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I self-tagged myself for this Beauty Meme from Flamingo Musings.  Feel free to auto-tag yourself!

Beauty Secrets

My Foundation: Currently, Stila Illuminating 30 Watt Foundation. Usually it’s some type of tinted moisturizer.

My Mascara: afterglow cosmetics mascara has no chemicals that will hurt your eyes

My Blush: MAC, Thevi

My Day Cream: Berwick Beauty great rose scent from real roses!

My Lipstick: Shu Uemura great color

My Beauty Product Brand: Too many to list, ALL except Benefit (way too gimicky)

My Essential Beauty Product: Lancome Juicy Tubes and I’m planning on getting to the counter to get a new one today!

My Favorite Makeup Product: Rosebud Salve because it is always there for me, lasts fooooorever

My Perfume: Chanel Gardenia was a mainstay for a few years but now I sphritz all that’s handy

My Nails: Chanel BUT I want to try some of the polishes that are non-toxic

My Feet: Miss Oops Pedicure in a Bottle and Curel foot formula

My Hands: I don’t even know the name of this but it comes from the body shop, comes in a metallic squeeze tube. I buy it less than once a year on autopilot and too lazy to see the name.

Three Products to bring on a deserted island: red lipgloss like a Juicy Tube, some type of cleanser that lasts forever like Cetaphil, globs and globs of conditioner

Woman I Admire for her Beauty: Lynda Carter

Woman with the Best Sense of Style: I hate to say this. Really. Hate. This. I would say J Lo, ole sweet face herself and Beyonce.

My Ultimate Dream: To be a snowbird, we already have the home in Maine, just need a home somewhere warm!

My Favorite Fashion Publication: Fashion from real women, I love the blogs that are from people just like me that are dealing with budget, size and practicality.  Check out the Splendicity blog roll under fashion.

Your turn now - care to share your beauty secrets?!

Thanks to Kia from Yummy 411 for the tag!

The rules are posted at the beginning. At the end of the post, the player tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blog and leave a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?

let’s see, I had been married for 3 years, living in Japan, spending as much free time as humanly possible at Roppongi and mixing it up with the locals, teaching them English Communication.

 2. What are 5 things on my to-do list today? (I’ll do tomorrow because the day is over!)

1. go to the gym for at least 2 classes
2. pack up my gym bag with everything I need for the girls in the childcare and me to shower and get ready for the day
3. go to the beach with the girls
4. get home and start dinner, wait for boy2001
5. mail out the two Netflix Little House on the Prairie Disney movies

 3. Snacks I enjoy: 

German Chocolate Cake, Truffles, Popcorn with Butter/salt, apricots, Sushi

4. Places I’ve lived:

• New York City 19 years
• Key West 2 years
• Miami 1 year
• Japan 4 years
• Maine 8 years

5. Things I’d do if I were a billionaire:
Figure how much I need to put away to get $300,000 in interest annually.  Then I would follow Mr. Howell’s (aka the millionnaire from Gilligan’s Island) lead and board a charter boat with 3 other passengers and bumbling crew members.  If I didn’t do that I would live it up like they did on Dallas, I would take the roll of Miss Ellie and encourage my kids to live at home and dress in silk pantsuits for dinner and get decked out for the most casual of occasions.  Seriously though, I would move to Texas, I’ve been a few times and I can tell you if you’ve got money you can live pretty good there.

6. People I want to know more about: There are so many!  One that has been sticking in my brain has been Rachel who spoke during the Total Beauty Summit about the The Healthy World, Healthy Child Book and site.   We’re probably the same age but she has a wonderful something about her that makes me want to be just like her when I grow up! or at least after I get some sleep…

I’d like to tag the following fabulous bloggers, I think I got a good mix and variety represented so I hope you find something interesting.  If you’d leave your links to your posts that would be great!!

• The Jet Set Girls
• The Super Goddess
• Vanilla Ice
• Vanity Kit
• Mind Over Menopause
• Pinay Wife Speaks

Thanks to The Jet Set Girls for tagging me in the wild meme sweeping the blogosphere! I love their post because they write about eachothers quirks!  In a tell-tale post I will describe 6 quirks about myself. 

MY Quirks are mundane run-0f-the-mill variety exciting and noteworthy, here we go…
1.  I don’t particular like to use plush bath towels.  Those big fluffy towels look beautiful in the linen closet but when it comes to drying off I really like the thin, rough and abrasive type of towel that are hard to find nowadays.  I also can’t stand using fabric softener with my towels, I like them stiff.  If I had time I would iron them!

2.  Something I’ve learned about myself is I *have to* maintain a certain amount of stuff, having my this’s there and my what’s where? is time consuming but I’m a pack rat!  I’m convinced that the cereal boxes I’ve kept flattenned under boy2001’s bed, used Japanese phone cards tucked under my panty organizer, AOL cd’s etc… will rise in value and I will become the most famous pack rat of all!

3.  I can’t stand predictability.  I know it’s comforting for children so I appease them with a routine but in all other aspects of my life I try to diversify as much as possible.  You may have noticed that on this blog, I will have 5 posts in one day and none the next.  I could easily post date the launch of the post to have readers on a rationed feeding schedule.  That would be the orderly and sensible thing to do but that is NOT who I am so it’s not going to happen.  I will continue to post as the inspiration and impulse strikes and hit “Publish” without regret.

4.  I love to birdwatch.  I have 10 bird feeders around my front windows and I secretly despise the birds when they snub me and go to my neighbors.  Right now my Goldfinches are MIA and the Hummingbirds have not shown up yet this year- it’s still early but… I love when they hang out here and let me watch them through the window all day.  All of my family members have been trained to look for birds before attempting to enter the front door.  If there are birds they have to wait or go through the back entrance!

5.    I can only cut my hair if a famous celebrity is involved.  When I was a child I got a Mary Lou Retton hair cut and in the early 90’s I got a Demi Moore “Ghost” hair cut.  Scraggly longer hair since then.

6.  Not only do I love to use makeup, I love to look at it.  I have some posts coming up with the cutest little makeup packaging.  It’s just so pretty I can’t stand it.’

There are my answers, now I’d like to tag 6 other fab bloggers:

Raging Rouge

NY Spender

Spoiled Pretty

Hooked On Beauty

MakeUp Bag

The MakeUP Divas

Here are the RULES

1. Link the person who tagged you.
2. Mention the rules in your blog.
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.
4. Tag 6 random bloggers by linking them at the end of your post.
5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger’s blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged.
6. Once your post is up, notify the person who tagged you.–we share six quirkie things about us and then tag 6 other bloggers.

If you get a chance leave your links to your exact posts here for continuity’s sake.  Have a great day everyone!!

I’ve been tagged! I love memes and stuff so my latest visit to Jamie’s beauty blog, The Beauty of Life, was even better than usual because I was tagged for the wildest new meme sweeping the blogosphere.  No waiting, here are my answers!

My Five Must-Not Have Items

1.  Light colored ”frost” lipsticks that make me (and most (all?) women) look like they came up from the morgue. 

2.   Cheap plastic combs, remember the ones you got right before you to the photog to take your school picture?  They are still handing them out to poor school kids on picture day! the worst part is the kids like them and you have to throw them away while they sleep lest grandma comes over and puts them in her purse!  These little combs are very fine toothed, feel horrible and are very damaging to your hair.

3.  Vanilla scented items, yuck, awful.  I don’t think I could get over the scent of anything vanilla on my skin. It smells cheap and used.  I can’t remember the products I’ve tested with this scent because I quickly dispose of them.  Keep away from scents that don’t make you feel luxurious.  (FYI: I DO love vanilla ice-cream!)

4.   Small bars of soap irk me, they are a must-not-have!  Who wants to be in the shower or tub with a tiny sample sized soap?!?  not me, I want a big bar that’s easy to grip and impossible to lose.

5.  This next one may step on toes but oh well, the truth must be told.  There are few topics that can mobilize moms like sanitizing kids hands with products like Purell.  Germ-Killers are on my must-not-have list because if they kill germs what do you think they’re doing to you on the inside?  Kids put their hands in their noses, eyes and mouths continuously and licking this stuff is horrible.  As for adults, I guess limited use would be ok, but most people that use these things are compulsive.  It’s much easier for adults to wash hands.

My Five Biggest Beauty Crimes

1.  Wearing a pony tail/bun most of the last 5 years.  Being a stay-at-home-mom responsible for three other people most days, I don’t want to worry about my hair sticking to my face, if it’s up it’s out of my way.

2.  Being in a rut, looking the same and safe. I need a makeover with a cutting edge.  I want to feel younger and more glam than I do.

3.  Being a cheapskate.  Not buying the really great products (sometimes!!) I want because of the sticker shock.  And/or using minute amounts of the good stuff instead of using enough product to make a difference. 

4.  Not getting my eyebrows waxed in a timely manner.  My eyebrows make or break my look.  They grow back fast and I have to wax every two weeks.  I don’t touch up with tweezers usually so I go with straggly hairs from 11th day.  It’s really hard to get to the salon I go to with the kids and I don’t want to waste our family weekend time in a salon.

5.  Not getting enough beauty sleep.  I concentrate on kids all day, usually blogging by night.  Sometimes I go overboard and stay online way past my bedtime and wake up with red eyes.  The good thing is it’s temporary, two more years girl2006 will be in preschool and my older two will be full days!

I’d like to pass the meme on to Natasha @ Fashioniche and Julie from You Blog Like a Girl (YBLAG)  I can’t wait to see your answers ladies!