Wow... Where do I start? Slow going...

Good mid-July all... I have a little notebook that I have for blog ideas. And the past month and a half have been crazy. I haven't been able to do any of my beauty posts. My father will be 80 in October; he lives with me and my family. He has Dementia/Alzheimer’s. His condition has been progressing over the last 2 months, and as his caregiver a lot of my time goes to him. I'm young, I'm only 28. My parents were "older" parents. My mom was almost 43 when I was born, and my dad was almost 51 when I came around. My mom found out she had ovarian cancer when I was 13, and she ended up passing away just after my 20th birthday. So now my dad is almost 80, I chose to care for him, because well, he's my dad and I love him. He can barely do simple things anymore as he doesn't understand how things work. For example. He's having problems getting dressed. He typically wears polo styled shirts, but with the Dementia/Alzheimer’s, he wears them inside out and backwards. He doesn't know how to use a belt anymore. He has many problems buttoning and zipping his pants. And doesn't understand the concept of elastic waistband pants. Lately though, he's been putting his boxer shorts over his pants. He occasionally leaves the door open when he leaves the house. And it's been getting worse over the past couple months. My brothers and I have decided that it's time to find an assisted living place for him. And Dad is on board. His doctor also recommended this as well. Over the last month, my brothers and I have been getting everything prepared for the transition, and there is much more to do/figure out. Most of my summer has been trying to put all these pieces together and figuring out how and what needs to come first, leaving me not much time to work on my blog. ALSO, my camera has not been working properly so I've tried to do a couple reviews for some items, but I can't take photos! Grr... Bear with me here folks! I'm trying!

Making Changes, UPDATES, and plans.

Hello, all. I will be re-doing my blog. I have a game change here, basically along the same lines as it's been but I will be adding beauty to my blog. And when I say beauty, I mean tutorials, reviews, hauls and everything to do with beauty products, looks and adventures with make up, skincare, trends and other beauty related material. YAY! But don't worry I'm not going strictly beauty. I'll still have tutorials on projects, life updates, random rants and I also plan on doing recipes here and there. June will be a blog reopening. I should hopefully have it done by the end of this week, with a new blog post to celebrate. Now on to the UPDATES. The last time I blogged here was back in May of 2010. It's now June 2012. Obviously a lot happens in 2 years. So let me keep a story short and give you a brief update. The last entry I wrote, was about a job I had quit. I wrote a very lovely letter to my boss and shared it with you. Since then I have gone back to school for Environmental Science. During my second quarter, I had to fly to Detroit and move my dad back to Seattle. While in Detroit, I realized my father (who was 78 at the time) had Alzheimers/Dementia. He was on the road driving and it was scary. So I drove him all the way back to Seattle. Took 4 days. We had a great father/daughter bonding time though I will never forget. We stopped and saw Mount Rushmore. The Badlands, Yellowstone (I've been there before), Devil's Tower. Yeah, it was a nice experience. And he lived in a hotel from the end of October 2010 to February 2011. My husbands parents had to move down to California, so we all decided we would move into their house here, and my dad would live with us downstairs. Since then I have not made it back to school. I have been a caregiver to my dad. My son started first grade in September 2011, and has had a rough year. I did start a new job in August 2011, but unfortunately had to quit due to my son having some problems in first grade. And I had to keep calling into work for various reasons regarding either my dad or son. Now, I just try to run the household. And I've noticed a lot less stress is involved with I put my face on in the morning. I used to be a huge makeup fan and lost a lot of my collection I had, between moves ('cause I've moved a lot in the last 10 years) and have finally been in a place to start replacing it all. Makeup is my therepy. And I have plans for my blog now. As I also hope to celebrate a year back with a youtube channel (No, not this year, next year 2013). You are caught up on enough now and I hope you will enjoy my new (more busy) blog. Don't forget to be a follower! I do plan on having giveaways for my followers. So you have something to look forward to. Now I gotta get to work. --Eljae

My notice of Resignation. (For everyone that wanted to tell their bosses off!)

I will be going into my work tomorrow to hand my boss my notice of resignation. Over the time I've spent at this job (7ish months) I have continued to be disrespected. So, after a recent review I had at my job, they've decided to put me on a performance plan. I completely disagree with everything they said. And it's one of "those" situations where you totally know they're dicking you, and not in a good way. So I've decided after a long hard thought, how I would leave my job, if I should, considering I haven't had a job lined up yet. And talking to my husband, he is supporting my decision 100%. Thank you honey.

If you've ever had a horrible job. Or your boss was a dick. You've always wanted to tell off your boss when you quit or get fired for no valid reason. This letter goes out to you. And yes. It's real, and I'm handing it to him tomorrow, before my scheduled shift. I am taking out my boss' name, the company's name, and a co-workers name for privacy.

Thank you and enjoy...

May 16th 2010
Dear ****,

I would like to leave a letter of resignation. But first let me go over my recent “Associate Performance Evaluation.”

In my defense, you never really gave me a chance to do my job. As a Merchandiser for Apparel, you gave me 4 hours a week to complete at least 30 hours worth of work and that‘s being generous. In my 4 hours a week of pushing apparel freight out, I had boxes on boxes of individually wrapped items that needed to be hung and sensored, or folded and sensored if they weren‘t already pre-hung. I was expected to get 60 boxes plus of apparel out by myself. Which would have been no problem if I had the hours you gave to ***** ****, and the help everyone gives to ***** ****. So your “review” is inaccurate, and inconclusive. Also for you to think that I am slow getting what I need to get done, you must be bad at math. Considering the amount of hours (or lack thereof) you gave me, and the duties/projects I had to complete.

As for the “Quality” of my performance. You say that you often found errors in my work. But yet can’t be descriptive in where you found said “errors” other than price changes. Which I know that I wasn‘t the only one working on price changes at any given time so you have no evidence that any errors were owned by me. Also, no one told me that errors were found. And if these errors did exist, I should have been notified immediately so I can check my work, and see what I was doing wrong so they could have been corrected so that we wouldn’t have to worry about a “Performance Action Plan”. That would be poor, unsatisfactory management performance. Not poor employee performance.

While we are on this topic you state that I “Rarely take initiative”. Which is also a false accusation. When I get to work I start working, without being told or directed on what should be done. I push out freight. I also occasionally vacuum the fitting rooms (I’m pretty sure I’m the only one that does that.) I can easily find something to do, and I take action where it is needed. You may not notice these things because you are usually not there when I am there, or you are hiding in your office. I can assume you are doing manager duties in there, but I may also be making a false accusation. I don’t need a “high level of supervision.” Your management team is by far the most incompetent management I’ve ever had the displeasure to work for. That may be the reason morale is down throughout the store and it‘s staff.

Needless to say, I have hated this job for the last 4 months. Actually, it pretty much started when you gave my position to ***** ****, without having a spine to tell me. You used my husband working in Alaska, and my barely “lack of availability” as your scapegoat to weasel her into my position. I believe you are practicing retaliation. Your reasons to retaliate against me are unknown to me personally. As I have done nothing but be loyal, and eager to succeed, which I wasn’t given the opportunity. You say in my “Performance Evaluation” that I don’t “apply job specific training”, nor am I “accurate”, and this is funny considering there has been no accurate job training. I have always been a great employee. A key employee, as I told you during my interview. But for whatever reason you have decided to discriminate against me. You are using this “Associate Performance Evaluation” as a legal way to hide your retaliation and discrimination behind.

Don’t worry about me, I’m choosing not to put S***** A******** down on my resume, for several reasons. One reason, is that looking at my resume, and seeing this company as a recent career choice, probably will be unappealing to future job interests. You can go ahead and keep it on your resume. I have thought long and hard about how I was going to give you my resignation or if I would just comply with your bogus performance plan. I’ve decided to turn in my notice. Obviously.

And Mr. ******,
My notice of resignation is effective immediately.

Jessica ****

So real. So emo. So what...

I'm having a hard time trying to decide my feelings on certain things. I've been at this crossroads for awhile now. I feel like I've been mislead to this current position in my life. I feel betrayed by people I trusted. I feel like I trusted certain people too soon only to have them betray me a short while later.

What is up with people like that? You say one thing, but do another? That is something I'll never be able to comprehend. Thanks for wasting my time. I'd rather have wasted it elsewhere.

So where do I go from here? I was really excited about the new direction my life seemed to be going, and now it's at a stand still. I hope I'm not headed into another black hole of despair, regret and mental torment. Over the last several years, I've changed my way of thinking to a more positive outlook. And I'm not going to lie, but it has helped tremendously. Now however, I just seem to be getting the shaft on all that is important. Like my job. My music. My kid. My life with my husband. My family.

Maybe I'm just feeling overly emotional. My feelings are hurt worse than they've been in a long while. I don't like that. I feel extremely vulnerable. I'm getting mixed signals from the reception of my ambitions.

Anyways.... "What to do now", is I guess the thought I'll carry out into my sleep tonight.

If it is what it is... Than won't somebody clue me in, and tell me what the hell "it" is? Because I seem to be missing that point. And maybe I'm just ignorant.

So... Be... It...
I'm going to have myself a sleep.
Good Night.

Marble Magnets Tutorial... (OLD)

Here is a Tutorial I made for a message board I'm on.

I got this idea from another message board I'm on, and I decided to make my own tutorial. And this was the finished product.

MARBLE MAGNET TUTORIAL (11/2009)
By: Eljae Lane

I decided to use some Christmas greeting cards I had and make marble magnets with them.

Super easy project, Fairly cheap. Quick.

What you need....
-Marble Accents (you can find them in the craft store next in the floral department, in Various sizes. In my case, I used a medium size. They are clear glass pieces that are flat on the bottom.)
-Little Magnents (Craft store, usually near beading..)
-Mod Podge (or your favorite clear drying crafting glue. I like Mod Podge)
-Epoxy (Both Mod Podge & epoxy can be found in the obvious glue area of the craft store)
-Small Paint Brush, to glide the glue on to the design.
-And some design you wanna turn into a magnent. I used Christmas Greeting cards. (duh)
-Exacto Knife.

STEPS:
1. Gather all your materials together.
(These are mine, minus the brush, and exacto knife)


2. With your clear drying glue, coat the part of the image you want to be a magnent.

3. Also put a thin layer of your clear drying glue on the flat part of the Marble.

4. Put the Marble on where your image, and press tightly so that all the air bubbles smooth out.


5. Continue process until you are done with all your marbles. On all the images you want to become magnents.



6. Let dry over night/all day.

7. Now they're dry, so you need your exacto knife. Cut out all the marble image pieces.

8. All you need to do now is to get your magnents and your epoxy. Put Epoxy on the back of the magnents, then attach to the marbles. (This epoxy I used you have to mix slightly)

(The kind of epoxy I used is quick drying. 5 mins. Took more like ten.)

9. Let dry over night again.

10. ENJOY, or gift!
THESE ARE MY FINISHED PRODUCT!!