*snort*
Wonderful!!!

Spring is finally here!  It's sunny and getting warmer, and nature seems to be in a hurry to catch up the calendar. Birds are singing and my mood is getting brighter.

Hair: Yesterday was sauna day and I did a small S&D -could have done bigger, but I just couldn't find many splits. After that, I did SMT treatment. The result was normal: incredibly soft, shiny and beautiful hair.
     Today, I had another great long hair sighting: a girl with a hair that must be near waist length, shiny and healthy -and THICK. She was blonde too- it's really, really rare to see a natural blonde with super thick hair. In fact, I think this girl was the first person I've seen since I started to notice these things. Boy, did I feel a pang of major hair envy! Lack of thickness is probably the only thing I dislike about my hair. I realize that it's very relative though: my hair is well in ii category, which is still a very good thickness for a Finnish blonde. While my hair isn't absolutely perfect (in my opinion), really, it's close enough for me. Besides, I'm sure that as it grows, it will also grow in beauty. But, I guess that no matter how much I like my hair, I will always admire thick, silky long hair that my hair "almost could be" (maybe if every night I jumped on one foot and flogged my scalp with seaweed while chanting a long hair mantra as some LHC member put it). 
      I'm wearing a bun again, secured with Citrus Shine pair that is just perfect for a sunny, lovely spring day. I think I'll clean my combing table later today. Lately I've started to think that I'll soon need to improve my hairtoy storage again...

Health: Weigh in went well: the scale wavered a bit, but settled to 88 kgs convincingly enough. It means that I've now lost 10 kg/s/22.05 lbs! I rewarded myself by completing my Ficcare order of 4 clips. Next goal is 85 kg:s, and when I reach that, I will buy a new bike. That's a huge reward, but then, I can't even really remember when I have weighed that little. I hope to get to that reading on first half of June- I should be able to do it if I keep losing average of 0.5 kg/s (1.2 lbs) in a week. Of course, as my body is not a clockwork machine, I'm not counting on it. Doing my best while keeping my lifestyle such that I don't have to dramatically change it when I stop dieting must be enough sooner or later. No matter when I succeed, reaching 85 kgs will feel wonderful!
     Yesterday, I had the goodie day of the week, but today I'm 100% on diet again. In the morning, I went Nordic walking again. I prolonged my walk again- it's the second time I've done that! But I think it isn't still long enough- I suppose I should take a good look at the map and do some route planning. Though I've lived in this town for 3 years now, besides downtown area, I don't know the place too well.

The Ficcares should be here some time during May- the order will close on 8th+dealing with the company+shipping here...in fact it sounds like it could be the end of May before I see my clips. But I'm sure they're SO worth the wait. Ficcares are the best clips, and the colors I ordered must be luscious.

Wow, you have such nice hair!  I love the color!

Beautiful hair and I can even detect weight loss between the Feb and April pictures.  Congratulations on both!

Helsinki day again- among other things I went to Glitter where I haven't been for a while (at least I think so...) I saw there a black Fakkare Maximas clip. Of course I needed to buy it- it was so pretty and under 4€:s. It's plastic and the spring is weaker than in the real things, but for the price it seemed like a good bargain. So nice to find something locally.

Speaking of finding things, I completed another order to Headcovers. com: a blue swim cap, and a couple of pretty headwraps. I'm hoping the latter will make good summer headgear. Last summer I wore bandanas on hot sunny days, but it'd be nice to have something prettier and more "hat-like".

Emily of Blue Heron Woodworks appeared to LHC to discuss her business practices. She is a maker of very beautiful hairtoys, but many people have been very unhappy of her customer service and extensive shipping times. She makes really lovely hairsticks, so I'd be happy to see her resolve her problems. As things are, I haven't dared to order anything from her, and gaining even a little trust to her will take time -shopping via internet, especially internationally requires trust and good communication. But I'm hoping for it especially now tha SpiralStix are to be retired here at LL.

Health: I made an appointment with gym instructor. It's on next Thursday, so getting my exercise program will probably take a couple weeks. Until then, my exercise week looks something like this:

Monday: weight training at gym: 15 min on exercise recumbent, 30 min weight training, especially abs and arms, 15 min stretching
Tuesday: rest, walking to grocery store, library, Dept etc.
Wednesday: at least 1 hour Nordic walking
Thursday: rest, normal walking
Friday: Weight training at gym, same as Monday
Saturday: really restful day! Watch movies and eat.
Sunday: depends of weather: gym if it's bad, Nordic walking if it's sunny and nice

I'm quite happy with this- the only part that probably needs some adjusting is the content of my gym exercise. It's interesting to see what the instructor will come up with!
     T said that he wants to start taking evening walks with me a few times a week. He is in worse condition than I am (!), so the walks aren't very long. But, it's a little extra anyway!
     On eating front, I'm not doing that good. Yesterday I ate two snacks. Granted, both were healthy and I stayed within my calorie limit, but they were still snacks and therefore a no-no. Obviously, this is something I must focus in really hard!

Curlgirl, she has a reputation of being an unreliable seller- her business has been reported to have extensive shipping times (several months) for years, and many people have reported that she doesn't answer to emails from customers. If you want to look into details, check LHC's product reviews board. I'm glad to hear of your good experiences- maybe in time I can work up some courage too!

Anyhoo...I hereby begin my picture marathon with some hairstyle pics.



Lookie! A real figure 8. Not a very lasting one yet though. The clip is the awesome beak clip with teeth. I found it from Accessorize some time ago.


Chinese bun. I love to wear Chinese bun with
SwingStix, but I wanted to show my Citrus Shine pair- I'm in love with it!



Here's cinnabun. Not very secure either- see how the coil ends in a point where it's pointing upwards. Rare Butterfly GemStix are beautiful though.



Flamenco bun secured with a zillion short Amish pins and decorated with a flower bobby pin.



Ok, I admit that I don't have patience to make a herringbone braid. So I like this herringbone pony a lot. Ribbon is from Tenderheaded.com. This color is called Laura's Garden.



Here's a hairtoy I've wanted to show you for a long time! 3-tone large Lavender Ficcare with knot bun.



Here's another knot bun, with Periwinkle Wave
hairsticks. You can see the shape of the bun better than in previous pic.



I've definitely made better rope braids once or twice. But this has the cutest scrunchie I've crocheted myself!

G-I love your pics!!!  I think the chinese bun is my favorite.
Thanks for sharing!!!  Its a great record for future comparison