Purple Locks ~ A rather long tale of hair coloring under the influence of PMS

So I was feeling a little blue on New Year's Eve during the early day and decided I needed a little pick me up in the way of beauty. Never a good time to venture into new hair color technique territory, but hey, it's never stopped me before.

Some of you may know that I am a licensed beautician. And some of you may think to yourselves, "is that right." and not in an inquisitive tone but perhaps a sarcastic one. hee hee, I might have had one of those "is that right" moments on Saturday.

I was feeling a bit sorry for myself, a little irritated, a little wistful and more than a little PMSy. So while I shoved the last of my Hershey Kisses in my mouth I headed downstairs where I keep my "beauty shop". I had enough color for a root touch up but felt like a little something more jazzy for the new year. I found some demi color in a great shade of red violet and some bleach... perfect. For those of you who don't know, demi color lasts longer than a semi permanent color but does wash out eventually.

Slopping my color on my roots I head back upstairs to suddenly decide to sweep and mop the kitchen ( I get easily distracted). So by the time I head back down to put the red violet on the rest of my hair, it was nearly time to take off my root color. Pfffft... 45 minutes is just a suggestion, right?

I go back down and add the demi color. I do this in the basement because I have 3 big splotch marks on my bathroom floor now from previous PMS moments :( (really it should stand for Passing Moments of Sanity) ooooo, the bottle looks a really pretty shade of purple I noticed as I took it upstairs after the color was on my hair.

I wash my hair out upside down in my tub and again notice oooo what a pretty shade of violet! Then it dons on me. Hmmmm.. This is not only a little purple but it's pretty dark too. Oh well. It's just hair.

So I get it all washed out and look in the mirror. Great. I now look like Dracula with a dark widow's peak on my pasty forehead. Apparently over an hour might be a tad too long for regular hair color. Oops. Dang and I don't have bangs to hide it either. Hmmm... scissors? I had enough sense at that moment to think, mmm. no. not yet. Then I notice wow, my hair is pretty dark. Where's that bleach? Back downstairs I go.

I've got this Matrix bleach given to me by my friend. She was nice enough to give me a little bag so I could sample it before I purchased a tub of it. Great - except there are no instructions. Each line of hair care use their own gimmick of ratios and I wasn't familiar with Matrix so I try to call my friend. Dang. It's New Year's Eve, I hate to bother her. I try to call the beauty supply house, closed. I looked online. The ratio or recipe if you will, is a closely guarded secret that I could not find anywhere even after registering in as a hairdresser. They weren't even civil enough to post their phone number. Bastards.

Meh... Just do it I thought. So I did. I threw the bleach powder in a bowl, added some peroxide and squeezed a big glob of the toner in. Mixed it all up and thought that looked pretty good. Great! Now I just have to try to foil my own hair. Ick. Not easy. Things would be so much easier if I could just take my head off and do it, then pop my head back on. Yeah, not happenin. 

So I managed to get it slopped on all the while forgetting to put on gloves. (Now I have sandpaper fingers.) I remember reading online that you can add heat and it would speed up the process. So I think I'm in a hurry and get under my dryer. After what I feel is 2 minutes, I get up and look in the mirror expecting to see blonde. Nope. Nothing. Get back under and turn heat all the way up. 10 minutes later get up and look again half expecting hair to come out with foil. Nope, nothing still. I figured the peroxide must be too old. So I give up and go upstairs to wash it all out and give myself a proper shower. Wow, again with the dark purple washing over me. hmmm.

After the shower I notice some high lights. No too bad I'm thinking, while not noticing my purple hair. (Hey, it was wet) I get ready and we all go to friends to play cards and have an adult beverage or two. When we get there, my friend's husband says wow, your hair. Uh. Really? Notice my husband and kid didn't say a thing to me about it. I think my hair could be on fire and Daryl wouldn't say anything about it. So I just laugh and say yeah, I colored it today and they just look at me and smile. I guess that's what one does when there really isn't something nice to say. haha

Fast forward to the next day and I finally see my hair in the daylight. Holy Shit. I've got dark Gothic purple hair with pink hi-lights. Happy Fucking New Year to me. Please excuse my language but it was a bit of a shock and I am secretly a potty mouth.

So now I look like a short fat pasty troll with blackish purple hair and pinky stained streaks around my face wearing dark red lipstick and pale white skin. I look like a garish Halloween trainwreck. Have you ever had those Aha moments when you really see something in a different light? Well this was mine. And if it weren't so dang funny I'd be crying.

It has since lightened up a little bit and I've calmed down. It's not seeming quite so purple, it's more of the dark red that I wanted in the first place. And the streaks are not so pink more coppery now, which is good. I wish I had thought to take my picture when I saw myself in the daylight for the first time. Scary. This might be my new get up for Halloween 2012.

I want to wish all of you a Happy New Year, since this is my first post of 2012. I hope this year is better for all of us and brings joy, inspiration and creativity.

Rather insignificant stuff about me

So one of my Creative Sistah's, Andrea of Falling Ladies, has a giveaway on her blog and one of the critera is that you have to copy and paste interview questions. Since I know you're just chomping at the bit and on the edge of your seats... here is mine

1. What should you be doing right now instead of sitting on the computer?

Watching a couple shows off my dvr since it's down to 1% before I go to bed. It keeps erasing good stuff! I know, I live a sad existence.

2. What's the messiest area of your house? and dare you to show us...

Anyone who knows me well enough to have been in my home knows that I am a slob creative genius therefore I have controlled chaos and mayhem throughout. But to answer the question... My kitchen bar. The hubs calls it the magic bar. One day it's cleared off and you go to the bathroom and come back and all kinds of stuff has magically appeared. Also, I try to save every plant I own by taking cuttings and then I end up with their sad little carcasses standing in jars of water. Oh and my desk is right up there, probably before the magic bar but they are both in the kitchen, so it counts as one, right?

The magic bar

                                                      
3. 5 simple things that make you happy right now, above and beyond the obvious like your family and your health...

                  1.) new art materials
                 2.) watching scary movies/shows
                  3.) chocolate covered raisins
                  4.) black fingernails
                  5.) lots of gypsyish jewelry I've been wearing lately

some of my frequently worn junk.

4. When did you last cry?

Ugh... like an hour ago. the tiniest thing can conjure up memories of my mom and the waterworks start flowing

5. Favorite book...

I mostly read art books and mags, but I guess a favorite book would be one that you've read more than once. That would be a book called Beauty. A very cool version of Beauty and the Beast, my favorite fairy tale. A close second is Lasher by Anne Rice. Really all of her Mayfair Witches books.

6. How many pets...

Currently, we have 2 cats, Glove and Thunder,  a dog Zoey, a lonely cichlid, George and a bunch of lake fish that managed to get into my koi pond along with one gold fish cause all my koi ended up dying. :(

Glove, the princess cat

Zoey and Thunder the jungle cat

7. 2 Goals... one huge and unrealistic one,  and one achievable one...

I would like to be some big time artist and have a big art studio in Maui and have all my family and friends live there too since I probably couldn't stand to be away from them. This is unattainable because basically I'm pretty lazy.

One I can probably pull off is to just keep trying to get in the studio to create. Art ain't making itself up there.

8. 5 things in your purse besides money and a cell phone...

a red bandana
tons of coupons
the very last of my Maybeline "Hot, Hot Hot" red sparkly lipstick that they discontinued :(
my mp3 player
a pair of my son's underwear (you never know)

9. The emotion or feeling you hate the most...

For myself: Guilt... I have to go with guilt. Feeling like I'm screwing up my son, by not always doing the right thing or saying the right thing. the only thing I don't feel guilt about is that I love him unconditionally and never withhold love from him even if I am punishing him.

For other people: indecisiveness.

10. If you could have 50 pounds of anything except money or gold what would you want?

Well I keep thinking 50 pounds of chocolate covered raisins but I'd probably gain like 75 pounds from them, so my second choice is 50 pounds of fresh home grown tomatoes every month even in the winter. Yeah, that would be pretty sweet.

Ok that's it! If you want to join in and get in on the giveaway or just share your quirkiness... go here. 

Surprise in my mailbox

I opened up my mailbox this morning and I had a tasty surprise waiting for me! My best friend Kelly had sent me a package with a cute Halloween card and some chocolate goodies inside. She went all out, too. It was Libs Chocolate! For those of you not from my area, Libs is a local chocolate and candy maker that has the best premier chocolates! Works of art each one, they are.

Look at the deliciousness...

how cute!

mmph mph mmm... it's a chocolate covered Oreo! mmm... *nosh nosh nom*

seal of yumminess

cute little ghouls all lined up!

oh yeah, it's soooo good!

Death by chocolate, what better way?

On Wednesday, there was a town Halloween Party for the kids and Asher decided to be a cowboy this year. Better than the cat he claimed he would be all year long... haha  So I made him this cute outfit including the chaps and matching vest. He's just missing boots. I'm in a non scary get up of a happy gypsy. I just love dressing up and could do it all year. In fact I might!

Happy Friday night! It's almost Halloween!!!!!!

Halloween Costume 2011

This past weekend was my friend's Halloween Costume Party, something I am always excited to attend. Everyone is required to dress up which so up my alley. This time I chose to be a Sugar Skull in honor of the Day of the Dead or Día de los Muertos. I made my head piece and skirt, and I used a blouse that I already had. It was a lot of fun getting ready and this is my first attempt at painting a Sugar Skull.

So here is my shameless gallery of pictures of myself. I love to take pictures of myself all done up when you can't tell who I am. I'll post my "how I did it" pictures soon. Unfortunately, my lighting is really bad and you can't see my costume very well.  Oh and nothing reminds you faster that you have a face the size of the moon like white paint...  oh well.

Two years today

Two years. Wow, two years have gone by since my mother died of cancer. Two years ago I thought how can I possibly go on without my dear mother? My mother who was my best friend, and the person who knew me better than anyone. My mother, who loved me more than anyone ever would in my life. My mother, whom I was joined at the heart with. A lot goes on in two years that she has missed, that we have missed with her. Life just keeps on going even though she isn't living right along with us. How can life possibly still go on? Yet it does.

Somehow though, I choose to be happy. I could so easily have sunk into my misery and still be there. Not that I don't dip down into that deep dark abyss that is grief. I do it often. I just don't stay there. I choose to be happy. Not happy that she's gone of course, but happy to be alive and enjoy the things that she enjoyed.  I got my optimism from her. I smile to myself when I see, hear, smell and taste things that remind me of her and in an instant I'm taken back to a time with her. There is not a day I don't run through my mind my memories of her, usually many times a day. In fact, most of my days consist of thinking to myself what I think my mother would be saying in whatever situation I am in.

I choose to be happy because my faith takes me there. I do think some people are happier people by nature, kinda the glass is half full thing. But I also believe you can fight your urge to be negative and put yourself in a happier frame of mind and be around happy people and surround yourself with things that you know make you happy. Even if that happiness requires a pill... take it. Accept it. Pride or stubbornness only stands in your way most of the time. It's so much easier to be happy... I'm not saying you have to be a happy idiot, but  just try it. Just smile, it starts you off in the right direction... Laugh and your practically there.

As I am writing this, the wind is blowing and my wind chimes are happily singing. Along with many I have bought, I have a set of chimes that were my mothers and I cherish them. I like to think that is my mom speaking to me from heaven through the chiming sounds.

So today while I've already shed many tears, I choose to be happy. Can you?

Abstract Sidewalk Art

Asher and I have just discovered the joys of sidewalk paint this past Saturday. We've played around with chalk before but this sidewalk paint, let me tell you! It just knocks sidewalk graffiti up a whole notch or two in my book. From what started as whining from Asher turned out to be the highlight of my day.

You see he just found a birthday present from way back in March that I've been pushing aside. Okay I was hiding it, I admit it. It just seemed like one of those kid things that was gonna be one big mess that I had to clean up then to add insult to injury, a nice scream fest to top it off. No thank you.

But since having found it a few days prior, he's been hounding me to get this stuff out. Now you all know, I'm all for creative play. But this was Saturday and I really hadn't planned on getting out of my robe for most or all of the day. Besides it was like 50 something degrees out there... ick.

But Asher managed to talk me into it. Code for: drove me nuts until I caved. So I annoyingly got my clothes on, all the while telling him that he could do it himself and that I was going to sit inside while he did it. He accepted, just thrilled to try out the new stuff. So I get him set up and show him what to do, it came with a roller and a brush, and I went back inside to do more lounging.

Well I started to feel a twinge of guilt since he is now in school and I really don't spend much time playing like that anymore with him. I looked out the window and he looked so cute slopping the paint and rolling away. Not only that, I started to get a little envious. He painted with abandon. Sloshing paint this way and that. What fun! So I went out there and asked him if I could join in. Happily, he said I could and then proceeded to tell me I could use the brush because he like the roller. Yippee! So it began.

mine is on the left and Asher's is on the right in case you can't tell ;)

Of course he was totally tired of it within 10 minutes, so I thought well I don't want to waste the paint that had already been poured out so I kept painting (about 30 minutes) and came up with what you see here. I still ended up having to clean it all up, but hey, it was well worth it.

Just so you know, it looks much prettier when sidewalk paint is wet. The dog trotted all over it, but it surprisingly dries fast. The cat couldn't care less. It's amazing the color combinations you can create with hot pink, blue and yellow... although it takes a little extra work. Also, I don't think it's gonna come off. Oy!

Swamp tour - last of Florida vacation pics

Last pics from vacation that I'll share, at least for now. These were taken at Black Hammock Adventures Air Boat Rides on Lake Jesup which boasts to have the most alligators in any lake in central Florida. This was such a fun day, I've always wanted to take an airboat ride and we finally found one that was a good fit for us. Actually in all it only took four hours from the time we left the condo to the time we got back. I would love to take a longer ride sometime.

I love the swamp. I have always loved spooky things and the swamp seems spooky and peaceful. One of my favorite movies is Passion Fish, it's based down south and has great cinematography of the swamps there plus I love the story. Now that I think about it there are quite a few movies I love that have swamps in them, like The Gift and The Skeleton Key. I know there are more.  I am also addicted to the show Swamp People and The Glades. Of course who didn't like Swamp Thing!

I was concerned about skeeters, since they think I'm a buffet, but honestly, I think we have more mosquitoes in Indiana than I encountered in the swamp or Florida for that matter.

We were posing next to these beautiful parrots and all of a sudden they screeched and I thought they were gonna eat us up! It was so loud and scared us all... lol.

So right away I could tell photographing the scenery was going to be difficult because of the railing but I managed to get a few good ones. The birds were beautiful and so diverse.

We got to see baby alligators in the wild. These were just born in July (it's now September). Captain Joel told us this was her 2nd batch of hatchlings this year.

This is a bird coming out of the water. I thought Daryl was gonna jump out of his skin when it surfaced! haha  He thought it was a snake but first it startled him splashing out like that.

Unfortunately, Asher was not a happy camper. He hated having to wear the life jacket and the ear things he had to wear to cancel the noise, they're not on him at the moment. I thought he was sea sick for a moment, but he's just pouting.

So here is "Firecracker" the baby alligator we got to pet and hold. I was thrilled but Asher refused to hold him. He did pet him though.

I wanted to leave you with a photo that I liked and altered a bit. Spooky, the way I see a swamp :) These trees were amazing. We have a cypress growing next to our lake but you gotta admit it's the moss that adds that special touch. I wish we had that moss up here, I love it.

Ok, no more boring vacation pics (for a while!) haha... thanks for playing along and reliving my vacation with me. Enjoy the day!

Florida Day 2,3,4 and 5!

Day 2, 3, 4 and 5 all neatly wrapped up here. We basically did more beach time but we did bowl one night and then day 5 we went to Disney World's Magic Kingdom for the first time with Asher.

 The hurricane that was way out in the ocean (Maria) had sent us lots of nice big shells that aren't normally easily found. I always take shells home, some day I'll do something with them ;)

 Remnants of sand castles...

Another fine beach day, lots of beautiful sunshine. Later in the week the jellyfish forced us away from the ocean.

 

 There was a funeral procession of sorts one day. I noticed people all lining up and walking into the ocean who were all in normal clothes and not swimsuits and then I noticed they were tossing flowers into the sea. I know it's kinda morbid but I was fascinated by it. I of course immediately thought of my mom and how she just loved the ocean. This would've been something that would have made her smile too. It was touching. Then my mind travels to so many dark corners and I had to direct my attention somewhere else.

Bowling turned out to be fun for the kids... and I swear the longest set ever.

So day 5 was Disney and Asher honestly wasn't that thrilled with it but he did like the roller coaster Thunder Mountain and the water ride Splash Mountain. He was too small for Space Mountain which was fine, because the first things we got on was Stitch something and he was scared to death when the lights went out. I kept telling him it wasn't real, but he was terrified the poor baby. The one thing I thought he would really like, Swiss Family Robinson, was closed for remodeling. We had about 4 rides stop on us, things just were quitting left and right. They are already celebrating Halloween there so they closed early at 7pm and you had to have a special ticket to get in for that (high dollar $$), so we missed the fireworks which we were really looking forward to, but we were exhausted by then anyway.

More for the last remaining days coming... Oh and if you're just reading this and wonder where the first day is, see it here. Thanks for visiting and reminiscing with me :)