Blogsale: FREE makeup!!!

Hi Everyone,

I have a different kind of post today. I cleaned out my make up collection as i have been on a decluttering mission. I’m working on getting rid of the yarn stash (or a part of it anyway) and wanted to do the same with my make up. I have way too much thats hardly used or never used and I know i just never will. So today I’m going to offer it to you. For free. All I ask is the postal costs (such as dictated by Post NL). Please do keep in mind that I live in The Netherlands and shipping abroad can be a bit expensive! Also, I’m going to be doing something similar with my nail polish soon! (maybe for small prices, but still: expect dirt cheap, but nice well cared for products)

This wasn’t even everything. i also trashed a similar amount. I’m kind of proud of myself!

Everything form top to bottom, left to right:

Essence Quattro 06 Rockangel (swatched) , Essence Quattro 01 XOXO (swatched) , MAX eyes palette Sunflower 323 (used).

Catrice Cosmetics Smokey eyes set 010 (used), NYC IndividualEyes 943 Smokey Greens (swatched), NYC IndividualEyes 942 Smokey Blues (used).

Gosh Effect Powder 09 Holographic Silver (New), Pigment Phoenix Tears (Can’t remember the brand), Pigment Sample (In body shop container) Caged Canary.

Essence pigment 02 Smell the Caramel, 03 Box of chocolate, 17 dory in love, 06 WOW it’s orange!, 12 Mis Piggy’s lollipop. (all new)

Essence I ❤ Stage Eyeshadow base (new), Essence  Colour arts Lip base (never used), Essence colour arts eye base (never used), Yves Rocher eyeshadow mousse 02 Argent (used lightly).

Sephora colorful pro blue eyes (used)

Essence Soufflé Touch Blush 030 Cold Wildberry (used), elf contouring blush & bronzing powder (gorgeous rose gold blush!, new).

MNY my Blush 501 (swatched), Jordana color tint blush stick (from the USA) in 01 Blushed, MAX blush 035 pink.

Catrice Prime and fine smoothing refiner (used once), Sephora Mineral Foundation Compact in 25 medium (beige), catrice prime and fine illuminating base (used), Catrice Mineral powder make-up  010 natural beige.

 Eyeliner on the left went in the bin after all.

H&M Colorful lashes mascara in metallic lilac (used once), essence crystal eyeliner 07 get ready, Catrice liquid eye liner LE Glamourama 01 Mirror, mirror,  etos Kohl Kajal, Sephora Crayon yeux, Catrice Precision lip liner 060 very berry (new).

Douglas Flower & fruit lipgloss (new) in peach, MAX lipgloss, MAX lipgloss with light, Rituals lipgloss, Catrice Longlasting lip cream LE Glamourama 020 Life’s a stage.

Stila lip glaze in pinkle twinkle (slight crack in lid otherwise new), Gosh on stage cool lip jam (swatched), essence tint it colour changing lip gloss (new) , Anatmicals fruity lip gloss in super randy cherry berry (new), Vichy sample size Oligo 25 levres in 15 fizzy rose.

All lipsticks have been cleaned!

Sephora lip attitude chic C02 (used), Catrice Ultimate lip glow, Catrice Crystal clear gloss stick LE Papagena in c01 Tigerlily, Essence lipstick in 65 Glow neon glow!, etos serum lipstick (used once, but there is sticker residue on the packaging) in 001 Pink.

 

Fake mac lipsticks from ebay (pretty good quality!): 03, 04, 09 and 10.

 

That’s it for now! Let me know if you’re interested in anything by commenting below or send me an email at: renee.kies@me.com

 

Love, Renée

Tadaa: Smaug Socks

Hello Everyone!

Today I’m here to share a still pretty recent FO with you. bear with me for a while whilst I share some projects i finished during my blogging hiatus. I’m too proud of them not to share haha!

Today’s project was both well loved and hated. I started out loving it. It was my most complicated sock to date and used some techniques i was unfamiliar with. All fun and games, until… i made a pretty big mistake. Oops. I’m not very good at explaining, but I’ll try. In buy sock there is no knit stitch between the side of the sock and the cable tail going across the foot and there are 2 twisted knit stitches on the side of the tail cable where it meets the purl section. It was supposed to be 1 (twisted) knit stitch on either side. It’s not noticeable unless you know about it (like me, and now you) and it doesn’t make the sock look bad, but it really really bothered me. So much that, after finishing the first sock in a state of anxiety and disappointment after finding out the mistake, i let that sock sit, lonely and without a mate for weeks. I didn’t want to purposely knit a sock with a mistake in it. The first time was an accident and so somewhat acceptable, but doing it on purpose… And frogging was not an option. That would to me not having any Smaug socks EVER. At this stage I wasn’t very pleased with these socks, but when i showed my sister the finished loner sock after watching the hobbit part 1, she loved them! So I said they were hers. Yay! It’s fun to give knits and have them be appreciated (my family would have to be blind to not notice how much time and effort i spend on all of my knits). But there was a small detail: It would mean knitting the second sock (with the mistake, because no frogging!) and it would mean doing so on a deadline. Because if I didn’t get them to my lil sis before she left for South-Korea she wouldn’t have them for another 6 months! By the way: South-Korea is super cold in winter, who knew? So hopefully these wool socks keep her toes a bit warmer! I eventually finished and now i get bragging rights, because these were such a chore. Yay me! (I’m in a very celebratory mood today. After an insane week with stress levels I hadn’t even ever imagined possible, I (probably ) failed one test causing even more stress and fear, i (think i ) aced my second test this morning. And my bike repairs were a lot less expensive than imagined. Pfieuw! That’s less to worry about!)

No fancy pants pictures as we were in a hurry and then forgot and now they’re in Korea. I love the colourway i picked for this pattern. I promise it shows of the pattern better than this picture would say. I always thought Smaug was red, but it turns out he’s brownish with some red highlights. Like this yarn! Haha!

Stats:

Pattern: Smaug socks by Claire Ellen Although my experience wasn’t perfect, this pattern is well written and has clear instructions. It was my own fault for not paying attention. I switched up the charts for the tail cable and did the right one on the left sock and vice versa. (By the way: Shoutout to the lovely people of the Sock Knitters Anonymous group on Ravelry for helping me figure that out! This was my first SKA challenge and i felt so very welcome!)

Time: Far far far too long. I cast on on the 3rd of November and finished on the 4th of January.

Yarn: Tiger Garn Strømpegarn/sockyarn. This is a cheap sock yarn (2 euros a ball I believe) that is for sale In Flying Tiger Stores. It doesn’t have a number to identify the colours, but they have a range of about 5-6 colours, so they aren’t really necessary. Unfortunately there are not lot numbers either and this is a bit of a hassle. There were noticeable colour differences in my 2 balls (that sounds so wrong!), so be careful and examine the yarn if you need more than one ball. The yarn doesn’t feel very stretchy (unlike the single ply yarns I’m more used to), but I’ve been assured this is normal for such yarns. The yarn knits up not super soft, but certainly not scratchy. They soften with a good washing.

Above picture was taken after I stayed up late to finish these things and watch Chicago (i love the songs in that movie!). They took longer than expected so I ended up watching a strange show about weird habits.

Love, Renée

ps. I’ve decided to make my pattern Imperial Star on Ravelry permanently FREEEEEEE!

pps. I had my Anouk Headband tested and the French Doily is currently undergoing testing. I’ve decided I want to up the quality of my patterns so will look into ways to improve all of them.

2014 Crafty Resolutions

Hello Everyone,

With a new year comes a new beginning and a bunch of resolutions. I mentioned one of them very briefly yesterday, but here’s the full list.  Most of my resolutions are focused on getting a little more organized (this isn’t just true for my crafty resolutions, but also for my personal resolutions) and keeping everything that way. Another important focus for my year 2014 is down-sizing. I have too many things and i want to get rid of them!

1. Finish a WIP (work-in-progress) before starting something new.

2. Keep the number of WIPS below 5! (I have around 15 at the moment, so number 1 has to be postponed for a while. See, down-sizing!)

3. Don’t randomly buy yarn (unless it has an immediate goal or is very very nice).

4. Destash (–> I will be going “Cold Sheep” for a while. I can’t buy new yarn unless i’ve used up some of the old yarn. 5 skeins out means a new one can come in!)

5. Immediately log new yarn into the Ravelry stash section with a clear photo.

6. Keep the stash organized. If i grab something, but don’t need it after all, put it back neatly. In trend with this resolution I will be cleaning out all my closets to give the stash a nicer home. I have a lovely brown cabinet with glass doors that would be perfect for storing the fancy yarns and all my needles, fabrics and my sewing machine.

7. Learn to sew! I have had a sewing machine from my gran for a while, but I have yet to use it, even though I really want to! So this year I’m going to figure out how it works and start sewing! There is a local fantasy festival , that is getting pretty huge and I have a dream  of sewing a impressively massive dress complete with hoop skirts, petticoats, corsets and the like.

8. I want to design more of my own patterns. I have a bunch of great ideas that I would love to see becoming reality. I’m going to keep track of my ideas, swatches and the like in a lovely new notebook so I can keep it all organized.

9. I want to start writing more. I’m going to be doing a literary university study starting in september as I’ve always had dreams of wringing a book. I have the inspiration to write, i just never get around to it. No more! But that means i have to pass all my subject this year in school so i also have to work a little bit harder from now on!

10. I read an insane amount of books every year. Some i love, some are just okay and others are just blah. I’m going to start posting some of my reviews here (yay, writing practice!) to share my experiences with you!

Will i have time to do it all? I really hope so, but only time will tell.

Love, Renée

Tadaa: Magic Mirror

Hello Everyone,

Finally I am back in blogland. I’m so very sorry it’s been so silent here! Somehow I got sucked into my exams and then i had to finish my christmas things and i just didn’t seem to get around to blogging anymore. My resolution for 2014 is to keep this blog a little more up to date!

To kick off the new year on A Lazy Beauty, i’m going to start with a recently finished object. In fact, it’s one of the reasons it’s been so silent here. It was a birthday gift, but it ran a little late so it might as well have been a christmas gift. I never used to get it, but i totally understand why some people stress about gifts for Christmas. I ended up wrapping several balls of yarn with a picture from the pattern and a lot of promises to finish it as fast as possible. Have I done anything on them yet? No, my wipe are slowly drowning me. But I’ll come back to that in a later post, today is show and tell! I made my sister a set of a hat and gloves for her birthday. It was my first time using fancy yarn apart from the occasional pair of socks.

I loved knitting them, but there were some challenges. First off, both the pattern for the hat and the mittens was by Drops. Lovely, loads of free patterns. But they are notorious for being very sparingly with their instructions and being a little confusing. They sort the steps by segment (so there’s a separate segment for the thumb and the rest of the mitten), even if sometimes things form different segments have to be done at the same time. It’s best to read the pattern through once or twice and to mark when two things have to be done in the same round. I actually like that they’re a little sparing with their instructions, as I’m not very fond of patterns that feel the need to spell everything out. They can make me feel a little dumb. It’s like they assume you’re working above your level and need the be told everything 3 times in 3 different ways. It’s actually a little confusing when you’ve already figured out what to do after the first instruction.

Another issue with the Drops patterns is that a lot of them are translated, in my case from Norwegian. Sometimes this causes sentences and instructions to lose some of their meaning and sense. It wasn’t too bad in my patterns, but sometimes an instruction left me a little puzzled because it was formulated differently from what i was used to.

I love the yarn i used for both the mittens and the hat. I combined a strand of Drops Alpaca and Drops Kidsilk. They’re both very soft on their own, but they’re amazing together. The only issue is that when they get wet, they stink! Really really bad! I tried washing them with some nice smelling soaps and such, but i don’t think it did much.

Here is the hat (and the mittens) as modeled by my lovely sister. They’re lovely and fuzzy (thanks kidsilk!), but still show off the cables quite nicely!

Stats: Pom Pom Hat

Pattern: Knitted hat with cables 125-12 by Drops Design

Needles: 4.0 mm and 4.5 mm circular needle with a cable of 40 cm

Stats: Magic Mirror Mittens

Pattern: Magic Mirror by Kristel Nyberg

Needles: 3.25 mm dpn’s and a cable needle

I’m a little jealous of the mittens, the cables are so pretty! I’ll just have to make an other pair sometime!

Love, Renée