream Pie and I made it in the spirit of Christmas per my little sister's request. It was amazing. Now one place I did screw this pie up a little bit was I mixed up this crust with the pecan pie crust. If you look above at the pecan pie crust might look a little dark. If you look below at the vanilla bean pie crust you will see that it is a little light. That is because one of the crusts needed to be pre baked and the other did not. The pecan pie crust was basically already done before it went into the oven for the pie filling to bake, and the vanilla bean pie crust did not have to be baked after I poured in the pie filling. Luckily the extra light pie crust turned out ok. Like I said, the filling was awesome. Thanks Liz.

 

Lastly we have Alexis's Sweet Potato Pie. This pie was good, but most people at Christmas seemed disappointed that it wasn't a pumpkin pie - including me. As you look at it on the fork on its way to your mouth, based on the way it looks, you expect the spices and flavor of pumpkin pie. But the flavor of sweet potato is much more mild, and the pie just falls short for something that looks so much like pumpkin pie. This pie was actually so unimpressive, I don't have a picture of it by itself. In the photo on the right you can see the sweet potato pie in the background of a photo of the real star of the day - spiced apple pie.

    

Oh, and also I made this gingerbread house!

Thanks for putting up with this insanely late post. You are the best.

What Do You Call A Week-Long Hobby?

I think you could call that a project!


Behold last week's project: The type A person's dream makeup case.

Okay. Now that you've seen a picture of it, you can probably guess what my project was. I decided to change the way I organize my makeup. My existing system was good except for everything was put away and out of sight, so most of it went unused. I know this organizational "solution" won't work for everyone - ie: those with way more makeup than me or those who prefer a more organic storage solution. Aka: SLOBS. For me, this is a solution to specific makeup concerns I am/was having:

1) I own a lot of makeup and end up using maybe 10% regularly
2) Using makeup "regularly" to me is like once a week on date night, maybe
3) I've been getting acne like a 13 year old recently that I want to cover
4) I have the desire to wear a light amount of makeup more often to look a little more alert and put together
5) I already have/had an organized system for makeup storage, but the "out of sight, out of mind" principle applies heavily here
6) Packing makeup to go to my boyfriend's house once a week is getting annoying

About two years ago I was working with a woman at the Nordstrom makeup counter on an easy daytime look. Turns out a 30 step morning makeup routine is not right for me. Who knew. As I was checking out I saw the makeup planner. Jesus. It was like OCD love at first sight, but I had already committed to purchasing way too much makeup, and this planner was/is on the pricey side, so I resisted.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago, and something reminded me of this makeup planner. Not sure why I thought of it, but a fire had lit under me. I started looking at planners and planning for my planner. I planned on what colors I would buy if i ran out of eye shadow - this never actually happens. I calculated how many pages all my makeup could fit into. I had to choose a size of planner too. A small one would be nice, but I had decided one of my goals was to hold as much of my makeup as possible in this planner so I could use more of it more often. Long story short I chose to go with the mid size planner.

From left to right you can see the small, medium, and large cases. They have been scaled to the same size, but if you look closely, you can see a difference in the amount of makeup each can hold. Also each case can hold a certain number of pages according to their product descriptions.

So once I was done obsessing over which planner to buy I went to the mall with my friend Meghan. We stopped at Sephora first, and this excellent makeup artist there recommended this Laura Mercier concealer for my acne coverage. She said when covering raised or textured (scabby - let's be real here) imperfections its best to go with a very hard, tacky product for coverage as opposed to a creamy formula. This concealer gets mixed on the back of your hand with a makeup brush to warm and blend the two colors of the product before you apply it to your blemishes with a tapping motion. Next we went to Nordstrom and I actually ended up buying this product there because I like my Nordy Notes (Nordstrom credit card rewards). Sorry, Sephora.

After shopping we went to The Cheesecake Factory for dinner AND cheesecake. YAAAS.

When I got home I was dying to assemble my makeup palette, but there was one problem. I've never "depotted" makeup before. That is how you get your makeup out of the container it came in and put it into a magnetized container to live forever. The Trish makeup comes ready to drop into your planner, but I don't want to use just Trish makeup because it's expensive and I already have a ton of product. So I made a new rule. I would depot and add all my current makeup into my planner with the goal of using it up before ever buying more. If you're like me... actually using up anything is rare. I'm flaky like that. Usually before a product gets used up I've either forgotten about it, gotten a new one, lost it, or it was stolen by an elf named Liz.

After watching a handful of youtube videos I felt ready to attempt to depot makeup. I decided to start on the cheaper makeup first and see how it went. I started with the top left and top middle palettes you see above. They are both Maybelline eyeshadow quads that I don't think I've used since high school (no lectures on bacteria safety, please), so I felt like if I ruined them it was no big thang. 

It was actually surprisingly easy to depot them. The worst part was cleaning off the glue that was stuck to the bottom of each one. Then I went for the bottom right, which is a sample of highlighter called Mary Lou-manizer made by The Balm I got from Birchbox. That was a cardboard container, and since depotting often involves an open flame, I needed to come up with a different strategy. I ended up just ripping the cardboard apart to free up the highlighter. No problem. 

Next was bottom middle, which is also a sample from Birchbox. It's dark brown MAKE eyeshadow but I use it to fill in my eyebrows. The MAC blush on the bottom right was relatively easy to depot as well. Then I went for the CARGO eyeshadow at the top right and unfortunately those pans were not made out of metal with magnetic properties, so I had to glue little magnets onto the backs of them. No big deal. Lastly I went for my Laura Mercier concealer that I had just purchased, and it was also a success, although now that I was an expert, I got a little overzealous and bent one of the pans. Great.

So you might think my projects stops there. You would be partially right, because I did too. Over the next few days I used my new makeup case every day and was loving it. However, the one thing I was missing was all of my fabulous lipsticks. I usually only wear lipstick if I am going for a bright, dramatic look, so I really only have bright, dramatic lipsticks. Here they are below. Since watching all of those depotting tutorials, I also came across strategies for paletizing your lipsticks too. Of course, I had to do it.

So basically your lipsticks start out looking like the picture above. Standard stuff. Then you twist them all the way out of the tube, chop it off, scoop out the stuff still in the tube, and put the nub you chopped off back into the tube. It's very simple. Some people cut off the lipstick and melt it down like crack on a spoon and pour it into the awaiting wells. This was too complicated IMO and I liked that the method I went with resulted in my lipstick tubes remaining useable. The photo on the right is the lipstick tube after being... harvested. The photo on the left is all five of my chosen lipsticks in one portable compact. Sweet convenience.

So here is what my planner looks like zipped up. I put it next to a tube of lube for reference. Jk I know its a jar.

This is what the planner looks like when I first open it.

The zipper pouch is removable, which is nice but I wish it had velcro because the darn thing falls out a lot.

Oh and I forgot to tell you, I got a second page later in the week for more of my makeup. I depotted some bright mac eyeshadows (that I will never wear) when I heard that you can trade in 6 empty MAC containers for a free lipstick. I have 5 so far.

Here are both of my lovely palettes.  

So yeah. I feel like I accomplished a bit with this project. For one, I pacified my extreme desire to get this darn makeup case. It cost $73 and another $20 for the extra page, which is why I put a lot of care and effort into stocking it the way I did. I also wore makeup to work every day last week - which was nice. Then I used it at my boyfriend's house over the weekend - also very convenient. However this week I have only just taken it out of my car today from the weekend. I'll do better next week.

I always do.

When a Puppy Meets a Puppy

These are pictures of our 11 month old border collie puppy, Jordan meeting a 10 week old english setter puppy, Jake.

Enjoy!

Take Yourself Out of that Little Box

A woman posted in a facebook group I'm in about a "new" thing called Orthorexia Nervosa. Long story short, the article she posted was grossly biased and it had me going back and forth between telling her so and not saying a thing. Normally when I am torn like this I might ask myself why I'm so conflicted, or why I even care.

In order to know why I care, it is important to let you know what Orthorexia Nervosa is. If it kind of sounds like an eating disorder, that's because it is. In short it's when your drive to eat "right" gets to a level of obsession where it's affecting your quality of life. 

Where it gets sticky is what the word "right" means. Eating right is just another word for "whatever your motivations are" and that could be anything from eating fully raw, to eating paleo, to atkins, low calorie, low fat, low water, low chocolate, etc.

This is all important to me because I generally err on the side of obsessive with a lot of things. My mom has called it "an addictive personality" but I really think it's just a love of control and wholeness. When I'm not dieting I am obsessing about food, when I am dieting I'm obsessing about food. When I've made a decision to stop using shampoo, the number of days I've gone without becomes a small measure of worth. My ability to stick to something is at stake. When I am in a store and there are multiple colors of one thing, I want ALL THE COLORS. At work when there is a pile of fresh notebooks - I need one. I need one every time there is a fresh pile of notebooks until I have accumulated 16 blank notebooks in my office.

I'm not one of those people who are like "There's this thing about me that only I have and it's very rare." If this is happening to me I'll bet its happening to a lot of people, so I'm thinking you might be able to relate in some way. I think a lot of disorders out there are magnified versions of general human instincts. It's normal to want all the things - it's not normal to act on it every time and then drown in your own stuff. It's normal to want chocolate cake - it is not normal to bathe in it. It's normal to bite off a hangnail if you don't have any clippers around - it's not normal to chew your fingers till they bleed. Are you picking up what I'm putting down?

Anyway, those behaviors can be scary when they get that point, you know, the one where it's affecting your quality of life. Sometimes I can get like that, and in the past I have been to a point of acting out dangerous behaviors. No bueno.

I eventually did reply to that facebook post. I didn't mention that the article was a crock of spit, but I basically said that Orthorexia Nervosa is really not that far-fetched a thing. Then guess what I did?

I washed my hair with shampoo and ate a cookie.

+/- 21 Days of Exercise

Well I've spent the last four days on struggle street when it comes to my 21 days straight of exercise. Saturday was the first day this whole time that I REALLY wasn't feeling it. I honestly never actually feel like working out (which you probably know); but this day I was on a different level. I call this level "bargaining" and we'll talk about that later. On the bright side, I made it 12 days before even considering an alternative for the day's planned workout. 

So Saturday, even though I had all the time in the world to work out, clean my room, brainstorm Etsy store ideas, write to you right here, etc. I chose to do none of those things, and I watched Marco Polo on Netflix. ALL. DAY. I knew I had a responsibility to myself to work out. Up until this point I had relied on the feeling of having "no choice," but something that day changed and I started going over my options. I was BARGAINING with myself.

"I didn't work out yet."

...

"Well, I could skip."

**deep breath**

**exhaling "Obviously I can't do that."**

"If I skip I will have to write about it and tell people I skipped."

...

"I could lie."

"For what? Lie to who?"

"It's kind of nice out, I could go for a run."

...

**eyes pan to the window, looking outside from my warm bed**

...

"It's not that nice."

"Well what counts as exercise?"

...

"I could do the 10-minute ab workout on the dvd."

"Ok ten minutes is not bad."

"Well neither is thirty minutes, but that's somehow too much today."

"10 minutes is not as bad as 30 minutes."

"I'm doing 10-minute abs."

**walking to the basement**

"Ok, well tomorrow is yoga and if I do 10-minute abs today, which is easier than dirty thirty, and I do the cardio tomorrow, it will be like I just switched days."

"Ok that works."

So I worked out for 10 minutes and went about my Saturday night into Sunday afternoon plans, and guess what happened Sunday night.

BARGAINING. 

I'm sad to report that on Sunday my lazy side was a sneaky bitch and she got her way. Meaning, I didn't work out. I missed a day.

Then Monday I had an after-work-thing and Tina (sneaky bitch just got a name) tried really hard to convince me to not work out again. Luckily I had come to terms with my missed exercise earlier that day by talking it out with myself and coming clean to my coworker (she's also my only confirmed reader - I know because she usually reads my posts while I'm in the room).

Confessing that I had experienced failure, and knowing that I was now going to have to write about failure, kind of took the all or nothing attitude out of my... Failure. I am okay with calling it that too, because technically the goal was 100% adherence and I didn't make it. I'm passed the days of lying to myself. I'm okay with over 95% adherence though. My pass/fail assignment has just become a classic percentage grading scale and I'm still getting an A+.

So my massage is scheduled for the 17th and I am going to still reward myself for 21 days of exercise, with one skip and an extra day tacked onto the end. My last day is the 15th, so I can work out the 16th and get my massage the 17th.

All in all I have learned a little something about the balance of an all or nothing attitude. A lot of times I really, truly do need to start off super rigid with my goals, or Tina will knock them right out of my hands. (Tina needs structure or she will act out.) Eventually though the all-or-nothing can hurt me if I do make a mistake. Basically I have to bluff to Tina and hope she doesn't realize I've bluffed until we are half way through to completing a goal. At that point in time some of the rigidity can fall off and I can ride the I've-come-this-far wave to the end of the goal.

Next time we talk about the 21 days of exercise we'll know. We'll know if I have conquered my irrational inability to stick to an exercise regimen. We'll discuss what my next steps are, and if I feel like a habit has been formed after 21 days.

In the meantime I may update you on Project No Poo. Until then.

Daily Exercise - Week One Accomplished

This weekend I found out I have two more readers than I thought I had. Shout out to the O'Learys!

Ok, so I've hit a milestone... One week of exercising EVERY DAY. Ta da. I worked out for 7 (now 8) days in a row and I'm ready to celebrate. The celebration is right here, with you, right now.

So here is a weekfull of glitzy stars for my weekfull of exercise. I can't believe I am going to say this, but it was worth it. I actually feel good. Could it be possible that everyone was right about consistent exercise? Is it doable? Is it *gasp* rewarding? Maybe one day I will even grow to like it... 

Annnnd I just realized I didn't tell you about my REWARD I planned for getting through 3 weeks of working out everyday.... I'm going to get a massage. I meant to tell you that in my post last Thursday (about the daily exercise) but I forgot to add it when re-writing the entire thing. Long story.

Anyway now that it's been a week and I'm a fitness guru, I'm sort of feeling like its silly to reward myself for only three weeks of working out with a massage. What next? Do I get myself a castle for 3 months of daily exercise? It's hard to ignore how much the promise of a massage (not a fitter, stronger body) has dragged me this far in the process, so I think I'm going to have to let it happen and worry about the next steps when they come.

I think the reason it's such a big deal to me is, well first of all, I'm succeeding at something I've never done, but also I'm attributing all of this seemingly effortless and amazing will power/motivation to the promise of a massage. This may or may not be the real reason for the success I've seen, but what if it is? I am afraid that without placing a light at the end of whatever tunnel I build for myself next, I might never get through.

Luckily, I have you to share my hopes and dreams and fears with. 

P.s. My hair is greasy as hell tonight.

No Poo for You

Alright, it looks like I might be attempting to go "no poo" pretty soon. I have had dandruff from hell for the last 5 or more years, and my fine hair gets overly greasy after 24 hours. No Poo is a hair care method that seems to be relatively new (or maybe just new to me) where you stop using standard shampoo and conditioner and you replace them with baking soda and apple cider vinegar (respectively) until you can stop using products altogether. Or you can just go cold turkey.

Reasons I've gathered for somebody to go No Poo:

- you have a hair or scalp abnormality you are trying to fix (me)
- you prefer to use less chemicals on your body (sort of me)
- you want to save money on shampoo and conditioner (hey, I'm in)
- you like a challenge (sure)
- its trendy (okay)
- your friends are doing it (soon to be you -- jk)

Here's more info on going no poo. This is my entire resource on the matter!

So basically I just need to get some baking soda and apple cider and mix them with water in the following ratios (from the link above):

They say that even if your hair is normally very oily, that it could very well be because regular shampoos are stripping your scalp of natural oils and it is overcompensating. I can get on board with that theory. My current method for taming my dandruff is T-gel which works pretty well, but my scalp then becomes very dry and itchy in the winter. I'm willing to try mostly anything to get my scalp to calm the F down.

Two more things:

- The greasy transition stage is apparently different for everyone. Some people might have no problem, but if your hair is usually greasy after a day you might have a more difficult time adapting to the absence of shampoo. I am going to try it, and as long as the greasy look doesn't get too awful I will try to push through.

- As I understand it, the baking soda and vinegar mixes are meant to just get you through the initial stages of going no poo. I don't think they are a "forever" shampoo and conditioner replacement, but I don't see why you couldn't keep using them. You don't have to be a hero unless you want to be.

I'll let you know how long I last!