Bottles And Wrists

Achoo & Fooferah

Between being ill and STILL stuck in Vermont,
I am a bit too ornery to be fashionable.
Yes, it happens.
Plus, the leaking sinuses are something
no one should be subjected to,
least of all my lovely wardrobe.

THUS!
Another entry from a bit ago!
Written back in October,
with a new bit added :)

Kits & Kaboodles & Talismans

I like makeup, it’s true. I am an utter girl in that respect, and the last couple of years has seen me really embrace over-the-top, colorful stuff. In one such fit of color, I ordered a slew of loose-powder eye shadows, really bright, saturated and clingy dusts. The downside? The lids didn’t stay tight on the wee jars for long, and before I knew it, everything in my far too small kaboodle was coated in a rainbow. Finally, having gotten a bigger, and prettier kaboodle in the form of the box my Bordello shoes came in, I set about today cleaning, sorting, and tossing away old makeup, imprisoning the free dust jars in their own Ziploc bag.

As I shampooed my brushes and cleaned off compacts, I realized, for the very first time since I was thirteen, that I carry around talismans to each and every makeup bag/kaboodle I’ve had. I couldn’t tell you why. I’m still rather perplexed as I write this, but I have an inkling forming, as I look them over again.

First, there’s the measuring tape. This serves a practical reason of course, living overseas where many fitted things won’t fit a girl with any curve over a size -4-, I do a lot of online ordering. I am always up to date on my measurements! But also, it’s an -old- measuring tape. I’ve had it…why, since my parent’s house and my first job, when I first began ordering my own clothes online. It looks exactly like the one my mother always had in her sewing kit, that I would play with while watching her dust on her makeup and lipstick from Diane’s, her colorist. We didn’t have all the money in the world growing up, and a lot of mum’s dresses were homemade, or had seen more than a few seasons. But by golly, she got her colors done by a pro and wore the woman’s own brand of makeup!

Then, there’s a wee hand mirror, ancient really! I believe my older sister got it as a little girl at a Sunday school function, and when I was little, she gave it to me. I’ve held onto it, and used it to blunder through my first experience with mascara at thirteen. I’ve corrected my contacts in it, picked things out of my teeth with it, the works. The girl in the artwork looks like Sara did when she was that age too, long brown hair and long cotton prairie dress.

There’s two hair clips as well. One from oh, I had to have been three or four, a plastic yellow bow that I still sometimes clip into my hair somewhere, when I’m feeling whimsical. Especially with this hair! I loved color back then, even a persistent goth phase didn’t kill that. The other is a simple metal clip with a flower on it, most of the petals busted off by now. I think I was 12 when I got that set, and it was the first time I felt like I had something really -cool- to put in my hair, which, of course, is SO important when one is an awkward, nerdy 12 year old, desperate to be included.

After that, there’s a lion! He’s actually a small button shaped like a lion, and my Nana and I bought him together. I collected buttons between 10 and 15...I still have the collection too! It’s sorted in a box among my sewing things, and I still toss interesting finds in there, along with all the spare ones that come with dresses and shirts and uniforms. Nana helped me start that collection, we went to JoAnn’s one day and bought ourselves a mess of buttons. I’ve always liked wee interesting things. She wasn’t always at her best as the years passed, but that button reminds me of when she was at her most active, enjoying life and time with me.

Then we’ve got a ticket stub. I collect them as well! In fact I have a whole boxfull, all the way back to the second Jurassic Park film. This one, however, is from a theater in Michigan, where I saw Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire with my best friend Dena. We were both in costume, she as Tonks, I as Luna, our wands at the ready as we waited in line. Our visits were few and far between back in those lonely, nerdy teenage years, and I treasured them so. I like keeping the stub close, even is layers and layers of loose dust has nearly ruined it.

Newest addition would be the purikura photos I carry around, glossy and colorful and ridiculous, of me and my JBFF Liz. I like to think we made each others' time in Japan all that much more enjoyable and silly and memorable. I miss those times dearly, I really do, running around Harajuku and finding the most wonky purikura booths, nomming on delicious treats out in town and spending far too much money on clothes. I'm all the more glamorous for having spent many a weekend slumped on her couch ;D

And last, there’s a love letter, from my husbot. Now granted, he writes me a lot of things, practically a novel and a half email every day about what he’s up to on the ship. And indeed, plenty of lovey, naughty little notes. This, however, was a long musing to me last summer while he was underway, and no, I am not going to write it all out ;) It’s especially important to me because he expresses, in it, about how despite worrying that the initial flame might flicker out, he finds the steady, passionate thing that replaces it to be even more comforting, exciting, and interesting as we get to know each other even more every day, even now. We’ll be married four years in January, I can’t wait to have him around all the time again.

And they all reside tucked among my pretties, and I think I know why. I have been a wildly insecure person for a long time, and as a teenager, the colors were my mask to hide everything that I thought was ugly. The result was never all that pretty, of course. These are bits though, of all the people who’ve loved what was underneath, regardless, and having them there alongside my Mac, Revlon, Smashbox and Almay is a constant reminder that, this is fun. Highlight those cheekbones of your mum’s, be colorful all around the eyes he loves. Get over your nose already, nobody’s looking at it anyway with your lips so red.

Cause the paint is only a bonus. Everyone else made the insides pretty too.

In the next couple of days,
My hair shall be a different style/color,
and we'll be in our new place,
and hopefully not-sick!

Oh man, wait til you see the exposed brick we'll have.
Amazing for fashion-y shots.
ANYWAY.


Til Next We Meet,
~ Amy