Deenie

On November 24, 2008 By LynnIn TurtleHead9 Comments

So I finally broke down and had my haircut. After my last post on the subject, I had decided to splurge on the really expensive kind. But the two good recommendations I had were for places that were a half hour drive away or more, and I’ve been so busy these past two weeks I just couldn’t find the time to get over there. Yesterday, the boys were getting haircuts here — Sir Monkeypants cuts his own hair and the Captain’s with clippers — and I offered to take Gal Smiley over to the First Choice to have her own hair trimmed too, because she loves it there. Clearly a spa woman of the future.

Gal Smiley really wanted me to get my hair cut too, so I thought, what the hell, let’s give the First Choice a try.

Here are some things I liked about the First Choice:

It only cost $15.

I didn’t have to have an appointment — I could just pop over when I had the time. (It did mean we had to wait about an hour for our turn in the chair…but sad to say, I’ve waited that long at other salons when I HAD AN APPOINTMENT.)

The hairstylist was very young, but as a result used some more modern cutting methods and had some more modern ideas.

They didn’t put any gel or mousse or other crap in my hair (I hate that), and they didn’t blow dry it either (I hate that even more).

Did I mention it was only $15?

Here are some things I did not like about the First Choice:

My haircut.

Sad to say, despite the convenience and the low price, I don’t really like my head at the moment. And I know, I know, I always feel that way after a cut, but this time it’s not just that it’s new and different, it’s that I really don’t think it’s a good cut. The girl cut it in a really strange way — by sort of rubbing at chunks of hair with just one blade of her scissors. I think it was supposed to mimic the razor-cut technique that I’ve seen Nick using on What Not To Wear, but her version was much more rough and ragged — it reminded me of that scene in The Outsiders when Johnny and Ponyboy are on the lam and Johnny hacks off Ponyboy’s hair with a switchblade. The end result isn’t so much “textured” as it is “looks like I cut it myself, while blindfolded.”

Actually, come to think of it, I maybe could have done a better job by myself. As it is I’ve already removed a few more problematic chucks myself.

My hairstylist also completely ignored all my requests, although that’s maybe not such a bad thing, since I am not such a great Inventor Of Hairstyles. Still, it’s much, much shorter than I asked for, and my bangs are shorter than they have been in about 18 years, and I don’t like that. I mean, I showed her a photo I found in a book there of what I wanted, because a picture is worth a thousand words and all that, so I thought I’d at least made my wants and needs clear…but the finished result looks nothing like the picture. AT ALL. I kind of got the impression that she has one kind of “mom cut” and I got the “mom cut” and that was my only choice.

So overall…I won’t be going back.

The worst part is that I usually let my hair grow out at this point for the next six to eight months, and my old stylist gave me such a classic, even cut that it could grow out indefinitely and always looked balanced and sharp and great. This one, I can tell, will need to be touched up by professional hands inside of six weeks or so. Sigh.

Gal Smiley looks cute, though. I should have ordered the same as her.

Serendipity

On November 23, 2008January 23, 2009 By LynnIn TurtleHead12 Comments

Last Friday was World Trivia Night.

You may remember me blogging way back in January 2008 that I was determined to put together a team for World Trivia Night this year. WTN is the largest single-night trivia event in the world (according to Ken Jenning’s book, Brainiac). I love trivia and I love games and I love competition, so I was pretty damn excited to find out that the biggest event in the world was well within driving distance. I was SO THERE.

You need a team of 10 people (actually, you can play with fewer team members, but it’s to your advantage and also more fun to have as many people as possible). I tried all year long to get a team together. In the end I got seven people to commit, but I couldn’t find any more. I asked just about everyone I know in the world, and they all said no, mostly saying that they would just be no good at trivia (but it’s a night about fun! There’s a bar! You can just sit at the end of the table and get drunk!).

After about 100 No’s I started to feel the way a teenaged boy must feel just before he gives up and hires a hooker instead. So I threw in the towel and decided to accept the fact that I just wouldn’t be able to go to WTN this year.

Man, I was sad about it.

So on Friday, WTN day, I was pretty pouty around here all day. Trivia was happening, and I was not a part of it. I was crushed.

Then, at around 1:30pm, you will never guess what happened. A miracle!

A guy from my writer’s group (which I haven’t attended in almost two years, by the way, and I’ve only actually met this guy, who is relatively new to the group, one time) sent around a mass email saying that someone on his WTN team had to cancel at the last minute, and they were looking for one more player to join them at the last minute.

I was SO THERE.

After getting Sir Monkeypants’ blessing I nabbed the spot and HOLY CRAP, was I giddy. I danced around the house and I jumped up and down and I hugged all the kids. Then I got out the Trivial Pursuit cards and made the kids help me cram.

World Trivia Night is held every year in the big cow barn at Landsdowne Park. This year there were 211 teams — the maximum allowed — and it was thrilling to be in the big barn with so many other freaks and geeks. I was literally swooning with a combination of joy and too much chocolate.

I really just didn’t want to embarrass myself — I had no idea what to expect in terms of how hard the questions would be. But as it turns out, I was a pretty valuable teammate — there were several questions to which only I knew the answer. So that felt pretty good. Overall our team got 92 (we think) questions right out of 100 — not too shabby at all.

There are ten rounds of ten questions each. After each round, they announce a winner for that round — the team that got the most questions correct. With 211 teams, chances are more than one team is going to get 10 out of 10 questions right, so they take all the teams that got a perfect (or the highest) score and draw a round winner at random.

My team (shout out to More Cowbell!) got 10 out of 10 correct in four of the rounds…and once, WE WON THE FREAKIN’ ROUND WINNER AWARD.

When you win the round, your whole team gets a little gold medal to wear around your neck.

I swear, when they called out MORE COWBELL I just about died. I jumped up and screamed and clapped and all in all, it was most unbecoming. I just couldn’t help myself, though. It was SO much better than I have ever imagined winning an Oscar would be. In fact, I was exactly like a surprise Oscar winner — crying and hugging everyone within reach and generally acting like my life had been justified. If they’d ask me to come up on stage and say a few words at that point, I totally would have been just like one of those babbling winners who is all, “Oh my God! I can’t believe this! It’s so amazing! I want to thank my Mom! Mom, you are SO AWESOME!…” And so on for a half hour.

I am exactly like Halle Berry’s soul sister now.

I may never take my medal off again.

I am SO TOTALLY going to WTN next year. Whoo!

Miffed

On November 22, 2008 By LynnIn TurtleHead5 Comments

It’s official…ABC has cancelled Pushing Daisies. I still haven’t watched this past week’s episode yet — the series finale, as it turns out — but when I do so, I’m sure I’ll be a little misty-eyed. I hear it ends on a big cliffhanger, too. Damn you, ABC!

ABC has also cancelled Dirty Sexy Money, another show I watched and really enjoyed, and Eli Stone, which I watched last year but had to stop because the terrible, terrible writing was making me angry. So I guess ABC scores a 1 out of 3.

I suppose I should have expected the death of Pushing Daisies. It’s just so hard for shows that are whimsical to make it in a world where the graphic, hardcore deaths of CSI, Law and Order, and Criminal Minds are what people (apparently) really want to see. Doesn’t anyone like to watch happy shows anymore?

Other lovely, original, whimsical shows that I have loved that died a horrible, early death include: Strange Luck, Firefly, Cupid (although there is a rumour that it will be revived next year with a new cast), Flying Blind, and Karen Sisco. It’s like a curse. Sigh.

So You Think You Can SUCK IT, CANADA

On November 21, 2008November 21, 2008 By LynnIn TurtleHead6 Comments

I just watched yesterday’s results show for So You Think You Can Dance Canada, and…

WHAT THE HELL, CANADA? WHAT THE HELL?

More spoiler-filled ranting after the jump.
Continue reading “So You Think You Can SUCK IT, CANADA” →

Playthings

On November 21, 2008November 21, 2008 By LynnIn TurtleHead1 Comment

Okay, even I am getting tired of talking about Etsy now, and I didn’t think that was possible. This is my last shopping venture over there, I promise.

Today I just wanted to highlight a couple of cute shops that sell kids’ stuff. In general I find shopping for kids on Etsy to be very expensive — although everything is beautiful and well made, why pay $50 for a dress on Etsy when I can get one that will be more comfortable and more washable at Old Navy for $12? However, I do have a couple of shops that sell things that I think are worthwhile.

For Gal Smiley’s birthday this year, she got a couple of things from costume shop Her Flying Horses:

There’s lots of costume places on Etsy but most of them are very pricey, and you can buy stuff that your kids will like just as much (and tear and stain just as easily) at Toys R Us. Her Flying Horses’ prices aren’t too bad, though, and I thought the two capes I bought from her (this red one above, and a green superhero cape) were really worth it.

And okay, if you’re a grandparent who is looking to really spoil their granddaughter, then you simply must have one of these beautiful (but a little expensive) tutus from Danbury Lane:

Little Miss Sunshine has very problematic hair, so I’m always looking for something to keep her hair out of her eyes. We have some clips from Love2Sparkle:

And I also have some clips from Plum Daisy:

Both make pretty, high quality clips that really stay in the Little Miss’ hair. Unfortunately she is a very persistant person, and there’s nothing she likes better than to pull the clip out of her hair and try to eat it. She says the Love2Sparkle ones are particularly tasty.

My kids are really, really into stickers and although I don’t like to spend a lot of money on something that they are going to go through in 30 seconds, some homemade stickers on Etsy are too cute to resist. I especially like BrambleberryLane:

You can get some fun kids’ jewelry online too — perfect for birthday parties for your eight year old girl. Sweet Surprises has lots of fun little things:

And I think these little doll necklaces from Little Pink Posies are so cute:

You can get the little girl painted in pretty much any combination of hair, eye, skin, and dress colour.

There are a few sellers on Etsy making jumbo mixed crayons. You can make these at home yourself, but they are messy and finicky, and if you need a bunch — say, as stocking stuffers — why not just save the hassle and order some? My personal favourite for shapes and colours is Butterfly Brain:

When we travel, my kids like to colour and do stickers in the car. I’m thinking of getting them these lovely art totes by Bells and Whistles:

If you have a teenager on your list, he’ll probably find the Timid Monsters at TrishCzech‘s shop to be most hilarious:

It’s not just the tiny little monsters themselves that crack me up. Each monster also comes with a hilarious personality description card. For example: “Jameson enjoys most everything about his life: the fullness, the vividness, the endless night terrors and ensuing bouts of paranoia. Despite the resulting lack of sleep, Jameson is a tough little Monster, only truly being afraid of Pauly Shore movies.”

Lastly, Captain Jelly Belly would never forgive me if I didn’t mention homemade doll maker Girl Called Ric:

I’d buy the Yoda for the Captain but it’s way expensive and also, he and I would just fight over it all the time. If you’re not a Star Wars fan, she also has simply adorable dolls of Harry Potter, Mr T, Superman, and Frida Kahlo.

Whew! I’m all shopped out. Time for a hot chocolate!

A Girl’s Best Friend

On November 20, 2008November 19, 2008 By LynnIn TurtleHead3 Comments

Time for another Etsy shopping installment! Today, we’ll be talking jewelry.

There are literally thousands of jewelry sellers on Etsy — it’s their bread and butter. Everyone has their own taste when it comes to jewelry, so it’s kind of hard to buy for someone else. Of course, that totally didn’t stop me from shopping away for most of the women on my gift list.

My 16-year-old niece is getting a bracelet from Cool Jewelry Jr:

Even though this is a “junior” shop, the bracelet I ordered was big enough to fit me. It was pretty hard to wrap it up, let me tell you.

Mrs. Carl Sagan and I both have a few pieces from The Pebble Collection:

I have one of those cluster rings in purple — the kids call it my “grapes” ring — and I wear it all the time. She has regular sales, so if you like her stuff, be sure to sign up for her mailing list so you can get all the discount info.

Since I’m really into rings, I also really like Mu-yin Jewelry:

Very simple, classic stuff with multi-coloured pearls, and it’s not too expensive either. She also has some sort of sale on until December, so if you want to order something and combine it with mine (to save on shipping), just let me know.

Lately I’ve gotten interested in Fiona Chapman:

A lot of sellers on Etsy are doing the same sort of thing, but I find her stuff to be really original and unique. A little more pricey, but worth it for the statement.

I also really love Imogene And Annie:

I’ve almost bought that tree necklace for myself about a hundred times, but then I talk myself out of it. Someday though, it shall be mine! If it’s not yours, first.

Lastly, there are at least 100 sellers on Etsy who make scrabble tiles — scrabble pieces with a decoupage print of some sort on the non-letter side. They’re cheap and you can get one with any kind of picture on it — someone on your list likes fish? hearts? skulls? There’s a scrabble tile for everyone! One seller I like (because they come with a nice chain) is Home Studio:

Or, there’s Bitty Block, which dresses up their tiles a wee bit by adding a bead:

I’d recommend ordering a bunch in bulk and adding one to every gal’s gift on your list. And be sure to keep one for yourself!

Shop ‘Til You Drop

On November 19, 2008 By LynnIn TurtleHead2 Comments

Yesterday I mentioned that I’m pretty much done my Christmas shopping (yay!), and a few people commented to say that they haven’t even started yet. If you act quickly, you can still order from Etsy — all the joy of a unique gift, without having to face the mall!

So, let’s go shopping. Today we’ll talk paper products and household items. Tomorrow, we’ll do jewelry, and Friday I’ll do some cute shops for kids.

I love, love, love paper in all its forms, and it’s very, very easy to spend a lot of money on paper products on Etsy. My favourite shops, though, are those that offer pretty things at reasonable prices and (so important) reasonable shipping. Here are a few sellers I’ve found that won’t break the bank.

First up, I buy all my gift tags from Auntie Di:

I especially love to use tags on birthday gifts for kids. Kids never, ever care about cards. Why spend $3.50 buying them a card, when you can spend 50 cents on a little tag instead? Auntie’s tags are adorable and pretty economical, too.

For greeting cards, Mrs. Carl Sagan turned me on to Kards:

She has lots of pretty cards, and most importantly, good shipping rates. Also, you didn’t hear this from me, but I hear that regular customers of hers can expect a freebie every now and again.

I also like Monkey Scrapbooks for cards, although she really specializes in blank scrapbooks:

Sir Monkeypants is totally getting a monkey card for his birthday. Don’t tell him, it’s a surprise.

You can also buy fantastic stickers on Etsy, which I recommend as a nice Christmas gift for teachers. My favourites are from Lady Bug Labels:

Are those cute, or what? I really wanted to get some for my own stocking this year, but I wasn’t sure what I would do with them — I’m sure the kids would get a hold of them and stick all of them at once to a random piece of paper and they’d be gone. So I didn’t do it, but I still might order some for my kids’ teachers.

I also ordered some address labels for my Christmas cards this year from My Sister And Me:

You can spend a LOT of money on really beautiful address labels on Etsy if you want. These might not be the most original labels on Etsy but they are by far the most reasonably priced, they arrived quickly, and are very pretty and festive. They have tons of patterns, designs, and fonts to choose from.

Moving on to the household side of things, I am currently obsessed with Joom:

If I were to find that little birdy print under the tree for me this Christmas, I would be VERY VERY happy. I’m just saying.

If you’re a bolder decorator than I am, you can also find some fantastic wall decals on Etsy. My favourites are from Michelle Christina:

So, so beautiful.

I could go on and on — I didn’t even talk about note cards, calling cards, little notebooks (oh, the notebooks!), decorative banners, or fridge magnets. But that’s it for today…I need to sit down after all that vigorous clicking! My shopping hand needs a coffee!

They Say It’s Your Birthday

On November 18, 2008 By LynnIn TurtleHead6 Comments

Why, it’s my birthday too! I’m 38 years old today, and after this past weekend’s trip, feeling every second of it. It was actually a pretty fun trip — we had a great time visiting everyone, and the kids were great. Unfortunately, no one slept at all. I’m at an age now where getting five hours of broken sleep per night requires at least a week of recovery time.

It’s been a good birthday so far. This morning I got some awesome gifts from the kids (this necklace from this shop on Etsy — thanks to facilitation by Mrs Carl Sagan, a set of silicone muffin cups that I really wanted, and a USB storage thingy so I can make that fifteenth backup of my stuff that I must have or else lose valuable sleep at night). Once the older two went off to school, I took Little Miss Sunshine out shopping and managed to actually complete almost all my Christmas shopping — I only have Sir Monkeypants left now. I just finished making cupcakes with the kids (and ate at least a whole cupcake’s worth of raw batter, yum) and then I made brownies and licked that bowl clean, too.

The brownies are for tonight’s PTA meeting. It’s only my second meeting so I felt I couldn’t skip it with the birthday excuse, but if I have to be there for three hours, dammit, there will be SQUARES. And tea too, maybe. I can’t figure out how to bring tea with me, though, other than to brew up a pot and carry it over, which seems a little dangerous. Hm.

The kids are very excited about the coming of my birthday because it is the official marker in this house of the beginning of Christmas season. My mom always had the rule that there would be NO talk of Christmas in the house until after my birthday, so we’ve introduced the same rule here (kind of as a joke, but also kind of to preserve Sir Monkeypants’ sanity). Gal Smiley is already ready to crack out the Christmas music and wants to hang up her stocking FIRST THING tomorrow. At this rate we should be good and ready for Santa’s arrival by November 25th.

I’m so glad I’m finished most of my shopping because it’s just over a month until Christmas, but there is still tons to do — wrapping, newsletter writing, card addressing, decorating, baking, and the inevitable last minute shopping for people I forgot. It’d be overwhelming if I still had to face the mall, as well.

Anyway, the cupcakes are just about ready to come out of the oven so I better be there so I can eat a warm one. Birthday cupcakes are calorie free!

Here Comes The Bride

On November 17, 2008November 16, 2008 By LynnIn TurtleHead3 Comments

These are the shoes I wore to my own wedding, April 27, 1994.

Although marrying Sir Monkeypants was the best decision I ever made, neither of us has fond memories of our wedding day. Sir Monkeypants was living in Ottawa and I was living in Toronto, and we were getting married in Mississauga, which led to some obvious difficulties. Sir Monkeypants did what he could to help out but FameThrowa and I basically did all the work, and it was a time of enormous stress for me. I was doing wedding planning all the time and it wasn’t any fun, and as a result, I wasn’t any fun. Sir Monkeypants and FameThrowa got a LOT of phone calls with me crying or whining or screaming on the other end. It was bad, bad, bad.

Then, after I’d already decided a bunch of stuff and booked a bunch of stuff and picked out a bunch of stuff, I came to realize that several other members of both of our families had expected to be consulted on all those things, which caused a lot of hard feelings, and a lot of back pedaling, and a lot of trying to fix things after the fact.

Then I got all Bridezilla and crazy and brainwashed by the wedding industry, and insisted that certain things I had wanted HAD TO HAPPEN, or else it would all be RUINED, just RUINED, which caused some more problems.

So the wedding day itself was a mishmash of things I wanted, things other people wanted, and basically nothing that Sir Monkeypants wanted. I’m kind of surprised he went through with it, actually. By the time the reception rolled around, everyone was feeling disappointed or mad about something.

THEN, a bunch of people we knew from university went and got totally smashed at the reception, and did some inappropriate things. We were the first in our class to be married and we were all still pretty young and the “wild party” thoughts of some did not really fit well with the “respectable and quiet event” thoughts of our families. So that was bad.

We lived through it, though, and eventually — at looooooong last — it was all over, and we were married. And that is good.

The shoes are one nice thing from that day. I had them dyed to match the lovely ivory wedding dress I had to have, paid $800 for, and wore for about an hour before changing into a more traditional Indian outfit for the reception. There’s money I’ll never see again.

I have gotten a few more parties out of the shoes, though. They’re pretty comfy and have never given me any trouble at all. Maybe someday I’ll take them and Sir Monkeypants on a trip to Vegas, where we can all get the wedding we should have had in the first place.

Practical Purplish Grey Pumps

On November 16, 2008November 16, 2008 By LynnIn TurtleHead4 Comments

These are the shoes I wore when I was a bridesmaid at LittleSis’ wedding, in the spring of 2002.

I’ve been a bridesmaid three times — once for SmokingToaster, once for my older sister SocialButterfly, and once for LittleSis. For SocialButterfly’s wedding I had a cute pair of white pumps with a squashed heel (I love a squashed heel!), but I never did find any other outfits that they went with, so I never wore them again. Eventually I gave them away.

These grey shoes that I wore to LittleSis’ wedding look kind of boring in this photo, but I really like them. They’re a very unusual colour — almost shimmery but not glossy, purple-grey without any hint of silver. Plus, they’re Rockports, so they’re super comfy, made for being on your feet all day and then dancing all night. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ve worn them since. They look lovely with the pale lilac dresses we wore (which I made, because I am all crafty that way, and the line forms to the right for KUDOS), but those dresses are floor-length, so I haven’t had a lot of call to wear mine in my everyday life as Human Dishrag. I haven’t yet found a nice dress to go with them, either. I bet a pair of dark grey dress pants would look smashing, though. Memo to self: on next dress-up occasion, buy grey dress pants.

LittleSis’ wedding was probably the best wedding I’ve ever been to. All of my family was there and since I wasn’t the bride, I had lots of time to spend with them. I talked to everyone and ate tons of cake (and sat on a piece, but don’t worry, my dry cleaner got all the chocolate out) and took a million pictures. I spent a lot of time dancing with my (then) young niece and nephew, who had never been to such a big party with a dance floor before. They were so cute and I think that night is really when I realized how much I love them.

For their first dance, LittleSis and her new husband did a choreographed tap dance which was SO fabulous. All of my sisters and I are tap dancers — I still dance once a week, shout-out to my awesome teacher Sheila — and CanadiensFan#1! learned the basics so they could do this one special performance together. I just about passed out from delight. There’s a video of this dance and if you can take your eyes off of the gorgeous couple in the foreground, you can see me in the background laughing and clapping and displaying pure joy. Later LittleSis told me that seeing me in the background so obviously happy was her favourite part of the video.

To this day, I think she does not know that her wedding fell just a few weeks after I’d had a miscarriage. I lost one baby before we had Captain Jelly Belly and at the time I really thought that nothing happy would ever happen to me again. Three glorious children later, the pain has been dulled, but I can still clearly recall the anguish and horror of that time. When it happened I really did not see how I could possibly go through with being in the wedding — even leaving the house seemed like an insurmountable problem.

But I managed to get there, and when I was surrounded by my family — everyone so happy, everyone so loved — it made it all better.

So seeing me be happy in LittleSis’ wedding video — watching myself heal, frame by frame — was my favourite part, too.