One Year – Be kind to strangers

Posted on 05/11/2013 by AprilDoyal

It has been one year since Jay was taken from us. I can’t express the pain that still reverberates through our lives. I don’t want to relive it here, I don’t think that is what Jay would have wanted.

He had a huge heart, and I thought hard what I could do to commemorate his life, his passing. And the thought that hit me was doing nice things for strangers. Jay was strange, hell I’m strange. But I guess I don’t really mean strange in that sense (though honestly the only “Normal” people are ones you don’t really know yet).

So I decided the best thing I could do, you know that would keep me from laying in bed and doing nothing would be to place some positive messages around town, to remind others of the beauty that life can afford, that life does afford. The beautiful inside and out. It’s hard to explain I guess really, but dressing in all black with my bestie and going about the town in the middle of the night putting up positive messages was the idea I couldn’t get over. It’s something I’ve thought needed to be done before, and I guess the importance of it just grew quite a bit more in recent months. So really, I guess I don’t need to continue on rambling. Here are the photos of some of the signs we put up last night. I don’t think this will be a single occurrence for me. The world could use more positive.

I’d like to encourage others to consider even just putting one sign out that maybe would brighten someone else’s day a little more. And if you do be sure to share it with me, I’d love to see the messages you are willing to share with the world, in your community.

Marcus Owens, Amanda O'Dair, Carol Jean Galenbeck, Olivia Mistelle, Cheri Montgomery Long, M'Lisa Seymore Baker, Danielle Chiaravallo, Sarah Herrero, Ben J. Arguijo, Cindie Doyal, De'on Grigsby Miller liked this post

Sometimes I don’t even make sense to me

Posted on 04/10/2013 by AprilDoyal

Either this has been covered somewhere else, or not. Either way I find this very interesting.

I’m a lover of indie music, have been for years. Even as far back as the 90′s. So I find this very interesting. Below is the promo image for 30 seconds to Mars’ new song “Up in the Air” (released March 18th, so eventhough it’s not brand spankin’ new, it’s still under a month old which makes it a baby, and babies are new so there).

30secondstomars

This picture while different, was completely reminiscent of the following picture, the cover from Hum’s Album that came out in the 90′s.

hum cover

IF the similarities ended there I’d probably think nothing of it. Which honestly, why I thought further is beyond me really. But notice the titles, “Up in the Air” and “You’d Prefer an Astronaut”. Both elude to something up in the air.

It’d be another thing if that is where it ended, but I just read an article about 30 seconds to Mars’ song. Apparently they had the song launched into space by NASA, making “up in the air” an “astronaut”, which in case you haven’t been keeping up, is what you would prefer.

So, I find myself pondering this (which is silly as it’s ridiculous, but hell it’s ~~probably not~~ far from the silliest thing I’ve pondered and decided to blog about) Is this a tribute to Hum from 30 Seconds to Mars? Or is this 30 seconds to mars saying they are in fact the astronaut those of us that listened to Hum back in the day would prefer?

Though after listening to the song, I have to also wonder about the connection between 30 Seconds to Mars and Pink. As I now want to mash the song with her song True Love. Coincidence I’m sure, but he wants to wrap his hands around your neck in love love love, and sometimes pink wants to hug you and at the same time wrap her hands around your neck.

shittyartistpicture

So morning gray ignited a twisted mess of foreign shapes and sounds, which lead me to the conclusion that one of my favorite bands of today is mocking one of my favorite bands of the 90′s (or paying tribute to them) and my favorite angry girl musician should never date Jared Leto, whom ironically enough I had a huge crush on in High school while I was a fan of Hum…. (come on girls any of you drool over him in My So called life?, you know you’re a child of the 90′s if you even know what that is. And most likely were a brooding moody indie child that wore flannel)

If you’re still a brooding moody indie child at heart, look below, he’s still just as wonderful as he was back then.

jaredleto

Rabid Cats and other interesting theories on women

Posted on 03/22/2013 by AprilDoyal

Put 100 women in any room and you’re going to find they will form groups, cliques if that is what you want to call them. Don’t roll your eyes and look at the word “clique” as though I’ve said something dirty or bad. In fact, cliques are a healthy part of normal social development, so to claim you’ve never taken part in any such ‘nonsense’ is to say “I am not socially normal”. And if that’s the case, then stay out of social situations where you might encounter ‘cliques’. As chances are, you don’t know how to handle yourself in most social situations and it’s just bad juju for you to put yourself somewhere so far out of your comfort zone.

In any room, there are going to be the popular girls, the nerdy girls, the smelly girls, the pretty girls, the ugly girls, and the ones that no one likes. There is going to be a level of cattiness, snarkiness, dirtiness (don’t fool yourself men, we’re just as bad as you guys, we’re just better at containing it) and on the rare occasion, there is going to be some flat out nastiness. Its going to happen, we all choose what bus we jump on. It doesn’t matter if it’s a physical room or a virtual one. Sometimes you get to be a part of the group, and sometimes you’re better off finding a different room of women to attempt socialization with.

Women are women, and we are like cats. Not in that dirty way that people like to refer to certain parts of the anatomy, but in that I’m going to scratch, hiss and possibly bite you if you get on my nerves. Like cats, real women are rarely out for more than a little confrontation, rarely do you find one out kill it’s fellow kind, unless it’s rabid. You never really hear about rabid cats, dog’s seem to get all the bad Rabies rap. But it happens, and those are the ones you want to avoid.

i-is-sorry-i-has-rabies

Where I have a problem is when one cat decides that she’s going to try and set rules for everyone else and not follow them herself. One cat doesn’t write the rules for all of kitten kind. And no cat has been put on any pedestal to be in such a place. Honestly, to feel so pompous as to truly believe that people became friends for no other reason than to ‘hate on her’ when 90% of those women have never even spoken to her, and that when it comes down to it only one has ever really had any contact with her on a 1 to 1 level, and the rest don’t even know 100% what was said between them. But we aren’t “allowed” to talk to the one cat, because she said so, and you know that cat has decided she can make the rules.

If something involves someone that you said “hey leave me alone”, you probably shouldn’t decide to involve yourself in any of their business either. Common fucking sense I think.

But to watch as the rabid cat in the room goes about slandering people she does not know and that have not done anything or said anything to her personally on very public forums. And while the rabid cat has yelled “Hey I have rabies best not mess with me!” to a specific list of cats, then continues to attempt to engage all the SAME cats that she’s made clear to that she has the rabies (though don’t let the photo above fool you, I don’t believe rabid cats ever apologize or take accountability for their part in anything, “they is not sorry” and don’t admit any fault).

Guess what? Most cats don’t want rabies, they have other shit to worry about like the kittens of their own, and you know things far more important than the rabid cat that keeps coming around. We all know eventually the rabies is going to eat the rabid cat alive from the inside out, it’s just a matter of waiting for it to happen.

Ever wonder why Dramas and Reality TV are so hot? Cause people find it entertaining. Plain and simple. Some to higher degrees than others, but if the enjoyment/entertainment factor didn’t exist, we wouldn’t see so much of that crap on TV, anymore than we see it in life, we’d all be shiny happy people holding hands.

When one cat in the room doesn’t like you, chances are it’s just a personality clash. When 80 of the cats don’t, it’s probably time to find a mirror and check if you’re foaming at the mouth.

I don’t claim to be innocent, I’m a mo-fo woman, and when the opportunity arises, occasionally, I find it just as fun as the next girl to jump on the catty bus, within the confines and comfort of my own clique of cats, I don’t however decide that I’m going to attack every cat that walks past me that I don’t like. I might talk shit about the cat because I don’t agree with how the cat behaves, but I’m smart enough to spot the rabid ones.

Am I proud of myself to say that I can be just as catty as the next girl? No, but I’m also not afraid to look in the mirror and have my reality check, and guess what? My mouth is foam free.

I have done my part to ensure the survival of female kind, but I’ve also done my part to ensure I’ve kept my shots up to date and I don’t go about acting insane and catching the rabies. It doesn’t require a psychiatric professional to recognize passive aggressive behavior in people, anymore than it requires a vet to recognize rabies in a cat.

(and yes in that snarky “I-am-proud-to-be-a-woman-way” this blog post is very intentionally passive aggressive, which I think actually makes it not passive aggressive since I’m aware that is how I’m acting and straight up owning up to it).

How is it that you deserve my Loyalty but I don’t deserve yours?

Posted on 03/12/2013 by AprilDoyal

So it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything, bad me. I seem to get caught up in silly things lately and as a result end up neglecting my blogs. But today I had a thought about loyalty programs. You know, those ‘enter a code or save this garbage we send you’ things that companies are so big on these days?

And it made me think about coca-cola’s loyalty program. I will be the first to admit I’m a total coke whore (if by coke whore you mean I’m a snob that refuses to drink any other caramel colored carbonated beverage).

Which made me think about loyalty programs in general, I thought back as far as I can recall, and I think the first individual brand I recall doing a loyalty program was Marlboro. My friend’s mom in Jr high saved all her bar codes for points to send in for prizes. Which lead me to the conclusion coca-cola is in fact a drug, why would they follow in the foot steps of Marlboro if they weren’t?

But coca-cola takes it a step further. In the day and age of websites and digital devices, they’ve plotted to make it harder for you to enter your codes, limiting you to a total accumulation in a week of 120 points. Which I am sure is fine and dandy if you’re one of those people that schedules point entry into your calendar and religiously remembers to return each week before 12pm on Monday. But the majority of us don’t fall in this category.

We want the rewards, but having to remember to come back every week to get 120 measley points (that at most is a few entries into a sweepstakes you’ll never win or a 20 ounce drink coupon) well that’s just ridiculous. Remember how I said they take it a step further? Your points expire! If you don’t come back within a certain amount of time you loose all the points you’ve accumulated. So they expect you to be loyal to them as a brand/company but their loyalty is limited to 120 points a week that expire.

To date, I’ve lost a buku of points because apparently having a stack of points that reaches the top of a cabinet in my house doesn’t qualify as being loyal enough for coca cola’s loyalty program because I fail to remember that the most important thing in life should be going and entering my 120 points each week. Silly me, as I should know that entering my points and showing my loyalty to coca-cola is far more important than doing things like spending time with my family or cooking dinner.

Is it not loyal enough that I am willing to amass what is equal to garbage stacking up in my house that I not loose my points? Why can they not make it where if you forget a week the next week you can enter twice as many points? Because they want you back every week. Cocky sons of bitches know people like me exist. People that don’t want another cold carbonated beverage, people that want the chance to at least get something solid in return for the mass amounts of money they have spent over the years on one company’s product.

So today I say fuck you coca-cola, you can keep your piddly rewards and I won’t help your numbers by going back to your site when I remember or have time by entering my points any longer. If you’re not loyal enough to me as a consumer to let me keep the points I’ve remembered to enter, then I’m not loyal enough to go back.

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Gun Control, again this guy is too smart for words

Posted on 01/17/2013 by AprilDoyal

Even more points and another great perspective on the entire issue of mass shooting and gun control. Thank you Sam for sharing this video with me I was absolutely moved by every word this man had to say. To be honest the only thing I can really add to this is TRUTH.

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Seriously, Gun Control?

Posted on 01/17/2013 by AprilDoyal

I get people are freaking out about guns right now, there have been enough crazy ass shootings in the past year to make anyone want to reconsider gun control. The problem is though we have a constitutional right to bear arms, and as an american I am outraged that the issue is even up again. I know I tend to try to keep from being too serious. But I also tend to be the kind of person that takes protection of our rights as Americans very seriously.

An essential right of all citizens of the United States, the right to keep and bear arms.

You would think, my family in particular, would be in favor of gun control. Last May Jay, my husband’s brother, was murdered by guns. This past week, my cousin took her own life with a gun. Lets be honest here though, Guns are not the problem, people are. A flawed legal system is.

This is just like another big political debacle that we face in this country, abstinence.

If we had even one smart politician in Washington we would be pushing for EDUCATION on these two subjects, not abstinence, we would be in a far better position than we are now. Our country has the highest teenage pregnancy rate, not because we have kids that are hornier than any other country but because we refuse to teach them how to prevent pregnancy.

The same goes with guns. If we would take a stand that Guns shouldn’t be controlled by our government but that we should teach people proper safety and usage of guns then maybe we wouldn’t be dealing with the epidemic that we are in the greatest nation in the world. Trying to force abstinence of firearms on a country that has a right to bear arms is not the right way to do things, anymore than telling a bunch of hormone driven kids that the only way to do things is to avoid sex.

As children, my father made me and my sisters take hunter safety courses. In these classes we were taught about respecting weapons. The proper way to use them. Have I grown up and become a killer? Have my sisters? no. We are still the same as we would have been only we know that firearms are to be respected.

Just take a look at this guide provided by the Texas Wildlife and parks department. http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/outdoor-learning/hunter-education/online-course/firearms-and-ammunition-1 Safety is the number one thing that is promoted.

Self Protection is another thing that really needs to be considered. Take what happened in Georgia recently, where a mother used her firearm to protect herself and her children from a burglar that broke into their home. http://amarillo.com/news/latest-news/2013-01-09/georgia-woman-shoots-intruder-5-times This is exactly the kind of reason why we have the right to bear arms. Had she not had access to her weapon, what might have happened to her and her kids? I personally don’t want to imagine it.

The best way to prevent unwanted pregnancies is to teach our kids about birth control, and the best way to control guns is to teach them the proper use of them.

Teaching abstinence is another way of saying we’re teaching ignorance, the same goes with wanting to control guns, all that does is teach ignorance and put the power in the hands of criminals.

Anyway that is my two cents, would love to hear yours.

Yazmin Izquierdo, Samantha Martin, Melissa Marin Subia, Ruby Dunn Owens, Ben J. Arguijo, Jannett Dunn Evans, Justin Raburn, Carol Jean Galenbeck liked this post

Saying Hello to 2013

Posted on 01/01/2013 by AprilDoyal

As I write, there is just an hour left of 2012. It’s a year I won’t miss. It’s been difficult on so many levels. My hope is for a 2013 that shines so brightly the darkness of 2012 seems but a distant memory.

I try really hard not to set resolutions. I know I’ve said this before, but resolutions are made to be broken. I set goals, things to work towards. Goals have a point, and you can create a plan to reach them.

My depression in 2012 ate up or erased from my memory the vast majority of the goals i had set for 2012. I honestly cannot say that I met even one of them.

My goals for 2013 are pretty simple in reality. I want to be a better mom. I’m not sure exactly what that entails but I want my kids to be proud of me and proud to call me mom.

I have set a goal to be more feminine. I want to look in the mirror and feel good about myself both inside and out. Fix my hair more often, color it less often.

I’ve set a goal to focus on doing more videos in 2013. I hope to do at least 2 videos a month. That is a pretty lofty goal for me since I honestly can’t say that I even did 1 a quarter last year.

I’ve also set a goal to blog more frequently. I hope to do at least 2 posts a week. I don’t know what they will be on, probably random shit that pops in my head. And while 2 posts a week may not seem much, I also have 3 active blogs, so that’s technically 6 posts a week, almost a daily post. I averaged 9 a month in 2012, so 2013 I’m hoping to almost triple my posting before the end of the year. Problem is I usually start out strong then as the year progresses I get lazy and don’t get nearly as much done as I had hoped to.

and now it is 2013. So here is to a 2013 we will all love and enjoy happy new year to each of you and I hope that 2013 brings wonder and joy to your life.

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Beauty Virgin: Favorite beauty products of the moment

Posted on 12/28/2012 by AprilDoyal

So I’m kind of a beauty freak, by that I mean I’ve never really concerned myself much with it at all. You could say I’m a bit like madonna when it comes to make up, okay what I mean by that is I’m like a virgin, discovering make up for the first time at the ripe age of 35.

While I know my little black bag obsession has its downsides, it has also introduced me to an entire world of looking pretty. I’ve discovered things like Ipsy and the beauty insider club at Sephora. I absolutely have learned more about beauty and learning to reflect the inner beauty on the outside in the last 6 months than I have in my entire life.

I’m not saying I’m an expert by any means, there are still so many things that I am completely oblivious to. But finding products that are worth using, and that work well is a completely new concept for this Beauty Virgin.

So here are a few of my favorite things at the moment, and what I love most about them:

Rockaholic by TIGI Dirty Secret Dry Shampoo

I have very fine, dry hair. As a result of this I cannot wash my hair as frequently as I may like. Step in Dry Shampoo. Dry Shampoo is a great product, it not only helps to absorb the excess oil in your hair, it adds body and volume. I’ve tried a number of different dry shampoo products but this one by TIGI is by far my favorite thus far.

Sephora eye brow kit

On top of having fine dry hair, I have hair that grows stupid fast. Like insanely stupid fast. And this includes my eyebrows. It’d be ridiculously expensive for me to get them threaded or waxed consistently (I’d need to do it every 4 days) and as if that isn’t bad enough waxing and threading both give me severe migraine headaches and actually bruise the sensitive skin around my eyes. Maybe eventually my face would grow stronger and not look so beaten up, but since I’m not willing to try that route, I needed to find a reliable brow kit to use.

This kit from sephora is great. It has 3 brow templates for shaping your brow, a gel to ‘draw’ the template on, tweezers to pull the hairs outside of the gel drawing, a powder for defining the brow after it’s been shaped, and a setting gel for finishing off the eyebrows. The first ‘plucking’ took me about an hour but now the maintenance is a minute or two at max, even with my super fast hair growth. And I really never had a clue what a difference actually ‘coloring in’ your brows could make to the overall finished appearance of your face. It has really opened my eyes (both literally and metaphorically) to how dramatic a difference even the smallest thing can make to your appearance.

Tarte Clean Slate poreless foundation primer

I have to admit, at first I had no clue why the hell anyone would need to add an extra step of putting something on their face before their makeup and after their moisturizer. It seemed silly and downright stupid to me that primer was even in existence.

So, in my very first ever sephora purchase, I bought this little tarte sample kit to give it a try and try to figure out why on earth I would need to use it. First and foremost, I have to say it glides on the skin like silk. It feels amazing. Very light and once it’s ‘dry’ you don’t even know it’s there.

Primer has 3 primary purposes that I can see:

1. smoothing the complexion, it fills and smooths the skin, masking things like pores.

2. brightening the complexion. Some are formulated to brighten the complexion, and they work well. they add a highlight affect below your foundation that gives your face a more natural glow.

3. extending the longevity of your foundation. I’m not saying that putting on makeup is like painting a wall, but in a sense it is, you get smoother nicer color and finish when you prime before painting, and when it comes to ‘painting’ the image that your face is clear and radiant, a primer really helps both with the overall finish as well as the longevity of the foundation on your skin.

Meet Matt from The Balm matte eyeshadow

Meet Matt from The Balm is a great eye shadow. I got this sample in my Ipsy bag for November. This shadow in particular has a great matte finish and adds a natural finish to your eye shadow. It doesn’t glimmer or shine it’s more of a naked finish eye shadow, for a nice natural look that isn’t flamboyant or in your face.

As someone that hasn’t worn a ton of makeup in her life, I prefer the soft matte finish of a matte eye shadow, and the pigmentation in this is heavy, so a little goes a long way.

Ulta Extreme wear lip stain

I’ve been leary of lip stains, of course being a beauty virgin, I have to admit that it kind of scared the crap out of me the idea that I might stain my entire face some funky weird color. I’ve also worried with my age (and I hate admitting that my skin is getting older) about stain really accenting the crevices in my lips.

I’ve used this with a lip primer, and top it off with a plumping lip gloss. The color lasts well, and with a lip primer and plumping gloss, the worry of accenting lip crevices is minimal. It literally scared the shit out of me looking at it in the tube, but it doesn’t go on the face blood red, it’s a nice rosy lip color, you can layer it on for a darker stain, or just 1 layer for a kiss of color. This is why I include this product in my favorites, the idea that you can achieve a number of different colors with one product puts this in my list of products worth trying.

Urban Decay De Slick makeup setting spray

How silly right, the idea of spraying a liquid over your makeup when you’ve worked so hard to try and make your face look great? It seemed strange to me too, but again I got this great sample from an order from sephora and had to try it out.

I found if I do a light spray after my moisturizer and before my primer and again after I’ve “completed my look” this spray really helps to keep shine to a minimum and ensure that my makeup stays in place till I’m ready to take it off.

I use this very sparingly, just 1 spray.

Urban decay 24/7 Eyeliner in zero

One thing I’ve hated, especially with getting older, is eyeliner. I can’t imagine pulling at the skin around your eyes continually could possibly be good for them. Regardless of your age, doing this repetitively over time surely is to contribute to crows feet and fine lines around your eyes. In essence, because of this fact (that I may possibly have just made up in my own head as an excuse or reason to be lazy and not to wear eyeliner), I have avoided it in general.

Most drug store brand eye liners are very waxy and really pull at your skin. I’ve tried liquids and hadn’t been any happier with them than I was with pencil eye liners. I’d resorted to the use of an eyeliner brush and either powder or cream eye liner for the accentuation of my lash line. That is, until I got my hands on the Urban Decay eyeliner pencil.

I really didn’t expect it to be any different or any better than any other eyeliner out there. But it’s like they took cream eye liner and put it in a pencil. It is so soft and smooth it literally glides on the skin without pulling at your eyes any more than a soft eyeliner brush does. This is an expensive investment for eyeliner at $19 for 1 pencil, but when it comes down to it, the lack of pulling at your eye and potentially causing early signs of aging, it’s worth every penny.

Benefit Cosmetics Mascara They’re real

I wouldn’t suggest this mascara if you live somewhere where it is hot or humid all the time. Living in Texas, I do have to say it’s a great late fall/winter/early spring mascara.

It gives an amazing thick look to your eyelashes that literally emulates the look of faux lashes without the glue or pain in pulling them off.

However, that said, if it’s humid or too hot, it seems to get sticky and can feel heavy on your eyes. I am still looking for a mascara that I can use more than seasonally that will add fullness and length to my lashes without being limited to cooler weather.

DDF amplifying serum

This serum is great. Very liquid but it seriously improves the overall texture of your skin. I could see wearing this on a good skin day with nothing else and feeling fabulous.

Very Irrésistible Givenchy L’Intense

Fragrance is such an important part of beauty and feeling beautiful. This has lead me to sample and try 100′s of different perfumes. I had an all time favorite, that is no longer produced. While I have looked and looked for it again, I realize that wearing a perfume that has been out of production for over 10 years may not be the best idea (scent changes with time).

Perfume changes throughout the day, the undertones come out the longer you have been wearing it. It also reacts with your personal body chemistry, so just because something smells amazing on someone else, doesn’t mean it won’t smell like ass on you.

That’s been my problem with perfumes, smelling like ass when they smelt great on someone else. I am also smell sensitive. I can become very moody very fast simply at the smell of something. Anything too strong will irritate me, and often infuriate me (my family, God bless them, can attest to what a bitch I turn into when it comes to smells).

In the past 6 months, I have sampled/tried 80 different perfumes looking for one that was just right for my personal chemistry. Givenchy came in number one. I have found 3 or 4 others that I will definitely add to my collection, but this one will be my go-to scent for day to day use.

Laura Mercer Flawless Skin Face polish

This product from Laura Mercer is great. It’s a scrub I guess, at least that’s the best way I can explain it. It’s rough and helps to remove the little dry skin patches that can cake up makeup in them. You definitely don’t want to apply this on dry skin, you need a damp face to keep it from ‘hurting’ your face (again, I have super sensitive skin so if you don’t it might not matter).

I tend to get little dry skin patches on my nose and cheek bones, where I have small flakes of skin that I don’t necessarily notice until AFTER I’ve applied my makeup. This really helps to smooth my skin and eliminate those little patches of skin.

L’oreal Paris Magic Smooth foundation

This whipped foundation is fantastic. I have to admit I was scared when I opened the jar the first time. The color looked so far off from the color of my own skin, even though I had thought I had insured that I bought the proper color. While in the jar the color seems off, once it is on the skin it really blends so well, goes on super smooth and lasts all day.

I like this best when I wear it with either urban decay primer or Mirabella primer. It does not pair well with the Tarte primers. It is light weight but offers great coverage and really gives my face a nice finish without looking overly made up.

I am still on a search for another foundation, I want a high definition foundation to use when I do you tube videos. I’ll update when I find a great one.

Make Up forever Sens eyes makeup remover

So in wearing more makeup, I realize the benefit of having a good makeup remover. This one from Make Up Forever is great for removing eye makeup. It does great at removing mascara as well as eyeliner after it has set. It is gentle and great even for the most sensitive of skin.

Mirabella Prime Face and Eye Primer

This primer literally turns your skin into silk. A tiny bit goes a long way. It is a clear primer and doesn’t discolor your skin, it does an amazing job of smoothing the appearance of your skin and even does an amazing job of helping to mask blemishes.

I don’t like admitting it, but stress does something really ugly to me. I suffer from the dreaded issue of fever blisters. If I get overly stressed out they come up and haunt me. There is nothing that will make you feel uglier and like a bigger freak than a big sore on your face. I typically want to just crawl under the cover and hide from the world until they go away. They are painful and really hurt, and mentally it feels like I have this giant growth on my face that the world looks at and judges me for.

Mirabella primer in conjunction with a concealer from benefit cosmetics really helped to mask this unsightly flaw in my face. I’ve never actually put on makeup when I had a fever blister and felt like I would be comfortable enough to be in front of a camera, much less be in a position where I was exposed to the public. But this combination really did an amazing job of covering my blemish and making me feel as pretty on the outside as I know my heart is inside. That alone gives Mirabella a 10 rating from me.

Anyway, I will probably talk a bit more about beauty here in the future. It’s a topic that I have a great interest in at the moment and something I think many women struggle with. Because not all of us wake up looking amazing, and many of us struggle from day to day in finding a look that not only works with our complexion, but that has the ability to make it through the day.

If you have a favorite make up product that you want to tell me about, please do below! I really want to explore and find new things to enhance my experience as a chick.

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Did J.R. kill Twinkie?

Posted on 11/24/2012 by AprilDoyal

As I sit her reminiscing over being a little girl and watching Dallas with my mom and dad, I think surely there was at least one time that I did so while enjoying a Twinkie. And it saddens me to think that these two icons have fallen in the same week. I hope this isn’t a sign of what is to come.

Did we really loose two american icons within a week?

How could it be that Hostess (the makers of Twinkie) could fall in the category of Too Big to Fail, but bank of America wasn’t? I find myself more than slightly disgusted that they worked so hard to save banks that like to make you bend over and take unpleasant things where the sun doesn’t shine, yet an american classic like Hostess was not offered a thing to save it’s ass. Given the options between the two, I’d far have preferred a twinkie presented to me than anything that BoA had to offer.

I’d also rather have seen twinkie get a bail out. Our taxes were spent to give bail outs to companies that like to take advantage of their customers, not to the companies that bring us joy and remind us of simpler times.

Had the $45,000,000,000 that Bank of America received in their bail out actually gone to the hard working Americans (314+ million of us) we would have each had $143 to spend in our economy. May not seem like much, but with the average cost of a box of twinkies being around $3, we could have bought 47 boxes of twinkies for each man woman and child in the United States.

And given rumors that twinkies could survive a nuclear Holocaust, wouldn’t it make sense to save something that might be the only edible remaining thing (aside from cockroaches, which I can’t imagine anyone in their right mind choosing to eat over a twinkie) than to give banks more power to rape the american public? (though since the news hit that twinkie may be no more, you can find them online to purchase anywhere from $17 to $22.50 a box), so had we all bought our 47 boxes of twinkies with just the bail out money from BoA, we would have seen a gross return of $928.25 each. Talk about a savings plan, I can’t think of a CD or savings account that could get me a 649% profit margin on average, makes the 2.5% that BoA offers seem stupid doesn’t it?

Which leads me to wonder about the J.R. situation. Today, Larry Hagman passed away at 81 years old. He and twinkie were both very well known cowboys and icons of a generation. Was there a competition there we were not aware of between these two?

I wonder if J.R. played a part in the death of twinkie (yes I’m aware that twinkie now sits on life support awaiting a ruling from a judge). Or is it possible that Twinkie played a part in the death of J.R.

Twinkie is 82 years old, so one year older than J.R. I could see a little vengeance of competition for the younger cowboys from the year older Twinkie. Did J.R. steal our hearts as our cowboy of choice when Dallas came to be (and then came to be again?). I do not know if Mr. Hagman enjoyed twinkies, but could it be if he did that they played a part in his death. These are the answers that we will never know.

This time, sadly, I know J.R. will not be resurrected. I don’t imagine his death is a conspiracy. But the death of Twinkie might be. I pray for the families of both, as I know the effects are wide spread. And the question that has eluded a generation finally has an answer, it was cancer that killed J.R., it wasn’t twinkie after all. I hope the question that haunts this generation, for the rest of time isn’t “who killed Twinkie?”

Ben J. Arguijo, Marcus Owens liked this post

Hobby Lobby and Plan B

Posted on 11/20/2012 by AprilDoyal

I have to admit, that in general I try to remain light here. I fail miserably sometimes at that goal, and this is one of those times where I see the light won’t necessarily be one of those things that is light.

For me, often things are hard when it comes to having an opinion, because 9 times out of 10 I can see both sides of a story/situation. This is not the exception to this, I can see both sides.

The other morning my husband, who knew better, left the TV on a news channel. At that moment they began talking about Hobby Lobby (one of my favorite stores) and they were going before congress on the issue of not providing coverage for a certain type of birth control because it went against their religious beliefs.

I am a firm believer in religious beliefs, an situations of faith. However, how can a company be a religious body? The moment that a person or group of people decides to become a company don’t they forfeit their collective beliefs for the $ that they receive from the general public, that may or may not share their same moral, religious or political standpoint?

I mean, unless that company can ensure that each and every employee that works for them also shares the same belief system that they do, do they really have the right to push their moral and/or religious beliefs on the personal lives of their employees? Doesn’t this go against the very foundation that our country was built upon in Freedom of Religion? If a policy is put in place that is based upon the foundation of a religious belief, then that policy is in direct contradiction to the rights of every American to freedom of religion. And in regards to all employees sharing the same religious belief system, that would go against EoE regulations.

The second any person decides to form a company, they do not have the right to press their religious beliefs on their employees. And if they were allowed to, wouldn’t this open the door to a company being able to fire someone for having a different religious belief? Again, completely going against the foundation upon which our country was built?

And beyond just the moral implications here, if they are allowed to deny insurance coverage for a particular type of birth control, what doors are opened for other companies to fight? That they don’t want to cover depression medication because they don’t believe that depression is a real issue? That rehab shouldn’t be a covered service? That cavities shouldn’t be covered because they are typically the result of neglect? Or how about they don’t believe any medical procedure and/or medication should be covered because their belief is that nature should be allowed to take its course? At what point would this come to an end?

I do not believe any company has the right to try and control what goes on in their employees lives beyond the time that they clock out at the end of the day.

Is Hobby lobby willing to pay full maternity leave for the women that are denied medical coverage for something they needed? Are they willing to fork over some of the billion dollar revenue each year to ensure that these children are raised right? If they want to take a moral stance and deny women the right to the Plan B coverage then they need to be willing to take the moral stance to provide the lives these children deserve.

Plan B is not just emergency contraceptive, it is sometimes taken by people that had tried other contraceptive methods that failed (such as a broken condom). In these instances, (as well as any other) shouldn’t these women have a right to continue the effort to prevent an unwanted pregnancy? Should someone else’s religious beliefs be tossed on a woman who may or may not agree with their religious beliefs? Denying them the right to Plan B is the same as asking some of them to go to an abortion clinic.

And while I believe that individuals and religious groups have a right to say what can and cannot be done within their organizations even to an extent outside of the hours in which people publicly participate, a for-profit company has no right to say what goes on in the lives of their employees. Our nation is a melting pot, and any company with more than a handful of employees is also a melting pot, and should respect the beliefs of their employees not just the beliefs of their CEO’s.

If a medication is not against the law, and does not affect someone’s work ethic or abilities, a company has no right or say so in the personal medical lives of their employees, period.

Mandy Marie Powell liked this post