- You might have heard that Ree Drummond’s (the Pioneer Woman aka probably the most famous Okie blogger ever) Black Heels to Tractor Wheels story is going to be a movie. I like Ree. She’s from Bartlesville, OK, which is where my mom’s family is from and where I lived from the 1st - 7th grades. Occasionally I have a “Oh yeah, I remember that!” moment while reading her blog. Like when she showed a picture of the junior high that I attended and today when she posted a recipe for Murphy’s hot hamburgers. I remember going to Murphy’s with my grandfather. Now if Ree would just work on a Goldie’s knock-off recipe. Or a Washington County Hamburger Stand burger. Yum, lots of good burgers!
- I finally saw New Moon last night. My husband flat out refused to take me to see it in the theater and told me to go with one of my girlfriends. Of course, if I really wanted him to go he would have. He was just blustering. I wasn’t that interested in seeing it anyway. (Twilight lovers, just stop reading here!) I remember enjoying the books, but the movies are just ruining it for me. They are really terrible. Bella is annoying. Her relationship with Edward is absurd. The only redeeming part was the shirtless wolf pack. He he. Don’t send me any Twilight hate mail, you know I’m not a chick flick fan. But guess who watched the movie with me… yeah, my husband. The best part of the evening was recapping the 3rd and 4th books to him at his request because “I’m not wasting any more of my time on this crap!” He laughed and laughed at the Breaking Dawn story.
- I started Daphne’s Easter dress last weekend. I measured her and decided to cut out the size 2. Just as I was finishing up the lined bodice, I decided to try it on her. And, yeah, it was skin tight and about 3 inches too short. It was like Shrek vest. WTH? It’s my fault for not doing a muslin first. But I’m impatient. I’ve going to try it again with a size 4 and hope I have enough fabric
- I’m still having a hard time getting Daphne to try new foods. I know that’s part of being 2. I had some success a few weeks ago getting her to eat oatmeal. She loves to help in the kitchen, so I had her mix the oatmeal. I sprinkled in a bit of cinnamon and told her to smell her oatmeal. “Smells like a cookie, doesn’t it Daphne?” Daphne’s eyes widened. “A cookie!?!” Then I sprinkled a little pink decorating sugar over the top and called it a bowl of princess cookie oatmeal. She ate the whole bowl. I wondered if other gimmicks might work, like making her food into animal shapes, and was reminded of all the cute bento box ideas for kids. Like little panda shaped rice balls, or boiled egg molds. So I started researching and came across a website that sells Japanese bento supplies in the US. Cute stuff. As I was looking at the website’s navigation bar, my eyes stopped on the Adult Toys tab. Not because it said Adult Toys, but because Hello Kitty was on the button. What!? Hello Kitty adult toys? I won’t give you all the details, since this is a family blog and all, but let’s just say Hello Kitty has an entirely different side. What a bad kitty
First up- if you haven’t clicked through from your feed reader recently, you might not realize I’ve redecorated. Just another step closer to what I have envisioned for the blog design. Still not perfect. Someday I’m going to sit down and learn to create my own Wordpress theme. You know, when I’m not chasing a toddler, sewing, doing housework, sitting through 10 hours of Lynda.com training videos on sharpening in Photoshop, trying to get a new photography website and blog up and running, considering opening a studio space, all while pondering a scholarship essay. So, basically, sometime in 2011. In the meantime, I just tweaked a free theme. This is what it looked like before I started making changes:
I swapped out all the images (the header is a mix of a free blog header template from Pink Ink Studios and some digital scrapbooking elements), changed the background, changed the font size, tried to remember how to change my favicon, poked around online to find a service to convert it into a .ico file, spent an hour trying different bits of code in an attempt to get my header to be clickable (it worked!), and changed the spacing of a few elements. There are a few things really bugging me… like the fact that the Comments and Tags section of each post is practically sitting on top of the next post title. And the extra space between the post title and the text. I managed to fix the post title/text spacing problem when you view just an individual post (I think I adjusted the padding), but for the life of me can’t duplicate that change when you are viewing all the posts on the home page. What am I missing? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
Next problem. I think I’ve been too inspired by all these jersey/knit makeovers on various sewing blogs. So when I tried this on the other day at Old Navy, I bought it.
It’s apparently made for an Amazon and not for someone who’s barely 5′3″ with her shoes on. I figure I need to cut off at least 4 or 5 inches to make it more flattering. But, I don’t have a serger. Can I cut off the extra fabric, use an overlock or knit stitch on the edge (my Janome HT2008 has a few stitch options), then turn and hem? I don’t want to stretch out the fabric and have it look wonky. Can I use a straight stitch when I hem, or should I use a knit stitch? Do I need a stabilizer? Can you tell I have zero experience sewing with knits, lol!! And some tutorials I’ve read mentioned hand stitching the hem, er no… I got the shirt on clearance, so it’s no big loss if I screw it up. But I’d rather not.
Today I took my hair from dark brown (as brown as you can get without going black) to Scooby Doo Daphne orange, and finally back to maybe a shade lighter than my natural color. Why you ask? Well…
One thing that I’ve had to give up, since not returning to work full-time after Daphne was born, is having my hair professionally colored. I have a ridiculous amount of gray hair, which looks like someone threw some cheap Christmas tinsel icicles (remember those?) on top of a brown tree. It’s bad. And, dang it, I’ve got at least 30 years before I give in to the gray, or *gasp* go blond. So with the dark brown and the silver, yeah that sounds better than gray, I currently have to touch up my roots at least every 3 to 4 weeks. When I was having my hair highlighted, I had to get a touch up every 6 weeks. I’m lucky to get my hair cut every 6 weeks and shelling over a $1000 a year just to get my hair colored isn’t happening right now.
But I do hate coloring my hair at home. I just let my hair go about 6 weeks between root touch-ups, mainly because I was not looking forward to it. And also because I wanted to get enough root growth for me to tell exactly what my natural color is these days. Besides changing texture, my hair has really darkened up. On the chocolate spectrum of browns, I’m a dark chocolate. Or maybe it hasn’t really darkened up, I’d just been coloring it more of a milk chocolate for so many years I didn’t realize it until the last year or two. Who knows?
I was able to tell that the dark brown shade I had been using was an exact match to my natural color. That’s good, I guess. I’ve just heard several women lately talk about their “vampire” or “Elvira” hair after going dark brown and I started to think, “Oh crap! Is my hair too dark? It would be different if I wasn’t so pale. Maybe it is a little on the vampire side?” And my color was looking a little dull, and heavy on the ends ( I swear I only touch up the roots). So I picked up a box of Colorfix to remove the color in my hair, a low PH conditioner, a box of Medium Ash Brown dye and a really good after color conditioner.
Just so you know, I don’t really know what I’m doing. Don’t try this at home, hehe. At least without doing your own research. I’d used the Colorfix before after the time I accidentally colored my hair blue-black. (Oops!) It takes the dye out of your hair and leaves it this really freaky orange color. I went from Johnny Depp in Edward Scissorhands to Winona Ryder in 20 min.
Or you can do a slight color correction that takes it down a shade or two. Then I used Porosity Control conditioner, and applied the medium brown dye. Then I conditioned the hell out of my hair. The result? A little lighter than my natural color, not much. I’m sure it will fade over the next few days. Pretty even and very, very shiny and soft. The only thing I need to do is buy a toner or something that will counteract the red in my hair that’s there now that it’s a little lighter. I’m thinking Ardell Unred. I’m not completely sure that the Colorfix was necessary, since I wasn’t changing my color that much. I guess I wasn’t sure how the lighter dye would work on my hair, since the color was a little uneven, especially at the ends.
Any home hair color experts out there? Any tips? What works for you?
Have you seen the Ross sister’s Solid Potato Salad bit? If not, then you must see it. Stephanie Nielson linked to it and I watched the first minute and thought, ok, that’s kind of retro, kitschy, cute… Then my reaction changed to, “Um, that’s disturbing!” I’m sure to have nightmares about the 2:22 point, hehehe. And the finale? That’s just all kinds of weird, cool, bizarre, unbelievable. Here’s the clip. Enjoy:
- You might remember that Daphne is really into Kai-Lan. And if you don’t know who I’m talking about, lucky you! Just kidding. There are worse programs on Nick Jr. So, after watching the Chinese New Year episode about a million times, we decided to take Daphne to Chinatown for a Lunar New Year festival. I fixed her hair in Kai-Lan buns and promised her we’d see a dragon. She was ready to go. Unfortunately for Daphne, we got there crazy early. And we’d have to stand around for an hour or two with a 2 year old who had missed her nap until the dancing started. Yeah. We bailed and went to see friends. Maybe we’ll try it again next year, or pick a different celebration to attend.
- Did you catch the Project Runway episode with the little girls? Ack. Total cuteness. Did anyone else think Amy’s scalloped pants looked like one of Joel Dewberry’s Manzanita fabrics? And I thought it was hilarious that the guest judge said that blue and orange are not complementary colors. Let me just whip out my color wheel. You know, I think that’s exactly what they are.
- We’ve been working on a re-branding project for the photo biz. New name, website, logo, marketing materials, etc. It will be unveiled soon! I’m happy to say it’s more of a collaboration between me and my husband, whereas the old site was more his thing. Plus I hated the old name. Hated. More on that later.
- Daphne has been making her toys “fly” for quite some time. But now they are all flying IN SPACE!! She threw her underwear in the air the other day and said, “Flying panties in SPACE!” I’m not 100% sure where she got the space idea. Maybe she was in the room when my husband and I were watching a Discovery channel DVD set about the space program? Well, and she’s watched a lot of BSG with us. We might have to take her to NASA when she gets a little older, since it’s about an hour away.
- Speaking of Daphers, that girl has been wearing me out. Last week was just crazy. She was moody. Her sleep schedule was off. She’d wake up in the middle of the night screaming. Mommy wanted to scream. She had expressed interest in sleeping on her twin bed, but after a few rough nights I decided to put her back in the crib. Maybe the potty training and big girl bed was just too much for her at the same time?
- I’m looking forward to more Jenny time this week. I need to get caught up on my correspondence, sew up a bunch of things for Daphne and get started on her baby book. I bought a few digital kits at Two Peas in a Bucket (like Peony Place Skylit). Now just to find enough time…
- We had free passes to see a preview of Shutter Island last night. It was pretty good. The people watching was pretty good too, since the theater was inside the loop and not out in preppy Suburbia. I had my first real life sighting of the stereotypical hipster guy wearing skinny jeans and eyeglasses bigger than his face, which contrasted nicely with the pre-teen boy sized Members Only jacket he was wearing. Seriously? The sleeves barely made it to mid forearm.
- During hard economic times, occasionally I’ll see articles or news segments about bartering for goods and services. I’ve never done it, but I might have to look into it after checking out Knock Off Wood’s blog. Holy Crap, people!!!! It makes me want to go to Home Depot and buy some lumber. I’m not sure how far I’d get since the only tools I own are a Dremel and a jigsaw. On the plus side, I’ve seen just about every episode of This Old House ever made, and many episodes of New Yankee Workshop. Unfortunately, I’m a klutz and would probably cut off my hand. And my husband has zero interest. So….. will trade photography and sewing skills for a few knock-off Pottery Barn Kids and Land of Nod pieces.
- We went to Costco today to stock up. I love Costco. I picked up two Hanna Andersson dresses for Daphne, $13.99 a piece. One dress was even something that I wanted to buy her last year and wasn’t able to. Score!! Especially since they were probably $30+ retail. The HA pieces I’ve bought for Daphne over the last two years still look brand new, even though I’ve washed some of them 100 times. This tunic dress/top, in particular, has had everything from chocolate milk to spaghetti sauce spilled on it, and was worn constantly last year (and even some this year) and still looks new.
So YAY for cheap Hannas!
- I think I need to work on my amigurumi skills, because my nephew Oliver needs a Star Wars Amigurumi set:
- I learned this week that apparently it’s crazy to carry 11 tubes of lipstick around in your purse. You mean, everyone doesn’t do that? We had one of those mixer games before my Wednesday morning mom’s group and you got points for a bunch of random things in your purse. Everyone thought my lipstick collection was hilarious. All MAC, and all different shades- berries, pinks, bronzes, peaches. Cause you never know what you’ll need, right? Is that really crazy?
- Daphne has been crazy fussy this week. I have no idea what is going on. Here’s one of her rare smiles today:
While I was on Twitter tonight I noticed someone tweeted that tourists frequently ask the front desk people at the Alamo why it was built in the middle of downtown San Antonio. Uh, what?!! Setting aside that dumb question, I’ll admit I was tempted to tweet back “At least the question isn’t, Where’s the basement?!”
Do you think anyone still asks to see the basement of the Alamo? At least anyone under the age of 30? Do any of you know what I’m talking about? Hahaha.. I know a few of you do. For those of you who don’t, it’s a reference to Pee-wee Herman’s first movie, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. Here’s the clip:
I actually love Pee-wee. (Why don’t you marry him?) Not so much his movies (I admit I liked them as a young teen), but his early 80’s stage show with the Groundlings was hilarious! You can YouTube some clips if you are interested. If I was anywhere near Los Angeles, I would have gone to see his new stage show. Funny, funny.
And something else that is funny, well, more sad/funny… I still can’t say the word adobe without thinking of Jan Hooks.
So you remember how I was DREADING the whole potty training thing? I kept putting it off, even though Daphne would occasionally ask to use the potty and go without any problems. I wasn’t sure she was ready. Or, more accurately, I wasn’t ready. Getting Daphne to sleep and eat has always been a fight, why would potty training be any different?
After a rocky first three days, mainly due to us both being really sick & crabby the week I started, Daphne has now been accident free for almost a week. She even wakes up dry from naps and overnight. This is just shocking to me. Shocking!! I do still feel like I live in the bathroom now, since I take her every 30 minutes. That’s all I do, sit in the bathroom with Daphne and clap for her bowel movements. They leave that info out for new moms. Someday you will have to stand next to the toilet, cheer and do the Dora “We Did It” dance more than a dozen times a day to encourage your little one to use the potty.
Daphne is in cloth training panties most of the day, with Pull-Ups for nap and nighttime. She hates the Pull-Ups and thinks her cotton panties are awesome. She also hates using public restrooms. In fact, she’s only used a public potty once when we were at the library. At our Wednesday morning mom’s group, I took her before we left the house, once we got to church and before we left. You’d have thought I was trying to torture her in the bathroom. So, she held it until we got home. I’m really surprised she didn’t have an accident.
Next week we are going to pick out a few big girl gifts, including Ni hao, Kai-Lan panties. Go Daphne! Woo hoo!
- I recently won a blog contest. I. Won. Shocking really, since I never win anything. I’m very unlucky. And it wasn’t just one prize, but 8 awesome prizes from great Etsy/indie craft shops. It was better than Christmas! Especially for a girl who has that whole “mommy shopping martyr” thing down. “No, don’t worry about getting anything for me, just buy for Daphne. No, don’t buy me anything for Valentine’s Day. I don’t need anything. Blah, blah.” And I rarely buy anything for myself. One of the prizes was a $25 gift certificate to Pink Loves Brown, and I plan on ordering a custom stationery set. Doesn’t this have my name written all over it? Well, it will once I order it.
- My Flickr pro account expired and I had planned on renewing it in February. I found out today that because I don’t have a pro account, I can only view the last 200 photos I’ve uploaded. WHAT!?!?! That’s insane! Very, very, VERY irritating.
- Last Sunday, Masterpiece Classic aired a new version of Jane Austen’s Emma. It was awesome!! Clearly the best traditional adaptation of Emma I’ve seen. (Clueless is still my favorite.) The only distracting bit? Emma had some facial expressions that reminded me of BSG’s Starbuck (Katee Sackoff). Anyway, catch part two this weekend. Or you can watch online.
- I’m ready for LOST!!! Hurry up Tuesday!
- If you are on Facebook, you might have seen the “Change your profile picture to your celebrity doppleganger” thing going around. I have a few things to say about that. #1- some of you are dreaming!!! You wish you looked like a supermodel (hehe, just kidding)! #2- Hubs asked me who he looked like, so I told him- a mix of George Stephanopoulos, the Dog Whisperer guy (when he has a tan and a goatee), Tom Cruise, and Chris added this one… Curious George. Bwahahaha! He went with George Stephanopoulos, which looks a lot like his senior picture.
- The one thing I really wanted to get Daphne for Christmas, but wasn’t able to, was an American Girl Bitty Twin. Couldn’t justify $95 for 2 dolls, and didn’t have time or reason to drive all the way to Dallas to the AG store to buy one single doll. But it’s definitely on my list of things I want to buy for her this year. I realize there are a lot of AG haters out there, but after buying a Fisher Price bitty twin knock off at Costco, I’m done with buying cheap, crappy dolls. Poor Daphne’s Sweet as Me doll has the worst hair. Like it was electrocuted. Everyone who sees it comments on it. “What happened to your doll’s hair?” Ooops! I think it looked like this for about 3 seconds:
And when I do get her a new doll (and trash that sad FP doll), I’m going to make them matching ModKid outfits. Cute, huh? Maybe for her birthday.
There have been so many potential blog posts that have simply fallen through the cracks over the last few months. I’ve been busy. But it’s been running around in circles busy, not accomplishing things busy. So, here’s what you missed.
- In December, my little sister had a healthy baby boy. His name is Oliver and he’s the cutest little ball of baby chub you ever saw. And at 6 weeks (or is it 7 now), he weighs the same as Daphne at 10 months old. He’s a big boy!!!!
- Got my hair cut recently. It’s shorter than it’s been in months, between shoulder and collar bone. Lots of layers. Cute, but as I feared, my suddenly curly locks are even springier. I have two problems. Well, make that three. Problem #1- My CHI sucks. My mom has an older style CHI that survived being bashed against her car window when she was stuck in the flood last year. Her CHI still works better than mine. Mine just doesn’t straighten as well. And just a little trivia. Did you know Mr. CHI, Farouk Shami, is running for governor here in TX? Problem #2- I have no patience to sit and section out my thick hair to flat iron. So, I end up doing a decent job on the sides and then skimp on the back. Problem #3- I live in Houston, TX in a humid sub-tropical climate. And for the first time this weekend, my somewhat straightened hair (I had hot rolled it just to smooth it out) started to curl on me since it was humid out. And the funny thing? It wasn’t even August humid. You know, the humidity that makes the air feel like a swamp. It was just a little humid. My bangs started to wing out and curl on the ends. Oh boy. This hair thing is rocking my world. I repent from all the years in my youth spent perming and teasing my hair to get that 80’s style. Curly hair sucks. Please let me have my straight hair back. Please.
- After my marathon crafting session last week for my workshop, I’m taking a break until at least February. If I see another piece of felt, I might barf. Eventually I’ll do a post of some of my recent projects, because I did have a lot of fun making things out of a few felted wool sweaters. Easy and cute!
- While I’m on the topic of my workshop… I taught three classes. My public speaking skills have improved slightly since ‘95, but not much. Hahaha! And let’s just ponder for a moment why I can remember that the last presentation I had to give was in my Women in Contemporary Art class (on Faith Ringgold) back at OU in ‘95 and yet I can’t remember my own stinking zip code when the Michael’s cashier asks me at checkout. Cashier- “What’s your zip code?” Me- “Um. Zip code? What’s a zip code?” My mind goes blank. Once I rattled off something that was a hybrid of my TX, AL and old OK zip codes. Did you know I was once a card carrying member of Mensa? No really, I still have the card. Not that you could tell if you met me now. I’m such a dingbat.
There’s more, but it’s potty training week here in the Denbow house and I have to get back to Daphne. Until next time…
Randoms
Comments
Uncategorized
