Drat you blasted car!

My "service engine soon" light popped on the other day, so I scheduled an appointment with the dealership, thinking that since it's a Nissan dealership, they would be more well equipped to handle my precious car. I get there and they tell me it will be $60 for diagnostics, and then that price will go toward any repairs. I'm thinking, $60 is a lot, but ok.

Jesse and I are in the Walmart when they call me and say that my thermostat isn't working, and that's what's causing the warning light to stay on. It's not something that will kill my car, and will cost about $280. Then they tell me that my engine belt and bolts are cracked, and that *will* kill my car. I'm freaking out but figure I already have $60 into it, so I might as well give them the go-ahead.

Maybe 7 minutes later, I change my mind about the thermostat because Jesse is telling me how easy it is to fix that ourselves, so I call the dealership but unfortunately they have already started on the repairs and can't stop. Of course.

Now I'm starting to feel upset because apparently the parts are NOT expensive, and it's not a hard repair. I pick up my car the next day...and the total was $409!!! According to my receipt, the parts total was $90. That's right, that is $319 for labor, which more than likely did not even take an hour to do.

I am pissed. And apparently in the wrong business. And upset at myself for not just taking it to some random, small mom-and-pop mechanic shop. Because really, all they had to do for diagnotics is hook up my car computer to the main computer, and my car computer tells the main computer what the problem is! Even had I gone ahead and not had them do any repairs, it would have been $60 for the diagnostics, and then $90 for the parts (although we probably could have gotten them cheaper due to the price markup) and it still would have been $259 cheaper. *sigh* And the whole time Jesse is like, why did you take it to the dealership anyway? Don't you know they will always charge more than any other place? And I'm like, "You are not helping! Point taken! Stop talking about it!"

So, if anyone knows of a reliable mechanic shop in the SLC area, please let me know for any futures issues. Dang it all.

TKB Trading micas are here!

Planetary sampler: The "Travel To..." series
After Twilight Green:

Aster Hue:

Bishop's Violet:

Coral Reff Blue:

Crucible Red:

Cyprus Green:

Forged Gold:

Patagonia Purple:

Sagittaire Mica:

Taurus Orion:

Verdegris Gold Mica:

All the colors in alphabetical order, except the Planetary sampler:

These colors are so vibrant and pretty, I CANNOT wait to buy more of them. These are the sample size bags for $1.50, most of which have a full tablespoon of color (some of the more expensive-to-make colors are one teaspoon). Most places you buy samples sizes at are 1/4 teaspoon, so to get an entire tablespoon, and at $1.50 to boot is one heck of a deal.

As they are full-on micas, you need to wear some kind of eyeshadow base/primer for the mica to adhere to. I use either the MAC Paint Pots or the L'Oreal De-Crease primer.

Again, TKBtrading.com folks!

Mica powder

Hello, friends of mine. While browsing the 'net yesterday, in constant search of more eyeshadow colors, I stumbled across TKB Trading. Can I just say...this site is AWESOME! They have literally hundreds of great colors, most of which can be used in cosmetics. And, you typically get a one-tablespoon size sample for $1.50. One tablespoon might not sound like much, but let me tell you, it would probably last well over a year, even using it every day. And for $1.50, that is great!

They are a wholesale company, so you have to have a $25 minimum order I think it is, but that shouldn't be too hard for me. I had thought that any Christmas money I got would just go straight to paying off my credit card for my last cosmetics shopping, but now I'm thinking maybe I'll just do it in an installation plan, so I can still have some fun with my Christmas cash. Oh course, I'm just guessing I'll be getting money...

Jess' folks bought us a recumbent exercise bike, and that arrived at our doorstep yesterday, so I'm pretty excited to put it together and see how it moves. Or doesn't move, rather, as it's stationary.

We still have a couple Christmas gifts left to buy, and then quite a few we need to get together and mail to our people in Oregon. I hate packaging stuff up and sending it through the mail. I'm just wicked lazy.

More fish pics

So, now that that's over...

Jesse and I went in to have our teeth cleaned last week, and still no cavities for me, thank you very much! Jess had one cavity, which I think it actually quite good as he hadn't been in to a dentist in like 4 years. About a week or so prior to the cleaning, Jesse was saying how he thought one of his front teeth was coming loose. His two front teeth are fakes, set on posts (that were drilled into his head without being put under because his jerk of a boss made him work that day!) because of an auto accident a few years back.

I was like, honey, stop touching it! We're going to the dentist in a few days, tell them about it then! A couple days go by and I get home one night and he says to me, "Look what I did today," and proceeds to pull out his left front tooth! So now there is this metal post in his mouth, with no tooth, and he's looking like a deranged hillbilly. I'm gagging because seriously it grossed me out. And then he chased me around the apartment trying to get me to kiss him.

The day finally came for the dental appointment and they were able to reglue his tooth and it was no big deal. But seriously. It was disturbing. He went back in today to get his cavity filled and apparently it all went well. I think he likes my dentist well enough. His dentist sounded like a real d-bag; mine seems to have his stuff together, so that's good.

We went over to a friend's house tonight to play games and then we watched "The Hangover," which was amusing. Jesse is now getting ready to take a bath and asked, "Don't we have any more bath salts?" That man loves him his baths! Pretty much all the bath-type stuff I've aquired over the years has been whittled down and used by him. Good thing Christmas is around the corner...

Shipping container homes!

Holy potatoes, Jesse and I totally want to do this:

Wedding Save the Date videos?!

I've heard of Save the Date cards, but this video is genius!

Perfuming it up

I have now received all six of my sample-size perfumes from The Perfumed Court, and I could not be more pleased! I bought:
Kat Von D - Sinner
La Vanila - Vanilla Coconut
DKNY - Be Delicious
Stella McCartney - Stella
Marc Jacobs - Daisy
Hanae Mori - Butterfly

Most of these came in little 1ml glass vials, with the exception of the Be Delicious, which came in a 1.5ml spray vial.

The Vanilla Coconut is nice; it has a warm vanilla scent that is complemented well by the coconut. It's a bit strong for me, so I'll be wearing it in places that don't waft up to my nose all that often, maybe my belly or something. I'll figure it out.

I have not yet tried the Sinner scent. Be Delicious is nice in that it has a fresh, fruity scent, but I don't think it lasts that long. Well, it lasts if you smell your skin, but it's not a scent that wafts for long on me.

Stella is beautiful, a lovely rose-scented mix. Daisy has a very clean apple top note, which I enjoy. But for now, my favorite is the Butterfly by Hanae Mori. I was in a Nordstrom's the other day and the perfume woman told me that of the three scents offered by Hanae Mori, Butterfly is the lightest scent. Apparently all three are the same scent, just varying degrees of intensity. I'm glad I got Butterfly and can see myself buying the actual perfume bottle once this vial runs out.

Of course, these are just preliminary tests, and it may be that after several hours I don't like the way some mix with my skin chemistry, but for now *sigh* HEAVEN!

More makeup!

What is up, my peeps?! Here is my purely MAC makeup haul from this afternoon. Several hours, and a couple hundred dollars later..













Aside from the exorbitant price for the MAC line, I totally had a great time! The first set of product I got at The Cosmetics Company. I went by myself and met up with my friend later on at Nordstrom's, where I got the second group of product. She suggested I wrap some of the items and give them to myself for Christmas, but I took them out of their boxes to do these photos (which really don't do these colors justice, by the way) and now I don't want to re-box them and wrap them up. After all, they want to be used!


While at Nordstrom's, my friend had some makeup applied in a completely neutral color scheme, and when the makeup artist was out of earshot she said, "This is way over the top for me!" And I was like, are you kidding?!


Because I, obviously, have no problem with wearing non-neutral shades. Man, look at those cheeks, I definately do not need blush.... Moving on.

I will be paying this makeup off for quite some time (since I borrowed against future allowances), but I still think it was worth it. I'm thinking now I just want a couple other Coastal Scents gel liner colors and I'll be good to go. But as my friend said, there will always be some new color, some new line. She may have a point.

MAKEUP!

Hi all! As Jesse would tell you, I've gone a little makeup crazy lately, and I'm loving it! Him, not so much. I thought I would show you some of my awesomely cool makeup finds for the eyes. First off are the Stila Smudge Pot gel eyeliner trio, in bronze, gray, and black:

Next up are the Fluidline gel eyeliners by MAC. The colors going left to right, and up to down, are Silverstroke, Macroviolet, Brassy, Sweet Sage, and Blacktrack.

Next up are some gel liners from Coastal Scents, and the one on the far left is by Lola.

The colors on my hand, left to right are Coastal Scents colors: 24K Gold, Gold Bliss, Grapevine, Feline, Exotic, and Summer Fun. The Lola color is called Fiji.

So, for the gel liners, I am really getting into these. With regular liquid liners, I find that they tend to pull on my eyes as they dry, and some of them flake like crazy. And with pencils, they don't seem to stay long or they end up transfering to my eyelid.

These new gel liners, they have amazing staying power! Seriously, sometimes it's almost a pain in the butt to get them off, because they are water resistant.You can use these gel liners as an eyeshadow base as well, to make the eyeshadow you place on top *pop* with color. I really love the Stila bronze color, and the MAC Sweet Sage. They are both dual colors, in that the bronze is a brown with copper reflects, and the Sweet Sage is a gorgeous olive green shimmer. I bought the MAC Blacktrack on eBay before I really knew what to look for, and I know now that it is not authentic. That's not to say you can't find authentic things, you just have to know what to look for.

I wasn't sure how I was going to like the Coastal Scents liners, so I didn't get all the colors I wanted, but you can be sure I'm going to go back and buy more. Also, they have some really great brushes for super cheap. They are not MAC quality, but then again you're only spending $3 instead of $18. I'll take that.

As I now work at eBay, I find the time to peruse their makeup listings. I found this gem, the 120 palette by Beauties Factory, for under $20 and free shipping, plus they sent me some free makeup brushes as a gift. I'm thinking they gave the brushes as a gift so they could mark the entire package as "gift" on the customs form. Because this eyeshadow palette came from Hong Kong.

And before any of you say anything about how makeup from China is horrible for you because they put lead in everything, I haven't read one report stating these shadows have killed anyone, and it seems like most makeup is made in China these days. But, if it bothers you, Coastal Scents also sells a 120 palette for cheap.

If you have a store called The Cosmetics Company near you, you should totally check it out. You can see if they have a location near you here.

They sell authentic overstock items for the Estee Lauder (who owns MAC), Clinique, Prescriptives, Origins, Bobbi Brown, Flirt! and more for quite a bit cheaper than you can pick it up at the normal stores. One thing I recommend, though, is to check your purchases before you pay for your items. I didn't check my gel liners until I got home, and Frost (a white shimmer Fluidline) was completely dried out. So that was $10.50 down the drain. Yes, I said $10.50, but the Fluidlines at typically $16.50, so that's quite a deal. I should mention the Coastal Scents liners are only $6.95, and they frequently have coupons.

Here are some great websites where you can find discount name-brand makeup:

beauty crunch
All Cosmetics Wholesale
Cosmetic America

I'm going to go shopping again with a friend tomorrow to check out the MAC counter at Nordstrom's. MAC has a product called Paint Pots that are cream shadows and I am highly interested in them. However, I haven't used them before and don't just want to buy any willy-nilly, so I'm going to go test them...then maybe go to The Cosmetics Company and purchase a few.

I almost forgot to mention! I found an online store called The Perfumed Court that sells decanted perfume. This is perfect for me because there were about five scents that I wanted to try out from the Sephora store but didn't want to purchase the entire bottle, and this company has all the scents and they decant them into sample size containers. I choose little 1ml glass vials, pretty small, but they were only $3 a piece, and I would rather pay that than the full price only to find out I don't like them. Those should be coming in the mail in a few days, and I am very excited!