Henna Hair Color

I am crazy about henna hair color.

I was reluctantly to make the switch to natural hair color because I wasn’t sure it would actually cover my gray.

It turns out, henna doesn’t actually color your hair.  It brings out the natural color.  I suspect if you have light enough hair, you could color your hair, but it would be much less than a chemical color.

I buy the powdered type but there is pre-mixed types as well.  I like that I can make as much or as little as I need for each application.  I can also mix it to the consistency I prefer.  The directions call to mix with hot water but they also suggest adding red or black tea to enhance the color effect.  I brew a strong cup of tea.  Another trick is to add apple cider vinegar to help cover the gray.

Clearly henna doesn’t look that pleasing, but it also has an odor issue.  I tried adding some essential oil to conceal it.  That worked somewhat.  This time I added a lot of cinnamon and some ginger.  The combination of the spices with the cider vinegar gave the mix a mild cider fragrance.  The earthiness was definitely subdued.

I apply the mix using a color brush.  You get these from the beauty supply store.  I start with my part line, then move my hair to do my hair line around my face.  Oh, also, very important is to wear gloves.  Henna will color your skin.  When I find the brush is no longer effective, I just use my hands to scoop small amounts, massaging the mix throughout my hair.

The great part of powdered henna is you can make a small amount for just covering your roots, or you can make enough to cover your whole head.  I decided to color my whole head this time.

Covering the hair with plastic wrap and then a shower cap helps heat up the head, which helps the color seal to the hair.

I added an extra layer with this t shirt to help keep it all together, but to also keep it all warm.  Incidentally, using a t shirt to wrap wet hair after a shower is a great way to let your hair dry without getting frizzy because the fabric causes less friction on your hair.  I find putting a t shirt on, inverted, before starting the color process is just the perfect way to catch any drips.  It stays put, unlike using a towel.

Are you excited to see how it all turns out?  Stay tuned for my next post.

Thanks for stopping by.  Beth

Personalized Notecards to Stay in Touch

Hebrews 10:24-25  And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works,  and not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

Staying in touch with our friends and family is a constant activity.  It seems one group is telling us using the internet is not actually staying connected because it lacks the personal touch.  It is true, you can hide your real person behind that firewall.  Some run the risk of sharing too much.  Another point of view encourages us to sign up for every LinkedIn, Facebook or circle connection, it’s hard to keep all the connecting straight.  Do you really want to be connected to your mother’s brother’s chiropractor’s sister?  Remember, social media does not make a person, it reveals them.

No matter how you feel about being connected online, building relationships with your connections takes effort.  Starting with some online resources, such as Facebook or LinkedIn, is just the beginning.  Next, you need to make that connection personal.  A simple Facebook message, just to say, “hi,”  is a great way to make a daily effort.  When you read a Facebook post from a friend, make the time to send a direct message instead of just commenting on their status.

The post office isn’t closed, yet.  Getting a personal note via snail-mail really makes a difference.  Take a few minutes to write a note to a friend or family member you are thinking of today.  That person will be greatly blessed by your gesture.

Now my favorite part of writing notes to friends and family is making notecards.  I love all the printing services where I can pick a photo and have it made into a card.  The cards are so nice, and if you are frugal like me, you find all the Coke points people throw away and save them to buy shutterfly stuff- cards, photo books, etc., for the cost of shipping.  Yea, I know that’s pretty cheap and maybe a little trashy but I have purchased many photo things this way over the years, and saved a lot of money.

This is one of my oldest son’s digital art pictures I used to make graduation announcement cards.  Sharing these personal accomplishments in my children’s lives creates stronger relationships with our friends and family.

This post is linked up with Timewarp Wife for Titus 2sdays

Layed Up Another Day

Thank goodness for tablets and WiFi!  Well, I suppose I would have been fine in a decade past, but being layer up after knee surgery is a lot more entertaining in this decade.  That being said, I’m ready to have a wholly working leg and get off this couch.  A couple more days, it would seem.  I have been told, repeatedly, many people come home from simple arthromenisectomy and resume normal life the next day.  For whatever reason, this is not to me my situation.

Using my time to be productive-  This downtime has enabled me to visit some blog posts and to get re-enthused about my own blog.  It’s not that I haven’t wanted to blog, but when I switched from using blogger to using wordpress, there was a bit of a learning curve.  I didn’t really have the time to get creative enough for how I like to blog.

I am happy to say, I figured out some fun ways to make my blog look the way I like it.  I really like the level of free-blogging wordpress offers, as apposed to the crazy-busy-ness of blogger.  I look forward to more regular blogging, and more blog creating, learning.

I added a couple of blog buttons in my side bar to a few of my favorite blogs.  Please take a minute and see what they are all about, if you have the time.

See you soon!

 

Coffee or Tea?

Some mornings I can’t decide between coffee or tea.  So today I didn’t choose.  Brewing rooibos pumpkin spice tea over ground coffee creates such a warm, spicy flavor.  Honestly, this is just as enjoyable as the yummy, calorie laden beverage, without all the calories.  I just add a little cream and enjoy.

 

Baby Shower Projects

It was only last June when we were deep into wedding crafts.  Now my daughter is getting ready to have my first grandbaby, a girl.  I couldn’t resist the fun in throwing her a baby shower.

Deciding on the design for the invitation.

I wasn’t actually thinking of blogging about the projects I am doing but my daughter asked me to since I keep telling her about the things I’m making.

Tags for labeling food table.

I know I’m not alone when it comes to finding a calming effect when crafting.  It has been so relieving to come home from work to a project I can work on for an hour or so before crawling into bed.

I have decoration projects, game projects, and gift projects.  It’s nice to have several projects to work on at the same time because when I run out of supplies, I still have something to do without having to get to the craft store.

These are the “treat bags” for our guests.  I had a different idea of how I was going to do this but then I got on Pinterest.  Ultimately I decided on a different bag design.  Once I started creating these purses, the project evolved a couple of times.  The pattern I started with became useless as I made a couple of bad cuts.  It was kind of comical but I recovered and they really ended up very cute.

I started with the idea from My Chic n Scratch blog for the Hershey’s Nugget purse but what I have to put inside is bigger so I had to alter it a bit.

I’m out of ribbon to complete this project so onto the next one.

Simple- jewel glue painted on the pin head, sprinkle with fine glitter.  Coat with clear nail polish to keep glitter from rubbing all over.  (Affectionately known as craft-herpes.)

Ok, this is a little odd.  I had the idea of the diaper pin game. Who know, where you get so many pins when you arrive at the party and you have to give up a pin every time you say a word.  Well I saw these really cute safety pins I thought would be perfect for the game.  When I went to buy them, I found out they are discontinued.  Why is the picture still out there?  So once I got the idea to have cute safety pins instead of plain ones, I didn’t want anything else.  I couldn’t find anything I liked so obviously, glitter to the rescue!  Before you worry these are blue and not pink, I actually have green ones and am working on the pink ones. ( These are actually turquoise any way.)

We are going to have a great time honoring the arrival of these wee-little one.  I’m so excited for that day.

Thanks for stopping by.  Happy crafting.

Beth

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Laundry Room Re-Do

 

I am linking today’s post with New Nostalgia for Anti-Procrastination Tuesday.

I have been putting off getting my laundry room in order for too long.  The unfortunate aspect of the laundry room is it is also the most used entry way into our home.  Everyone walks through this room.  What do you do?  Life happens and you end up putting things wherever is easiest.

The shower curtain trick is brilliant, really.  Simple and yet so functional.  I was surprised at how expensive a package of curtain shower rings has gotten but thankfully I found a pack at a local discount retailer; $3.99 instead of $7.99.

The full-size HE washer and dryer, although much appreciated, take up a large portion of this room.  They go right up to the back door and right up to the cabinets.  Basically, if I could move it out of this room, I did.

I am not fully finished fixing this problem yet so I will have another blog post when it is complete.

Another job I finally got done was organizing all my ribbon.  I bring these snack containers home from work because I know they have to have a secondary use and I thought ribbon containers made sense.  Sadly, I have just been putting the ribbon in without consideration.

     

Adding a pencil to keep the rolls in order and be able to pull the ribbon out easily was something I should have done a long time ago.  This was my DUH! moment.

I even had one of the rubbermaid ribbon containers, not being used.  Why?  Just because I didn’t take the time to put the ribbon on the spindle and thread it through the slits.

This is all my ribbon, tucked away, under my desk.  I know I don’t have as much ribbon as a lot of women, but this feels like a lot of ribbon to me.  Now to find uses for it all.

Beth

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Fishing In Westport

I was very fortunate to be able to go deep sea fishing with a group from my church. I was extra fortunate because not only does my dad go with this group, but my son wanted to come as well.

The weather started off a bit cool and wet. I like this more than being in the sun. We weather is better fishing any way. This proved to be the case as our entire boat caught their limit of rock cod within an hour. Sadly, we were not able to locate any salmon or ling cod willing to be caught.

The first fish

We fished around for some time but remained unsuccessful so we headed back to the harbor. With a quick stop for some salt water taffy, we ended the day well and look forward to next year.

Summer Time Off

My husband and I celebrated 20 years of marriage, last summer.  I think we both always envisioned taking time out of our busy schedules to commemorate that milestone in a big way.  Unfortunately (fortunately?) our daughter got married and we were still pretty much recovering from all the festivities when our anniversary date came around.  Not to mention we would need a little more time to set aside the money to do some serious anniversary reflecting.

I’m not really sure how it all happened so quickly but a trip to Spain came on the horizon.  Without a lot of negotiating, we jumped at the opportunity.  We planned for a few months and before we knew it, July was here and we were on a plane to Spain.  The timing was so we could be in country when my good friends were there.  They are Spanish and we wanted a local’s perspective on touring the country.  The added benefit was being fully immersed in their hospitality and friendship.

Walking around the streets of Madrid

As much as I would love to go on and on about how fabulous our trip was, I probably better not.  Honestly, I think I would bore myself.  Well, maybe not.  I had such a good time.  Being away with the love of my life is exciting enough on its own but getting to travel, and then to travel to Europe, to a country by which I am so thoroughly captivated was  a total joy.

Driving to the town of Cuenca, Es

The other aspect of getting to go on this trip at this point in our lives was being able to go without the kids.  We can hardly consider our teenage boys kids any more but I did hesitate to consider going on vacation without them.  They were very eager to be left home, alone.

Arena in Valencia, Es

Saying they were home alone is a bit of an exaggeration since we have so many friends and family around to look after them.  I was happy for them to have this time to be responsible for themselves, and the dog.  After all, they will be men in very short order.

Roman ruins in Barcelona, Es

Everything at home went so well.  I really don’t think they noticed we were gone.  Of course we filled the fridge, and freezer, as well as their wallets, before we left.  All three were pretty empty when we returned, of course.  It was nice to know they appreciated all the food since my husband and I went to a lot of trouble to cook some exceptionally delicious meals- shepherd’s pie, mac n cheese, and other teenage boy fav’s.

Goudy style building in Barcelona, Es

La Familia Sagrada, Barcelona, Es

Hello world!

In anticipation of the Apple vs Google/Google vs Apple showdown, I have come to the conclusion I really need to leave my blogger account.  I have been less and less interested in google products for a while as they have become more complicated for me to access.  I made my decision when blogging from my google tablet (Motorola Xoom) with the android app proved complicated and un-fun.  It seems they don’t really support my tablet.

Many of the blogs I visit are on WordPress, so here I am.  So far, I like the layout options and the blogger dashboard.  I really need to do some posting to get a true feel for this domain though.   I also need to have my computer up and running, but that is another problem.  This is why I am looking forward to working with WordPress- to be able to blog on-the-go.

Saturday Home Spa Day

As I write this, I am marinating in coconut oil.  The house is quiet and I don’t have to go anywhere this morning.  This is the perfect opportunity to spend a little extra TLC on myself.

Coconut oil is great for the hair and scalp.  Among other properties, coconut oil contains lauric acid which is an antimicrobial.  It is an effective moisturizer because of it’s high moisture retention ability, without all the chemicals or carrier products.  It’s just simple.

I mixed up some sugar, coconut oil and lime juice for an all over body scrub.  I got the recipe from Amy at New Nostalgia blog.  She also gives her instructions for a thorough, perfectly smooth shave.

Now to deal with my nail situation…

Just before wedding day, a few of us ladies met for mani-pedis.

It’s been a few weeks now and I need to get these nails off.  I’ve never had gel nails before.  It was not my intention but I broke several nails so it seemed the best solution.  The manicurist tried to convince me to square the tops but I am rather partial to the rounded look.  I kind of thought they would get brittle and fall off, or something.  Surely I won’t have to go to the salon to have them removed.  I just don’t have the interest in paying the money.

Now, paying for a pedicure is something I don’t mind.  Beth

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