The grass is always greener....

Unless of course, you are smothering it out to make a very large garden!

Today was the first day it felt like spring here, cool breeze but low 60's, very sunny, and last night it rained just enough to make the ground nice and smooshy.

So, today after tending to all my little plant babies I have been diligently tending to in the basement, I trotted outside, despite my late season chest cold. Then I proceeded to bark orders at my room-mate as he threw boxes out of the garage to me so I could butcher them and put their splayed carcasses over the ground to block out the grass and sun. This kind of killed 2 birds with one stone (if you'll excuse the expression, killing and butchering cardboard boxes is one thing, I would never kill birds I didn't intend to eat and never ever with a rock, unless the most dire circumstances required it!) because it also helped to start cleaning out the horrible garage of atrocities.

For the past month I have been diligently been doting over my baby seedlings, most of them are doing well, although I am having absolutely no luck with my tall english lavender. On the bright side I did manage to get my dwarf lavender and my rosemary to all germinate, so I feel pretty accomplished!

Also I have several colors and varieties of tomatoes happily growing like crazy from current sized red and yellows; to very early yield bush tomatoes and all the colors of cherry tomatoes in between. I have had tremendous luck with these cherries in the past, with their vines growing 7 feet tall/ long so I am excited to see how they do in the new garden with better soil!

This year I was a coward and did not even attempt broccoli and cauliflower, but what I am attempting is brussel sprouts! I am very excited as they are probably my second favorite vegetable, and I have not had the pleasure of finding let alone eating a purple brussel sprout, but fates willing I will this fall and they will be glorious!

Last but not least, my little peppers although late to the party are still chugging along, I hope I can protect them this year from the bunny armada that makes it's home base in the back yard. Only time will tell!

Until next time my kittens!

A tale of raspberries and fish.

Ok, that is a strange post title to be sure, but it does have some significance  Saturday I ordered most of my seeds and plants for my garden this year including red and gold raspberry varieties!  I am very excited about my garden this year, my housemate has decided he is tired of mowing his entire lawn and is tired of spending so much on food; so this yeah he is letting me steal a 20 ft. x 28 ft. piece of his back lawn to turn into a pretty fantastic (well I hope) garden!

The raspberries will actually be going to the back part of the yard (it's a pretty darn big back yard), to form sort of an edible privacy hedge. If the raspberries I plant this year do well I will most likely plant purple ones next year as well. I adore most berries and cherries, but I can't usually afford them from the grocery store ($5 a half pint ).

But here is a list of things I hope to have growing!

-Carrots-

Atomic Red (red with orange core),
Purple Dragon (purple with orange core),
Red Samurai, (solid medium red)
Royal Chantenay, (solid orange)
Snow White, (solid white)
Yellowstone, (solid light yellow)
Purple Sun Carrots (solid deep purple, may or may not have a white core)

-Brussel Sprouts-
Diablo (green)
Flagstaff (purple)

-Tomatos-
Glacier (medium sized red)
Red Currant
Yellow Currant (tiny tiny pea sized tomatos, should be awesome for salads)
Sundrop (orange cherry)
Gold Nugget (yellow cherry),
Sweetie (red cherry),
Green Grape (green cherry)
Super Snow White (white cherry),
Bicolor Cherry (pink/white striped cherry)

-Beets-
Oxblood (deep maroon red)
Chioggia (pink and white interior stripes)
Golden (deep yellow orange)

-Greens-
Dwarf Blue Kale
Red winter Kale
Buttercrunch Lettuce (green)
Marvel of 4 Wonders Buttercrunch Lettuce (red)
Common Sorrel
Bordeaux Spinach (red veins)
Lavawa Spinach (green)
New Zealand Spinach (weird vining plant that isn't actually spinach at all but is suppose to taste the same and last thought summer)
5 Color Silver Beet Chard
and a mixd packet containing:
Arugula/Rocket . . . . . . . . . . . . 8%
Lettuce, Four Seasons. . . . . . . . . 8%
Lettuce, Romaine Cos. . . . . . . . . 8%
Lettuce, Salad Bowl Red . . . . . . . 8%
Lettuce, Tango . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8%
Lettuce, Black Seeded Simpson . . 6%
Lettuce, Lolla Rossa . . . . . . . . . 6%
Lettuce, Oak Leaf . . . . . . . . . . . 6%
Lettuce, Romaine Cimmaron . . . . 6%
Lettuce, Ruby. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6%
Spinach, Bloomsdale . . . . . . . . 6%
Bok Choy, Tatsoi . . . . . . . . . . . 6%
Swiss Chard, Golden. . . . . . . . . 5%
Swiss Chard, Magenta. . . . . . . . 5%
Endive, Broadleaf Batavian . . . . . 4%
Mustard, Mizuna . . . . . . . . . . . . 2%
Mustard, Red Giant . . . . . . . . . . 2%

-Peppers-
Orange wonder Bell Peppers (orange and green large bell peppers)
Sweet Cherry Peppers (red and yellow tiny guys)

-Onions-
Flat of Italy Red Onions

-Peas-
Super Sugar Snap Peas

and

-Kohlrabi-
Purple Vienna
White Vienna

Also there is a smattering of herbs and edible flowers, but I will post those later, since some times there are some that come from the local nursery.

It's been a LONG time!

Some times I get over whelmed with everything and I just can't write. So, with that in mind I know that it has been a long time since I have written here, but spring is about to sprung... (you all know what I mean) and that means I am coming out of my winter depression and hibernation and getting all geared up for gardening season, fish sending season, and spring cleaning season!

I have been spring cleaning a lot already, there is still tons and tons to do, including completely cleaning out my roommates garage and the basement where I will be moving once it is finished out! The garage is just sort of a nebulous pit for everything that isn't wanted in the house, so I have my work cut out for me, but I am optimistic and if things work out then going through the garage will be the best way to get out to my HUGE garden I am planning out, so it will get done, also it will be nice to have a place for some of the things that are now living in the front entry way, like the boot tray and reusable shopping totes.

I wish I could write more but my head is getting foggy fast (one of the benefits of fibromyalgia), so I will take my leave. I am much more active on Pinterest and Tumblr, so if you would like to see more of me feel free to seek me out there using the little buttons on this page.  If not stay tuned and I promise I will make an effort to update more often!

Geek Chic Cosmetics... Part 1.

I have to say part on because these are so amazing, that I feel mere swatching can't do them appropriate justice. I was pretty excited to find Geek Chic Cosmetics, likewise I was ecstatic to find they offered samples of their wonderful pigments, and I was utterly enthralled once I placed my order.

Well today in my mail box was a glimmering (ok not really, it was more like manilla bubble mailer) little package of insane awesome.

9 samples, al of which were very generous in size, just waiting to be swatched and swooned over.

Consider me swoony, because these pigments are like butter. They glide on, even on unprimed arm skin and look glorious! I can't wait to see them on some eyelids (that seems sort of ominous, no eyelids will be harmed in the application of these products.) 

Here is a little bit of background on Geek Chic Cosmetics for all those not in the know. They are "SRS BSNS" (according to them and I am apt to believe that indeed they are!) and they make radical cosmetics based on geeky/ nerdy awesome-sauce. From what I can glean from their about me page "they" refers to 4 humans and possibly a 5th who may or may not be a chipmunk with a flower, and they make all cruelty free, mostly vegan (a couple products have beeswax), filler free, FDA approved custom pigments/ shadows/ lipsticks & scents. Yum with a capital U... er um Y. Blah, blah, enough with my yammering, on the the delicious swatches and a-dorable containers!

Oh. So pretty!

Adorable little sample containers.

A bit more random, still awesome though.

We are coming. From the Timey Wimey series.

We are coming swatch. Chocolate-y. Mmm.

Incendiary. Part of the Glitter Grenade series, and OH BOY IS IT!

Glitter Bomb HO! TONS of many red and gold glitter!

Mind Meld. Truely my very favorite. From the "Go Boldly" series.

Mountain Dew, electric limey, amaze-o green with a bit of gold sparkle.

Sexy in Suspenders another great one from the "Timey Wimey" series.

Sexy in Suspenders, nice soft neutral with a bit of sheen.

Universal Destiny from the "Last Best Hope" series.

Universal  Destiny, warmer neutral with gold shimmer.

Blood Wine from the "Go Boldly" series.

Blood Wine, fantastic maroon with pinkish purpleish shimer. (How is it "pinkish" is a word in spell check but "purpleish" isn't?)

Booze- R-Us from the "8- bit Survival Kit" Series.

Booze- R- Us. warm medium brown with a green shimmer (WHICH I LOVE! I have a thing for green, if ya can't tell)

Untimely Love from the "Timey Wimey" series.

LOVE LOVE LOVE! Reddish with green and blue glimmer.

All Love is Unrequited from the "Last Best Hope" series.

Light plum with silver and pinkish glitter.

More to come in part two. SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS! AHHHHH!

A magical review = Lime Crime Serpentina and Poisinberry

Now, I am probably tardy to the party as I usually am, however, if I am there still might be some other little ponies that are slow to leave the gate too. Today I am going to be reviewing 2 lipsticks by the fantabulous Lime Crime!

When I fist found their website, I was instantly smitten, and I didn't even hesitate to order their Halloween edition lipsticks: Poisonberry & Serpentina. After my order I was rooting around on-line trying to find some reviews and WOW, people seem to really love or really, REALLY, hate them. There seemed to be some drama that went down, but I am not one to buy into needless drama, not to trivialize other peoples experiences, but I prefer to make my own opinions on things, so with that in mind I eagerly awaited my pretty purple box to arrive in the mail.

I have the loveliest mail carrier. He always brings my packages right to the door and we always chat about what I am getting. This time he walked up and said "ordering unicorns for halloween again?" I laughed out loud. "Yup," I replied, "actually it's unicorn infused lipstick." I quipped back. He smiled and left, what he didn't know was of course I was being serious.

Lime Crime was founded in 2008 by Doe Deere who adorably calls her self "The Unicorn Queen". Thus in my mind any make up she makes should of course be infused with unicorn magic, or at least cruelty free/ vegan which these lipsticks claim to be. They are PETA certified cruelty free, however I have not seen my happy little leaping bunny friend on any of their packaging nor are they listed on their website (gocrueltyfree.org), so if you are very stringent in your cruelty free/ vegan beliefs you may want to tread with caution or do more research. I am not extremely stringent, I still after all do eat meat/ animal products and although I do not condone animal testing or cruelty and prefer to use cruelty free brands some I use are not because I just have not found a cruelty free brand that works (ie Yves Saint Laurent faux cils mascara, is the only mascara that doesn't irritate my eyes/ makes my lashes actually exist.) So with that in mind, I will forge ahead with this review!

First I just want to say, as with any very brightly colored "opaque" lipstick, there is a certain technique to putting them on and getting them to stay where they are suppose to. I accomplish this by first brushing my lips with my tooth brush every morning to exfoliate, then I slather my lips with EOS lip balm and go about my other make up. Once it has soaked in, I line the outside of my lips with consealer to stop dreaded feathering followed by lining and filling in with a lip liner that is close to the same color. Then with a lip brush I carefully reline my lips, then it's time to fill in! After the first layer of lipstick is all in place I blot with a paper towel and dust with a very light layer of translucent powder, then a second coat of lip stick, more blotting, more powder, then a third and final coat, blot and off you go. I also try to let it all set up for about 30 minutes before I eat or drink anything, but it's not super critical as long as you know how to eat/ drink with lipstick on!

With all that in mind, I had fantastic results using both these lipsticks. They are very creamy and don't dry out my lips too much, as far as staying power both of these colors made it through with flying colors. 8 hours and one work shift later, they both were still going strong.  I adore the cute purpley-pink  unicorn laden packaging, the color pay off is fantastic, and they staying power phenomenal! In the pictures they look a bit patchy, and I think it must just be my cheap digital camera because honestly when on, they do not look patchy at all in real life.  My final take is that I adore both these lippies and hope to amass many more in the future. I think my next splurge will be the "Lip Noir" set which includes a classic red, classic black and very intriguing grayish lilac aptly named "chinchilla".

With all that lets get on to the images. I am sorry the white balance is all over. I really need to get a macro lens for my real camera.

Well packaged and adorable! 

Even more cute packaging!

Extra kudos because then inside of the box is my favorite color green.

Hooray for disco unicorns dancing around on my lipsticks!

Poisonberry. Yum.

The bottom labels are very easy to read.

Serpentina. Slurp!

Again a really nice bottom label.

SWATCHES! On my hand though, no prep just raw color. Poisonberry stained my hand a bit.

Serpentina on my mouth. These photos just really don't do this fantastic green justice.

Poisonberry on my mouth. Again, just not doing this beautiful color justice.

Serpentina. 

More Serpentina.

Poisonberry. This is after ALL day at work, and trust me it was a long day, if you can't ell from how I look!

More poisonberry. 

Coming soon (like tomorrow)...

a lime crime review of poisonberry and serpentina. For now here is a picture to tide you over :)

Utter dismal failure.

I have been horrible about keeping this up to date. Hopefully soon something in my life will give and I can update more often again. I have a lot of new make up on the way to review and swatch, fish tanks to redo, and new things to post about my hopefully renewed comic store.