Girl Talk - Makeup: What foundation do you use?

Don't tell anyone but I'm 32 now and my skin has changed a little bit. I think I need a new foundation and concealer. I used Christian Dior Diorskin Fluide for 5 years and it makes your skin look like that of a celebrity. So dewy and flawless.

Sephora Says:

Dior’s unique understanding of couture brings the idea of customized luxury to the world of foundation with this smart formula that adapts to your unique skin type and adjusts accordingly throughout the day for an ultra-smooth, flawless complexion. Infused with the skin-shaping Skincare Essence, this formula melts weightlessly into the skin while hydrating and mattifying elements keep skin balanced, smooth, and healthy. Skin texture is instantly refined and imperfections concealed.

But you guys. It's $47.50. That's like 5 bottles of Gato Negro Chilean wine.

I've been using Avon's Mineral Foundation

 It's certainly not a bad foundation. It has great coverage and color and it's only $7.99, but no dewy, bright finish like that of my youth.

Here's what I'm thinking about trying:

MagiX Cashmere Advanced Liquid Foundation $8.99

Avon says:

"The cashmere-soft feel you love…now with new skin brightening benefits. Advanced new formula gives skin an instant radiance. 70% of women saw more radiant, younger-looking skin. After 4 weeks of use, spots and discolorations appeared diminished."

 What do YOU use and WHY?

Friends, do I want this dress?

I'm a maxi dress enthusiast. I wear them all the beautiful warm days. They're comfortable, flattering, and transition from home to a night out flawlessly.

Well, Mark claims to have made a winter maxi dress. I've never worn one in the cold weather months. Do I want this dress?

It's $38.00 and the site says:
Perfect for holiday parties, our dress looks amazing even after the clock strikes twelve! That's the magic of this maxi–it's comfy in soft, stretchy jersey but also has all the glamour of a gown with a gathered, elasticized waist and a flirty, peek-a-boo lace back (shown on opposite page). 95% viscose/5% spandex. Imported. 60" L from center back to hem (on medium).

What say you?

Decorate my house for me. I need you.

Since I can't invite all of you over to help me in person, we're just going to have to make do with pictures on teh internets. You see, I totally trust the opinions of the people that live in my pocket.

Here's the sitch: I have a small house. I'm all about modest living and I LOVE watching HGTV where they decorate small spaces in big cities. I have a small galley eat-in kitchen and a very large front room. I want to make the kitchen more of an island kitchen and the big front room a living/dining combo. I thought I was on the right track but my husband said I'm going to make it look like a hotel room. Now I'm doubting my creativity. #SadTrombone

Here's the kitchen. I'm going to resurface all the cabinets (white) and I'm going to paint that old library table white a put a piece of stainless steel on top of it, or something like that.

These are the rooms from Pinterest that have been my inspiration:

Source: Uploaded by user via Nadja on Pinterest

(This is one room.)

Source: hgtv.com via Nadja on Pinterest

Source: hgtv.com via Nadja on Pinterest

I want to do it in my house with these items:

Source: google.com via Nadja on Pinterest

(This couch is half the size of the one that's in there now. It would cut off just in front of where Athena is standing.)

It's kind of hard to tell from this picture, but there will be a ton of empty space.

Then this small table:

Source: google.com via Nadja on Pinterest

Hey! I was told potty-training girls was easy!

If you've had an easy way to go with potty-training your kid, count your blessings. Count them nice and slow and maybe do it a couple times. I was told by multiple mommies that potty-training girls was a breeze. That is was SO much easier than training boys. So when my sister in law trained her son at 1 1/2 in record time I thought, "Dang! Potty-training Athena is going to be a walk in the park!" Well, it's been a really long walk in the park, in snow, uphill both ways.

Getting her to pee on the potty wasn't too bad. Granted, she preferred running outside and peeing in the grass like the dogs, but I took what I could get. At least she wasn't doing it on the floor. Number 2, on the other hand, was a nightmare. She has constipation issues that made her afraid of the toilet, and it was all sorts of ugly getting her to just TRY the potty. It took 2 full years. Things went smooth for a while. She was in underwear all the time, always using the potty, and her pull-ups stayed dry all night. Next we let her try sleeping in underwear. No go. She peed the bed. Put a pull-up on her the next night: Dry. Tried underwear again: Peed the bed. WTF?

Now, at 4 1/2 years old we're regressing even further. She has peed on the floor a couple times and is routinely peeing in a pull-up at night. When I question her she says she's sorry, it was an accident, and that I don't get mad when Sissy does it.

Is this a sibling/jealousy thing? Should I be concerned that she's going to be a chronic bed wetter? Any thoughts on handling this? It's weighing quite heavily on me as I want to do what's best to help her and not make it worse.

Talk to me, friends. - Aging Edition

Coming off the heels of the 10th anniversary of my 21st birthday, I realized that I'm now firmly in my 30's. My skin must have got the memo because I swear to Bob my face started sagging. I'm devastated. Where is my youthful firm skin?? Halp!

I was perusing Sephora and the options are endless. How do you know what works?

So tell me this, what product or regimen do you believe in?
Would you ever get a cosmetic procedure like a Juvederm injection?
Is my vanity shameful and should I just age gracefully??

Talk to me...

Gentle Parenting Advice Needed

 

The buppy (pacifier).

I always use to be such a hard ass. No one EVER put baby in the corner. Then I had kids. Somehow these little crib monkeys have turned me into a quivering pushover doormat blob. I always thought that I would parent with an iron fist. My way or the highways, kiddos. So how is it that Athena has completely called the shots in regards to diapers, potties, pacifiers, and bottles? These four items seemed innocent enough, but they have been major thorns in my parenting side (not to mention a giant source of marital disagreements.

It took a SOLID 2 years to fully potty train Athena, she'll be 4 in a month and we JUST got her switched to sippy cups for milk, she still sleeps with me, and she still depends on her buppy. Since we just climbed the mountains of diapers and bottles, I feel like we should ease her into the whole "no buppies" thing so she doesn't regress in any other areas. Louis thinks we should cold-turkey her on it and just let her cry for a couple days. I think that's too harsh, but I doubt myself because I AM such a doormat.

The time has long come for the pacifier to go the way of the Dodo, but how? What say you?





For the love of all things holy, AP moms, please help me.

I'm going to try to be coherent, but I haven't gotten more than a couple hours of sleep in a long time, and last night Zofia never let me go to bed.

Night time has never been an easy time for me as a parent. My kids rule me. I have always co-slept with my 3 year old and still do even now that Zofia, 7 months, is here. I tried having her in the same room with us and she just didn't sleep. The ladies fed off eachother's energy and just stayed awake, so I put Zofia in her crib in her own room and she slept much better.

Until now.

I can't get her to lay down. She nurses to sleep and then when I go to put her to bed, the second she feels her back hit the mattress SHE GOES NUTS. Screaming, flailing, rolling, coughing. It's horrible. So I pick her up, she stops, goes back to sleep, I lay her down, screaming, flailing, rolling, coughing. Repeat this scenario 50 times.

Here are the things going on:
1. Teething.
2. Just getting over a cold.
3. Just figuring out how to sit up and feels that laying down is for losers.

What do I do? I've never let a baby cry it out (as suggested by my husband and many others) and am really uncomfortable with that. How long, if at all, do I let her cry and try to fall asleep? Is this a common phase? Do I just ride it out and let her sleep on me?

I feel like I'm going to fall asleep standing up..... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Etiquette question

Dear Miss Manners,

I purchased a plain wooden high chair and painted it very similarly to the one pictured above. I did this when my then-boyfriend's sister was with child, and it was kept at his mother's house.

This was about 11 years ago. Obviously the child has outgrown it. Would it be crass to ask if it was still being used, bearing in mind he asked me for the golf clubs his grandparents gave me?

Sincerely,

Should Stop Giving Their Artwork Away Because This Isn't The First Time This Has Happened

PLEASE, tell me...

Have any of you felt like you absolutely had to get closure with someone? Did you attempt it, and then ultimately achieve it? Is it really something that can make you close a chapter in your life or will some things just be open forever; always there to wake up at different intervals and make you feel weird?

Inappropriate? Funny?

Can I send this to the BFF I am no longer friends with? Her birthday is in a couple of days and we've never ignored each other's b-day before. I think it's funny and if she isn't as big of a bitch as I think she is, she will as well. Worst case scenario, she gets mad which is also funny.

They are SO out of my Fave 5

So your good friend Nadja here has been betrayed. Betrayed by a long-time friend in such an unbelievable way.

As you've probably gathered from some postings, my history has been a bit dodgy at best. Some pretty heavy stuff has happened and I've divulged the darkest of it to very few. One of those few I had affixed the label of "best" friend. We were inseparable for years. People gave us a nickname a la "bennifer". People envied our relationship. She was there for ALL of the major events. We joked about how our friendship would be when we were elderly.

Today I learned that when the worst of the worst happened to me, and she was one of 3 people I told, she blabbed it. Blabbed it to a person that hated me. Blabbed it to a person that threw it in my face.

I am sitting here festering. Ready to unleash like Vesuvius on Pompeii.

The only thing that has stopped me is the question of time. Do I deal with this like it happened yesterday (because it feels that fresh) or is there a statute of limitations?

Agree to Disagree

So for a while this has been a tough subject for Louis and me, and in order to use physical punishment I think BOTH parents MUST be on board. I don't agree with physical punishment in any form on a child, and in fact, I told him that if he ever DID strike Athena I will whoop on him like Ike did Tina... no joke. I feel that it sends VERY mixed messages. Louis on the other hand, feels that a good spanking can really get your point across.

I think I FINALLY won this argument with the following points:

1. Biblical standpoint: "Spare the rod spoil the child." OK, we all know that not EVERYTHING that God said must be taken literally. It's like people thinking that they're REALLY eating Christ when they take communion. I'm sure he's up in Heaven, rolling his eyes like "Come on you guys... haven't you ever heard of a metaphor?" Sparing the rod would be NO discipline whatsoever and just letting them run around like crazy people, not that you have to crack your kid with something. (My dad says "I was hit with paddles!) Yes, yes he was and he's 3 kinds of crazy.

2. We were at the zoo when a little girl smacked another. The dad came up, smacked her, and said "We don't hit!" HOW IS A LITTLE KID SUPPOSED TO WRAP THEIR HEAD AROUND THAT! YOU JUST HIT HER AND SAID WE DON'T HIT YOU IDIOT! (That one REALLY landed with Louis in its absurdity.

3. I was on www.wikihow.com
They're not even against spanking and they STILL think most people are handling it wrong.
Psychologists say (and they do know better than most people) Do not hit your child with implements or objects. Using belts, switches, spoons, paddles or worse on your child will never build the kind of respect and love that a properly administered spanking will. Only use your open hand on the child's clothed bottom. (We disagree on this)

Learn which behaviors deserve a spanking: This includes lying and open disobedience. You must be fair with children. Spilling things, nose-picking, bed-wetting, arguing, even stealing are normal childhood behaviors that, while they may require action on the part of the parent to help a child mature, they are not spanking offenses. You must let toddlers, children, teens and young adults make mistakes and have normal childhood behavior that is age appropriate without making them miserable about it. (We disagree about this too)

I know this is more like a report than a blog post, but I'd love feedback.

Out of the Clink

My dad is finally out of jail and he called. I honestly think that he has some sort of tracking device that lets him know when I'm teetering on the verge of writing him off. I had JUST made my mind up to my mother that I was going to be finished with him because I thought he had ignored Athena's birthday, and the last time that we talked it was an incredibly nasty fight. He seemed quite calm now that the jail time is behind him and a very, very nice card came in the mail for Athena. He was also telling me about how well he's been taking care of my brother, and that almost always redeems him in my eyes. He's selling the house and thinking about taking off for Costa Rica for "work". Whatever. Send me some money from the proceeds of the house as payment for dealing with you.

What's it like to have a father that was there for dinner every night and was never investigated by the FBI? I'd like to live vicariously for a moment.

Will he ever learn?

I have a tumultuous relationship with my biological father, to say the least. I've seen that man do some horrible things that most can't even imagine. He's always been a heavy drinker and, I feel, a sociopath. We go years at a time without talking, he hasn't been there for any major event in my life, he sent me to therapy, and didn't even attend my wedding. He's been arrested a million times, detained by the Feds, had people shooting at his car, stole money from my college fund, and stole my half-brother's identity. So, a couple years ago when he showed up claiming he turned over a new leaf I was a bit skeptical. He lives in another state now, but he calls ALL the time, emails all the time and is always sending things to Athena. He has claimed that he wants a relationship with her and blah blah blah. Well, he disappeared again recently for a few weeks and was quite sketchy on the details, but I let it go thinking he might just be with his lady du jour. He finally came clean because he needed me to watch his dog for him while he goes back to jail. I mean, seriously. The man is like 62 years old and he can't keep his ass out of trouble? Do I let him meet Athena and run the risk of him popping in and out of her life forever like he did to me; never having any consistency whatsoever?

I don't know. Do we have to forgive our parents?

Party of 4? I don't know...

I was talking to my husband about how I don't want to stop breastfeeding Ms. Bee when she's a year old, does he think that's weird, yada yada yada and he asked "Well, don't you want to have another one soon?"

Do I? I don't know. I'm my mother's only child, so I can't even begin to picture what it's like to have another child around. Being an only child is pretty great. I never sat there and wished for a sibling. The idea of Athena not getting all the attention from me that she wants sounds devastating. Is that what it feels like for you kids out there from families of multiples?

Then on the flip side, I see the relationship that my mother in law has with her sisters and I think that I would love for Athena to experience that. I just don't know.

Tell me, what were your experiences like as children?

Is it that time again?

Yes, yes it is. It's time for another pointless rant. Time for me to vent about something that is making me nuts for no darn good reason. What's the annoyance du jour? (It's the annoyance of the day. Ha!) It's people that morph into their significant other. I've gotten to where my skin crawls when I talk to a friend because she is almost unrecognizable. Her way of speaking, verbiage, tone, sense of humor, taste, everything. EVERYTHING has changed to HIS way. Now, I'm sure I've picked up a few things here and there from my husband, but I'm still, I'm still Nadja from the block. Why do girls do this??? Ugh.

Is it just women that do this or do guys do it too?

Advice Needed

Has anyone ever felt like their friendships have a shelf life? I'm afraid that I'm the only one. It feels as though whenever there is some sort of major life changing event, the relationship dies. And since I'm not the type to blab exactly what happened, I frequently look like the a-hole that just dropped this poor person like they're hot without so much as a "Have a nice day."

I feel as though no one tried to make this work, and now I've let it go on too long, and I've let some resentment fester for too long to ever salvage this. Especially now that I feel like I can't even communicate my feelings any longer without getting attitude thrown my way. It's gotten to the point where I almost feel like we need to "break up". What do you say? I wanna see other people? I can't say "let's just be friends." I've asked it before and I'll ask it again... Why aren't there more advice articles on saving friendships as well as saving romantic ones?? Aren't these just as important?

Or is it just that I'm so socially awkward that my comfort zone lies solely with being friends with family members? I don't know... maybe it's me.