A Well Crafted Lady Archives – Page 19 of 21

Hair Do or Not to Do?

October 3, 2012 No Comments A Well Crafted Lady

My changing ‘Do over the past five years.

I just realized that for the first time in my life I don’t have a job that dictates how I look. Nearly all of the jobs I’ve had since I was sixteen dictated, in one fashion or another, what I could or couldn’t do regarding my hair, tattoos, piercings, nail color, and/or dress.

I have always liked changing up my hair. It was my one way of controlling something when all was going crazy or my one small way of rebelling against the status quo without going out of my comfort zone. I put together the above collage of my hair over the past five years or so just as proof that I like to change things up. (Please excuse the fact that I now have a mega collage of my face on the internet.) Short, Medium-Length, Long… blonde, red, brown, black… I’ve done them all. But, now I can really do ANYTHING I want. So, I’m thinking it might be fun to get a non-natural color.

Sources: 1. UK Hairdressers 2. Soul Prophet 3. Gigi Pandian 4. Shanaz Hair Design

Above are some of the ideas I’m playing around with for the new do. Are the ideas played out? Should I do it or wait a bit and see if this crazy urge for change passes me by? And, if I wait… how long?

What has been your favorite personal hair experiment?

A Well Crafted Lady

Me, Me, Me

September 13, 2012 No Comments A Well Crafted Lady

***If the title didn’t give it away… this post is all about ME. It is ego-centric and reflective. If you don’t want to read the word “I” a bajillion times then I’m glad you stopped by, but stop reading now.

I’ll be back soon with something less me-centric. ***

I’ve been super reflective lately because of a few huge things that have/are happening to me right now:

I’m very soon to be turning 29 years old. I’ve been looking forward to this birthday most of my life (12/12/12) and have always had certain expectations for where I would be and who I would be at my 29th birthday.
I quit my service industry job of 6 years to pursue writing, look for full-time career-style employment, and/or stay at home with my son.
I moved into a house rather than an apartment for the first time in our marriage.
We started weaning and I have my own body to myself for the first time in nearly 2 years. Don’t get me wrong… loved sharing it with my little guy for his enrichment and development. But, I’m happy to have it back.

These changes have cause me to really examine my life and what I’ve been doing for the past 29 years.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with me.

I feel like I’ve become the type of person I want to be and I want to teach my kid(s) to be. I try my hardest to be confident, kind, non-judgmental, giving, and thankful. I’m certainly not perfect. But, I don’t expect myself to be perfect (anymore, that is a whole other story though) and I don’t want my kid(s) to expect perfection out of themselves or out of me.

But, as for where I am at in my life.

I expected more from myself.

I’ve allowed the lack of funds or fear of failure to dictate my achievements for too long. I’ve worked for free to “build my portfolio” or “because I’m not a real pro” for too long. I’ve downplayed my worth for too long.

And, I’m learning to be okay with that.

It has all been a part of building the WHO I am part of me.

But, now it is time for me.

This is going to be MY year.

(I plan on being as supportive as ever to my husband and son…

but, other than that there is going to be a lot of putting ME first this year)

My goals this year:

Finish my novel. I have been working on a novel for three + years now. And, in my freelance gig I had to write a novel in a month. So, now I know I can do it. I am going to focus on my novel and get it done. I’ll be looking for (free/cheap) editors friends who like to read. 🙂
Develop my E-course/E-book idea and have it running before the end of 2013. I’m super excited about developing and collaborating with a few friends on this project.
Spend time putting my physical well-being a priority. I will be posting on this later in much more detail. Overall I am pretty healthy, but I have had some significant pain over the past four years that are semi-directly related to my weight. It is time to make this a priority, but I want it to enrich my life rather than take away some of the joy. Finding the balance and implementing a routine will be a huge goal for this year.
Party like its 12/12/12. Silly goal, I know. But, when ever since I turned 12 and my grandmother made a HUGE deal out of the the fact that I turned 12 on 12/12 I have looked forward to my 29th birthday. And, I throw parties. Financially throwing a party right now is irresponsible and not at all possible for us. But, my hopes are that I can score enough freelance gigs to make a small celebration happen.

Are you where you want to be in your life?

What are your goals for YOU?

A Well Crafted Lady

Loving Lipstick

April 19, 2012 No Comments A Well Crafted Lady

Me, I haven’t ever been a big fan of lipstick. My bow shaped lips are a pretty color—Why change it? Also, I’ve always wanted to play up my eyes rather than my lips.

Most the time I just slap on some gloss and call it good.

But, the goody bags from the Portland Blogger’s Meet-Up had a tube of Radiant Cosmetic’s lipstick in it and I thought I’d try an experiment. I got a fairly light pink shade called Peony (perfect for Spring, don’t ya think?) So, I took a photo with and without my peony pink lipstick.

Without:

With:

What do you think?

I think the little extra color on my lips actually made my eyes light up even more.
It also brought out some color in my cheeks. I think I might be addicted.

I also wanted to experiment on how long the lipstick would last on my lips.

I applied lip liner and then my lipstick and then gave my little man a bunch of kisses.

The lipstick was still on my lips after 50 kisses! Not bad, right?

And, I can feel even better about wearing lipstick by knowing that the lipstick helps support a good cause. Radiant Cosmetics has dedicated time and resources into the fight against human trafficking.

From their website:

“We are not your ordinary makeup company.

We believe that through ordinary purchases we can make a difference in this world.

Radiant Cosmetics was built around our passion to fight human trafficking.

With every product you purchase we donate our time, money and effort to help fight the injustice.”

I think I am going to have to go through the other colors available and see if I can’t pull off wearing lipstick more often!

Full Disclosure: The Portland Bloggers were gifted items from the above company to help support the Portland Bloggers. The sponsors were given signage at the event. No posts were expected from the bloggers in return for the donations. But, everyone at the event, including myself were super excited by the turn out and the companies that were involved. Personally, I have a journalism background and don’t believe in exchanges of promises of positive reviews for products and will not do that on either of my blogs nor suggest that other bloggers do that. I contacted most of these sponsors personally because I believe in their product and have experienced great service with them. This makes it only a joy for me to share any links to these companies with you!