Random lady post- beauty stuff! :)

Whoa mama. Have I got a post for you guys tonight. 

Tonight, I have done a full on spa post on myself, as the husband comes home from deployment soon. And I'm going to share some of the freakin awesome stuff I found, while searching around, and some of the ways I save some money on cutting corners around using expensive products on my face, even though I have massively super sensitive skin.

Face thingy numero uno- Pore strips.
Now, I dunno about y'all, but I haaaaaaate blackheads. They are the most irritating facial thing ever. And typically, pore strips are stinkin EXPENSIVE for something you're going to use once, rip off your face, then throw away.

$10 a box! Basically, facial waxing light... I jest! Well... Sort of. >>

Well, the genius over at 15 Minute Beauty Fanatic figured out a MUCH cheaper way to do have the same effect, and not have a bunch of trash filling up landfills while she's at it. You go girl. Basically, you mix a packet of gelatin with a tablespoon of water, nuke that bad boy in the microwave for around ten seconds, then smear it all up on your T-zone kinda thickly.. I also got my cheeks, because why not. AVOID YOUR EYES AND EYEBROWS, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD. I might have gotten some on the thin skin under my skin, and tried to pull it off. I might have cried.. In theory. Maybe. You want to let it set for 10- 15 minutes before peeling it off. Anyway, around these parts, you can buy a box of Knox (hahahaha) Gelatin with 32 packets in it for arouuuuund $9. Not bad, I'd say.

Face thing numero dos- Toner.

I like toner. It gets the goop you can't see beneath the skin out. Definitely a good thing, considering I live in the middle of some crazy as heck red volcanic dirt that gets into everyyyyyyyythinnnnnnnng. Including my skin. No matter how hard I scrub, ijustdon'tfeelclean. GAH! Anyway, I used to use again, some pretty pricey stuff, a medicated toner for acne. As fantastic as it was, I'd kinda prefer to not use harsh medicines on my face.

Left- Mary Kay's Formula 3 Toner.
Right- Plain old Witch Hazel... yeaaaaaah baby. ;)

So when I found out I could just dab a little witch hazel on a cotton ball and drag that bad boy across my face, I was pleasantly surprised at how well it worked. Picked up everything, and still gave me that tingly clean feeling and tightened pores that I love. Yay for witch hazel!

Face thing numero tres- Facial maaaaaaaaaask

Mama loves her mud masks. I'll just put that out there now. If I could do them daily, I would, but I can't, because it'd strip off all the good oils on my face, which is not too bueno. I just have one I'm using currently, but man oh man, does it do the job. It's The Stripper, by Perfectly Posh. I very rarely buy any facial products now.. I try my hardest to make them. But holy heck. My girlfriends Tina and Gabi introduced me to Perfectly Posh, and I just straight up fell in love with two of their products, Stripper being one of them. It really cleans your face, and it's a detoxifying product- gotta love that!

Strip it real good!

It tingles a LOT at first, but it may just be because I have super duper sensitive skin. :) I leave it on about 10-15 minutes, then wash off with my favorite wash cloth.

Last, but certainly not least- Moisturiser. 

Now, I was never big on moisturiser. I hate feeling greasy, and I especially hate it on my face. I'm the kind of girl that carried rice paper blotters in her bag all through high school, because walking around all funky literally freaked me out so bad my hands would shake. Just EW. Annywaay, I found a light, nice moisturiser made of natural yummy olive oil, and totally am head over heels with it. I use it all over my face, on my lips and around my eyes with no issues, and my face just drinks it right in. :) Night & Day: You are the One Moisturizer by Perfectly Posh.

Yummy for my face-y. Haha. :)

I had such a great night pampering myself and prepping for my honey-bear to get home, it didn't seem like I did that much laundry in between all the sets. Gotta love that, am I right? :P

Hello, Mayor!

Well, today I ventured into a part of the crafting world I am neither comfortable with nor proficient in- paper crafts. I found a VERY  cool three dimensional tutorial for the Mayor from my husband and I's favorite movie, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and decided to make him as a unique Halloween decoration! The website I found him on is Spoonful.com, just click the link and it will send you straight to it. I'll be doing a few more paper crafts from the same movie in the next few days, and will post step by step instructions with the next set! :) Have a wonderful and spoooooooooooooooky night!

Exploring new settings, and a good news post!

Well, after a long journey, we got some fantastic news today...

 I do NOT have the brain tumor that my doctor thought I did. 

It took them months after diagnosing me to get me an 

MRI appointment, so I've had this looming stress going on,

 which has made me a bit cranky- quite the bad thing, 

when you're the mother of a small child whose father is deployed.

 In other news, I recently decided to go explore the Pagan circles

 on the island I live on, which is incredibly exciting for me. :)

 There is a child-friendly meeting on Saturdays, and I'm very excited to go meet the people here and finally get in a little time with a few like-minded people. I don't necessarily adhere to any religion, but I like the natural aspects of the pagan following. Here's hoping we found a nice place to make some friends!

To my sweet, full of awesome, dragon slaying warrior of a daughter- I love you.

Abby- Mae and I.

For those of you not in the know, I am a mom. My daughter, Abby- Mae, is 18 months old. And I already know she will be dragon-slaying warrior when she grows up. My child, my glorious, shining little progeny, is freaking FANTASTIC. She sits and watches me play video games, and sometimes even helps (she waves bye bye to people on the screen, and button mashes for me).

On the days where I just want some cold pizza for breakfast with a glass of mountain dew, instead of going all Martha Stuart on her tiny butt and making a quiche, she's totally down with that- no judgements. She doesn't think it's weird that I google parenting advice sometimes. And have joined eightybajillion support boards for Army wives/ young mothers, and yet am disappointed there isn't one board out there SPECIFICALLY for mommy gamers. I feel that should definitely be a thing. And by the way.. she's incredibly sweet. And strong. And kind, and fun, and interesting, and curious. I literally adore that little girl. It's amazing to me that she came from my husband and I- shoot, I'm still stunned by how fantastic he is. I just love my family, is what I meant to say. :)

Aunt Vicki and the Fantabulistic Weekend Adventure.

Abby was quite excited to go out geocaching.

Aunt Vicki, Abby-Mae, and Chris.

So, after the week from insanity, I decided to post about last weekend. :) I met a family member on my husband's side who is made of AWESOME, and took her and her neighbor out geocaching with Abby and I. She's my husband's aunt, and she it TRULY fun. :) We got along great, and Abby-Mae just adored her! She was a breath of fresh air, considering some of my run ins with my other relatives. :P It was incredibly fun, and we hit some beautiful spots while exploring, including Othersville from Lost (the TV Show), and a tucked away Hawaiian ancient burial site. We drove all over the North Shore of Hawaii, from Kaena Point to Waimea Falls, and had a sort of picnic lunch/snackathon throughout the day.. We ended up finding THREE caches in one day! :) For those who don't know what geocaching is, it's a really fun world wide game where you go out and find real-life treasure, placed by members of Geocaching.com, called caches. It's fantastic fun, a little athletic, and GREAT to do with the kidlets- Abby loves looking in the boxes and finding treasure. :) Anyway, after a great and long day

From left to right- Chris, Aunt Vicki and I, after successfully finding a
seriously HARD to find cache.

Aunt Vicki helped me out by driving my husband's 01 Mustang Cobra home,
now that she's got her rebuilt engine put back in.

geocaching, I got a call I'd been waiting for for a few months.. The mechanics were done installing the recently rebuilt engine into my hubby and I's Cobra! :) I had been nervous about driving it home, and Aunt Vicki drove her home and parked her in the garage. Robert will be thrilled to see the car when he gets home from his deployment! :) I'll post more pictures of the car later, after I detail her. :)

Hiking the night away

My daughter, Abby, at Teddy's.

Today, my daughter and I went on an accidental hike. I got in the mood to go out to eat, so we stopped by our favorite burger joint, Teddy's Bigger Burgers, and then took off again in the opposite direction. We followed a long, windy, beautiful road for a while, and eventually I figured out where we were headed-I can't be the only person that drives like this, where I just sort of leave the house and see where the road takes me. We got to the end of the island at around the perfect time to see the sun hit the water as we ate our burgers out of the back of the truck, and then decided to take a little night hike down to Kaena Point. I loaded Abby into her Ergo-baby carrier, and headed off, Yoda flashlight in hand, for an adventure. We walked 

The drive down to Kaena Point.

about a half a mile before it got too dark to see our feet, then turned around.. On our way back, we met a very nice woman with her sweet little dog headed the same direction as we were, and had a little chat on the way back to our cars... It's funny how sometimes life can bring a couple of strangers together for a brief chat, don't you think?

Timing is everything.

This past week, I've found out that timing really is everything... At least when it comes to sleep.

Anyone else remember high school years? Getting home from work after school, finishing off assigned work, then playing video games until 4 am, sleep two hours, walk back to school and restart. It really hasn't been so long, since then. Just a few years. Yet my body and sleep schedule have changed so much. 

At first, I just stayed up late. Like, really, truly late. I couldn't sleep until around 4 am, then I'd crash until 2 pm.. Not good. There's a small sleeping human in the other part of the house that tends to like regular days, with a functioning mother, so that got kicked to the curb pretty fast. I was then prescribed a sleep aid... which turned me into a Romero-esque zombie all day, complete with bloodshot eyes and ludicrous moaning. Again, kiboshed. So now, I take a newer, slightly less heavy medication at around 8 pm, which for all intents and purposes seems to be working.. except for the early wake ups. My eyes pop open at 3 am and nothing can put me back to sleep, leaving me brighter eyed and more bushy-tailed than I had originally hoped at this hour, but at least I got some sleep during the normal hours. For the moment, I live on caffeine, Prozac, and a few hours of sleep. Even if it sometimes leaves me feeling artificially wired, I'm ok with that.