Wow, Liese. I think they are much more hardass here. But since I still get paid even if I get grand jury duty (3 months where you might be called every day) or a horrendously long trial, I can't complain.

I totally want one of these:

Chair Made of Couch Cushion Cracks

Don’t you hate it when stuff from your pockets gets lost in the cracks between couch cushions? The design firm Daisuke Motogi Architecture decided to make this a feature, rather than a bug. The “Lost in Sofa Chair” comes with many different cracks into which you can store books, phones, and other implements that you want nearby.

I'll find that funnier when I can find my mailbox key.

Wow, Liese. I think they are much more hardass here.

Right? And I didn't even ask off. He just excused me now and forever. I didn't argue!

That couch would be fail in my house. The only thing stuffed in my couch cushion cracks is dog fur. I don't need any more places for that to live.

So today my diametrically opposed (ha ha) spending money purchases showed up: my wood splitter and my Smashbox palette makeup kit. Here are my reviews.

Wood splitter: kinda a piece of crap. I wish I'd bought the bigger one. The SO got it kinda working, but it's fidgety, which is not what I wanted out of a convenience tool. However, in daylight I'll try again and see if I can physically do it. It did the job, in the end, just took a lot of fussing to get it going. Once going, it was pretty good.

Smashbox: Kinda awesome. I am loving the bronzer/blushes and the lip glosses so far for sure. To the point where I might need to buy the perfect pout kit. I am fairly dubious about the brow powder, because a) pretty much every shade is lighter than my hair probably because I don't guess I need to darken my brows any, and b) it just looks weird on me. I can definitely see how the brow wax will be helpful, though, and it will help me learn how I want to shape my brows, I think, to be able to position them. But I dissolved into giggle pretty early on because I made myself look perpetually surprised.

The eyeshadow I think is fine, but I need some practice there. I like the colors, but I liked the colors in the shadow specific kit better, even though those were mostly a subset of these. The cream eyeliners are also pretty, but the brush is a bit odd. I definitely prefer the pencil Urban Decay liner, which does seem like it's going to hold up pretty well, so thanks for that rec.

Everything is kinda small, and the kit itself is a little chintzier than I was expecting. I don't think I'll really be able to carry it with me. But overall, it's perfect for what I need, which is a sampler to start me out and help me figure out what I'm going to want to buy going forward.

I love your makeup experimentation, liese!

I think we're going to go to an Empty Bowls event near Noah's school tomorrow: [link] I kinda love this whole idea.

I love your makeup experimentation, liese!

I am feeling bold. Oh, and I painted my nails for the first time since the trip, when I broke them badly whilst maneuvering my giant display for the last time. Next event, this month, we will have much more manageable displays.

PLUS! I found someone on youtube who gives useful advice: [link]

So. I am making progress.

That's a really really cool event with the bowls. And some of those bowls are gorgeous!

I had not heard of Empty Bowls before but I think it's a lovely idea.

Also? I may never get that song out of my brain Dirty girls like Benedict Cumberbatch indeed.

I need to go to bed tonight before 11:30. Not sure what stresses me out more, being behind in my work or behind in my sleep. And poor Isaac. He looks so tired these days his eyes are rimmed in purple. But poor noodle won't sleep past 6:30 most mornings.

Yay Liese! Though that does sound very wrong on the wood splitter. I actually just bought some stuff from sephora online today--they were offering a free thing with $25, and I thought "well, I could just buy my sister her christmas present early" and then I also saw an Urban Decay 24/7 gift thing that has mini pencils in a bunch of colors, plus a full size zero one, so I had to get it.

Also, I've seen pictures of him with not-dark hair, and...I am perplexed. Perhaps that's a function of having seen him first with dark curly Holmes hair.

Good perplexed or bad perplexed?

The auburn suits him but the dark makes me want to poke at his spicy brain with a stick.