Beauty

I had been wanting to try some anti-aging products for a while now.  I am only 37, but sometimes when I look in the mirror I look 100 years old.  Lack of sleep and stress will do that to you, I suppose.  But on the way home from the retreat Sunday morning I decided to stop at Rite Aid and see what I could find.  I am not expecting miracles here, but these three products below work pretty good in giving my skin a better appearance, at least I think so.

The cleanser is Olay Regenerist Advanced Anti-Aging cream cleanser.  It has some scrubbies in it to help get rid of dry skin.  Next is Loreal's Collagen moisturizer.  Hands-down this is the best moisturizer I have ever used.  Very thick and creamy, and smells great!  And the last one is Loreal Eye Defense.  I haven't seen much improvement under my eyes yet with this, but I am sure it is not going to happen overnight.  All of these products cost $35 together.  And they will last a while.  I am keeping my eye out in the weekly paper for some coupons for these products for the future.

Moving on, I did receive a scrapbook order in the mail yesterday.  My original thought was to use plain colored scrapbook paper and then jazz it up with stickers and whatnot.  Well, after perusing Michaels and ACMoore last week, I did not see much I liked.  I came home and went to Scrapbook.com.  This is the most awesome scrapbooking website that I have come across.  They have much, much more than any big box chain craft store has, and they have products that match, like the paper and journaling cards, which totally feeds the inner OCD and matchy-matchy tendencies I have with some things.

Bo Bunny is my favorite scrapbook supply designer.  I have found some very nice items I have bookmarked for future projects I have in the works.  But what I did receive yesterday was for Quaker Moon and Autumn Pinkeep. 

 As soon as I saw the owl in the tree, and I had wanted a black-based paper anyway, I was sold.  And these coordinating journal cutouts go right with it.  My plan is to attach the stitching to the paper and then attach a journal card with the stitching info:  designer, name of chart, threads and fabric used, and time it took to stitch. 

And I thought this was outstandingly perfect for Autumn Pinkeep.  The papers are so much more vibrant and gorgeous in real life.  Picking which journal card to use is going to be a tough decision.  And I bought a special black pen to write all of the details.  Now just to find the time to actually do the scrapbooking.  I am thinking maybe this weekend.  So, stay tuned for pics of finished pages!

I am only putting one piece on each page.  I was originally going to do multiple pieces on one page, but I think it would wind up looking too busy.  Trust me when I say I have spent quite a bit of time just picking out one paper and journaling card for one piece at a time.

I did receive some stash in the mail yesterday, With Thy Needle's December Word Play.  I saw a snippet of January's Word Play on her blog a few days ago and can't wait to see it!

And finally I have done a tiny bit of stitching on Morning Brew since the retreat.  Work has been crazy busy and I spent all of Sunday after getting home cleaning and unpacking.

  
You will see I have this project in a wooden embroidery hoop and not a Q-snap.  I have gone back and forth about trying this method.  I find my hand and arm tire easily when I am holding a Q-snap.  This embroidery hoop is very, very lightweight.  YES, I know that you should not leave your stitching in the hoop because of marks/creases that will not come out.  I take the piece out each time I am finished stitching.  YES, I know that putting the hoop over already-stitched parts can distort the stitches.  All I can say to that is I do my best to be the utmost careful when I am tightening the hoop in those areas.  And I read a tip online that if you are right-handed you should put the tightening part at 10:00, and if you are left-handed you should put it at 2:00 so your threads will not catch on it as you are stitching.  I actually find myself holding that part of the hoop while stitching.  It gives a nice place for your hand to rest.

I have actually liked stitching with the hoop so far.  So, for now I'm going with it. 

Have a great Thursday, everyone!