TiLT #2: love, joy, gratitude, beauty, fun!
Youtube heavy this go-round, I’m afraid. Been shown some amazing things by some wonderful people.
Katy Perry Chatroulette prank (it is RAD; too bad embedding’s disabled, boo)
SO JOY-INDUCING!!!! <3 baby monkey.
Randall’s “Pigs of Wall Street”
-there was just something extra bewitching about the way the light hit this dogwood tree on campus – I don’t know if I caught the effect in the picture, really, but I had to try
-Gabe Moses’s How to Make Love to a Trans Person, especially these lines:
“Realize that bodies are only a fraction of who we are
They’re just oddly-shaped vessels for hearts
And honestly, they can barely contain us”
Some of the most beautiful words I have ever, will ever read. (And since I have kind of a “thing” about getting tattoos in pairs, I think these lines would go perfectly with the Stan Rice lines I’ve been planning on: “Everything is a struggle. Everything is a miracle.” I’m thinking they need to go somewhere I’ll see them, and remember what they mean to me, what they’re telling me, every day: forearms or wrists, maybe?)
-Skeeter and Chalupa have been pretty sweet this week, when they’re not running around like crackhead fiends, that is
-there was this awesome synchronicity between therapy and acupuncture this week – both focusing on getting me back in touch with my real self, my calm self, and not letting my worries be the boss of me and get my mind on that “hamster wheel” (or as the acupuncturist, Toby, put it, “We’re going to put the Queen back on the throne, and not let the worrying take over up there.”); this also meant I got needles in my wrists, and, while I certainly didn’t watch it happening, it was no big deal, no tears, no freaking out, just calmness – that is a HUGE DEAL for me, HUGE IMPROVEMENT (needles in my wrists, are you kidding?! I’ve come so far)
-having friends over for boardgames (and funny youtube vids – which includes alot of the above)
-going with Greg to a games store in Cary-ish, to play Gamma World, and enjoying the hell out of myself even though 1-it was my very first intro to Gamma World, and 2-I only actually knew 2 of the 8 people playing (yay for not having a social phobic freakout moment, go me, awesome!)
-”You know I’m just going to end up paying a buck-fifty, and then get kicked out.” (me, on learning of the games store’s cussing policy: 1st offense, 50c fine; 2nd offense, $1; 3rd offense, booted out; still not sure how I managed like three hours of not cussing)
-”And the flowers are STILL standing.” (Greg, quoting Ghostbusters – LOVE THIS MAN SO MUCH! Quoting Bill Murray? Be still my heart.)
-getting some PROPER RAIN!!! woot! The thunder this morning was AMAZING. I am loving this – I hope it sticks around for a while.
-”the herpetrator” (Greg, on something – I SWEAR we need to start that podcast, it would be hilarious, if only to me)
-”Can you speculate as to what brought on this ‘bushwhack’?”
And to round it up nicely, we’re going to the The Pinhook tonight to watch the full run of R. Kelly’s “Trapped in the Closet.” It’s an experience, folks. I’ve seen it once before in its entirety (with him narrating, no less, which, by the way, is insane and insanely awesome, his narration, I mean), and I’m finally ready to see it again. Can’t promise I won’t have Weird Al’s “Trapped in the Drive-Thru” running through my head at some points, though. Or that I might cave into the insanity and have a drink or cadge a smoke. (Bad girl!) I’ll try to hold out. We’ll see. Happy Thursday, lovies! Here’s to the next sparkling week. xoxo
Lippie comparison, not really dupes, though
Once I tried on CoverGirl Lip Perfection lipstick in Fairytale, I had two thoughts: 1-it didn’t really suit me at all, and 2-it reminded me of a MAC lippie I’d bought that didn’t suit me, either. So I wanted to compare them and see if they’re dupes – turns out, they’re not. They’re maybe a little similar in color, but not really that much – the only thing they “dupe on” is that I find them unflattering on myself in a similar way, not that I can really describe it, other than “they just don’t look quite right.” And then once I swatched the MAC lippie, it reminded me of another MAC lippie that *does* work for me (at least, I think so), so I wanted to compare them to see if I could figure out why I like the one (Viva Glam Cyndi) but not the other two (Fairytale and MAC Impassioned). Here, then, are the photos.
no flash, left: Fairytale, right: Impassioned
with flash, left: Fairytale, right: Impassioned
More pictures (face and lip swatches, and Viva Glam Cyndi) below.
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Yummy raw!
So, I’m doing Goddess Leonie’s Radiant Goddess Course, and I haven’t been strictly following the nutrition/menu plans, because I feel like we’ve changed so much already (due to the no-sugar, low-GI, hypoglycemia stuff), and I don’t want to take on too much at once and get overwhelmed, because that’s when I tend to get frustrated and quit. But Greg and I sat down yesterday to plan meals for the week, prior to grocery shopping, and I said, “Hey, let’s check some of these meal ideas.” They’re all either mostly raw or completely raw, and we found quite a few we wanted to try this week.
Our basic day is like this: pre-breakfast smoothie for me (protein, brewer’s yeast, powdered skim milk), green smoothie for both of us (big on kale these days, plus some fruit, going to start adding some Kyo-Green just for more green goodness), and then some low-GI breakfast option (eggs and bacon, Greek yogurt with ground flax seed and nuts, stuff like that). I have snacks or a meal about every two hours, to regulate my blood sugar, and it’s only dropped once since we made this change, and that was a couple days ago and totally because I cheated too much: had some stuff I shouldn’t have, and didn’t have snacks on time. We bring lunch with us, usually leftovers from dinner the night before, and a good portion of salad. (Greg makes AWESOME salads, in large batches, and we just eat from that until it’s empty, then he makes another, lather, rinse, repeat.) Then for dinner, some low-GI option plus plenty more salad. So I’m getting ALOT of salad, when I used to get none (seriously), I’m getting ALOT of fresh produce, when I used to get very little, and my palate is getting to the point that I actually looooove how veggies taste. And they even *have* a taste – that’s a huge change for me. They’re not bland, like they used to be.
Any hoodle. All that to say, tonight, dinner was AMAZING. We had awesome delicious salad made by Greg, and then he also made one of the all-raw recipes from the Radiant Goddess Course. (I was going to “cook” tonight, but I got possessed by a cleaning demon again, so he did the food while I finished cleaning.) I don’t know if it’s exactly kosher for me to share Leonie’s recipe, but I’ll see if I can find one similar on the web, because it was FUCKING DELICIOUS!!! Would eat again, and again, and again, and again. (In fact, we’re having leftovers for lunch tomorrow, yay!) I’m sure between raw foods and all this produce, I’ll be feeling pretty good and energetic.
Pictures:
BADASS SALAD
AMAZING RAW ZUCCHINI FETTUCINI ALFREDO
Swatch Sunday, 3/27/11: L’Oreal HiP Jelly Balm
without flash, left to right: Plush, Succulent, Luscious
with flash, left to right: Plush, Succulent, Luscious
Lip swatches and pot shots below. Read the rest of this entry »
New-York-a-go-go! Day One
Short version: we drove up, stopped in Richmond for lunch with a friend, Delaware for dinner with Greg’s dad and stepmom, and then rolled up in New York, and went to sleep. Also, it rained solidly from the moment we left Durham until we pulled up at Danny and Michel’s. Which for the most part, I enjoyed. (The hairier, more torrential downpours while we were on the highway, I could have done with a bit less, but, you know.) Longer version: below the cut.
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TiLT #1 (Things I Love Thursday)
I’ve been keeping a small Moleskine with me (okay, so, really, I carry, like, four at all times, and two are small and two are medium-ish), to jot down stuff that makes me happy, little nuggets of joy or wonder or whatever. Mainly so I can keep track of them and start doing TiLT posts, but it’s also just AWESOME to look back and be like, “Yeah, I remember that, it was RAD! Actually, all this week’s been RAD!” Focusing on the positive, y’all, it is pretty sweet actually. Full of awesome, juicy, joyful goodies! So here we go, this past week’s TiLT:
-bellydance class (please note: this is guaranteed to show up like, every single TiLT, I love it so, so, so much)
-the SUPERMOON!
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(I’m sure there are much better pictures of the supermoon out there, but these are mine. I had to take some. And they were taken around 2:30am, after a fabulous evening.)
-eating dinner with with Greg, Stephen, and Erin at Mawa’s Taste of Africa: I had some accaras (black eye pea fritters with onion sauce – AMAZING!) and the vegan 5-vegetable Ethiopian delight (gomen, atkil wat, aleecha, mesit wat, and klete kilkil – DELISH! and I loooooove plantains)
-there was a Korist and singer, Diali Cissokho, at Mawa’s who was amazing, and for some parts his lovely wife sang with him (and her high – soprano? – voice was just a beautiful…counterpoint? is that the word I want?), anyway, INCREDIBLE, INCREDIBLE music – go check it out at Diali Cissokho’s website – you can even buy some music, and I know I will!
-going bowling after dinner with Greg, Stephen, and Erin – and staying late enough that it turned into Cosmic Bowling! And breaking 100, which I never ever do! (109, baby! We’ll just gloss over my other scores being pretty low, okay?)
-acupuncture! has been such a blessing! two appointments, and I feel so much better already, WAY less anxious in general, and “that thing in my right side” has calmed down so much it’s just amazing
-Maduro’s latest release, Chasing Dragons, has made my ears very happy, and making me want to wiggle. (Full disclosure: I had “From the Pit” on constant repeat when I was processing Betty’s death, but this past week I’ve finally listened to the whole album several times – it’s ALL FANTASTIC, no surprise there.)
-SARK
-Goddess Leonie Allan – I’m so into her right now – just joined the Goddess Circle, and am devouring all her goodies
-”major asscrack action”
-the tulips at Erin’s & Stephen’s (sorry for the crap cellphone pic – I’ve started carrying my small camera with me everywhere now, since lugging the DSLR around is unwieldy on a daily basis)
-Erin reminding me about the existence of BootyPop underwear – so ridiculous, I just can’t even…
-Ugly Shyla’s awesomeness, and being lucky enough to own two of her beautiful art dolls
-blooms on campus (are they cherry blossoms? and is the purplish one a crepe myrtle? don’t care – they’re beautiful, whatever they are!)
-rediscovering my love of Le Tigre, Bikini Kill, riot grrl stuff (haven’t listened to it in forever, shame on me, it is fantastic)
-feeling super fertile creative (almost to a manic degree), and coming up with all sorts of crazy exciting projects to undertake
-podcast discoveries!: WTF with Marc Maron (thank you, Danny and Matt) and Astronomy Cast (thank you, Daniel)
-putting on winged liquid eyeliner and feeling FIERCE
-shots of the universe, forever and always (thank you, Brandi!)
-the badass honey badger (seriously, shit is INSANE; if they ever start socializing with each other, the human race is going down)
-Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab’s Red Lantern 2011 (“A tribute to the opium den cum bawdyhouses of Shanghai in the 1930’s. Golden amber, blonde tobacco, Sudanese black coconut, rich caramel, black currant, white opium and delphinium laced with a sensual blend of Asian spice.“)
I LOVE going up to the bar at the Pinhook, having Kym say, “Wow, someone smells really good,” and being able to say with utter confidence, “It’s me!” And it was. Because Red Lantern is the shit. I smell *divine*.
-Dance of Shiva *arriving* – it just arrived yesterday, and I’ve only tried it once, and hoo boy, y’all, it whooped my ass. I think I’ve *just about* got the horizontal arm movements down, but only if I’m doing the same position with both hands. Switching it up just confuses me – but that’s the point, right? Building new neural connections, yay. And learning to be patient and gentle and nonperfectionist with myself. Also, it worked the hell out of my arms, so it’s going to be great for helping my arm strength/endurance for veil practice.
-going to see Amor de Cosmos last night – they are WONDERFUL! I’m in love with the electric oud, such a lovely instrument to look at, and such pretty sounds. They don’t have a myspace/facebook/whatever yet, but I did manage to record *most* one of their songs (just missed the first fiddle solo bits, sorry, they were great, I was just slow with the camera.) Sorry this photo isn’t so hot – Greg took some better ones at an earlier Pinhook show – I’ll see if I can dig those up and post them sometime. You really need to see that oud clearly, trust.
I took this video – so the late beginning, the crappy video quality, and probably some of the sound issues are all mine. Maybe if I’d been standing elsewhere, the sound mix would’ve been better? Anyway, trust me that these guys are AMAZING and so INCREDIBLE live. This video doesn’t do them justice.
“Take Me Where the Weather’s Cold,” Amor de Cosmos from Kathryn Jacobs on Vimeo.
-the dude at the Pinhook last night in the black jeans just dancing away joyously – I loved watching him having such an awesomely great time. I felt like it would be rude to film him without getting permission, and was feeling too shy/social phobic to ask permission of a stranger, but I thought filming his footwork might be okay? But it turned out too dark for you to see anything. It was incredible and just happy-making, though.
-”Did you say ‘milk turd’?” “‘Dick slur’?” “Oh, no, it was DINKLE whiskey, that’s it.” Milk turd, new favorite.
-The Magnolia Collective (featuring members of the Whiskey Smugglers and the Pneurotics; as well as, I’m pretty sure, one of my distant coworkers from the Circ Desk, cool) covered my favorite Pneurotics song: “Mizzou,” and reminded me of its existence, and how much I enjoyed the Pneurotics (and the Magnolia Collective was great, too), so that was happy
-last but not least, glitter in unexpected places, YAY! (And yay for fairylights – I need some in my home.) I just turned around to look behind me at the Pinhook, and saw this magicalness:
Damn, I have just had a splendid week, haven’t I? I am surrounded by magical, glittery, sparkling wonder on a daily basis. I’m liking this “actually NOTICING and APPRECIATING it” stuff. Thanks for the inspo, Gala!
Started a side blog
Since I’m so into woo-woo, hippy-dippy shit right now, but didn’t want it to hijack this blog. So if you’re into that sort of thing, you can go check it out over at Woo-Woo & Witchy-poo.
Also, I swear I’m working on the NY posts, and have FOTD posts backed up because my anal retentive OCDness is MAKING me post them in chronological order, which means I can’t “reveal” the next FOTD until after the first NY post, since that’s how they happened linearly in time, and HOLY SHIT WHO TAKES SO GODDAMN MANY PICTURES OF DRIVING DURING A LONG ASS ROAD TRIP, THIS BITCH, THAT’S WHO. Actually, I find them kind of fascinating, when they’re blurry, when they’re crisp, when there are subtle changes between each photo (usually because I’ve got the camera on an action setting that rips off three photos right after each other). So you’re stuck with it. Sorry! I’ll be putting up mini thumbnails, so you can look at only what looks really interesting to you, but also the slideshow via flickr in case you like those sort of pics as much as I do.
Anyway, NY trip day one, hopefully soon! xoxo
Swatch Sunday, 3/20/11: CoverGirl lippies
I don’t know what this new CoverGirl deal is – is it a re-launch? Re-branding? Just new products for Spring? Don’t know, don’t really care, just love, love, LOVE the products! You’ve probably noticed their NatureLuxe Liquid Silk Foundation is about all I use these days, and my wishlist for their NatureLuxe/Lip Perfection/Queen Lippies is, um, a bajillion miles long but boils down to “ALL OF IT PLZKTHXBAI!” I also picked up one of the cream blushes with Olay mixed in, and I love the shit of out that sucker, so now 1-OBVIOUSLY, I want more of those cream blushes, and 2-I’m wondering why the fuck I haven’t tried their “+Olay” stuff before yet, and thinking I need to get on that, stat. Anyway, I thought I’d share my lippies from their new lines/whatever, because I LOVES them so hard. And also because I wanted to get your opinions on which shades or what products of theirs I should try next – so if you’ve got suggestions, by all means, let me have them!
without flash
top row: NatureLuxe Gloss Balm in Anemone (left) and Hibiscus (right)
bottom row: Lip Perfection lipstick in Divine (left), Fairytale (middle), and Smitten (right)
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with flash
top row: NatureLuxe Gloss Balm in Anemone (left) and Hibiscus (right)
bottom row: Lip Perfection lipstick in Divine (left), Fairytale (middle), and Smitten (right)
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Lip swatches below.
FOTD: Tethys and Neptune (3/9/11)
And before you start: yes, I do realize that Neptune is Roman and Tethys is Greek. They are still beautiful shades, and lovely together. ;P (Also, mythology nerds represent!) This was my makeup for the (long ass) drive up to New York. (Trip deets later, for those of you who want to skip either FOTDs or trip stuff.)
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FOTD: Many faces of Myrtha (3/8/11)
I really like Aromaleigh’s Myrtha (from the En Pointe collection, presumably named for this Myrtha, since I’m no expert on ballet, although it is very lovely) – but I’m not quite sure what to do with it. Or how to use it, I guess I mean. So I thought it was long past time to have a go at it. Some day, when I get my shit together, I think I’m going to try creating a winged shape in my crease with Pixie Epoxy, and then putting Myrtha on top of it, as well as on my lid but without PE – to get kind of a foiled and also not-foiled thing going on, on a larger scale, for comparison. As it was, I did use Myrtha both dry and foiled – but I think it’d have more impact if the foiled part were larger and blended into the unfoiled part somewhat more.
It is such a lovely, lovely, shimmering, but elusive shadow. Sometimes light brown (almost a dark mothy color), sometimes shimmering green, sometimes greenish gold, sometimes – foiled – a surprising almost-metallic light blue! Just elusive and lovely. I also recently had a go at making my own polishes (from mineral pigments/shadows, and also frankening), and it is SO addictive. (I only stopped because I ran out of bottles I was willing to empty.) And the Myrtha polish is GORGE! And so here we are! Full-face up top; close-ups, details, and the Myrtha polish shots below the cut.
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