Today's Dispatch: Writing and Attribution

This post is brought to you by Jessica Zafra and her ongoing coverage of Gaz Holgate in the Philippines.

Screen capture: mine; original photo source, JZ and Team Gaz.

You want Gaz, I'll give you Gaz:

Screen capture: mine; original photo source: JZ and Team Gaz. 

All pictures screen-capped from this entry on Jessica Rules The Universe.

- I mention Jessica Zafra here because we just had the most interesting discussion about the attribution of sources on her blog. This hits close to home for me, both as a teacher and writer, because I take attribution seriously; in my opinion, without the proper citation of a source, you are basically stealing somebody else's words and passing them off as your own. It doesn't matter if you're sharing a puff piece, a legal document, or an academic paper; all of your sources must be cited. I've learned this the hard way as a graduate student, and it pains me to see anyone cutting and pasting words without even thinking about the consequences, especially young people.

(As it goes, I am currently looking at all of my kids' term papers, and you won't believe how many of them I've flagged for not citing sources properly.)

- Since I'm on a roll, I might as well go ahead and mention that even fiction writers have to cite their sources too. My favorite attribution comes from David Mitchell in Cloud Atlas (one of my favorite books right now) who wrote in the credits that one of his characters "quotes Nietzsche more freely than he admits." In my case, I recently took out the lyrics to "Give A Little Bit" from one of my manuscripts after realizing that they had taken over an entire scene. (Which is funny, because I also left in a few lines of "Like a Virgin" because it's supposedly sung off-key at a karaoke bar.) My philosophy is that leaving quotes wholesale in a manuscript have the tendency to take a reader away from the action itself, much in the same way that an annoying pop song in a movie can take you away from an otherwise good scene.

- And because I must post about makeup: Swatches from the Bobbi Brown 1991 Lip Palette on Makeup and Beauty Blog. Want.

Today's Dispatch: Serenity Now

This post was NOT brought to you by the recent batch of photos from the Avengers set in New York.



- First, a shout-out to my gorgeous friend-from-high school Marie (aka Ms. LadyCakes), who now fashion-blogs on a regular basis for Instylation. Here's her most recent entry as of this writing, where she totally rocks the mod look for fall.

- Speaking of mod, how gorgeous are the new Stardust lip glosses from Urban Decay? I'm already a fan of the Stardust shadows, so I can't wait to try these in person... if I could find a place out here that sells Urban Decay, that is. (Link: a review of the glosses from Karen of Makeup and Beauty Blog, who gives them high marks for shine and staying power.)

- So, for some weird reason last night, I spent the whole night looking at shoes instead of doing... whatever it was I was supposed to be doing (okay, WRITING), and now I'm officially obsessed with these shoes from Valentino. Sparkly and chic: gotta love that combo!

- Another sparkly obsession: Miriam Haskell jewelry, which started with Michelle Obama's earrings from the State dinner in El Salvador. I just love the craftsmanship that goes into these designs, which are so classic and avant-garde at the same time. I'm also besotted with this breathtaking pearl-and-crystal statement necklace, which is practically begging for a bare-shouldered formal dress to be worn with it, and the formal event to match.

- Finally, going back to our movie-related WTF news: What is this about Adele (possibly) recording a song for a new James Bond movie? Surely they must not be kidding... or are they?

Meet The New Domesticity

So: No blog entries for the longest time.

Reason being that I was having a bit of a crisis about what to do with Domesticity, now that I'm on the verge of getting other things done with work and family and my own writing projects and (possibly) graduate school. To be honest, it has been driving me crazy, too, because I see other Filipino bloggers getting more readers for the same things that I do, and it makes me wonder if I'm doing anything wrong by keeping up this blog as it is.

Let's be honest: Without direct access to the primary content for this blog - in this case, makeup and fashion - there really is nothing much left for me to write, especially now that I'm too tired to look up and scan pictures. And even I get sick and tired of writing about hot guys, too.

(Yes, guys on The List, I am fully aware that a few of you have gotten even more boink-worthy as of late... but sometimes a girl just needs to spend her quality time at Net-a-Porter, you know? Unless you really are that interested in buying those Miu Miu shoes for me.)

So what's left for a girl in her mid-30s to do with a blog like this?

Domesticity: Now Available on Twitter!

It's official: I have finally gone mad.

Ladies and gentlemen, I now have a Twitter account! And it's about time, I say.

I've only been on Twitter for a few days, and already I'm having way too much fun with it. Sure, there are some very obvious reasons (*ahem* Nathan Fillion, Edward Norton, and the Philippine Rugby Team *ahem*) but I've actually found a way to make the whole thing work for my own nefarious purposes.

So why should you follow me... er, I mean Domesticity... on Twitter, then?

What's With the Pictures?

Both pictures taken at the Cleveland Botanical Garden.

Good news: The new Domesticity spin-off is finally here! Check out the travel-related narratives on our new blog, Domestic Travel. (That's thejourneyofmei.blogspot.com, if you prefer.)  Right now we have a few entries on standby - and a few more to post for our Holy Week special - but this will also be the new home for more than a few new pictures from my trip to NZ and Australia... which will be updated sooner, rather than later. Andiamo!

Quick Update

Longtime reader and Tokyo resident Kuri just posted this entry on her blog, about the earthquakes in Japan. I'm hoping that she's OK (updated @ 9:30 pm: she just emailed from Tokyo, and is "safe and well"), that the ongoing relief efforts continue to go well, and that the situation with the nuclear reactors gets sorted out as soon as possible.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone in Japan right now. 

Please Stand By

But first: a photo essay, for illustration purposes only.

Before.

After.

Moral of the story: "Casual" doesn't have to look like you totally slept in it, even if you actually did. Just saying.

Also: Due to some technical difficulties - and a lot of high-pressure matters coming up in real life - new entries on Domesticity won't be available for the next two weeks. Unfortunate, since I had some entries ready to post before all that technical stuff got in the way... but considering that my sanity comes first and foremost, it's best to just walk away from the HTML right now and get down to business.

Coming up after the break: More from Glosswatch 2011, plus a few notes on the exercise front. And, thankfully, no satirical entries for V-Day... though I will need to talk to my boyfriend - ie. the one in this entry who's obviously not Colin Firth - about not letting that hairdo happen to him ever, ever again.

(...Seriously. I mean, seriously.)

All this and more, when we return.

Glossy New Year

In the beginning, there was this box, which arrived from SisMei in Honolulu:

And in this box, there were several lip glosses:

And Meimei, who opened the box, was so amazed by what she saw in it that she thought to herself, "Ten lip glosses in a single box, with promises of lip-plumping action? Plus a full-size tube of Buxom Full Color lip polish? Hey, this must be the blog-writing opportunity that I've been waiting for all year! I MUST TEST-DRIVE THEM ALL! "

And so, she started researching what other folks have said about each gloss. Full color saturation? Annoying mintiness? Definitive lasting power? Then she noticed that the weather was getting cold - no thanks to La Nina and whichever cold front was threatening to come down from China -  which meant lip gloss was going to be a necessity in this household.

Thus, a series was born: Glosswatch 2011. 


(What can I say? Pump and Lift was already taken.)

The Case for the Shout-Out

We interrupt our usual schedule of off-blog lesson planning, NaNoWriting, and other distractions for some breaking news.

Be In Style has just featured Domesticity in their Best of the Web series, which runs every two weeks with a running theme. This week's theme is "first impressions," and here's an excerpt from their entry 

The blog’s “Video Style Moments” entertain readers while subtly encouraging us to exercise our aesthetic muscles.  Keep an eye out for the microcosm moments where editor Meimei posts thoughtful moments from her life.

Sweet! Once again, many thanks to the staff at Be In Style for the awesome feature story. :)

Also, for those of you who have just found this site, a few pieces of worthy beauty moments...

First, a Face for The Moment.

This picture is from more than a year ago, taken right before I was about to go out for speed-dating. This is actually more of an earthy-style look, with a lot of browns from Stila and a bit of bronzer to go along with the brown-and-orange theme I'm working with here. The whole night was a bust date-wise - remind me to tell you that story about Wow Guy and This Is Not a Job Interview Dude on this blog -  but I ended up hanging out with a bunch of super-cool girls with whom I ended up watching Star Trek with over the weekend. (Wish I'd met them earlier, before the whole move to the Philippines happened. Miss 'em.)

Second of all:

WANT. That's all. If ever, though. (Christmas?)

And third:

I'll admit to liking the mascara and the lipstick (well played!). Putting aside all speculations about Shakira's weight, the crazy wardrobe, and the rattiness of her hair, though: Am I the only person who goes around saying "DAHNCE... OR DIE!" at every random opportunity?

...Just me, then? Okay, then. 

Let the Backlash Begin

I had a big rant planned out about the girly-blogger backlash, but after several attempts to edit it down to something readable, I decided to sum it up thusly:

Blogs about fashion and beauty do seem very frivolous to some - and look like cash cows to others - but the fact remains that some of us actually have LIVES outside of blogging. All the freebies in the world can't cover up the fact that a lot of us still need to pay the bills, and our definition of "quality time" does not extend towards fighting off complete strangers who accuse us of being money-hungry whores.

We do it because our blogs and vlogs are calling cards for our writing, our creativity, our professionalism. We do it because we'd like to have a creative outlet for a change, instead of spelling out the ins and outs of our personal dramas for everyone else to see. Maybe some of us don't deserve the attention, and maybe haters do need a reason to hate. So what? Life must be pretty good if you can waste your time being such a hater.

(I call this The Pitbull Principle: The effort that it takes in hating a song is equal to the amount of effort exerted in dancing along to it. So it goes with life as well... and if you're one of those lucky people who neither hate nor enjoy "Hotel Room Service," I shall commend you for your otherworldly sense of restraint.)

We're sorry if we don't get it perfectly, but we're realistic about our priorities. No free eyeshadow or wrinkle cream will compare to the satisfaction that we get from spending more quality time (and money) with the people we love the most in our lives. We can show you how to put on mascara without looking like a hag, and we can choose not to break down a hairstyle product by product if the actual 'do ends up resembling a rat's nest. The only thing that we can't do for you, however, is guarantee your happiness... and that's something you'll have to deal with on your own.

All that we're asking of you in return is - in the words of Lily Tomlin - a little dignity and a lot of respect. We hope that you will get the same for yourself as well.

Cheers!

Pump and Lift, Episode 11: Trimming the Fat, with HTML and JavaScript

This isn't exactly a weight-loss entry per se, but after looking at some of the trackers and analytics for this blog, I found out that the Pump and Lift series has become quite popular lately; in fact, the P and L entries have been known to attract more readers to this blog since they first started. I wish I knew why - I'm not exactly an authority on these things, mind you - but I think it has to do with the inspirational aspect of it all, watching me ride through the ups and downs of this magical journey. (Or, as those semi-annoying folks from The Biggest Loser: Australia would say, the magical jeeuhhh-neeay.)  I still have about 30 pounds more to go, and yet I still wouldn't be here if it weren't for the love and support that I've been getting from the friends who read this blog. Once again, y'all rock.

Anyway, I can't believe that I've let so much time pass before I mentioned the new look of this page! It all started when I stumbled upon Blogger's Template Designer - by mistake, I swear - and after experimenting with different skins and banners, I eventually came up with... this. So clean! So crisp! So classic! What could possibly be more fasyon than that?

After going through the redesign, however, I've decided to look around the rest of the blog to trim out more of the fat that's keeping this site down, figuratively. Dead links and sites I don't read anymore? Gone, replaced by new links. Unclicked buttons? Deleted, replaced, and updated with more relevant ones.

Then there are the practices that I need to retire, too: not taking enough advantage of the promotional and advertising opportunities (thus the Nuffnang contests and Amazon Associates links), inserting pictures from Google Images without appropriate permission (thus the screencaps... and the inexplicable reason why Kim Kardashian is the #1 keyword search on this blog, even though I've only written about her once), and - no surprise here - taking too much time off between entries, which I am definitely working on at this point. At least I'm also making headway on the backlog of entries that I'm supposed to share with you, which I'm now taking out of the storage area and inserting into the "drafts" section instead to spur me into writing them.

Mind you, I'm not changing much - yet (I'm still on the fence about Twitter) - but change is constant and inevitable at this point. Welcome to the here and now.

Please Stand By

Yes, I've had these shoes for a while... but they are AWESOME. :) 

Some housekeeping issues for this week: There won't be a lot of blog entries for the next few days because I'm preparing for an out-of-town trip this weekend (licensure board exams, dontcha know)  and I'm back to doing English-language instruction at the university starting this coming Monday, so my brain won't be in chatty-blogger mode for a long while here. 

While we're on the topic of "housekeeping issues" for this blog, I just noticed that Blogger now has a function where I can create separate pages. I'm definitely flirting with that idea right now, since I'm thinking about coming up with a more comprehensive bio and/or a space for legal stuff/ disclosure issues/ FAQs and stuff like that. 

And because this is one of those days where I can't afford to be bothered by The Annoying People of the Internet, this needs to be said: I already use Nuffnang and Amazon Associates for advertising on this blog; all other inquiries must be sent directly to me using that tiny "Email The Author" link at the end of every entry. Also, comment moderation has been enabled for this blog, so consider yourself warned.

Thank you, and I'll see you on the other side of the tunnel.

Slaying the Stress Monster: The Road Ahead

So here it is - Entry #5 in the Stress Monster series.



I haven't been really keeping track of my blog "birthdays," to be honest with you; all I know is that I started this blog in 2005 because I needed the challenge of having an outlet for my creative thoughts, especially when it came to makeup. Believe me when I say that writing a blog on top of all the crazy stuff that happened between then and now - from graduate school, to building a career, to my current move to the Philippines - was no joke. We're talking about changing formats, schedules, layouts, the whole thing. There were even a few times when I actually thought about shutting the blog down.

The question now is this: Why didn't I give up?

The closest I'll get to an answer, though, is saying that I knew myself well enough to understand why I wanted a blog in the first place. In a way, I did start this blog to get attention... but there were only two things that I knew were infinitely more interesting - and easier to justify - than the nitty-gritty details of my life: my writing, and my love for girly things like fashion, makeup, dark chocolate, and intensely hot guys.

Tempted as I was to write about the mundane but heart-wrenching personal stuff on this blog, I decided that I wanted my blog to be a happy place. That's how I came up with the tag line about "island hospitality": I wanted Domesticity to be a safe haven from the sturm und drang of everyday life and mainstream media. It was the closest thing I had to actually opening up my own outdoor lanai, where everyone can hang out and relax while I dish out gossip and beauty advice.

And now, five years later, here we are.

Life's different for me now. I've gone from contractual teaching and tutoring gigs to full work loads as an ESL instructor. I've swapped my retail-therapy walks around Ala Moana Center for actual jogging around my neighborhood. My financial concerns now revolve around car payments and building up my personal savings. And instead of whining about how I should be studying or lesson-planning while I'm actually writing something else, I now appreciate my time for creative writing - and blogging - for what it truly is: a challenge.

I see my parents' friends and neighbors in our home town, and it amazes me how these people in their 60s and 70s have managed to keep themselves on the up-and-up; they may complain about rheumatism or diabetes, but they're still getting up every morning to go walking, play chess, head outreach ministries, travel around the world. No severe illness - not even stroke, or cancer - could stop any of them from wanting to go out and try new things, the better to keep themselves from being lonely. Can't drive? Let the young pups drive you around. Can't buy cute clothes at the mall? Hire a seamstress and let her do all the altering - or, heck, buy the fabric yourself, give her your measurements, and go from there. There's always a way.

All of these things are happening around me, and it does make me wonder: How much further can I push myself - to challenge my body, my mind, my heart, my spirit? How much more can I explore this world around me, and the relationships that make me who I am? How else can I find meaning and purpose in my own everyday work?

Then I look at this blog - and the many pages of HTML I've generated in the last five years - and I think: Well, here's an answer for you... one of many, but still an answer.

There's still a long road ahead of us. Let's make it an awesome journey.

Blog Schedule Alert

Due to the fact that I am, in fact, fully employed for the next four weeks, I have decided to impose a blog schedule for Domesticity until further notice.

The schedule is as follows:

- First new post of the week will be up on Friday night, Philippine time, which would count as Friday morning on most parts of the United States. (A fun way to calculate Philippine Standard Time based on the time posted for each entry: For the continental United States, it's -12 hours EST and -15 hours Pacific Standard, give or take 1 hour for daylight savings; for our Hawaii-based readers, a whopping -18 hours, regardless of season.)

- There will be at least 2 to 3 new posts every weekend.

- Entries written outside of the blog schedule will be scheduled for posting over the weekend. For example, if I write anything amusing on Monday, I will have to go to "Post Options" and change the posting time from Monday to the following Friday or Saturday.

- There will be at least one Face of the Moment post per week, since I am wearing makeup on the job.

- Most of these posts will be image-heavy, but from my own camera or image archive. This means I'm laying off on themed posts that require Google Image Search for the time being. (Translation: All you bloggers with pictures of hot men, you can rest easy for now.)

- Speaking of images, I am planning on setting up a Flickr account as a way of archiving images used in Domesticity as of this year.  More details to be announced.

- That said, there is a Polyvore post in the works... but that will have to wait until my work schedule settles down.

Here's hoping it all works out from here; until then, see you next weekend!

The Blogger's Uniform

...Oh, come on, not all of us can afford wearing head-to-toe Prada while encoding HTML. ;)


Shirt (part of a pajama set), Marks & Spencer. Pajama pants (printed with frogs), purchased at SM.

And since I just mentioned two of my favorite stores here, this means we're seeing another Retail Roundup soon!

The Interest of Disclosure

Above: A snippet from a recent Sephora Beauty Insider email I received recently. (Why oh why oh WHY did I have to move out of Honolulu before this could happen?)

****

About the FTC regulations asking beauty bloggers to disclose where and how they got products reviewed on their sites...

Let me be up front here by saying this: There are several ways that a product review ends up on Domesticity.

1. I bought the product myself.
2. The product was a sample that came from a separate purchase. (This is applicable for things that I get from Sephora, or things I find between the pages of a magazine... but not for the majority of Pinoy retailers that I frequent, since what's usually considered as a "sample size" can be bought for a small pittance at your local store.)
3. Somebody else bought the product for me.
4. Somebody else bought the product for themselves, but I ended up cockroaching them from the nearest vanity. (My apologies to my parents, my sister, Scribey, and the makers of fine hotel toiletries throughout the world.)
5. Somebody else bought the product for their salon and used it on my personage... but then, that would lead to #1, so it just brings everything full circle.
6. I signed up for the brand's mailing list. (I think I did this with a review of Dove products not too long ago.)
7. If I didn't buy it, or it didn't come from a separate purchase, then I am either going by a second-hand account or I'm basing my judgement on a swipe I made on my hand. (My apologies to Sephora, Nordstrom, Macy's, Neiman Marcus, and the Aveda salons of Honolulu... you may have lost the biggest sample whore that ever sample-whored in the entire state of Hawaii, but rest assured now that my word is pure gold, and I never lied to you about having a blog!)

I could go on and on, but here's the main point: Not once have I reviewed something, anything, that was given to me by a publicist for the purpose of putting out a non-negative review. Like I've said before, I only use this blog for fun, but have not used it for profit - and never, ever, for the sake of earning freebies.

And sure, there are circumstances where I've come close to a few ethics violations... but I have yet to receive a cease-and-desist letter from anyone, and if I did I'd be the first person to publish the whole thing in verbatim.

Sometimes a picture of a product that I have never tried ends up on my blog. But that's probably because I happened to like the label or the advertising campaign. Again, I would be the first person to tell you if I was contacted by the Powers That Be on the brand side of that product... preferably before I do the review, but I'd tell you too if they contacted me afterwards anyway.

I say this now, too, because I also happen to be friends with a few brand managers from some of the big guns in the personal-care industry here in the Philippines. (Clue: NOT Vicki Belo.) I'm not saying that they shouldn't contact me and ask me to blog about their products - in fact, I actually welcome their input - but that doesn't mean I'm not going to speak up if I find something wrong. Like, say, if they sent me a lotion that turned my skin the color of a legal pad, or if the shampoo they gave me made my hair smell like dirty socks.

And as for free treatments... well, speaking as somebody who has participated in all sorts of PR shenanigans in a former lifetime - like dancing in a fish costume for a government agency, and coming close to getting my teeth bleached for television - I know too well how the game works. Again, not to say that I shouldn't be getting invites for product launches (because, au contraire, I welcome that too... call me, Power Plant Mall!) but I'm also not going to hesitate to show you proof that I was invited to the event, the reasons why I was invited in the first place, and whether or not somebody else paid the bill for me. Then again, I do live in a country where even prominent fashionistas get crap service at expensive salons... and thus have a bigger duty to blow the whistle, in case anything goes wrong.

Long story short: I'm fully compliant.

******

That said: I'm in the process of considering options for advertising on this blog. I don't want to disclose too many details, except for the fact that I am exploring an option that lets me generate revenue locally. It might change the "profit" angle for a bit here, but I'm hoping that I could do this without compromising the editorial tone for the rest of this blog. Will keep you posted.

And You Will Know Me by The Trail of Blog: Domesticity's Greatest Hits

Above: a parade of the most insidious earworms to infect me in the last six months, delivered in flash-mob form.

For those of you who are just catching up to Domesticity now, here are some classic entries from the archives.

• You know, after reading this 2006 entry about pretentious critics in the Philippine press, I've realized that I probably could've used a tad more perspective. Personally, I now find that Filipino fashion designers have started to leave the sporty-conservative designs behind in favor of post-modernist inspiration from Europe, Japan, and Korea - a wise move, considering that retail behemoths like Gap, Forever 21 and Topshop have started invading our malls. The same cannot be said, however, for art and music critics in this country... and unfortunately, I am not getting paid to fight them off, letter by letter. Oh well: plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.


• And if any rant-happy souls would be interested in telling me off on this blog, they should take a page from TV reporter Cedric Moon, who still found time to write me back after all the horrible things I've called him in this space. Classy, polite, and humble = game, set, match. (Alas, as far as I know, Cedric no longer appears on-camera at the Honolulu station where I first spotted him; don't know if he moved or not.)
  

• Enough rantiness for now; how about a little nostalgia for the most interesting videos from the Summer of '06? Because nothing says "timeless" like jokes about Charlie Murphy, Sean John Unforgivable, and pantsless C-listers. (Whatever happened to Jenn Cuneta, by the way? Did Lady Gaga just render her career obsolete?)
  

• Since we're on the Summer of '06: a retail roundup. And because we've all been good, here's a quote from my review of Miami Vice: "Colin Farrell may look hot when he's dirty, but here he desperately needs to be reintroduced to the concept of Soap and Water."

• Going back a little further: Relive my ongoing love affair with red lipstick, beginning with this entry on the power of a red lip and continuing with a list of commendable reds. The more things change, the more they stay relevant. Heck yeah.
  

The Blogging Goddesses of Manila

A recent conversation with a friend of mine back home turned towards the question about whether or not a blog like this one will ever survive in a crowded blog-market like the one we have in Manila. While I never really claimed to blog for the money (...sorry, corporate sponsors-to-be), I will admit that a shopping-and-chismis blog like mine may not stand out, at first. This is, after all, the country that also spawned Bryanboy.

And while this not-too-humble probinsyana is committed - and content - to continue blogging about drugstore mascaras, I would be more than happy to concede my usual showbiz-and-glamour beat to the real experts.

First and foremost: Chuvaness.com.

Mind, this is a stylist-assisted Chuva you're seeing in this picture, but I was already a fan of Cecile Zamora-Van Straten from her columns for the Philippine Star, before Scribey tipped me off to her blog. Stylish, yes, but whip-smart and witty, and quite unpretentious when it comes to her love of fashion and design. Anyone who can write about Louis Vuitton and still have no shame about buying housewares at SM has my undying love and respect.

Also in the category of "undying love and respect": Jessica Zafra.

In the early part of the decade, I was more than ready to write her off as a relic of the grunge era - too artsy for her own good - but all that changed when she also started writing for (again, no surprise here) the Philippine Star three years ago. Now she has her own blog, and I can't let a day pass any more without her piercing insight and unrelenting sense of humor. Also, if you can find them, Scribey and I both heartily recommend her old column, Twisted - several compilations of which are now available on paperback.

(Disclaimer: I have no connections to the Philippine Star, other than the fact that my parents are faithful subscribers to the paper, and a passing acquaintance of mine and Scribey's from high school is now an editor in the same section of the paper where La Cecile and La Jessica publish their columns. Those of you who do, however, should feel free to bombard the editors of the Star with recommendation letters on my behalf. Heheh.)

It's that time again...

So maybe you've been noticing that I'm getting restless with this blog - not a lot of makeup and fashion to write about, perhaps? And it's not like I want to use this blog to spill the deets about my personal life (that's what Facebook email is for), so using this space as a personal diary is out of the question.

However... I am occupied with other things lately.

Take knitting, for example. Ever since I finished my first sweater, I've been occupying myself with yarn and needles - going so far as to join a knitting club here on Oahu and branching out from scarves to bags, blankets, and baby booties. It's gotten so engrossing for me that I can't go another day without working on some wicked knit-purl combinations.

And what about my cooking? I've posted recipes on this blog before; it's as if I've branched out from ultra-chic Allure territory to a mishmash of Real Simple and Redbook. In fact, I've actually toyed with the idea of writing my own cookbook... but I'm worried because that means I'll have to get hooked up with a test kitchen, just to make sure some of the stuff I've actually made won't taste like crap when people other than myself try to make them.

Don't even get me started on TV. Seriously, don't. I only have basic cable (or as I like to call it, the "OMG I can't believe Hawaii just made the full switch to digital and I can't afford to pay that much for The CW" package) so there's no way I'm catching series on non-network channels... not to mention that at this point, DVR is totally out of the question. Besides, my TV viewing tastes don't really conform to what the cool kids (read: actual critics) tend to dig on nowadays... seriously, what kind of pop-culture diva would I be if my idea of must-see TV includes This Old House and The Mentalist... and no interest whatsoever in the combined works of Bryan Fuller, Ronald Moore and Joss Whedon?

(To my credit, though: I'm actually beginning to lurve The Unusuals and Fringe, and my excuse for watching Masterpiece Theatre is the same excuse I make for watching Dancing With The Stars: I'm just there for the parade of hotties. Ahem. Ahem.)

So: Enough talky-talky; let's get down to business.

Shampoo/Brush Mystery Solved!

And now that I have finally managed to trawl the interwebs, I finally figured out which beauty blogger gave the original bit of advice to use 2-in-1 conditioning shampoo for your makeup brushes.

Behold, this bit of advice from Daneen Baird of Spoiled Pretty, as quoted on Glamour's website:

After investing in a new set, wash and condition them with a two-in-one shampoo and conditioner before using them—and then once a month after that—to cut down on bristle shedding and make them last and last.

Thanks, Daneen! :)