I’ve been working on my Etsy store recently, adding new items, and thinking of more things I can make to add to it. After 6 years, I’ve finally changed my shop name. It’s no longer called Auntie’s Jewelry Box. It’s now officially changed to SLM Inspired Styles. I’ve been going over adding new things to my shop, like selling framed photos that I’ve taken and creating homemade beauty items. I have so many interests, that I decided my shop’s name needed to reflect that. Since I’m inspired by a lot of different things, that’s why I renamed it. I’ll still be making jewelry, but now I’ll be adding other things that I make. Once I start adding the other items, I’ll post them here and you can let me know what you think. Much love peeps
My Makeup Addiction….I Mean Collection
Ever since we lost our home to a fire, my OCD is a bit crazy…lol. I have this thing with needing to organize all my stuff. It started out with super organizing all my resin supplies. I spent $140 on a super cute shabby chic drawer system at Hobby Lobby (an arts & crafts store similar to Michael’s but WAY cheaper). I was originally thinking of sanding all the drawers and repainting all of them in rainbow colors, but I really like the mismatched pastels that they already are, so I left the drawers the way they came and moved some of the drawers around.
I have all the drawers labeled with chalkboard stickers, so I can change what’s in the drawer when I want to. The dresser is also high enough to put my TV on…lol
Next organizing expense is a wrought iron wall mounted nail polish rack that I bought on Amazon for $40. And NO I didn’t buy it for actual nail polish. When I first started making resin pieces, I used only liquid resin dye. After a while, I decided to try other color agents because liquid dye didn’t have enough options that were easily accessible. I think I got the idea for using powder pigments from a resin tutorial video on YouTube. And since they make cosmetic grade pigments, I started working with powder dyes specifically. Much more color and higher opacity. After my first order of pigments, I realized that most of the companies that sell the powder send then in small ziploc bags. To me that’s way too messy, going in and out of the bag every time I resin, sil I started buying a TON of these little round plastic containers with lids at Dollar Tree (99cent Store NEVER had them lol). Each container holds 5 to 10 grams, depending on the size of the container, and the pigments are usually 5 grams per bag.
And finally, the bulk of my makeup…lol
Before the fire, I had an EXTENSIVE makeup collection. I would wear makeup every day to work, so I had a lot of it. Also, my mom was an Avon lady for 30+ years, and I myself have been an Avon lady for close to 10 years (no I don’t wear pink or knock on people’s doors lol). So you could say the makeup loving is a genetic issue. After we moved back in to the same space at the mobile home park but with a new home, I slowly started rebuilding my collection. I’m pretty sure I’m at OCD point now when it comes to my makeup. I need to have like products together for one. The first thing I bought for my makeup was one of those acrylic drawer systems made for storing your makeup with a lipstick tray on top.
At the time, I was able to fit all my makeup in this, except for a few of the larger eyeshadow palettes. Then I started seeing similar organizers popping up at Ross, TJ Maxx, and Home Goods. Shop I bought another one that was similar, then from there, I started finding the cosmetic drawers, but smaller, at the 99cent Store for $2.99. I stopped using all the lipstick organizers because I outgrew them FAST…lol…I added a couple of other things for brushes, and separated my liquid lipsticks from my regular lipsticks because I have A LOT.
My collection is pretty damn extensive lol. I have a list of everything in my makeup collection on Pinterest.
My collection will probably be growing lol. Happy new year to everybody!
Shannon
My 2018 so far…. Part 2
These are the rest of the pictures that I wanted to include with the blog post.
A donation box that one of the neighbors made to set up at a local store.
This is part of the china set my aunt salvaged from the dining room. On the left is how they looked originally after saving, and the right is after she went at them with a Mr Clean Magic Eraser.
Flowers I received from work.
My mom’s wedding ring set, with the original receipt dated 1977!
My mom’s urn with the beautiful plaque we had done. We added the little heart with the infinity symbol in it because we will love her forever.
The memorial seed packets my lovely cousin sent for her funeral services. I still have a few left. If anybody is interested in planting some seeds in my mom’s memory, let me know. There’s also a hashtag: #flowersforjeanne
I was under so much stress, and still am, that my cousin sent this beautiful and thoughtful bath set so I could relax in the bath. It smells so good!
The pens and basket for the sign in table at my mom’s services. With my mom’s obsession with online shopping, we’re STILL getting random little packages of things that she ordered. Those plush flower pens were one of the things she ordered. I thought they were perfect for the sign-in book and the index cards I left it for people to share with us their memories of her. The basket had 2 different kinds of seed packets and, since I requested that people wear purple since it was my mom’s favorite color, people ribbons for those who didn’t have anything purple to wear.
My mom’s urn table before I realized there were MORE flower arrangements coming. The arrangement on the left was from the mobile home park’s owners and staff, and the other 2 on the right were from my mom’s brother and my dad’s brother. I printed 3 8x10s for the tables and framed them. Those are sitting in the apartment right now, as well as her urn.
Parts of the floral arrangements we brought back to the apartment after the services.
The front door side of the house after cleanup and the porches being removed. You can still see a shit ton of glass on the ground here. On the left is the other shed we have, also untouched by the fire. The yellow stuff under the house is earthquake bracing, added by FEMA after the 1994 Northridge earthquake.
What our space looks like right now. Or new home should be finished and delivered by the end of March/early April.
My 2018 so far….
2018 had not been kind to me so far. On January 3rd, the mobile home where I lived with my parents and my youngest brother caught on fire and burned down…. with my mother in it. My mom was immobile for to complications from Multiple Sclerosis. She hasn’t been able to walk or even stand on her own for many years prior to the fire. Our usual routine, when everybody was gonna be gone from the house and she’d be on her own, was to put her in the back bathroom. That way if she had to go to the bathroom while we were gone, she’d already be in there. I started out on January 3rd not feeling too good, but I had a chiropractic appointment for my worker’s comp injury and couldn’t really miss it. Since my vehicle was not operational, my brother dropped me off on the way to see a movie. He and I had only been gone about an hour and a half when she texted my brother that she heard funny sounds coming from the living room and that it smelled like acid. At this point, I’m arriving at my best friend’s work, via bus, so I could hitch a ride home with her (we live I’m the same mobile home park). Just a couple minutes after arriving at her work (Sprouts), I was picking something to munch on while I was waiting, and I got a call from one of the kids up the street (he’s an adult now, but I’ve known him since he was really little…. Sorry Marco!) asking where I was at. When I told him, he told me my house was on fire and asked if there was anybody inside. I told him my mom was there by herself. At first I thought he was joking. Then, as I’m sitting there, my mind started to race. I tried calling him back, and when he didn’t answer, I called my youngest brother a few times to see if he got a call too, but since he was at the movies, her didn’t pick up. I started to freak my way into a panic attack. I walked up to my friend, who was still working, and told her what happened. She saw how panicked I was, and told her manager she was leaving early, and we started home. By the time we were within 5 miles of home, you could see a large plume of smoke coming from a very condensed area. Then I REALLY started freaking out. We pulled into the mobile home park to find my brother’s truck parked in the middle of a random street, turned the corner and all we could see was firetrucks and a bunch of people parked haphazardly and standing around outside. Since they weren’t letting people through, either walking or cars, I scanned that it was my house that was on fire. I saw my dad’s truck parked right up against a firetruck. So I ran up the hill to or home as far as the cops would let me, and stood with my brother and his girlfriend, watching our home burn down. I could see my dad further up the street with the fire marshal, watching the house. I asked my brother and my neighbor if they had got my mom out of there, but nobody knew anything yet. My dad came to stand with us a bit, and I asked him if he had heard anything on her yet. At that point, the fire marshal came back and asked to speak to him. As the rest of us looked on, my dad’s head sink and his shoulders were shaking, and then I kind of suspected the worst. When he came back, I asked him if she had made it, and he said no and I almost collapsed on the ground. Good thing I was holding onto my dad, otherwise I would have been on the ground. As my family and I were crying in the middle of the street, a damn newspaper photographer was bugging me because he was walking around talking pictures. I said VERY firmly that he did NOT have my permission to take my photo. He started to raise his camera, and I charged the guy and grabbed his damn camera. If my best friend and the neighbor hadn’t pulled me back, I would have thrown his camera to the ground and punched him. I’m not an angry person normally, so I think my friend was surprised.
Since the fire, we’ve salvaged as much as we could, with most of it falling on my brothers. I have a back injury and my dad has a bad shoulder. It took me a few days to get up the courage to go in the actual house. That first day, I only made it for 5 minutes because all I could think about was my mom must have been scared shitless. The following day was a little bit easier for me to go in and search for stuff, which was not an easy task. My mom was a pack rat, so there was A LOT of stuff to go through. I was fortunate to find my external hard drive with all my pictures and all the old family photos on it. My dad found my mom’s wedding ring set with the ORIGINAL receipt dated 1977! Both my brother’s and my dad’s laptops were melted since they were in the living room where the fire started. Only a few pieces of my clothes survived. My dad had a bunch of slide carousels in their closet and MOST of those survived, even though half of most of them were melted. We found all of our baby books. My aunt drove up from Corona one day and helped us salvage. She was climbing all over! She was able to get to the dining room cabinets and saved a very old set of china from the early 1900s. She even took some home to clean them, ended up using a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to do it, and the ones she’s cleaned look like they’re brand new.
Since we lost our home, my dad’s work has really helped us out! They put us up at the LaQuinta for 3 weeks and 2 days. Then one of my dad’s co-workers had bought a house and was trying to get out of his apartment lease. My dad’s work picked up the lease and we’re staying in a nice apartment until our new mobile home is built and delivered.
The following pictures were taken by me as we salvaged and as the clean up crew started…..
A view of where the fire started. That wall standing in the middle is where our entertainment center was, and where the fire marshal said the fire originated. You can see the outlet was not burnt, just smoke damage. That bottom section of wall and the carpet were below the TV. We had a few devices hooked up to the TV, and the fire started from one of those. That silver box on that wall is the backside of the medicine cabinet in what used to be one of our bathrooms.
This picture is kinda dark, but this is what was left of our dining room. On the right was a computer desk. Next to that was an antique china cabinet that used to belong to my great-grandmother, could have been 100 years old. In the foreground to the left is what was left of my dad’s recliner. My aunt climbed over all of this to get to the built in china cabinets flanking that window that used to have a heavy air conditioning unit in it.
This was a DVD rack. I owned over 500 movies and this hardly held any of it.
A screenshot of one of the news articles about my mom and our home.
A view of the outside of that dining room window from the driveway side of the house. You can see one of the holes the firefighters cut to both vent the fire and try to locate my mom. That little window in the far back was my parents bathroom, where my mom was located. You can also see my dad by 1 of our 2 sheds. Fortunately the fire left both of them alone, so as we were salvaging, most of it went in that shed, which is why my dad was standing there.
As most of you may already know, my back is SEVERELY screwed up, so I wasn’t able to do much physically, but I parked my butt in a folding camp chair and went through boxes and the bags. This was my view from that chair. That used to be a desk, a photo enlarger, and a TV.
A couple bouquets of flowers left by our mailbox. The one with the bright pink paper was from my sister-in-law. The other one was from a neighbor up the street.
The front of our home. Again, the firefighters had to cut holes to vent the fire. And yes, that is a mess of shit.
Close up of the dining room window and the fried awning in our driveway.
A look into one of the front bedrooms after the clean up crew went through.
The other front bedroom after clean up crew.
The rest of the pictures will be in part 2 of this blog post.
Loose Tea
Lately I’ve been into the loose tea thing. I’m one of those people who doesn’t like putting sweeteners in my tea, iced tea especially. Being somewhat of a pagan and having plenty of pagan friends, I’ve been to Pagan Pride a few times, and I’ve discovered a booth there that’s from a store near UC Riverside called Dragon Marsh. They make their own loose tea blends, as well as spices, and they have tons of other stuff too (including a shop cat ❤️). I’ve ordered my loose tea from them before, and I have to tell you EVERY ONE is delicious! I figured this time, I’d share with you what I just purchased, and tell you what each blend is made of.
A picture of my order
Organic cinnamon, black china tea, peppermint, red rose bud and petals, star anise, cinnamon oil, cloves, jasmine buds, confectioners candy, and orange peel.
Black tea, hibiscus petals, rosehip, cinnamon, rooibos, apple and orange pieces, sunflower petals, calendula, nut oil, and natural flavors.
Organic and kosher gotu kola schisandra berry, fo-ti, ginko, green tea, Siberian ginseng, licorice root, and ginger root.
Hibiscus leaf, apple pieces, peach pieces, apricot pieces, calendula petals, papaya, peach, and natural flavors.
Hunan Province green tea leaves, lavender flowers.
Hibiscus flower, orange peel, rose hips, coconut, pineapple, marigold petal, and tropical fruit.
Memory & Study tea: ginkgo, hibiscus, ginseng, gotu kola, damanina, bilberry, alfalfa, ginger, and parsley.
Early Mints tea: spearmint leaf and peppermint leaf.
They always include a free sample or two of tea when I order, and my favorite part? Opening the box and getting that wonderful herbal smell. ❤️
Dragon Marsh
3643 University Avenue
Riverside, California 92501
(951)276-1116 www.dragonmarsh.com
Upcoming….
After many years of saying I want to do it and then chickening out, I’m finally gonna do it…I’m gonna write a book. For those of you who know me, NO it’s not gonna be a romance novel.
I came up with the idea of writing a book on Southern California “places to see”. When most people do a SoCal vacation, they visit the typical theme parks (Disneyland, Magic Mountain, and Knott’s Berry Farm), but there is so much more that SoCal has to offer. Great museums, nature centers, etc. I’ll be highlighting places like these, as well as including all their social media links.
I originally had this idea about 10 or so years ago because a friend and I were going around and hanging out at places that are each beautiful and unique, and as we are both photo-nuts, I thought it would be a good idea to include our photography in a book like the one we’ll be writing. He really understands my need to stop and take a picture every 5 minutes…lol.
I’ve always had a thing for taking pictures. I consider it almost a “genetic” thing as my maternal grandmother and my aunt were into photography. If you look back at my childhood, there are TONS of pictures of me with a camera in my hand. In the last 20 years, it’s turned into a real passion. Making a book like this makes sense to me because if there’s one thing I really like to do, it’s to share my passion with others. I like to see patterns and beauty in everything.
I’ll be posting little sneak peaks here as I’m getting deeper into the book, so keep your eyes peeled!
What I’ve Been Up To…
I haven’t blogged in a LONG time, but that’s not because I’ve lost interest. I’ve been doing a lot of stuff in addition to my regular job. There have been a couple deaths in the family, being sick, babysitting, etc. I now sell Avon, do photography, and I have an Etsy store for my jewelry. I don’t know where I got the artsy craftsy itch, but I’m doing pretty good with it.
Here are a few pieces I’ve made. They mostly are made into necklaces, but I’ve made quite a few pins, and even a pair of earrings. Working with resin is a bit messy because you always end up spilling or dripping some in your lap, but it is fairly easy. The type of resin I use is a 1 to 1 recipe. Half resin, half hardener, then I drop a charm, candy, shell, eraser, etc. into the resin and give it a day to dry and firm up. I’ve made a few mistakes, but all in all, they come out pretty badass.
The piece in the upper left is a pin. I paint the backs of all my pieces with nail polish (since I have tons of it and I don’t really paint my nails), so that has to dry too, but it gives each piece a nice touch. All but the lower right also glow in the dark too!
I’ve also been making quite a bit of jewelry with rhinos. My cousin Mike works at the San Diego Safari Park, so he gets to work with these majestic animals on a daily basis. He’s also been to Africa a couple of times to fight rhino poaching. I decided I wanted to help, so I started making rhino jewelry, and I donate half the purchase price to my cousin’s organization. Basically they help with the supplies like backpacks, snacks, and other necessary equipment. If any of you are interested in purchasing any jewelry, my Etsy shop is AuntieJewelryBox. My business is actually called Auntie’s Jewelry Box, but Etsy was being a butt head and wouldn’t let me put the s in my name…lol.
April Beauty Boxes
For those of you who’ve been following me, whether on here or other social media outlets, know of my addiction to monthly beauty boxes. The most recent 2 that I received are pretty neat!
This is what I got from Ipsy…a “bohemian” pack. I like Hikari lipsticks, but this is a blush that not only did I get in a previous box (not sure if it was Ipsy or not), but I don’t wear blush. I AM looking forward to the Nude Dude eyeshadow from The Balm though. I’ve heard many good things about their products AND the color is pretty!
I’m finding I’m really liking colors like this. It kind of matches my natural eyelid color to a point so it looks pretty natural on me.
I’m always looking for a good lotion for my face, so I’m looking forward to the ultra light facial lotion from Lather.
As far as the other 2, the Mica eye color is a cream based shadow, so I’m not sure if I’m gonna try it or give it away, but the lip balm tin looks pretty neat, the color AND the tin 😊
The other box that I got, I wasn’t expecting. I subscribe to Blush Beauty mystery box, and they always send me a lot of neat goodies, including full size products. Now, keep in mind they’re part of a website that hosts 3 other beauty brands, so imagine my surprise when the package didn’t look familiar…lol. DermStore is one of those companies and I have to say that even if this box IS my Blush box, it did not disappoint.
To me, this is A LOT OF STUFF! As far as what I’m looking forward to trying, the Juice Beauty moisturizer is definitely one. I’ve received samples of their peel and cleanser in other boxes before and loved them. The cleansing oil I’ve received as a sample in my Blush box 2 boxes ago. It’s a great option for removing waterproof eye makeup, so getting a full size product is awesome. The other stuff I’m kinda 50/50 on, but as soon as I get around to trying them, I’ll let you guys know.
Now I’m off for my weekend. Peace out!
Shannon
Pura D Or Hair Care
I was invited to try these out through Brandbacker. I’m always up for trying new shampoos and whatnot, so I was excited when I read that these were lavender vanilla scented. It turned out it was just the conditioner that was scented with lavender. I haven’t used the little bottle of oil because my hair is super thin and absorbs oil like crazy.
The shampoo…
Lol…I wasn’t all that into it, mainly because it smelled like oregano. I know that sounds kind of silly, but it’s like when you smell Listerine…that weird smell. I’m pretty sure the bottle I got was faulty, as it took me a few days to work the pump open. As far as effectiveness, I didn’t see a significant difference as far as hair thickness goes.
Now with the conditioner, even though I didn’t like it that much, it was a lot better than the shampoo. The fragrance was a little artificial smelling, but it was still nice and definitely more preferrable to the smell of the shampoo.
<img style=”display:none;” src=”http://www.brandbacker.com/camp.php?qargs=view_type=V%26camp_id=218%26camp_mem_id=50273″/>
Boxing Day Memebox
If you haven’t heard of or tried Memebox, you are definitely missing out! Memebox is a beauty box service based out of Korea that sends you themed boxes with tons of full-sized Korean makeup and skincare. I’ve purchased 6 of their boxes so far and I’m HOOKED.
This box was food-based products. I’ve used everything in this box, and I would definitely buy them again!
The first thing I used from this box, and my favorite by far, is the Egg White foaming cleanser. Now, I’ve tried and loved, a few foaming cleansers before, and my biggest sell on them, other than the awesome foam, is the fact that they leave your skin feeling clean and refreshed without leaving any residue. This one did not disappoint! It has a lovely fragrance and I’ve noticed that I’ve had fewer dry skin issues since I started using it. It sells for around $13 USD.
Next in the box is snail BB cream. I admit at first I wanted to gag, but I researched snail products online, and it’s actually pretty good for problem skin. It moisturizes without causing breakouts. This guy goes for about $54 retail, which for me is way too much, but I’d gladly take a freebie…lol
Next up is this tomato toner, and NO it doesn’t smell like tomatoes…lol. This guy retails for $17. It feels and smells great going on and doesn’t leave your skin dry.
This guy is a lip tint and it goes for $4 retail. I’ve only tried it once so far, so my reviewing it wouldn’t be accurate or fair. It smells good though.
This eyebrow powder set kinda reminds me of the Too Faced Chocolate Bar palettes in that cocoa powder is used in the ingredients. Smells wonderful and has great coverage for filling in your brows. It retails for only $5!
Anxious Beauty 