Utils in Bat Country

Reverb 11 - Challenges

Prompt for December 19: Challenges: What did you wrestle with in 2011?  What did you learn?  What challenges do you foresee in 2012?

It's been getting rather feelingsy around here of late so in order to pacify the part of me that squicks and cringes at lots of emotion my challenge this year was my hair.

No, really. Thanks to the stress of the last few years, I've decided that my hair is falling out. There's this series of books I read when I was a teenager and the girl has lupus I think and there's this scene where she knows she's getting sicker because of the amount of hair in her hairbrush.  I'm pretty sure this is the first (Ed: it's Julie and Matt before FNL!) but I may be mixing it up with another series. In fact I'm pretty sure I am now that the cobwebs are starting to come off.. in this series I think they have a baby named Danielle but she dies in the fourth book? Maybe the third.  Drat, now I'm going to have to find the series again.  I remember my teenage self being very impressed by a particular t-shirt scene. Sheesh, tangent much.  Trust me though, there is a series where the main character is sick and there's a hair falling out scene.

Anyway - to stave off the hair falling out, last December I chopped all my hair and got Carey Mulligan's cut (right at my ears, piecey waves) and enjoyed it for the month before it started to grow and look ridiculous. I'm always a let it grow, chop it off, repeat kinda girl when it comes to my hair.  Aside from over dramatizing it all being about to fall out of my head, it's there, it's fine, it'll grow.  When I had it super long (several inches below my bra strap) a few years ago, I wore it down one day and my co-worker said it reminded her of a Pantene commercial.  That was a good day.  Ordinarily though, I wear it off my face.  It's super dark and super wavy (Italian much, you say?) and anytime it's between my cheekbones and my collarbone, I resemble a frizzy triangle head. I shower at night and I'm not willing to spend 45 minutes every morning and who knows what product/tools to tame it into submission so most of the time, I clip the sides back and look slightly less than sleek.

I'm lucky that my hair grows fast and a year after my last cut (that's the other thing: I am not a regular hair cutter.  Once, maybe twice a year is it for me.  I'll pay for good cuts [best cut of my life was the $90 cut from Bumble and Bumble in NYC a few years back], but I feel like to get the most bang for my buck, I have to see a change.  I will definitely not pay $90 for a half inch trim.) my hair is a little below my shoulders.  But it's so wavy/frizzy/out of control that it just kind of curls up on my shoulders in an ever so attractive looking bundle. I'm getting it cut Friday with Mom and she speaks highly of the woman doing it so we'll see what she says.  I figure they're the expert, she'll tell me what'll look good.  I want to keep most of the length and definitely do not want too big TX hair (Mom's hair has absolutely gotten bigger over the years. Cracks me up.) but am pretty much going to go in a beg for a style/shape change.

In 2012, it'd be great to expand my current styling repertoire from ponytail and clip back the front piece without looking like a before picture on the hairstyling commercials. 

Either that or bite the bullet and allocate every penny of disposable income to weekly blowouts.

Countdown

I've got the map of never ending

the recipes of (hopefully) delight

The email alerting Santa to the Anthro sale has been sent (am nearly having to restrain myself from ordering things myself), the returns have to be compiled, the bottom of foot blister must be lectured very sternly, the pie must not be forgotten in the freezer come 7am tomorrow, outfits need to be assembled (with accessories and shoes and hair product ha ha 3 oz container limits!) and even though I'm going to have to deal with this face

(and two 9+ hour drives)

I cannot wait to see my family.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Makeup? We don't need no stinking makeup!

It would seem that, as a habit, women bloggers occasionally post about the makeup they're wearing. What they love, what they use, where they got it. Etc. And so, I too shall do this. Right now. And it will be Epic.

*Let me state for the record that no self-respecting cosmetics company would ever, in 3485749 million years, give me makeup or ask me to shill for them. Because Steph is very worried that the FCC is going to sue me if I don't tell you I bought and paid for everything here myself.

Let us go then, you and I, into my shower. And see what lies in wait.

Well, that's not much, is it? Here we have some Head and Shoulders, some cheap Aussie conditioner that I only use every once in a while because I am lazy, five bottles of Philosophy body wash, and a bamboo scrubby mitt. The five bottles are: one large bottle of Hot Cinnamon Dots, one large bottle of Red Licorice, and three small bottles, one each of Watermelon, Bubble Gum, and Red Fishy (that's Swedish Fish, folks, not salmon). Missing from view? A Gillette Mach 3 men's razor that I use, and a new large bottle of Mint Hot Cocoa body wash that Steph sent me for Xmas.

Seriously. This is all I use in the shower.

My medicine cabinet:

Right. Let's take a closer look, shall we?

I loves me some nail polish. I'm often lazy about putting it on, but I do love it. And so, here is what I have. The little baby bottles on the side are Urban Decay's new line. I wore their stuff all the time, back when it came in awesome shaped bottles and I wasn't married. When they released new stuff a couple of months ago, I bought it, right quick. Some of the other stuff is off the shelf at the grocery store, or CVS. Most of them are OPI Sephora colors though. On the far right end, the purple looking bottle? Is their new color, which is actually just glitter, which I currently have on over black polish. But it was called "Too Good For Him" and I instinct purchased it when I was out of town a couple of weeks ago. I was pissed off, and thought, "Damn straight." But I'm glad I did, it's awesome.

Here's a shelf that's worth a small fortune. From left to right we have my exciting toothpaste and toothbrush. Then we have some Bed Head, which I used before I got a real hair cut, because it tamed down the frizz. A small Hope in a Jar, which I use just enough of to keep my face moisterized in the mornings, Aquaphor for tattoo healing, a small bottle of Bliss body scrub, a giant tube of Bliss unscented body butter, which also works very very well in healing tattoos. In front of those we have two jars of pomade for my hair. The black and blue one is good, but I can't remember the name or be bothered to zoom in and check. But I got it at Sephora online. It leaves a bit of residue if I use it for too long, but it works perfectly. However, I prefer the stuff in the white tub, which is Billy Jealousy stuff. It doesn't take much (which is good, as neither tub was cheap) and it holds really well. Next to those we have Bliss face wash, Philosophy's Purity face cleaner, then some toothcare stuff I'm bad about using and some Crest White Strips.

Top shelf. Qtips, Tums, Hugo Boss Woman. Wait, what? Perfume?

Shut up. It was a gift, and it smells damn good.

 
Drawer of random Sephora samples and some headbands. Oh and razor blades.

And the lip gloss/chapstick drawer. S'mores, Gingerbread, Spicy Pear, Cranberry Apple, as well as green and blue Sephora brand (they're used to mute other colors, but really are just shiny and a little bit tinted in a not bad way). A plethora of Burt's Bees stuff, plus a few of the soda flavored glosses from Sephora.

Finally...
Yes, that's concealer. I needed it in New York. Don't ask. It's really good stuff, though. I could cover my tattoos with it if I needed to.

And yes, that's an issue of GQ in my bathroom.   

What's in my...

er, I guess what's ON my bathroom storage cubby?  

I saw this post over at Whitney's yesterday and thought I'd play along.  Now mine isn't nearly so nice and contained...

 

but, it works.  (The bins - from the dollar store!)

On the top shelf live all my hair clips and ties and barrettes and whatnot along with my lip glosses.

   I have a minor lip gloss issue.  I lucked into the silver case when D had to get a tie for a wedding we went to and it was b/w one that came in the case and one that was just on the table.  I swayed his opinion to my storage advantage.  

Next shelf is eye makeup in the front and hair products in the back. 

  

I may have a small eye makeup issue as well.  

Next shelf down is moisturizers, blush, foundation, body splash, etc.

 

And then there's the favored lip glosses that are currently living in my purse. 

  Ah, NARS Bad Education, you're so wonderful.

As demonstrated, I don't really have a particular loyalty to any one product/brand - just Sephora's emails.  

However!  I do have some favorites:

Neutrogena eye makeup remover (every bit as good as the Clinique version, imo)

A combo of John Freida Frizz  Ease spray before drying my hair and Bumble and Bumble styling spray before I flat iron.  I keep trying, but haven't been able to get the Bed Head After Party mousse to work as well for me as it does for Tass. 

Urban Decay for eyes, NARS for lips, Tarte for cheeks, Philosophy for skin care

Thanks for the idea, Whitney!

*All products seen or referred to in this post paid for by me with my very own after tax dollars.

Hair Product and Cooking

But not the two combined, thankfully.

First, the hair product.

Because of another blogger, I bought Bed Head After Party Smoother for my hair recently. Now, if you click the link, you will see that the bottle is...more than slightly phallic. And when you use it, you push down on the top, and some rather thick, white creamy stuff comes out, which you slather in your hair. Right. RIGHT. So.*

Yesterday, after only having used said phallic product for a week or so, I couldn't get any to come out. (Can we see yet where this is going?) So I pushed again. And still, nothing. So I pushed down several more times, rapidly, and was eventually rewarded by a big old squirting sound, and a rather large handful of the aforementinoed white, gooey, creamy stuff.

That's the most action I've had in months.

Cooking thing.

You know that fancy pants trick that people on cooking shows do, where they crack an egg, open it, and dump it into something all with one hand. I just totally did that. FoodNetwork, here I come!

(We will not talk about the fact that I was cracking said egg to put into some ramen.)

* I give the After Party high marks both for what it does to my hair, as well as its general shape and demeanor.