Let’s first start with this picture I accidentally got of my cat, Graham, being adorable 😍. The brand new,modern LED light and fixture on the ceiling is a huge improvement over the horrible ode to the early 1980s that was hanging so low that hubby kept hitting his head on it. We replaced 6 light fixtures with these ones that only cost us 77 CAD on Amazon for a much cleaner look and brighter light.
I didn’t even realize that Graham was there when I was trying to get a photo of the new inobtrusive light fixture on the ceiling.
Next up is progress on the thing that both hubby and I have hated the look of since buying the condo almost 9 years ago.
Halfway through the first coat Finished the first coat Touching up the second coat
Last night, I told my husband what a great job he’s done transforming the fireplace into something we can be proud of instead of something that makes us both want to vomit when we see it. He agreed, and we laughed and laughed. I’m so happy to see my vision finally coming together.
Color draping seems to be all the rage again these days. I’ve known that I am a winter since I was first draped in the 1980s, but there was always a question in my mind because my eyes are bright green and my hair color is dark auburn . As for lipstick, I don’t suit the darker shades of the winter palette, and the lighter shades don’t work well either. Recently, there have been additions made to the color draping world, and now, instead of the 4 seasons, there are 12 to choose from . Each season now has 3 different types. For winter, you can be a true winter, a dark winter, or a bright winter . And now my original draping as a winter makes sense to me. I’m a bright winter, which is the lightest of the winters. On the chart below, you will see it sits between true winter and bright spring.
What this means, if you are a bright winter, is you should think about your color palette like this. What happens when you bring spring into winter? The bright winter palette is cool toned, the hue is mid toned, and the chroma is bright or highly saturated. Bright winter can even wear neons. We can also look good in some of the colors from true winter and bright spring. If you’re unsure about a shade, no matter what season you fall under, I highly recommend Christine Scaman and her youtu.be channel. She recently did a comprehensive dive into teals and blue/green for all of the seasons. She also has a website 12blueprints.com that is a fantastic resource and includes her youtu.be videos.
Since lipstick was always a hit and miss proposition for me for the past 40 years or so, I thought I’d share 13 shades of Revlon lipsticks that are perfect for the bright winter palette I wore no makeup for these photos except the lipstick shade noted below each photo and included Revlon’s official description of each shade . It’s recommended for bright winter gals to wear lipstick with a sheen and not matte, which works for me as I tend towards dry lips .
This is Cherry Blossom. Revlon describes it as a creamy magenta red.
Love that red. Revlon describes it as a creamy watermelon redLovesick. Revlon describes it as a creamy magenta Fuchsia fusion. Revlon describes it as a pearlized dark fuchsia Fire and ice, originally launched in 1952, Revlon describes it as a hot pink red.Dramatic. Revlon describes it as a creamy pink violet Electric melon. Revlon describes it as a warm pink. This shade is an example of a colo that can be worn by both bright winter and bright spring. Pink promise. Revlon describes it as a creamy, bright pink Wine with everything, pearl. Revlon describes it as a pearlized raspberry red Wild orchid. Revlon describes it as a pearlized magenta
Cherries in the snow, originally launched in 1953. Revlon describes it as a creamy fuchsia, I would say dark fuchsia.
From the super lustrous glass shine line, Fuchsia gleam no description from Revlon, but it’s a medium fuchsia pink with blue undertones From the super lustrous glass shine line, Love is on. Revlon describes it as a creamy cranberryred, I would add with blue sheen.
The last two shades are from the super lustrous glass shine lipstick line and I highly recommend it for older women as it’s a lovely balmy formula that is extremely comfortable to wear, however it will have to be touched up more frequently. The other shades are from Revlon’s super lustrous lipsticks, and they wear longer.
I hope this helps other bright winter women with some choices of lipstick that not only work but are affordable and easy to find.
I’m feeling rather accomplished. This year, I resolved to get healthier.i was underweight and lacking energy, not to mention my lower teeth were rotting. I took action by having the teeth removed and paying attention to my nutrition needs . Now my energy is up, as is my weight and in a healthy way. I have gained balance for the first time in 9 years, and I mean literal balance, in that I can balance myself while standing without my AFO or a cane ,and even while I’m pulling up my underwear which takes concentration away from said balance. My brain has become capable of physical multitasking, and that’s huge for me.
Anyone who thinks that all strokes are entirely recoverable is wrong. But I couldn’t be happier to announce that I’ve reached a level in my recovery that I never thought possible. I will never recover my left hand, and that’s okay .I made my peace with that while still on the stroke recovery floor of the hospital 8 and a half years ago. But I never expected to achieve the balance that I recently achieved with the added bonus of doing something while balancing.
The fact that my brain has created new pathways around the piece of myxoma tumor that is still in my brain is nothing short of incredible.
I still don’t expect to have a full recovery, but the fact that I’m still seeing improvements 9 years after the massive stroke I sustained is absolutely positive news for anyone who believed that there’s a small window of time to recover from a stroke. I’m still not walking without my AFO, but I now see it as possible. Perhaps not probable, but possible. And I feel fantastic about the improvements that came with focus on health.
What daily habit do you do that improves your quality of life?
The only thing that I do daily to improve the quality of my life is eat as healthy as I can. I exercise every day as well , however recently I’m taking a short break from exercise. Food is really the only thing that I can control my health with. I’m not trying to lose or gain weight. In fact, my weight is of no concern right now. I’m just trying to get as many nutrients from my food as possible. Between soups with chicken, rice and veggies, and smoothie s with fresh fruit and collagen powder from several sources and whole wheat breads,my diet is now far healthier than it ever has been. I have better energy, and my joints are feeling good.
My only remaining bad habit with nutrition these days is a small bowl of ice cream a few times per week, but I’m pretty sure that’s helping my sanity, so… there’s that.
Dinners consist of spinach ravioli or a small portion of meatloaf and mashed potatoes and carrots until I can eat with my dentures in consistently, and hopefully, that will occur shortly after September 24th when my next reline happens. I really didn’t expect that eating with my dentures would take so long or be so difficult to achieve comfortably. For now, I’m just eating what I can eat as comfortably as possible. I can’t wait to get some salads into my dinners again soon.
What was the last thing you searched for online? Why were you looking for it?
Just yesterday, the hubby and I spent far too much time online searching for a barn door because we want to replace the door on our main bathroom with a barn door. It seems like it’s been decades since we first discussed this, and we have just recently started the search seriously.
It seems like it should be easier than it is, at least for us. This is what we’re looking for…
It’s even the right color
But we just need it to be the right size, and we need to know how much room we need to have from our ceiling to the hardware of the door itself . Hubby’s been all over town apparently asking all the wrong people all of the right questions because we’re still waiting for the answers. Adding to our frustration is the price some places want to charge for something that should be no big deal. We’re not looking for someone to install it for us, just a barn door and the hardware required with the correct measurements.
If we can get it done, it would mean far less wear on the door frame from my wheelchair, if any. We did find one in the right size yesterday on Amazon, but it was from a third-party seller who wanted 4100 CAD for shipping and handling for a 275 dollar product. UGGH and GRRR!
I was raised on TV shows like Gilligan’s island and the Brady Bunch. My reruns included I Love Lucy and the Honeymooners and the Dick Van Dyke show. My Saturday morning cartoons were Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. Sesame Street was the new show of the bunch. Because I’m Canadian, I watched Mister Dressup and the Friendly Giant and Kukla,Fran and Ollie. There were only 3 channels, and I was the remote control.
I was born in 1965,which makes me one of the oldest possible Gen Xers. It was a far more ‘innocent ‘ time, but there were some horrible things happening in small town Canada in those days, too ,like serial killing of young girls and genocide in indigenous schools. Small towns were where sexual predators were hiding. While some would call the TV, I grew up on classic TV, I look back on it as just another lie from my childhood, meant to sugarcoat what was actually happening to children . It was the era before TV began looking at the tougher conversations. Before After-school specials,before Diffrent Strokes and the episode where Arnold met a predator in the bicycle shop. Before helicopter, parenting was even a thought. We played games like lawn darts, and our parks had swings that were just a piece of rubber suspended by rusty chains and slides made from metal that took layers of skin from us during the summer months. Many of us spent the hours between after school and the time our parents got home from work at home alone, blissfully ignorant of the fact that we were prey. It’s a wonder that any of us survived. This means that those of us who did are likely the strongest people on the planet .
My favorite time of the day is when my cat, Graham, is in his favorite spot next to me on my comfy and roomy chair . Thankfully, it occurs for hours each day.
Then he spends his nocturnal hours, either scoping the condo for intruders or on top of me, while I sleep 😴.
Tell us about the last thing you got excited about.
The hubby is making progress on our condo. We now have the color up on the feature wall, and it’s gorgeous!
And so is hubby’s booty😍
It’s going to look even better against the white that we’re painting the other walls and the trim and the fireplace! The above picture is the first coat, and it looks even better after the second coat. Happily, it dried a little bit darker than the picture.
After the second coat dried
We also decided to tie in the color by painting some other parts of the living/dining room with the same beautiful blue shade.
One detail looks good
Two looks better and frames the kitchen nicely
We’re now done with the blue paint. And now it’s on to the white! And when we put up new chrome light fixtures and the 3.5-inch baseboards, the condo will look that much newer. We even changed out our old dingy base heaters for new crisp white ones. No detail will be unaddressed. Stay tuned for pictures of the final look soon, hopefully 🤞
