Hi! I haven't done a Monthly Favorites post in quite some time; I think the last time I did one was back in November. Part of the reason is because in terms of my personal life/health, they've been on a decline so I wasn't making an effort to try out new things. The other part was because I've been focusing on the design elements for so long that the smaller stuff, like the Monthly Favorites, kinda slipped through the cracks. But I've finally got a few things to talk about so let's get started!
Carmex Strawberry Lip Balm, Maybelline Fit Me! Matte and Poreless Liquid Foundation
The end of winter usually has some kind of shit in store for me. Unfortunately, it's usually an infection of some kind, a cold or an allergy flare-up. When that happens, for some reason my lips either get a lot drier than they normally do during the winter, or I get a build-up of dead skin on them, which also dries them out. Regular Chapstick seems to sit on top of my lips rather than sinking in so I go for either Blistex or Carmex instead. It helps me year-round, but I use it the most during the colder months and it keeps my lips from looking like Tyrone's (shout out to all the Chappelle's Show fans LOL). While I was down with an infection last week, Carmex was the only thing on my face other than Vicks, ointment and vaseline. lol The strawberry flavor is aight, but I prefer the original.
I'm going to talk more about the Fit Me! foundation in a review that should be up within the next couple of weeks so I won't go into too much detail here, but I've tried this a couple of times this week and I'm in love with it so far. I think it's replaced my longtime fave, the CoverGirl Clean Oil Control foundation. It's also replaced my CG Smoothers BB Cream because the formula is light enough for me to get away with using it for low-maintenance looks. It's been great on my skin so far and I'm looking forward to using it more often.
No Rest for the Wicked by Dane Cobain
I was contacted by the author last month to read this book in exchange for a review, and I ended up loving the book. This is another book I'm going to go into more detail about in a separate review, but it was a great read. No Rest for the Wicked is Dane's debut novel, a supernatural thriller about a group of murderous supernatural beings, or Angels, exacting their form of revenge on numerous citizens of a small town. A disillusioned priest with some secrets of his own teams up with a young businessman to try and figure out what the Angels' end goal is. I really enjoyed this book, but you'll hear more about it in my full review.
Snow Lotus Flower, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
Snow Lotus Flower is a K-drama that I found on Netflix earlier in the month, and I fell in love. Two people find themselves afflicted by strange dreams, but while the man's dream seems to focus on romance, the woman's is more of a nightmare, as it always begins with her dying to save the man she loved. These lovers from 1000 years ago are reunited in current times, with the present paralleling the past in helping them figure out who the other is, but they also have obstacles in their way in the form of old/new enemies and trying to change the unhappy fate of their past love. I love mystical shit like that, so I ate this series up. I believe the English name for the series is Lucid Dream.
I've been watching MFMM for a couple of years now, and in a move that surprised me, my sister ended up obsessed with the series when she watched it with me earlier this month. She was hanging out in my room, which is random enough in itself, and I happened to be watching Poirot. She liked the whole murder-mystery concept but I know that Poirot isn't for everyone, so I put on MFMM because the format is a bit lighter and that was all she wrote. It was fun watching the series again through new eyes and already knowing which parts were going to piss off my sister or make her happy. We finally finished the third series last night, and it reminded me that we still don't know if there'll be a fourth one, so um....I'm still waiting on some confirmation for Series 4, Australia!
Skyrim: Legendary Edition for PS3, Virtual Town for Android, Megapolis
I finally got that damn Legendary Edition as a late birthday gift this month, and it's the only game I've played since I got it. There's nothing notable about the game that I haven't already said, but it's been on my mind so much that I had to put it on the list this month.
Virtual Town is a fairly new game from Last Day of Work, the folks behind the Virtual Families and Virtual Villagers games and it's probably the most developed and thorough game of the three. I'll be reviewing it next week sometime, but the gist is that you play mayor of an abandoned city and are tasked with the responsibility of bringing the town back to its former glory. It takes up a good amount of time to maintain and kills my phone battery in the process, but it's been a lot of fun to play so far.
Snapchat
Nope, I'm still not actually posting anything to Snapchat. But I still like lurking other people's snaps. I already use Twitter for TNTs on Thursday so I usually don't bother with it otherwise, and getting on Instagram reminds me of both how infrequently I use it and how much I always end up missing while I'm gone. I don't think my life will ever be interesting enough nor will I ever have enough readers to warrant needing Snapchat as a blogger, but there's no saying I can't lurk on those who do. LOL
I've been looking for some things for March's theme for the month, so I've been on Pinterest quite a bit over the past couple of weeks. There was absolutely no surprise involved when I discovered that it is still the place where to-do lists and blog schedules go to die. Several to-do lists have already fallen at Pinterest's feet, and I've been delaying the rest of my research that requires me to use the site because I know it'll happen again.
Over on ATV, I hosted a Black History Month Spotlight and for many of the subjects I chose for the daily Spotlights, I found the information I needed from a site called Black Past. It's an excellent resource if you're looking to find out about Black achievements, notable figures in Black history, or comprehensive timelines of notable events. It was an invaluable reference point for me this past month, so I had to include it here.
Spring cleaning, candles, soaps and body butters
Because the theme on both of my blogs this month is spring cleaning, I've had to immerse myself in everything spring related in order to find the material I needed for my posts. Here, it'll be a mix of DIY projects, tips and tricks, so I was looking for material that I could use to build a good post. Over on ATV, I'm focusing on old school spring cleaning tips, tricks and hacks, which left me with the challenge of finding some that have held up over time.
A friend of mine talked to me recently about trying to start a side hustle of making our own natural candles, soaps, lotions and perfumes. I've been dabbling in making my own candles for a couple of years now, but I've been curious about how to make the others so I've been researching the different base recipes for each of them.
Children's medicine, Black History Month, puzzles, breakfast recipes, coffee drinks, DIY cleaners, apartments
Per usual for this time of year, I recently went down with a respiratory infection/chest cold that turned into a sinus infection within days, and children's medicine saved my life. lol Adult medicines both wreck havoc on my guts and are too strong for me (but I can down prescription and OTC ibuprofen without blinking, wtf?), so I have to take children's medicine when I catch anything. I now have an entire shelf in my bathroom cabinet dedicated to various children's medicines. But it helped me get better a lot sooner than I would have had I not taken anything, so I'll deal with the mocking.
Black History Month isn't something that I usually go out of my way to celebrate quite like I did this year, but I just finished a month-long promotion on ATV to celebrate a few unsung heroes of Black History. It was one of the most educating experiences I've had in some time and I'm thinking about making it an annual addition to my blog's lineup.
Both my sister and my uncle got me jigsaw puzzles for my birthday last month, and they've sent me on a bit of a spree since then. Many people, myself included at one time, find jigsaw puzzles to be frustrating wastes of time, but as I've gotten older I discovered that I actually quite enjoy them. They're challenging but a lot of fun for me to do and much like coloring, I find them to be relaxing rather than frustrating. I can't wait until I'm all caught up with everything else to get started on the increasing stack of puzzles waiting for me.
Breakfast is both my favorite meal of the day and the subject of a business idea I'd like to pitch in the upcoming future, so this month has been about buckling down and getting some of the details hammered out. It's never not fun to look for breakfast recipes, but looking at recipes for purposes other than shoving the end result down my gullet is satisfying for another reason entirely. The same goes for coffee drinks; I've been teaching myself about the coffee world for about 10 years now and I still haven't learned all there is to know yet. This goes hand in hand with the breakfast recipes and I'm trying to research everything I need to know so I can develop the items I want.
I'm going to be doing a post this weekend as the entry to a Spring Cleaning series that I started, and the first one focuses on various DIY cleaners and whether or not they work. I don't mind cleaners with chemicals in them, but I also enjoy the ability to make a cleaner with absolutely no chemicals that does the same job. Affordability isn't really a factor; I just wanted to see which of the recipes I could honestly recommend for those who'd like to try their hand at chemical-free cleaners.
I'm still on the quest to move out and get my own place, but it's hard doing that on a fixed disability income and having a family to take care of at the same time. I promised myself at 20 and every year after that that I'd be in my own place by 30. In less than a year, that deadline will be on me and of all the promises I've ever made to myself, it's of the utmost importance to me that I keep this one.
What documentaries did I watch this month? Spanish Lake
This documentary premiered on Netflix recently, and I'd been actively avoiding it until last weekend. Small confession: I haven't actually finished watching Spanish Lake. I have a really hard time with racially charged documentaries, mainly because the subject itself isn't an issue I need to be educated on. It hits a little too close to home for me, literally and figuratively. I've dealt with racism, both subtle and overt, for just about my entire life, and it's never too far from my mind. Watching a documentary about a bunch of ignorant people doesn't rank too high on the list of things I find entertaining, but I thought it'd be something that I could challenge myself to finish. Despite my own struggles with finishing it, however, I do still recommend the documentary because it does raise some intriguing lines of inquiry that you could discuss with others. Films like Spanish Lake both provide insight to those who would still like to insist that racism isn't a thing, and it gives a painful, uncomfortable glimpse into the opinions of those who'd really rather not have us around.
I'm working on trying new things for March. I say this often, but I mean it this month. I always mean it, I just don't get to follow through very often. This time I'm going to try to make sure that I do. I hope you enjoyed this post and I'll see you soon!
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