Fabulous Thursday (and more)

Clinique Haul Today:

I was at Belk's today with my ex and I wanted to stop by Clinique to get a new lipstick color. I have been wearing L'Oreal lip gloss most of the time but I got some Clinique lipstick in one their bonus packages last fall, started using it recently and liked it a lot, I just was not crazy about the shade. So when I saw they were running another Bonus (6 products in smaller packages, valued at $70), I decided to buy more so I could get the bonus. I had decided next time they had a bonus I would buy enough product to get Both shade packages (they always offer 2).

So I bought one one tube of lipstick, one chubby stick and a tube of my old reliable BB cream, that I use every day. The chubby sticks apply product like a large lip pencil, but have more creamy properties of a lipstick and the long wear property of a stain. I have one from another Clinique bonus and one from Sephora bonus points. Yes, I make use of bonuses to acquire and try a lot of new products. Buy the products I know I will use a lot, and get to try new products and shades with the bonus.

So, the first picture is the #2 BB cream in center, with the chubby stick and lipstick. On the right and left sides are the 6 product Free bonus kits (with cases). One of them is missing the Repairwear Laser Focus Wrinkle Correcting Eye Cream, because I let my ex have one of them. She says she has more wrinkles than me, so I let have one...

The second picture are the 4 new lip colors I got today. The first two are the Free bonus chubby sticks (notice they are a little smaller than the $17 chubby sticks they sell, like the one on the end). Colors are (left to right ) roomiest rose, curviest caramel, rose taffy and mightiest maraschino.  I bought the last one, a nice, creamy red, because Mitchell loves seeing me in red lipstick.

http://clinique-bonus.com/belk/

The preceding post is an example of some of the posts from the Facebook group, Trans Beauty Network, which I started this spring.  We also have current threads on fashion, voice therapy, hormone therapy, hair and wig styling and more.  If you are trans and on Facebook, please send me an invite if you would like to join our group...

Fabulous Thursday

Shopping with Joan was only part of the Fabulous Thursday I had last week.  The day started out with an 11 AM appointment with a voice therapist in Durham, NC.  Last year I graduated from the Transgender Voice and Communication Group at UNCG and it really helped me a lot, but I feel like I need more voice work to achieve the ideal female voice that I want.  I do pretty well now and am able to pass on the phone, which is a good way to test your voice, but I still know I can do better, and I want to. 

So, the first session was mostly an evaluation and we decided to do six individual voice lessons, which will start next week.  Those lessons combined with daily vocal function exercises and warm ups (which I have been slack on doing since graduating from my class last May) should get me to my goal, or at least much closer to it and in a good position to keep working on my voice on my own until I am 100% comfortable with it. 

After the one hour voice evaluation, I met Joan at Cary Mall for lunch and the shopping trip to Belk's department store, where I also bought a nice top.  Then I drove back to Durham to meet Jenny Taylor, a friend from Facebook who now resides in Nashville, Tennessee and has this You Tube Channel, among her many projects.   Jenny is really fun to be around and her vibrant, positive energy is really contagious.  

On video, shopping with Jenny Taylor...

Her videos and uplifting posts on Facebook help a lot of transgender people struggling with decisions or just the complexities of life in our situations.  Like me with my blog, Flickr pages, Facebook etc., she has a lot of people contact her looking for answers, counseling advice or just to say thank you for putting a voice and face to what they are feeling inside.  Sometimes its just a matter of showing people that it Is possible to live life and be yourself, and not stay trapped inside some empty shell.  She and I have a lot in common, so we got along great.

Wild and crazy girls having a good time out living life....

Meeting Jenny was sort of spur of the moment.  I noticed a post that said she and her girlfriend were in Durham for business, and since she had part of the afternoon free and I was already in town after my voice consultation, things came together for us to spend a couple of hours hanging out.  The timing couldn't have been better in my life, because while we were at Starbucks we talked about the technicalities of making and posting videos online, among other things.  It seems all I really need is a Good smartphone, which is something I am looking to upgrade anyway.

So, she shot a little video of us shopping at Kohl's, which we posted on Facebook.  Soon I hope to start making some videos to go along with my Tammy World blog here.  Mitchell is not real crazy about the idea, for some reason, but I have assured him there is going to be nothing suggestive about any videos I make.  I think he is just concerned about having too much exposure on the net, but I am already all over the place here on the web and very open about my life, so if having one more venue to share Tammy World with others might help some people, I will certainly consider it.


Super Saturday 


On Saturday I got to meet another long term Facebook friend who stopped by on her way from Pennsylvania to Florida.  Jacque (pronounced Jackie) came into town Saturday afternoon, stayed the night here at my house, then hit the road Sunday morning.  We went to Red Lobster for a good seafood meal and a couple of drinks, then she got to meet my parents as my Dad fell again in the bathtub (He is ok now).  It's always great getting to meet friends I have talked to a lot online and Jacque is one of the nicest people I have ever met and someone I can learn a lot from. We almost talked all night.

I had a great time finally meeting Jacque Elisabeth King in person Saturday night when she stopped by for the night on her way south.  Living right here on I-95 makes it easier to meet my friends traveling up or down the east coast, which is another good thing about living in Rocky Mount...

Mitchell came into town Sunday afternoon after spending the weekend with his kids and left this (Monday) morning to go back to Virginia.  I am looking forward to spending Valentine's weekend with him and I am also looking forward to the possibility of more snow this week in eastern North Carolina.  Last week we had a little dusting and 2 weeks ago I woke up to this...

1/29/2014

 
You must know by now that I Love snow, which sort of irks my friends from the Northeast, but I just cannot get enough of it.  We have already had about 3 times out annual average of ~2.4", but it seems like everyone on the east coast is having a big year for snow. 

We will end this blog with one more post I did today for trans Beauty Network.....

Vocal Function Exercises:

Apparently the best way to to raise the pitch of your voice as well as maintain healthy vocal chords as you are trying to change your voice, is by doing daily vocal function exercises. I did them some when I was taking Transgender Communication but was not religious about doing the exercises and have not done the since the classes ended last May. We were given cd's during the semester but had to turn them in at the end.

From my evaluation with a voice therapist last week I learned that I need to be doing them every day, and 30 minutes or more each day needs to be spent doing these exercises and or warming up your voice. So, whether you work with Lauren Chloé Greene, from here in our group, a local voice therapist or work on your voice on your own, it seems to be very important to do these exercises. I will keep y'all updated on my progress with the therapist, as we get going next week, and nothing worth doing comes easy so we have to work at it.

Here are the links to order the same Voice Function Exercises that professional therapists use. It is the same program but one link is for Amazon and one for another site. If anyone orders these cd's or already has them, maybe you can share your experiences with the group....

http://www.amazon.com/Vocal-Function-Exercises-The-Series/dp/1597561452

http://www.pluralpublishing.com/publication_vfecd.htm





      

My familiars...Buddy and Nightingale, lead the way into the frozen expanse of Tammy World.....