Instead of Breaking Up I Wish That…

So, as some of you know, I’ve been minimalising as fast as I can. One of the areas that I’ve been thinking about a great deal has been makeup. Now, I’m not the most made-up bear in the woods, by any stretch, but I don’t leave the house without mascara and eye liner and I really need lipstick, otherwise I am far too pale. I loved my wedding makeup so much that I’ve been trying to recreate it ever since (Hah! Good luck, seeing as it involved a spray gun and fake mink eye lashes!). That brought eye shadow into the mix. And finally, like all women, I have the makeup that I bought because I was in the store and the woman selling it to me was soooo pretty. This accounts for the green and purple eye shadows and the lip glosses that are so sticky I can’t kiss my husband and the concealer and the eyebrow pencil and the eyelash curler. Much of this I managed to give away to my co-workers, but it still leaves much more than is desired. So what do I do?

It may sound frivolous even to worry. As a consumer, it’s a non-issue because I have enough to last several years, so I don’t have to waste the money or resources on new product. As a Zero-Waste practitioner, it’s a very small portion of trash and some of it can be recycled.  But no aspect of life is too small to considered. Which led to this….

What would happen if I stopped wearing makeup? Say I look 10% less polished, 15% less pretty, 20% less chic. And then… what would happen? Would my husband stop sleeping with me? Would my co-workers avoid me? Would the villagers laugh and point? What would happen, really? Exactly… Absolutely nothing. I will not deny that I look better with it. But I also look fine without it. So four days ago I started. I look younger and a little more gauche and a little less vibrant and a little more masculine. I’m less eyes and more nose. That’s fine. I’m going to give away the last of it, keeping mascara and eye liner for special occasions and see what happens.

I do think that this decision will prompt me to dress better to cut and comb my hair more often. I do want to look nice and I would love to be considered chic. This is not about chemicals or environmentalism, although both are good reasons to do this; this is simply about finding another way to be another kind of attractive.

Enough Money to Last Me the Rest of My Life…

Unless I Want to Buy Something…

Yesterday Michael and I spent the day in bed, with an orange highlighter, some scrap paper and three months worth of bank statements. I know… Kinky… This is what Married People do on Sunday mornings. We were Making a Budget! We’ve tried this in the past and it’s ended in tears, but now that we’re seasoned campaigners and have been married for 7 months, we can handle the State of the Union discussions. This Budget (such a cute word) basically ended with, “You stop drinking coffee, I’ll stop signing up for things that I intend to cancel and then forget to cancel (Gym, Netflix, Freecreditreport, iPhone warranty, etc.) and soon we will be rich!” Very Meg and John Brooke.

We’ve begun buying a Share from the Farmer’s Market every Saturday, which means that most Saturday afternoons you’ll find me poring over an Alice Water book, saying, “I think it’s an Acorn Squash,” while Michael pokes through a large box of alien growths and tries to find broccoli. We’re still not completely used to it, so there’s still the occasional (and by ‘occasional’, I mean biweekly) backlash of a large pizza each or a brick of chocolate. However, before we were doing that without the Acorn Squash… or is it a Butternut Squash? so this is clearly better. And now, at night, while Michael explains Nietzsche, I shell peas, which is ridiculously fun, if you’re me. The most homely of human experiences, like shelling peas or knitting, make me grin and show off to passersby; “I’m shelling peas! Just like in the movies!”

Speaking of the movies, we watched “That Touch of Mink” last night because I’ve never seen any of those Doris Day, 1962-movies before. It was a little bizarre, watching Doris Day, whose 35 if she’s a day (…. Ha! She is a Day! Sheesh! I am sorry about that. No more puns, I promise!), neurotically worry for 2 hours about losing her virginity to Cary Grant. Also, the dialogue was funny, once you got past the weirdness of the initial premise, but it all moved very slowly. Maybe it’s because we’re coming off a 1930s kick (“Sullivan’s Travels” was great and Veronica Lake is adorable, but you have to watch “Trouble in Paradise” and “Ninotchka” and “My Man Godfrey” and soon!). The comic timing in “Mink” was molasses-slow. Heigh ho. Still worth trying. Oh, and if you want another terrible movie, watch “Dark Victory”, a hilarious Bette Davis tearjerker about an heiress with a brain tumor. Humphrey Bogart (very gamely) plays the D.H.Lawrence-like studly, sensual, passionate horse trainer. Excellent.

Do you think I use too many parentheses? All the style books say not to, but I’m very fond of them, in blogging at least.

Okay, that’s enough. I have to go to bed. Good night!

Less of everything… except Words…

Why is it that I never want to post when I am actually at the computer?

I mentioned a few eons ago, when I was last posting, that the new trend on my horizon is Minimalism. Not so much the aesthetic whatever; more the actively having less and then less than that until you have nothing but the necessary and the truly special and these will usually become one and the same. I stumbled on a new blog (missminimalist.com) and it has helped take of the last few pounds of baggage that zerowaste had started to whittle off. It’s less interesting to explain than to do. If I don’t love it and I don’t use it and I don’t need it, then out it goes. Astonishing how much there is and still so much more to go.  This is tedious to explain, but it needed to be done so that you’ll know what is happening.

One of the nice side-effects is finally having the energy to get rid of all the music that is in my iTunes that I don’t like, but feel like I should like, or at least give another chance because… why? Because it’s cool or because someone recommended it? Or because I’m afraid that if my iTunes is just the music I love it will not be so hip that it is now? Silly. So, while I will never live my life without Beck’s Midnight Vultures, all of Mellow Gold and half of Sea Change got axed. I find that I skip too many songs when my iPod is on shuffle, so from now on, I will only have music that I LOVE on there. Everyone will be happy. Was that so hard? Apply that to everything and see what happens.

I’m not wild about this, but I very much want to post again. We finally got internet, so there’s no reason not to. This is a step in some direction!