So, now our offer has been passed on to the seller and we are bouncing of excitement. We would probably be able to move in early August.

The weather has become warm, so I'm experimenting with rinsing my hair with plain water after exercising. I've rinsed twice now, but can't tell the difference between rinsing and not rinsing. Now that it's warm having wet hair so often doesn't matter, but I don't know if I am going to continue this rinsing when cold weather comes (esp. since I prefer to exercise early). I also washed my hair yesterday evening and put some XZ deep conditioner.
   I also did a s&d mission, or rather tried to do. A careful search produced less than 10 splits/knots/broken hairs. If my hair continues to look this good, I'm not probably going to trim it yet at the end of the month. My hair is healthy to the ends and a tiny trim would do little to thinness of the ends. But I'm going to keep an eye on the situation- I really want to find out a "working" trimming schedule.

Styles: buns with hairsticks or bun/headwrap combinations depending on weather and occassion. The bandana caps are very good- lightweight, have fun colors and protect my hair from the sun (I really dislike how my hair gets hot in sun). For exercising at the gym, low bun with instant bun clip seem to be the most comfortable style.

House news: Good news! our offer has been accepted!!!  The seller didn't even want to negotiate about the price- we were almost certain that our initial offer wouldn't be enough, it was so much below the requested price. But they are happy with it, we are happy with it and all is well so far. Now we'll just have to arrange the financial stuff, the seller has to complete some paperwork and then we will be able to proceed. At this point, things can still go wrong...but it's looking very good. Very, very good.

Hair & Life: Temps are STILL climbing, and I'm cooking and consuming cool drinks like there's no tomorrow. Rabbit, who is supposed to like temperate, even cool temperatures, is however sitting happily in a spot of sunlight.  I'm envious.
    Today my Maiden's Treasures hairsticks arrived. Kathy has improved her designs- the tips of the wooden sticks were already filed smooth and I didn't have to do anything to them. I got three pairs. Lemony Snickets is a lovely pair featuring lemon crysophrase beads. Very stylish, "antique" looking pair. Amazon Garden has carved Amazonite roses are of a beautiful, cool green shade. And little amethysts- I love amethysts! Very Berry is a pair I've been drooling since it first showed up for sale, and it seems that I got the last pair! It has beautiful lampwork beads. The sticks are lacquered bamboo sticks that work so well. Once again, Kathy has done nice work. I'd love to wear my new sticks (I still haven't worn even any of the LL sticks I got a couple of days ago), but it's so hot that I'm stuck with scarves and headwraps that protect me a little from the sun.
When the temperature drops to more tolerable levels, I'll have so many new hairtoys to wear! OTOH, it's just good: if we are moving soon, I probably won't have a good chance to order anything for a while.
     My hair is slightly dirty today- I'll need to take a shower anyway in the evening, so I'm going to wash it. I suppose it's a bit dirtier than usually on day 3- it might be the rinses I've been doing, but it might be just normal variation too. Hard to tell.

Still stalking the mailman for: Ficcares from Birdie (two people from GO have already received theirs!), kerchiefs and pins from Christian Coverings.

House: We are going to see the house again tomorrow. There is some paperwork to do, and we will meet the sellers and get a chance to ask them questions about house and the garden.

Hair& Life: Today is a warm (in a nice way!) and sunny day, so I put on my long seafoam green summer skirt, added some strawberry lip gloss and big summer earrings- and let my hair down.  I enjoyed how the wind made it dance around my head (never mind the detangling afterwards!), shone in sunlight and tickled my upper arms. It is really getting longer- and more fun! 8)
    My shedding is back to normal level or even below it. But it will take some time until I gain back the thickness I lost during the period of heavy shedding.
     I rinsed my hair after this morning's Nordic walk. It's so warm now that it dries incredibly quickly.

Health: I had the feared gyn appointment today. It went well: my BP is still a bit high, so I'm not done with my health quest yet. But my doctor was happy with my progress anyway, and that's the main thing. Now, if only I could resist mint ice cream a bit better so I could lose a little more weight...I haven't really lost anything for a while, only gained muscles (which, of course is great).

Hair: Rinsed after exercise, and will go to sauna later in the evening. In spite the continuing hot weather, my hair feels good and moisturized- my protectiveness and gentle care is paying off!

Health: Had a good, effective exercise at the gym today. I've made great progress with weights! Part of is it because beneath all my fat I have an athletic body that builds muscle quickly, but part of is it just because I push myself to my limits every time. It seems that I just can't exercise leisurely!

Still no Ficcares for me! *wail* Or for any other international participants for that matter. They MUST arrive this week!

Weather is still hot and I'm still wearing nothing but buns under scarf caps or headwraps. Especially the kerchiefs I got from Christian Coverings have been wonderful to wear. The other items I got from there have been great too and I've used them every day since they arrived.
   
House: I've been done some studying of my future home city (technically, the place where we're moving is part of a city, though in reality it's a small village in countryside). It appears to be a lot nicer place than the one where I'm living now- public services seem good, and because the city has a little bigger population there are more culture services and activities available at close distance. Even the climate seems to be great (in Finnish scale of course  ), and it should be perhaps most favorable area for gardening in continental Finland (and who counts the archipelago of Ahvenanmaa -one can't even move in there unless she passes Swedish exams  ). The deal will be closed on next Monday- so in theory something can still go wrong and we remain a little scared for this week. At least the house doesn't show up any longer on real estate search services in internet.

Picture time!

First: Kitchen coverings in action

I've been meaning to have T take pictures of these since they arrived...but here they finally are.



This is called "short veil". It is easy to put on, but somehow I don't like it that much. I also have this veil in white for baking. It's a bad idea to play with flour when wearing a dark headcover...





My favorite kitchen covering! A pleated "Daisy" covering from prayercoverings.com.  Super comfortable, covers well, and I think it's cute too. The fit depends greatly on how the bun is placed; in these pictures I'm wearing my bun quite high. I have also one in white, and that's what I use most often when baking.

Summer Elegance...or not

Here are some examples of the things I wear for sun protection.



The cloth snood I got from Alicia as a gift. Really comfortable and easy to wear- I like this one much better than crocheted snoods.



Deluxe Kerchief Scarf from Headcovers.com, in cute violet floral print. This resembles more a cap than a scarf, is lined and great to wear in hot weather.



This is one of the kerchiefs I got from Christian coverings. I have folded and pinned it into a cap. Doesn't cover quite as effectively as above scarf, but is still great to wear on hot summer days. This "cap" can be made of ordinary bandanas too, and when pinned properly, it lasts all day.

Great pictures!

That ponytail picture is a flattering one. Spring shedding thinned my hair overall, so the ends aren't very obvious if my hair isn't down. I'm hoping that my growth spurt means that I'm getting new hairs too. (Of course, I'm still going to get some Sweet Success oil and find MSM somewhere ).

Today...well, it's still hot, hot and humid like in a jungle- I bet the monkeys we saw on Sunday in Amazonia House of Helsinki Zoo are happy outdoors today. People are a different matter  . Weather forecast says that there will be thunder soon- maybe that will bring a little relief.
I headed to my Nordic walk early, right when I got up in hopes that the temperature wouldn't be too much so early. When I got back, I was soaked in sweat and owner of four more blisters in my feet. Ouch. I get blisters easily during summer, but this is starting to get annoying- on this weather even switching between several pairs of old, comfortable sandals/sneakers doesn't help. It seems that during the next few days, I need to consider carefully where I'm going to walk.  Today was also the first time I didn't encounter any other Nordic walkers, or even joggers on my route. Suppose they were smarter than I was and went swimming. 
   I washed my hair when I came back, just the usual wash with Summer Sunshine shampoo + ACV rinse. While my hair was still a little damp, I put it up and into a pinned "scarf cap". I'm still not getting much style variation... But right now, comfort is more important and I try to remember that this summer I'm equipped better than ever.