I need some opinions over something that has been weighing on my mind lately. I’ll be addressing it in the next post, please email me or DM me on Twitter for the password.

I know you’re out there, beauty fanatics!

And I come to you with a challenge!

It’s finally time for me to graduate to a tinted moisturizer this summer. After a full year of treatment with Accutane, Minocin and a bajillion special face creams, my skin is finally getting clear. I’m going barefaced on weekends and at home, but I’m not brave enough to do it all the time at work.

I have rosacea, which means I have some redness in my skin, and it flares up when I get hot, excited, have a drink, blah blah blah so I still want to keep a little bit of coverage to even my tone out.

I am looking for a tinted moisturizer or other product that will address most or all of my needs. But does it exist? I don’t know! I’ve never bought something like this before so I don’t know where to start.

Can you make me some product recommendations?

Needs:

• lightweight, but with ok blending/coverage/something to even out the skin tone
• MUST have an SPF
• Not greasy or difficult to absorb (my skin is still a little oily)
• Preferably with mattifying ingredients so I don’t get greasy half way through the day
• Not overly expensive. I don’t know what the average price range is, but I don’t want anything too cheap (like Covergirl) but nothing over $20 if possible
• Won’t rub off or run easily. I’m a sweaty Betty.
• Needs to be a good colour for me – I am around an NC20 in MAC shades

I would say that SPF, staying power and price are my top 3 “must-have’s”. I want to feel as though I am wearing nothing. My mineral makeup is great, but it’s still a little heavier than I would like.

So can you tell me about your favourite product, or what you would recommend for me? Even if you’re not a beauty blogger, what is the product you just rave about to your friends?

I want to know!

…party season, that is!

Even though I am looking for a new job (and potentially not even in my current field if that’s what it takes) I am once again making the rounds! Yay!

Since working at *current employer* I have been cut off from all the great industry events and vendor parties that go on every year. Last year I didn’t get out to anything!

I’m still not technically getting invited personally to these things, but I have a cool new coworker with connections and he’s flipping me all the invites. Once you have the email you just have to RSVP and you’re on the list.

SO EASY to crash those parties

So I went to the first one tonight but as you can tell by my timestamp, I left early. Parties are really only good if you have people to hang out with. I met some random dude from Sony Music and we had a nice chit chat, and then I actually ran into a guy I went to college with. I hadn’t seen him in 5 years! He’s doing pretty well for himself so I’m happy for him.

My coworkers were supposed to meet me there tonight, but apparently they got tied up drinking somewhere else before. I didn’t really feel like sticking around (despite the open bar and free snacks!) so I came home. I did manage to score a DVD of Sunshine Cleaning though–me and the roomie are going to check it out tonight.

So, a pretty tame start to the season, but I think it will get better! I’m going to my friend’s BBQ this weekend, and next weekend is my very own tea party. After that I’m sure there will be something else!

I will have to share some of my plans and ideas for the tea party. I’m totally stoked. I just haven’t had a moment to sit down and really hammer things out, so I’m hoping to do it this weekend.

O.

M.

G.

My mind is BLOWN.

I just discovered today that on amazon.ca you can finally buy stuff other than books & media!

I totally just stumbled onto the home & garden section and I’m having fits of pure joy.

I LOVE Amazon. They’ve got good selection, reviews and the shipping is decent, too. I’ve been using them for years and years for my books and I have been waiting patiently for them to make other items available for online purchase & super-saver shipping as well.

Have my prayers been answered? Let’s hope so!

I am off to explore now. I’m a little wary of the shipping because sometimes the items come from merchants other than Amazon and then you have to pay. I want to find out what qualifies for my free shipping!

Ok, so the laundry yesterday didn’t happen. Instead I spent the afternoon helping my new roomie assemble some kind of Ikea wardrobe thing for her room.

Ikea is great, until you have to put that shit together!

We did ok though, working as a team which was cool. Except that we managed to get one of the floor support pieces in the wrong place so when we went to put the legs on we couldn’t! Oh the horror! Something like this always happens with Ikea stuff, no matter how closely you follow those directions! Ugh!

Lucky for us, I was able to problem-solve and I MacGyvered that fucker! Now she has a new lovely piece of furniture that won’t fall over

Today I think I may continue doing the whole purge-clean thing. I’ve just got SO MUCH STUFF. I think I may go through my clothes once more (I already have a few things to sell or give away) and then maybe move onto the numerous bags of swag (aka: Crap) that I have accumulated lately. I’ll divvy it up into piles for friends, stuff I want to keep and stuff to give to charity.

I might also just re-fold everything in my drawers. I dunno but I’m in an organizing kind of mood today!

But what should I do about the knick-knacks? After talking with the roomie I’m not sure how well moving my stuff out to the general apartment will be received. But then again she wants to hang all her art and put her personal books everywhere so maybe I am within my rights to include my stuff, too?

Tonight I’m going to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.

…but not for me.

It’s truthfully for a good friend of mine whose drinking has been affecting her family lately. Things sort of came to a head this weekend and she made the decision to go to a meeting. She told me this morning so I offered to go with her.

I want to support her and help her get better for her sake, and for her family’s sake.

So I wanted to know if anyone out in the ether has been to an AA meeting for whatever purpose? What’s it like? How should I present myself?

I don’t know if friends are welcome to these meetings? What is the proper etiquette at these places? What should I be prepared for?

I would look it up myself but I’m at work and don’t want AA to show up across IT’s screen.

Wow, it’s been ages since I wrote a post. And I’ve only been on Twitter intermittently. My commenting on other blogs has also decreased…

I have just been so darn busy!

This year has been non-stop go-go-go! for me. This month is no exception! March has been crazy so far, but I also just haven’t felt like writing about anything in particular. It’s a weird time for me right now.

Anyway, here are some of the things that have been taking up my time lately:

• I just got a cat! I literally brought her home last night so I want to spend some time bonding with her. Not sure if this will affect my posting. I’ll probably post some photos of her though
• Work. Someone quit our team and it has created a ton of extra work for me. There have been other changes as well, plus I’m trying to get a promotion. Safe to say I have been living more at the office than at home these days.
• Social stuff. BBQ’s, dancing, all that fun stuff. I feel like I haven’t been doing enough of it lately…but at the same time, do I even have the time to budget to these things? Sometimes I just wanna let loose.
• Seeing family for birthdays, events, & going home for Dr. appointments
• I also had a lot of prep work for the photo shoot I did a couple of weekends ago. Still waiting to see the photos come back on that, but there should be a few nice ones

Other than those major things, I don’t know what else is sucking my time. I think I have just been craving some alone time lately. I’m sick of the computer and all the change that is happening to me (I like change in theory, but in practice it can be difficult!) so I’ve been withdrawing to my safe place for a while.

Sometimes, you just need to be alone. No computer, no friends, nothing but you and a good book for hours.

You know what just occured to me?

The Flaunt dress by Kiyonna that I posted about below… now that I’m looking at it in a different frame of mind I realized that with this dress I will, in fact, look just like my avatar!

Isn’t that wild?

Check it out:

It was a totally unintentional purchase, I swear!

Here’s a close-up:

Any of the bloggers I have met have said that I do resemble my avatar. I regularly rock the pearls & red lips, and my hair really is that shade of blonde. With the blue form-fitting dress, my look is complete!

Wouldn’t it be funny if I recreated that avatar scene above in real life? I am seriously contemplating it! I am doing some modeling again and have a photo shoot next week. Maybe if I can get the stylist to do a vintage look for my hair and I can find a handsome man I can do this!

Well, despite my current money woes I went ahead and purchased myself a new dress:

So why did I get this lovely garment when I should be saving money as a precaution??

Well I’ll tell you. I got it for a song!

It all started with Asian Pear. She had a $50 gift certificate she couldn’t use, so she gave it to me. I started looking at the dresses on Kiyonna and settled on the Flaunt dress (pictured above). It came recommended from some plus-size fashion blogs I read, and it looked like a good cut anyway. (If you’re interested in Kiyonna’s clothing, please consider clicking through the banner ad on my site. I get a small kickback for each sale made. Thanks!)

I hemmed and hawed and finally decided to get it. First I wanted it in black to be my LBD, but then when I found an LBD at the clothing swap I changed my mind. When I went on today I was ready to get it in a sexy red–but they were sold out! Noooo!!!

Luckily I also kind of liked it in the blue (it will probably look great on me since I’m blonde… every shade of blue goes with me!) so I decided to get it anyway.

Here’s the fun frugal part: it was only $38 Canadian!!!

With the help of Pear’s gift certificate, a free shipping promotion and a 20% off code I got for joining Kiyonna’s Facebook page I saved 66% off of the original price!

I’m pretty proud of myself.

There will be a small additional cost for shipping–I had it sent to my aunt in the US to get the free shipping, then she is going to mail it to me as a “gift” but it shouldn’t be more than $10 to get it here. And I’m ok with that!

Yay! I can’t wait for my new dress!

I think I might have to kick my roommate out.

She hasn’t paid for February rent yet and it’s almost March. How is she going to come up with 2 rent payments for the end of the week if she can’t even make one?

I am just so tired of this. I can’t even call her to ask her to come home to talk because her phone has been cut off. So I’m sitting here waiting for her to come home (if she does at all) when I’d rather be in bed.

I know that she’s having trouble finding a job and making money, and that she’s working on it. But seriously, every couple of months there is some kind of financial issue with her. She owes ME money for our internet bill, too. Am I just supposed to eat that?

If I ask her to move out though, I am afraid she’ll piss off and leave me with the other half of Feb & Mar rent to make up, and that would be a few thousand dollars! I can’t afford that! I called my dad because I was so frustrated about this. He said he would lend me the cash if it came to that… but I really hate borrowing money.

“Never a borrower nor a lender be”

That’s one of our family sayings, and we believe in it deeply. Lately I’ve been finding myself as a lender to friends…

It’s like I’m the Bank of Ginger!

Don’t have any cash but still want to go out? Ask G to spot you a few bucks. Get her to pay your cover and tip the waitress while you’re at it!

I love my friends but this bothers me sometimes. I am the only one that has a solid grip on her finances and they know it, so they feel like it’s ok to ask me for money.

It’s not ok! I make the same or less amount of money than them! Just because I handle my finances better doesn’t mean I can pass out free money! Ugh. I offer to help them get themselves on the right track but I don’t know if it will ever work.

I am just pissed about money lately. I’m still making the same amount I started with over 2 years ago at this job. Fucking economy. Now I’m worried that my roommate is going to default on everything and I’ll be stuck holding the bill.

I don’t understand why she hasn’t moved out before this??? She can’t even feed herself regularly! Wouldn’t you take that as a sign that you’re living beyond your means?

Gah. Don’t tell me I should get my own place because I can’t. I just can’t afford it AND a decent life at the same time, otherwise I would be out of here like a bat out of hell.

Sometimes I hate being the most responsible one. It seems like everyone else is off having a great time while I worry about things and pick up the slack.