It’s me!

How seeing themselves in books can help students read better

Hamilton was released on Disney+ just in time for Independence Day. In light of recent events, I know alot of people did not think year was a good year to celebrate Independence Day. I disagreed.

In fact, events like Hamilton are THE reason why Independence Day should still be celebrated during tumultuous times in our country. Alexander Hamilton was an orphan from the Caribbean who became one of the founding fathers of the U.S. Hundreds of years later, my White dad and Asian mom brought me to this country. Mixed couples like my parents who tried to get married a few decades earlier were thrown in jail. That is why I celebrated Independence Day this year.

After Hamilton was released for streaming, a video of a young girl seeing Phillipa Soo portray Eliza Hamilton went viral. “It’s me!” the girl exclaimed. The little girl was Asian and excitedly recognized her face in Soo’s face, just as I, a 39-year-old-woman, did.

Little Jenna here is exactly why #representationmatters . I am so grateful for this show, that so many young people can watch this show and say “It’s me” . Thank you @britbrit1432 for sharing this video ❤️💕❤️💕 @HamiltonMusical #hamilfilm pic.twitter.com/iDbb4orVIs

— Phillipa Soo (@Phillipasoo) July 6, 2020

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Growing up, seeing someone like me on tv or in books usually just meant looking for the character who was good in school or, if I was lucky, the girl with brown hair. Thinking on it now, it’s interesting because my school was about 50% White and 50% Hispanic and Black (I was one of two Asian kids in the school). Fourth through sixth grades switched to primarily hispanic because we bussed in kids from a smaller and poorer school who were all hispanic. So, even though I went to school with mixed cultures, most of the kids still flocked to the books entrenched in White culture. There were only two books in the library that featured Asian culture at all, but I still identified more with the Black faces on books than I did with all the White faces.

As I got older, I loved fantasy books and mystery, but they usually featured White boys (Chronicles of Prydain, My Father’s Dragon, Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher among my favorites). I loved my Baby-Sitters Club books because there was an actual Asian girl in there. Later, the books featured a Black baby-sitter too. Two characters of color out of eight total doesn’t seem like much, but it was in the 1980s. It always seemed like the girls in school were divided by the Sweet Valley High fans and the Baby-Sitters Club fans. There was no way that I could identify with the pale skin, blond hair, and blue eyes, much less twins at a well-off school.

Last year, I taught first grade at a school with primarily low-income Hispanic students. My class mostly picked picture books that were related to popular characters – Pokemon, Disney Princesses, etc. My higher kids really liked series books like Dog Man and Pete the Cat. The most popular pop culture characters in my class were Sonic, Mario, and Pennywise (!) among the boys and Elsa, JoJo Siwa, and any fuzzy animal among the girls. Because their own picks did not seem to reflect their own heritage, my teacher team made sure to provide classroom reading books with diverse characters. We actively added topics and images of students in our lessons who looked like our students. One of the reading objectives was for students to find how they could relate to characters and events in stories. Truly, how could a student of color living in Section 8 housing identify with a story where a White kid’s White parents have two cars and live in a two-story house with more rooms and bathrooms than people?

As a book lover and teacher, maybe I am biased about the power of books. Even so, I honestly believe that one of the best things you can do for your children is surround them with books about a variety of subjects and characters. This year, I will be teaching third grade. The diverse library of books I have for first graders needs to be updated so that my new third grade class can see themselves in the books. If they can see themselves in the characters and relate to the stories, then they are more likely to be interested in the books and want to read more.

With that in mind, I created a Donors Choose project because I cannot afford to buy all of the books for a new class library. Texas schools will be opening in person in August and my students will already be stressed about our new rules and having to come back to school after five months at home. While we try to deal with the ever-changing landscape that the Coronavirus forces us into, I want my students to be comforted by familiar things like books. When the virus gets bad enough and we all have to return to remote learning, I want to be able to send books home to any student who does not have internet access or limited access to technology and/or parental help. These students and parents are struggling and trying their best in a difficult situation. For many of my students last year, the couple of books they took with them were the only books they had to read at home.

If you are able to, please donate to my Donors Choose project and spread the word! If you add the code LIFTOFF, donations up to $50 will be matched for the next seven days! If you have any other suggestions about what I can do in my classroom to encourage an environment of inclusion or to help my students when we switch to distance learning, please let me know. I am open to anything that will help my students learn or ease the stress that they and their families face during these confusing times.

Plan With Me June 29 – July 5

Hello! Today, I made some time to plan the coming week. I actually went through and tried to add any stickers to liven up last week and next week too. Planning is such great therapy for me. I like to play planning videos in the background because it makes me feel less guilty for some reason. This time I watched a bit of tattooed teacher plans and Neatly Planned.

Just getting in all those sunny days

For my first step, I went through some weather stickers that I printed out months ago while I was experimenting with sticker designs. I won’t be selling them, but I do need to use them, so I slapped them down for this week. I looked up the 10-day forecast on weather.com and we have “mostly sunny” weather this week, but a couple of days for “mostly cloudy”. So, I put down my sunny stickers first and then laid down a couple of clouds for the cloudy days. Unfortunately, it won’t rain at all, so it will be in the upper 90s all week (meaning it’s really going to feel at least 10 degrees hotter due to the sun and humidity.

I admit that I’m a sticker hoarder. Feels good to finally get that off my chest.

Then, I started on my MAMBI sticker books. I got one as a gift and bought a few more during Christmas clearance at Michaels. I keep wanting to buy more, but I have so many to use already! So, I flipped through every page of every book to see if I could use any of the stickers on any of the days.

I don’t exactly know what will be happening on any given day…

I keep using the pen to cover up some private info that I already wrote in my planner. My daughter’s birthday is this week. Independence Day is this week. We get the kids for a month starting Monday. Big week! It also means that I don’t exactly know what will be happening on any given day because I have to wait for my husband to finalize plans with his family…and then remember to tell me the plans at a time when I’m not completely engrossed in something else and will be able to pay attention. I don’t know about you guys, but I do alot of planning where I can’t actually plan!

I’m actually pretty good at drinking water…*humble brag*

You’ll notice my Hydrate sticker is in my Notes. That’s because I’m actually pretty good at drinking water and am just trying to drink 100 oz each day since it’s extra hot. If I do, then I’ll get to check off each day. I don’t need to follow how many cups I drink each day because eight 8-oz glasses is NBD for me *humble brag* I also do plan to feed the kids dinner each night, but I’m not promising to cook each night and I don’t know how many days we’ll actually be in town next week vs. how many days we’ll be at my in-laws’ farm.

Batman cuts through washi like he cuts through actors. Oh! Ba dum ching!

I almost forgot about washi! My precious, precious washi. As I finished up the last parts of events, I went back and added some flamingo washi to tie in the big pink block I used with the green theme of the week. I didn’t have any Independence Day stickers left, so I just used some cute star stickers and made an area on July 4th to designate the holiday.

Next week is planned! Kinda!

It has been so long since I actually made time to sit down and work in my planner like this. I miss my Big Happy Planner, but this kikki.K planner does work better for things nowadays. What planner do you use? Do you have more than one planner? Do you sit down and plan a week at a time or do you have some other method? Share with me in the comments!

Upcycling a Belt To Fix a Purse

Happy May, of 2019!  This is my first post of this year partly because I was trying to figure out the best way to host my photos after Flickr changed their policy and party because I’ve been so mo fo busy this year.  Also, I’m old and time flies, so I kept thinking it was the beginning of the year, and it just now hit me that May means that it’s almost June, which is almost the half of the year, which is almost fall, which is almost Halloween.  Yay Halloween!  Now, here’s a post!

Last year, I bought a cheap purse for $7 at 1/2 of 1/2. I bought it for the size and the sturdy bottom (heh, heh) since my fabric purses wore out quickly on the bottom. By the end of the year, the handle, which was fake leather, had cracked and peeled so badly that it scratched my neck when I used it and I was afraid it might break at any moment. The rest of the purse was fine. My friend said I could see if a tailor could put a new strap on it, but I thought I’d try to fix it first. I found a belt at a thrift store that I thought would work and just needed to find time to work on it.

I brought all my supplies to the dinner table after everyone was done eating and went to town!

A closeup of the cracked purse strap

I used the seam ripper to remove the stitching around the belt loops so that I just had the fabric of the belt.

The general idea was to sew the belt around the existing strap. The trickiest part would be where the belt attached to the purse because there was stitching and hardware attached to the purse that I would need to sew around somehow. I basically fit the belt as close around the purse strap as possible and sewed the belt where I could. I had to use the thread as a tether in some areas just to pull the belt as close to the existing strap as possible so that it wouldn’t flap around on the parts of the strap where I did sew.

On the main part of the strap, I just did a basic stitch along the strap to wrap the belt around the strap. That was the easy, but time consuming part. My finger looks so weird here.

This side of the belt had loose threads from where I had to trim the belt to fit because it was a little longer than I needed. It also felt like I was sewing upside down because I was trying to sew to tuck in parts of the belt and thread in front of where the needle was rather than behind.

Finishing the sewing on the other end of the handle was both trickier and easier. 

All of this was still cheaper than paying a tailor to fix the purse. The belt was cheap and I already had all of the other supplies, so it didn’t cost much in that sense. The project only took two evenings to complete. After using the purse almost daily for four months, I’m pretty happy with this project!

The finished product!

Let me know if you’d like to see more crafty and DIY posts like this. Do you sew? Have you ever had to sew something weird like a purse or a shoe? Thanks for reading and make sure to check me out on YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter as well!

California Vacation 2018

Since we got back from vacation in July, I’ve had alot of ideas for blog posts, but was just too busy to do any.  This is only my second post this month! What?!  I figure it’s about time to put something out there since it’s been a month since we went on vacation.

This is going to be a very photo-heavy post.  We spent a week in southern California at the end of July.  We were able to meet up with my sister’s family, my cousin’s family, and my mom at different times, so it was nice to spend so much time with loved ones that I rarely get to see.  This was also the first time my kids had been on a plane, to the ocean, or to California.  Lots of firsts for them!  I prepared them with horror stories of airplane security check lines and tiny airplane seats with broken junk and options to pay lots of money for more broken junk.  On the way there, we flew Delta and it was the best flight experience I’ve had since I flew Virgin Airlines almost a decade ago.  On the way back, we flew American and my kids were pretty disappointed, but did acknowledge that I wasn’t exaggerating with airline horror stories, haha!  The ocean water and sand even cleared up my skin by like, 95%, but that changed once I got back home.  So, I’ll have another post coming soon about my updated skincare routine.  Either way, I took it as a sign that I need to live on the beach for the sake of my health.  It’s all just for my health, not because the beach is awesome and amazing and fun and relaxing.

Ben, Austin, and Averie on the way to California

Logan and me, excited to be sitting together!

Our first meal in Cali was at Panang Thai, which is near LAX.  No matter which restaurant we chose, the GPS went crazy and kept trying to take us back to the airport.  We finally got decent directions for this place and were grateful for the lovely waitstaff and delicious food.

Growing up in the hood and listening to rap and hip hop in the ’90s, I heard alot about Crenshaw.  I also wanted to get a picture of one of many bikers who had a death wish on the highway.  Why would you pull out in front of so many moving vehicles when the only thing between you and death is a helmet made of plastic and foam?!

I added the moustache to this work of art, but this is otherwise all custom work on a quality vehicle.

When you go on vacation and this is the view you see as you pull up the hotel, you know things are going to be good!

 

Wandering through a closed Chinatown, looking for breakfast, which we did find at a Chinese bakery!

So, of course I spent most of my time at Universal Studios in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  I mean, my gimpy feet were bothering me and the sunshine made the temperature hotter.  So, to prevent extra pain and headaches, I just hung out with the Harry Potter stuff, drinking pumpkin juice and walking around in air conditioned stores.  We did all start our visit with fried potatoes, pumpkin juice, and butterbeers at the Three Broomsticks before getting our own wands at Ollivanders.  I did decide on a Cauldron Cake at Honeyduke’s before the evening was over and it was delightful!  I wish the cafeteria at work had these.

Pumpkin juice, Excedrin Migraine, Tylenol, and Advil got me through the day.

Ben, Logan, and Averie came back to enjoy a Simpsons donut from the Kwik-E-Mart on the cool patio at the Hog’s Head.

I had already decided that the first day would be Universal and the second day would be at the beach so that we could just relax and not walk around for miles in the sun.  The beach at Oceanside is much cooler and wilder than some of the other beaches, but we did read up on it first and knew what to expect.  You get used to the cold water quickly once the sun comes out to greet you.

I offered to let this guy look through the telescope, but he was more interested in floor food.  Go figure!

Averie broke her toe a month before we went to California.  So, she was still walking around in a boot for most of the trip.  She wanted to just tape her toes and wear flip flops for anything beach-related, though.  Even without toe tape or boots, I was still limping along behind her.

The kids had a million questions about everything in the water and on the pier.  We have a saltwater fish tank at home, so we were trying to explain to the kids that all the work Ben does with the fish tank is to mimic the environment of the ocean that mother nature takes care of every day.

Ben and the kids got ice cream here the night that we hung out with my family on the pier.

Night surfing!  I can’t even surf during the day.  I so admired this dude.

The waves get pretty big at night.  All you can really see from a distance is the foam.

The resort where we stayed had a viewing deck that we checked out at night when it was less busy.

I get a bit of vertigo when I get close to the edge, but not Logan!

Sea World San Diego!  We didn’t think that we’d be able to afford more than one theme park, but my mom’s friends are both in the military and got some free tickets for us.  There was a whole aquarium filled with adorable sea turtles!

Biting flamingo, kakaw!

While eating at one of the food court patios, I heard Ben say, “Oh, we have some guests,” and felt some fuzzy things on my legs.  I freaked out!  Then, I saw that they were just baby ducklings!  They waddled so quickly that I nearly missed getting a picture.

I almost missed the penguin exhibit before I realized that they had it dark and cold inside not because it was closed, but to imitate July in Antarctica.  This lil dude was outside of the penguin exhibit and posed for quite a few pictures while complaining at me when I took too long between his various poses.

Our last meal in Cali was breakfast with my sister and nephew at the Naked Cafe.  The food was amazing!  (Coconut French toast, whaaaat?)  If I had to eat at this place for every meal for the rest of my life, I could probably handle that.

Probably my favorite name for a store ever!

Polka dot is a cool color for a car!

My babies, proudly wearing their California t-shirts at the airport.

Our middle schooler, tolerating yet another photo.

That is the end of our California vacation!  Thank you for reading this far!  I hope you enjoyed the photos and descriptions.  If you want to hear some more about our vacation, head on over to my YouTube channel for some vlogs!  Let me know if you liked this post by clicking the like button below.  Have you ever been to California?  If so, what part?  Do you surf?  Every driven a polka-dot vehicle?  Tell me all about it in the comments below!

Skincare Haul & Review – Silicone Applicator, Guerisson 9-Complex Toner, Innisfree Green Tea Cleansing Foam, and Ample: N Hyaluron Shot Cream

Hello, interwebz!  I am addicted to Korean skincare and the multi-step skincare method.  In this post, I’ll show you what I did to deal with the acne breakout that happened after I used BB cream that my skin did not like.  Eventually, the pimples turned into eczema and it has become a whole disaster that I’m trying to deal with in the cheapest, yet most effective, way possible.

***None of the pics of me are touched up in any way.  I just cropped them so that you can focus on the natural anger of of skin.  With irritation like this, who needs blush?***

Here are some products that I ordered for this post.  Because my skin is so fussy, I try new items one at a time so that I can see how it works before incorporating a grander scheme.  Only the cleansing foam was actually used the night the photos were taken, but I do include my reviews below on the other products.

I got the applicator for less than $2 from WalMart when we were visiting my in-laws.  I ordered the Guerisson 9-Complex Toner, Innisfree Green Tea Cleansing Foam, and the Ample: N Hyaluron Shot Cream on Amazon.  These were some of the first Korean skincare products that I’ve tried and I started, as always, with the cheapest stuff.  Everything from Amazon was under $10 with Prime shipping.  After a week of using the Guerisson toner, I realized that it was made with horse oil, which is not like tiger balm or horse shampoo.  Horse oil is not made from plants and is not used on horses, but is a byproduct of processing horse meat.  The Guerisson toner worked better than the toner I used in this post, but I couldn’t continue rubbing horse innards on my face.  I also found out that something in the Ample:  N Hyaluron Cream irritates the skin on my eyes.  I used it for three nights and my skin was okay, but my eyelids were puffy.  My right eyelid was so puffed up that I could only open my eye halfway and I eventually developed eczema on that eye.  So, I’m not sure if the eczema was in reaction to the cream or if it was already there and the cream made it worse, but I have put the Hyaluron Cream aside for now and will try it again when my skin clears up completely.  I haven’t actually used the applicator on any face masks yet, but I have used it on every cream and lotion that comes in a tub.  I’m paranoid about adding germs to the creams and changing the way they work, so this $2 solution was great!

Here is my face before I washed it.  You can see the biggest pimples and quite a bit of redness.  I should’ve taken a picture of the side of my face too because it was red and irritated.  I also needed to dye my gray hairs, but wanted to try to soothe my skin a bit before I added harsh chemicals to my head.

Here are the items that I actually used for this post.

For the last year or two, I have basically been washing my face with water and putting aloe gel on it before bed or any time that it starts feeling dry.  I knew I’d have to change things when I started wearing makeup, but I didn’t anticipate having such a crazy reaction from my skin so soon.  The Korean skincare system has been the only thing that seems to work right now, and this was my first attempt at most of the steps.  This video from Beauty Within, this one from The Beauty Breakdown, and this one from Gothamista are some of my favorite skincare routine videos.  I have the products above in the order that I used them.

1. Kopari Coconut Cleanser
2. Innisfree Green Tea Cleansing Foam
3. Sephora Pink Clay Mask
4. Dickinson’s Pore Perfecting Toner
5. Aura Cacia Tea Tree Oil
6. Trader Joe’s Organic Virgin Coconut Oil
7. Sample of Avon Anew Clinical Eye Lift Pro Dual Eye System

First, I cleansed with an oil to really break down any goop, sweat, moisturizer, sunscreen, etc.

Then, I used the cleansing foam to really clean everything off of my skin.  When I first heard about double cleansing, I thought it was crazy, but now I get it.  Two different cleansers for two different reasons.  The green tea cleanser comes out rather creamy and you work it into a foam by adding water to your hands and rubbing the cleanser between them.  The instructions didn’t say this, so I tried to put it on dry skin without anything else first.  It worked much better after adding water.

The cleanser was supposed to be calming, but it stung a bit since I had so many open sores on my face.  However, I didn’t feel squeaky clean afterwards, which meant that it was not stripping my skin of essential oils and would not tell my skin to overproduce sebum for more pimples.

I followed up the foam with a clay mask to try to pull extra junk from my pores.  I just want all the junk out so that I am not piling good ingredients on top of pimple goo in my pores.  The mask is something that I only use once or twice a week.  I used it instead of an exfoliator because it was less irritating to my skin than a physical or chemical exfoliant would have been.  This specific mask doesn’t dry either, which I have noticed my skin likes more than the ones that dry on your face.

Instead of rinsing off the mask over the sink, I went ahead and took a shower.  I like to take showers at night because it helps cool down my body in these brutal Texas summers. (It’s technically spring, but when you’re hitting 100 degree weather, it’s summer no matter the date.)  Washing off the mask during my shower meant that I didn’t have to worry about getting it all out of my hair or getting the mask on the bathroom counter.  Win-win!

Next, I put some toner onto a cotton pad and swiped my skin lightly with it.  This step is supposed to prepare your skin to accept the active ingredients that will be treating problems.  This toner is super cheap and works well, but it wasn’t doing much for my eczema issue, so I switched to something else a week or two later.  After the toner, I patted tea tree oil onto my pimples.  Normally, you’re supposed to use a carrier oil to dilute the tea tree oil so that it’s not so strong.  With the giant pimples I had, I did not want to add any extra oils that were not going to work specifically towards clearing my skin.  I don’t use the tea tree oil unless I have crazy pimples like this, so it didn’t really bother my skin, but it did nothing to help my eczema on my cheeks.  As a moisturizer, I used coconut oil.  I used the silicone applicator to spoon out a little oil and pat it all over my face and neck.  Overnight, it soaked into my skin to moisturize and calm my skin while treating acne (or at least pulled the gunk to the surface to remove from the pimple).  Finally, I tried my samples of Anew eye cream for night.  I don’t think it did any good, but it didn’t do any bad, either.  I didn’t have an allergic reaction and my skin was smooth.  So, I guess it worked well.

Overall, I think you can see how much calmer my skin was at the end of the skincare routine than it was at the beginning.  If you are looking into Korean skincare or even just trying to calm down angry skin, then the items used in this post should work pretty well for most people.  Even though I have very sensitive and combination skin with eczema, none of the items I used were bad for anyone with dry, oily, combo, or sensitive skin.  You always have to try things out for yourself to see.  I definitely saw a difference in my skin after doing this routine for a couple of days.

Thanks for reading this long post!  Have you tried any of the products mentioned in this post?  Do you think you’d try skincare products made with horse oil?  What are your favorite tips for calming down angry skin and clearing up pimples?  Let me know in the comments!

Daiso Haul May 2018

Hello Interwebz!  Surprisingly, I found all of my lost photos and videos on my SD card after I put it back into the camera and used the camera a few times.  What?!  I count myself lucky and am so grateful to have found my lost hard work.  I’d like to thank Dumb Luck for making this post possible.

Once again, I found myself at Daiso and bought everything I could carry in one armload.  I only dropped something once and was able to pick it up with my pinky finger.  Everything in this post was less than $27 including tax.  Daiso does not allow refunds or exchanges, but their stuff is so cheap and pretty decent quality that it’s not really worth the time or effort to return things anyway.  I have yet to be displeased with anything I got there.  Also, I have been looking for most of this stuff for months after seeing and not getting them and then seeing raving reviews for them online.

The gel pens and colored pencils in the background were things I already had, but everything else was from this trip.  I also got a few things that are not pictured because they didn’t have anything to do with any of my beauty, skincare, or art projects and were put to use before I even started taking pictures for this post.

Beneath these pens was my lingerie bag.  I recently bought some brassieres on Bare Necessities and want to take care of them since they were a bit pricey (by my standards).  If you don’t know what Bare Necessities is or would like a review post about the site, let me know.  Moving on, the bag has worked well so far and was only $1.50, much cheaper than every other lingerie I’ve had.  You can also see my new brush pens, kneadable eraser (had to knead it before I snapped pics), and an ink pen.  The Daiso by me carries three varieties of these Zebra brush pens and I already had one.  I have been looking for the other two, but never found them until this trip.  The kneadable eraser is scented like fake pineapple, but I saw it in a review video on YouTube and it worked well, so I have been on the lookout for it.  The ink pen was also on my list after seeing a review of it on YouTube.  It was the most expensive thing I bought, at a whopping $5, but it’s supposed to work pretty well.  I’ll be testing them out and posting about them in a later post.

Here, we have paint brushes, a facial exfoliator, and an acrylic face massager.  One of the dudes I follow on YouTube said that most of the brushes that he used in his videos were from the [Japanese] dollar store, so I wanted to try these.  The face massager and exfoliator are things I see used alot in Asian skincare videos and I have been wanting to try them without spending too much money because I never know how my skin will react.  The physical exfoliator is rubber and is pretty gentle on my face.  I use it mostly in the shower either to wash off an oil cleanser or after washing off a clay mask.  The massager is acrylic rather than jade, which is what I see all over the internet.  It does the job, though.  I’m still working on the method, but I could tell my face looked less bloated all over after using it for a few days in a row.  So, maybe there is something to this massaging method.

I think that I may have been most excited about the new organization accessories that I bought.  I’m not really a pink girl, but I wanted these items to match.  They actually helped me carry things around the store, so the items proved their use even before I bought them.  Originally, I wanted to buy mini drawers to store my masks.  Then, I remembered my lessons from the Clutter Bug – I need visual organization.  If something is not in my face and easy to access, I will not use it.  So, I decided on organizing my skincare in a way that I could see and access items easily.

Review – L’oreal True Match Naturale Mineral Foundation Powder & L’oreal Magic Skin Beautifier BB Cream

Hello, interwebz!  First of all, I’m very disappointed as I type this because I lost a boat load of photos for the blog and had 20 minutes of video for my first vlog post.  I did manage to rescue some of the photos, but all of the videos are gone, including one of my son’s spring band concert.  The last two photos on this post were taken last minute on my iPad in crappy lighting because my other photos were lost.  I’m trying to focus on the bright side of things and decided to work with what I have so that I could still put up a post I’ve been working on for awhile.  So, slap on a smile and here we go!

The Short of It:

L’oreal True Match Natural Mineral Foundation Powder worked great with my eczema even while in the humid Texas heat.  L’oreal Magic Skin Beautifier BB Cream tore my skin apart.

The Long of It:

***None of the pics of my face have been touched up in anyway so that you can see the true dorkiness and skin conditions.***

I decided to try some new beauty and skincare products one at a time so that if anything bothered my skin, I would have an easy time figuring out who was the culprit.  So far, Kopari face oil worked well on cleaning my face without breaking me out or bothering my eczema.  I was ready to move on to a foundation since that is what goes under all other makeup.  I had heard good things about L’oreal True Match Naturale Mineral Foundation Powder and was eager to try it.  I tried color Nude Beige (W3) since I have yellow undertones and the color matched pretty well.  The kabuki brush that comes with the powder worked well for a couple of weeks, but hairs started falling out of the brush after that.  I tried a few brushes that my friend, Christina, gave to me and finally found a good one in the Real Techniques brush.  I cannot believe that this brush is so cheap and readily available at Target!

After using the face powder for a couple of weeks with no issues, I was pretty happy.  In fact, just as I had heard and read in many reviews, it actually improved my complexion, helping blemishes and eczema sores heal faster!  What are you oh magical power of mine?!  At this point, I’m feeling pretty good about L’oreal face products and decided to try the BB cream.  (Here’s a good YouTube video about the purpose of  BB and CC creams.)  I went with L’oreal Magic Skin Beautifier BB Cream in Light 812.  I applied the BB cream the way I’d seen so many people do  in video tutorials and was okay with the results.  I mean, I still had blemishes and eczema, but they were blurred out a bit.  It also seemed to even out my skin tone and soften my skin texture.  So far, so good.

After two weeks of using BB cream in the Texas heat, I came to understand that this stuff wasn’t going to be my makeup BFF the way my mineral powder was.  I broke out like crazy.  I saw some new blemishes here and there, but though they were just a result of my oil cleansing pulling things to the surface.  One day, I wore BB cream and spent alot of time outside instead of in the office like usual.  You could see a line of deep and red blemishes every place where my fingers applied the BB cream – my forehead, nose, cheeks, chin, and neck.  From the initial touch zones, the blemishes spread out.  It was a literal map of how I applied the BB cream to my face and neck.

I spent the next two nights washing my face with coconut soap, treating with tea tree oil, and calming with thick layers of aloe gel.  The coconut soap is my body wash (Alaffia Everyday Coconut and Coffee Berry Body Wash) and is pretty gentle on skin, but maybe not on my face.  I was just desperate and wasn’t thinking.  I used Aura Cacia tea tree oil from Target (on sale!)  Normally, this stuff is too rough on my face, but these were giant cysts and were painful.  I wanted them gone.  The tea tree oil worked, but dried all the skin around the blemishes.  After a night or two of that, I switched to cleansing with Kopari and doing a Sephora clay mask.  After washing the clay mask off,  I finished each night with a layer of aloe gel to kill the bacteria, calm my skin, and moisturize my skin.  It worked well.

After a few days of that, I switched to washing my face with pure coconut oil.  Coconut oil is the same PH as skin, fights bacteria, and moisturizes.  I always have a jar of Trader Joe’s Organic Virgin coconut oil.  You need something that has barely been processed so that all of the good stuff is still on the oil to help your skin.  First, I scooped out some oil into my hands.  It was solid, but melted as I rubbed it on my skin.  I rubbed it in circles all over my skin and neck, concentrating on the most problematic areas of blemishes and eczema.  Normally, I would place a warm rag on my face and lay down for 10 – 15 minutes, but this time, I didn’t want to lay in the bed with the wet rag on my face.  I repeated this as I made my way around my face and concentrated on the parts with the worst blemishes and eczema.  The goal of this was not to get all of the coconut oil off, but to take some of it off, while easing things out of my pores.  I think you may want to do something to close your pores afterwards, but this time, I wanted my pores open so the coconut oil would soak into my skin overnight.  I went to bed and woke up with a much calmer face.  You could still see plenty of blemishes and eczema, but the redness everywhere else was gone.  I rinsed my face with water and put a thick layer of aloe gel over, adding a bit extra to the problem areas.

I’ve been doing this routine for a few days now and my skin looks much better.  Where all of the blemishes and eczema were are now just spots that are healing.  Your skin heals from the outside in, so it takes time.  Aloe gel and coconut oil also helps brighten skin so that the sore spots fade quicker.

While going through all of this, some other health problems came up and my skin hurt all over my body.  After doing the treatments with coconut oil and the wash rag, my face felt better, even if the rest of my skin and body hurt.  That reminded me why I spent so much time taking care of myself in years past.  I have looked into the Korean skincare routines and decided to give it a whirl.  So, stay tuned for my reviews on that!  Also, I haven’t given up on BB Creams yet.  I may try another kind in another month

Unboxing- Kira Kira Crate April/May 2018

This week, I got my May Kira Kira Crate. They are shipped from Japan to the U.S., so they take a month to get here. I still hadn’t opened my box from April! So, I decided to combine the unboxings.

Kira Kira Crates are subscription boxes from Japan filled with Asian skin, hygiene, and beauty products. Some of these products are available in stores in the U.S., but others are exclusive to Asia. My husband gave me a three-month subscription for Valentine’s Day, so May is my last box. My birthday is coming up, though, so I may request a renewal!

Apparently, the May box itself is different from April. I wonder if that’s because of the change of seasons. Both are pretty and will be put to good use.

April 2018 Box – April’s theme is Head To Toe. The box includes items to use to pamper yourself from head to toe!

https://flic.kr/p/25r954p

Mellsavon Hand Wash – This natural foaming hand wash is made in Japan with natural oils like kudzu and thyme. The scent is supposed to be mellow, so I’m hoping it will be okay on my hands. If not, my husband will gladly use it.

Point Make Up Remover – Designed in Japan and made in China, the box says it is a makeup remover pencil from Art Collection Tokyo. The writing on the package is in Japanese, but the writing on the pen is in English. I believe I saw one of the beauty vloggers on YouTube buy this in a video recently. The pen allows you to spot fix makeup mishaps like smeared mascara or eyeliner smudges. Looks like it’ll be pretty handy.

IE Spa Gold Foil Pack – When I showed this to my husband, he said, “Oh dang! You, too, can become a Hydra officer with this mask!” The mask is Japanese, but was made in Korea. The mask is infused with gold extract (is that a thing???), which is supposed to be good for keeping the collagen and elasticity that naturally occur in skin.

Onset Bath Salt – This was made in Japan and is supposed to contain ingredients you would find naturally in a Japanese hot spring that help with muscle soreness. There are 12 varieties, but I got the pink kind. Based on the picture, it might be a Sakura scent.

Rilakkuma Handcream – This hand cream was made in China. The only bit of English is on the front and says, “I’m always feeling relaxed.” Well, little Chinese bear hand cream, I can definitely use some relaxation! Rilakkuma is pineapple-scented and the other Korilakkuma (the one I didn’t get) has a rose scent. Rilakkuma is the perfect size for my purse, so she will be coming with me while I run errands or go to work!

Foot Therapy Sheet (Woody Lavender) – These are a prettier version of the foot pads that you’ve probably seen on t.v. You put them on the soles of your feet and they supposedly remove toxins through your feet. I have seen reports that say they do not really remove toxins, but can help your feet smell better. These are designed specifically to use overnight to improve your feet’s texture and the lavender scent should help me sleep!

May 2018 Box – Now, this is what I’m talkin’ ’bout! Cozy Night In is this month’s themes. Relax and destress before drifting off to sleep. Can do!

https://flic.kr/p/25HbUfJ

Hot Eye Mask – This mask was made in China and should make you look like a polar bear when you wear it. (Instagram, here I come!) This mask smells like lavender and should help my tired eyes look awake 👀

Black & Shiny Eyeliner – This is from Mio Piccolo Tokyo and looks like it was packaged by the same company as April’s makeup remover pencil. I’ve never been able to put on eyeliner so the eraser pencil should come in handy when I bust out this eyeliner pencil. The color is Metallic Black, so I wonder how much shimmer is really in it and how much the eraser will fix.

Honey Lemon Bath Tablets – These are made in Japan and I really thought they were candy. There are tiny tablets that look like candy and some orange sandy stuff that looks like colored sugar. The flyer says this mixture will fight acne and aging while others tightening my pores and refreshing my skin. That makes me think I may need to use this on my face instead of body. I’m looking forward to figuring out how well it works on the pores on my body, ha!

Mosaics Oil Milk – The Japanese oil milk has me the most excited! There are cute animals all over the box. The flyer says it contains cactus oil to hydrate my skin. I am all for opening up this adorable bottle and getting hydrated!

Paper Soap – I haven’t used paper soap since I was a kid. This is what Asians used before hand sanitizer became hip and cool. I got the mint paper soap and am excited to bust out my paper and start lathering up in public instead of slumming it with pink soap.

Organic Mask – From Japan and made in Korea, I have high hopes for this mask. It contains royal jelly, hyaluronic acid, chamomile, and collagen, all of which are great for moisturizing your skin and restoring elasticity. I’m not sure if the hyaluronic acid will bother my eczema. Collagen is the fourth ingredient and aloe gel is the sixth, so, I’m not anticipating any problems.

Have you tried Kira Kira Crate or any of the items listed above? Do you like Asian beauty products? If so, tell me where you buy them so I can hunt for them too. Thanks for reading!

Planning – Week of 5.7.18

Ready for another planning post? Cool, because that’s what this post is about! The second week of May is another week with multiple birthdays and a holiday. Needless to say, I’m leaving plenty of space to fill in as needed.

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to use any washi this week, but I knew I wanted lots of stickers. So, I just gathered all of my stickers and washi just to see where the wind would take me.

My eye immediately went to a colorful strip of paper that I cut out of a magazine months ago. So, I decided to use that as the color inspiration for the rest of the week. I cut the strip of paper to fit it across the bottom of the right page to add a little oomph since the basic layout was pretty bare.

Some sticky notes were already on the pages to remind me of events. Instead of removing the notes and writing the info directly onto the pages, I left the sticky notes where they were. The colors matched this week’s theme and I am also lazy. I added some pretty washi and everything started coming together.

***I’ve noticed that when I crop my photos, they become blurry. I’m not sure why, but it’s not the camera because I’ve tried multiple cameras. I’ve also edited in multiple apps. If you have any suggestions, let me know so that I can post better pictures!***

Then, it was time for stickers. I wanted to denote Mother’s Day in a big way, so I used a couple of Mommy Lhey die cuts of flowers and a character named Lola to set that day apart from others. I decided to add some stickies and notes for lists and include stickers for writing notes about my in-office work days this week. A few other stickers to pretty up my To Dos and the stickery was done!

Normally, I end with a Before The Pen pic, but I wanted to show you why I like so much space in my planner. After adding daily To Dos, recording my work times to enter in my work time card later, writing my daily health notes, and anything else that comes up, my planner is full!

Now, planning this week is done and I have to go out and live this week. Sometimes, that’s the not so fun part of planning. As much as I like drawing clouds and suns, this week is going to be hot and I already have a headache. I may need to add extra cute stickers to cover up the weather and health info and keep me thinking about happy things this week!

Do you plan holidays with special stickers? Do you record health or other info on a daily basis to analyze later? Anybody else hate the heat (i.e. anything above 70 degrees)?

Unboxing – Love With Food April Box

Hey there, friends! You may have recently heard that I was so far behind on material for my blogs that I’m posting more often to catch up a bit. Nowhere is this more applicable than my subscription boxes. Normally, I rip into them and start using everything immediately. Since I started saving the boxes for these posts, I am now two months behind! That is a lot of wasted willpower that I could have used on saving the world or doing laundry or something. So, let’s get to April’s Love With Food box!

April’s box was the Transform Tasting Box and was meant to help you transform into healthier and better eating. The box came with a flyer to explain this, along with a few coupons for the food featured in the box and some other websites.

TRUWOMEN Plant Fueled Chocolate Chunk Cookie Dough Protein Bar – The glazed donut bar was in the March box and was pretty good. It was slightly sweet, but didn’t taste like a glazed donut. I’ll save this one for when my blood sugar suddenly drops (during PMS or extremely hot days). Protein bars tend to make my stomach hurt, leave a bad taste in my mouth, and cause me bathroom problems. Didn’t have any of those issues with the glazed donut bar, so I’m assuming I won’t have any problems with this one either.

Avenue Sweets Apple Caramels – I’ve had these before too and love them! They taste like caramel apples, but are slightly easier to eat.

JanaBanana Banana Bar with Peanut Butter – I’m always hesitant about these healthy banana bars. They usually taste like blackened bananas and are sickly sweet. Since these are made of more than bananas, maybe they won’t be so bad.
Torie & Howard Fruitie Chewies – I’ve had these before and they are good. They taste like a more fruity Starburst and are nice little candy when you want a bit of something sweet.

Watusee Foods Popped Caramel Sea Salt Chickpeatos – I tried these the day that I opened the box and had no idea what to expect. They are the crunchy and airy consistency of puffed cheese balls and have a general savory and salty flavor followed with a hint of caramel and salt flavor. They don’t genuinely taste like caramel, but make you feel like you just finished eating something caramel. A 100 calorie serving has 3 g protein, 3 g fiber, and 4 g fat. I stress ate them for the crunch, but I wouldn’t grab these as a genuine snack. I wouldn’t turn them away if offered, but I won’t be actively seeking them out to buy.

Mrs. Thinster’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Thins – I had the vanilla cookie thins before and they were amazing! So, I’m kinda waiting to eat these when I need a sugary snack at work to either celebrate something exciting or to keep me from yelling profanities at someone. These cookies are thin and buttery and melt in your mouth. The only complaint that I have is the oil they leave on your fingers because it reminds you that there are no more cookies.

Westminster Cracker Co Oyster Crackers – These were the only savory snacks in the box. I tend to eat oyster crackers in soup or salad and haven’t tried these yet. They seem pretty basic with only a few ingredients, which is always a good thing.

The best part of these boxes actually isn’t inside of them. For every purchase, a portion of proceeds go towards helping fight childhood hunger around the world. The company regularly donates to Feeding America and The Global Food Banking Network. If you’d like to try Love With Food to get some tasty treats while helping these lovely organizations, use my referral link to get 50% of your first box!