DIY: customized and safe for travelling: mac palette

Todays post is a little different. Last year a friend asked me to show her how I made my mac pro palettes travel safe and I thought why not share here as well? I guess most of my readers use makeup themselves and maybe some of you will find this helpful.

I always liked palettes a lot more then all those little containers that fly around your room, get lost under beds, fall to the floor and break and so my very first eye shadow palette I made about 16 or 17 years ago (o.O I feel quite old) from an empty metal box of wax crayons that I glued the eyeshadows into. And I always loved how little space a palette needs compared to the same amount of eyeshadows in single containers, I can't stand an unorganized bath room, well unorganized ... I just never wanted to be one of those "girly girls" that have boxes over boxes of makeup and get lost inside them. I find if I can't see what I have I will not use it and what I won't use is wasted money.
Last year I, well you could say I fell in love with make up again, and I got a huge crush which ended in endless research on companies and beauty videos on youtube and shopping. I soon discovered mac cosmetics and their endless variety of eyeshadows. I just love what makeup can do for you, how it can alter your appearance with the tiniest modifications, how you can sculpt your face just by adding a highlight or a contour. It's just amazing! Anyhow I got a pro palette at my mac store and a few of their shadows. Online I also got a few empty pans that I re-pressed my beloved shadows that I owned before to make them fit the pro palette and to have a clean look of the whole palette itself. One thing I didn't like was that even if the whole palette felt pretty sturdy the eyeshadows themselves had a little space inside the palette to wiggle around while travelling or even when padding your brush into it. And wiggling sooner or later means breaking. So what does a crafter do? She does something about the situation and solutes the problem. ^__^ I bought foam rubber sheets (you know this rubber sheets we all used to work with as kids) and cut them to fit my shadows securely.

below I will show you exactly how I did this and even how I squeezed in more shadows than the original palette was intended for and still look very clean and "store-made". So, first I carefully popped out the inlay/divider of my mac palette (lifting the middle will make this work) and then I glued the metal sheet back into the palette so it won't fall out. Next I used the divider to draw a template onto the foam rubber sheets. I used 2 black foam rubber sheets with a height of 2mm each. I could have just copied the original divider one to one but since 18 shadows fitted so perfectly I made 18 shadow spaces instead of the original 15.

One of the rubber sheets I needed to fit a little more precise into the palette, since the divider was glued in and there was a sort of "socket" left, the pictures surely make clear what I mean. The second sheet I let as it was, it will become the top sheet.

Now I used the divider as a template again to draw on the places for the shadows. To better show I made a sketch on paper as well, but you can draw onto the rubber sheets directly and cut them out later.

In the next picture you can see I also made a blush palette and cut out the holes for the blushes. To cut I used small scissors so that I was able to slowly and carefully follow the drawn on outlines. The first rubber sheet to cut is the later top sheet.

Now I glued the cut layer to the layer that is still uncut and positioned them inside the palette. Let dry overnight. (I also tried to press the two layers but that resulted in an sort of distorted result which didn't fit the shadows/blushes properly anymore)

When the glue is dried I just cut to bottom rubber sheet as well.

the finished palette

I'm surprised to see that the summer palette from last year looks significantly different than this year.

and my blush palette as well

and of course you can not only make your palettes fit more eyeshadows or blushes you can also make it fit eyeshadows AND blushes or other companies products as well. I made a few paper sketches to show:

_________

this is basically all the makeup I need on an everyday basis and it will fit into a small makeup bag that sits in my bathroom, it takes like no space at all and give me lots of possibilities and creativity I could think of, plus when I'm traveling I still have everything with me and don't over-pack my bags with boxes of makeup. I hope you found this tutorial helpful ^__^

Book Review ... sort of

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

I want to try to do a review for this book here. I have never done a thing like this before, especially since I don't want to give anything of the content, just in case you want to read it yourself. I told you about the book before in my weekly flashbacks and throughout the whole book I felt a little like "where is this going" ... very interesting feeling that I don't often have when reading. It was strong enough to keep me reading and weird enough to keep me thinking about it when I wasn't reading. The book tells a story about a boy and what he finds out about his life and family. The video below I found on youtube and I think it's the add to the book, I think it gives you an idea but will not give too much away about the story itself.

All in all I enjoyed reading this alot! And I loved how the book was "designed" as well, it contains a whole lot of pictures, even the electronic version did! That made this book a sweet piece of art as well. The only thing I didn't like is that it seems to be the first part of a series, which I don't find bad generally speaking, I just want to know such a thing when starting to read. It just alters the expectations I have in a book and its story.

Would I recommend this? I sure will! It's sooo different to what you normally find to read and soo interesting. Very well written. Very unexpected story line. So many new ideas. I have never read anything like this.

my kindle let's me bookmark things I liked, and these two sentences I liked alot:

"If all the suns but ours collapsed tonight, how many lifetimes would it take us to realize we were alone?"
---
"I used to dream about escaping my ordinary life, but my life was never ordinary. I had simply failed to notice how extraordinary it was."

weekly flashback

|seen| streets, the sky, some clients - a very regular week at work I guess |heard| I heard a rumour, they travel far, you know what its like, the way people are ... whoever will tell me first in the comments section what this song is, will win a pattern of mine for free, you can choose any pattern you like (please make sure I can contact you) Congrats to Anne, she was the first one to comment the right answer :) |read| still reading 'Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children' by Ransom Riggs and I still enjoy it alot, with about 3/4 through the book I still have no idea where it's going to lead me but I want to find out |done| house cleaning |eaten| asparagus and chocolate - not together though |drunk| just the regular, water and coffee |thought| about the design for my laundry basket project |been pleased| with the weather, perfect spring |got annoyed| that I didn't have as much felt left as I thought to make a new laundry basket |wished| I had checked on the felt earlier |bought| a new camera and I love it |clicked| amazon for sewing books, no buy though (machwerke it's all your fault!)

not your average asparagus

It's asparagus season and even though I normally don't find that as super exciting as the rest of my environment I made some today. I've always preferred the green asparagus to the white one because I find it's a little tastier and not as soft ... I have a strange way of how food feels in my mouth, for example I just don't eat cooked peas or corn just because I really, really don't like how that feels (actually I don't even remember HOW cooked peas taste that's how rarely I eat them, never)

Anyways today I made some asparagus with bacon and eggs, it's not the classic recipe with sauce hollandaise but nonetheless super good. I don't really want to give a recipe for this, as it is so easy: prepare some asparagus and cook it

some bacon

and some eggs.

Then arrange everything on a plate, drizzle some olive oil on top as well as some cider vinegar. Finally sprinkle with chives. Et voilà there you go, dinner!

something new

#pictureaday challenge

my new camera, a Nikon D5100 (don't know if its the same name all around the globe, sorry) -- I've been drooling on this baby for a couple of months now. I like my old Nikon, it works like a dream but I wanted to upgrade and I wanted something that could film too. I planed a few tutorials on film and I'm attending a few weddings at the moment and taking pictures is super, but to have the "I do" on tape is just a tad nicer ^__^ I checked reviews on all sorts of cameras but always came back to this one, finally I needed to decide between a Nikon and its equivalent by Canon, but counting in my very first little camera was a Nikon and I already had at least one objective I went for the Nikon. But to finally buy it took a few more months to go by, after all it's quite a lot of money. The first pictures I took with it were the food pics of yesterdays post. The D5100 has got plenty of special effects and I used the "food mode", I do like the pictures but will need to play around a lot more, there are just so many possibilities.

Pepper Pesto

The weather feels desert like here and my appetite shrinks with every hour, not the worst thing in the world but it makes me want to eat the good stuff when I feel like eating something. A few weeks ago I found a recipe to a "Pepper Pesto" and I thought the weather is very mediterranean why not eat mediterranean? And a pepper pesto sounds pretty mediterranean to me.

Here is what the recipe calls for:
3 red bell peppers
2 garlic cloves
50 gr almonds (flaked)
olive oil (as much as you like, I used about 200 ml, which was about half the amount of the peeper paste)
pepper and salt to taste, as well as chili pepper flakes

first I cut the bell peppers in halves, then placed them on a baking rack and grilled them in the oven until they turned black. After taking them out of the oven I put a damp piece of kitchen paper on top and let them sit a while (this will make it easier to peel them). Then I peeled them, and I didn't wash them as that would take away the grilled aroma.

Put the halves into the food processor/mixer.
Then I lightly roasted the almonds (I didn't have flaked ones so I just crushed normal ones and took care when roasting them, as they burn easier when crushed so small).

Add the roasted almonds to the peppers.
With the next step I took some time, as I wanted the garlic to infuse the olive oil. I added about a table spoon of olive oil to a pan and added the sliced garlic. Then I turned on the stove to smallest heat (? do you say it that way, smallest heat) and let it start to simmer gently. This took a few minutes and smelled delightful.

I also added the garlic with its oil to the food processor and mixed everything well. I added the rest of the olive oil as I mixed, as well as some pepper, salt and the chili flakes.
After following the original recipe I tasted the pesto and found it a tad too boring. That's why I also added a teaspoon of white vinegar and a pinch of sugar. That gave it a nice turn.
I served it with spaghetti and a generous amount of freshly grated Parmiggiano Reggiano.

Where I stand

Another shot in the "pictureadaychallenge". I took this picture in the frontyard of one of my clients today. She grows a wonderful little garden and the fresh green color dominated above all, made it look kind if juicy. I'm not entirely sure what exactly I see here, but I think it's Lily of the Valleys. Where did you stand today?

weekly flashback

|seen| lots of bumble bees |heard| no interesting rumors |read| Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, so far (kindle says I'm 40% into the book) it's a very good read, interesting and unpredictable story line |done| paperwork (and pleased with it, I'm very lazy when it comes to unloved duties) |eaten| too much of my "tomato-butter", I think the lemon juice in there makes it addictive |drunk| strawberry and vanilla milk, yum |thought| about customizing a new laundry basket |been pleased| with myself, I've sticked to my sport schedule very well |got annoyed| with men |wished| for love being simple, got my tiny heart broken again |bought| two new paints at my local mac store |clicked| too many youtube videos by Diana0380 and Laura Vitale

a quickie

a little sweetie update on my knitting. I added sleeves to my Revival dress/pullover. I want it to be a dress and have all the increases needed for the upcoming skirt-section in mind already but I'm super afraid something strange will interrupt. Do you know this feeling? sitting deep down in your guts?

just a quick shot taken with the phone, hence the not that nice quality

love

so let's get going with the "pictureaday" challenge and let's combine it with yarn. Because todays challenge is "love". There are a few things I love, one among them definitely has to be yarny love. And of course knitting. The pullover/dress below was started last October or November and lay on the couch for a while, because I met a guy and things went sweet and I was flying too high on cloud #9 to think of knitting and then things got cold and I was too sad to knit and now things are "interesting" (on facebook there's something like - it's complicated) ... why can't love be like a well written knitting pattern? I mean you see a project, dedicate your heart to it, start working on it, sure you might frog, but you will keep going and finally you end up with something warm and cozy that not only keeps you warm but your heart as well?

I got distracted, the pattern to the project above is Revival by Fallmasche. It's a lovely pattern, very well written (even if you need to read it twice to understand) and uses the "new" contiguous method to cast on. No sewing at all included. I decided to knit this as a dress and since it's worked top down I will decide if it will be a dress or if I'm feeling lazy or run out of yarn it will be the pullover it is designed as.

MOM

I just spoke to my mom to wish a beautiful Mothers Day and she was so sweet, I sent flowers (we're not close enough to see each other today) and she got a bit emotional, the flowers came pretty unexpected. My mom showed me everything I know about plants, herbs and cooking. So I guess my green thumb belongs to her. Thanks Mom! Sending Hugs and Kisses

have a wonderful Mothers Day

something that makes you happy

my favorite dish in spring time and one that I crave for when winter starts to fade is a salad my mom made for us every year. It's made from red radish, some capers and edam cheese. Topped with parsley, white vinegar and oil. Super simple, sooo good and something that reminds me of home.

what makes you happy?

A smell you adore

That's simple.... Fresh cake, this One is rhubarb streuselkuchen... The BEST

someone that inspires you

let's get on with the pictureaday challenge - day 7 someone that inspires me. I needed to think about this one quite a bit. And I want to tell you about Ilka. Ilka makes clothes. She made a wonderful wintercoat for me this last winter (which sadly was worn only once because the day I got the coat, winter decided to leave...) and every time I visit her in her atelier I see all the fabrics and her vintage sewing machine and I suddenly want to start sewing again. In case you live near Berlin her atelier is in Zeuthen.

Hello

Still here, still knitting a little. 

I don't really know where to start. I missed blogging and I feel the need to tell you what kept me so long, what basically made my whole online life sort of disappear. It's pretty personal though and not very happy and you all know this should be a happy place. 

So I don't really know where to start. I found the "pictureaday" challenge on another blog and I feel like it could get me going again. 

 

Todays challenge is "me" so I just show you me. I bought new sunglasses on Thursday and shared the pic on Facebook and now I'll share here as well. And as you can see I'm good at posing in front of cameras ^__^