Widgapae

Monday, December 31, 2018

2018 in Review

I should post at least once in 2018, right? ;-)

This was a good and bad year - the same can probably be said of most years.

We said good-bye to our sweet Clyde-dog on October 8, which was by far the worst part of the year. He was almost 14 years old and he was so very loved. He still is. I feel some peace knowing he and Cus are together, waiting for us in Heaven.

We also had some great experiences in 2018. We adopted Jim, our Great Dane mix puppy, on July 7 from {San Antonio Great Dane Rescue}. He is timid and and shy, but filled with love and excitement for life. He was 80 lbs when we adopted him - he's probably close to 100 now, but I don't think he'll grow much more, though he is still quite slim.

We were able to adopt a giant dog because we bought a house! We closed on our home on April 23. It's in San Antonio and we love it. The neighborhood is friendly and walkable. The house is small (for Texas - it's actually over 1700 sq ft) and secure and has everything we wanted. We just spent our first holiday season here and it was warm and lovely.

Our house is on the newer side, so there's not much that has to be done to it. We would like to finish painting all the rooms (everything was stark white when we moved in), and spruce up the kitchen to be a little more our taste, but we can take our time and do it when we feel like it. I love that.

We were able to sell our camper really easily and painlessly (we are so grateful for this) because our decision to sell it overlapped perfectly with a friend needing to buy a temporary home. It was a perfect win-win for all of us, and he's been in it for about 6 months now. He'll be back in his house soon, but he plans to keep it for camping trips with his kids.

We had a family wedding in June. My oldest niece, Danielle, married her sweet fiance-now-husband in a beautiful ceremony up in New England. It was so hot for that part of the country, but the heat couldn't keep us from having so. much. fun.

I got an amazing double dose of family this summer when my youngest niece, Hannah, came to visit us for a week. We had the best time and it was so hard to let her go home.

I'm looking forward to 2019 for a lot of reasons. One of those reasons is that I'm going to be a great-aunt! My niece Renee and her husband are expecting their first baby in the spring and I am so so so excited. I already love going home to visit my family and our new addition will make it even more exciting.

Wishing everyone a happy and safe New Year's Even celebration, and a wonderful 2019!

Sunday, February 19, 2017

Color Analysis: Four Summers

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I discussed {here} that I think my Season is Summer, but there are four Summers that I could be. {Jen Thoden's website} breaks down the four types of Summers really well. They are:

Pure Summer
Tinted Summer
Toned Summer
Shaded Summer

Per Jen, the four Summers are described as follows:

*A note about the photos: If you're thinking that some of these don't seem to match the criteria for the Season they're grouped with, I agree*

Pure Summer
þ ý Hair is likely light brown with an ashy tint. -> Brown, yes. Ashy? I don't think so. See discussion here.
þ Eyes are cool and typically blue.
þ Can wear brightest and coolest colors of summer color palette
þ ý Can’t tolerate warm colors -> I'm not a 100% sure what this means. I have an orange coat that I looooove and think looks great on me. If it's a warm orange (aren't most oranges??), then I don't necessarily agree with this.

Pure Summer celebrities via

Tinted Summer
þ Eyes are light and bright and typically blue
þ ý Skin is pink -> Yes, although I think my skin is pinkish, leaning neutral.
ý Hair is blonde
þ ý Light, cool and bright -> I don't think my overall coloring is "bright."

Tinted Summer celebrities via

Toned Summer
ý Soft and neutral -> I think people with overall neutral coloring means their hair, skin, and eyes are all similarly colored, which isn't true for me.
ý Ashy blonde to brown hair -> I don't think my hair is ashy. See discussion here.
þ Eyes are likely a soft grey, grey-blue or grey-green
ý Overall tone is soft -> I'm not 100% sure what this means
ý Light, neutral and soft

Toned Summer celebrities via

Shaded Summer
þ Hair is typically dark
þ Eyes are soft and cool, like grey, grey-blue or grey-green
þ Skin is neutral
ý Deep and soft -> See my explanation {here}.

Shaded Summer celebrities via

This seems like a close match between Pure Summer and Shaded Summer, but I've got to give it to Pure Summer because of that "deep" description under Shaded Summer. I also think the girl in the top left of the Pure Summer photo has the coloring that's closest to mine of all these people. So I'm calling it: Pure (aka Cool) Summer.

Saturday, February 18, 2017

Student Loan Update

Last year, we paid more than 13 times (!) against the principal of Chris's student loans than we did in 2015. Also, in 2017 so far, we've already paid more against the principal than we did in all of 2015. I discussed our methods {here}.

We're down by almost half from where we started last year. It is such a good feeling!

Friday, February 17, 2017

Color Analysis: Ashy Hair

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The Beauty Department {describes ashy hair} as having a "smoky-looking silver-y sort of color. Doesn’t matter if the hair is super light or super dark because it’s just about the hue that the hair gives off."

Ashy hair tone comes up a lot when {discussing seasonal color analysis}, so I wanted to know if my natural hair color is ashy. I just don't know if it is. It kind of looks like the color of girl's in the middle row all the way to left. But I really don't see anything smoky or silvery about my hair. If anything, I may see some gold-ish, redd-ish undertones.

Any thoughts?!

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Color Seasons: Summer vs. Winter

I've been fascinated with the idea of seasonal color analysis for a long time. A couple of years ago I stumbled on the 12-season color analysis. Using some online quizzes and photos of like-seasoned celebrities, I decided that I was a Bright Spring.

Via

I've been operating under that assumption for quite a while, buying really bright, warm clothes and coloring my hair a warm, dark brown to cover up grays.

Recently, I started reading about the newer 16-season color analysis and realized that I had probably made a mistake in self-identifying as a Bright Spring. Apparently, springs have warm undertones (i.e. yellow-y or peach-y). But I'm pretty sure I have pink undertones. Because of that, I realize that I am most likely a Summer or a Winter. WHAT?!

I found {this website} that has a pretty good quiz and description of the 16 seasons, and I've been using it to try to really narrow down my season. This is what she says about Summers vs. Winters:

Summer’s are LIGHT and COOL. You have pink undertones. Do you have blonde hair with blue eyes? Do you have soft grey eyes with mousy brown hair? Cool blue eyes or green-grey eyes? Ashy brown or blonde hair?

Winter’s are DEEP and COOL. You have olive or blue undertones. Do you have dark hair? Clear blue or violet eyes? Are your eyes cool brown to dark brown? Maybe your eyes are dark cool hazel? If you have dark hair and blue eyes, you are also a winter.

Here's a photo of me from about 9 years ago. I chose it because this was before I started coloring my hair, my hair is long so it's really visible, it was winter, so I don't have even a hint of sun on my skin, and I'm not wearing a lot of makeup. I think this is a pretty good representation of my natural coloring.

Here is a photo from last week. I have a hat on because I don't want my hair to be confusing, but I thought a recent photo was important.

And then here's a close up of my eye to get a good idea of the color.

Ok, so...
þ Light and cool -> I think so. See my discussion on "deepness" below.
þ Pink undertones.
þ ý Blonde hair with blue eyes -> I do have blue eyes but my hair is not blonde, though it was when I was about 7 and under.
þ Soft grey eyes with mousy brown hair->The center portion of my eyes are a grayish blue and I think my natural hair color is mousy brown.
þ Cool blue eyes or green-grey eyes ->Yes, blue eyes that are leaning cool I think.
þý Ashy brown or blonde hair -> I definitely don't have blonde hair and I don't know if my natural color would be considered ashy? {I don't really think so}.

ý Deep and cool -> I don't think my coloring is deep. On {this website}, the author describes deep as having "heavy pigment." My current hair color, though pretty deep and rich, is not my natural color. My skin definitely lacks pigment. My eyes are obviously light.
ý Olive or blue undertones.
þ Dark hair
þ Clear blue or violet eyes -> This one is tough for me. Obviously I don't have violet eyes, but my eyes are blue. I think "clear blue" tends to mean a brighter blue. The outer ring of my eye is much darker. As a general rule, I think they're right in between "clear" and "soft."
ý Cool brown to dark brown eyes
ý Dark cool hazel eyes
þ Dark hair and blue eyes -> This one really throws me off! Even when I don't color my hair, it is technically dark. But I don't really think it's dark enough to push me over into Winter.

Based on these criteria, I'm leaning toward Summer.

There are four types of Summers though, so I'll discuss which specific one I think I am next time.

Sunday, February 12, 2017

How my fun side business gave me an Impostor Syndrome Flare-Up

Flare-up. Cue the herpes jokes...or is that just my weird brain?

I started selling lipstick online because I like the product and I thought it would be fun. I have a regular job that is my actual career, that I went to school for. Yet, this random little hobby-job has ripped open some major anxieties that I've kept tamped down for a loong time and it's really made me think.

When I was in high school, I was class president. I was captain of the volleyball team, and editor of the yearbook. Those roles were all really hard for me, and didn't really provide me with the growth they probably could have because I couldn't see beyond the (bad) stress they made me feel. You can't make everyone happy when you're in a leadership role and I always want to make sure that I'm making everyone happy (believe me, I wish I could not care about this). Instead of focusing on my wins, I focused on my failures. I tend to see things in a very literal, black-or-white, right-or-wrong way, so my 18-year-old self took away from these experiences that I wasn't suited for leadership or decision-making. I'm almost 35 now and I still believe that, even if it's hard to admit. It's meant that, at work, I've just let myself stay comfortable and haven't really pushed to try to manage projects or jump into leadership roles as much as I should, and my {Impostor Syndrome} has stayed pretty well hidden.

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Then, this lipstick. I love this stuff, so I thought it would be fun to sell it and get a discount on it so I can have all. the. colors. I started a Facebook page and kind of assumed there wouldn't be much interest. But there has been! And a normal person would be excited. But not me. Nope, I'm nervous. Nervous that the wait times to get the lipstick are too long and my friends and family will hate me. Worried that they'll buy the lipstick, hate it, and stop loving me (if my sister is reading this now, she's saying "Oh my god, she's nuts!" - she is not wrong :-)). Worried that I bought too much inventory and won't be able to sell it all and then I just suck at life.

I realized when all these fears came bubbling up that I can deal with it like I did when I was in high school, and just close up shop, since I obviously can't deal with even the smallest amount of stress. Or I can try to learn from it. Because, at the end of the day, this lipstick business is not going to affect to my life. It's not my job. No one is going to hate it. My family's not going to stop loving me for any reason, unless I murdered someone or something. They'd probably still love me even then. Even if I did order too much, I'll eventually use it because having more colors is why I started selling it in the first place.

But you know what is going to affect my life? My real job. My career. And if these anxieties are affecting how I approach my hobby-business, I know they're affecting me at work, even if it's more subconsciously than anything else.

At my job, I really prefer when I do work for another Project Manager. Just do the fun, productive stuff. Leave the decision-making, the tough calls, the money issues, and the potential to get into trouble to someone else. This is a very safe position and it's fine, I guess. Not everyone can or wants to be a leader. But the thing is, I really do want to. I like the fast-paced, busy-ness of managing projects. I get bored very easily and I prefer to always be on the go. But I let the fear of all that stuff I just mentioned hold me back. I hate making mistakes and, when you make them as a Project Manager, they're a lot more visible than when you make them as just a regular employee.

When you were a baby you tried to walk and fell down every time. Were you a walking impostor? Who are you to walk!? You can't even do it! It's absurd! - Kyle Eschenroeder

I'm not 100% sure how to get past this. I like {this article that I found on LifeHacker about overcoming Impostor Syndrome}. I think actually getting my thoughts down is a good first step. But what next? Probably the most important thing is to remember that my family loves me no matter what. That is not actually true of my bosses, so I can't use that one at work :-) But I can keep trying to do a good job at everything I'm doing. I can keep working toward the professional certification that I will be ready for next year. I can kill it at the Board position I just took with a professional group here in San Antonio. After that? We'll see. A few baby steps at a time.