Just For Fun

So…what is the Monday Poll?

Well, it isn’t exactly a poll… It’s more of a constantly evolving (devolving?), somewhat random list of questions I’ve been doing every Monday morning for the past 11 (!) years. (It’s like a kick start for your brain.) I’ve always enjoyed reading your answers in the comments and getting my week off to a good start, and I hope you do, too.

1. Have you ever wanted to change your name?

When I was a kid I did because I used to think that “Karen” was boring, so I tried to informally change it a few times, but nothing ever stuck.

In eighth grade — oh, gosh, and this is such an eighth grade thing to do — my friends and I chose “secret” names for ourselves to use in our letters, and I asked my friends to call me “Rennie” (both in person and in print).

Yeah, not such a secret name, right? 🙂 Needless to say, it didn’t stick.

And then freshman year college I went through a phase when I wanted to “rebrand” myself, LOL! So I had everyone in the dorm call me “Karen Tess,” which is a shortened combination of my first and middle name (Theresa)… That didn’t stick, either. And I also went through a phase when I lived in San Francisco in my early 20s when I introduced myself as “Kate” (my nickname at home).

Now I like my name. I definitely feel like a Karen.

2. Are you a cat lady?

100%

3. What did you do over the weekend?

Um…caught a cold? El Hub, Connor and I spent the weekend visiting family in Redding, which was nice, but I think we brought a cold up there from Baby Story Time down here.

Connor’s doing much better now, but I think it’s about to be my turn next… I feel that telltale scratchy throat. Keeping my fingers and toes crossed that it turns out to be allergies…

4. Something on your to-do list this week?

Bring at least one bag of clothes to Goodwill, because I want to KonMari this house until it can’t be KonMari’d anymore, dawg!

5. How do you feel about liquid liner?

I feel good about it, LOL! I feel good about it and use it often, especially if it’s easy to use like Tom Ford’s and Clinique’s.

Happy Monday!

You know what’ll wake you up on a Monday morning? Slamming a glass of Emergen-c. WOW. Anyway…hi! 🙂 How are you doing this morning? What did you do over the weekend? I hope you have a great week.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Here are the questions to copy and paste with your answers in a comment:

1. Have you ever wanted to change your name?
2. Are you a cat lady?
3. What did you do over the weekend?
4. Something on your to-do list this week?
5. How do you feel about liquid liner?

A while back Kate Spade had “Eat Cake for Breakfast” emblazoned on tees, dishcloths, mugs and other products, and while I generally agree with this philosophy, eating chocolate for breakfast seems like an even better idea. 🙂

I might do it today because my folks brought back this delicious-looking European chocolate! They just got back from a trip to Germany and Hungary (they’re both retired and love to travel), and when they asked me if I wanted any souvenirs, the first thing that came outta my mouth was “chocolate!”

I don’t know what any of these things say, but I’m thinking that these wafers are gonna be delicious with my coffee!

It’s going to break my heart to mess up this set…

The little chocolates are individually wrapped and have different pretty pictures. Let’s see how long I can hold out, LOL! I do have to say that the presentation makes it hard to dig into these…

My parents also got me the fringed floral wine- and peach-colored scarf in the background. It reminds me of a beautiful older woman I used to see walking around the Outer Sunset in SF when I lived there.

There’s a large Eastern European community out there, and I’d always see this woman walking up and down Geary Street wearing a scarf wrapped around her head and shoulders that looked just like this one. She was so cute.

On that note, while I dig into these chocolates (but maybe not the picture ones), here are some interesting articles I came across this week. There are some good ones!

• This woman survived a car accident…and apparently so did her Kat Von D liquid liner. She took a selfie wearing a neck brace in what appears to be a hospital bed after the accident. All of her makeup appears to be smudged off from crying, but her liquid liner? — flawless and seemingly untouched.
• Ever wonder why certain hotels and stores smell so distinct? The twin sisters behind 12.29, a company that makes personalized scents for big retailers and brands like Nike, Cadillac, Valentino and Harrods, create scents to get consumers in the mood to buy, buy, buy.

• I learned some new things in this step-by-step guide on how to sweat-proof your makeup for summer when you have oily skin. Now I know the difference between the various “film-formers” and which ones work best in different situations. There’s a bit of super cool science up in the mix! — and if I commit anything in this article to long-term memory, I hope it’s this: get thee some fixing spray (not settings spray), ASAP.

• I used to be a big John Mayer fan back in the day. I even got to see him perform at a tiny club in SF before his career took off, and I stood *this close* to where he was on stage, but I haven’t really listened to his stuff in years (frankly, because in several of the interviews of him I’ve seen over the years…he didn’t always sound like the nicest person).

  I’m irked a little less by him after seeing this Chanel smoky eye tutorial (WHAT?), which he did on himself, and it’s pretty freakin’ funny. He’s actually not half bad at makeup! And I gotta give the guy kudos for courage and for choosing the good stuff.

  I actually have and love the palette he’s using in the video.

• I thought this piece on the changing social codes and laws in Saudi Arabia and how they’ve impacted the way women purchase makeup there was fascinating. Before 2012, Saudi women weren’t allowed to work at makeup counters, so women who wanted to purchase something like a foundation or lipstick were only about to be assisted by a male sales associate, but that man wasn’t allowed to see the woman’s face or touch her.
• I thoroughly enjoyed this story on Suzi Weiss-Fischmann, OPI’s co-founder and brand ambassador. She’s in charge of naming all of OPI’s nail polishes, and in 1989, she made the first 30 OPI nail polish shades, and has since named every single OPI nail lacquer color in the brand’s collection so far. It takes her about six months to name an entire collection.
• This one’s sad. 🙁 Many elderly Japanese women are committing petty crimes in the hopes of being sent to prison, because they have nowhere else to go.

Seattle has a mermaid community (no, really!). Here’s what it’s like to hang out with them.

One of my favorite old-school slow jams, “Always and Forever” by Heatwave, is epic in this live performance.

Just a really cute baby elephant having a good ol’ time chasing birds

I want to make this strawberry tres leches cake!

Have a great rest of your weekend, ‘k? 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

There aren’t many makeup compromises I won’t make when I have to, because life happens, and necessity is the mother of invention. But whenever I do commit to doing something, anything, and as long as I have enough time for 5-minute makeup, I’ll always do the following…

1. I’ll fill in my “ghost brows” ?

Also known as the tail end of my brows, which tend to disappear like ghosts! I’m currently loving Hourglass Arch Brow Gel.

Will I ever stop talking about this product? Um…probably not!

Well, not until something better comes along. 😉 It’s pretty amaze-balls.

2. Curl my lashes

Every time I do them (the Surratt is my go-to these days), I pray that nobody sneaks up behind me and yells “BOO!” while I’m in the process… I have an irrational fear of accidentally pulling out big chunks of lashes while I’m curling.

Anyone else suffer from this affliction? Anyone? Bueller?

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