Valarie with an "A"

A lot has been going on on the “studio” that I’ve not had a chance to take pictures yet. It isn’t completely finished, but I’ve gotten rid of about 10 garbage bags full of junk, I’ve given away several items and I have another box of items that are mostly spoken for (and the items not spoken for are going to good will). I’ve taken this opportunity to go through some other rooms in the house as well ( slowing down progress a little bit) and have already taken 5 garbage bags of clothes, shoes and toys to goodwill. I hope to have the studio completely finished (minus the box of giveaway stuff) this weekend, so stay tuned for photos!

I’ve recently started wearing makeup more often, but I’ve never been much on lipstick. I prefer a tint or gloss. But I have so many kits that have come with lipstick, or even old glosses that take up space. I guess this post didn’t help me downsize my lipstick, however, I will now use it :) This is my current collection, which I did throw several out a few months back, but all of these are in good shape, even though I’ve already been cutting on some.

I’ve seen in a few stores a kit for making your own lip color palette, from melting down what you already have. It costs about $18 from Japonesque and comes with a tool, a bowl, and an empty palette. Great idea to have it all together for you, however, I wasn’t about to pay that much. I’ve been down sizing my eyeshadow as well (more to come on that) so I had some empty eyeshadow cases. This case, even if bought new, was only 99 cents at Sally. I got all the eyeshadow out, washed it well, and used nail polish remover to take the ink off the front.

While looking for something totally different in the kitchen area at the local big box store, I came across a two pack of these silicone pinch bowls for less than $2. Heat safe to 500 degrees. Jackpot! This is something similar on amazon.

The next steps are pretty easy. I used some spatula type things I bought at Sally as well to scrape lip color into the bowl. I added something without color (chapstick), to make it more like a gloss, and sometimes I added a tiny bit of a gloss that I have that has glitter in it.

Melt in the microwave in 10-15 second intervals, pinch the sides of the bowl and pour into one well of your palette. I had another empty palette on standby to take any extra I had, since there really wasn’t a way to measure. Rinse and repeat for other colors.

Now I have a nice little compact with four lip shades that I love, and I’ll eventually use up all my lipsticks. At this point, I’ll probably throw out some of the old ones, and keep my faves to refill this palette. I know this doesn’t seem like much, but I’ve had some of this makeup for YEARS. You’ll see examples of the age of some of this stuff in the next post. Anyone remember the “Art Stuff” line at Bath and Body Works?

*****UPDATE: When I tried to use the one on the bottom right, it was too soft. I scooped it out, back into the melting bowl, added more chapstick, remelted, and repoured. Now that it has set up, it has a much better consistency to it :) *****

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Progress is being made. I’m working on the whole house this weekend, but yesterday I gave away five diaper boxes of game systems. That alone cleared out majority of the stuff behind Ashley’s desk. We talked about how to arrange the room and I’m going to get rid of one of my tables (aka junk catcher) and put our futon in there. The white table folds up, and this way it will actually be stored and easy to fetch whenever we need it, so that I don’t have to clear off 200 lbs of stuff that I neglected to put away. I don’t have any pictures for this update, but maybe by the end of the day I will.

I know, I’m not blogging. And it’s not because I’m not crafting, but more because I’m not taking photos. I have very few progress shots, but several cell phone photos of my finished works. I’m hoping to get out of the funk soon, but here is some of my most recent cell photos of crafty things.

First are the Rapunzel scarves. I’ve made several of these recently. Pretty simple, lots of 10 ft. lengths of yarn, divided into three sections and braided, knotted on the ends. Tiff has two already! I love how I can incorporate many different textures and colors all into one project!

Then there’s the ink pens. I’ve been making these for at least 10 years, maybe longer. There’s about 10 ft. of embroidery floss inside the barrel of each pen and I love them. One of my facebook friends commented that they were “trippy” which I think could be an accurate description.  These will be posted in my shop soon, so stay tuned.

And I’m doing the stars again. We have a nice dining room table and I want centerpieces now. Also hoping that I’ll be able to get all the electronics off the mantle so I can decorate it eventually, but that will require another piece of furniture. We shall see.

Next on the list, is melting things. Just waxy things. I found these silicone molds for cheap and thought I’d try out shaped crayons that I see everywhere. Austin likes the bears and butterflies better than the fruit, but that’s because he stacks them like blocks! The first picture is the first try, fresh from the oven still in liquid state. The second picture is popped out of the mold and ready to be used!

That’s the past few months in a nutshell. I’m hoping to be taking more, better quality photos of my craftiness soon, so please come back.

OhMyGosh! It was soooo cold when we ventured out to do this session in the snow. The high yesterday was 26 degrees, and my hands felt it for sure. Stephanie contacted me about doing her senior cuts and when I mentioned snow, she jumped at the idea. We met up and she brought along her friend Becca (who has now sat in on two sessions with me) and we all froze together. This first picture shows that we made the best of it though :)