I realized my new hair vitamin supplements were working when I was getting ready for bed and noticed my toenails--HAD GROWN---way faster than normal.  I looked like I had claws.  Werewolf feet!  It'll be a pain come sandal season, having to keep up with the pedicures, but that's what comes to mind when I think about my new hair routine; my feet.  

I started a journal in Feb, handwritten in a nice little notebook, but it's nearly impossible to relax and write with the cats sitting on it every time I bring it out.  I can't decide whether to just transcribe it or just hit the highlights.   I'll see how things go.

It's Thursday and that means hairwash night!  I wash my hair on Sun, Tues, and Thurs; I'll wash Sat if I'm going to be in public for any length of time.  Stupid oily scalp.  I've been C-COW-C and it seems to be working.  I tried CO and my hair was terribly over-conditioned.  It seems to be sensitive to conditioning.  I only use V05 clarifying contioners since the heavy ones leave it so limp.  Oiling works well, though.  Last weekend I put some of my liquid cold cream recipe on my hair Sat and Sun and, OK, icky greasy but was it nice and soft on Monday.  The new herbal rinse is working well.  My hair smells so nice and it is softer.  The greys are blending in a bit, but it's not affecting my temple streaks which is good cuz I LOVE my grey temple streaks.  

I ordered some shampoo bars from www.chagrinvalleysoapand craft.com  I can't wait for them to get here.  They're supposed to clean and condition--maybe I could skip the first C.  That Herbal Essence shampoo seems to strip my hair even after I dilute it a good 10:1 with H2O and spike it with conditioner.  My final conditioning is V05 mixed with aloe and honey which works wonders.

Enough for today.  I do want to post my fav. recipes of the moment in case my 2 cats, aka "pure evil wrapped in fur" decide to destroy my hard copies.  Rumpole already tried to shred my W-2 form but I caught him.  Ha!


Herbal Hair Rinse

1 tsp each dried catnip, rosemary, and sage
1-1.5 cup boiling H2O

Steep around an hour.  I use as the final, final rinse, after the cold water rinse I squeeze the excess water out of my hair, dip the length in the rinse a couple of times and pour the rest on the scalp.  Leave in.  The boiling water seems to deactivate the catnip cuz I've not had any problems with the boys attacking my hair after using.  A splash of ACV can be added as well.


Fox's Leave in Shea Conditioning Cream

1 part conditioner
1 part shea butter
1/2 part oil (I use jojoba or macadamia)
eo of choice (optional)

Melt shea, cool to room temp.  Blend all together.  Won't blend completely till cool.  Just stir occasionally.  You can't let the shea cool completely or it'll solidify again  To fill a 2 oz jar, 6 tsp conditioner, 6 tsp shea, and 3 tsp jojoba.  Use on damp hair.

Super Conditioner
conditioner
aloe
honey

I use a 1:1 cond. and aloe with a squirt of honey.  Can use as a final conditioner or can leave in for an hour or so before rinsing


Liquid Cold Cream

I tsp shea butter
oil of choice--I've used macadamia and sweet almond so far
1 ml lavender eo
0.5-1 ml rosemary eo
1 drop tea tree eo

Melt shea in a couple TBSP oil, put in 2 oz bottle and top with remaining oil.  Add eo.  Originally made 4 oz but the eo faded.  Used the remainder for deep conditioner with fab results.  Gotta love the shea.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
List of my LL sticks:


Artistix
Smoldering Fire

Decostix
Rose Frappe (SE)

Duetstix
Marigold Garden (SE)
Strawberry Mint

Fantasystix
Alchemy Fantasy (SE)
Meadow Roses (SE)

Geishastix
Dragon
Scarlet Heart II
Winter Sunset

Gemstix
Inner Glow Labradorite
Rock Candy Candy Jade
Sparkling Heart

Glimmerstix
Autumn's Colors
Autumn Twist (SE)
Jonquil Fire
Smoked Spice
Smoldering Embers

Glitterstix
Gilded Sophistication
Sparkling Fire (SE)
Vixen

Holostix
Firestorm

Individualistix
Crimson Bloom
Gilded Fire
Puppy Love (LE)
Raven Feather
The Scream II (SE)
Warm Glow

Majestix
Crimson Rose
Peach Chic
Silvered Cinnabar

Myststix
Snowy Night (SE)
Forest Fire

Original LL Hairstix
Butterfly Sky

Pearlistix
Pearl Plumeria (SE)
Violet Vining (SE)

Rapunzelstix
Bahama Breeze
Dangerous Love
Evergreen Dreams
Gilded Vitrail
Good Tidings
Spiced Rosaline

Shadowstix
Montana Sparkle
Miss Scarlet

Spiralstix
Jewels

Sterlingstix
Cherry Tea (SE)
Moroccan Twilight (SE)

Sugarstix
Holiday Lily VI (SE)

Swingstix
Vampira

Hi.  Thanks for sharing your recipes-I love natural skin care.
What's asa?

Good luck with your cat.

Namaste,
Sakina

Oh, yeah.  The salicilic (sp?) acid is what helps the blackheads.
Thanks!

Blast from the past, 2/13/05 to be exact, when I tried the Hair Rinse for Brunettes:

1 tsp dried Rosemary
1/2 c boiling H2O
1 cup strong lukewarm coffee
1/4 cup ACV
vitamin E capsule

Steep rosemary in H2O bout 30 min until has cooled to lukewarm.  Combine all ingredients in spray bottle and shake well (cut open vit e capsule and add the inside;discard the capsule part).  Spray on hair, cover and let sit 30 min.  Wash as usual.

They didn't mention that the spraying part is really messy and you should be naked in the tub with the shower curtain closed unless you really love washing the walls, floor, bathmat, cats.....  It's really smelly, too.  Vinegar coffee, ick.  The vinegar smell fades, but my hair stunk like old coffee for a week, though the next wash took care of a lot of the odor.  I put peppermint eo in my hair to cut the smell--I'd forgotten that.    Didn't work, though.  Didn't seem to affect the grey at all.  My hair was really soft, but that's the vinegar.  I did try it the next week using black tea instead of coffee.  It didn't smell as bad, but still didn't seem to do anything special for my hair, at least nothing special enough to justify the mess.

I want my Chagrin Valley soaps!  Galadriel already has hers (pout  ).  Her review was so positive, I just can't wait!

My soaps arrived yesterday!  They look pretty and feel nice and soapy; unfortunately I can't smell anything worth a ---- lately.  Stupid allergies.  Between the worst allergy season I've seen in 35 years, the start of daylight savings time and my onset of menses this week I feel so crappy I could have the plague and not even know it.

Anyway, I got:

soaps:  chocolate orange twist
            citrus woods green tea
            cucumber lime yogurt
            dead sea spa
            orange coconut cream
            rosemary lemon  & aloe (free since she only had
                          a couple of slivers of the orange
                          chocolate soap left)
            shea rose clay

shampoos:  herb garden
                   rosemary lavender aloe
                   rosemary mint (free sample)

Most of the soaps were sample sized and the orange cream goes to Mom.  I was going to give my SIL the orange chocolate soap, but I guess I"ll keep the slivers for myself, oh darn!  Tonight is hairwash night so tomorrow I"ll post my review in the thread in the product reviews section.

I bought a 10-pack of Magic Grip Hair Pins at Kmart last Saturday. (click here http://www.ulta.com/showcase/hairaccessory.html to see what they look like if you don't know.  They're the 6th one down.  They're 2.99 at ulta.aom and 8.95 at Vermont Country Store.  I suppose VCS depends on business from the google-impaired)  I used them yesterday and today to hold my ersatz french twist.  I must admit I didn't think plastic hairpins were any match for my hair but they hold wonderfully well.  I only needed 4 to hold up my hair today and I probably could get by with fewer.  Very impressive.  The Good Hair Days website said if the plastic tines spread while wearing, wrap them with a rubber band at night and they should be ok in the am.  I'll try that; one did spread a bit.

I started a new recipe:

Herbal Vinegar Rinse

2 cups ACV
2 oz lavender buds
1 TBSP glycerin
10 gtt rose geranium eo

Heat ACV to just below boiling and add lavender.  Remove from heat and let steep x 1 week.  Strain and add other ingredients.  Store in the refrigerator.  To use, mix 4 oz vinegar mix to 4 cups warm water.

I did the ACV/lavender mix last night.  They aren't really clear on the final proportions--I wonder if they mean 4 floz or 1/2 cup?  Time will tell.  I also wonder how necessary is it to keep it in the fridge.  With all this vinegar I would imagine it would keep well in a cool dark place where I keep all sorts of other things, like onions and my basic good nature.  I also won't be using rose geranium eo cuz I don't have any, and I don't need more little amber glass bottles cluttering up my sink.  I'll probably use lavender eo or maybe rosemary.  I could throw caution to the winds and use both!  I am a wild woman.

My hair is already getting oily!  The front is all shiny and not in that "where are the cameras for your commercial you sexy thing you" way, but in the "soap and water are inexpensive and readily available, why don't you try some?" way.  I may have to try scalp washing on my alternate days this summer. 

Used my new Chagrin Valley shampoo bar last night.  For full details, see the Product Review page.  Thank heavens Galadriel mentioned using an ACV rinse afterward or I might have panicked when my hair did its wig impression.

Got my beads from Silver Crow Creations--two yellow and pink lampwork monkey heads and a gorgeous large skull carved out of coral.  If I'm alive at all I need to make hairsticks this weekend.  I"'m sure I have a big chunk of turquoise somewhere to partner my skull.  That'll make 2 skeleton-themed hairsticks I"ve made, not to mention the devil duckie ones.  I need to wear my duckies again.   8) I also got some lampwork cat beads from ebay.  They did promise they'd be in pairs, but really, yellow cats and mauve cats?  Ick.  The black are nice and the blue ok, but yellow and mauve.      Maybe someone at work will want them.

I'm becoming hair obsessed.  Everything I see I wonder if I can put it in my hair.  "Pizza?  Sure!  The grease is conditioning and the pepperoni decorative!  Bring it on!"  Mom bought a new skirt this weekend and I took the ribbon belt for my hair; I tried to talk her into the green skirt since I like green better than peach.  She suggested I trot myself to JoAnn's and buy whatever color ribbon I darn well please.    I love my Mom 

The ACV with the lavender buds is a funky purple blue color with an equally funky smell.  I put it in a vintage aluminum thermos thing with a glass liner.  I'll strain it next week and use it when I use the shampoo bar.

The bats in the roof were fighting last night.  They've been fighting alot lately and it keeps me up.  What do bats have to fight about anyway?  If it's about lack of space they shouldn't have moved into my gable in the first place--it's cramped up there.  They'd better decimate the mosquito population this summer if they're going to screech all night.

I found an interesting looking recipe for an aloe body butter.  I'll make it when and IF I get my BPAL imps.

I was browsing the Majestic Mountain Sage website.  They've got so many oils--emu (supposed to encourage hair growth), cranberry seed (lots of omegas), red raspberry seed (supposed to have some sunblocking properties--wonder how it would do in hair?), rose hip oil (so pretty--mainly for mature and damaged skin and between my natural oiliness and vampiric tendencies, my skin isn't going to mature any time soon, but it's so pretty!),  aloe butter--aloe vera infused into coconut oil!  I do NOT need any oil at the moment, I don't I don't I don't I really don't.  It'll take years to use up the jojoba I have now, not to mention the macadamia and sweet almond....I bet cranberry oil would make great cold cream.....stop it!  No more oil!  At least until the rose hip is back in stock 

Stopped using my BBB two weeks ago and I have noticably fewer splits.  I miss my brush, it worked so well to distribute the oil through my length.  I've been using a cheap wooden comb from tenderheaded.com, and it does help a bit but it isn't the same.    I was supposed to get a comb from Ric Carpenter for my birthday, but he's in Hawaii now and not taking orders.

Just a note:  using only hairsticks to hold my twist fell out in about 7 hours, whereas if I use the good time hairpins and just decorate with the sticks it stays up till I take it down.  I used the 6" sticks; I wonder if the 8" sticks would hold better?  The sticks also slid a lot, I may need to put the little hair safe rubber bands on them to keep them from slipping out.

Whee!  My Dangerous Love and Bahama Breeze Rapunzelstixs came!  They're so shiny  .  I must be part magpie; I just love shiny things.   

I've finally admitted that sticks shorter than 6 inches won't hold all of my hair.   I rounded up my shorter hairsticks and gave them to a friend.  NOT my LL sticks though, I use them for decoration.  I consider them jewelry along with my earrings, etc.  I do have to put one of those tiny little hair safe rubber bands around the bottom third of the stick and twist them into my hair or else they tend to slide out--once my Geisha stick popped right out of my bun and smashed into the pavement!    Luckily the pin was only bent a bit and it seems fine now.  If they don't fall out they slide down and my hair tangles around the findings.  The rubber bands stop that as well and they don't hurt my hair as long as I remember they're there and don't just yank the sticks out in the evening.  Ouch.

Hi.  I like your idea of soaking feet in asa & h2o.  I have tile in my house and work barefoot so my heels are always rough, flakey and most of the time cracked. 

I came across this recipe-intend to make it someday so haven't tried it yet.  Perhaps this would work for you instead of stinky teatree.  It is good stuff, but I can't stand the smell, either.

1 tsp eo lemongrass
5 tsp eo rosemary
3 tsp eo lavender
4 tsp eo basil
2 tsp eo lemon
2 tsp eo sandalwood
10 tsp jojoba oil

Combine & store in dark, cool place.  Massage 2 tsp into dry scalp for 3 mins. and rub a bit into ends of hair.  Wrap head in plastic or shower cap, then wrap again with warm damp towel.  To keep towel warm, dampen and place in microwave for 45 seconds or so then put on over plastic.  Set timer for 5 mins., at end of 5 mins. put back in microwave and repeat warming until you've kept warm towel on for 30-45 minutes.  Rinse and shampoo.

Sounds good, huh?

Went to a conference this weekend (Fri, Sat, Sun) and it was my first big travelling experience with all my new hair and skin care.  I like making my own potions, but it's a bear to travel with them.   I took my lotion bar (to substitute for my facewashing and hair oils), rosewater, ACV, toner, and conditioner.  I ended up not using the conditioner or ACV.  I took my shampoo bar and homemade soap as well, and I made up 2 pouches of herbs for my rinse (lined my mortar with a coffee filter and pounded together 1 tsp ea. catnip pellets, sage and rosemary) which made my cosmetics bag smell awfully nice.  I knew the hotel where I was staying had a coffee maker and I used that to heat the water to make the rinse.  I do have a coil that plugs into the wall that you put in a cup of water to heat it almost to boiling that I can take with me when needed. 

I washed with the Rosemary Lavender Aloe bar on Thursday night and though my hair was a bit tangly I didn't use the ACV rinse.  My hair was much fuller on Friday than usual, very nice.  I used the sample Shea Rose Clay soap to shave my legs and it was a bit drying.  I'll save it for the summer when my skin is even oiler than usual.  The lotion bar worked well on my hair, but I found out I really have to rub it into the hair, rather than lightly coat my palms and scrunch it into my ends.  It worked fine to wash my face but I prefer my oil/shea mix.  It's fine for vacations though and I hate travelling with messy bottles of oil.   I keep the bar in a Rubbermaid container 'cause it'll melt if it gets too hot.  I also works wonders for my skin and I melted a bit in my bathwater and it was so nice.  The main problem is the bar smells like the unrefined shea butter; usually when I put shea on my skin the smell is gone in around 10 minutes but with the lotion bar it lingers.  It isn't a bad smell but I don't want to smell like unrefined shea all day.  I'll have to melt a bar and scent it with eo.  The beeswax in the bar did not seem to leave any residue on my hair.

My hotel was right across from the mall and the accessories stores (Claire's and Icing) were having a buy one hairtoy get one 50% off sale and believe me, sale hairtoys is the only thing that could have gotten me in those places during prom season.  Most everything is purple or pink, making it look like Barbie exploded all over the walls, but I found some (some?--  lots  ) things.

My hair behaved itself this weekend and looked darn good if I do say so myself.  The meeting however--YAWN.  One afternoon lecture was 5 hours long and not pertinent in any way, shape, or form to my work or life.  I wrote out journal entries longhand, practiced handwriting by transcribing favorite Marx Bros. quotes and even wrote a song about hairsticks and I still had hours to fill.    And it didn't help when the mall was calling to me the whole time.  Stupid mall.   

After I got home I strained the lavender out of the ACV I'd left steeping for a week.  It smelled strongly of lavender and not of ACV at all.  Very nice.  I added 10 drops of lavender eo and a TBSP of glycerine.  I used it instead of my herbal rinse--1/2 cup ACV to 4 cups warm water.  It worked well, but 4 cups is a bit more than I use.  I'll use it weekly, but next time I'll use 1/4 cup in 2-3 cups water.  That way the ACV/lavender mix will last 2 months instead of one.  You probably could leave out the glycerin if you didn't have any, it probably doesn't make that much difference.  I used the Herb Garden shampoo bar, no conditioner, and the rinse last night.  My hair is incredibly soft today.

All of your mini buns sound cute!  I have a new idea for you:
4 mini buns.  Divide your hair down the center.  Then divide each section in half and secure each into 4 little ponys.  Then twist each section into a bun or braid and bun.  I like this look with the hair low, close the the nape of the neck.  Then I'll take a pair of hairstix and cross them through the center most buns.
I find it makes my head feel light, like I don't have sooo much hair.

I'm curious, how do you make the mini infinity and mini chinese buns?  That sounds fun.  How long is your hair?  Mine's somewhere around 19 1/2 inches.

I got my spiderweb slide and tri-color rose pic from bronze jewelers yesterday!  They're so bright; I expected them to be more subdued for some reason, but they're gorgeous.  I wore my slide today and it held all day without bugging me (no pun intended).  At first I was afraid it wouldn't hold my hair--a french twist is much to thick and a twisted loop is too thick as well.  I finally french braided my hair and tucked the tail up.  I've never been able to do that style before because I couldn't find the right toy to hold it up.  Hairsticks slide out and the standard barrette catches my hair and pulls it out (shudder).   The slide words wonderfully well and it's nice and big; four inches long and about 3 inches on the wide end.  The spider is beautiful and nice and big as well.    The pick is lovely too.  Last night I pulled the sticks out of my 2 buns and stuck the pick through them.  It held them both and squeezed them both together so they looked like one bun swirled on both ends. 

The Lime Cucumber Yogurt soap was very moisturizing and worked as well for me as the Dead Sea Spa soap.  I think it's just the clay that makes the Shea Rose clay drying.  I was going to give a bar to my SIL, but her skin is so dry it wouldn't work at all.   I think I'll order her the Dead Sea soap next time.

My hair finally makes a bun, but I'm not real thrilled with it.  It's still a bit knobby and pulls a bit since I have to twist it so tightly to make it stay.  I secured it with 2 hairsticks and 2 magic grip hair pins and it held all day without inducing a migraine, so can't really complain.  It was the 3rd attempt at styling this am; my hair did not want to cooperate.  I measured it and it's about 3.5 inches wide by 1.5 inches deep.  I want a snood from bronze jewelers (the spiderweb one with spider.  Anyone surprised?)  I think I'll wait a little while and gain a couple of inches so my bun is more stable.

Used the Herb Garden shampoo bar last night.  My hair really seems to love it.  There's no tangling or stickiness and I don't have to use ACV or conditioner.  I wonder if it's because my hair really prefers it to the Rosemary Lavender Aloe or if it's just finally gotten used to the shampoo bars?  I'll try the RLA on Sunday and see.  My hair is super soft today.

I doubled the amount of sage in my herbal rinse, mostly because I bought a huge jar of sage at Kroger.  I made toner last night and poured the unused rooibos tea into the rinse as well.  Now, instead of leaving the turbi twist towel on all evening, I take it off after 20 min or so, use my leave-in and detangle, and leave my hair down until bedtime when I braid it.  Then I unbraid it first thing in the am.  When I do this my hair is almost dry when I style it, and using the leave-in before leaving it down keeps tangles to a minimum. 

I didn't use hairspray this morning to keep the flyaways down, but used the aloe mixture instead.  It worked pretty well and my hair is so soft this evening instead of being stiff and tacky.

Used Rosemary Lavender Aloe soap last pm and even with the lavender vinegar rinse, my hair isn't as soft as with the Herb Garden.  It's still soft, but so far Herb Garden is the best!  My new soaps, the honeybeeregg and nettle I'll use next week.

Made the zit zapper mask again last night, with a few additions.  My new recipe:

1 tsp bentonite clay
1-2 crushed asa
1 tsp yogurt
1 tsp honey
1 tsp ACV
1-2 gtt tea tree oil
1-2 gtt peppermint eo

Combine, put on face, leave for an hour and rinse.  The peppermint made my face tingle, which is why I used it, and my skin was nice and soft after rinsing.  I read somewhere you can use kitty litter for a clay mask--I suppose it's the non-clumping kind, and you'd want to crush it up--but it might work.  I bought a pound of bentonite clay, though, and at 1 tsp every other week, it's going to last a while.

Put my hair up in a bun today and tied a scarf around it.  Looked good, but by 3pm my scalp hurt so badly I had to take it down.  Sigh.  I guess I put it too high--it was close to my crown.  I don't like the look of a low bun on me, though, so I must wait for more hair.

It was unseasonably cold this weekend and Sunday we had snow!     It was gone by afternoon and I shouldn't complain; Mom and Dad had 8 inches of snow.  I brought Agatha in on Saturday, at her request.  She still likes to be outside, but she got spoiled during her recuperation and won't put up with cold weather anymore.   The boys were not happy and they all growled and muttered at each other through the crack under the door.   Those studies that say having a cat lowers your blood pressure obviously never had one, let alone three. 

I covered the cork of my toner bottle.  I cut out a circle of plastic from some shrinkwrap and wrapped the cork in it and stuck the whole thing in the bottle.  I trimmed the plastic to about 2/3 of the height of the exposed cork, then wrapped it all with brown waxed twine I was making book thongs with.  I secured the top end with a sequin pin stuck through a flat grey glass bead with red streaks.  The top of the cork was left open.   I like it.  It looks like a little hat.

I also messed around with some 20 gague wire I had and made some wire slides (I used a chopstick for the stick part).  They held fine, but they all looked kind of tatty.  Maybe I could add some beads, or paint them.  Maybe heavier wire would look better.

Used the Honey Beer and Egg shampoo bar last night and it worked great!  My hair is soft and full.  I was a bit afraid of the egg, since my hair doesn't like protein, but it's a hit.

Added a hibiscus/rosehip teabag to the herbal rinse, since I bought a tin of them and they taste awful    They work ok in my hair, though. 

The front of my hair looks really good today which I mention only because to my recollection it's the first time it's looked good since 1988.  The back looks kind of crappy but hey, I don't have to look at it.

After I washed my hair last night I left it down to dry a bit and Rumpole went crazy, wallowing all over it.  He really misses me wearing my hair down all the time.  It nice to be appreciated so overtly, even though I do have to comb his fur out of my hair afterward. 

My hair is behaving today; amazing.  Used the HB&E shampoo bar again and it seems to be working.  I'm giving my mom a piece for her to try.  She has short hair, and I"ve heard that it works for short hair.  Poor Mom; I keep interfering with her haircare.   I'm trying to talk her into doing a weekly vinegar rinse to clarify.  Her hair's really quite healthy, but it doesn't hurt to pamper it a bit.  She doesn't peruse the boards and thinks vinegar on the hair is weird.  8)  When I told her I oil my ends, she wondered if I was turning into a salad.    I suppose it does sound a little weird if you aren't used to it.  Before I came here I never would have put aloe vera, catnip, or oil on my hair; I'd have thought it was pretty strange myself!

:::clap clap clap:::
The "soft shoe" with the song was great!

Now you MUST show us a picture of the sticks in your hair!

Sorry you're worried about Agatha.  Perhaps she decided to mend her hardcore ways during her recovery indoors.  Did she spend a lot of time with you then?  Maybe she likes you better than being outside.  Whatever it is, I hope she'll be OK.

***********THEY'RE COMING!!**************
_______________________________________

(Rant ahead, with a healthy dose of self-pity.  You have been warned.)

Am sick, sick, sick of my hair today.  It's too straight, too brown, too grey, too slick, too oily, just too much.  Bleh.  I'm going to restrain myself this time though.  Usually I'd color my hair or hack off a few inches with my kitchen shears. but I"m not going to do that today.  Maybe I'll just cover it with a scarf until I forget how BROWN, STRAIGHT, GREY AND BORING it is.  Sigh.  Maybe I could pretend like it's made of chocolate.  I'd like the color then.  I'm sick of braids and sick of updos.  I"m not sick of hairsticks though (my precioussss.....es). 

Now, Bogie is a grey tabby; he has grey and black and brown hair and he works it well.  I'm jealous.    HIS hair (fur) is also really soft and he cleans it with water only---awfully short terminal length, though. 

I'll get over this.  I always do.  This time, however, I'll make it to the other side without damage.

Speaking of damage, I was in Big Lots the other day and bought some Scunci bar-rettes.  They're a short, slightly curved bar with a small claw clip on either end.  You wrap your hair around the bar and clip it in place.  They looked interesting so I bought a couple.  I put them in, it looked ok.  Then I tried to take them out......AAARRRGGGHHH!!!  They tangled in my hair and it took a good 20 minutes to get the bloody things free .  For a dark minute I was afraid I'd have to get the scissors.  Ever since I've been having tangles on the sides of my hair where the stupid bar things were.   

Hairwash night.  I need to make cold cream too.  I'm also sick of hairwashing AND cold cream. 

I think I need a vacation.  8)

**************THEY'RE COMING!!!***************
____________________________________________

Watched "Killer Klowns from Outer Space" last night.  For those of you with good taste, it's about killer clowns who encase people in pink cotton candy cocoons and suck out their blood with crazy straws.  It's more fun than it sounds.  Anyway, this morning when I was heading off for work I noticed a piece of pink cottony stuff stuck in my windshield wipers!!!  AAHHH!  THE CLOWNS!! THE CLOWNS ARE...oh wait, it's just a piece of insulation.  

I put Agatha P. out and she pouted around the porch and wouldn't eat so I carried her back upstairs and she did the "No!  Put me down horrible naked pink biped thing!" full-body spasm.  I shut her back up in the kitty suite and she's not coming out until she obtains a tiny kitty pardon from the govenor or spells "Let Me Out" with her kibble.

I feel better because my brother is visiting today!  That's not the really good part--he's interviewing for 2 jobs and is definately getting one of them.  That's not the really, really good part---either job will bring him and his family to within 3 hours of my house!!!  YAY!!  I haven't seen my nephew or SIL since Christmas and I haven't seen my brother since Feb. which doesn't really count since it was a funeral.

Rosemary Lavender Aloe is working better since I let it dry out.  It lathers more and it's not sticky on my hair.  Hair feels good today. (we won't mention the boring straight brown-greyness, although someone at work told me today that I was much too young to have so much grey.  I guess it's a compliment.  My mom did the same thing at my age so it's her fault.  On the other hand Mom is 60 and still has wonderfully thick hair.  If she didn't pass that gene on to me I'm gonna be ticked.)

Wearing a plain bun today.  I found if I don't twist my hair too tightly the bun isn't as painful and it stays together as well.  I'm wearing a pair of Blondiesturn hairsticks today for the first time and they've held till noon.  They're crescent-shaped and carved out of cocobolo wood and they're quite lovely.  No sparkles though.  

I rubbed some aloe/jojoba mixture on my hair where it's been tangling from the evil bar-rettes and it decreased the tangling without making my hair too oily.  I love aloe.

Thanks for the hug, Bikerbraid.  I really needed one yesterday.  

Wearing my Spiralstix today--can't remember the name but the stick is purple and they have gorgeous turquoise-colored crystals on top.  Jewels something I think; all of the pamphlets are at home so I can't check.  Anyway, they go wonderfully with this outfit and this outfit only.   I have 2 pairs of LL hairsticks that go perfectly with one shirt and one shirt only.    (I wear both pairs at the same time.  It looks like I have a little crown around my bun.)  I've been told my late grandma would do this--buy an outfit and spend 3x as much on accessories.  It's genetic, I can't help myself! 

I don't really like orange.  I only own 2 shirts that are orange and one is more of a red than orange and the other just has a couple of orange flowers on it.  So why oh why do I love all of the LL sticks in orange?  I own 3 pairs that are orange and thank heavens someone reserved the Foiled Fire sticks or I might have bought them too and I don't have anything that really goes with them except for brown and if I wear too much brown I look like a big old clod of dirt.  Well, a big old clod of dirt with sparkly orange hairsticks on top.

My hair was very tangly last night after wearing it down yesterday.  Since it wasn't hairwash night I didn't want to use too much oil so I used my aloe/jojoba hair gloss mixture and it worked really well.  It smoothed out a lot of the tangles but didn't over-oil my length.   I'm still using the aloe/tea tree to moisturize my face in the pm.  It seems to be working ok, but the acid test will be in a couple of weeks when the PMS kicks in.

I've been using oil only to clean my face for the past 2 months or so, using a salicylic acid acne wash/scrub as a adjunct depending on my cycle .  Lately it's been drying my skin out, especially right after my period, so last night I used the Chagrin Valley Shea Rose Clay soap and it worked very nicely.  I used my liquid cold cream to remove my makeup (it's the best thing I've ever found--gets every speck of makeup off my face) and the soap afterwards to remove the oil.  Yesterday I had flaking on my nose and cheeks, but none today.  I'm still using the aloe/tea tree oil for a pm moisturizer without ill effects and it seems to work at least as well as the salicylic acid moisturizer I used before.

I must have balanced my bun wrong yesterday; by 6pm my scalp just ached.  I wore 2 buns today and put my tri-colored rose pic through them both, but my scalps still a bit tender.  I'll probably wear a french braid tomorrow and give it a rest.

I was browsing on BPAL yesterday, just killing time, and I made the mistake of checking out their limited edition scents.  They had one called 13!  Only available until 12:01 midnight tonight!  I mean, how could I not buy it?   8)  It's got 13 ingredients and I have no idea what it might smell like, but it's gotta be interesting if nothing else.  And of course if I'm ordering I might as well get some imps and a big bottle of Zombi and one of Blood Rose....sigh.  I'm glad the Rapunzelstix haven't been updated or I might have had to have a little conversation with my bank  "What?  No mortgage payment this month?  Why, I have no idea what may have happened, but doesn't my hair look great?  And don't I smell wonderful?"   

I could live in my car--I paid it off in March.    The cats could live in the glove compartment and I could keep my hairsticks in the cup holders. 

My hair and I have reached an accord this week, so it's behaving reasonably well and I"m not swearing at it as much. I'm wearing a twisted loop again today and it kind of looks like a snail shell again, but it's not as nice as yesterday's.  I knew it.    With my hair all twisted and clipped up it looks like I don't have much at all, so I get more compliments when I (rarely) wear it down. 

I ordered the Miss Scarlet Shadowstix today.

I had to!  I have the Warm Glow Individualistick, and it has a the same beads as Miss Scarlet, only with a gold-painted stick.  They're made for each other--who am I to thwart fate?

I also ordered the Moroccan Twilight Sterlingstix because, um, evil little men with green hair said if I didn't they would pull off Bogie's tail.  Bogie creates enough destruction when he has his full sense of balance, such as it is, so I must protect my house, right?  Plus Bogie would be sad without his tail, and a good cat slave must protect her master.   8)

Quote:


I know; when I saw the little moon I had to buy them

Pony-Bun was a hit.  I managed to keep a ponytail at my crown all day without pain or sliding.  So today I divided my hair into 2 ponytails again, but this time I made the top tail into a bun and wrapped the bottom one around it.  I prefer the look of a bun on the crown of my head than the look of a low bun on me--so far this seems to be working.  It felt a little heavy this morning, but it didn't hurt and now I don't feel anything at all.  This is good 'cause I seem to have outgrown a sock bun.

Hair Regimen:

TTSun: PM:   Hairwash nights.  Wash with Chagrin Valley shampoo bars and use herbal infusion as final rinse (2 tsp each dried catnip, sage, and rosemary, 1 hibiscus tea bag to about 2 cups boiling water.  ACV used weekly).  Squeeze out excess water, wrap hair in turbi towel until worst of the water is gone, then let down, comb out with seamless plastic comb, add leave-in conditioner, and let air dry till bedtime.  Braid and cover with rubber ducky sock.

AM:  Comb and style

MWFSat:  PM:  detangle with Ric Carpenter wooden comb, oil ends with jojoba.  Scritch scalp with horn comb and massage scalp with aloe mixture (1/2 cup aloe vera gel, 1 TBSP witch hazel, 1.5 TBSP distilled H2O.  Mix well.   I have a 1 oz jar and I filled it about 2/3 of the way up with the mixture and added:  1 drop basil eo, 1 drop red thyme eo, 1 drop cedarwood eo, 3 drops lemongrass eo, 10 drops lavender eo, 10 drops lemon eo, 5 drops rosemary eo, 5 drops sandalwood eo.  Stir and stir and stir again).  Braid hair and cover with rubber ducky sock.

AM:  Comb and style.

While it does take a little time to make the aloe mixture and my herbal rinse, I don't think this is a complicated routine (now my skin care routine, that can get complicated ).  Plus the styling usually takes 5-10 minutes max, even when my hair is in a stubborn mood.  I usually take longer to decide what hairsticks to wear than to style my hair in the first place.

I just mention it because I've gotten several comments on how long it must take to care for "all that hair."  

Quote:


I do hope that Bogie is a pet and not your significant other! 

Used my new Chagrin Valley carrot,milk and honey shampoo bar last night.  It looks like my hair is a bit overconditioned today, but since it was still damp this morning, it's a little hard to tell.  I'm wearing a scarf bun today--I put my hair up in a pony double bun, only THIS time I braided both ponytails, wrapped the lower around the base of the upper, then wrapped the upper around the outside.  It was a bit lopsided, so I covered it with the scarf my mom gave me.  It's long, with a black border, and the middle is covered with squares, in each a close-up of a cat face, all in orange, black, white and grey.  The crazy cat lady strikes again!

I've been wandering over to the Bronze Jeweler's site more and more often.  I really want the spiderweb snood.  With spider.  *drool*   Saturday I wore my hair loose in a low ponytail, secured by my spiderweb slide.  My hair's almost to the bottom of my brastrap now.  The slide and I went to Wal-Moo and bought Seinfeld Season 4 on DVD.  We enjoyed it very much. 

My hair was 27" on 4/20, and it's 27" today.

stomp, pout, stomp, pout, stomp, pout

At least I know it's not at terminal length, since it was longer than this when I cut it in Feb.

I"m wearing my hair braided back in a ponytail today so it feels long, anyway.    Stupid resting hair.  I don't think it should be able to rest when I can't.

I made some homemade tendskin, recipe here:

http://www.geocities.com/bonnecasey/tendskinhomemade.html

I used an 8oz plastic bottle I got at Sally's to measure--it was marked in 1-oz increments and I eyeballed the half-oz measures.  I crushed the asa before adding it and put 4 drops of glycerin in the mix.  I"ve been using it as a spot treatment and it works wonderfully.  Keep in mind I have thick, oily, troubled skin and my daily toner is half ACV and half red tea (with some asa thrown in) so I can take something this strong on my face. 

Birdsnest bun today.  I'm wearing my Forest Fire LLsticks and I stuck one through either side of the ponytail so they'd be long enough.  It was a bit unstable at first, when I was pulling the hair behind the sticks, but after I wrapped the hair around they'e holding well.  The pointy ends of the sticks are visible but it isn't too bad.  Having another way to wear my shorter sticks is always great! 

I have to admit I tried tugging on the sticks before I left for work to see if someone could snitch one without my knowledge.     Yes, I am now offically paranoid.

My ends have been dry lately, and I'm not doing anything differently. ???  I washed my hair yesterday am and by evening my hair was dry and tangly even though I had used my usual leave-in.  Before bed last night I slathered on some aloe/jojoba mix and it's better today.  Still odd, though.  It's not growing, but it's drying out.  Yeah.  Thanks, hair. 

Wearing 2 buns today with my sushi sticks!  I whittled the tops of the sticks so they'd fit into the holes in the sushi pencil toppers, painted the sticks black, and stuck headpins through the toppers and glued the whole shebang together.  My hair looks like a lunch special. 

I"m trying out Aromaleigh's mineral makeup.  I have a hard time finding foundation that's pale with good coverage.  This is pale enough (some of the samples were too pale; I didn't think that was possible! ), but the coverage isn't as thorough as I'd like.  It looks nice, and I don't have the line of makeup around my jaw.  It doesn't come off on my clothes and it doesn't turn colors when it gets oily or sweaty.  We'll see how things turn out.

For the past 15 years or so I would grow my hair for a year, then go to the salon and have it permed and cut back up to my earlobes and start the whole thing over again.  I used the cheapest shampoos available at Big Lots, and only used conditioner rarely.  I'd tear tangles out of my hair and used combs teeming with seams, and when my hair bothered me I'd hack off a few inches with whatever scissors were handy.  My hair, on the other hand, grew wildly and would occasionally attack passersby if not properly restrained.

Now I'm nice to my hair. I give it Chagrin Valley shampoo bars, seam-free wooden and horn combs, expensive oils and shea butter, special supplements to pamper it.  I braid it at night to protect it and treat it gently, and what does it do to thank me?  It stops growing.    I was considering this last night and I have it figured out:  my hair thinks that it has retired.  8)  Think about it; years of harrassment and worry suddenly stop.  It's time for it to put up it's feet and take it easy.  No more work, time to rest.  I guess I can have the hair version of Social Security tell it that it hasn't put in enough time to get a check; that should spur it into action again.    The retirement theory also explains the grey. 

Anyway, my ungrateful hair has really enjoyed the aloe/jojoba mix.  I put some on yesterday and it was sleek and tangle free yesterday pm as well as this am.  My scalp is very oily today and the only thing I've done differently is I got off of my washing schedule:  I forgot to wash Sunday (holidays always throw me off) so I washed Monday am and Tuesday pm.  Maybe that was too much washing?  It's used to every other day.  Hmmm.  It's hairwash (and toner) night tonight and I'll see how things are Saturday.

Summer is officially here!  I turned on the AC yesterday, which sounds easy, but I have to empty the big Rubbermaid bin and attach the hose to drain the water, because the individual who built my house decided that a waterbed pump would be just fine and dandy to remove the excess water from a central air conditioner, and the pump of course broke after one year and darned if I'm going to replace it every single year so I sawed off the pipe and attached a leftover hose from the washer and let the water drain into a big bin and every so often I have to dip the water out and I either wash clothes with it or pour in on the lawn; then  I have to change the furnace filter which is size 18x20x1 and I've nevernevernevernever seen that size sold so I have to buy the 20x20x1 and cut it down which means I always cut my finger on the wire mesh and yesterday  was no exception and I'm not sure if I'm UTD on my tetnus shot or not  but the AC is on!  And it's 90 deg and 80+ humidity!  And I'm not leaving the house until September!  Or later!  And hopefully by then my migraine will finally go away!

Once I got back on my hairwashing schedule my scalp wasn't nearly as greasy or gunky.  So much for daily scalp washing.  Really, though, scritching and aloe/eo massage seem to help.  I also found another way to wear my shorter sticks:  I make a basic bun and fasten it with a full-sized chopstick, then on the other side I put in a pair of shorter sticks, set parallel to each other.  I really need a long stick to keep a bun up--with shorter sticks the bun slowly untwists through the day until my hairsticks are upside down.  Sunday I tried a stainless steel chopstick and my pair of Cherry Tea LL sticks and it looked nice.

Watched The Exorcist II:  The Heretic this weekend.  For those of us who watch bad movies on purpose, this is solid gold--horrible, horrible, hilarious film.  There was one scene where Linda Blair was wearing a half-updo (question:  didn't they have enough money in the budget to buy the poor child a bra?  It (or should I say they) was distracting)  that looked like the just the top of the hair was up in a french twist.  I didn't get a good look at the back of her head to see how it was done.  It was pretty.  I tried to make a half-twist on myself but it didn't work.  Sigh.  Oh well.  At least I have a bra. 

I have a giant wad of hair on my head and it is trying to crush my skull.  I can't imagine why unless it wants to have a word with my brain.  I really don't like the way low buns look on me, plus my sticks tend to poke my neck, but it hurts to wear my hair up on my crown.  I'm wearing a double pony bun today and 2 weeks ago it didn't hurt, but today it does.  Since my hair isn't getting longer I can only assume it's getting thicker.    Great.  It's not nearly thick enough.

I'm afraid I won't be able to get to my goal of waist length.  It's hard enough now to balance updos, but with such a mass of hair what if I can only do a figure-8 bun or braid?  If I only have 2 choices for styling I might as well go back to a bob.     Of course then I can't wear my hairsticks, so pooh on that idea.  Not that I'm going to cut or anything, but I may have to choose between length and versatility, and that makes me sad.    Wait, something's missing....oh, it's a bridge!  Since there's no bridge I guess I can't cross it yet, so on to other matters.  8)

Let's see.....my splits have markedly decreased and my hair isn't tangling as much so I assume the damage from the evil, fiendish Scunci bar-rettes is gone, so that's a good.    With the supplements my fingernails are so hard I actually had a bit of trouble trimming them the other day.  If this keeps up I can give away all of my flatheaded screwdrivers. 

IT'S OVER, IT'S OVER, THIS #$%^#$$ WEEK IS FINALLY OVER!!!!!!

This has been the WORST week.  It started with dogs and ended with jury duty and I still don't want to talk about it.  I have to go to the post office tomorrow, but aside from that I'm not doing anything that could possibly be interpreted as constructive in anyway whatsoever.

You know, there are complaints about people not voting, but when you're punished with jury duty (on call for 3 MONTHS ALL BLOODY SUMMER LONG!!!) I can see why not.  

My ends are drier than normal.  It's hot, I forgot my ACV rinse this week and I didn't oil a couple of days so it could be any one of those reasons.  I put a load of aloe/jojoba on it this morning.  It usually likes that.  

Hair was still wet this morning, so I didn't make a bun--damp buns make  my hair tangle big-time.  I made a chopstick twist, then twisted the remaining tail and tucked it back up.  It needed a couple of hairpins to help hold it but it looks good.  Yay!  A new updo.  I"m wearing my Maiden's Treasures black hairsticks with the silver spider dangle.  Heh heh, spider.    I need a 7-8" stick to twist my hair up easily,  though I can use a 6" stick if needed.  Chopsticks are still best, hence the name.

I have got to get a camera.  And high-speed internet access from home.  I figure our little backwards slice of ruralness will get high-speed internet shortly after the sun implodes.  

Pondering the irony of using 5 different mineral powders, one sponge, 4 brushes, one moisturizer, lavender water, and 20 minutes to make my face look like it has no makeup on it.........................ok, done.  

Ordered a bunch of BPAL that will probably come in the end of August, so I have time to fill my account.    I've reached the conclusion that my wonky body chemisty, the same chemistry that attracts mosquitos from 3 states (seriously.  I've had mosquitos literally drown in the insect repellent I spray all over myself, happy to die for the chance of giving me West Nile  ) turns every scent but that of roses into baby powder.  Luckily I like roses.  I ordered imps (and a few 5 ml, unsniffed) of the rose-dominated scents.  I have a scent locket, but I dislike wearing necklaces, and it seems like cheating somehow not to wear perfume on the skin.  I might get some perfume base and scent my hair.  My hair soaks up scents like nobody's business which I why I try to avoid smokers.  Well, that and the whole lung cancer thing.

Got home late every night this week.  I've been neglecting the boys, and they let me know about it last night.  I didn't get to bed until late 'cause I couldn't pry the cats off of me.  Oh, they were purring and looking cute but I could see the evil in their eyes--if I didn't service them NOW there would be a 2 am fight, a 2:45 windowshade removal, a 3:25 am slurping/grooming session, a 4:15 bout with the jingly balls, a 5 am serandae while sitting on the headboard, a 5:27 lick between the eyes, a 6:10 foot pounce, a 6:36 stroll across the pillow, and a 6:53 whisker tickle coupled with incredibly loud purring 1 inch from my ear.    I originally bought my house so my dog could live with me and somehow I ended up with these fuzzy things, these vanguards in the evil army of the night.    I love 'em anyway.  I must be a masochist.

I am too sick to work but not sick enough to stay home.  I hate that. 

Saturday I was at Wal-Moo, as previously mentioned, and while there I thought "Do I have any DayQuil or NyQuil?  Who cares?  It's summer and I'm feeling fine."  Might as well have licked a petri dish full of bubonic plague.  I jinxed myself real good--Sunday afternoon I decided to lie down for a minute and woke up 4 hours later.  I knew instantly I wouldn't be working Monday.  I haven't breathed through my nose since Monday am and I didn't sleep last night because I can't sleep when I can't breathe through my nose.  So today I'm sleep-deprived and slightly loopy from the antihistamine.  I didn't use any decongestant today in hopes it'll work better this pm and I can be in a NyQuil coma all night.

On the plus side, I made my best french twist ever this morning, and decorated it with my mother-of-pearl  X-O from Precious Plunder, or as I like to refer to it, my hair bondage gear.  The pins are a little long and they poke my neck, so they stick up a bit on top and look like antennae, but I got a lot of compliments on it.  I'd like to order another one, maybe in goldstone, but I'm not sure how much longer my hair will fit in a french twist.  Of course, I don't how much longer the head protein will continue resting, so who knows?

Since I was sick today I decided to wear my green dress.  Dress is easier than skirt-shirt because I only have to find one clean thing instead of two.  It has a lace sleeveless underdress and an embroidered short-sleeved overdress.  The two dresses are attached at the shoulder seams.  This makes the dress full and floaty and forgiving of figure flaws.  (nice alliteration, no?  )  It also makes the d$%m thing nearly impossible to put on if either dress it twisted or slightly out of alignment, so it's not the best thing to wear if sleep-deprived, sick, or both.  I stood there in the semi-darkness for 10 minutes this morning turning it over and over and around and around trying to find an opening--neck hole, sleeve, buttonhole--anything!  I didn't have the brainpower to just throw it in the floor for a cat bed and wear something easier, like chain mail or body paint.   8) 

MMU update--the redness of my nose and cheeks has decreased, but my oiliness has increased, probably because the mineral foundation doesn't clog my pores like the liquid does.  Catch-22; more oil, fewer breakouts; or less oil, more breakouts.  Why don't I ever get fun choices, like more chocolate, less ice cream or less ice cream more chocolate?

Well, I think I'm gonna live, but I'm not sure I'm happy about it.    Typical post-cold reaction.  Maybe after I sleep for 8 uninterrupted hours my outlook on life will be rosier.

I left my hair in a bun last night and just washed the front of my hair.  It looks ok today, but my length is oily, so I put it up in a scarf bun so no one can see it.  I love long hair.   

List of my LL sticks:

Jewels Spiralstix
Strawberry Mint Duetstix
Marigold Garden Duetstix
Snowy Night Myststix
Butterfly Sky Original LL Hairsticks
Winter Sunset Geishastix
Smoked Spice Glimmerstix
Autumn's Colors Glimmerstix
Smoldering Embers Glimmerstix
Dragon Geishastix
Jonquil Fire Glimmerstix
Miss Scarlet Shadowstix
Moroccan Twilight Sterlingstix
Cherry Tea Sterlingstix
Vixen Glitterstix
Sparkling Heart Gemstix
Warm Glow Individualistix
Forest Fire Myststix
Gilded Sophistication Glitterstix
Spiced Rosaline Rapunzelstix
Dangerous Love Rapunzelstix
Bahama Breeze Rapunzelstix
Vampira Swingstix
Sparkling Fire Glitterstix

and on order:  Firestorm Holostix

I had a request for a pic of the cats.  I don't have a camera  , and if I did, I have no way to upload pics  .  Here's a quick description:  Bogie is your basic grey and black tabby with just a bit of white around his mouth.  He's 13 pounds and has big feet.

Rumpole is a 14 pound black cat with green eyes. 

Agatha P. is a long-haired pastel calico--orange and grey on the back, with white on her legs and belly and a white streak on her nose (she's reversible--tortie on the back and calico on the front  )  Her face is mostly grey with an orange spot around her mouth.  She's 10-11 pounds now.

Agatha insisted on coming in last night.  She's losing some hair on her left flank, so I'll probably have to take her to the vet Saturday.  Whatever it is hasn't affected her appetite at all.  I got home last night at 10, carried Agatha upstairs and fed her, then went back outside and fed Black Kitty (feral cat who I am trying to tame enough to get him to the vet--he has scratched the skin behind his ears raw and it's bloody and infected.  He's too smart for traps.  I put worm medicine in his food--maybe I could put some antibiotics in.  Or maybe slip him a mickey?  8)).  I loved on Agatha a bit more, took a shower and went to bed.  Bogie was feeling neglected so he slept on my foot last night, and Rumpole dealt with his feelings by pouncing on my head at 5am.  Bogie stalked and killed 12 Q-tips this morning, so the ears of the world are safe....FOR NOW (bom, bom, bommmm  )

Tried a new updo today.  It's based on one from another hair board--Intergalactic Updo .  I made the 2 little twists at the top and secured each with a hairpin, then formed the rest of the hair into a bun and put a pair of my MT sticks through it horizontally.  I put the little hair twists on the crown of my head and they just touch in the middle and the bigger bun sits just underneath.  It does not look a bit like Mickey Mouse either.  It looks cute, and spreads the weight of my hair around so I can wear my bun a bit higher.

My brother defended his dissertation yesterday and he

PASSED!!!!

Woohoo!!  He now has a PhD in electrical engineering!  He starts to work on Monday.  I wanted to buy him a black briefcase that says "Corporate W hore" on it when the light strikes it just right, and he really wants one, but our mom and my SIL have threatened my life so I suppose I won't.   8)

Agatha has worms.  I'll worm her tonight and then I'll go to the vet and buy some Revolution for her.  Maybe if she is de-parasitized she'll stop pulling off patches of fur and throwing up worm-infested......  OK, I made myself sick.  I should put a TMI warning on this entry.

Bogie slept with me again, so he's still feeling insecure.  This morning I didn't get the Q-tips up on the sink fast enough, so he patted his giant paw around blindly and pulled my nice, expensive gold hoop earrings down into his water bowl.    

My herbal rinse is working nicely.  My grey hairs have decreased by a good 80%--unfortunately it's obliterating my temple streaks as well.  Even herbs have side effects, I suppose. 

I'm going to list my recent BPAL orders here 'cause I keep forgetting what I ordered; it's a lot easier to check here then to sift through the pile of papers sitting in the printer.   8)

Fri, 13 May 2005

1.  13 - 5ml
2.  Zombi - 5ml
3.  Blood Rose - 5ml
4.  Imps:   Blood
                Mata Hari
                Catherine
                Santa Muerte
                Wicked
                Aizen-myoo


6 Jun 2005

1.  Two, Five and Seven - 5ml
2.  Zombi - 5ml
3.  Old London - 5ml
4.  Lucy's Kiss - 5ml
5.  The Dormouse - 5ml
6.  Carnaval Noir: Midway 5ml
7.  Imps:   Jack
                Burial
                Alice
                Rose Cross
                Maiden
                Black Rose
                Delirium
                Moon Rose
                Whip
                House of Night
                Jezebel
                La Bella Donna Della Mia Mente

I had to buy 13,   and I am on a Rose Quest.  Roses don't turn to baby powder with my weird skin chemistry, and I love roses.    I should be getting the May order in a few weeks; it can't be too soon--I'm RUNNING OUT OF ZOMBI!!!  AAAAGGGGHHH!!!!  I'd love to soak my hair in Zombi so I could smell it all day long....and it would dry out my hair too, no I won't do it, but wouldn't it be nice?  8) 

I like my Aromaleigh makeup but I'm so shiny.    I've ordered some kaolin clay and I'm going to mix it with a bit of cornstarch and see if it's a more effective primer than the porcelaine.  My skin can take it.  With a couple of days' practice my skin could take a hydrochloric acid bath.  And the next person who tells me "At least your skin will look great when you're eighty," will receive a quick kick in the ankle and a brisk rubbing of my greasy, greasy face on their clothing.  Let them deal with it for a change. 

Agatha isn't feeling too well; I can tell because she's all clingy and cuddly.  When I'm in the Kitty Suite with her she keeps one paw on me at all times so I won't leave.  She doesn't even eat till I'm gone.  I wormed her a couple of days ago, so I'll wait about a week to see if that has helped.  Her nose is cold and she is eating, so she's not that sick, she's just unlike herself.  Usually she likes me to hang out with her, but I"ll pet her a bit, then she sits on the other side of the bed and grooms, then she eats a little, etc.  She's generally not the cuddly lap cat sort. 

Double pony bun today.  I fastened the top part of my hair with an elastic and made a cinnabun; then I twisted up the bottom part and wrapped it around.  4 Magic Grip hairpins and a couple of hairsticks and I'm good to go.  It's not heavy at all.  Of course my #$^% hair has only grown 1/4" in the past month.  Stupid hair.  We are going to have to have a talk if it doesn't get it in gear. 

Hey, I think we saw the same ballet!  It was the American Ballet's new rendition of Swan Lake.  I just started taking ballet lessons last month, so for the first time I enjoyed watching the dance 'cause I recognized some of the steps.  The black swan's dance was my favorite part, but the demon's costume was fabulous.
I think PBS should be required to show the whole performance, whether it be opera or ballet.
I'll be singing a piece from Mozart's Marriage of Figaro in January:-)  I'm already working on it, it is a tough song!
I hope Agatha is feeling better!!!

2 birdsnest buns today with my Firestorm holosticks.  The sticks look great, but my hair is still a bit peevish.  I forgot to oil last night, so maybe that's why.  

Still loving the mineral makeup.  A couple of weeks ago I bought some makeup brushes at CVS.  There were 4 (powder, blush, concealer, and lip) in a clear plastic tube--I really like the tube since it protects the brushes nicely; and it was only $12.99.  Not bad.  So yesterday a friend of mine wanted brushes and I recommended those to her.  She went to CVS and there was only one set left and it was on clearance.....for $3.25!!!!!   She laughed at me all day.    I'll have my revenge though--she wanted those brushes because I gave her some of my Aromaleigh samples and now she wants more!  Bwa ha ha!

I named Black Kitty because there are a bunch of black cats running around and I need to know which black kitty I"m talking about.  His name is Gory since his poor little ears drip blood everywhere.  I've got to talk to the vet and see if there's something I can do about that.  If he's ever tamed (unlikely, and I do NOT need another pet cat.  The 3 I have are driving me quite crazy enough, thank you ) I'll change his name to Gorey.  

Woohoo!  I just got a package from my Secret Hair Twin.  There's a cute little tin of Fox's shea leave-in which I love (and the tin has a ladybug on it.   ) and a wonderful wooden comb that's perfect for travel!   Thank you!

Birdsnest bun with homemade hairstick today.  The dangle keeps getting caught in my hair--they always do.  It doesn't hurt anything, it's just annoying. 

It's in the 90's and hideously hot and humid.  I have a migraine and I still have to face the cats--I was in Chas. last night and went shopping with Mom today (lots of fun, I'll probably talk about it Monday.  )  I left the evil ones enough food for 6 cats, but they probably didn't eat a bite and when I get home I'll have to be punished to restore the balance of power of our crooked house.  Of course, the punishment is usually something along the lines of ignoring me for 5 minutes until they can't stand it anymore and demand attention, so I think I can handle it. 

Last Thursday Agatha was making noises about going out, but since I was going to be gone Fri., I wouldn't let her.  I was hoping she'd go out Sunday because I wanted to sew, but no...  The sewing room abuts the Kitty Suite--the guest bathroom is in the corner of the house, the guest bedroom is on one side and the sewing room is on the other.  The guest room has one door leading out to the hall and one into the bathroom.  The sewing room has one door into the hall and one into the bathroom.  When I go in to feed Miss P., I go through the sewing room, closing the door behind me, so if she tries to escape she won't flee through the house or worse, run into one of the boys.  She doesn't try to escape much anymore.  She likes the Kitty Suite.  Anyway, I could sew, but with Agatha behind the closed door of the bathroom mewing pitifully---nope, can't do it.  And I bought some nice denim on sale; one piece is embroidered with fish all over and the other with flowers and sequins around the bottom.  I can make a skirt in 2 hrs or less--it's just a tube of fabric with a hem on one end and elastic on the other, and all the way down to my feet, please.  With long skirts I can get away with wearing sandals at work, plus it's not as noticable if I skip a leg-shaving.   

The double-pony bun has flopped miserably the last 2 times I've tried it.  I tried it this morning, on second-day hair yet, and it looked bad enough I had to put a bun cover on it.  Luckily I have a good supply.  Grrr.  Why won't my hair do a style for more than a few weeks?  Does it get bored? Is it really sentient?  If so, I'd better not grow it any longer as I suspect it's hostile and would strangle me in my sleep.  8)  Perhaps the sock bun would work again.  Oh!  Maybe my hair is really an alien parasite, living on my head and controlling my brain for its own comfort and pleasure.    Actually, that would explain all of the hairsticks I've been buying lately.    And I must say, the alien has excellent taste.

But it's not growing!   That's why I"m suspicious--my rackafrackin' hair has grown exactly 1/4" in the last 9 weeks.  Stupid hair.    (cue X-Files theme music) Something's not right on top of my head--a conspiracy?  aliens?  beef hormones?  Something strange is going on....(cue Twilight Zone theme)  do do do do do do do do do do do........

ZOMBI.....oh ZOMBI.....where are you, Zombi?

Someone (and by "someone" I mean "Bogie") is acting out.  Every night, just as I'm falling asleep, Bogie comes in the bedroom and meows.  I tell him to shut up a couple of times, and since when I answer him he wins, he does.  The end.  Every. Single. Night.  he does this.  Sigh.  Anyway, last night he won't shut up so I have to get the spray bottle and he runs out the door.  Fine.  At least he's quiet.  I lie down again and someone grabs at my feet through the footboard.  I spray the little SOB this time.  I lie down again and he charges through the door and with tooth and claw attacks my feet which are luckily under the comforter so I don't get injured and this is the only reason someone isn't going on the grill this weekend.  I spray the little doofus again, but this time I don't lie down; sure enough, he ever-so-craftily slinks down the hall and sticks his head around the door and SURPRISE!  He gets sprayed again.  Doofus.  If he does anything tonight, I'm locking the door.  Weasel cat PITA.     I think he's mad about Agatha P.  He is just going to have to deal.  I don't want to wrestle him to the ground on a daily basis and stuff kitty prozac down his throat but I by God will if I have to, although I think kitty valium would be much better for Bogie.  He isn't depressed, he's just a jerk sometimes.   OK, most of the time, but I love the little thing anyway.

2 cinnabuns today with my goldstone S&L sticks.  My hair still isn't behaving.  Maybe it's been infected by whatever's got Bogie all riled up. 

I got some kaolin clay and mixed it half and half with my porcelaine oil-control MMU.  It seems to work better than the poreclaine alone, but I'm still oily.  I need to just accept that an get on with my greasy life.  Maybe I can eke out a marginal living by rubbing my face on unseasoned cast iron frying pans for a small fee.  I can dream, can't I?

That so royally sucks, WF!  I guess if you get called in before that you can act really psycho and get off the list!!  I wonder if that would work.
They really are being unreasonable.    I'm sorry.  Am sending change their minds vibes to anyone remotely involved so I don't leave anyone out.
Good Luck.

So, the bro and SIL are looking for a house.  They've found 2 choices--one is a largish house (nice downstairs, but the upstairs bedrooms are teeny) on a subdivision.  (subdivisions aren't my thing, nor are they my brother's, but SIL likes it).  The other is a bit further away and a bit harder to get to, but it's ON THE RIVER!  House is smaller, but it has 8 acres, front and back porches that run the length of the house, a deck out back that looks out OVER THE RIVER!!!  If it wasn't 3.5 hours away from my house, I'd buy it myself and pack up the cats.  

They'll end up in the subdivision, I'll bet you anything.  8)

Found a new way to poof out the top of my hair when wearing an updo.  I hate the way it looks when my hair is all slicked back--kind of an androgynous, Count Olaf's-henchman look.  Not pretty.  Anyway, make top of hair into a ponytail, secure with elastic.  Slide elastic a litttle bit away from the head, twist enough to get hair under control.  Put index finger of the free hand on the elastic and hold it down in the selected spot (usually on the crown of my head) and twirl the hair around the finger.  Secure with hairpins.  Gather up remaining hair and form into a ponytail just under the bun.  Do not secure.  Twist and wrap around bun, secure.  This makes a big, flat, well-balanced bun on me and gives a little volume on top and in back.  It has a vaguely Gibson-girl look about it.  I'll wear it as much as I can now, because in another week or two my hair will refuse to do it again.  Stupid hair.

My Secret Hair Twin made me 2 pairs of hairsticks.    One pair has light red round cat's eye beads with a pale red rhinestone-studded star on top. The other has a red glass bead with tiny copper flecks on the outside, a conical brass finding on top and a clear red bead over all.   Yay!!  I love hairsticks.

!@#%@#$# jury duty Thursday.  I haven't slept well since I got the summons, and I'm having panic attacks.  I've never had panic attacks before.  I'd see my doctor but he can't see me till Thursday, and the reason I can't see him on Thursday is the reason I need to see him in the first place.  Ha Ha Ha.  Life is so f!@##$ funny sometimes.  I can't even discuss my vacation.  The lawyer is writing a letter, but he can't guarantee anything.  

I put Agatha out for a while yesterday.  After 4 hours she wanted back in.  I think she wants to be a full-fledged housecat with all rights and privileges specified therein.  However, she has feline leukemia and can't be around the boys.  I won't tell her that, though, or she might call a kitty assassin to take care of her "problems."  I loved on her for an hour and was roundly ignored when I left, so she's back to normal.  Last night Rumpole started walking around on me, kneading my ribcage and not-so-subtly hinted to be petted.  I rolled over and tipped him off, as I am wont to do when awakened at 3 am.  He was still sulking this am.  Bogie took advantage of his pouting and almost worried me to death this morning.  "pet me.  pet me again.  pet me some more.  q-tip q-tip q-tip.  pet me. pet me.  pet me.  what's this?   **CRASH**   you didn't need that anyway.  pet me. pet me.  licklicklicklickslurp  q-tip. pet me."  AAARRRGGGHHH!!!!!!

Quote:


Peathingy?  I think the anti-smut softwear is a bit overprotective.    Peaco ck.  Ha!

I'm wondering if there's anything in the GM theory that all hair seeks the same length.  My length has grown 1/4" in the last 2+ months, but yesterday I measured my front hair, which was 18" long the last time I checked it--it's now 21".  ???  That's 3" over 9 weeks or so.  Hair--will we ever understand it?

Wearing the double ponybun today.  Some call it a 2 part bun, but I think I am going to christen this style the Modified Gibson.  I've  definitely a bit of pompadour thing going on here, though the front is pulled flat by the weight of the hair over the course of the day.  The process is a lot like making the psyche knot, but I always type "psyche know" for some reason; besides in all of the instructions it's always a teeny little knot (there, I just typed know again!     Yeep. )  and mine is about the size of a saucer.  The original instructions also call for a lot more parting than I'm willing to do.  Anyway, I'm wearing it again today with a pair of Blondiesturn tiger maple sticks.  The curving sillhouettes look very nice peeping out of the Wad o' Hair (tm) crouching on the crown of my head. The Costume Gallery has a library that includes an entire book of hairdressing from 1911.       It's $15 for 3 months' access; $30 for 6 and $55 for a year.  I'd be tempted, if just to see that book, but they only take Paypal.  And Paypal and I aren't speaking.  I figure if they have my credit card info they don't need my bank account, and they beg to differ.  I'm d@mmed if I give them my bank account number and so I only have $9 or so I'm allowed to send.  Pooh on the lot of them.

I tried to offer Sakina Agatha P., but I think she's too smart for me.     The P is going outside this weekend.  She needs to run around and I need to sew my skirts.  Bogie has recovered from the attack, the poor delicate little 13 pound thing.    He got under the TV tray I use to hold my makeup in the mornings and reached up that giant paw of his and tried to pull my makeup brushes down.  I think he's getting bored with q-tips.  Sigh.  Rumpole jumped up on my bladder at 5 o'clock this morning and started to knead.     Oh well, it's more sure than the alarm clock to get one moving in the am.   8)

I ordered the Crimson Bloom Individualistix because it's beautiful and it's !  Bwahahaha!

Finished the bun cover.  It's quite nice, if I do say so myself, but it's a bit large.  I hope it fits my swap partner; if not, maybe she can swap it for something that does.  It doesn't have to mailed until next Friday; maybe I'll crochet a scrunchie to match this weekend.

Almost forgot--I got my Click 'n Ship notification from Black Phoenix, so I should get my Zombi sometime this week.    And 13, I'm terribly curious to try this one.  If I like it, it's supposed to be available on Friday the 13ths from now on.   8)

I'm so sorry to hear about your tooth!  I just came back from the dentist where I was SUPPOSED to have my crown put on.  They didn't like the fit, so I have to wait another week.  I broke the facing half of my molar off.  Fortunately there was enough tooth left (after they removed what was remaining of a huge filling), that they could crown it and I did not need a root canal.  Whew!  I hope you don''t suffer too much until you get to the dentist and that the repair is painless and not too expensive.

French twist/bun today with my Bahama Breeze Rapunzelstix.  Someone asked me why I had antennae on my head.    I gave them the standard reply--if I told you I'd have to kill you, blah blah blah.  I need new material.

My hair is clean, clean, cleancleanclean.  I got off my schedule last week, what with the holiday and jury duty, so I washed on Wednesday and again on Sunday--oily, greasy hair.   I should have lathered up a second time Sunday but I didn't want to strip my hair.  By Tuesday it was nasty.  It's nice today though.  Clean clean clean clean clean. 

Was in with Agatha until 9 last night.  She only ignored me for 45 minutes this time.  We watched the beginning of Road to Utopia.  I sang Personality along with Dorothy Lamour, but Agatha didn't come close enough to dance.    Poor thing, I know she's lonely, but I'm ignoring the boys and they deserve attention, too.  I was mobbed this am--surrounded by cats.  Two cats can do a lot of surrounding when they put their minds to it.  Cats up, cats down, fuzzy evil all around.  There's got to be a way of balancing this cat problem; even worse, Gory is getting slightly friendlier.  He doesn't flee the porch in terror, now he just stays a few feet away.  I told him flat out, I can NOT handle another cat.  I'll give him all of the canned food he wants, but this relationship must stay on a professional level.

I was almost to the 4-lane today on my way to work when I realized I didn't have my beeswax and I simply cannot get through the day without my beeswax.  (That is a profoundly strange statement if one didn't know the background.  )I had to go back, irritating the cats since I was off schedule.  I had no pain until lunchtime when I removed the old wax and put in some fresh--as soon as it was exposed to the air, OUCH.   It's still a little achy and I had to take some ibuprofen but it's bearable again.  I go to the dentist tomorrow, hallelujah.

Wearing Zombi and Lucy's Kiss today.  Love the Zombi.  I ordered a plug in scent diffuser for my office (candles have been outlawed here, and for good reason.  ) from uncommonscents.com which I never would have found if not for Anais Satin, you enabler you. 

I'm still working on Sakina's idea of 4 little buns.  4 little ponytails is really too much trouble for me; the smaller the pony the harder it is for me to remove the elastic without tangling.  When I make 2 ponytails and form half of each into a bun the elastic shows.  I'm working on it; I know it can be done.

Quote:


That one has real potential--if you're intense enough you could scare the heck out of someone.  At the very least they would quickly leave you alone.   

Awwww, 13bodies I'm sorry you have to get a crown.
I support celebrations.  Just yesterday  I celebrated a breakthrough in my counseling (I think I'm crazy, she does not) by eating cake and icecream w/bananas.  Now I call that a pick me up 
I'm glad you've posted about Black Phoenix-I plan on trying out some soon, but what is a frimp?  I missed that.
Any good news on the vacation front???

Sorry to hear about the crown.  I just went in to have my crown inserted, but it did not fit properly, so I have to wait another week.   Unfortunately my crown will be visible so they are putting porcelain over the gold, which effectively doubles the cost.  My insurance only covers 50% of the gold crown, so I'm out about $900. 

Most of my molars are now crowned.  Apparently my teeth do not see crowns as a threat and actually enjoy their solitude encapuslated in little gold kingdoms.  I just hope the rest of my teeth are slow to join their ranks.  I can only afford one crown a year (unless all of you gang up on Susan and convince her to increase my pay ALOT!!)

I hope your physical pain is over and the financial pain short-lived.