new logo?!

hi guys! i have a new logo. and i'm not 100% settled on it, but i wanted to change it.

there wasn't an immediate prompt for me to do so, but i've been watching too many brush lettering video clips on instagram lately... bought several pens over the past year-ish to play with.. not actually practicing real brush lettering (nor getting a book/print outs)... anyway, to kill some time yesterday, i decided to play with them a bit. eventually, i thought about updating the logo... by the time i started getting annoyed with the pens, i remembered that teh paul asked for a wacom intuos tablet a few years ago. it's been collecting dust since he's never connected it to his computer to play with, so i stoles it.

it's been pretty interesting trying to learn how to use the wacom, since this model doesn't have its own screen... so looking at my computer screen while trying to maneuver the pen with the tablet has been a huge learning process. by the time i finally got to a logo i liked, i realized i was using black the entire time, not the blue that i had used in my previous logo. 😑 i'm no photoshopper and when i was messing with the file to make it blue, it looked awfully pixelated and bleeeh. so if you see a new *blue* logo in the coming weeks, that's me, messing with it and learning how to wacom! ~Lindsay ^.~

ps. do y'all like my handwriting? that's my sad attempt at brush lettering...with MS paint's brush pen. lol. 😅

winter pbc sale haul!

hi guys! sooo. winter pbc sale. i think i did pretty good staying close to my budget. it's funny how like a year or so ago, i was like dood these are just stickers! so much money! but no, it's a real thing and i need them. ~Lindsay ^.~

Shepherd Supply Co - had to get next year's mardi gras kit early while it was on sale!

Planner Kate -- apparently i love the month of april? not remembering that i'd already ordered one, got another april kit from the january Monthly Planner Madness sale, which i'll save for next year.

Joyful Planner -- this monthly kit is really nice!

Sticker Sensations -- super cute!

Planner Frenzy -- so. many. freebies! 😍

 

☝ 95% freebies! (i ordered the glitter strips)

Keatown -- all of the can't even's. soooo cute! i got the 4 kits: totoro, sailor moon, mulan, and princess and the frog, and i also got 2 glitch bags.

Bubba Bear Studios -- pandasssss!

Creating & Co -- i've always loved birds, but not so much owls. but oscar is so freakin cute!

Anxiety Aids -- you guys. these freebie sheets? i can't. a vending machine, dollar bill, and cassette tape? yes.

Miscellany Boulevard -- i loved her lainey's and now there's other characters / designs with her?! yess.

sky organics bubble boxes!

hi guys! today, i wanted to talk a little about a new-ish subscription service that i recently added. it's $17/month including shipping for 4 bath products from sky organics. or, if you want to buy them box by box after the fact, they're about $19 each. i subscribed february 4th, and received my box by the 7th. super fast! and teh paul got me the december and january boxes for valentines day. i have used their bath bombs in the past. on amazon, i ordered their 6 bomb gift set, and for christmas i received the kid's gift set, which i'm still working through. (both boxes linked here)

so far, i've only used the pink and blue bath bomb from the february box, but it was awesome. i have a garden tub.. so it's like larger or something.. and it was still the perfect size. the scent was amazing, there was shimmer everywhere, and i appreciated that there weren't many flower petals and they were easy to fish out. i can't wait to try out the shower steamers and bubble scoops!

i think that the price and quality are just right! for 4 bath items it's less than $20, which is like what..1.5-2 things from L**H?? with free and super fast shipping? heck to the yes. and as someone who doesn't frequently take baths (so much faster to shower!), these are the right size/amount for me each month. if you're interested in subscribing, you can sign up here: https://box.skyorganics.us. otherwise, each month has their own product page after the subscription is shipped out, which i've linked these 3 months below. ~Lindsay ^.~

december, january

february

update: i wanted to include a photo to show you guys scale of all these products. the bath bomb at the top middle is from the kids gift set of 6.

notw - essie twill seeker -- false nails and nail glue follow up

hi guys! i wanted to make another post about my second try with these false nails and glue to provide a little more information about the two experiences. to see my previous post, click here. ~Lindsay ^.~

i don't think i fully explained my application process in my last post, so here ya go. first, you size out each of the nails you'll need, but don't glue them yet. (from left to right, i'm 97673 36579.) once you have your nails laid out, you can do one of two things: glue them on (then trim/paint), or trim/paint them (then glue). i opted to glue them on then paint them. then i trimmed them and filed the rough edges. since i didn't photograph my trimmed length last time, i wanted to mention that i used those nails as a guide to trim these. granted, my nails grew out since wearing the first set, so these got trimmed down to near or at my natural nail length.

today marks 6 full days of wearing this set of nails. i am still wearing them as i type up this post. *note: my previous post was for 9 days of wear.
polishes used: cnd stickey base coat, 2 coats essie twill seeker, 2 coats essie gel couture top coat

1. nail polish -- showing signs of tip wear, but i'm not certain if these were caused by my filing them after trimming.
2. false nails -- no signs of wear, cracking, or other issues! 😄
3. nail glue -- this is where this post diverges from last time. none of these nails have detached. what?! now i will say that when adhering one or two of these, i noticed weird sounds coming from them as i pressed them on. after inspecting them, i pulled them off and added more glue because i think there was not enough glue and too much air between my nail and the fake. BUT. these have otherwise not had any problems whatsoever. also, after some slight tugging on each right now, none of them are budging. faith in this nail glue has been restored! 😊 so i think i will say that it was quite possibly that i didn't apply enough glue the last time i tried it, and i'm quite happy that it's lasted this long.

left: i started trimming before getting a before shot! 🙊

february 2018 ipsy bag!

hey guys! my february IPSY BAG* (theme: unzipped) arrived a few days ago, and i'm here to give you my initial thoughts! ~Lin-chan ^.~

1. luxie beauty 249 shading and blending brush -- i really love their 205 blending brush, and the fluffy side seems to be the same! so excited since this will be a great 2 in 1 travel brush.
• repurchase: i don't see it on their site... 😕
2. biobelle perfecting primer facial mask -- sheet mask for priming the face? interesting... i've been super slacking on all the sheet masks for, you know, regular skincare purposes...i have soo many. anyway, i somehow acquired 4 which i think may have been in error.. most instagram photos only show two. but i had two two packs.. anyway, i'll try one out at some point and potentially pass along at least 1 of these.
• repurchase: dunno, but probably not
3. pacifica beach crystals -- this is actually a cute palette. the shades are really nice, and i can't wait to try them on the eyes!
• repurchase: can you..? but probably not.. too many eyeshadows.
4. trestique mini eye pencil in swiss chocolate -- this is a lot more pigmented than i was expecting. i'll give this a go, and i appreciate that they sent a dark brown, which will go with everything!
• repurchase: undecided
5. mellow cosmetics matte liquid lip paint in tehran -- originally, i wasn't really expecting much from this lipstick. but it's actually really nice. super comfortable and no problems! i forgot to do a transfer test..but i think it'll be fine since it felt like it dried down completely and wasn't sticky.
• repurchase: maybe!
6.  pink velvet and black lace ipsy bag -- this is very cute! definitely screams february / valentine's day!

beach crystals palette (mars, raw power, prism, spaced out, faceted) swatched dry; tehran, swiss chocolate

tehran

*Affiliate Link.

my first erin condren, a year and a half later...

hi guys! so you know how i published a post around 30 minutes ago about my january (planner), and i mentioned this post would come in a few days. lol. yeah. i'm ready to post this now. lol. so. my thoughts on my first ever erin condren life planner. this is also partially a comparison post of my older hourly against the new vertical planner. enojoy! ~Lindsay ^.~

something you may begin to notice with my end of month planner posts, i've actually been liking planning in the vertical a lot more. i'm not sure if part of it was because most stores design their stickers for the vertical (and some horizontal), but even less so for the hourly? the hourly planner's boxes are a lot wider than the vertical, so i could still get away with using vertical and happy planner kits. another thing too, i'm not huge into the no white space planning, just because i don't think it's practical. that being said, it's nice buying weekly kits and being able to use them for up to two weeks! also, any other straggler stickers i may have, i've been building up my own random stickers kit for those weeks (which remain to be photographed as i pre-stuck a a few of these into my vertical).

as always, i tag my posts. so feel free to check the tags for my hourly life planner or the vertical life planner.

here's what we're lookin like after 1.5 years and stickers. as you can probably tell, and i may have mentioned it in my haul post for the vertical planner, this coil is not big enough for 1.5 years of sticker usage. and they use the same diameter coil regardless if you get one year or 1.5.

what i'm holding up is the first 6 months (June - Dec 2016), and about where that and a year looks like against the coil.

after seeing a video by Kayla, owner of Oh Hello Stationery Co, i got inspired to go ahead and uncoil the parts that didn't belong to 2017. this is a 2 pack of plastic cinch coils that i got at the local craft store for about $3. these coils were a bit wider than i needed, so i fed it through every other hole.

here are all the pages i ended up removing completely, which were sticker and notes pages and the back pocket. notice how many teeth this poor snap-in bookmark has! omg. we lost most of those around the 1 year mark, which isn't too bad.

here's what 1 year looks like in my used in the hourly (left) compared to my new vertical (right) which has maybe 1 month's worth of spreads in it at this point.

erin condren vertical life planner - my january

hi guys! it's already february and i wanted to share how i used my first month of my new vertical life planner! sometime in the next few days, i'm going to make a comparison post with my hourly planner, so you can see my thoughts on both formats and my transition into this one. i'm still getting used to using stamps, so they'll probably be pretty crooked or misaligned for a while until i get the hang of using them. ~Lindsay ^.~

monthly calendar spread: i didn't end up getting a kit for this month because i wasn't sure what i wanted to do with this planner yet or how i wanted to use it. so i just threw on a few extra stickers that kind of suited the color scheme.

week 1: are you guys seeing the transformation of my sticker/planner usage?? omg.

week 2: kit from boulderbon

week 3: kit from my newest addiction

week 4: kit from once more with love. as mentioned in some recent post (been playing catch up so i don't remember which..), i will be making a pbc haul post once i get all my orders in!

notes pages: i don't think i'll be photographing these much as i have a bunch of household chores that need to be done written on all of them (all the way through december!) and for now, i filled in some of the empty space with washi tape or stickers from the washi tape packaging.
(pre-january) trust the magic of new beginnings.
(pre-february) you are a diamond nothing can break you.

early february hauls!

bam! makin another haul post because this needs to get put up sooner than later! i've got some really good stuff here and i hope you will consider supporting a fellow blogger in her small business venture! ~Lindsay ^.~

Nail Muse by Lydia -- i can't remember how i came across lydia's nail blog years ago, but i have been following her ever since. i finally got around to buying some of her press on nails that she started selling (maybe a year or two now..?) because they're gorgeous. i ordered these in my custom sizes (3,5,6,7,9), shape (round) and length (short). i'll eventually post a picture on my hands and review of these, but these are so nice! they're a very pretty water marble with blue, purple, and pink, over what looks like a white base, then there's a coat of a very fine rainbow microglitter. b-e-a-utiful! this set was $15+shipping, and included an orange stick and mini filing block, as well as application instructions. nail adhesive sold separately.

a few different things here! had to get myself a sigmagic scrub because, buy all the things! then i also picked up another sephora solid brush cleanser and a beautyblender solid cleanser. and as seen in my empties post, i'm hitting pan on my paaarty blush. then i wanted to try the ordinary.'s glycolic acid toner, and i got an hourglass vanish highlight stick sample in champagne flash. at walmart, they had these new crushed foil metalics eyeshadows that i haven't seen anyone review yet. swatching it, i'm not super impressed but we'll have to see. then over at ulta, i ordered a buncha stuff. got some dr teals things, a few more tea tree oils, a clarifiying lotion, two new wet n wild color icon palettes, and two hask masks. i know, i know, i'm trying to go through hair samples and i more or less bought two hair samples.... but they're supposed to be good, and they're wine inspired! 😉

wet n wild nude awakening palette (over primer)

hourglass champagne flash, loreal diamond dust, wet n wild walking on eggshells palette (over primer)

walking on eggshells original trio vs new quad (over primer)

walking on eggshells original trio (left) vs new quad (right) (over primer)