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. :)

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 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!**

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. :)

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.