Ramblings of the Left-Handed

So 2017 didn't end like I expected and 2018 is going to be an interesting year. In 2017 I filed for divorce. In 2018 it will be final and this will be the first time I will be single since I was 20 years old. In the aftermath of all that my life is drastically changing from a financial position for some time. I am required to pay both spousal and child support (even though custody is split evenly). While assessing my finances it looks like I'm going to have to buckle down substantially and declutter my life as much as possible in order to stay afloat. With that said I would like to continue writing as an outlet.  I'm decluttering almost the entirety of my makeup collection because I need the cash I can get from that during this time or today.  It will be a low buy to mostly no buy sort of year.  But I thought I could explore more project panning. Also I want to write about ways I'm making ends meet.  My instant pot is going to be my new best friend I think this y...

So I can't believe it's already 2018 and I meant to write about this in 2017. Back in June 2017 I started a project pan with an awesome group of people on Facebook. We all have a fairly large collection of makeup and such and everyone was on board with the idea to try and do a project pan. I think project pan has been fairly popular lately. I was curious about it last spring so I started researching what it was exactly and why people where doing it. I don't quite recall which particular article I read or got this from anymore at this point (it's been about 6 months - heh) but if you spent so much money on something why not use it and appreciate it? I know when it comes to shiny pretties you never want to touch it because it's so shiny but it is meant to be used and loved. So that is what we decided to do. We laid out some fairly simple guidelines to try our best with. * This is meant to be fun and show some love to our stashes! * Any number of products y...

So at the end of 2017 I decided I needed to do some organization of my collection. I've been collecting makeup since 2014 and it is scattered between my bathroom, my closet, and my dresser in my room. It was difficult to keep track of what I had and use things consistently because I would have some stuff everywhere. In the summer I revamped my computer desk with acquiring Alex drawers and a table top from IKEA and it had been working awesomely for my computing needs. I know the internet is gung-ho for Alex drawers when it comes to makeup organization as well. So I purchased another set of Alex drawers and put them in my closet to start organizing  and that never happened. It just wasn't convenient to put some stuff in my closet, have some stuff on my dresser, and then some stuff in the bathroom where I would get ready in the morning. Not to mention I know it's not a good idea to keep makeup in the bathroom because of the humidity. And that did concern me because I didn...

So this post has been a bit delayed. My round 2 empties are from June 27th and here it is already November 2nd! So I have a huge bag of empties to review as well as update my project pan (which is also a post I need to make). So this round of empties were some of my favorite items, new favorites, and new items I'm on the fence about. Not Your Mother's Double Take Dry Finish Spray Thayers Witch Haze - Rose Petal Urban Decay deSlick Setting Spray Urban Decay All Nighter Setting Spray Bobbi Brown Make-up Remover Sephora Make-up Remover Beauty Blender Liquid Cleanser Not Your Mothers Double Take Dry Finish Spray I've been using this product for quite some time now. It is one of my favorite hairsprays because it is a very natural hold. My only complaint with this is sometimes it comes out a bit powdery on the hair if you use too much.  Thayers Witch Hazel - Rose Petal This was a new item I picked up. I was trying to find a toner that was reaso...

 I've been back to work from maternity leave for a little over six weeks and I've been crazy busy at work trying to remember everything and get back into the swing of things. As well as we have had a lot of org changes so I've needed to step it up and really try and take on as much as I can. But I've been plotting this post for awhile (as well as some other ideas) as I've been saving some of the products I've recently finished or almost finished up to write about and whether or not I would repurchase. I see some YouTuber's make videos so that's where the inspiration came from. So the first items on my list are my brow pencils. I have recently finished up two of them. First up was my desert island brow pencil from Colourpop in the shade Dope Taupe .  I loved the color of this item because it isn't too dark. Sometimes when I use a brunette colored pencil my eyebrows look like I took a sharpie to them. This pencil was just the right color to fill eve...

So Owen just turned 4. Lilly is almost 2.5. And Evan will be 3 months in a couple of weeks. I think I kind of have this baby stuff figured out. LOL. Maybe just a little...and still each kid is different as I'm discovering with Evan. He is definitely more cranky and not an easy going baby like the other two. But as I've now been through the newborn phase three times I have a decent handle on what stuff is really important versus rather useless. (Insert the typical disclaimer here - this is what worked for me and these are my opinions before anyone gets butthurt). With Owen, being my first, we went crazy on the baby stuff. Had a ton of gadgets and clothes that we never even made use of.  With Lilly we knew what we hadn't used so we made sure to play it a little smarter. And with Evan. Well Evan was a bit different. After Lilly we said we were done having kids. Imagine my surprise when I got pregnant with him while having an IUD. As Lilly outgrew toys and clothes I sold/do...

I've mentioned in past ramblings that I really only got into makeup after my daughter was born in 2014. Prior to that I rarely ever used foundation (never found anything that didn't break me out) and my eye shadow consisted of a few Wet 'n' Wild and Almay trios if that even. And forget about blush, bronzer, or highlighter or even a brow pencil. And primer - what was that?! LOL. But the palette that started my obsession with "high" end makeup was this.... The Urban Decay Smoked palette. I believe I bought it off someone in a swap group and it was brand new. But I was hooked after that. The colors were awesome. And it came with essentially an instruction booklet which was perfect for a noob like myself. For myself, the palette contains an entire look. My favorite color out of the whole bunch is Barlust. It is such a beautiful brown shade. And it's only in this palette. I have yet to find a good dupe for it. I hope Urban Decay makes a sin...