Author: jackiblosblackis

A 24 year old who lives in Northern British Columbia with two loving (at most times) dogs. I work as a bookkeeper/office manager at a family run accounting firm. I have a varied array of interests, many of which are less boring than numbers to the 'normal' human. What else is there to know about me? Follow www.chocolatemilkcows.com and find out!

Medusa’s Make Up – March 2019

On By jackiblosblackisIn Make Up, Review3 Comments

After receiving a marketing email, I decided to re-subscribe to Medusa’s subscription box. I went with six months this time. Here I have Marches box, however, I started this again in February. I just never got around to posting that box. I still might as, for me, it has been the best box and I am loving one of the products (the one that roped me into doing this again). The cost of the box came to $22.50USD. I believe it is pretty close to the same as when I quit getting it last year.

Marches box is very spring like colours. Makes me hopeful the snow will quit!

Now the eye dust lid seemed to have gotten a little loose during shipping. There was a slight coating on everything. You can kind of see the sheen on the black bottle. Not a big deal since it did not come completely off. The seal was also still attached.

Cucumber Toner – $12.95USD. I received a rose one last year. This smells like real cucumber (peel and all) in my opinion. I have not tried it as I do not actually like cucumber, I do not expect the smell to linger on the skin as well. I think this will be very relaxing and cooling compared to rose one I have tried.

Witch Lash Mascara – El Gato Negro – $12.00USD. This is a black, waterproof, super thickening mascara. I did not realize this was waterproof. I have not opened it up and tried it out yet. Seeing as it is a different formula than the electric blue one I use, I will not even bother guessing what it will be like.

Disco Queen Lip Gloss – Hot Stuff – $11.95USD. I regret not trying this out but the eye look I went for did not support it. This is suppose to be a purplish red with violet pearl. I almost want to pair this with the Amour blush from them. I will be opening this sooner than anticipated.

Eye Dust – Comet – $8.00USD. In the left hand swatch I have an eye primer underneath (Urban Decay Eye Primer Potion) and on the right is an unbiased swatch. I did swatch with a brush since that is how I apply it. You can see this is a minty colour. It is also very wearable. The swatch online for this however does show it as more of an olive or moss green colour. I am no way mad about this. I once upon a time had a colour very similar.

I did not get a picture with the look I created with using the eye dust. I will update with more pictures and thoughts as I use items.

The total value of the items received had I purchased them separate comes to $44.90USD. This nearly (ten cents off) double the value of what I did pay for the box. The only thing I would not have purchased out everything would be the toner. Even taking that off it is still a higher value than what I paid.

A Week of Cleaning – Sunday March 24 2019

On By jackiblosblackisIn Bullet, Cleaning, House, Organization, PetsLeave a comment

I had a fail at doing a week mini series. Here is the thing though, the house will be a disaster for longer than I would like to imagine. As long as I can remember I will make a post. I still want to use the title that I  originally decided on but I will be adding the physical date as well. Eventually I will go back to update the previous posts that I had already done up. Practice makes habit and practice will also improve these posts. Please bare with me while they get there.

Now, Sundays are the days just to ease into the cleaning week. Very simple and normally it does not take very long. We do the deck, the entry, and the laundry area. The only thing that I did that followed what I put down for myself was the laundry area. We might as well start there.

Not much as you can see from the picture. I did put a way all the items that have been air drying much longer than what they actually need to be. I did not wipe down the machines or anything because no one but me will notice that I skipped a week.

This closet though has been weighing on me for quite a while. What you do not get to notice is that the dog shampoo bottle leaked all over the shelf who knows how long ago. Things are also not put where they should be.

I cleaned up the shampoo and put things back in their home. I also pulled ALL of the dog items that were expired. Which turns out to be all of them. The closet looks so nice and empty. Not for long I do need to put many things a way.

Now on to the whole reason why I only did the laundry area. I needed to start dealing with the kitchen. Despite that the kitchen is on Mondays schedule. It had been skipped to many times.

I took this in the morning and honestly I just slowly did things through out the day. I started with the dishes. Unloaded the dishwasher and then loaded it. Put a way the dishes in the drying sink and then washed the the dishes that were on the counter (not dishwasher safe). Took a break from there and made pancakes with strawberry topping.

While Missy was eating a way at those I decided to give the pantry a quick tackle. This will be a mess again tomorrow since Missy gets into it all the time.

Picked up the cans, put a way snacks, and emptied out bags sitting in the kitchen that had dry goods in them. It really does not take all that long but putting Missy to bed, diaper change, bath, or food trumps putting things a way. This goes for cold items as well. I just take the bag and shove it the fridge or freezer.

Missy eventually went down for her nap and I went on to roast some onions and mushrooms. This way I had something quick in the fridge for the next few days. Creating more dishes. Yay!

Not perfect but I got everything done on the left side of the kitchen sink. The pans on the stove just need to be put a way and the items by the sink need to be washed out before going in to the recycling. A little bit was done on the right side of the kitchen sink. Really it was dishes that needed to be done.

Keep in mind this was not a kitchen day. The dishes really are part of an everyday thing but the pantry and fridge were kind of bonuses. I did forget to take pictures of the fridge. Do not get me wrong it was not nasty or anything but it was stuffed. Which meant I was not getting to items that needed to be used and they were past the usable time period.

They ‘Got Done’ list…. see upgraded from the pen and paper. Spelling errors from dictating but that is real life and I am not concerned about it. You can see a small overview of the day. The only other huge thing I did was that I gave Bullet a quick haircut. It is not perfect but it is a start and it may still get cold out again. I will touch him up in couple days. By than he would have a bath and everything would be settled back in. Plus the razor died and needs to be recharged.

 

 

Upgrading My Life

On By jackiblosblackisIn PersonalLeave a comment

I am trying to push myself to use my devices more. I know that sounds weird right!? I want to use them more productively. My ‘Got Done’ list I have moved to OneNote. I have moved or created a variety of things there. I am also taking advantage of the dictating option that is available with the phones keyboard. I have no idea why I did not use this sooner. Actually, I probably got annoyed by the typos. It seems they are not that bad and I am dictating for myself so I have not even gone back to fix them.

I’ve been organizing my make-up and I wanted to make notes of when things were purchased (unless I knew when they were opened and/or swatched) as well as the expiry date. This felt like a breeze and I did everything that went into my vanity. I still need to do the products in the bathroom. The real test will be continuing to use the list. The goal of this is not to use products that have gone bad. It is also to keep myself accountable of what I have in use. This will also be a future post coming soon.

I have purchased an activity tracker (Fitbit Flex 2). Once again it should help me stay accountable. Weight loss would be nice but I think I have a bit of a distorted view on how active I am or my sleeping patterns. Distorted in the sense that some days I over estimate and some days I under estimate. It will just be nice be able to see a pattern if there is one I can fix, to have a better estimate to go off of rather than my brain, and to not to have to try to remember to try and track it all. Now, this is still an estimate though. I was not expecting for something to be super accurate. The ultimate goal for this though is not weight loss but part of loving me. The activity and the sleep both affect my mental and physical being.

Maybe it is not huge for a lot of people out there, we do live in an age of technology. I am from that generation that went from nothing (a little bit of exaggeration there) to everything in a very short amount of time. I semi feel resistance to it but only to an extent. It just does not make sense on why I am not using it all the my advantage in my personal life. I use it for entertainment, for hobby, and for work. I am hoping and think that using the full extent that I am comfortable with, I am either going to finish (get in the habit) something or I can just scrap the idea all together.

 

Self Care

On By jackiblosblackisIn PersonalLeave a comment

I recently went to the doctor’s due to a chronic problem I’ve been having. I am talking about at least four years now. My shoulder, neck, and head just give up on me pretty much ha-ha. The first time I truly seen someone about this was me going to the emergency. I was in SO much pain that I could not move my head and cried so long/hard that I could not keep crying. I went in because it scared me that somehow I seriously injured myself. I was told it was a muscle spasm and given the same anti inflammatory I already took in a stronger dose.

We forward two years. I got headaches and shoulder pain. I jump between reasons why it’s happening. I may have seen my primary care once and was told to try and find a way to relax as a first step. But at that two/two and a half year mark, I went to emergency again. Not so much because I wanted too but because Mister insisted on it. Things had gotten so bad. I guess my symptoms resembled a migraine and that is what I was treated for. Now I can say the treatment worked as they gave me painkillers and Gravol (which knocks me out). I was left with my shoulder and (apperantly) migraines being seperate issues. I got some medication but never really felt like it helped. I also became pregnant only a few months later.

Honestly I cannot remember if it continued during the pregnancy. So much was happening and I had so many other aches. It absolutely has been happening since Missy’s birth though. I finally decided that I cannot just hope for the best and I need to see my primary care. The results were not bad but nothing is really going to change.

It is a muscle spasm(s) and what I need is self care (or self love really). It is where I apperantly carry my stress. It is great that I do not need medication but I was kind of hoping for a quicker fix or a bridge to help. My headaches (not migraines) are caused my my shoulder and neck. If I get that under control my headaches will be under control.

The problem I currently face is things are going to be so much more stressful before the become less stressful. That seems to be the way life goes generally. I just do not always feel like I have enough energy to push through it. Change is hard but it is possible. Being able to recognize the signs my subconscious sends me would be fantastic too ha-ha. Self care seems to be what I am always prescribed 🙂

A Week of Cleaning: Monday February 04 2019

On By jackiblosblackisIn Cleaning, House, OrganizationLeave a comment

I did not forget today! I just had a really late start so it is not quite as satisfying as I would look forward too. I just simply needed to try and get some sleep.

You can check out what I did on Sunday but this is about Monday. Monday consists of the kitchen and dinning area. The reason I do the kitchen on Mondays is because Tuesday is garbage day. Makes sense to clean out the fridge, pantry, and freezer out the day before. That way in the summer things do not start to go rancid before it is off my property. The kitchen I tried to get to all day but Missy was not in the mood to deal with cleaning. Lot’s of in progress pictures.

I snapped these before’s really quick Sunday night before I went to attempt to sleep.

I did put all the groceries a way though. Pantry is a bit of mess but I do not actually have homes for anything I put in there.

This is the before for Monday. Or an in progress picture since I did take one the night before. My counters are terrible I know. Not where I start though.

I started by opening two parcels that have been kicked around the house for an entire month. The Oatbox was just granola and I put those bags in the pantry. The Walmart box was all stuff for my nieces and nephew. The second picture is showing the box of a small portion of their gifts. It is all together now though till I wrap them.

I added an oven lock and knob covers on the stove next. I have only had them for a few days. I thought this was the best opportunity to put them on. Also Missy was asleep and the directions say to put them on when the child is not around.

No pictures but after this I emptied and loaded the dishwasher. I proceed to wipe off the counters after clearing them off. Most of which ended up on the dinning table.

I think it looks a hundred times better. I know it is not completely done but I made an impact. That is what counts.

This the before of the dinning area. Before I did the kitchen so the table was not quite so bad at this point.

Yes my Canadian readers, I have a walker. Even if it was not banned here Missy does not use it as a walker. With the exception of a time or two. She likes to push and pull it around. I am also not shaming any one for using one. Missy can walk I have witnessed it but she simply just does not want to yet. The only thing she ever really liked that was confining was her bouncer.

The after of the dinning area. Again not completley clear but I did put a LOT of things a way. I also took some stuff with me when I came in to write the blog post. The one box contains stuff my Brother needs to come pick up and the other box (that you cannot really see) is full of recycling. I do not have a home for the speaker at the moment. When I asked to borrow it from my Mother, she made it sound like it was a portable….it is not actually portable. I do need it for my Kindle and I got on the Audible train.

I also cleaned out the fridge. Not much was thrown out. A few things that I did not purchase and a thing of mushrooms that I did not get around to using. I needed to put things where they fit though. I just threw the groceries in there from Saturday.

I did have the intention of doing the freezers today. They badly need to be organized but I just do not have the time at the moment.

 

My ‘Got Done’ list is much better for Monday though. Besides a whole lot of laundry. I switched out all my main light bulbs. I had a white light in them and it was just too much in such a condensed area. I switched to a warm white. So much better. I put a way seven parcels! Scary that I still have two more to deal with. First two weeks of every month is when the donations are received in the mail. They pile up fast. I did condense the recycling in to empty boxes. It is very cold outside and that is why it has not gone out yet. The other thing is I have all the items from the car sitting in the house. Again the weather, it is just too cold to be out there for more for something that does not seriously need to be done this second.

Tuesday is just a floor day. If I do something I will try to remember to take pictures. I may get the freezers done. I am not going to take before and afters of the floors. If I even get around to doing them. Still a lot of stuff in the way. I cannot promise that there will be a post on Wednesday.