Category: Personal & Comentary

Clueless x Makeup Revolution Lipgloss Review

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In June, I discovered my closet Walmart had the Clueless x Makeup Revolution collection in the beauty department. The collection was created to celebrate the movie’s 30th anniversary. (I can’t believe it’s been that long since it came out!) I was really excited about it, but I also didn’t need makeup at that time. After browsing the collection for a few weeks, before and after a restock of the collection, I finally decided to buy one thing from it: A tube of lip gloss.

The lip gloss I picked is in the color Dionne, but I also found the color called Pink Halo. After using it for a few weeks, I decided to write a review post on the gloss.

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5 Magazines I Still Purchase (And Reread After I Buy Them)

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I love books, but I don’t always like to buy them. They can be quite expensive and I don’t normally like the story. Because of this, I sometimes feel like buying books all the time is a waste of money for me. Although this rings true for books, I have a major weakness for magazines. Especially sewing, knitting, and cooking magazines. I believe if books contained the information the magazines I usually read, I would buy them more often and not feel so guilty about them. Yet, they don’t.

While going through my old magazines to see if there are any issues I don’t want to keep anymore, I began to see all the magazines I kept and why I picked them. I narrowed my favorites down to five magazines brands and types of magazines, that I bought the most and keep rereading. Although all my favorite magazines are not for everyone, nor is reading magazines, I think many will find it interesting which ones I still buy and enjoy reading.

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Kate Spade New York: All In Good Taste Book Review

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While during a recent clean out and organization of my things, I came across some books I wanted to write review posts for. One of those books is All In Good Taste by Kate Spade New York.

The book, which was published in 2015, is by the fashion and lifestyle brand, Kate Spade New York. I’m a fan of Kate Spade New York and really love shopping the brand. At the time I purchased this book, I wanted to own some of the books by Kate Spade New York. I decided to pick All In Good Taste first because it is about the do’s and don’ts of entertaining.

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Discovering New Alternatives for Hard Apple Cider in Recipes

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Ever since I discovered I have food allergies, I have tried my best to adjust any recipe I use to avoid my allergies. Over the years I’ve become more adapted to recognizing recipes with ingredients I can’t use and how to still use the recipe anyway.

Last year, I decided to try make a new bagel recipe. It called for hard apple cider or beer for it. I don’t like to make recipes with beer in it because beer normally plays an important role in the recipe. In fact, the role is so important that I find it is hard to use the recipe with alternative ingredients.

Even though the recipe called for beer or hard apple cider (Both of which I am allergic to) I still decided to give it a try. I thought that if hard apple cider can be used instead of beer, then I could use another apple-based juice as it’s replacement. That’s when I began to learn about why apple juice isn’t a good substitute for beer or hard apple cider.

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I Have a New Tomato from My Tomato Plant!

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I have happy news! I harvested my first tomato from my tomato plant!

Here it is!

My tomato plant was able to grow two tomatoes since I brought it home. This one is the first one to become ripe. I am having some problems with my tomato plant with bugs, but it is still growing, putting out blooms, and otherwise doing fine.

The plant I own was purchased from Walmart. The tomato plant is called “Patio” and is from Bonnie Plants. It will grow about 2 feet tall and is supposed to grow well in containers. The type of tomatoes it produces are not big, but are not like cherry tomatoes. They are more like slicing tomatoes, just smaller.

 

That’s all for now! Thank you for reading!

A New Tomato Plant, Bug Infestation, and Struggles With My Pesticide Allergies

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Two weeks ago, I decided to bring home a tomato plant. It wasn’t a spontaneous purchase as I wanted to grow one for many years. Yet, I didn’t plan on purchasing one this year.

With this tomato plant, I now have four plants: An amaryllis, a cactus, a sweet basil, and the tomato plant. I’m really happy to own all four, but I did notice something really serious that happened to my plants: a bug infestation.

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My Favorite Events for Disneyland’s 70th Anniversary

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Today is the start of Disneyland’s 70th Anniversary! I am really happy to see Disney is doing special things for the platinum anniversary of Disneyland. (Also known as the Disneyland Resort)

Although I have no plans for a vacation to Disneyland this year, I still try to keep up to date with what is going on in the park. This way whenever I do go on vacation to Disneyland, I will know what has changed and what hasn’t. For the 70th Anniversary, there are events planned from May 16, 2025 through 2026. This allows for a longer window of time to visit the park and enjoy the special anniversary events.

After doing some research about the anniversary events, there are a few anniversary events that caught my eye. Since they start today, I wanted to talk about my favorite events in a post. I got the information about the events from Disneyland’s official webpage for the 70th anniversary and from Disney Parks Blog’s Complete Guide to the 70th Anniversary.

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Making Homemade Bread Progress Report: One-ish Year Later

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In October 2023, I announced I will begin learning to make my own bread from scratch. Since then, I struggled to learn how to make bread. Part of the problem was new baker mistakes while the other problem was my mixer.

When I started making bread, I was using an almost 30 year old mixer and it had major problems. Earlier this year, I replaced it with a new mixer. Even though the new mixer is smaller than the old one, it runs much better and does a better job at mixing dough and kneading the bread. This was further improved when I purchased a different style dough hook from Amazon. The dough hook is not from the same brand as the mixer (Kitchenaid) but it was designed to not allow the dough ride up the dough hook while mixing. It works really well and is very easy to clean. It is stainless steel too!

Today, my white bread looks really good! I am now able to make it the same way consistently without any abnormalities from loaf to loaf.

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Thoughts on the Passing of Queen Elizabeth II

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If you haven’t heard, Queen Elizabeth II, the oldest and longest serving monarch not only of Great Britain but in the world, passed away on September 7, 2022. I thought about publishing today’s post as scheduled, but I decided to postpone it until next week. Even though I am not British, I always admired the Queen. She served as the monarch for seventy years before she passed away. Even though her reign was not perfect, she provided a stability for her country that few of any generation could ever do.

Whenever someone passes away, it is always hard to explain their feelings. I feel that way right now. I feel sad that she is no longer here and her presence will be forever missed. Yet, she left behind a legacy that is awe inspiring and is something people of all ages will look at in admiration. I’m happy she will be with her husband, Prince Phillip, who passed away in April, again. Even though I will miss her, I am happy she is in a safe place. A place without stress and worry about the world’s affairs and all the stress she had as Queen. May she, and her husband, Rest In Peace.

Well, that’s all for now. Thank you for reading.

 

Featured Image by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Book Review: Gossip Girl by Cecily von Zigersar

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Back in the late 2000’s, a friend of mine let me borrow her copy of Cecily von Zigersar’s book, Gossip Girl. I read it, and over the years forgot most of it, but I remember that I read it before the new Gossip Girl TV series premiered. In 2020, I heard the TV series would get a reboot. I wanted to reread the original books from the series, but I couldn’t because I borrowed them from my friend and, thanks to the pandemic, I didn’t want to bother her in order to borrow her books. Instead, I decided to purchase my own copy of the first book in the series, Gossip Girl, and, if I liked it enough, I would buy the other books in the series.

Gossip Girl is the first book in the Gossip Girl series by Cecily von Zigersar. The book follows a group of affluent teenagers in New York City as they navigate life after one of the most popular girls, Serena van der Wooden, returns to New York City and school after a year away at boarding school. Serena’s arrival back at the school caused a lot of gossip around why she left, what she did while she was gone, and why she left the boarding school. Although Serena’s return was not greeted with warmth or joy, Serena discovered that while she was gone, her friends moved on and began lives without her. Continue reading “Book Review: Gossip Girl by Cecily von Zigersar” →