impulse shopping

This is what happens when Holly goes to Wegmans for ‘a few things:’

Hey, at least it’s all healthy, right? Just LOOK at all those colors!

HAD to get:

-bananas and spinach (only one left in the house–yikes!)

-cottage cheese (I have a cut-up pineapple in the fridge just begging to be paired with it)

-avocado (remember all those Julio’s chips Andrew shipped home??)

-strawberries (because I’ve waited all winter long for them)

-red pepper and sugar snap peas (homemade hummus is in the fridge as we speak–or type, rather)

-wheat germ (for a bread recipe)

-frozen blueberries and a lemon (for a muffin recipe and because berries are expensive enough)

-deli ham and light swiss (Andrew’s gotta have lunch tomorrow…)

OK, I’ll admit, I totally got sucked into the Nature’s Market section (like I ever DON’T?) and some SALES caught my eye…

…like this one for Health Valley Organic cereal bars and ‘pop tarts.’ It was $1 off each, and the blueberry was just calling to me. (Blueberry totally has been these days! I already made a plan to make Ellie Krieger’s blueberry muffins this weekend…) I figured Andrew would like the strawberry bars and I could mix some warmed ‘toaster tarts’ into our morning breakfast routine.

And then there was the sale on granola:

It was $1 off, too! In my defense, we’ve been out of granola for awhile now and I said to myself (out loud, of course) that I should get some more soon. I initially saw the ‘vanilla blueberry with flax seeds’ (there is that blueberry again) variety and grabbed it, only to then see the ‘maple walnut with chia and quinoa’ and ‘oat and honey WITH COCONUT’ flavors… There was just no deciding between them. At least they’ll last awhile…

Side note: Some of you are probably wondering why I would BUY this stuff when I can make it all myself, which I actually enjoy doing. A couple reasons:

1. I’m EXHAUSTED, and surprisingly busy. I’ve been catching up on random stuff since finishing up with school, as well as tackling a bunch of things that popped up, like arranging summer travel plans and working out a new gym routine.

2. I don’t really enjoy cooking in this kitchen. It sounds bad, but it’s true. Until I have ‘my’ kitchen, it just isn’t the same.

3. I’m starting The Hunger Games soon (maybe this weekend!), which will consume me for however long it takes to read them all. Andrew, I apologize in advance–I’ll make sure we’re stocked up on the unhealthy food you insist on eating when I don’t cook. Or maybe not.

4. The bright colors and yellow SALE tags caught my eye. (Hey, I’m just being honest.)

5. And lastly, I am (unfortunately) about to become just as busy as before. My summer online class starts in a little more than a week and I already took a look at the online info… It looks INTENSE, to say the least. Fantastic.

So yeah, despite ending school, I won’t be found in the kitchen too much just yet…

OK, back to groceries….

The Justin’s was on sale ($6.99 instead of $8.99… still pricey, but oh, so good!) and I’ve been eyeing this Cinnamon Raisin Swirl variety EVERY TIME I GO TO WEGMANS. EVERY TIME. I pulled the trigger today–why not? Kath eats almond butter on her carrots sometimes, and ever since I saw one of those photos I’ve been intrigued to try it. I thought the Justin’s would be the perfect accompaniment for some carrot sticks. (Oh, have I told you all I’m eating raw carrots now? I went my whole life HATING them, and then all of a sudden, they’re fine. What’s with that?)

And this guy was hiding behind all the store-bought goodness the whole time…

Beautiful, wonderful-smelling homemade bread. What better with which to pair the new cinnamon raisin peanut butter??

you’ll never guess what i did last night…

I sat for an artist friend so she could paint me! How neat is that?!

Alix Martin is the owner of redFISH (a studio here in the village) and is also the one working on the mural for the co-op, which is how I met her. After we’d gotten to know each other a little bit, she asked if I would sit for her. Of course I would! I was really looking forward to it and, finally, our schedules synced up enough to get together for a few hours last night while Andrew played rec volleyball at the middle school here.

(Before I get too far, can we just take a minute to check out my arms…I worked really hard for those!)

Such a neat experience! We met at her studio–I LOVE it! As you can see in the photo, there is color everywhere and it’s got a very bohemian vibe.

You can see a little of her work in the photos; she paints all sorts of “real” things (like birds or people or landscapes), but manages to give them whole new life with color and texture and movement. It’s totally my speed in terms of art; I’m not drawn to traditional (think the landscapes 99.9% of the population have hanging on their walls), impressionism (while it’s beautiful and I like water lillies and ballerinas as much as the next person, it’s still not “me”) or super-modern (Picasso was brillant, but he’s not going anywhere in my house!) pieces at all. Of the classical painters, I suppose Van Gogh is one I like, but more for his use of color than texture.

My taste in art is kinda like my taste in style–very classic and minimalist, but with unexpected and non-traditional pops of color or other eclectic pieces thrown in. We recently had the Elmwood Festival of the Arts here in Buffalo (which is HUGE, by the way), and Alix designed the cover of the brochure–you can see it here.

And, in the interest of journalistic integrity, I DID take it all off….

…and it was SO EASY. Seriously. Although I’ll admit–with my background growing up (my mom often said, “Who cares? We’re all girls” in situations like locker rooms, or just changing clothes in general) and in the military (hello communal showers!)–my “shyness” is pretty limited. I mean, you just do what you have to do, and anyone who showers and changes regularly at a busy gym can attest to that.

And Alix is a friend; I don’t know if I would have felt as comfortable with a total stranger. We worked up to it; I posed with the slip for most of the 2.5 hour session, then she did some quick sketches au natural. I’ll have to go back for her to finish the primary piece, and I’m hoping to do more in the future. I mean, we chatted the whole time; it turns out she and her husband built a totally recycled/reclaimed house here in the village three years ago that’s going to be featured in the Buffalo News in a month or so, and we commiserated together about non-traditional families and the challenges they present.

To his credit, I think Andrew was more nervous about the whole “me-posing-nude” idea than I was. (And he’s going to flip when he sees I used one of her snapshots of it here. Sorry honey, but it tells the story and is very tasteful.) The truth is, it’s art (heck, these iPhone photos are art in and of themselves!) and it’s beautiful. I was so honored she asked me to pose and it was an opportunity for me to get out of my comfort zone and try something new.

I’m just glad I lost all that weight BEFORE she asked me to pose for her…

fun with color

I’ve been planning this post for awhile now. Not sure why it’s taken me this long to get it all together and hit the “publish” button, but I suppose it does fit in well following yesterday’s nail polish post. (Yes, unfortunately there are times that my life really is this UN-interesting.)

Anyway, last month’s Real Simple featured an article on colorful makeup and it really intrigued me. I love makeup, and I love color, but I’ve never really branched out beyond browns and plums when it comes to eye shadow. And don’t even get me started on lips…I rarely do anything more than lip gloss since I don’t recognize myself with lip stick! That, and my lips are ENORMOUS, so color of any sort just kind of amplifies them.

But, I decided to give some of the shades a try (green, teal and purple) so I brought the article to Ulta and scoured the aisles looking for the suggested lip colors. I’ve been hooked on bright eyes ever since!

Click below for the article; I tore out the last page that had a re-cap of all the color pairings and have been using that to mix and match.

“Bright Makeup for Eyes and Lips” Real Simple June 2011

Here is green/teal eye shadow with coral lips. I actually already had greenish and teal eye shadows, so I’ve been interchanging and mixing those depending upon what I’m wearing.

Doesn’t my hair look red here? Unfortunately, it’s just the lighting…

I like the coral lips, but having color on takes some getting used to. And it’s time-consuming! The only coral lip stick I could find was Sula Natural, but it’s SO BRIGHT, so I have to blot, then apply gloss, then blot again. I’ve been going through the stash of napkins in my glovebox like crazy!

Here’s navy blue shadow with reddish lips. I love the navy and red combo.

The red is a combo of a maroon lip pencil (it’s NYX in Maroon) and a free sample of Trish McEvoy’s Beauty Booster SPF 15 gloss in “Brightening Pink” I got in the mail. I love the lip pencil because it goes on really smoothly and then kind of “stains” my lips, so I just have to keep re-applying gloss instead of both.

Another color combo was purple eye shadow with brown lips. Again, I already had a purple shadow, which I think really brings out the green in my eyes. This is more of a lilac or lavender purple than a plum.

The article said to pair it with brown lips, but I couldn’t find a brown lip stick I liked, so I chose Palladio’s Herbal Lip Gloss in “Sheer Bronze.” I love the smell and that it’s pretty sheer, but next time I’m at Ulta, I might try to find another NYX pencil in a darker brown to get a little more color on my lips.

So, what do you think? Do I look ridiculous? Is it something you would do? I’ve been having a blast pairing colors with different outfits. Summer is such a great time for this; I love pairing neutral outfits with bright accessories and makeup!