Great pictures of your hair - it has come along way!  (pun intended!  )

Glad you got to do some start gazing.  This morning when I got up, Jupiter was sooooo bright in the morning sky (before sun up).  I always like to see the "morning stars" - especially when I'm biking before dawn.  (Though I'm not biking yet - we still roads with several inches of snow/ice on them!  )

I'm not very good at recognizing constellations in the sky.  I do well to spot the bright stars/planets (my astigmatism leaves everything a bit blurry).  I keep hoping to spot Venus in the evening, but have not seen it yet due to clouds or fog.

Good luck constucting your new dresses.  Fitting can be a bit tricky, but if you go slow and try things on as you go, I bet you will do just fine.  And when you finish, you know you have accomplished something!  (Here's a sewing tip - don't trim any seams until you are sure it fits - just in case you have to let out a seam for better fitting.)

Garden season has started! That is, today I attacked our apple trees with pruners. It was still cloudy, even a little rainy, but the birds were singing and I enjoyed my time. It was almost like giving a haircut to the trees, except of course that cut trees, unlike most longhairs, become better after the procedure  . Our apple trees are old, and under a couple of years of neglect, they have the most perfect umbrella shape one could hope for.
      I can't wait to see how our garden will look after all the apple trees have had their cut...

Now my thumb is sore though. T's father, little brother and his spouse are coming to visit tomorrow, and so I have not opened a single philosophy book (or my email, for that matter...). Instead, this days is dedicated to housework. I can always read during the weekend...at least, if I don't spend all my free time watching the new Stargate Atlantis DVD:s that we got.
    Besides house and garden work, I have also my second exercise session of the week on todays to-do list. I'm hoping that this would become the first week this year when I have been able to do all my four weekly exercises. I'm fortunately still in good shape in spite of the lack of regular exercise since the wedding, but unfortunately, I have gained weight again. It happens so easily to me. Right now, I don't feel at all like dieting, so I hope that just increasing my exercise and the start of gardening season will help me to slowly lose at least a couple of kg:s.

I washed my hair late last night, and this morning it was fluffy and -well, very clean. I haven't worn scarf caps during the winter time, so today was the first time for that as well. And, it was just as well that I was so careful, because I could feel the low hanging branches to hug my head so closely that hadn't I worn my cap, I would surely have become a live reenact of Absalom's sad fate (didn't Absalom of the Bible have blonde hair too?).

Parliamentary Elections: They have reached our little village as well- as I exited the grocery store, to my surprise I found a candidate of Social Democrat party (one of the three biggest parties)handing a red rose (their symbol flower) to me and asking me to use my vote. I was so stunned to find a candidate doing campaign work in our village that I didn't even have the wit to ask him one of the questions I have hoped to ask of a representative of that party. Namely, how come that in spite of all that red color and "being on an ordinary worker's side" talk, they harbor some of the harshest conservative thinkers of the whole Parliament. I really wonder how can that be. In US, I understand that one party can host many "branches" of opinions as the power is divided between two big parties, but in Finland, we have one party per ideology. So, the divisions inside Social Democrats are not only curious, but smell outright fishy to me. Needless to say, they aren't going to get my vote.
   Which brings me to my problem of who WILL get it. At the moment, I'm divided between Greens and the Lefts, but though both have some good points, both also have some serious faults -and this year, going down to the level of individual candidates doesn't change it much. A bog or a swamp? That's the question. Sometimes I wish I took the elections a bit less seriously, but I guess that years of academic brainwashing have just made me incapable of doing that.

La Diosa: I will try to remember take pictures.

Our weekend was so busy. The snow isn't gone yet, but in our life, winter feels like distant history. We have spent every spare moment cutting apple trees. It's great exercise especially for arms, and quite fun. As we clip away, the unique true form the tree is revealed and that feels like a small miracle every time. We are now about halfway through. I'm not sure if we have time to cut all our trees in time, but we are at least giving a good try. 
       I have never felt the spring in the air so strongly when we lived in the city. Of course, the weather has been quite warm (relatively speaking), but part of it is just that we spend now more time outside. The Nature is setting the schedule for us- for example, after this week I dare not clip apple trees and so it will be time to turn to the next task. That gives us a strong sense of that spring is in the way, even when it can be seen in only the subtlest things.

In the life of my hair, the abrupt termination of wintertime has meant returning to things I remember from fall. Rinsing the hair at least once a day because I need showers more often. Getting the one and only necessary reminder of the fact that simplest, flattest bun imaginable is NOT the thing to wear when moving near our apple trees. The "discovery" of my bandana collection, and wearing scarf caps all day. At least, my bandana collection is big enough to offer variation in colors and patterns. And, I should not forget mentioning the clouds of curls my hair sports in the mornings as I have had to do my night braid with damp hair. Though those curls get quickly combed and gathered into a bun, they still give me a couple of minutes of pleasure each morning.
     
Ear Stretching: As I took my day earring (I often wear bone earrings during daytime and switch a barbell on for the night) away, I noticed something very interesting. My lobe has now a neat, circular hole. I mean, it has a hole that looks like a little hole instead of a needle mark. And, to my own slight surprise I realized that I found the hole pretty. It was the most strange feeling- certainly, I have never found ear piercings particularly pretty. In my mind, they have just been something that are necessary for wearing some pretty jewelry. But my tiny, stretched hole sat there, looking pretty all in itself. I went to show my ear to T. Now, T prefers natural looks, and as I might have already mentioned, he has had his reservations regarding my bright idea to stretch my ear as well. But this time he just looked my ear and said "Wow, that really is a pretty hole!". So, this hole IS really special!
     Once my ear is so well stretched that the hole holds its shape and size for a whole day, I can now think of going around without any jewelry in it and still have something I find beautiful and ornamental! This is really a nice surprise.
 
   

Quote:

It's snowing heavily, so, I'm afraid that there will be no pictures of our apple trees today like I had planned. Though I liked the warmth and spring, I feel strangely relieved of this snow. It's normal for us to get snowfalls at this time of the year, and so it relieves my "greenhouse effect is here!"-panic. And, of course, it means that we can spend all day cozily indoors doing things that don't break sweat. 
    I have finished my last (and prettiest!) apron, and am planning to start working with my first dress later today. The instructions look simple enough -in fact, I think my dress pattern may well be easier to sew than the aprons. But the fit is more precise, and it will be a challenge to get it just right.

I rinsed my hair yesterday, but it didn't prevent me from finding myself having a greasy hair today. I think I have rinsed my hair every day since I started working with the apple trees! Right now I'm wearing a scarf bun that I did before I had taken a good look out of the window, but if the snowfall continues, I think I'll seize the opportunity and change it to some gorgeous pair of hairsticks. 

Parliamentary Elections: The election day is tomorrow. It seems, that in every election during the past few years there has been some strange comical element. This time, it's a candidate who has had his campaign webpage translated in Klingon. It was a good media trick- and good for me too, since I surfed to his webpage just to find that besides the obvious fact of being a scifi fan, he had a more serious side that I liked a lot. He is already a member of parliament and it seemed to me that he has done good work and has upheld many themes I find important. So, for the first time I'm going to vote a male, as well as a person who is already a member of parliament!

Congrats on the dress!!   You must be so proud!  Can't wait to see a picture!

Thanks, ladies! I'll have T to take a picture of my creation this evening. The fit is so good that I've already declared this to be my best dress so far. And I know that once I gain experience, they'll just keep getting better.

Today I finished a matching apron for the dress. I used one of the aprons I received with the dresses I bought from Sarah as a model, and it was perfect success. I've really started to like the combination of dress and a full apron. Besides being pretty, it's  very practical on busy days- instead of having to change everything after doing dirty work, I can just change my apron.
   All in all, so far I have only good things to say about my simple dress experiment. Besides the great thing that my conscience has shut up and stopped nagging me, there have been some very nice extras.
Getting dressed in the morning is so easy- no wondering, whether the favorite shirt is in the laundry and where on Earth did I place the matching pants. Just take a dress -any dress, as they all are very similar in style- slip it on and that's pretty much it.
      A nice bonus has been, that colors have entered into my wardrobe. I am a highly sensitive personality, and among other things, I am sensitive to colors up to a point where wearing even subtle colors made me feel very uncomfortable. I think I still have a navy blue jacket hanging in my closet- beautiful thing, but felt too colorful to be comfortable. So, my everyday clothing has come in not so exciting shades of gray, brown, white and black. I guess that wearing the same color from neck to ankle makes a difference for me (and I think that wearing a dress may be the only way for me to do that gracefully). It feels luxurious to be able to indulge in colors: blues, purples, greens. And speaking of colors, it is wonderful to be able to choose the colors I wear from dozens of options instead of just three or so in which ready-made garments come.
   Luxury is the word that comes into my mind in other ways as well. It is luxury these days to wear clothes that have tailored fit. Clothes that have not been sewn by some faceless person in a faraway country. Clothes whose seamstress has really put effort into them, trying to make a quality garment instead of just trying to get finished as quickly as possible. There is a difference, I tell you. A difference that both shows and feels.
   I am also happy to tell that though I now look different from other people, I haven't really drawn any awkward attention to myself. No comments, no stares. Granted, I have not been much out, but still! One of my main fears was that once I make such a radical change in my appearance, I would draw attention everywhere, but so far that hasn't happened.

Then to today's news. First and best news I've got is, that I have been invited to a job interview next week! It's the department store where we have done our weekend shopping- pretty close by, a big store (with good staff perks!) and a reputation of being a good place for part-time employees. At this point, it's just what I am looking for.
It's 7 years since I've been in a job interview, so I will need to prepare well for the interview. As far as my appearance goes, I think I'll go with a skirt and a shirt option as that should not look too eccentric. Hair back with a Ficcare. The only thing I haven't quite solved yet is my stretched ear. My plan is to scout next weekend, what kind of earrings their employees wear.
       Second news was, that I found out that some luck has come my way and I'm not one step from being broke as I thought I was. Instead, a lucky chance placed a little extra to my hands. I've stressed and worried this month so much, that I decided that I've deserved something nice. From the internet, of course! So, I went ahead and ordered some nice eartoys from BAF, as well as single spirals in two designs from LittleSeven (a Mini Goddess and a Squid in 10 ga, to be precise), and finished my shopping at Ficcare's new internet shop where I bought two Maximas clips, in black and in light blonde. I selected both Ficcares and BAF jewelry from job-hunting perspective, though. Something subtler for a change, that is. An extra nice surprise was, that the euro/dollar conversion rate is again very much in my favor, so this whole load ended up costing much less than I had anticipated.

The storm is over, but it's still wet and pretty miserable outside. So, no gardening, no stars. I think I will have both to my heart's content soon, so I am going to take advantage of these indoor days. There are, after all, so many important things to do that are not fun at all when the sun is beaming and birds are singing (Co-me out, co-me listen our con-cert, don't you feeeeeel you're rotting in theeeee-re?). But now, it's only cozy to read, write and sew.
And of course, now is the perfect time to wear all those hairtoys that apple trees "love". For today, I found a cute octopus clip that matches perfectly with my new dress. I bought it a year ago because I liked the color, but it just didn't match with anything- until now. But today, I'm glad I bought it back then.