End of Season Tasks

Last week and this, Paul and I have been tidying up the garden in preparation for winter.  Paul took down our birdhouse for winter storage, we gathered up the tomato cages, and covered some of our perennials.  Paul will run the mulching lawnmower over the grass to collect up the leaves on Monday, when the weather is predicted to be "warm".  We also arranged for Sears to come do routine maintenance on our snowblower. 

Paul and I also went through our canned goods, purging any expired ones, cleaning and sorting.  This was not planned; the upper shelf of our Lazy Susan base cabinet shifted down, needing an adjustment, which Paul took care of.  But I have been meaning to go through it, so all was good.  The trick is to use up all of the duplicates I found and didn't realize I had - how much coconut milk can one person accumulate?!  I see Thai food in our future, maybe some Indian or Caribbean as well.  We are well stocked in vegetable soup for the winter.  It feels good to have that done. 

Sadly, there is a frost predicted for tonight.  So I went out and collected the last of the herbs before they are frozen.  Surprisingly, in spite of some pretty cold and awful weather in the past month, three herbs survived: rosemary, oregano, and parsley.  In keeping with my international cooking, I will also need to make some recipes that use parsley and oregano (Italian, anyone?!).  The rosemary I plan on using to make a rosemary hair rinse (link to holistichabits video/prep instructions here).  Rosemary is great for the hair, and has aromatherapy benefits as well, which apparently one will smell while prepping the hair rinse.

Left to right: rosemary, parsley, oregano

Michaelmas Party and New Harp Inaugural (Part II - The Dress and The Party!)

There were many moving parts to this party.  Besides the sewing, there was music to be learned and practiced, a hairstyle to be gotten, and food and decorations.  Paul, was an angel, and helped me so much with party set up and as our butler!

I had a special braided style done by Crowning Glory Braiding.

The table beforehand.

This time I have the right dimensioned tablecloth!

The new baby - cherry wood, with a cherry blossom motif

Here I am with the new harp.  

(Excuse the wrinkles in my dress - 

photo taken after I played for the ladies.)

And here are the Tea Ladies!

We had a lovely time.

Robert's Grand Adventure (Sad Goodbyes/Vegan Restaurants)

Last week we brought Robert to Portland, Oregon to begin the next phase of his education. Although he has a Bachelor's degree, and has been working in his field (Live Sound), he wants to further his education by attending a fast-track Engineering program in Portland, where he can have a second Bachelor's degree and a Master's in Engineering in three years. (Note: he had gotten some of the prerequisites out of the way earlier this year, making this program a possibility.)

We flew top Portland with him, and helped set up the apartment (Loads of IKEA - "some assembly required!" - ugh.  But it looks really nice, and is an economical way to start up an apartment from scratch).  The apartment is cozy and clean, very nice.  While there, we were so busy that the only amusement we really had was our fantastic dining out experiences, and fun beer and cider drinking.  Plus a visit to the famous Powell's Books - a city block building with multiple levels, and books, books, books...

The dining in Portland is amazing.  Robert and Sierra are strict vegans, and Portland is extremely vegan-friendly.  Every meal we had was wonderful; in particular, the lovely Italian meal we had at Portobello Vegan Trattoria.  Here's their dinner menu.

Photos!

IKEA dining table and chairs, with cat

Robert and Sierra on the (you guessed it!) IKEA couch, 

cat in foreground

Loki, he loves carpet.  Freya was too shy to come out.

And then Robert, who has had long hair forever, surprised us by sending this photo.  

I had finally gotten used to the long hair.

Apparently after we left he went and got a haircut (they took off 12 inches).  

However, I think he looks exceedingly handsome!

Vacation Photos (The Beach)

We loved the beach.  Two of the days had enormous waves during the afternoon, which we jumped in for hours it seemed.  I had forgotten how much I loved that.  And Ty was so brave, jumping over and into the waves just like the rest of us.  These photos were taken on a day where we weren't chasing big waves, so we looked for shells and waded.

Beautiful beach

Paul and me

Ty Boy

A long-haired photo

Last bit of fun before sunset

Lotus Powder Plus and Henna

I stopped perming and dyeing my hair a long time ago, due to the damage it caused.  But I still wanted to spiff up my hair somewhat, so I began to use henna.  It is a *bit* of a mess to use, but I have my routine down to almost a science now.  I also like to make a conditioning blend, based on a product that, unfortunately, is no longer available.  It was called "Lotus Powder Plus".  One of the gals from the Longhair Community had figured out a recipe.  I have been mixing up what I thought were the correct herbs, but found out today (after I had previously mixed up a large batch) that I had one of the ingredients wrong.  It isn't a bad thing, since the herb in question is still good for the hair, but I want to get as close as I can to the original formula.  

I henna my hair every six to eight weeks.  I love the dark red tint.

Lotus Powder Plus Batch

My favorite hennas

Results

All the way to the ends!

English Country Dancing

Last week Paul and I, along with our friend and her daughter (the daughter is in the process of choreographing a Regency dance for her school's production of Pride and Prejudice) went to St. Mark's Church in Evanston for their biweekly English Country Dancing.  I spontaneously decided to dress up.  My recent weight loss enabled me to fit back into my Regency stays, and a gown I made several years back.  I even found enough time to do a Regency hairstyle.

The dancing was fun.  We were all a bit confused, but the more experienced people helped guide us into the proper places.  I would like to do this again soon.  Below are some photos of me in my gown, and my hairstyle.  (Please excuse my wrinkled appearance; although I had ironed my dress prior to dressing, it got very wrinkled in the car ride to pick up our friends and drive to the church.)

 

Reflections on Christmas

Christmas was lovely this year, except that I became ill on Christmas Day.  I had a stomach bug.  But my family took over and made the dinner.  Fortunately I was able to sing at church on Christmas Eve.  I rested all Christmas, briefly watched the gift exchange, and then later was able join the family for Grace and candle lighting, that is all.  But it was a lovely season.

We had some snow.  Donnie could not resist venturing out.

Our tree was beautiful.  This is my favorite ornament.  

I wore my hair in a blinged-out fashion.  Sparkles!

We sang the Hallelujah Chorus at the end of Midnight Mass.

 

Then we came home and ate some figgy pudding with a chocolate Brandy Alexander sauce.  

Then Santa came!

Our Advent Wreath candles were replaced with pure white candles on Christmas Morn.  

Welcome Baby Jesus!

Valentines Day with Grandson

I wore the tatted heart that my mother made.

I wore a special hairstyle.

I went to Tyler's school to help with the class party.  He confiscated the tatted heart!

 

Tyler loved it, and got a bag full of Valentines, toys and treats.

Tyler and me!

A Style for Long Hair

I wanted to post a new hairstyle I tried recently.  It is like a "Heidi Braid" (crown braid), but without the difficulty of doing what is basically a French braid all around the head.  For this one I braided the hair, angling it off to the side for easier wrapping, then circled it around my head and bobby-pinned it into place.  Add floral embellishment as desired.

Trip to the Zoo and Conservatory

In February, on a surprisingly warmish Chicago day, we took Tyler to the Lincoln Park Zoo and Conservatory. Here are the highlights:

Lazy Lion

Bird up close

Creepy Critter

Cute Critter

Longhaired Critter

Beautiful Sight - inspires us for spring gardening!

Jasmine - the smell was intoxicating

Celeste and Paul

Tyler and "Da"

Nana and Tyler

Organizing the Long Hair Stuff

After my success at organizing my sewing stuff, I have wanted to do the same with my music and my long hair stuff. The music organization is going to be huge, so I opted to do the smaller project: organizing all of my hair care tools, products, and "toys" (fancy or not so fancy things that hold long hair in place). Everything was so disorganized, and in various places around the house. So I used the same system as I did with my sewing stuff.

I gathered everything hair related into one place. (The oatmeal box contained my henna supplies, not very attractive!) Note the obligatory cat, a necessary item in any reorganization project!

Some of the hair "toys". I neglected to put my pretty new bling combs in this photo.

My brush and combs. My beloved Mason Pearson Boar Bristle Brush (BBB), my Ric Carpenter wood comb (for combing dry hair only), and my faux horn combs for detangling wet hair.

Henna and herbal hair care products. All of the oddly named bags are ingredients for a "Lotus Plus Powder" which is an excellent herbal conditioning treatment for hair.

I purchased a large and a small plastic containers to house everything. Then I went through and purged out anything old or that I wasn't going to use. This included the cosmetics jungle that was mostly cluttering my dresser. I was able to reorganize everything into the two new containers, a wicker basket, and another small plastic container where I keep make-up. Here are the results:

Henna and herbal hair care items, including gloves, plastic caps, heat caps, Turbie Towels, and applicator bottles. This box is portable and can really be stored anywhere.

A view from above.

My newly cleaned (and dusted!) dresser. Hair toys are in the purple box, the make-up box is on top, the basket of other cosmetics is behind the small mirror, and the brushes and combs are right out in front. The only cosmetic sitting out is my lip balm - I sometimes need that in the middle of the night, so I keep where it's easy to find in the dark!

So Lovely!