Skin Care For This 60+ Woman

Maybe I should say 'skin care for someone pushing 70', I'm 67, have I left it a bit late to start thinking about caring for my skin I wonder.  I didn't really have to think about it until recently, I suppose I was one of those lucky people who took my lack of problems with my skin for granted.  Now I've got a bit wrinkly, (or maybe a lot wrinkly depending which mirror I look in), my skin is very dry in places and my cheeks are now my jowls - if you know what I mean.  I also have a double chin, don't know where that came from!  Also I'm very puffy around they eyes.  I hate having my picture taken, I just do not recognise the person in them, it is not me!

Today I bought myself a diy facial kit (on a tight budget)...

moisturiser and cleanser at 79p each

3-in-1 cleanser, toner & refresher at £1.99

exfoliating masque at £1 for the two

some fancy oil skin perfector at £4.99

a general exfoliating scrub at £1

I got all the above for £10.25 from Savers, which I thought was an excellent price for that lot.  I saw the fancy oil stuff at Asda for £8 - what! - £8!  I only paid £4.99.  

I got this eye gel from Superdrug for £4.97, I think the full price is something like £9.99.  I have tried it and I'm sure it already worked a bit, maybe it's wishful thinking but I think my eyes looked a bit less puffy already.

I thought I might as well use Johnson's baby oil for when I do a facial massage, I chose the aloe vera one at £1.25 from Asda.

We'll see what happens anyway, I've now got to be very self disciplined and use these products every day.  Usually I just wash my face with soap and water and sometimes use moisturiser.

More Fashion For This Over 60 Woman

I had a really horrible January.  I was away over Christmas and arrived home on December 27th.  By the afternoon of the 28th I felt terrible - I'd caught a virus from someone.  It was horrible, I've never felt so ill, a terrible sore throat and cough.  Luckily it didn't go to my chest, it seemed to stay in my throat, I coughed so much I thought my throat was going to turn inside out!  It was three weeks before I started to feel better.  This made me decide that I needed to do something about my immune system.  To start with I'm taking a multi vitamin aimed at 50+.  I'll see how it goes, I don't really have much faith in vitamin supplements but it can't do any harm.  Also, cut out as much processed food as possible, each lots of fresh fruit and veg and get more exercise.  Well the exercise will have to wait until the better weather, my idea of exercise is walking and I certainly won't be out walking far in the rain, which seems never ending at the moment.

When I started to feel a bit better I went and had my usual shampoo and set and found out that the salon were doing a special offer half price facial.  As I was looking particularly haggard I decided to treat myself - it was bliss!  My skin felt so much better and looked a lot brighter.  I can't afford to go for a facial regularly, full price it is £45, but I will look out for special offers and buy myself a diy facial kit, I'm going tomorrow to see what is available on a budget.

While I was away at Christmas I did treat myself to a t-shirt from Bonmarche...

love the random stripe look

looks nice with my black cardigan

nice sequin detail

This is the hat I was admiring a couple of months ago.  When I bought it it only cost £4.50, a bargain.  It is nice to wear and keeps my head nice and warm now that my hair is thinning on top - another drawback of getting older.  But at least I get to wear hats these days without feeling as self conscious as I would have done when I was younger.

More From Bonmarche

I went out for a Christmas lunch with friends yesterday and wore another Bonmarche outfit.  What would I do without them!  Since David Emanuel started designing for them they have come up with clothes I just 'have' to buy.  Here's the top I wore...

This top has a bit of a gather at the front with a tie at the side...



 

I find this style gives me a bit of shape at the waist, I'm one of those body types that doesn't have a very defined waist.

 

If I start to feel a bit cool here's the perfect fancy cardigan to slip on...

It's an edge to edge style so hangs nicely without being bulky.  The yarn is a sort of fluffy ribbon type that is all the fashion at the moment and feels lovely and soft to wear, not a bit itchy like some fluffy yarns can feel.  Perfect!

 

Bonmarche also have some very nice accessories, http://www.bonmarche.co.uk/shop-by-product/accessories/icat/accessories/, I've shown some scarfs previously.  Now I have an umbrella that goes with the animal print scarf I have...

And I did see that, as well as their knitted pull-on hats, they also have a very nice grey hat that I want - love that hat!

 

I wasn't asked to review any of this, I'm just so glad that Bonmarche is there for me to shop at.  I went for years grumbling that I couldn't find anything to wear that I really liked.







Fabric Basket

This months stitch-along (SAL) at the group I'm in http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/International-Hand-Stitchers/info  is for a fabric basket

I can't give any instructions or tutorials for the Christmas tags or this basket because the copyright belongs to one of our members but if you would like to join in with our SALs all you have to do is join our group.  We are a very friendly lot and welcome anyone who does any kind of fabric/thread/yarn crafts.  So, if you are a beginner up to more experienced we will be happy to see you.

 

Another little project I finished is a rose sachet...

 

This is my favourite type of embroidery project.  The sachet measures about 2 inches square and I've used bullion knots for the flowers and the bees bodies, detached chain stitch for the leaves and stem stitch for the stems.  I filled it with wadding and a mixture of rose petals and lavender.







A Couple More Tags

The second redwork tag has sequins and beads on the end of the branches...

 

And this tag is from a tutorial here ...

It is a very quick project and only needs felt and scraps of fabric and embellishments like lace, ric-rac and braid.





Redwork Gift Tag

The stitch-along at the group I'm in is redwork gift tags.  So far I've only finished one.  Not because it is time consuming or difficult, it's because instead of settling down to one project at a time I've got three on the go - redwork, fern stitch and chicken scratch.  If I had three pairs of hands I'd be fine!

 

I probably won't use this as a gift tag, I'll use it as a hanging decoration.  These tags are nice projects and don't take a lot of time.  I think they look very effective, thanks to Heather in our group.



Chicken Scratch Embroidery

I hadn't been in the mood for embroidery lately, too busy with other things, like going on holidays, sorting my clothes out and spending more time outside in the lovely summer weather we had.  Now, at last, I'm back in the mood.  I've wanted to do some chicken scratch embroidery for a long time, this week I settled down and made this...

It was quicker to do than I expected it to be and I got it finished in three days.  It looks very pretty, I'm already planning my next project.