Just For Fun

So…what is the Monday Poll?

Excellent question! It isn’t, contrary to its name, an actual poll, like with little clicky buttons. It’s just a list of five more or less random questions I’ve been posting on this blog every Monday morning for the past quadrillion years (since 2007). I love reading your answers, and it helps me get my week off to a good start. 🌻

1. What are you most excited about at this current moment?

LOL, don’t laugh, but I can’t wait to go out to eat at an actual restaurant again and not have to wear a hazmat suit. Who knows when it’ll be, but I’m so looking forward to it.

Ooh! — I hope it’ll be sushi. The flavors are totally out of my everyday wheelhouse.

2. What beauty item are you most excited about right now?

The old-school MAC eyeliners. I’ve been having a moment with Teddy, Prunella, Powersurge and Costa Riche. I think I’m going to use them all in single eyeshadow looks this week… Got the wheels in my mind a-turning…

3. Where do you feel most at home?

Our current home here in Novato. Mind you, it took a while to feel this way. For a couple years after we moved here, whenever I’d drive by my old exit on Highway 101 in Mill Valley, I’d always feel like, “Oh, that’s where I live. That’s where my home is,” but now Novato feels like my home.

4. What’s the best part about the place you live?

How friendly the people are. It really does have a small town feel to it, for the most part, and people are genuinely friendly. For instance, when you’re walking into a store at the mall, the person in front of you will smile and hold the door open for you, and the cashiers will smile and make small talk. Strangers you pass on the sidewalk make eye contact and say “Good morning,” and things like that.

I mean, there’s always crabby people wherever you go, right? But for the most part, the people you run into here will look at you and smile (even underneath their mask!). 😊

5. What’s the worst part about the place you live?

Right now? Wildfire season. Being on alert and constantly prepared to evacuate or have the power go out for days at a time every summer and fall is…getting old. I also wish Novato had more diversity. There were more people from different backgrounds and cultures where I grew up in the East Bay, and I do miss that.

6. A beauty item you recommend to everyone?

A lash curler, girlfriend! I’m a big an of the Surratt one.

7. If there’s one instrument you could listen to for the rest of your life, what would it be?

I’ll tell you this much, it’s not going to be the tuba. It does absolutely nothing for my soul! Sorry, tuba players. 🤷‍♀️

I would pick the piano. 🎹 You’ve got the treble clef and the bass clef, and you can easily play a variety of musical genres with it.

8. What was the last emoji you remember using?

✨ The three stars! ✨ I’ve been going a little crazy with it lately. ✨

9. San Francisco or Los Angeles?

SF for sure.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Here are the questions to copy/paste with your answers in a comment. Talk to ya soon.

1. What are you most excited about at this current moment?
2. What beauty item are you most excited about right now?
3. Where do you feel most at home?
4. What’s the best part about the place you live?
5. What’s the worst part about the place you live?
6. A beauty item you recommend to everyone?
7. If there’s one instrument you could listen to for the rest of your life, what would it be?
8. What was the last emoji you remember using?
9. San Francisco or Los Angeles?

P.P.S. I hope your Monday is full of love and laughter, sweet girl. Have a wonderful day! 🤗

Rise and shine, morning glory. Good morning. If there’s one huge lesson I’ve learned from 2020 so far, it’s to not take the little things for granted, because those little things — like stepping outside your door and taking a few deep breaths of clean, fresh air — those are the big things, which is why you’re going to have to put up with me posting pictures of the sky for a bit…

It’s been three weeks since I’ve been able to enjoy simply going outside, taking a walk and breathing. Finally, the smoke has cleared over the Bay Area. The sky is no longer Martian orange, and we’ve had healthy air quality for three days in a row (!).

A couple days ago we even woke up to fog.

FOG! Wonderful, wet, glorious fog!

I’m loving the gray tones in this pic, by the way. I feel like somewhere in there is a nail polish shade we all need in our lives ASAP.

Overall, this has been that kind of year, hasn’t it? Challenging, and we have to take the good things wherever we can find them.

On that note, more gardening in the front yard today. We’re planting our Muskogee Crape Myrtle tree, and to quote Ri-Ri, I need to “work, work, work, work, work, work.”

While I go put some weed mesh down, here’s your Saturday reading…

• RIP, RBG. ❤️ Thank you for everything you did for us. 👩‍⚖️
• This is what it’s like to take a theater makeup class for college drama students right now.
• Vera Steimberg, a makeup artist in Hollywood who’s been working in the industry for two decades, talks about diversity, representation, and the things she’s been doing to encourage women who want to get into the business.
• This makeup artist transforms herself into celebs, and the transformation is shockingly accurate.
• Fragrances are everywhere, including remote places like mountaintop glaciers!
• In case you’ve got an extra $$$$ sitting around for perfume, Avon is releasing a new scent that costs $1,200.
• And in this week’s edition of “nothing really shocks me anymore,” TikTokers are now using nail files to shave their teeth.
• What happens when dudes add cats to their dating profile pic?

I’ve been craving boba for months.

Who’s going to make this for me?!

I’m down for easy glam.

Love this look

Talk to you soon, my friend.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

So…what is the Monday Poll?

Excellent question! It isn’t, contrary to its name, an actual poll, like with little clicky buttons. It’s just a list of five more or less random questions I’ve been posting on this blog every Monday morning for the past quadrillion years (since 2007). I love reading your answers, and it helps me get my week off to a good start. 🌻

1. Last show you binged and loved?

Ted Lasso on Apple TV. It stars Jason Sudeikis, who — fun fact — is a solid basketball player in his own right. The show is about an acclaimed collegiate American football coach who moves to England when he’s given the chance to coach a professional football (as in soccer!) team there. It’s got a lot of what we like to call in our house “potty talk,” a.k.a. “lazy language,” a.k.a. “four-letter words,” but I really like the characters, and I love the overall optimistic feel of the show. The main characters, shockingly (for a show in this day and age), continuously choose to be kind. It’s very refreshing.

2. Last thing you drank?

I just took a sip of Nestle Pure Life Protect in Blackberry, which I got as a sample with my usual monthly water bottle delivery. It has zinc and is supposed to maintain a normal functioning immune system? I dunno… It tastes alright. Actually, it tastes terrible. Like water with a semi-rotten blackberry in it. LOL! I’m not loving it, but it’s here, it’s open, it’s cold, and I’m drinking it.

3. A snapshot of an ordinary moment in your life that brings you real joy?

One was when Connor Claire was about two or three. I had just put her down for the night, and she was there in her crib underneath the covers, looking up at me very sweetly. She has lullabies that play in her room every night, and she started singing one of the lullabies while it was playing… She just lay there, looking up at me, singing. 😊

4. A concert you’ll never forget?

Oh! — easily, Janet Jackson at the Shoreline Amphitheater in 1994 with my friend Jen. It was outdoors, and we had decent seats. We danced and screamed the whole time. SO. FUN.

5. Something that people often get wrong about you?

LOL… My age? I don’t know if it still happens as much as it used to, but back in the day people would always assume I was younger than I really am. When I worked as a legal secretary in my 20s, I would often be asked if I was one of the college interns, hahaha. If I’d only known how fleeting *that* season in my life would be, hahaha!

6. A favorite movie?

There are so many, but I really do love Clueless.

7. What are you deeply grateful for right now?

My education, because I was just telling Connor that there are countries where many girls aren’t even allowed to attend school, and I’m deeply grateful to have had the chance to finish high school and go on to college.

8. Something happens, and you’re called upon to be brave, but all you feel is fear. What’s the first thing you do?

Put my hand on my belly, and take a few big, deep breaths. Then I repeat to myself, either out loud or in my head, “I know I can do this.” And I say it over and over again.

9. What shoes are you wearing today?

My white Nikes, baby! El Hub calls them my “nursing shoes,” but whatever. I wear them all the time because they go with everything!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Here are the questions to copy/paste with your answers in a comment. Talk to ya soon.

1. Last show you binged and loved?
2. Last thing you drank?
3. A snapshot of an ordinary moment in your life that brings you real joy?
4. A concert you’ll never forget?
5. Something that people often get wrong about you?
6. A favorite movie?
7. What are you deeply grateful for right now?
8. You’re called upon to be brave, but all you feel is fear. What’s the first thing you do?
9. What shoes are you wearing today?

P.P.S. Have a great Monday, my friend. I hope your heart and soul feel light today! 🤗