Kudos to Maybelline

Flipping through the April issue of Glamour magazine this morning I saw something in an ad that made me happy. Thank you Maybelline for offering a full range of skin colors in your liquid mousse foundation samples. I've always been turned off when I see the ads with samples attached that are of zero use to me.

If I can't try something before I buy it, I'm not going to bother. I've been there, done that with buying makeup, trying it at home and getting frustrated when it doesn't match my skin tone.To be perfectly honest, I don't wear "drugstore" cosmetics like Maybelline and Covergirl is for this exact reason. I have a feeling I'm not alone. So kudos to you for at least giving me the option.


I shouldn't have to subscribe to Ebony or Essence magazines to find the latest trends in skincare and makeup and try them on. It's exclusionary, plain and simple. I get that magazines spend thousands of dollars in research to determine who their target audience is. And, I get that makeup companies want to put their product samples into the hands of someone most likely to buy them. But, perhaps cosmetics companies should spend some of those dollars to find out who's NOT buying, and why.

Hey! Guess What?

I'm going!

I Blame Mommy's Martini for My Splinters

Two weeks ago I helped my son with his first school report. Why first graders need to do reports is beyond me, but I decided to take the opportunity to show him how to do research and write a rough draft. The topic was animals. The students could choose whatever animal they wished and answer questions like, "does your animal migrate?" and "where does your animal live?" For whatever reason Drama Kid chose penguins.

My crazy busy week kept me from taking him to the library to look up reference books so we took the easy way out and printed information from Google searches. Another part of the assignment was to draw pictures of the animal and bring in other pictures of the animal. Not having any Penguin Weekly's lying around I decided to do a craft project (stop laughing!).

Naturally, I turned to my internet luvah and sent a Tweet asking if anyone could think of a project I could do with penguins. I got several good suggestions. Mommy's Martini suggested I put feet and wings on a blown out egg. Since I don't even eat eggs there was no way I was going to put my mouth on a raw one. But, I did like the idea of going three dimensional. When I picked the kid up from school we headed to crafters hell (also known as Michaels) in search of something we could make into a penguin. My thought was to find the styrofoam egg shapes, add penguin parts and googly eyes and call it a day.

But then, my competitive nature and good study habits took over and the word diorama neon flashed in my brain and we had to find just the right thing to make the penguin out of. I started to picture a painted backdrop, cotton for snow and a cute little penguin front and center.

What fun this would be! I'd help the kid with his first school project and we'd bond and have fun over a converted shoebox. Oh how quickly that dream turned into a nightmare!

First, let me say to Michaels: It seems kinda obvious to me that the early evening hours, the ones right after school where kids are telling their parents about the big projects they have due? Would be the appropriate time to have more than four people on staff. And what's up with the missing apostrophe?


After helping another parent find the stencils, I practically tackled a guy and begged him to help me flesh out my idea. He was an angel! He walked all over the aisles with us pointing out various diorama makings and offering suggestions. Which we didn't take, but it was still very nice of him to take the time.


It was Drama Kid who happened to find the main component for the diorama. We went to to discount aisle (foam egg shapes are $3.50 a piece!) and found puzzles made from thin wood. I told him to get searching and he dug through the bins and found the penguin set.

The puzzle made two penguins, an adult and a baby, and when put together would be three dimensional. The wood could be painted (yeah, right) or colored with markers. The picture looked simple enough and for $2 the price was exactly right. After an hour in Crafters Hell we were ready to go.


We get home a little after 6:00, I assemble the shoe box, paint and cotton balls, start dinner and open the puzzle to read the directions. And realize I'm totally screwed. What looked so simple from the picture turned out to be a project for someone with an engineering degree.



The directions were a joke, the pieces left wood shavings all over and I had to sand some down to keep from getting splinters.

Fast forward two hours and a few frustrated Tweets and it's time to get the kid in bed and the stupid penguin is only half put together. I'm totally ready to give up, but then we'd not be completing the assignment and the nerd in me just couldn't do it. Hubby did help me with the last few pieces (there was one left over) and the damn thing was finished long after the kid had fallen asleep.
Before I had a kid, I said I didn't want to be one of 'those' parents who did their kids' entire homework projects for them. Fail! But, it wasn't Drama Kid's fault that his mommy had such lofty ideas with no skills to back them up! And he did the painting, cutting and gluing.

The next day I walked him to class carrying his backpack so he could carry his project himself. He told me at pick up that he was the only one who did something like that and I could tell he was so proud. I would gladly suffer more splinters to see that look on his face again.

Wordless Wednesday: Love You Mommy

For more Wordless Wednesday visit 5 Minutes for Mom, Mom Dot, What's That Smell

Rockin' the Red Pumps for HIV/AIDS Awareness

Today is National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. This is important for us as women and mothers because HIV/AIDS, though not in the media as much as it was in the 1990's, is still killing. And it's killing more women and women of color than cancer and heart disease.

Much progress has been made with HIV/AIDS but the statistics are still high. Too high. 1.1 million people in the U.S. are living with HIV/AIDS, and 280,000 of those are women. Of all new AIDS diagnoses 27% are women. Of that 27%, 66% are African American.

The Red Pump Project is a way to bring awareness and offer strength and courage to the women either fighting the disease or who have been affected by it in some way. Today, 95 bloggers are posting about and/or displaying the Red Pump Widget.

<a href="http://theredpumpproject.blogspot.com"> <img src="="http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff265/Luvvie20/RedPP-small.jpg"> </a>

If you decide to to support the cause, please visit The Red Pump Project for more information and statistics. They also have a great video from MTV's Staying Alive HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention campaign that is a great conversation starter for parents of teens and tweens.

Please use the power of the internet today to help spread the word about this disease and its devastating effect on women and girls.

*Statistics from The Red Pump Project which sites the CDC and Kaiser Family Foundation.

Student Loan Debt- Should It Be Forgiven?

Last week I followed a Tweet from GeorgeGSmithJr to an article on The Huffington Post. The topic is forgiving student loan debt to help stimulate the economy. An attorney from New York has started a petition on Facebook to cancel loans so that those monies can be injected back into the economy.

The comments on the article are interesting and range from (and I'm paraphrasing) "Why not help those who are struggling?" and "If bankers can buy $40,000 chairs then why not?" to "No way! You willingly took out the loans, they should be paid back in full."

George and I had a conversation where I said that I didn't want to be seen as a deadbeat. The loans are my responsibility but the monthly payment amount is one we just can't swing right now.

I spoke with the Department of Education about my loans just last week. They've advised me on the best course of action given our situation. I'll be keeping the loans in forbearance status but making a payment we can afford which will go more towards the principal than the interest.

I think the petition has some merit and is worth further investigation. I don't think loans need to be entirely forgiven but drastically reducing the interest rates, forgiving the interest that has accrued to date or allowing people to volunteer to work off the debt are ideas I think the government should at least look into.

The idea of fairness and whether this type of plan would actually help stimulate the economy is a slippery slope for sure. But so many people I know bought into the idea that we needed to go to college or else we'd be failures, and we went to college thinking we'd definitely be able to pay back the loans easily because a degree automatically guarantees a good job. I can't speak for anyone else but the monthly payment the bank wants would take a huge chunk of our monthly expenses.

Are you weighed down by student loan debt? Have you found a payment option that works well for you? What do think of the petition?
(photo from Google Images)