Beauty Tuesday pt 2

I was very excited when I first heard that Benefit would be coming out with their own skincare line, and after it was premiered I was mesmerized by the beautiful packaging they came up with. I haven't had a chance to try any of it yet, but I'm hoping I will soon. The b.right! Radiant skincare line pretty much covers everything and more!

Eye cream to help get rid of those 'not enough sleep!' dark circles, an ultra moisturizing face cream, face wash and scrub, moisturizing toner lotion, re-hydrating mist, make-up remover and even an SPF!

Moisturizing is a #1 for me and more than anything I really want to try their face scrub and face cream.

I hope at some point they will have a full kit available with everything in standard size. Macy's is offering a kit with a few key mini's and if the promotion lasts long enough, I'll hopefully be able to get one.

Have you had the opportunity to try it yet? What are your thoughts on the skincare line? Do you have a particular favorite in the line? Please do say so in the comments!

xGinax

Music Monday

From the first time I heard this song I was in love. I've always been a big Christina fan and her voice never disappoints. So much soul and beauty. And I loved it even more after seeing Burlesque and seeing her on the stage in that gorgeous green gown, and you could feel her vulnerability. Not only can the girl sing, but in my opinion, boy can she act too!

I hope you enjoy "Bound to You" as much as I do.

xGinax

Fashion/Beauty Friday

The decision of what to feature today was made easy by the gorgeous Kate Middleton, now Duchess of Cambridge.

To be honest, I'd grown irritated by the insane amount of coverage on the impending nuptials of William and Kate, but last night I found myself riveted to the TV, waiting anxiously to get a glimpse of her and the obsessively talked about reveal of her wedding dress.

I was quite overjoyed with what I saw. I love that she went the "Grace Kelly" route and she wore the dress with such beauty and grace. She truly looked like a Princess and I love that she wore her hair half up/half down. The neckline, bodice and lace is breathtaking and my heart fluttered a little at the beauty of her skirt. More lace and the way the train was layered made me wish I could have the dress for myself. I was not all that surprised when I heard that she was going to do her own makeup, she is a very normal, down to earth girl and I think she did a lovely job.

I saw a story that a company was waiting with baited breath for a glimpse of the dress (McQueen) and that they'd begin making replicas. I'm sure even the replicas will be incredibly expensive, so no chance I'll ever get my hands on one. 

The ceremony was beautiful, if a bit long in the tooth and I wasn't able to keep my eyes open long enough to see "The Kiss", but of course... there's no way I'd be able to miss it, even if I wanted to.

Congrats to the happily married couple! I hope we will see them happy and be able to live out the normal life they wish to lead. 

Next up will be baby bump watch. Hahaha! No... I'm just kidding. Well... not really. 

Empowerment Thursday

Last year, when I was trying to adjust to life and dealing with my anxiety/depression issues I made a daily list of things I needed to do. I did very well with the list, and as I accomplished each task, I felt happy as I crossed each item off the list.

At some point I let the chore list fall to the wayside and now find myself feeling bored, unmotivated and lazy about the house. Yesterday the hubby suggested I pick up the list habit again, so last night I made up a list of chores, along with specific rules to keep myself on track.

I was successful on the first three, but then I caught myself looking through my mail and blog sites on my phone, and can very well see now how doing so has sidetracked me. But the day is not yet over, and I can take up where I left off. Tomorrow is another day, and another chance to do better. I'm ready and prepared to begin the task of making a list nightly to better prioritize myself and my tasks.

Does anyone else subscribe to this way of keeping oneself on track? If so, do you have further helpful suggestions? If so, please comment and share.

I'm off to finish the rest of my tasks for the day and I hope you are successful in completing yours. Have a lovely day!

xGinax

Down a different path...

Since visiting the Natural History Museum in LA with my sister a few weeks back, it's prompted a change of heart. I so thoroughly enjoyed working in the lab, and it transported me back to how much I loved being in science class/labs in high school.

Like any college student, I've changed my mind about what I want to study a couple times now, but I think I've finally found exactly what I would love to do.

Since 2006 I've been heavily into the Green movement, reading constantly about green architecture,
specifically pre-fab home and landscape design. I've been looking for ways to be greener in my everyday life, from recycling plastic bags, working to use fabric bags for groceries, recycling, changing light bulbs, looking into solar and wind energy options, and finding a greener alternative to my car.

I LOVE thinking about and working to do these things, making my home and myself live more sustainably.

And now with my project of growing my own vegetables and possibly having a few hens for fresh eggs, I really want to study something that is good for myself and good for the earth. After expressing disappointment that my community college doesn't seem to have much in regards to "green jobs" training  he told me I should look at Cal Poly Pomona.

I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that they had a huge agricultural department and a great architecture department as well.

They have so much hands-on learning opportunities available and acres of land devoted to farming, greenhouses, livestock and much more.

I've made an appt to see my college counselor to change my current major to a transfer degree.
I'm hoping it won't be stretching myself beyond ability to major in Landscape Design and minor in Agricultural Sciences. I'll obviously have to discuss how that works out with my counselor.
Also, this is an opportunity to use both degrees as one, or work in one and fall back on the other if need be.

I'm really excited to start working on this. I finally mailed my request for my state birth certificate to begin the process of getting my tribal affiliation in order so I can have help with paying for college and I'm hoping to find a seminar to attend on FAFSA so I can better understand how it works.

So this is where I am now and I am very excited. Cal Poly also has an open campus program during the summer and if I can get the money to afford it, I won't have to worry about taking classes at Chaffey, I can hopefully get better classes during Cal Poly's open summer session.

As far the garden project, Erik will be coming over sometime this weekend to finish getting all the rocks and debris out of the yard so we can start the process of building a raised bed. Gary and I are looking for a good composter and I'm hoping that when we attend the Earth Day Festival in Claremont in Saturday that I'll be able to talk to someone to point me in the right direction for a dependable composter and educate me more on how to do it.

Not only do we have the Earth Day event in Claremont, but Friday through Sunday is the Lemon Festival in Downtown Upland. The booth line-up there isn't looking all that exciting to me, but I still want to go check it out. I'll be posting pics of what I see at the events.