November 2011 Birchbox

November 14th, 2011 | Posted by Karrey in Shopping | Vanity - (0 Comments)

Hooray, my November Birchbox finally arrived! Actually, it arrived last week, I just didn’t have time to go through it until today. I signed up for Birchbox (referral link) last month, at probably the WORST POSSIBLE TIME, right after the 10th of the month, which is when they ship the boxes out. That meant I had to wait until this month to receive my first one. It was rough, but I made it. For those of you who haven’t heard of Birchbox, it’s a sort of subscription service where you pay $10/month and get a little box filled with high-end samples of products that you might not get access to normally. Some of the selections in the past have been pretty great, and this month wasn’t too shabby, either. Here’s the list:

  • Avène Cleanance Soap-Free Facial Gel Cleanser
    “A European skincare star that uses thermal spring water to soothe and soften skin.”
  • Mineralogie Ultimate Cream Concealer
    “Made with finely ground minerals, this spot concealer hides under-eye circles and blemishes with zero cake-age.”
  • Thymes Eucalyptus body lotion (plus a sample of their Kimono Rose body lotion)
    “Put this one on your wish list: skin-saving botanicals and shea butter combine in a luxurious lotion.”
  • Zoya nail polish in Noel
    “This shimmery denim shade from Zoya’s holiday 2011 collection fits just right – just like your favorite blue jeans.”
  • Two Paper Dolls Ampersand coasters
    “Our favorite letterpress studio adds a hip, playful touch to everything they do, from notecards to coasters.”

Are any of you Birchbox subscribers? What did you get?

Shoegasm

October 28th, 2011 | Posted by Karrey in Links to cool stuff | Shopping - (0 Comments)

Holy crap, you guys. Was I talking about shoes lately? I HAD NO IDEA ABOUT THE SHOES! Today I followed a post on SFGirlByBay, one that featured some deliciously witchy/pilgrim-y shoes, and I went temporarily blind. BLIND. BECAUSE OF THE SHOES. My blindness-causers, let me show you them.

These shoes are from Chie Mihara’s line, a Japanese designer based in Spain, I think? I love them.

"Amis"

"Consi"

"Eloisa"

"Falla"

Another "Falla", I love this color combo

"Fenomeno"

"Flok"

"Iona"

"Olga"

"Rostar"

"Salvadora"

"Volanda"

"Xosmo"

"Floribri", wouldn't these be perfect for bridal shoes?

So, what is this collection teaching me? Well, for one thing, I need some gorgeous shoes. And for another? I need some charcoal grey tights. And some ribbed grey tights. Good goddamn.

I want some boots

October 24th, 2011 | Posted by Karrey in Revampify | Shopping - (0 Comments)

Something chunky, clunky, maybe with buckles? Something I can tuck jeans into, if I’m feeling saucy. Definitely something cute. Not knee-high, since my calves are too fat for that. Maybe about mid-calf? Grey, if possible!

BC Footwear in "Bibliography"

Type Z in "Kimberly"

Nine West in "Fountain"

Easy Spirit "Joanny" in dark grey

Coconut by Matisse "Dylan" in charcoal

Dirty Laundry "Rayma"

Out of these, I’m kind of leaning toward the Nine Wests. They’re all so pretty, though! What do you think? Any others I should look at? I should probably find some of these in a store and try them on before committing to anything.

Makeup bonanza

September 17th, 2011 | Posted by Karrey in Revampify | Shopping | Vanity - (1 Comments)

So, this happened last night after work:

Makeup bonanza

I asked my friend Amanda to do a makeup intervention on me, since I’ve never actually learned how to buy, put on, or wear makeup, and she’s a bit of a girly-girl. She suggested that we go to a fancy department store to get face makeup skin-matched, and then we can get the rest of the fun stuff at Target on the cheap. We started at Younkers, at the Clinique counter, and picked up some foundation and under-eye concealer. Then we skipped on down to Target and picked up a bunch of Sonia Kashuk goodies. As we were heading back through the mall, we saw a cart advertising “Bonus Days” at the Clinique counter in Dillards, so we stopped in there and I picked up some tinted moisturizer and got my bag of free samples. YAY, MAKEUP! Here’s the list:

  • Burt’s Bees tinted lip balm in “Rose”
  • Maybelline’s Great Lash mascara in “Very Black”
  • Sonia Kashuk’s Beautifying Blush in “Pink-14″
  • SK’s Eyeshadow Palette in “Eye on Neutral – 02″
  • SK’s Eyeshadow Quad in “Paris at Night – 09″
  • SK’s Eye Definer eyeliner in “Plummy Bronze”
  • SK’s eyelash curler
  • SK’s synthetic concealer brush
  • SK’s blusher brush
  • SK’s synthetic foundation brush
  • Clinique’s Liquid Makeup in 02 “Fresh Ivory”
  • Clinique’s Moisture Surge Tinted Moisturizer in 02
  • Clinique’s All About Eyes concealer in 03 “Light Petal”
  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in “Commander in Chic”

And then the free stuff!

  • Clinique Superbalanced powder makeup in 02 “Natural”
  • Clinique Quickliner for Eyes in 10 “Dark Chocolate”
  • Clinique Lash Doubling Mascara in “Black”
  • Clinique lipstick in “A Different Grape”
  • Clinique Moisture Surge extended thirst relief
  • Clinique Clarifying Lotion 2
  • A little flat Clinique brush

Yowza. That’s a lot of crap. I’d better get playing around with it!

32 Before Thirty-Two

September 15th, 2011 | Posted by Karrey in Baking | Deflabbify | Food | Lists | Music | Revampify | Shopping | Vanity - (0 Comments)

So far in my life, I’ve made two attempts at broad “life lists”: the 101 things in 1001 days list, and the 30 Before 30 list that I put here. Both had pretty sad, pathetic results. So I should obviously try again, RIGHT? Right. I’m even going to recycle some from the last list. Here we go:

  1. Become licensed as a Registered Nurse.
  2. Watch Arrested Development, starting back at the beginning, all the way through.
  3. Pay off my credit card
  4. Create monthly music mixes without missing a month.
  5. Mail goodies to 5 friends that live far away.
  6. Scan all of our photos and put them up online.
  7. Open a Roth IRA.
  8. Take a yoga class.
  9. Learn how to put makeup on my face.
  10. Run in a 5k.
  11. Participate in NO PANTS NOVEMBER.
  12. Make or create at least 50% of the gifts I give for the holidays.
  13. Get my first pedicure
  14. Go to a Nursing Conference, preferably about midwifery.
  15. Get rid of our Expedit bookshelf and build a FAUXDENZA!
  16. Complete the 100 Pushups Challenge
  17. Go to the Madison (Wisconsin) Farmer’s Market.
  18. Bake a rainbow cake.
  19. Learn a song on my ukulele
  20. Cull my collection of books to those I actually love and want to own.
  21. Make some infused booze.
  22. Watch the Godfather trilogy.
  23. Design our wedding invitations.
  24. Knit myself some slippers. I keep making them for others, and never for myself!
  25. Hang all of the art/photography I’ve been hoarding away in storage.
  26. Complete a juice or smoothie fast.
  27. Read 10 Banned Books.
  28. Make a braided rug.
  29. Ride in RAGBRAI (I’ll give myself a special allowance for this one, since it comes after my birthday)
  30. Make a batch of soap.
  31. Scooter camping at Palisades

I’m starting this now, with less than a year to go. That gives me 301 days, to be exact, which is plenty of time. I only have to accomplish 0.103 items on my list per day in order to be done in time. Totally doable.

Bag fetish

September 13th, 2011 | Posted by Karrey in Shopping - (2 Comments)

I think I’ve got a problem. A hoarding problem. A hoarding problem concerning bags. Thank goodness my tastes (or, rather, my self-limitations) run toward the cheaper end of the spectrum where bags are concerned. I’ve got a long history of carrying little Dickies purses, or big army-green cotton satchels. Right now, I’m using a nice big grey dealie from Kinies on etsy. But now, suddenly, I’m struck with a yearning for something a little more expensive:

OM NOM NOM

Isn’t that glorious? I love so many Orla Kiely items, but this one is really screaming at me. Of course, it’s not available from her USA store, but I can get it from OneLittleBox via Amazon for, um, $240+shipping. That’s a lot of money. I love it, but do I need it? Of course not.

Sigh. Why do I always find really awesome things that I want to buy when funds are low?

Glasses glasses glasses!

September 13th, 2011 | Posted by Karrey in Shopping | Vanity - (0 Comments)

Last year, I bumped my Flex Spending account up to $600 for the year to buy a nice pair of glasses (and got a lovely pair of Lafont cat-eye frames out of the deal, at the VERY LAST MOMENT), and stupid me, I forgot to change it back down again for this year. So! I’ve got a wad of money to spend on glasses again! Something led me to check out Coastal Contacts, and man oh man, I’m yearning.

Dior 3197

Love L741 in Raspberry

Love L741 in Black Passion Fruit

Derek Cardigan 7005 in BlackLove L747 in Black

Love L747 in Black

I think I might be leaning toward the Dior frames, with the clear bottoms. I love them all, obviously, but they’re a little further from my norm than the rest. Maybe I should start branching out from cat-eye? It works for my face shape, I think, but does it get tired?

We’re also making a trip to Chicago sometime before the end of the year, partially to visit See Eyewear. I’m honestly pretty wary of buying frames without trying them on first, since my eye and nose placement make it kind of difficult to find glasses that aren’t too low. I wish See and Coastal had a home try-on program like Warby Parker! That would be awesome. And it’s too bad that I’m not really drawn to any Warby Parker frames, because that would be damned convenient.

ASOS Sale!

September 8th, 2011 | Posted by Karrey in Revampify | Shopping | Vanity - (0 Comments)

The stuff in the clearance section of the ASOS site might be my savior for cute dresses at low prices. Freeeee shippppinnggggggg, too!

$31.10, cute, customizable

Chiffon skirt, $25.61, and it comes in PINK!

$34.76, and it's jersey knit, nrom

This one is very swingy, but a little more expensive and shows more skin, $40.25 for cobalt blue

What do you think? These ones are fairly adaptable to different looks, so it wouldn’t be weird if I wore them more than once in a month, right?

Revampify Me

September 6th, 2011 | Posted by Karrey in Deflabbify | Revampify | Shopping | Site | Workouts - (0 Comments)

(wait, can I be revamped if I was never a vamp in the first place?)

So, I think that I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m tired of being a schlub.

When I was a kid and my mother was in control of my wardrobe, I was a fashion plate. I always wore the cutest outfits, had new clothes and shoes, the whole nine yards. Once I hit high school, I don’t know if it was teenaged rebellion or simply my internal (lazy) sense of self shining through, but my interest in being a presentable human specimen kind of fell by the wayside. I wore plain clothes, lots of band t-shirts, skate shoes, and concentrated my time and efforts on things that mattered to me, like reading, or listening to music, or watching movies, or frittering my time away on the burgeoning internet. I thought it was cool, that I cared so little about being a “girly girl” and instead focused my time and energy on shit that mattered. I didn’t wear makeup, I didn’t care about what clothes I was wearing, I didn’t do more than comb my hair at least once every few days. That was ME.

Well, guess what! Now I’m 31, and I still don’t know how to wear makeup. I wear the same (comfortable) shoes everyday. I cycle through the same (ill-fitting) pairs of pants and about 10 alternating (sack-like) tops for work. I take a shower every morning, comb my bangs to the side, get dressed, and leave the house. I am a schlub. I think I would like to stop being a schlub.

What does this mean?

  • I’d like to learn how to apply makeup to my face in a flattering way
  • I’d like to figure out clothing styles that are flattering to my body shape, and BUY SOME
  • Learn what to do with my hair (hopefully not too time-consuming)
  • Keep up a workout routine and make good food choices so that I can get to a more comfortable body weight

These changes are really going to come at a good time, when I’m moving into a career that involves wearing a uniform (scrubs) to work, so I’ll have even more motivation to look cute in my off-hours.

VIVA LA REVAMP!

Holiday Wishlist 2008

November 20th, 2008 | Posted by Karrey in Links to cool stuff | Shopping - (0 Comments)

The holiday season is almost upon us, and this year it is going to be an exceedingly busy one for me and my loved ones. I took the Handmade Pledge this year, so most, if not all, of the gifts that I’ll be giving this year will be handmade or sold by independent artists. I would love for the same to be done for me, but there are a few practical items that I’d love that don’t necessarily fit the bill. (Click on the images for links to where to buy)

Iowa City Community Gift Certificate

Kevin and I considered asking for Lowe’s or Menards gift cards as gifts, to allow us a little extra money to do some fun things to the new house. If we get one or a few of these, however, we can use them wherever we need them, instead of being stuck at one store or the other.

5qt. Staub Round Cocotte in Royal Blue

I really, really want one of these, but I’ll probably never buy it for myself. I dream of all of the things I could make with it (non-meaty, of course), like no-knead bread and casseroles and stews. Mmm! Also, it’s very attractive, especially in the royal blue color.

Martha's Vineyard Yarn CSA

Hudson Valley Yarn CSA: This one I’ll probably buy for myself if no one gets it for me. How wonderful to be able to support a farm by buying into their yarn CSA! Also, I’ll be more likely to get a lot of knitting done if I’ve got yarn automatically mailed to me at regular intervals.


I would love just about anything from my Etsy favorites (and it fits the Handmade Pledge!).


Since I plan to make the curtains for the new house, a gift certificate to Home Ec. Workshop would be lovely. They’ve got the best fabric in town.

There are a couple of camera lenses that I wouldn’t mind, either: 1, 2, 3, 4.