Getting rid of tan lines

Ok, so boo-hoo, I got tan lines from my recent family trip to Hawaii. I guess I should have thought about it because I’m a bridesmaid in my friend’s wedding which was set for 1 week after I would get back. So fast forward two weeks of bliss and I’m on the plane headed home and worrying about tan lines. There’s no way I’m going to show up for makeup and photos with bright white streaks of flesh. 

I can’t use a bronzer to hide it since I’ll be wearing a white dress. And I don’t want my dress to get tanned.

Sure, the photographer could possibly photoshop it out, but I don’t actually know if they will. So, I figure I should be considerate and get a spray tan. But online feedback and horror stories shy me away from making a bigger mistake. 

I take my chance on using Clarins self-tanning gel. 

Online cons: pricey, no dyes (can’t see where you applied it)

Online pros: good color (i.e. not orangey), streak free, smells good, no dyes (doesn’t stain clothes)

I figure if it doesn’t work within a day or so, no harm and I can go to plan B (not yet decided). 

Results: By the first day I noticed good results. It was a glowing tan which did not streak or look orange. After several applications, I was able to get a good blend with my front chest but my upper back did not fare as well. Although not as noticeable, I don’t think I would have been able to achieve the burnt tan look which my unfortunate upper back had received. 

Con: pricey, smells, takes longer than a “few” minutes to dry, slow acting (6-8 hours to “tan”)

Pros: good tan color, not orangey, no staining of clothes (no dyes), no streaks, easy to apply

Recommendations:

• Use a hair dryer on cool mode to help dry the gel more quickly
• Apply throughout the day once in the morning, once during lunch and once before bed 
• Good for med to light tan lines. The color didn’t seem to match my darker tan.
• If you’re chesty and have applied on your upper chest, make sure you don’t rub your under arm on the gel while trying to apply to your back. You’ll get dark patches under your arms 😂

Grandpa

I never had grandparents growing up. We never met because they passed away during the Vietnam Conflict. Although, American culture does not quite see it this way, in my culture, when a daughter marries, they are no longer a part of their family and the husband’s family becomes theirs. So, after my marriage, I secretly reveled in the idea that I now had two sets of grandparents too.

On Saturday, we lost Lawrence, who once told me, “Call me, Grandpa.” I loved that more than I can even explain even though I felt awkward saying the words directly to him, usually calling him, Lawrence or Larry. I always felt a little fake calling him Grandpa, because I wasn’t really one of his grandkids. Perhaps those who have never had grandparents will be able to understand this strange feeling I am talking about. How you hang back a little because you don’t want to overstep the other “REAL” grandkids. It’s a stupid way to think, especially when I know that’s not how they see it at all and have always made me feel welcomed and loved.

At my wedding, Lawrence danced with me, made me laugh and then told me before the dance ended, “We love you.” I barely knew him then and his words cut me to the core because of the familial love that he was willing to offer me. Then, every year, my heart would fill to the brim when I received the annual birthday card from Maureen and Lawrence. A simple gesture, sent along with Alan’s birthday card that meant so much to me. He also didn’t have any trouble teasing me like his other grandkids.

I loved visiting and when we decided not to go to the East coast for our summer vacation, I was sad. Family means a lot to me and nothing was more fun than sharing our free time with family. While visiting, he once pulled me outside because he thought I would like to see a colorful garden newt. I did.

I didn’t want to post or write anything, because I didn’t want to diminish the loss of other family members. But, I really wanted to write about what a difference he made to my life with his kindness, joy and laughter. I don’t feel that I am able to express how much he meant to me. And, even though I only had a small number of years to know him, I will miss him very much.

AmazonFresh

I tried a grocery delivery service today. Instacart wasn’t available in my area. The GoogleExpress interface and searching was awful. Not to mention their significant lack of items to purchase. I decided to try the 30 day AmazonFresh trial (normally $299/year + delivery charges). It had a lot of grocery options and was easy to navigate. 

They had two options for delivery. You could have it dropped off or you could be present for the delivery. I needed it the next day and there weren’t any drop off time slots available, so I picked the earliest available attended delivery, which is what they call being present at delivery.

My delivery consisted of 4 cooler bags and one bag. Imagine to my surprise when I opened one and all I found inside were two bell peppers. One of the coolers was full but the other three were sparse. I can only imagine it must be part of their packing process that causes that to happen. 

  

All items were delivered and I am satisfied with the service, although 2 of my eggs were cracked during transport. This saved me hours of roaming aisles. Now, if I can justify the cost.

Baby Nest 2

I’m finally finished with baby crafts! I finished this last Saturday but couldn’t post until after the baby shower. I didn’t want to ruin the surprise! 

It was a trial to make, even with the first run through. There are some obvious mistakes that I hope Laura C. will forgive me for. I was happy that the binding worked for this one so it can be adjusted to fit the baby.  I changed the string to macrame string. It’s woven instead of twisted, so it doesn’t easily become undone. And I added plastic cord locks on each side to hold the string in place.

It’s funny how you don’t realize what things are called until you try to look for them! I was calling the cord locks, drawstring balls. Haha.

Also, baby nests are reversible! Perfect when your baby spits up and you’re too lazy to wash it right away. We always put a burp cloth down near Raina’s head to avoid that.
Raina loves her baby nest because it’s so cozy. It also makes it easier for us to have her sleep in with us on weekends. Hopefully, Gerad and Laura will get some use out of theirs!

Car Seat Cover

I finally got a chance to finish the car seat cover. I wanted to make one for my sister-in-law because she had sewn me such a nice cover for Raina, which I use everytime we go out. She was planning on making herself one but just didn’t have the time. The free pattern and tutorial we both used was from FleeceFun.com.

I loved this adorable traffic themed fabric and paired it with a neutral geometric pattern for the interior lining.  The hardest part of this project was getting the straps to line up properly to the car seat handle! Even though I measured and tested them before sewing, I had to redo them.    I’m happy with how it turned out. I hope she will like it too!  

Infinity Nursing Scarf

I whipped together an infinity nursing scarf this morning while Raina was napping. I read various blogs to get a template. Just search DIY infinity nursing scarf and you’ll find many tutorials. It’s simple and only needs one yard of jersey knit. The hardest part was having to change the sewing needle to a ball point jersey needle! (Which wasn’t difficult at all!)One thing I love about this scarf over other similar ones is the addition of snap tape! Sewn to the opposite ends and sides, I can get more versatility out of it. Of course, like the image above, I can use it as a fashionable scarf.  Used as a nursing cover, I can unbutton some snaps to create an armhole for better side coverage and arm mobility. Or I can simply close it up and have a “normal” cover.  And lastly, I can open it up all the way for a thin blanket or even use it as a quick swaddle! The first jersey knit I purchased was too thick for summer. I was worried that a thin jersey would be too transparent. However, unless someone is blatantly staring and trying to visualize my breast, the thin jersey works perfectly as a summer nursing cover.

Baby Projects

Been absent awhile on this blog. My time has been entirely consumed by Raina. Last weekend, Alan, Laura, Raina and I went to the Etsy Emporium in the city. I was disappointed by how tiny it was!

But lately, I’ve been wanting to get back into crafting so I started on a few projects.

We saw some animal ear clips at the emporium and Alan was disappointed that we didn’t buy any. For $22, I wasn’t ready to buy a pair of furry clips that Raina wouldn’t be able to wear. Using materials I already had, I came up with some cute black and white ears. Unfortunately, they still don’t clip well into her hair. 

I’ve also been eyeing a project online. I wanted to make a baby nest for Raina. I used Sofie Ekland’s blog for the template.  I found a beautiful fabric at JoAnns and it mostly turned out well. I basically used my baby nest as a trial run and will make another one for a friend. 

Here’s Raina looking baller in it. It’s supposed to fit a baby until six months, but Raina is already busting out the bottom. Now I can lay her in various places and be assured that she won’t roll off. 

I’m almost finished with a car seat cover for my sister-in-law. I still need to attach the Velcro and sew the straps onto the cover but I need the car seat to align the straps. I will update with photos after I’m finished with it.

Wonky

I made a gift for a friend for her birthday. When I started, I thought it was going to be so amazing. My embroidering was top notch. Then I started to sew the actual 3D shape… and well… Alan laughed when he saw it and asked me, “Why do your projects always come out a bit wonky?”

I mean, you can BARELY tell the difference. I’ll just say it’s a Dr. Seuss/Frankenstein siracha softie… totally recognizable.

Posters

I’m really excited that I’ve finally gotten around to framing and hanging the posters I got from last year’s Fanime and the poster that Danielle and I won for being Top 5 fundraiser for NaNoWriMo. The NaNoWriMo poster is actually the stand-in prize, since the actual prize was a custom poster of your novel.

My favorite is the Cowboy Bebop set!

Prude and Prejudice

Can it be 2 months already since my last post? I’ve been extremely busy at work trying to prepare for a big tradeshow. Now that it’s finally done, I can hopefully relax a little.

I’ve been trying to do some editing, but it hasn’t gone well. I started re-writing my NaNoWriMo story on Scrivener but didn’t get further than the first page. Instead, I’ve been distracted (among other things) by an idea. I would consider myself a new fan of Jane Austen and I finally finished her collection of work. I was surprised to find that there were a lot of TERRIBLE fan fiction online trying to make classical stories more like Fifty Shades of Grey. Some of them were downright comical but most of the writing just didn’t make sense. After all, the Regency era was rather prudish in comparison to today’s accepted relationship standards. I thought rather, it would be much easier to take Fifty Shades of Grey and revert it to a Regency era story. The first thought that captured this idea was if Christian had given Ana a horse rather than an Audi. My mind has since then started thinking how to take the same story and apply Regency era standards.