Papaya Art

I've been obsessed with Papaya Art since I first saw their makeup bags a few months ago. The artwork and design are just beautiful! I recently learned that this Oregon based family business has been around since 2003, and started out as just 20 greeting cards before growing to hundreds of fine lifestyle and stationary offerings! I want them all.

If you're local, you're lucky because Got Beauty in sugarhouse carries some of their stuff! Remember my Hello Honey Bunny post a few weeks ago? Papaya Art. And look at this bag. Perfect to pack your makeup in when traveling, or to use as a purse. I love these unique little pieces of art.

Head to sugarhouse when you're out Christmas shopping this month and pick up an item or two!

Oh, and prices? This one is only $29. Get real.

~DM

All about the brow!

I've been obsessed with brows as long as I can remember. Good eyebrows are so important, and can completely transform a face. Perfectly groomed brows have never been more popular. It's almost overwhelming how many options are out there right now with brow makeup.

I've always done my own. I have a pretty high arch naturally, and plucked to play that up. This meant thinning my brow, and right now big brows are in. I blame/thank Cara Delevingne! 

Over the last few months I decided to let my brows grow. This meant other than between the brows and the occasional real straggler, no plucking. I was curious to see what would come in, and take the change to reshape them. I love mixing it up with my look.

The photo below was over the summer (right), vs a week or so ago (left). I'm not sure if you can tell on the left, but despite my anastasia dip brow over my brows, they were getting pretty unruly! It was getting harder to put makeup in unkempt brows, and it wasn't hiding the every which way hairs. They needed help, and I'd let it go so long that for the first time in my life, I didn't want to touch them myself!

I made my first ever appointment to have them waxed and tinted with Michelle at Got Beauty. I've been so protective of my brows (I may be a bit of a control freak), but I knew this was the time to hand them over to an expert.

Um, why haven't I done this sooner? She was great! We talked about the thickness and color we were going for, and then she showed me a couple of spots to see if I wanted to get rid of certain hairs or let more time pass to see what else will grow in. We opted for the latter. I couldn't believe the difference! The shaping, the precision. Just look.

Don't let the redness below and above the brow fool you. It wasn't painful. That night I had an event and used my anastasia dip brow like always, and this time it was so much easier! No unruly hairs, an exact shape to follow, I have to say that I was happier with my brows that night than I've been in a long time! They are finally looking the way I'd hoped and was going for!

I'm sold. I'm leaving them in the hands of the experts from now on.

Want to book an appointment? Got Beauty has a convenient sugarhouse location, Michelle is so nice, and the room is beautiful. It was $30 total for my wax & tint. Give them a call!

~DM

Progress weeks 21-25!

Yesterday marked week 25. It's time for the next set of progress pictures. To see pre-pregnancy through week 20 (and to read about my experience and feelings so far) make sure to start with this post! I'm still feeling good physically, and haven't been slowed down by pregnancy. I'm feeling my Charlie move quite a bit these days. Matt finally got to feel him move, and has now felt him twice! At my last Dr. appointment she told me how active he is as we were listening to the heartbeat. He has been since the first ultrasound in August. He is hyper!

I'm sad to have missed my photo for week 24. We were out of town for Thanksgiving and I forgot. Progress pictures have turned out to be just amazing to me. The changes happen so gradually, and seeing these week to week show me so much more than living in my body day to day, surprisingly. I haven't had to buy any maternity clothes yet, but I'm sure that's coming soon. I haven't worn anything form-fitting yet, because I'm still not sure it looks enough like a bump (rather than a big lunch) to show it off. So people still don't know I'm pregnant if I'm just out and about in a loose top! 

Being used to your body being a certain size through your adult life, it's definitely strange (and at times very hard) to transform. I keep looking back at previous weeks when I thought I was big, and now it makes me laugh at how crazy I was for thinking that! It really took a long time to start showing much of anything. Three weeks until the LAST TRIMESTER. I'm trying to savor every day before I get huge!

It feels more real every day. I can't believe how much love I feel for my baby already. I can't wait to see him with his Dad, too.

It's yet to be determined if social media will ever see our son, so like I said in a previous post, I won't be sharing his ultrasounds. But man, if you could see how beautiful he is already! I can't help but stare at his pictures all the time.

~DM

Those who cannot love us

I stumbled on this quote the other day and gasped. It so gracefully words something I am always in the process of. I'm not talking about wanting acceptance of others in a general sense, I'm talking about specific people who over the years have left my life. This has happened for various reasons. Some were because I left a long term relationship and they chose sides and made judgements, knowing nothing about my situation, my heart, or ever having a conversation about it with me. Not that it effects anyone but me and the person in it anyway. Others...I have no idea why they up and left. And some just seem to be on different pages, and I end up not seeing them as much as I'd like. All of the above I have a hard time with because I don't understand. I'm still looking for explanations and a way to move on.

I've been thinking a lot recently about who is in my life at this time, this incredibly sacred time of being pregnant with my first baby. Friends, and family both. I'm surprised at who has made an effort to check in. Check on me, want to see me, asks for pictures. I'm also surprised at who has felt absent. I wondered if I'd be discarded once I was pregnant?

Just like when I left my long term relationship and people left me, all I could think was, "but now you'll get me at my best! I'm free to live my truth! I am finally me!" Being pregnant is flying by, and I can't help but feel I'm moving away rapidly from those who haven't seen me since I've been pregnant, who haven't asked me much about my new family, who ask my parents how I am but never me directly, who seem too wrapped up in their own lives to make time for me. I'll never accept "I'm just so busy" as an excuse. I am very busy too. Everyone I know is busy with work and life and family and a million other things. But it is easy to make time when you want to. That's all it is. You set aside a couple of hours, or not. Sure things come up. Sure there are times when you'll need to reschedule. But I hear the static silence out there loud and clear. Meanwhile, an eternity is packed into one month during a pregnancy. Rapid changes, rapid growth, life at full speed. Not everyone wants to keep up.

I really wondered when I saw this quote why I'm putting any energy into those who clearly can't make that time for me? If I really think about how much I've dwelled on this, it starts to seem nuts. Why wouldn't I just chose to focus on who wants to be here, now? When I do, another aspect of all of this is very clear. I have not lost. I am not missing out. New people have entered my life. Amazing new women friends especially who make an effort in return and who have brought so much joy and fun to my life. Space has been made to let the right ones in.

This was just the reminder I needed to refocus, be grateful, and let go gently.

My life is full, and will always be. The right ones will always be there, at any given time.

~DM