Short, sassy and seasonal

 

I have been growing my hair a little longer, of late, and coloring it a shade darker.  Looking in the mirror it just looked dull so VOILA!  My stylist cut it in a really short style and I lifted it a couple of shades to a light ash blonde.  I always color my own hair and this time I used Ion color and Developer from Sally’s Beauty Shop.  It’s a cheaper way to color your own hair and wastes less product.  I mix and match the shades until I get one that suits.  This was a mixture of 10 AN (Ash Neutral) and some High lift blond with 30 % developer.

This photograph shows a little more of the texturized effect.  I have incredibly coarse hair that refuses to sit properly so it took my stylist a good hour to cut and re-cut when dry.  The left side of my hair (in the photo) has always been the difficult side, even from childhood.  Frizzier and less compliant than the right. Teddy is my patient personal photographer…

The hot, hot summer takes it’s toll on my hair but once it gets a bit cooler, I always feel like changing it up.  Especially when it is BOOT season!  Last weekend I wore my silk flowered ankle boots – totally impracticable for anywhere with a real winter.❄️❄️

Before  Teddy took the previous two photographs in the back yard, I took this selfie on the front porch which is shaded.  It is fascinating how different the photos look – just a different camera and position.  Teddy was able to make me look sunnier but I quite like the thoughtful look above.

Wishing you all a wonderful festive season.  I will be offline in a few days for the holidays.  Merry Christmas!

GRINCH BITCH POSTSCRIPT

I composed this draft yesterday.  Then Teddy came home late after a frenetic work day so we went to our local steakhouse’s bar for a quick happy hour meal.  I noticed with trepidation that the car park was full and suddenly remembered Christmas Work Holiday Parties – shudder!  We found a little table for two in the corner but it wasn’t secluded enough…  Sure enough, hyena screams started coming from a table of what looked like lady realtors.  I quickly ascertained that they were all in competition with each other thus the screeching across the table.  Then I looked at their hair.  Every single one was wearing a Rachel cut.  It was hard to tell their age with all the fillers/Botox but I would guess between late 40’s to my age.  There were no real beauties but all were attractive and would have benefited from a new hair style – a pixie here, a lob there even just a blunt bob.  I laughingly asked our wonderfully patient waiter if they had a volume control (perhaps at the back of their matching black shift dresses).  I hope they gave him a whacking tip.  Oh that feels so much better especially since a Swiss jackass (CH on Audi) in Trader Joe’s car park tried to take me out this morning.

 

 

How not to use your new camera…

Well, this is me with my new camera. Even a Zeiss lens can’t help you take good photographs if you are incompetent. 😁
The camera is a SONY DSC-RX100 and apologize for making it look bad!

I am wearing my new skinny jeans reduced to $13 from $54 in JC Penney with an ivory waffle top from Chico’s that I found in a thrift store in Brenham, TX for $5 with the $70 price ticket still on it. My pink sandals were from JC Penney’s a decade ago in a sale. The emerald ring set in silver is from Abu Dhabi.  Bruise on my arm from washing the windows…

So…back to my cell phone. I am sitting out in the humid heat of the sub-tropics and have had my makeup on for 4 hours.

I am wearing Glamglow Glowstarter illuminating moisturizer in Nude Glow (no foundation) and Makeup Forever Aqua XL eye paint in a silvery grey (it really stays on).  Revlon lipstick, mascara and blush.  Newly cut hair in whatever blond color was in the cupboard.  Life is too short to pay $100 for hair color!

 

Cersei in Black (and white)

Thank you Liben!

Have you all been watching the magnificent costumes in Game of Thrones? Everyone is wearing black with winter having arrived. It is as hot as Hades in the subtropics so my title only refers to my Cersei hair color… Once again my hair has turned a magical new color that did not reflect the box but I quite like it. I have some lighter highlights in it and it gives my face some color. Liben is my friend who gifted me some wonderful new outfits that she no longer wears. The off white skirt pictured above still had the ticket on it and fits really well. I even have a bum for a change! My friend Cris gifted me the wonderful necklace, bracelet, earrings and ring set.

I think Cersei would love this jewelry – I certainly do.

Every time I wear this set, I have fond thoughts of both Cris and her mother, who owned the clip-on earrings and ring. The sheer black top is a Christmas gift from Cris, too – she gave me a gift card from a local boutique. How lucky I am to have such generous friends.

Black and White Old Navy dress in the sale worn with a light white jacket from Chico’s outlet. Funky studded sandals from JC Penney many seasons ago.

I don’t usually shop at Chico’s but their crazy sizing is wonderful. I am a size 0 in their vanity sizing… Unlike most places, we southern Texas folks put on summer weight because it is too dang hot to go outside and we can’t exercise. I have some pounds to lose so I finally bought an ‘undergarment'(keep reading to the end and don’t get excited).

This is a better shot of the little black and white dress – it cost just over $10 so I bought a spotted navy one and a pink/navy striped one.

Walgreen’s best!

I was browsing through Walgreen’s for toiletries when I spotted these summer dresses for $15. Teddy loves it so it has joined my collection. I am wearing a dragonfly necklace that I bought in Rice Village, a nice little shopping district in Houston close to Rice University.

Dragonfly necklace

Do you think they will send me some free ones now?

Finally you can see the delightful undergarment. Of course, I am not a large – I just need some breathing room in this humidity… I can’t stand Spandex and still have nightmares about my Nana’s flesh colored girdle that I had to help her get in (surely some Jesuits designed it)? This new ‘smoother’ is quite comfortable and holds things in right up to the rib cage. If I just did some exercise, like Helen Mirren, I would have a flat tummy and no wobbly bits. At least it gives Teddy something to grab onto!

My secret pleasure…

BARBIES!

Get your minds out of the gutters – it’s Barbies! One of my secret wishes was to win the lottery and then have a (small) room full of Barbies, antique and new. My desire was triggered this year by an article in Time magazine profiling a new set of Barbies that are curvy, petite, tall and generally different. They come in a variety of ethnicities and my heart started pounding.

Barbie #25

When I was a child, an aunt from California sent me a Francie. She was Barbie’s friend and like me, she had dark curly hair and eyes. She came with a wardrobe full of snazzy clothes and shoes. I was in heaven. Barbie’s were not as popular in the UK and NOBODY had a Francie! In the packaging was a little catalog for other Barbie friends. One of them was Diahann Carrol (link courtesy of Amazon), the first African American doll I had ever seen. I longed for my aunt to read my mind and send me one but I think she had sent Francie because our family is Hispanic. My favorite of Francie’s outfits was a black chiffon midi skirt with white blouse. When I was 19 I bought an expensive black chiffon midi skirt exactly the same. This was money intended for law books but I HAD to have the skirt…

Barbie #32

The Time article focused on the more realistic aspects of these new dolls and as much as I appreciate this, I never thought that skinny Barbie with tiny feet was real. Later my mum bought me a real Barbie at great cost with beautiful long straight copper hair. I have mentioned my other fetish before – scissors! I was only allowed plastic scissors until I was 12 because of my penchant for cutting doll’s hair and mum’s best lingerie. Despite all that, I could not resist cutting the long copper hair. My mum was so disappointed in me. I was sad that she had a pixie crop but it felt SO good. I wonder what Freud would make of all this.

Back to the present, I was in Walmart and saw Doll #32 and Doll#25. I just had to have them. There were a few adults looking for gifts (the children were all transfixed by Frozen dolls) and I helped a girl find a red-headed doll for her niece. Finally we found the perfect one wearing a soccer outfit. I have thought really hard about why I chose the dolls I did. Their figure was of no consequence but their hair and skin tone, along with clothes influenced my choice. After Christmas, I opened them and the first thing I noticed was that Doll #32’s lovely long hair was stuck with glue to the box. Sacrilege! I combed it out and then – wait for it – trimmed the knotted section off. Then I tied her hair back and tried to plait it.

Doll #25’s hair was even more upsetting. Her hair looked like it was pulled up but you couldn’t comb it without ruining it. The final straw was discovering that neither of them had any underwear on. My Nana speaks through me… The pleasure was short-lived and I have placed them perfectly back in their boxes to give to charity. At least one of them has better hair than she started with. The final conundrum was why are they numbered and not named? I think they are really aimed at adults, collectors, gay men and mentally ill women. My act of kindness is to name them, #25 is Winter and #32 is Autumn.