The Great Make Up Cull of 2017, a.k.a. Poutey Scaredypants

Hi guys!  Gosh, I'm sounding so American.  But "guys" sometimes just sort of, well, fits.

Just thought I'd touch base with you on my declutter programme ... and the floodgates decluttering can sometimes open.  My programme continued in the bathroom.   I don't think I dare show you my chuck-out pictures.  Embarrassing. 

All past BBD medication were taken to the chemist for disposal. 

Here's my tidy cabinet.  I'm enjoying it as it won't stay like this for long!

And with medication addressed, I moved on to make up.  Firstly,  all make up and toiletry bags were washed in The Great Make Up Cull of 2017.  Then make up was culled, using the approach detailed below.  The cull exposed so many worries, it opened up The Floodgates of Concern.   There were many but I now give you my two main areas of concern regarding make up.  I have many other areas of concern, but make up is a pretty safe topic to open up about!

Best After Opened (BAO)

Life was simpler before those blasted little open jar icons started appearing on beauty products. Common sense was used back then.  A product was thrown away when it was empty, had dried up, looked dodgy or when I realised I'd bought it in a country I'd visited in the last millennium!

Along came that little icon and opened up yet another area of my life that I should be very concerned about.  Nay, paranoid about.  Because it frequently touches on eyes and those I am uber-paranoid about.

Those little icons are useful - but only up to a point.  For how on earth can you remember when every single item of make up was opened? 

They're bought at various times.  They're opened at various times.  They have varying BAO periods.  The labels are minute so you can't scribble opening dates on them.

I'm still fairly relaxed when it comes to non-eye area make up (I don't see much danger there) but it's a minefield for someone as concerned about eye hygiene as me!

So the test I applied during this latest make up cull was draconian but necessary.  Any eye make up that I bought prior to last summer has been binned.  Most are in the 3-6 months range anyway and this chuck-out gives me a clean slate to work from.

I've devised a simple new make-up control plan.  Buy make up at the beginning of the year then I can easily control opening dates.

 

I'd be very interested to hear what you put in place to control your make-up's recommended life.

Or is this paranoia restricted to Pout World only?!

Eye Pencil/Crayon Sharpeners

I like eye pencils and a couple of years ago I became a big fan of chunky eye shadow crayons too. 

But I've recently started worrying about the hygiene aspect of the pencil sharpeners needed to keep them in their prime.  During my cull I washed make up brushes, tweezers, scissors, that sort of stuff, all in really hot water with lots of rinsing, but when it comes to those sharpeners I washed, well I see lots of hiding places for germs to lurk and I'm still dubious about using them for eye products again.

As a result of my paranoia, a lot of pencils and crayons have been binned during this purge.  Some have been used only up to the first need for sharpening and around the time when my sharpener paranoia set in.  Many are within their BAOs but need sharpening - so they have to go. 

They have pointlessly given up their lives (see what I did there?!).

How do you keep your eye pencils and crayons hygienically sharpened?  I'm intrigued.

But there is some good news.  Nature's way of compensating for my old age fuss-potting about eye hygiene is that when retired, you tend to use less make up.  In recent years I wear it less frequently and use fewer items.  So my new controlled approach to make up is a doddle and easy on the purse - I need to buy fewer items and they should last me the duration of that dastardly BAO icon! 

So last week I bought a couple of eye shadows, new brushes, eye liner and brow pencil. 

Frequently used foundation, mascara and skincare products are replenished on a rolling programme. 

 And the big news is that apart from a blast of red lipstick for special occasions, I tend not to use lipstick anymore.  I use flavoured Lipsyl or The Body Shop's Born Lippy.  I think they look better on pensioner lips.

So this is what my streamlined make up bag looks like now.

Neat, huh?

So an embarrassing amount of make up has been culled and it leaves me with two three questions,

1) Is anybody out there as paranoid as I am about eye make-up hygiene and BAOs?

2) Anyone know if there are "self-sharpening" chubby crayons on the market?

3) This hurriedly added third questions is, have you become more of a worrier, more paranoid about things generally as you've got older? Does just about everything in life give you cause for concern these days?

 I certainly have become a worrier (as evidenced in this post) and it's not a nice place to be! 

I'm forever being told "You worry about everything!" or "You're a scaredeypants!"

A la perchoine.

Banana Cake

Recently The Photographer and I both bought a bunch of bananas.  We really must communicate better.  We could only get through one of the bunches so we ended up with one uneaten bunch of the brown-spotted variety.   What to do?

Well, we had mashed banana on toast for breakfast, and later I made two banana cakes, just doubling up on the ingredients below, and dashed one round to Son.

The smell coming from the oven as it cooked was tempting The Photographer so much that we ate a slice as soon as the cake came out of the oven - it's at its absolute best then! 

So easy to make with ingredients usually to hand.  Such a popular cake.  Its not too sickly sweet, so is perfect for us.

The slice can be buttered but when it's fresh out of the oven it needs nothing but an eager mouth!

You probably have your own recipe for banana cake but I made the cake, took photos and wrote up the recipe for you so that I could share the love.

 Banana Cake

Ingredients

Makes 1 cake of about 8 slices

90 gr soft butter (plus a bit for greasing the pan)

90 gr caster sugar

1 egg

250 gr self raising flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 ripe bananas, mashed with a fork

about 125gr chopped walnuts

Method

1.  Warm oven to 180c.  Lightly grease a 1kg loaf tin and line with greaseproof paper or liner.

2. Beat first 5 ingredients together until well combined.

3. Beat in remaining 2 ingredients.

4. Spoon into the lined loaf tin.

5. Bake for about 45 mins, removing from the oven when a thin knife inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

6. Cool.  At its yummiest when eaten still warm :-)

Enjoy!

A la perchoine.





And Finally, Tea With A Sea View

Hi peeps!  Brace yourself for a few off-the-wall pics.  Well I did tell you I've got camera probs.

And do you think it could get worse ...

... it can.  Now I have sun probs.  These were taken before afternoon tea.  I forgot that the sun would be streaming through this window at this time of day, despite the threats of Storm Doris.  When I saw these pics, what could I do but play around with effects buttons!

Within this blur is a winter white jumper, grey jeans, Zara cream jacardi.  Despite the impaired visuals, I hope you can see that it was a smartishly casual OOTD for going out to tea on a pretty cold and windy February day.

And a cosy scarf, bien sur.

I took my OOTD out for afternoon tea (and bubbly!). 

Finally I get my tea with the sea view.

The hotel is set in a little valley leading down to a pretty bay.

I'm leaving these shots to better cameras and better seasons. 

 

credit ma-idesign

The Fermain Valley Hotel, here.

 

I've enjoyed a few staycations here.  It's a top notch place for a stay on the island, with superb dining and a heavenly location.

Back to me and reality, my pocket camera and Storm Doris - she was battering the UK but blowing more gently down here.

 

 


A la perchoine

Classic Winter White at Christies

Storm Doris must have felt that she didn't do the job properly recently as she's back today.   The UK has been hit by up to 95 mph winds, snow and torrential rain.  We're pretty OK over here right now with a wind force of 40-50 mph.  

So I'm hunkering down and catching up on some admin, but thought I'd take a break to chat with you, dear readers.  

Earlier this week when things were calmer I met with some lovely girlfriends for a bite to eat. 

So, February, cold ... it just had to be a jumper and jeans.  Again.  I apologise for such repetition lately, but I am going for February cosiness, and that is jumper and jeans.

Classic winter white and pearls.

This is a Woolovers cashmere merino number, currently in the sale.  It's got a clever collar that you can unbutton for a nice neckline feature, or button up for a polo neck.  Winter white, polo neck, make up.  Naah, don't think that'll work for The Pout!

I find that the quality of some of the newer Woolovers products is all over the place.  This one is a bit thin, a bit transparent.  This could be an ongoing issue.  I tried it the other day with a light coloured camisole.  Looked a bit strange.  So here I'm experimenting with a black vest, to give what I am terming a subliminal column effect.  The Pout Jury is out on whether this innovative solution is working.

Two things to point out today. 

1. Our main camera lens is broken.  Futu, as we say over here.  We've had to use the close up zoom lens until we can sort out a new camera.  For some reason, using this lens makes the flash really bright.  So currently, I have to do "mood look away" poses - this may please you.

2. I wore a handbag!  Such a big event that I had to post a pic.  I usually stuff phone, purse and lip balm into my down coat pockets.  Not very ladylike but I like bagless freedom.  The only prob is that on the rare occasions I am bagged up, I have to remember to pick it up and take it home.  The fear of forgetting the occasional handbag stresses me somewhat.

I was meeting with my girlies at the same restaurant as I'd visited recently, Christies-on-Saturday, so scene-setting pics needed today. 

So what can I give you to round off this post?

Sun-basking seals of course! 

One of my friends had seen these lovelies during a recent boat trip.  Here they are, having a breather on a local rock.  I like the smiling mum's face in the pic the left.

Well, that perked up this OOTD post, eh?!

A la perchoine.



My Saturday Date

It's a half term and that means Granny's having lots of fun!

Before I start rambling, some much-needed housekeeping.  

I realise that I have been amiss in not greeting new followers so I'm remedying this today.  I'd like to welcome my new follower, Diana and say a big thank you to all you lovely people who have followed me already.  I am greatly honoured.

Now let's look back on what I did a few days ago.

On Saturday we met up with friends for an early supper.

The big drama was that I couldn't decide on what to wear.

So I left the house hurriedly without OOTD shots.

Thus, waiting at the bus stop ...

... saw me sneaking in some OOTDs.

It was one of this many days when I looked awful in everything I tried on, so I had to go for safety.  A black longline V-neck and black jeans ... yes, Anna, Peacocks jeans!  

Covers everything not nice.  It's an outfit I can forget about and just enjoy myself.  Do you have outfits like that?

At this time of year we catch the sunset during the bus ride into Town.

It's intensity builds up as the sun drops

 in the 30 seconds or so it takes us to drive along a short coast road.

The timings of the bus meant that we were in Town about 30 minutes too early for our "dates".

So we wandered around a fairly new development of offices and apartments.

It was built about 5 years ago and I've never walked around the area.  It's been my to-do list for yonks.

So I was able to address this and make good of what would have been a very idle half hour.

Here's a waterfall wall, so subtle that I'm sure you won't see it in this pic!. The water cascades down this little wall.

And here's less subtle waterfall steps.

Spring flower beds.  

This new quarter is quite low-key elegant, with black polished granite abounding, stylish lighting and random subtle features.  

I could imagine living in one of these flats.  The Photographer seemed quite receptive to the idea too.  A convenient place to retire, methinks.  One day, when I retire ...

A restaurant in the quarter had an American menu on offer.
I ask my American readers, if they can read the menu, are they serving typical US food? 

Our ship's mast feature at a nearby roundabout.  It was dusk but the sky was still beautifully bright blue.

And we moved away from the modern and the newly-built and in to our pretty old town with its more traditional buildings.

Then we headed for our restaurant.  We passed a few restaurants on the way to ours.

Olde Worlde cosy.

A quirky French restaurant window.



Italian.

We passed steak and fish houses, a new tapas restaurant and finally a pub, a traditional watering hole.

All in a stretch of about 100 yds.

An even older traditional watering hole!

 

The Town streets are suddenly quiet at 6pm.

I used to work in one of these fine old buildings.

 And then finally, we get to our chosen restaurant.

It looks out on our floodlit 16th century castle.  

In summer, leisurely balcony dining is offered.

It was February.  We dined indoors.   Cheers

My choice.  Prawns in a coconut batter on a little stir fry.

This is an old fave of mine which has recently been reinstated.  It is yummy.  I was happy.

The Photographer's salmon.

So what do you think of our new quarter?  And our abundance of restaurants?

I hope you enjoyed your Saturday night, wherever you were and whatever you were doing.

By the way, if you haven't already followed me, I'm hoping that you will soon as I'd love to welcome you to my humble little blog.

A la perchoine.