Wednesday, August 31, 2011

I Made That

Honestly, wish lists are such a pain. I really have to be feeling them. They may become a once-a-month thing.

For today, I wanted to show off some cuteness I made.


Now you can't tell from the picture, but it's actually a headband. Seen in action here...


Because sewing up my shirt, planning lessons, and planning my outfit wasn't enough for one night... the night before the game last week I decided I needed a hair accessory. So I stitched this baby up. I bought the patch on eBay. Actually, I ordered five. I've used two so far. Stitched the patch onto white felt by hand. Sewed the white to the black with my machine. Hot glued it to the headband. Glittered the white edge. Voila... cuteness. I got a lot of compliments. For how easy it is, I may try to make some to sell. We'll have to see...

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

5 Things

Things around here have been signaling fall... I thought I'd share.

5 Things That Hint Fall is Coming For Me
  1. Halloween stuff. I am completely okay with this. I almost bought some dog t-shirts at Target last night.
  2. Semi-cool mornings. Those actually went away for awhile, but they're coming back. By Friday I may need a cardigan to do yard duty.
  3. The limited availability of short sleeves. I went looking for a light weight cardigan the other day so I could wear a cute new dress... nope. All too warm or long sleeves. *sigh*
  4. Boots! It will soon be time to add some to the collection. This makes me happy.
  5. The looming end of the season for baseball. I don't even want to talk about how few games are left. Sads.
What's making you realize, "Holy crap it's fall?!"

Monday, August 29, 2011

Weekly Manicure

Still finding time on my weekends to do my nails. :)


I give you guys the crappiest webcam photos. But I never open the blinds at home. It's too hot!

Still using my coral-ish color. I feel like when I stop using it summer will be over. Although I could do without the triple digits.

Maybe for the first week of September I'll tone down my nail color...

Friday, August 26, 2011

Friday Photo

There is only one word for today's photo so I'm not going to blab on and on:

AMAZETABULOUS.


Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Thought About It

I thought about doing a wish list for y'all today. I really did. I went so far as to favorite some things on Etsy. I even had a theme picked out.

But there's just too much to do my friends.

See, it's my cousin's birthday today. So I'm part of a group heading out to see my favorite boys in orange this afternoon. So last night was a rush of planning for the next couple days (since I won't be productive tonight IN THE LEAST). Plus outfit planning so I can change as I walk in the door and promptly get back out. Plus a poster was in the works...

I love baseball. Why must it end?

Probably no post tomorrow morning. I gotta Rockstar it up just to get out of bed. :)

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

5 Things

I was going to do an overshare and tell you about five things that are getting me through PMS this week. But then I got too lazy to take pics. So that idea went out the window.

Instead...

5 Things I Already Miss About Summer
  1. Sleeping in! Obviously. Honestly it hasn't been bad though.
  2. My purple hair. I still like my black hair, but that purple... *sigh*
  3. Going out during the week. I wanted to go out last night. I decided to be a grown up and stay home.
  4. Just the idea of freedom to do whatever you want at any point of the day.
  5. Shorts and flip flops and no makeup days. Now I have to be presentable. Every day. 
I am extremely grateful I have a job that gives me a summer vacation. I just wish it hadn't flown by. :) And I am excited to be back at work with my kiddos. I have some funny personalities in class this year. It should be interesting... like my second grader who burped yesterday and then said to his friend, "That tasted like my lunch."

Yup. These are the gems I get daily.

Monday, August 22, 2011

Weekly Manicure

Sunday nights are perfect for doing my nails. Settle in to watch True Blood and bust out the nail polish. For three more weeks at least... then True Blood is done for the season. I am not okay with this. It feels like it JUST started. Ugh.

So anyway, on to this week's fun...


Yup, we have a Giants theme again. We're going to a game this week for my cousin's birthday (possibly our last game this season). So I'm showing Cody Ross some love. I mean, he did give me a winky face. :) I even went and bought striped socks to wear to the game. And I'm making a sign. Much fun will be had.

Starting our first FULL week of school this week. Possibly going out to a local show tonight. Back to school night Thursday... I'm sure this week is going to fly by before I even realize it happened.

Happy Monday.

Friday, August 19, 2011

Friday Photo

**For some reason this didn't post on Friday like it was supposed to. Just found it in my drafts. Boooo. So pretend it's Friday for a minute.**

This could be my favorite picture from this week. Which technically isn't saying much since I didn't take very many... but still.


This is from the journal of one of my kids. :)

First day and she writes about me. She did yesterday too. This girl should be my kid. She's so girly and ALSO wrote "I love me" in her journal yesterday. I mean seriously, when your kids love you this much how can you NOT love your job?

Ready for day three today. REALLY ready for some sleeping in tomorrow. And some lesson planning, because I'll let you know something: there is ALWAYS more for a teacher to do.

Happy Friday! And have a great weekend! I don't see myself being around much. :)

**Also, happy 19th to all my fellow DT junkies!**

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Obsessions

Potential new Thursday post for y'all. Because I have this habit of getting STUCK on things for awhile and obsessing over them. So this might be fun to share. And you guys can maybe INTERACT and tell me what you're currently obsessed with.

So anyone who knows me (or at least knows me well) knows I love musicals. This led to a love of Broadway shows. So in April when I got to see Wicked...

Oh my.

First of all, if you have any appreciation for musicals - GO SEE IT. Please. It'll be in Sacramento next year. I'm thinking I should go see it again. This time with the husband. Because even though he won't admit it, he enjoys it with me. (Sorry if I took his man card there.)

Anyway, for some reason lately I've been obsessing over the soundtrack. Songs CONSTANTLY stuck in my head. Turning it way up in the car and belting it out like a fool. Love.

P.S. - Just found out that Adam Lambert was an understudy for the part of Fiyero. There's video of him in the show on YouTube. Random...

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

First

I meant to post today. I did. But I kinda got caught up getting ready for school.

And now you don't get an interesting post because my head has been threatening to explode since I got home. Seriously, worst headache in recent memory. I think it's a combo of allergies, tiredness, and possibly not eating enough.

But school was good. So there's that. The kids were EXHAUSTED by the end of the day. It was kinda funny to watch them slowly wind down like toys losing their battery power. It's crazy how much my second graders (who were my first graders last year, I teach a combo) grew! They came in and my jaw dropped a couple times! Where did my babies go?

Two more days to wear them (and myself!) out then we get a weekend. I can handle that. :)

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

5 Things

I'm gonna stick with this for Tuesday posts. It's easy and I typically have something random to say that fits nicely in here.

I like my randomness. :)

Let's go with truly random...

5 Things On My Mind
  1. School, DUH! I have possibly seventeen kids now and a new aide coming my way. And uh... I didn't practice waking up early. Oops...
  2. Wicked... or specifically, the soundtrack. There's one song from it that I CANNOT get out of my head. It's been popping in randomly and making me sing for three days now.
  3. Running. Confession: I kinda got out of it once it got really hot this summer. I definitely need to start again. Like, yesterday.
  4. My hair. I miss the purpleness. I really do. But I'm diggin' the black more than I thought I would. I'm also doing the annual, "Should I cut it" contemplation. I won't. I love my long hair.
  5. Sewing. I haven't been sewing anything from scratch, but I have three t-shirts that are getting makeovers. I'm pretty excited about them too. One is just going to fit better, but the other two will be fun!
24 hours until my kids start walking in. And at the time this posts, I'll be on my way out to school already for CPR. Joy.

Monday, August 15, 2011

Monday Manicure

It's still technically Monday! And I just finished my manicure. So here's this week's...



I'm hoping to keep up the weekly manicures. Because they're fun. And who doesn't like having fun nails?? Obviously (well, obvious to me) I went for the school theme. Note how the ring finger looks like notebook paper. I love. The color is actually a little off. It's true notebook paper colors. And the other nails are actually more of a coral than pink.

Someday I will share my amazing nail polish that's only two bucks a bottle. But that post would be a lot more work so it'll have to wait...

Another Year

Time for another school year. First day of school is Wednesday. I'll be doing school-related things until then too.

I should be more functional this year than I was last year. What with the last minute hiring last year and the fact that it was my first year with my own classroom. This year I know what I'm doing so I shouldn't feel as overwhelmed. Meaning hopefully the blog won't suffer.

I'll probably be changing my posts. Still posting weekdays only, except for the occasional weekend post because something fabulous happened.

On a completely different note, the purple hair is gone. The process was... interesting. Let's just say that dark brown wasn't dark enough. Now my hair is black like my soul.


I have yet to look at it in daylight so there may be some purple tint left under there. I guess I'll see tomorrow. I didn't want to go black, but I like it better than I thought I would. So yay me.

Happy Monday. Gotta get stuff done around here!

**I would like to add that I will be 30 in four months. That's entirely too soon. Eek!**

Monday, August 8, 2011

Fun While It Lasted...

I love my purple hair. LOVE it. Yes, there are some downsides, but not many. Anyway, school starts next week so it's finally time to make it a normal color again. Sads. Maybe someday I'll have my bakery and/or Etsy shop and I'll be allowed to have purple hair all the time...

Anyway, I thought I'd review the ups and downs of the two dyes I used. Yeah, two. Not that I think any of you will dye your hair purple, but you never know...

So this Splat kit is what I used the first time. Got it cheap at Walgreens. I've also seen it at Wal-Mart. Let's just run down the pros and cons of this one.

PROS: If you're a dark-haired girl like myself, you aren't going to get a true bright color without bleach. This kit came with bleach. The kit was super easy to use. And the color when I first finished it was beautiful.

CONS: There was enough bleach for me since all I did was streaks of blonde before the dye. But if you wanted to bleach more hair, there's not enough bleach. The same is kind of true of the dye itself. One bottle didn't leave my hair purple enough. So I headed out the next day for a second bottle. Another gripe: it didn't last nearly long enough. I did my hair June 9. By Father's Day (June 19) it was more pink than purple.

So if you want something really temporary, go for it. They have a few colors to choose from, but not a huge number.




Special Effects Deep Purple is what I used the second time around. I read a lot of reviews of different dyes this time. Something that anyone who wants unnatural color should note: THERE ARE NO PERMANENT UNNATURAL COLORS. But this one came highly recommended. I searched four stores in town and no one had this brand (not even Hot Topic) so I ordered it on Amazon.

PROS: Best. Color. Ever. Seriously. I loved how this turned out SO MUCH MORE than the Splat. This color is intense. Since I had already bleached the sections I wanted I just went ahead and dyed. Even with my long hair, I didn't use the whole bottle. I had enough to touch it up before pictures last week (yes, I did a photoshoot with my purple hair).

CONS: This stuff WILL stain. More on that at the end. Other than that, I really haven't had issues with this color. Yes, it fades. But I went six weeks from my first application to touch-up application and it was still purple. Not pink, purple. It was definitely a lighter purple, but not to the point that I was unhappy like with Splat.

So... some final notes about crazy-colored hair dye.
  • It washes out. I covered that. Expect the water to be pinky-purple when you wash it. REALLY colorful the first few times after you dye. Less so each time. Tip: don't use Head and Shoulders with any temporary dye. It's not kind. And use an old towel to be on the safe side.
  • There's a good chance your hair will bleed onto things if you aren't careful. Don't use a white pillowcase. Period. Dry your hair completely if you are going to be wearing a light color. I didn't ruin anything (besides the shirts I wore during the dying process), but there was a slight lavender tinge on a couple collars. It washed out with Oxi-Clean.
  • I mentioned this stuff stains. I'm not kidding. Wear junk clothes when you dye. Use junk towels when you dye. And for the love of all that is holy, wear good gloves. NOT the gloves that come with the kit, get good ones. Medical-grade ones if possible. Use vaseline at your hairline and such. Because both dyes love your skin. And buy a cleaner with bleach. Because when you rinse in the tub (and please use your tub, not your shower) there will be purple left. But Clorox with bleach took it right out of my bathroom. Spray, let it sit, rinse.
  • Still on the staining/bleeding subject: if you play with your hair and you have light-colored polish on... your nails could end up with some nice tint to them. Just saying. 
It sounds like a lot of work, but it really wasn't. Obviously the bleeding factor goes down as it begins to fade and wash out.

I'll be fixing my hair later this week. I'll let you know how that goes. I'm a little curious if any purple with remain and be a tint under my normal hair color... hmmmm.

Oh Giants

So we had a GOOD baseball fight the other night.



If you follow baseball, you know that there's just no love to be found between the Giants and the Phillies. So this turned into one of the best bench-clearing brawls in recent memory. Well... at least in the past year. Because this kinda happened last year too.

What's sad (and a little funny) is this was the best part of the game that night. My cousin and I were recapping our favorite parts on Facebook (if you're good at recognizing players, just look for Sergio Romo in the video... GANGSTA!). Twitter blew up. I commented that Eli Whiteside (the catcher for the Giants) was protecting his pitcher AS HE IS SUPPOSED TO DO and got attacked. Of course the genius who attacked me was courteous enough to give my blog a few hits. Thanks for raising my stats jerk! :)

Thankfully there were no suspensions. And the Giants won yesterday. So all is right with the universe again. Feel free to watch the video more than once. Between the actual game, post game, and the coverage in days following, I've probably seen it more than ten times. :)

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Weekly Manicure

Did muh nails agaaaain. I enjoy them this week.


Yeaaah a little blurry. And please excuse the Panda hat. We're doing everything we can over here to help the Giants win today. And last time I wore this hat they won.

So the picture definitely isn't the best, but the idea is to do the ends of your nails while the rest is still wet. Then you can kind of bleed the colors together. I think some red tips will be necessary for Halloween. Muah ha ha haaaaaa.

Alright, gotta get back to my game. I'm sick of this losing crap. And maybe I'll slightly be hoping for another brawl. Last night's was epic. If I find video that I can embed I'll put it up here for y'all.

Friday, August 5, 2011

Friday Photo

Ummm... so I have nothing interesting to tell you. Except my best friend's family is awesome. We had dinner with the bestie and her hubby last night. Two of her siblings were there. They've adopted me because I look like I could be part of the family but I'm FAR more sarcastic. They pretty much love me. haha

Anyway, since nothing new has happened, how would you like to see my furbaby?


Greenlee got her hairs cut. And her nails did... purple, mommy's fave. I just love her with short hair. She's adorable.

I'm doing a fat lot of nothing today. Somehow I jacked the muscles all the way down the back of my left leg. Like, all the way up to my butt. It hurts. So I'm relaxing today. Feel free to hit me up if you want to join me. :)

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Two Weeks

With roughly two weeks of my summer vacation left, I have realized I've done nothing productive.

And I'm okay with that.

Sure, we went to some movies. Watched a LOT of baseball, both at the parks and on television. I discovered a killer go-to desser. I dyed my hair purple. I went through a lot of nail polish with my weekly manicures. I got a winky face from Cody Ross. I discovered owling. I have begun a plot to take over Amy G.'s job. I have also begun plotting a little business venture with my cousin.

In the next couple weeks I really might be productive. At least, more so than I was the rest of the summer. Guess that's just the procrastinator in me.

Anyone else have fun stuff to share from their summer? Bet no one else got a winky face from Cody. ;)

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Adults Only

Okay, that could be potentially dirty. Let's clarify: don't even bother reading this if you aren't 21 years of age and allowed to purchase alcohol. Got it? I'm going to recommend some outstanding beers here...

Alrighty... hubby and I went to the grocery store yesterday (yes, THIS is my exciting life). I had been wanting some tasty adult beverages. We're doing no soda for the month of August, which include mixers for me. So Captain and Coke, as well as other tasty concoctions, are out. I wanted the Pyramid Apricot beer last night... but Save Mart had a fail. There was one six-pack left... and someone had taken one out. Hence: five-pack failure. Well we went to a different store today and they had it.

Wait, have you TASTED Pyramid's Apricot Ale? Um, DELICIOUS. It smells like apricot, but the taste isn't overwhelming. It's a fantastic summer beer. So I casually placed a six-pack in the cart.

But they also had my newfound love. Kona Brewing Co. Aloha Series Wailua. Oh goodness. We got it in one of those variety twelve-packs a few months ago. The Wailua is the first thing I finished in the pack. And then I discovered they sell it in six-packs. It's another wheat ale (we're big on those in this house) but brewed with passion fruit. OH. MY. It's almost refreshing! So I kind of put one of those in the cart too. I'm set for awhile.

Anything you particularly enjoy during the hot days in August?

Monday, August 1, 2011

Weekly Manicure

Sooo... really this week should have been shark-themed nails. Because it's Shark Week on Discovery. But see, I kind of owe a manicure dedicated to a certain Giants player. Yes, OWE him.

See I "like" Cody Ross (yes, outfielder for the Giants and star of a certain post last week AND the adorable man in this video I featured more than once) on Facebook. And he responds to people all the time on his page. So in the course of commenting on his page last night, he asked to see my Giants-themed manicure from a couple weeks ago. And just so you know, YES I squealed like an idiot and treated it like a much bigger deal than it actually is. But c'mon... Cody Ross wanted to see my manicure! So I put a pic up on his wall.

Um, if you remember my manicure was pretty much solely revolving around our favorite bearded closer, B.Weezy. Cody called me out on that. And now I'm attempting to redeem myself with this...


Yup, spelled his name. 13 is his number (obviously). The black with orange stripes is because he's pretty much known for wearing the short baseball pants with striped socks like that. :) I love his socks. I'm actually planning on getting some before our next game.

So there ya are. This won't last a week. We have pics coming on Saturday so I think I'll go for something less bright. Or maybe I'll do purple to match my hair...

**EDIT** Cody responded with a "like" and a "Now keep it like that. ;-)"

I GOT A WINKY FACE FROM CODY ROSS! haha I promise I'm not that crazy, it just makes me giggle. And okay, I did squeal. Hubby rolled his eyes at me.