Birds

Mandi

Birdsitting Information

FOOD & WATER

Lindy

FOOD – Lindy has two types of food; seeds and “mush”. She needs special fresh mush and water in the mornings, and then one mush replacement sometime in the late afternoon or early evening. The ratio is around 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon of water. Add a tiny pinch of the vitamin powder in the morning. (We have stopped including the hemp seed sprinkle from the video.) The mush needs to be a bit more wet than you think it does so that it’s like a soup; it dries quickly.The seeds only need to be replaced every 5-7 days.

WATER – Please give her fresh water in the morning. If it looks dirty, you might replace it again in the afternoon or evening.

Please check on the food throughout the day, especially when you’re putting her back home. The mush dries out quickly. Add another few drops of water if it looks too dry and mix it up again. Replace it some time in the late afternoon or by 6pm.

She will often be very hungry right before she goes to sleep. Because she doesn’t see well, you might need to tap near the food to remind her to eat. She likes it to be mixed up before she eats.

In the morning, Lindy is going to want to cuddle with you or go in her box but she’ll also be starving. She probably wants to spend about 10 minutes out first but then put her home with the fresh food and water and encourage her to eat. Then she can come out again.

Gaudi

 

WATER – Gaudi has two locations for water; one inside and one outside. Please give Gaudi fresh water in both bowls every morning.

FOOD – Gaudi needs food both inside and outside.

Inside Food

Inside Gaudi has seeds on the left and fruit crunches on the right. These usually only need to be replaced every 4-7 days but if he is locked in a lot, that is his only food he will have so you will need to check on it and add more inside seeds and crunches as needed. Make sure they are not running out.

When you are going out and Gaudi is locked in the cage for more than 2 hours, always add a fresh cracker with peanut butter placed directly in the inside dish of seeds on the left interior of the cage. Give him a fresh cracker with peanut butter every day. You can throw the used one out to the squirrels.

Outside/On Top Food

Gaudi also needs fresh food on top every morning and something freshened up in the later afternoon, early evening. Please always have 3-4 things on top for variety.

Most common go-to foods:

  • Peas
  • Corn
  • Slice of tomato
  • Slice of apple with the skin removed (he knows the word “apple”)
  • Salad greens or spinach (especially with dressing)
  • Oats
  • One lid with seed mix

Treats

  • Nut (about half a nut at a time)
  • A small piece of bread
  • A piece of not-too-sugary cereal (like a shreddie or a cheerio)
  • Berries, especially ones with seeds, would be a big treat. They can be messy but that’s ok.
  • A piece of carrot if you feed it to him (he has trouble getting a good grip to take a bite out of something so hard)

Remember that Gaudi can’t see so he needs them to be in the same spot every time. It’s best to put each thing in its own lid since Gaudi can’t see if there is more than one thing together.

Gaudi can eat pretty much any fruit and vegetable except NOT AVOCADO. He doesn’t really like potato. He can eat a lot of things raw and particularly likes texture like things with seeds.

Things with peel are best to either remove the peel or slice it in half. So for apple I’ll usually take a bigger piece and cut off the peel. For a grape or blueberries, I cut them in half and Gaudi eats the inside out.

For something like a strawberry, you can cut it in half with the seeds (outside) facing up since Gaudi likes the seeds the best.

Some things move around a lot in the lid so it might be better to fill it up more or slice the bottom off so it lies flat and doesn’t slide around in the lid without the ability to get a grip on it.

PLAYTIME/CUDDLES/COMPANY

Lindy will really want to cuddle and be with you in the morning. After about 15-20 minutes try to make her go home to eat.

Lindy loves to shred paper! If you’re at the computer you can put scrap paper on the desk and she’ll gladly chew up paper for 20 minutes or more.

Lindy will want to be on your shoulder, or have cuddles in your hand.

She might spend all day with you but try to make her go home and eat and have a nap.

CAUTION – if you’re cooking on the stove (especially boiling water) please put the birds home. Not a big deal if you’re using the toaster.

***If Lindy is on your shoulder and you go to the washroom, always close the toilet seat before flushing.

Gaudi will be grumpy in the morning but will also want some attention. You might be more successful with him if you put Lindy down (in her little box that I show you) when you go to uncover him.

Gaudi will probably be the most talkative and playful in the later afternoon. He likes to sing and have company. I’ll show you some of the little things he likes to do, like sing:

  • Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
  • Whistling
  • Sound effects in general
  • Sing other songs where you change the lyrics to include Saudi’s name
  • Hello!
  • The long mmmmmm kiss game (even if you aren’t actually able to kiss him)
  • Do a turn
  • Dance to a beat

It’s great if you can just be around Gaudi when possible.

  • BEDTIME

We made a change to Gaudi’s cage so he will probably want you to put him inside rather than him going in on his own. He likes to be scooped up and put inside at bedtime but you can also do it if you’re going out. It should be ok to do when you’re wearing the gloves.

Lindy sometimes stays up late with us when we’re watching TV until 9-9:30pm. But she’ll show if she’s getting restless and wants to go home. When she’s restless she won’t relax in your hand and keeps on flapping her wings and frittering around. If she does that, it’s good to put him home.

It’s best to cover both their cages at bedtime if possible.

CONTACTS

  • Bird Questions – Zoey (my sister)
  • House Issues – Kelly & Vito (neighbours that are behind our house with their garage next to ours)

Phone numbers are on the paper

SUMMARY

  • Water for both every morning
  • Lindy gets new must every morning and again late afternoon
  • Mix up Lindy’s mush throughout the day
  • Gaudy gets fresh food in the morning and something new in the evening
  • Lots of cuddles and time in the box for Lindy
  • Lots of singing for Gaudi

 

Saint Demi under eye makeup review (Demi Saint Review)

Mandi

I decided to write this review for anyone else who is really struggling with under eye makeup and is in the process of researching Demi by Seint. I’m assuming if you find this that you’ve already been hunting for reviews and information about Demi. If not, this probably won’t be enough information on its own but there are a lot of videos about it on YouTube. If you’re looking for a real review, keep reading. 

This is a video I made after using Saint for about 6 months:

Background

I didn’t wear a lot of makeup for two years during the pandemic and when things started to ease up I could see my skin had changed. Our family has a lot of hereditary under eye darkness. It’s very strong and can be very purple. Now that I’m getting a bit older, concealer doesn’t work with fine lines and wrinkles and makes them look worse.

When I’m wearing glasses it’s not as noticeable but when I occasionally wear contact lenses there’s nothing to distract from my dark circle ring, or from seeing concealer. 

I was hunting for a solution and that’s when I stumbled on Seint and Demi colour. 

Disclaimer 

Up until now I have been 100% against anything resembling an MLM business, and I didn’t realize the business model when I first found Seint. But I’m making an exception because of the expertise I’m getting from the makeup artist who has helped me with colour correction. And the products/system is pretty unique. 

Colour Match

I actually ended up contacting 3 different artists and they’ve all been very helpful and knowledgeable. The first one actually sent me videos of Amanda Lee Hill’s videos explaining demi colour correction, which is how I found her. I also feel terrible because I got some advice from another artist on YouTube right around the same time, but I ended up going with Amanda because she is so specialised in Demi. 

Here’s the thing though. Even though all three of the artists were great, I think it’s really hard to get your undereye colours right from just a photo. None of the three artists recommended the combination that I’ve actually ended up using. It’s taken trial and error of my own to get to what is actually working now, and it’s still not perfect. But the artists are helpful and can help you get started. 

Seint does offer a 30 day refund/exchange but I’ve kept everything because it’s annoying to ship things back in Canada unless the postage is paid for. 

About Colour Correction

To get a better understanding of what I’m going to review next, watch these videos to understand the colour correction system and this will make more sense. 

Here’s an explainer video of concealer vs. colour editing:

I think Amanda is one of the biggest specialists in under eyes and colour correction out there BUT I think that it’s also really hard to capture your skin nuances in photos. It’s taken a lot of my own experimenting to get this right but Amanda has been really supportive and helpful along the way. 

My Colours

First, I’ve noticed all of the artists talk about blue in the skin a lot, but my circles really are much more purple because my skin has a lot of red in it. In the beginning I had already tried O1 and then Amanda included O3 in her first recommendation of three colours to me. These “O” (for orange) colours are very nude-peachy looking colours that are supposed to help counter blues in your skin. They are very nice but not strong enough for the main part of my purple dark circles. However, they’re nice nude colours and I’m finding that they’re working nicely as sort of “area foundation” (way lighter than foundation) on my cheeks where I’ve started to get a bit of rosacea. 

Amanda also recommended RO1 and YO1 to me. RO1 has some red in it to counter greens. I have very little green in my skin so I don’t use this one too much but I’m ok with having this in my palette. I use a tiny little bit on very specific places but that one little tile is probably going to last me for life. 

YO1 was the most impactful for me, which surprised me. That made me realize how much I need those yellow tones for my true purples.  

So after I saw the success of the YO1 but still needed something stronger, I decided to pick up Y1 and my artist really encouraged me to also get OY1. 

It’s taken a lot of experimenting for about 6 weeks but I’m getting close to having this figured out. The main most useful for my dark purple circles have been the YO1 and Y1. 

Trial & Error 

Every morning for about 6 weeks I’ve been sitting in front of the mirror and analyzing the colours. Some mornings I’m putting the OY1 on first, which is quite orange but the colour feels kind of “thinner” to me than the others. That has worked as a bit of a base layer on days where I might be a bit more blue, but I still need to go over it with either Y1 and/or YO1. 

In my palette

  • O1 
  • O3 
  • RO1
  • YO1
  • OY1
  • Y1
  • YG1

What’s actually working for my dark circles:

  • YG1
  • YO1
  • Y1 

“O” stands for Orange, “Y” for yellow, “R” for red. When it says “YO” it means yellowish orange, or “OY” is orangy yellow.

Application 

I’m also finding that I need to use it differently from how the artists recommend it. When Amanda does it, she does a “tap tap” on her hand to remove excess colour and put on as little as possible. That just doesn’t work for me. I need more than what she is recommending. I also need to put on a first layer, then let it kind of settle in, and then do another spot correction over it. 

I still have to be really careful at the edges because even though everyone says it won’t get into your creases, sometimes it does. Maybe it’s because I’m using more than I need to but otherwise it doesn’t cover the dark areas. 

Brushes

I’ve ended up with 4 brushes:

  • Bright brush (essential)
  • Spot brush (useful)
  • IID brush (useful for applying YG1 all over a lot of my face to minimize redness)
  • Blend brush (least useful but nice for blush)

So what do I really think?

I really like that it makes my skin look well moisturized. It’s got a kind of sheen; Amanda describes it as the “just from a facial” look and I think that’s true. At one time I wouldn’t have liked the shine but it’s actually very nice, and now that I’m getting older it’s way better than dry powdery looking skin. Occasionally I look too shiny though, like in my video above. 

I think Demi is a lot nicer than concealer BUT the jury is still out if it’s actually countering my dark circles in a completely satisfying of way. I think you just have to get used to the fact that in some lighting and at certain angles you’re still going to have darkness showing, but that that it looks natural. Now in my 40s, it’s much worse to look cakey and creasy than it is to look like you have some natural looking circles. At least that’s what I’m trying to tell myself now that I’m getting older. But it does still bother me to see quite a bit of darkness showing through. 

I think that about covers it. Hopefully someone finds this helpful!

Summer 2022

Mandi

Geoff and I have decided to ease back into running some events with a couple of fun and free options this summer:

For NOTL, there’s also the option of joining us at the Shaw Festival afterward for the 1922 show.

We’d love to see some friends out. Everyone is welcome.

This is our website 👇
Like our Facebook page 👇
Sign up for email updates 👇
Follow the Instagram account – @steppingoutvintagetoronto 👇

Hope to see you at one or both of these.
Mandi & Geoff

Facebook Jail

Mandi

On March 29th, ironically just a few days before the closing date for the sale of my social media business, my business account was hacked. It was really terrible and unfortunately, some of my clients lost their advertising accounts.

I am not naive about these things. I’ve always been very conscious about security and use an encrypted password keeper with more complex passwords. But even so, the hackers got to the business account.

This also resulted in my personal account being given an “under review” notice. On April 1st, I was given a 30 days to take action or my account would be shut down. I followed the review process (uploaded my ID for both for my personal account and business account) and actually did have a chance to speak to a Facebook representative on the phone because of the business manager. If it had only been my personal account, it wouldn’t have been possible to get someone on the phone.

Unlike hacking where you’re completely locked out of your account, I’ve actually been able to observe things on Facebook but not participate. This “no man’s land” of Facebook jail allowed me to backup all of my photography and friends lists over the last couple of weeks. I fully expected the account to be deleted because it was taking so long.

By the way, my sister Zoey’s personal account was hacked the same week as my business account. Because she was using a fake birthday on her account, she will probably not get her account back because when you have to upload your ID to prove your identity, there has to be enough data that matches to verify who you really are.

I can’t stress this enough; ensure you have a super strong password and turn on extra authentication for your Facebook and Instagram accounts. I see people being hacked every single week and losing their accounts. My situation was a little different, but it still adds up to the same thing. Go to your Facebook (and Instagram) settings and do a security checkup ASAP.

_________

Friday, April 1st

This is the day I was given my 30 day notice on my personal account. (See the cover image.)

_________

Sunday, April 17th

I was let out of Facebook jail for under 24 hours on Easter Sunday, April 17th, but in under 24 hours my account was restricted again. I guess it was some sort of a glitch that even let me post in the first place. This time I’m able to edit existing posts but I can’t create new posts or comments. Messenger seems to work. I am probably back on the path to having my account deleted by the end of the month.

_________

Wednesday, April 20th

(morning) – I seem to be able to post again. We’ll see how long it lasts.
…And within a few hours:

_______

Friday, April 29th

It’s 5:30pm and I seem to be out of jail again. I tried this morning and was still being restricted. We’ll see if this lasts. If not, my account will be shut down on May 1st, according to the 30 day notice.

Conclusion

On April 29th, without any email notification, I was let out of Facebook jail and it seems to be permanent. So that was 30 days in jail, just a few days shy of the 30 day notice that I received on April 1st. That’s a long time but I did get through it. Such a pain, and I commiserate with anyone who goes through something similar.

My Pandemic Viewing

Mandi

#PandemicLife = TV Consumption

I’ve been keeping notes about what shows I’ve watched since the pandemic started. Just for my own reference but in case anyone is curious, I’ve rated these based on my level of enjoyment.
The Great – Prime – S1 & S2 – 10/10
Umbrella Academy – Netflix – S1, S2 & S3 – 10/10
Stranger Things – Netflix – S1 9/10, S2, 8/10, S3 8.5, 4 9/10
The Boys (most violent & gross ever) – Prime – S1 S2 – 9/10 – S3 in progress
Good Omens – Prime – 9/10
The Queen’s Gambit – Netflix – 9/10
Little Fires Everywhere – Prime – 9/10
Z: The Beginning of Everything – 5.5/10
The Last Tycoon – 5.5/10
Cobra Kai S1 & S2 – Netflix – started 8, reduced to 5/10 in S3 and quit
The Morning Show – Apple – S1 & S2 – 8.5/10
The Marevelous Mrs. Maisel – Prime S1, S2, S3, S4 – 8/10
Homecoming – Prime – 7/10
Big Little Lies – HBO? – S1 & S2 –  7.5/10
Hanna – Prime – S1, S2, S3 – 8.5/10
Upload – Prime – 8.5/10
Emily in Paris – Netflix – S1 – 8/10 , S2 – 8.5/10
Alex Rider – Prime – S1 & S2 – 8.5/10
The Feed – Prime – 7/10
Utopia – Prime – S1 8/10, S2 – 7.5
Bridgerton – Netflix – S1 – 8/10, S2 in progress
Modern Love – Prime – S1 & S2 – 6/10
The Wilds – Prime – S1 & S2 – 8/10
WandaVision – Disney+ – 8.5/10
Mozart in the Jungle – Prime – S1, S2, S3, S4 – 8/10
The Luminaries – Prime – 8/10
The Stand – Prime – 7/10
The Romanoffs – Prime – 8/10
Red Oaks – Prime – 7/10
Panic – Prime – 8.5/10
Jack Ryan – Prime – S1 & S2 – 7.5/10
Catastrophe – Prime – S1, S2, S3, S4 – 7/10
Tales from the Loop – Prime – 6/10
Flack – Prime – S1 & S2 – 5.5/10
The Pursuit of Love – Prime – 6/10
Ted Lasso – Apple – S1 & S2 – 10/10
Nine Perfect Strangers – Prime – 7.5/10
Why Women Kill – Prime – 7.5/10 – S2 8/10
The Wheel of Time – 10/10 for enthusiasm, 6.5/10 in reality
The Shrink Next Door – Apple – 8.5/10
And Just Like That – Crave – 7.5/10
The White Lotus – Crave – 7.5/10
Station Eleven – Crave – 8.5
Squid Game – Netflix – started off stronger but lost me, didn’t finish
Grace and Frankie – Netflix – various seasons ranging from 6 to 7.5/10
The Gilded Age… didn’t finish
Inventing Anna – Netflix – 9/10
Good Girls – Netflix – all seasons – 8/10
Firefly Lane – Netflix – 7/10
Reacher – Prime – 7/10
The Summer I Turned Pretty – Prime – 6/10
Wolf Like Me – Prime – 8/10
A Very British Scandal – Prime – S1 & S2 – 7.5/10
Kominsky Method – Netflix – 7.5/10
Imposters – Netflix – 8/10
Uncoupled – Netflix – 7.5/10
Ten Percent – Prime – 8/10
I guess I’d say that I’m on the other side of the pandemic now but I’ve enjoyed keeping a record. Now that I have an elliptical trainer at home, I watch a lot more television than I used to.
Conversations With Friends – 8/10
Chloe – 6.5/10
Rings of Power – in progress
Updated September 5, 2022

How to Prepare for a New Erstwilder Brooch Release

Mandi

PLEASE NOTE THAT I HAVE MOVED THE MOST RECENT UPDATE OF THIS BLOG POST HERE –

Erstwilder Brooches, Tips & Tricks

 

If you’re an Erstwilder brooch fan, you’ve probably noticed that they’ve been growing in popularity! Many of their new releases sell out within SECONDS. So how can you buy your favourite brooches before they quickly disappear?

I’ve only been an Erstwilder broochie for a year, and the above photo doesn’t include three orders that are still in the mail, but even as a newbie I’ve never missed anything I’ve wanted on release day so I thought I’d share what’s worked for me.

With a little preparation–and speed–I’ve bought everything I’ve wanted including from the ever-so-popular Pete Cromer release. Since I see a lot of people have been struggling, I thought I’d share a few of my tips!

12+ Erswilder Brooch Buying Tips

1. Know the release time and double check it for your timezone! Check the counter they put on their website and triple check that you know the time for your location.

2. Know what you want to order and have your list ready. There will be no time to ponder this. Be ready!

3. Login to your account or create an account and login well in advance. I’m always at my computer at least 20 minutes early. Make sure that your address and all of the details are correct for your account.

4. Use a computer, not a phone. It’s possible to checkout quickly on a phone I guess but I would personally never trust it.

5. Do a couple of test checkouts to practice your speed. Try adding some items to your cart so you know what the process will be and take the checkout right to the last step when it asks for payment so that you’ll know what to expect.

6. If you’re going to apply any points to your order, you can prepare this in advance in your test checkout and have the code copied to your clipboard as a backup in the unlikely event that your points coupon code disappears. (I tested this several times and it never disappeared once I’d applied the coupon early, but better to be safe.)

7. Use the “add to bag” button that appears right below each item. Don’t slow down by opening up the individual product page. If you’ll be buying more than one item (you’re allowed to buy up to two of the same item for you and a friend) then you can increase the number to 2 in the sidebar that appears, which shows the items in your cart.

8. Know your payment method. Even though my payment method is usually automatically populated because I usually use Google Pay, on the last release that didn’t work for some reason so I quickly had to switch to Paypal or populating my credit card information. I decided in a split second that Paypal would be faster so I went with that. But have your payment options ready to go. Items *do* disappear from people’s carts even at this late stage of checkout so you must be speedy and prepared.

9. Have a stockist website (or two) open on your computer in separate tabs as backup. If for any reason you can’t get what you want from Erstwilder, immediately flip over to the stockist website. Follow all the same steps to prepare yourself on the stockist websites; login and familiarize yourself with their checkout process so that you’ll be able to be super speedy.

10. Go to the  NEW collections page and start watching the timer. Like a hawk. Don’t get distracted! Be ready to refresh the page as soon as it’s time.

11. When the items start to appear, you’ll have no idea what order they will appear in so it can be a bit of a panic. In the last release, the items actually pushed on to two pages because the essentials (earrings) ended up showing in the middle of the collection. Try to keep your cool but be quick. Click add to bag for each and as soon as the sidebar for your cart appears, you’ll need to “x” it to close it so that you can add the next item. It’s seriously always an adrenaline rush but with practice and preparation, you can do it!

12. Keep going! If anything disappears from your cart, which has happened to other people, don’t lose the opportunity to buy the others. Stay focused. Keep going through your checkout as quickly as possible. Then turn to the stockist websites you’ve had ready to grab what you missed.

If you still couldn’t get what you wanted, make sure you’ve joined all of the many Erstwilder groups on Facebook. As people’s orders start to arrive, sometimes people find that they are not as in love with an item as they thought they were. These groups are a good place to try to find your DISO (desperately in search of) items.

eBay Tips

As I said before, try all of the Erstwilder swap and sell groups on Facebook before turning to eBay. But as a last resort, you might choose to use eBay, or evilbay as many broochies call it, to snag your most wanted items. If you aren’t familiar with eBay auctions, here are my tips:

a) My first tip is probably obvious but I’ll say it anyways: Never ever bid on an item before the end of an auction. You’ll just drive the price up.

b) Use a bidnapper program. You will never win a popular auction manually. If it’s an in-demand item, like many popular Erstwilder items, you must use a bidnapper. These programs automatically do super speedy bidding within the last 60 seconds of an auction so if you’ve ever lost something in an auction at the very last second, you have almost certainly lost to a bidnapper program. This is the one I use but I’m sure there are many of them.

 

I think these are all of my tips for the moment but if I think of anything else, I’ll update this!

Thanks for reading! Let me know if you have any tips I’ve missed.