Just a little check-in

Hi guys!

No tutorials or reviews or swatches in this post, but it's been awhile since I posted last and I just wanted to check in and say hello! I haven't been up to much beauty-related, but I have been sewing an awful lot, which has been consuming a lot of my time. I am also getting ready for a block-wide garage sale tomorrow morning that my boyfriend's parents do every year around this time. We are using this opportunity to go through a lot of boxes that we haven't unpacked yet aaaaaand GUESS WHAT? I found a box that had a ton of makeup I'd lost in it! There were some loser boxes (old cables for computers! old jarred food!) and then there was a winner box that contained:

-Urban Decay Book of Shadows Vol II
-An old Tarte holiday set with a ton of great eyeshadows in it (it's in a silver case with jewels on it, and it's kind of a big cube... not sure when it was from, definitely a few years old)
-MAC lipstick in Midimauve
-a NARS coffret of 3 untouched mini lipglosses (the fourth is in circulation and made it into a long-ago uncovered box)
-some Victoria's Secret body products in Velvet, a favorite but unfortunately discontinued scent
And, drum roll please... some Tiffany & Co. jewelry. Yup, you heard that right; I found a couple of little Tiffany Blue boxes floating around in the box with all of my beauty treasures. I have a little silver bean necklace that I got in high school, and a watch that I got for my college graduation, and they were both recovered in one go. Very exciting!

Have you guys ever stumbled upon things you thought you'd lost? Was it indescribably exciting? It felt like Christmas morning!

Well,because I hate posting something with absolutely no pictures in it, I thought I'd give you guys a peek at some of my costuming progress. I wanted a necklace like Elizabeth I's in the portrait she gave to Edward when she was only Princess Elizabeth (two strings of alternating pearls and gold beads, one choker length, the other dipping down behind the neckline of her gown), but I also wanted an initial pendant like the one featured in so many portraits of her mother, Anne Boleyn. I ended up making the necklace like I wanted, with a pretty double-strand Tudor rose clasp, and then I fashioned a pendant in an "M" shape (for my last name) out of clay, and then painted it with gold metallic paint. I haven't got any beads to attach from the bottom of the pendant yet, so you'll see little gold rings inserted in the bottom that are bare, but will soon have either red glass or faux pearl drops on them. The whole project took just an evening, and I am pleased as punch with the results; it's not perfect, but it came out better than I expected, with a lot less effort than I expected! I am definitely not an experienced beader, and it's been years since I've done any beading.

Like I said, not perfect, but it'll do very nicely for a costume.

What have you guys been up to lately, beauty-related and otherwise? Any creative pursuits you've been indulging in lately? Have you ever uncovered long-lost makeup and felt like you were opening it for the first time again?