little white truths

I barely slept last night so my brain's in all-sorts and I've been lying awake in bed for hours, debating whether or not to come downstairs and get on the computer before the kids wake up (fingers crossed), or whether to just lie in bed and rest my body before the onslaught of a full day at home with two pre-schoolers begins.

In the end I picked the computer - not something I do a lot these days because my body needs all the physical rest it can get. But sometimes it's nice to arrive downstairs and make my coffee in silence for once, and god forbid, to drink it while it's still hot (fingers crossed again).

I'm tired, I'm cold, it's going to be a long day...

Sounds like a good day for a monthly positives post.

Both kids are doing well socially

I picked my son up from childcare yesterday at lunchtime (he just does half days) and his teacher told me that he's doing well socially and playing nicely with the other kids. Funnily enough, when I picked my daughter up from kinder a few hours later, her teacher told me the same thing.

Whether or not your kids will be able to make friends and get on with other children isn't something you think about when you first have them: you tend to hope that they're healthy, that they develop normally and that they'll get through the day injury-free.

The social aspect hasn't really been on my radar until now, so to be told that my kids are kind and helpful to others, that they play well with other children, is something I was really pleased to hear. I'm very thankful for it, and it also confirms that they're having fun with other kids and learning how to interact well socially when I'm not there. Yay : )

Winter's sting is on the way out

Yes it was cold again yesterday but a few people have mentioned lately that they feel winter is on the way out, and I agree with them.

It's usually around this time each year when winter starts to lose its grunt, and I'm always so pleased when it does. I'm just not built for cold weather, and I never have been. I'm sick of being freezing, sick of rationing our heater-use to keep the power bill down, sick of waking up at night because I'm cold again...

I'm bloody sick of my chilblains, too. I've had them two years running now and they're incredibly painful. You're always aware of them because they're on your hands and of course you use your hands for everything - and every slight contact with something, every little knock, every little graze, brings a shot of burning pain.

I never used to get them (even when we lived in cold Berlin), so I blame them on all the washing I need to do these days. Hanging out wet clothes in freezing, windy weather is likely the culprit.

Bye bye winter, bye bye now. Seeyabye.

My parents are away, but my siblings are coming to the rescue

Every year at around this time, my parents head off to Europe for six weeks to visit my brother and his family (they live in Amsterdam) and do a bit of travelling as part of the trip.

It's a hard time for us because we lose our babysitters, and while we don't get a lot of help, it's certainly handy to have Mum on-hand for those times when eg I need to head to the city to see my GP or sleep specialist and I don't want two kids in tow.

Thankfully, though, my (other) brother and sister have stepped in and offered to babysit so we can go out for dinner this week and also go to an event on Saturday kid-free. My brother also did swimming for us on Sunday, which is a huge deal because Sunday swimming is always something of a stress.

So thank you siblings! It's good for them to spend time with the kids, too. I have good relationships with some of my aunts and uncles in particular, and I'd love my children to have those kinds of relationships too.

I received a bunch of free stuff yesterday

As you may know, I'm part of two review teams - and yesterday I had two packages show up containing five items for me to try. Hooray free stuff!

I received a cleansing oil, a serum, an eye cream, a lipstick and a gloss, and I couldn't be more excited. Trying new products is one of my favourites things to do, and when I haven't paid for them, even better! I don't receive a lot of free stuff, but when items do occasionally show up, I feel very lucky : )

The only bad thing is that, being a blogger, I need to photograph everything before I can get stuck into it. Argh. It's one of the most annoying things about being a blogger. Fingers crossed for me that the sun comes out today so I can set up my props and get the photos done and dusted.

I saw some old, familiar faces on Saturday

One of my friends had her 40th on Saturday and it was a lovely event, where I saw some familiar faces that I haven't seen for years. I did my writing/editing course with the birthday girl and she'd invited some people we'd both studied with, and it was really nice to chat with them and see how they're going.

I also heard that one of the girls we studied with is having a book published, and it's so wonderful to hear that a fellow writer is getting her name in print! It's not easy to find your way in this industry, but when you hear that others have gone on to pursue their careers successfully, you feel so happy for them.

It was also a really nice, well-planned event. The kids had a good time and were mostly well-behaved, and we were able to stay for a good couple of hours before my son started cracking it. Winning. Ha.

In sum

That's all from me. Somehow I've managed to write this post before either child has woken up, which is something of a miracle in itself. Normally when I come down early, someone always hears the kettle or the creak of the stairs, and my plans to write in peace implode.

But I've managed it today, and that's a positive in itself.

Now. To get through an entire day with a terrible two-er and a threenager, and very little sleep...

Hope all's well with you, and speak soon x

* All images courtesy of unsplash.com

Hello and welcome to my Pan that Palette update for August!

It's been a reasonable panning month and I've made some good progress on all three of the items I'm currently panning, and I'm still hopeful that I can knock out quite a few more pans before the end of the year. We shall see.

Let's get down to business, starting with the item I introduced in July to replace the Hourglass blush trio I finished.

Here's how my Hourglass Ambient Lighting Edit Vol 2 (Surreal Light) looked last month:

And here's how it's looking now:

As you can see, I've made some good progress on this over the past month. The pale blush (centre top) is moving quickly, although that's because I've been able to use it as an all-over finishing powder. Yes it works as a blush on me, but if I use just a light dusting, it works like an Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder would (ie, it blurs imperfections and offers a slight glow). I expect to finish this in September.

The bright blush I'm using not only as a blush, but I'm also adding some to the Laura Mercier highlighter I'm panning (which is too cool and frosty for me on its own). I also run a little over a finished eye look just to add that Hourglass soft-focus finish, and while I'm not sure I'll be able to finish the whole pan by Christmas, there's a reasonable amount gone already so I might be lucky.

As for the highlighter, you can see that I've kept working on the centre of the pan and there's a wider dip there now. I use this constantly on the eyes and also on the face (noting that I generally use the aforementioned Laura Mercier highlighter on the collarbones).

I reckon it's a line-ball call in terms of whether I can finish this by the end of the year. Fingers crossed!

Next up, my Burberry quad. I'm so over this thing, I can't tell you. Why? Because I only love one of the shadows in this palette (the dusty rose that I'm not panning) and also because the green is deceptive: it looks muddy grey on my skin.

There's how my palette looked last month:

And here's how it's looking now:

As you can see, I'm getting there with both the green and brown shades, which I'm using mixed as my brow colour, and I may well get there next month.

I'm so close now that I might start double-purposing these shades in an attempt to finish them. Once I've done that, I'll be putting the dusty rose into my custom palette so I can call this quad empty.

I cannot tell you how much I'm looking forward to moving on from this thing!

Last up, my custom palette. As you may know, this product has seen a lot of change since I first started panning it, and while I've finished quite a few shadows now, the ones I have left are pretty slow going.

Here's how it looked last month:

And now:

As always, let's work in sections.

Left side, last month:

And now:

The big change here is that I've managed to hit the smallest amount of pan in Nars Orgasm, which happened because I reviewed the product this month and had to use a lot of powder to get my swatches to show up.

My aim with this pan is to get through a good amount this year (I mainly use it as a 'play' shadow in the evenings before my shower because Nars powders tend to crinkle up my eyelids), and after that I'll put the remains into my franken-palette of popular shades for future comparison swatches - which will be the end of it thank golly. This blush just doesn't work for me unfortunately.

The other news in this section of the palette is that I've got a rather large dip in the cream Doucce shade, which I'm using every day as my base shadow and also around my nose and chin where I get oily. I've no doubt that I'll be able to finish it by Christmas.

There's no other news in this section of the palette, so let's look at the right upper side.

As it was last month:

And now:

I've finally finished the pan that contained some of Nars Sin, and I've also expanded the pan in both sides of my Nars Isolde duo.

Again, I use these for playtime because they crinkle up my eyelids, but I've always done 'makeup playtime' in the evenings anyway before my shower - so it made sense for me to play around with some of the shadows in this palette that don't work for me. At least I'm getting some enjoyment from them now!

Lower right side, as it was last month:

And now:

Well, we're finally starting to see more movement in this side of the palette.

First, I finally finished Ardency Inn Disco and I've now hit pan in Heaven, the shade beside that one. You'll also notice a dent appearing in Sunday (the gold beside that), and I suspect that will be the next shade we see pan in.

There's also a dip opening up in the lavender shadow from Bleach London, and the brown Becca shade (top right) is finally showing some progress too.

In sum

Happily it's been a reasonable month for Pan that Palette and I'm happy with where things are at for now.

My big hope for September is to finish the two shades I'm panning from my Burberry quad so I can draw a line under that and move on, although we'll see how I go.

Hope all's well with you, and speak soon x

little white truths

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