Friday Finds & Check-ins, Volume #612
Share your recent beauty purchases or rediscovered favorites in your stash (for those on low/no-buys!), chit chat about weekend plans, and learn a little more about each other!
Let's Chat!
Share your own answers in the comments!
- Recent Purchases/Rediscoveries: Still waiting to receive some orders!
- Weekend plans: I can’t believe July is almost gone! It’s been a summer of the usual, but hey, I enjoy normalcy–so blogging, hanging with family, and getting an afternoon nap in!
- What was the last skill you honed?: I really feel like I “worked” at napping. I used to not be able to take naps, and the rare occasion that I’d fall asleep, I’d wake up with a headache or nauseous. I’ve spent the last six months consciously going to take a nap–at a minimum, taking a 30-45 minute break to “relax” and try to put everything out of my mind.
P.S. — Want to chat with readers on the regular? Check out Temptalia’s Discord where you can chat about beauty, makeup, and more! 🙂
P.P.S. — Check our hubby’s new site for video gaming guides — good if you (or someone you know or your kids!) is into games like Roblox and Minecraft!
This week's doggo photo/video...
Share your pet photos to the Temptalia Pets flickr group!
Purchases: just a few more things from Saje (Peppermint Halo and Allergy Release rollerballs – the latter was given to me when I mentioned to the SA that I lost my sense of smell back in January due to Covid; she really wanted me to have it even though I don’t have allergies but she felt it couldn’t hurt and might help). Peppermint Halo is absolute bliss! Rediscoveries: MAC Sweet Heat Extra Dimension eyeshadow…I’d sort of forgot about it even though I do really love it (I think it’s just the lessened amount of makeup I’m wearing generally).
Weekend plans: our older son got home last night so much will involved him and his “boys” (the guys he was in high school with are all coming by on Sunday for a bbq and to get together again for the first time in 18 months); meeting some women I taught with in about an hour on a patio downtown (we’ve also not been together in 2 years). Monday is a holiday here so we’ll all just kick back at home or do something together.
The last skill I’ve honed: making my own bias tape in fabrics to match the garments I’m making to face the necklines and sleeves (in the case of sleeveless dresses and tops). I’m sure it doesn’t sound like much but it makes some garment construction so much easier and nicer (no lumpy facings to deal with) and makes things like the Merchant and Mills Trapeze dress way easier to construct.
How fantastic it is that your son made it home – I expect that he has changed quite a bit since you saw him last. It will be great for him to catch up with his old school friends too. I hope the weather is agreeable for the BBQ.
Teacher collegues are so good to catch up with too – I caught up with a couple of mine last Friday and the wider teaching group I worked with catches up every 2-3 months – lockdowns permitting.
I think the MAC Extra Dimension eyeshadow range of singles was one the best the brand has put out in awhile and I can see why you like Sweet Heat so much – a gorgeous peachy shade that would work well by itself or with any other colour.
Enjoy your weekend Mariella and I hope your son enjoys his time with his family too.
I’m glad your son is home, and you’re getting to visit with his and your friends. How wonderful!
Purchases: today the Sydney Grace mystery bags came out so I ordered two of the taupe bags in Light (one for my mom), a single matte shadow also for mom, and got a free selection of mystery bag as an extra, so got the purple bag in Light. Mega excited to see what they have!
Weekend plans: chores and hopefully getting outside for a bit.
Skill honed: drawing/painting and writing are part of my regular work, but I feel like I’m always working to hone those skills. Right now I have Skillshare to catch up on learning some new digital techniques.
I would be very interested to read what’s in the Taupe light bag and how your mum liked it. I hope that the shades are beautiful…
Thanks, Genevieve! 🙂 I shall report back!
Ha ha Winston looks like when you’re a kid and your parents buy your clothes one size too big so you can grow into them.
Purchases: So far just some basics, I needed some lip ointment and some face serum so I re-upped those (at Target and Trader Joe’s respectively, nothing fancy). Thinking of taking advantage of The Lip Bar’s extended National Lipstick Day sale, though.
Rediscovery: I think I bought the Uoma Black Magic Bahia lipstick either right before the pandemic or early on when we didn’t realize it’d go on for over a year. So I’d only worn it once. I put it on yesterday for National Lipstick Day and I loooooove it. It’s like “My lips but I’m a magical creature so they sparkle.” Also I’ve been hitting up one of the Bite holiday tins because it was sitting on my desk, and both Sake and Date were good choices for work video calls.
Weekend plans: A friend of mine who makes clothing is doing a trunk show at a really cool looking shop that sells clothing by local designers, so I’m going to go check that out tomorrow. We’ll get dinner while we’re out too, not sure if we’ll go to a restaurant or head down to Chinatown-International District where they’d doing a food walk. Probably depends on how hot and smoky it is. On Sunday, we might go to a free class on orchids at a local house plant shop. My spouse loves orchids so I bought them a small one at Trader Joe’s yesterday.
A skill I’ve recently honed: At work I learned how to make Gantt charts in a new-to-me software. And in my personal life I am improving my embroidery skills. After about a year of learning different stitches in projects that had a sort of casual style, I am doing a kit that is a more exact “thread painting” style that will end up looking like a nature illustration of a cicada. I just started it last night and it requires more careful attention than what I have done before, but I am already excited seeing the cicadas wings start to take shape. I don’t know if I will ever be good enough to do thread painting without a pre-printed pattern, but I am just doing this for fun so I don’t have to be good, and that’s a nice feeling.
Put a link to the finished cicada on here. Sounds grand.
It’ll probably be a month or two until I finish it, but this is the pattern that came with my kit:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/975148567/pdf-cicada-embroidery-pattern-and?ref=shop_home_recs_1
If you like embroidery you’ll definitely want to check out her Instagram, she does these gorgeous HUGE hoops that are based on macro photography of butterfly wings and feathers, and she’s also doing a challenge where every month people stitch a different endangered species:
https://www.instagram.com/rabbithatdesigns/
I’d love to be playing along with the challenge but I’m not that good at embroidery yet. Maybe someday!
Oh, that Cicada is absolutely beautiful. I’ve never done embroidery “painting” like that. How cool! Maybe tis fall or winter I’ll try it.
Recent Purchases/Rediscoveries: Nothing new.
Weekend plans: Hiking, chores, cooking, groceries, the regular stuff. I want to go back to my ritual of visiting museums on Sunday, especially local ones.
What was the last skill you honed? It’s so sad to acknowledge that most new skills I get these days are work related, learning new tools and technologies.
That video was hilarious 😂! Yeah, he’ll grow into it… that’s a lot of skin to fill. 💙
Purchases/rediscoveries: Neither of either. Well, YET. The day is still young!
Weekend Plans: Just trying to BREATHE and relax. I’ve been so incredibly stressed out over a situation with my apartment, along with other major stressors, that I’m now frighteningly mentally exhausted. What I’ve been trying to work on is that worrying/panicking will not fix anything. Tomorrow morning, my plan is to get up in time to attend my weekly meeting and part of my yearly Convention via Zoom.
What was the last skill you honed?: Umm, I don’t know that I have any new skills, tbh! Perhaps, learning to reach out to others and ask for help? This is not something I have been very good at in the past 20 something years, but I’ve found myself so over my head lately, that I’ve re-learned how to do that. Part of this process has meant learning to be more humble and open to suggestions, good advice coming from a place of care and love, and also allowing myself to be more vulnerable in a positive way.
What’s going on with your apartment Nancy that is so worrying you? I am really concerned because I thought it was much nicer than your old one. I hope that things can be sorted out in a reasonable way for you – you certainly don’t need this kind of hassle at all.
Such an adorable, happy puppy!
Recent Purchases/Rediscoveries: All I spent money on this week was food, gasoline, and guitar picks. Honestly, I don’t think I’ll be buying makeup for a long time!
Weekend plans: Watching the Olympics, working on music, and finishing my binge-watch of “Killing Eve.”
What was the last skill you honed? How to use the GarageBand program for recording music.
RECENT PURCHASES:
*Natasha Denona (20 percent off flash sale) — Bronze Palette.
*Juvia’s Place (40 percent off minis sale) — Bundle of the four new quads.
*Menagerie Cosmetics — Serenity, Flight Club, and Feral eyeshadow palettes, Snowball Chameleon Eyeshadow Single, Arthurine Blush Palette Vol. 1, and Withered Rose Velvet Matte Liquid Lipstick.
*Nordstrom (used Nordy Notes)– Sigma Ivy Eyeshadow Palette and a back-up Estee Lauder Limited Edition Rebellious Rose Blush.
RECENT REDISCOVERIES: Huda Mercury Retrograde Palette and Femty Beauty Mattemoiselle Plush Matte Lipstick in Tiger Tini.
WEEKEND PLANS: Tomorrow we might go to mermaid festival and parade at Waterfront Park, if the temperature declines enough. It will get to 100F here today.
We need to take my youngest shopping for jeans. I might help hubby work on the second airplane wing flap. We got the plane’s motor a couple days ago, which was super exciting!
What was the last skill you honed?: Deburring drill holes in airplane parts.Next I’ll probably be putting in colecos and doing actual drilling.
What a cutie Winston is! He is indeed looking to have a growth spurt.
Recent Purchases: Just a tub of CeraVe moisturiser for my hands and body.
Rediscoveries: Nothing really – I’ve just been using my On the Horizons palette a lot.
Weekend Plans: Our official lockdown finished mid week and children were allowed back at school and the shops are open (with masks). There are still a lot of restrictions though.
The older two grandchildren are going up to visit their other grandparents this weekend and staying over Saturday night to see the horses. The weather is lovely today – no rain or Antarctic winds, thank goodness. It lovely to see a bit of sunshine.
Last skill I’ve honed: Cooking for eight people nearly every single night and cleaning up super quickly.!
I “feel” you on the cooking thing. I’m just cooking for 2 most days but it’s every day, 3 times a day, tiresome…. Now that DS is home, it’s actually a bit more fun because he eats a wider range of foods. His “boys” were here yesterday and they and their girlfriends and our daughter and her husband are all coming tomorrow for a bbq. I’m not used to cooking for so many….how do small restaurants and diners manage to do it non-stop???
Well I am cooking for eight varied people and their wish list now and I find I cook medium amounts of different things, eg a small roast beef and lamb, a salad and roast vegies (which caters for everyone). Or I will do fish (which I know you can’t do), steamed vegies and a different type of salad. Or chicken (in varied ways), plus a beef (for the husband who won’t eat chicken), I can tell you it is exhausting trying to think of different things every single night
Recent Purchases/Rediscoveries: My Menagerie order arrived today!!
Weekend plans: I hung out with a friend today! I get some time alone this weekend and plan to pig out and watch dark dramas 😛
What was the last skill you honed?: I can’t think of anything 🙁
Recent Purchases/Rediscoveries: Chanel Joues Contraste blush in Elegance (previous formula) and Guerlain Meteorites Face Powder in Pink Pearl. Rediscovered Charlotte Tilbury Instant Look In a Palette in Natural Beauty, which remains a favourite of all that have been released.
Weekend Plans: I am finally back in Canada after being away from friends and family for 18 long months. Two negative Covid tests and being fully vaccinated meant I was exempt from a 14-day quarantine and further testing. Experiencing my mother’s improved health and my mother-in-law’s declining health have been joyful and shocking, respectively. I’ve been taking in the changes and enjoying what is familiar and new. I’m so thankful to be home. Spending the weekend with family, watching the Olympics, and enjoying the outdoors before temperatures soar again.
Skill I’ve honed: Since we purchased a house, I’ve been honing my procurement skills by being clear about the scope and specificity of our request so proposals received are for the precise work we want done on a small and large basis.
Congratulations on getting back home!
Recent Purchases/Rediscoveries: No purchases, I still haven’t been able to try all the things that arrived to me while I was on vacation! As for rediscoveries, I only wore makeup once this week, the Clionadh shade “Enamel” with some KVD tattoo liner in “Mad Max Brown” on top. I really liked the look and got lots of compliments on it!
Weekend plans: I only have Saturday off this week, and since I visit my grandma for dinner on Saturdays, I’m gonna spend the day trying to catch up on video-editing, I am so behind. I then work on Sunday
What was the last skill you honed?: It’s work-related, but applying makeup on other people! I mostly just work the register at Sephora, but we’ve been short-handed lately so sometimes I’ve had to jump in and so far I haven’t had any complaints
Recent Purchases: Shroud x Beautbean IFB palette and the Lethal x Theresa is Dead palette
Rediscoveries: Nothing in particular, though, i have enjoyed the look of my eyes with just mascara after using a lash serum for several months…. my lashes have always been so short and sparse and this seems like it’s really helped.
Weekend plans: My son turned four on the 29th and this weekend we had a birthday celebration for him with family. It was a great day and it was so nice to get together with my family. I hadn’t seen my mom since last Christmas and my brother since Christmas 2019.
What was the last skill you honed?:
As to the last skill I honed, I would have to say painting (walls/trim) out of necessity, lol. I painted my entire downstairs over the course of a month, and I have to say, it turned out beautifully.