Yes to Tomatoes peel-off face mask = love (c)PipPepPop
SUITS GIF from ShEKnows
Hello world! I'm bouncing back from the flu and I have discovered my new favorite beauty product. Trust me, after blowing my nose for a week straight, I needed something to make me feel human and pretty again. I rifled through my box of misc. beauty things this weekend and pulled out a peel-off face mask from Yes to! and it did not disappoint. This detoxifying charcoal mask goes on as a liquid (more accurately a goo) and dries on your face. Ten minutes later, it actually will peel off your face like it's dry. I had my doubts because I've tried some peel off masks before, to little success. These pieces came off easily, in large chunks, and made for little cleanup. My face actually felt clean and my pores felt tighter when it was done.
Getting 'mudded' up with a face mask (C)PipPepPop
I had to rinse the goo off my hands after applying, but didn't have to rinse them when peeling off the mask! I loved the mask so much, I even took a photo of myself wearing it. I will be stocking up on several of these masks this weekend. I wholeheartedly support this product.
I grew up in the 90's so I completely and un-ironically love the song "Barbie Girl" by Aqua, because I was (and still am) a Barbie girl. This weekend marks the 60th anniversary of Barbie and I am here for it! This photo below is much more pristine version of the 1989 My First Barbie, which was actually one of my first Barbie dolls. She looks like a prom queen princess with customary iridescent 80's pouf sleeves, hot pink lipstick, and blue eye shadow. Her hair is in soft curls and she has some sweet bangs. She is awesome. There were yearly releases of new MFB through the 80's, and each one is a treasure. Here is why I love Barbie so much.
1. She has amazing outfits.
Half the fun of playing with Barbie was dressing her up. Thank you to my mom for always agreeing to brush out the hair of the dolls when I got weighed down in the minutiae of outfit choosing.
2. She has an infinite amount of careers.
I have had Barbies/outfits for the following jobs: police officer, ice skater, teacher, mall rat, rock star, Olympic gymnast, diver, dog walker, tennis player, beach bum, doctor, business lady, and though my own creations, Sandy from Grease. Plus, Barbie takes care of all of her siblings (Skipper, Stacey, Kelly, Chrissy) and drives them around in a minivan (best car ever) because her parents are never around.
3. She's a symbol for the ultimate cool girl.
In the 90's, I would collect Barbie catalogs and magazines (and tradings cards) to make sure my entire life would celebrate Barbie. I owned barbie-themed accessories such as:
CLOTHES: Dresses, shirts, a robe, a giant hair bow, purse, slippers, sneakers
ELECTRONICS AND TOYS: walkie talkies,a walkman, movies, books, cassettes,
HOME ACCESSORIES: sleeping bag, sheets, a suitcase
SPORTING GOODS: roller skates, a bike
4. She's stood the test of time
I regularly visited FAO Schwartz's Barbie area to pay tribute to the original 1960's Barbie in a glass case, and it was a religious experience. She changed with the times, going from a red lipped a high pony-tailed bombshell to a California-cool coral lipped mermaid. Now she comes with different body shapes, earrings, freckles and hair colors (shout outs to Barbie's ride-or-dies, Midge, Christie and Theresa). 5. She's made PINK a power color
Long before Victoria's Secret launched their college-friendly PINK line, Barbie's name was emblazoned in pink. I'm not ashamed to say it's my power color.
Sometimes I'm sitting on the couch watching TV and you vaguely think, "Hmm, that location in a TV show looks familiar..."
Is it deja vu? Is it a rerun? Or more than likely, I've been to this spot IRL. TV shows such as
Blindspot
Quantico,
YOU
The Sinner
Billions
Forever
Law and Order
The Blacklist
The Good Wife
Girls
Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and even ED (that was back in 2000, but it was the first show) have used my quaint NYC-adjacent suburb for location shoots.
For the particular location on the left, a 2018 NBC Superbowl preview blew my mind. Not only was the plot of the show familiar (if you've seen Glee), but the locations or Rise were eerily close to home. Literally, they were a five to 10 minute drive from my house. There have been several times over the last few years when I would see the police roping off my local coffee shop with cameras in the middle of the night or on afternoons after they close. Rise used locations including our local coffee shop, Sparkys. the power plant, the old village downtown by my mechanic, the old dye factory that now houses a brewery and artist space. Rise is the story of a frustrated English teacher (Josh Radnor) that convinces the popular school quarterback, Robbie, to join the school musical. This production of Spring Awakening rubs the downtrodden mining community the wrong way. This town is not as free-wheeling as Beverly Hills in the NEW 90210. It sends shock waves through the athletic community and shakes up the theatre club, run by the touchy Ms. Wolfe (Rosie Perez).
The central romance that begins between Robbie (Damon J Gillespie) and the waitress wallflower and new leading lady Lillette (Auli'li Cravalho) causes tons of teenage drama, when the group is not dealing with divorce, teen pregnancy, gender and sexual identity, and alcoholism.
Where does my local diner fit into the story? Lillette and her mom are waitresses at the diner. She and Robbie practice their lines in between serving pancakes coffee. It blows my mind every time I visit the diner because I can''t believe it's been on TV and in movies (see Brad Pitt's 'True Story' movie, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Yes, this is the same place my friends and I would meet for the occasional breakfast in high school! It guess it's out version of The Max, or The Peach Pit.
The restaurant is small, but there are always about 15 cars parked outside. It's impossible to find a spot at 11 AM on a weekend, so you'll park on the nearby residential street and walk over. There can be a wait, but they turn the tables over quickly. The big banners tied up outside (taken down for filming) congratulate the town on the recent 400th anniversary (back in 2016) and champion the high school's sports teams, promising that all of our all athletes are winners. Across the street, there are two strip malls with a deli, nail salon etc... but the diner looks more isolated.
The narrow, rectangular room has big windows with puffy curtains next to each of the booths.The walls are adorned with local memorabilia, news clippings, and tributes to victims of 9/11. Regular patrons help themselves to coffee behind the counter. There are about 20 personal mugs that hang on the wall, mostly for the retiree crowd that holds court in there every morning. Weekends have families coming in from soccer practice or little league, and the juice comes in tine 8 oz. glasses. They only take cash, but there's an ATM in the entrance. Nothing on the menu is over $10.00, even the specials with coffee, eggs and toast. It feels like home, and it is my home.
It's a surreal feeling, seeing my hometown on T.V. It's even worse when your town is shown as a falling apart town in the heart of former mining country. After talking to other kids that grew up here, we sympathized that our town looked pretty bad. Here are some truths and falsehoods.
Yes, the power plant in the promo is our power plant. It's by the by the town pool, and it's not really operational anymore. They show alleged that shutting down the wines ruined the town and made everyone poor. This story is slightly different; shutting down the plant increased the school taxes a ton.
The abandoned factory where the kids hung out was abandoned, but in the 1930's when the town stopped being the brick-making capitol of the world. It had been operational since the civil war. It was used to make solider uniforms. It's been revitalized over the last 15 years and rebuilt after hurricane Sandy damage. The building houses restaurants, artist studios, a brewery, a yoga studio, and some industrial design showrooms.
The downtown street, called 'the village' and the school front they show do not represent the decor of the whole town. This particular section of town is down by the river and has a few blocks of old, cute (brick) historical buildings. Down the street from the village, from there are high-rise condos and the majority of the houses in the town were built post 1970. The middle school building has been around since the early 1900's and used to be the only school in town, but we have about 8 schools in the district now.
