Tag Archives: Curly Girl

Package In the Mail!

Good evening!

Do you ever get excited whenever you get a package in the mail???

or is that just me???

Well, tonight, after I got home from work, I found a package in my mail!! YEAH!!! 😉

Yes, I really do get that excited!!

In it, was my new 2012 Curly Girl calendar. I am not sure if you know who Curly Girl is, but she is one of my FAVORITE artists. She is a collage artist specializing in uplifting and girl power type artwork!! I am sooooo excited for the new year so that I can put it up in my office!!

I also received a new book called, The Right-Brain Business Plan. This book is by Jennifer Lee, and I have been drooling over this book seemingly FOREVER!!! I finally decided it was time to break down and treat myself to this little book! It is basically a book that helps visual people, like myself, visually map out a plan of action to get to where they want to be. I have needed this kind of help for a while now, because for some reason I seem to get all excited about something, get overwhelmed and then sabotage myself and end up back at the beginning of my progress!! So, I am at least hoping that this book will have some fun, and creative ideas for getting inspired!!!

There was one more thing in this package I received, but I am not at liberty to share what it was, because it was a Christmas gift for my sweetie, and he reads my blog faithfully!! I am SOOO NOT going to spoil that surprise!! 😉

What else happened today? Well, we had our Christmas luncheon at work today. It is always such a nice treat to have a delicious meal, served by our administration!! Plus, we usually take a bit of a longer lunch so we can just take some time to catch up on how everyone is doing. It was really quite a treat!!

I realized today that it is only one week from tomorrow until we are traveling down to Roseburg to see family for Christmas. I am just so excited to get there, and just hang out and have some fun!!! I will have to see if we can have our friend come over and babysit our girls while we are gone. I really do hate leaving them, but they really need to stay in there own habitat!! It is just safer for them!! I am hoping to someday have an RV where we can have a mini home away from home and then they could easily travel with us, but until then, a dog-sitter it is!!! 😉

Alright, that is enough rambling for one night!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! :-)

Wednesday’s Update!

Today is Day 5, no shampoo, no hairbrush, and my hair is still rockin’! Ok, I realize that I am having a moment of SEVERE VANITY, but really when do I EVER have something that I can say looks good on me!?!?!?!? But, do you know the scary thing??? I swam in my overly chlorinated pool last night for a really long time, and NORMALLY that would have left me with poofy frizzed out hair for days, and look at this pic, this is my hair TODAY!!! WOW!!! I am a believer!!! I want to tell every curly girl of this new power that I have discovered! THEY SHOULD HAVE THIS POWER TOO!!! HAHAHA! Ok, that was a little evil, like I want to take over the world laugh, but I digress!! If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in the comments section, I would be happy to tell you exactly what I am and have been doing to make my hair look the best it may have ever looked!!!

Anyway, today is Wednesday, and I am soooo ready for the weekend!! Jason and I are meeting our family at Beverly Beach to go camping for the weekend! We are going to have soooo much fun! and I am planning on taking A LOT of pictures!! We are having a fun family cookoff on Saturday evening, I can’t wait!! Jason is biting at the but to cook our meal that night, and I can’t wait to taste everyone’s dishes, you see we are all sharing whatever it is that we make, so that should be SOOO MUCH FUN!!!

Anyway, I am going to go spend some undivided time with my sweetie!!! I look forward to hearing from you!!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

No Shampoo/No Brush Hair Day 4!

Ok, it is late! I am sooo tired, and I am heading up to bed as soon as I finish this mini post! I promised that I would post some pics of my No Shampoo/No Hair Brush day 4, so here goes!!!

Here it is wet, about 30 minutes after my shower.

Thank you, Sweetie for taking my pics!!! 😉

This is my hair about 5 hours later. I actually got my first complements today!!! YEAH!!! “Have you done something different with your hair? It is looking soooo good!!”, “Your hair is sooo curly, what did you do to make it so curly?”

YEAH!!! That felt good!! 😉

Anyway, I will chat more tomorrow!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!

Happy Monday!!

How has your day gone today?? Mine has gone pretty well!! I always feel so jazzed when I have gotten the things from my to-do list done for the day, work – check, groceries – check, make dinner at home – check, blog – well, that will be a check, and read some more of my book – check, check!! 😉

I came home after grocery shopping a realized my sweetie has fixed something that has been bugging me since 4 years ago when we moved into this place, and that is, he replaced the house numbers on the front of our place. I always tell you, it is the little things in life that bring you joy!! I am not sure who put them there before us, I am sure it must’ve been the lady who lived here before us, but for some reason the numbers had been painted fingernail polish pink – as in hot pink! They were hard to see, AND they were UGLY!!! I had just been tolerating them there, until I forgot they even existed!! but, my sweetie knew I had hated them and thought it would be a nice surprise, and it was!! HONEY, can you hear the brownie meter going up??? I do!!! 😉

Anyway, I am on chapter two of the book that I am reading, Secrets of Simplicity: Learn to Live Better with Less, has really inspired me to start reading about Henry David Thoreau. He seems like a fascinating man, and I have loved all of his lessons that I have heard so far. You see, it sounds like all of the greats had an oasis of sorts to go to center themselves, and rebalance. Thoreau had Walden Pond, Epicurus had his house and gardens, Buddah had a fig tree, where is your Walden Pond?? Where is mine? Good question. I would LOVE to say it is my home, but I think that right now, it has to be the ocean. I always am able to recoup, and get refreshed there. I am going to make it my mission to create my oasis!

Now for that oasis, what would I take with me??? If you were going to be stranded on a desert island. What would you take with you? What could you not living without? Choose for each of the categories below:

Two articles of clothing.
One food item.
One beverage.
One form of entertainment.
One piece of technology.

What did you choose???

For me my answers are:

Two articles of clothing: A day dress, & my mom’s pink jammies (who would I be trying to impress???)
One food item: grilled chicken (I am guessing there is already pineapple, papaya, and coconut there???)
One beverage: iced sweet tea
One form of entertainment: my entire family
One piece of technology: an i-phone

There is soooo much more that I feel I can’t live without, but this will have to be my chosen basics – for now!!!

On to more frivolous matters, it is day 3 of my no shampoo, no brush hair challenge, and so far so good. My showers in the morning take a lot longer than they used to take, but because I am not spending so much time in front of the mirror painfully brushing out my hair, I think the time to get ready takes me about the same amount of time, so that is good! The front of my hair today looks a little greasy, but it feels soooo soft – not greasy at all, that is surprising to me. AND my hair does seem much curlier than it usually is, although it does appear pretty mousy and dull, which I was told, is expected during the first 2 to 3 weeks, so onward I go!!

I am going camping this weekend, so this should be interesting. Not the camping, I know THAT will be a BLAST, I mean the hair care situation there – I will have to keep you posted!!! 😉

Oh, and it has been two days, and I have not purchased even ONE book!! Now, that is not so impressive you say???? Well maybe not, but books are my one weakness and I found that I was bringing between 10 and 20 books a week, I kid you not!! So, I had to have a come to Jesus meeting with myself and put my priorities in the proper order. AND maybe save some money to go on a big trip that I am taking in January!! I am not going to talk too much about that yet, as I don’t want to put a ken ayina hora, a Jewish hex, on it. I will let you know what is going on as soon as I get some more plans finalized on this!! YEAH!!!

Anyway, it is getting late, have a FABULOUS evening!

Life Inventory Checklist!

I am reading this TERRIFIC book!!! It has been in my house for almost a year, but I just picked it up this morning to read through it. This AMAZING book is called ‘Secrets of Simplicity: Learn to Live Better with Less‘. I got through the entire first chapter, and spent the rest of the day doing the first assignment – GOING THROUGH YOUR ENTIRE WARDROBE!!! Whew!! That is soooo much harder than it sounds. I spent the whole day doing that, and bagged up 6 bags of clothes, shoes, and other miscellaneous things from my closet!! It was difficult, time consuming, and at times, I thought I would quit, HOWEVER now that it is all done, I am sooooo EXCITED, and it is nice to have taken stock of everything that I own (wardrobe-wise!)

A few more things that I am taking from this book right away are:

I will focus on reading the books I have, and not purchase any books within the next 30 days
I will not use shopping as my therapist. If I’ve had a bad day, I will do something to pamper myself like a mani or pedi; and if I had a great day, I will let that great mood continue on to my evening by playing some fun music and dancing with my sweetie!
The most important things in my life, are not things – they are people and experiences!

Here is an excerpt from the book ‘Secrets of Simplicity: Learn to Live Better with Less‘, written by Mary Carlomagno:

Answer the following questions with “Always,” “Sometimes,” or “Never”

Do I make time to exercise?
Is my home life serene?
Do I have downtime?
Do I take time to deal with incoming mail and bills?
Do I have time to volunteer for charity?
Do the significant people in my life receive my attention when they need it?
Do I keep my appointments?
Do I see my friends?
Do I eat regular, healthy meals?
Am I in control of my calendar?
Are my home repairs done in a timely manner?
Is my pantry stocked?
Do I find time to get out and enjoy nature?
Am I getting enough sleep?
Do I take regular vacations?
Do I work less than 10 hours a day?
Is my work fulfilling?

Total up your “Always,” “Sometimes,” or “Never” responses. Place stars by the questions that surprised you, and think about what they reveal. Are your “nevers” standing in the way of your livelihood, your healthy, your ability to ultimately grow? Has “always” become a burden, leaving you without control, without the ability to make a conscious choice? As you review your responses, think about whether they represent a life of your choosing.

I would HIGHLY encourage ANYONE wanting to find balance in a materialistic culture, GO OUT AND PICK UP THIS BOOK!!

On a side note: it is day two of my new NO SHAMPOO, NO HAIR BRUSH routine from the book I finished reading yesterday, Curly Girl. My hair is looking alright, a little greasy this evening, not itchy, I am still passing the sniff test – my husband says “hmmm..smells good!” Thanks, Baby!! 😉 I promise to get a picture posted tomorrow!!! My pics this morning didn’t turn out!!

Anyway, I am going to head up for bed!

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

It Is Official…I am a Curly Girl!

Ok, so on one of my weekly voyages to one of my favorite places, the book store, I KNOW SHOCKING, right?? I picked up this… no, wait – let me go back to the beginning!

Last week, at the bookstore, I was checking out, and my cashier, who was also one of the store’s managers look at me and said, “Have you ever heard of the book ‘Curly Girl‘? You should get it, it will literally change your life FOREVER!” I lied, and told her that of course I knew that book, matter of fact, I already owned it.

I left, with my purchases in hand, and I went straight to the car, where my husband was patiently waiting for me, ready to go home, and the first thing I said to him when I hopped in was, “Does my hair look bad????” Side note: don’t ever do this to your man, he was looking and feeling like he was being set up for trouble!! HAHAHA! Of course he totally saved himself and said the EXACT THING I wanted to hear, “Of course not, Baby, your hair looks FABULOUS!” GOD BLESS THAT MAN!! Well, I knew that wasn’t exactly true, when I had left the house that morning, I was feeling like I was looking pretty cute, but this was something like 15 hours later, and I had been running around like a fiend all day, so I am sure my hair wasn’t “FABULOUS”. Well, I told Jason what the lady had said, and he told me to just put it out of my mind. Sooooooo, I did EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE!!! I fretted and worried about it all week!

You must know that I have had a LOVE/HATE relationship with my hair since I was a little girl! I have always wanted straight, thick, beautiful hair, but what I actually have is baby fine curly/wavy hair that has a mind all it’s own, and frizzy at the mere mention of rain (Living in Oregon, that is a real problem). Matter of fact when I was a teenager my mom used to spiral perm my hair regularly, combine that with a chin length bob haircut, and I always looked like Rosanne Rosannadanna from SNL. NOT PRETTY!!! I came to realize that I actually had curly hair when one year I was determined to change my look, and I was going to grow at that damn perm once and for all, and I shockingly discovered that that wasn’t a perm anymore – THAT WAS ME!!!!

ANYWAY, I picked up that book last night, Curly Girl and read through it in one evening, and thought I would give it a try. To oversimplify the book, I am going to not use shampoo and I am going to stop brushing my hair for the next 2-3 weeks just to see what the natural state of my hair is. I am hoping that it is curlier than it is wavy, and seeing the results from just day one, I am thinking that it is. I will do my best to post a pic for day two tomorrow!!

It is getting late, I am heading off to bed!