Time for a change - New hair color and a new tattoo

I've been feeling restless and looking for a change again, and since I can't move somewhere less stupid*, I decided to just go for it. I've been wanting to dye my hair purple for a while, and I've been craving a new tattoo for yonks, and my sister decided of her own accord to help me out with both. She took me to the neat little Korean Beauty Supply place up the road and I got some fab purple hair dye, and then she paid for me to get a tattoo that matches the ones she and mom were also getting (though it wound up costing twice as much as we thought, and though we all decided to get different interpretations of the theme).

First, the hair!**

Before and after! Wow, my hair's getting long! And wow, it's not really purple, but came out actually sort of a purple-leaning red. In a few weeks, I'm going for a bluer, deeper purple, and then it'll be awesome. Here's what it looks like in sunlight, the day after I dyed it...

And for the tattoo, My sister got a whole branch with twelve or thirteen flowers on it, but I had a smaller space to work with***, so I decided to go with three flowers. Three is my favorite number, and it's how many of us girls are in this immediate family, and it's how many kids we are, so it covers quite a lot of ground.

All my tatts are blue, so I went with all blues here, too, and I LOVE how they turned out! This is a good show of where they are and what it looks like (though reversed, because it's a mirror-shot, obvi). It's going to look SO COOL with tanktops and bathing suits this summer!

And this is my favorite of the pictures my sister took while the work was being done. I just love it. If you're in the Raleigh area, this was done by Dave at Immortal Ink in Wakeforest, and he's a trip. Sang songs to me about the work as he was doing it, joked with my mom and my sister, kept things goofy so I wouldn't get nervous or too tense, and his art is great!


Notes:
*NC is not as great a place to live as they'd have you think.
**These pictures originally appeared on my IG page.
***She did her whole back; I just wanted my shoulder, since my back is reserved for my wings that I haven't actually gotten yet.

Music Mondays - These nuggets

These were originally posted to my Instagram account about a month ago, and I just keep looking at them and smiling because they're the cutest nuggets out there. Go ahead and tell Ellen about how cute they are. I'll wait.

Ten good things about March 2014

1. I got a new tattoo! (more on that in another post)
2. I finally got around to dying my hair purple
3. StarGardener's journal pages subscription, the Right Brain Planner, a hybrid of art-journaling and classic planner-pages
4. The cold broke! Several times, actually, but still.
5. I planted the first part of this year's garden!
6. Adventure-time with the kidlets.
7. I found out that so many of my favorite authors are putting out new books this year that I shouldn't have anything to worry about, reading-wise.
8. The nail polish business is doing pretty well!
9. 100 Happy Days (more later)
10. I don't want to speak too soon, but I think I might finally be feeling less crappy after this long hard winter of feeling like something on the bottom of a shoe!

Link Roundup #1

Did you know Stash Tea has a whole bunch of chocolate-flavored teas? I didn't!

12 selfie tips learned from that pic that Ellen stole the internet with.

This wine-subscription helps you figure out what wines you actually like, and isn't all that expensive, either!

Tips on how to capture memories while being part of them.

Truth cards.

The Lady Of The Fountain sounds like a perfect summer cocktail.

This shirt costs too much for me right now, but look how cute it is!

Blog scheduling tips!

This Asian Chicken Salad sounds like something I really seriously need all the time.

Cats Through History, A Contrarian View

A foodie theme park? I want to go to there.

I love everything about this tableau--the eyepatch on the statue, the framed theme song, the feathers, all of it.

Fifteen delicious-looking vegan lunches.

Make Your Own Emergency Hangry Kits

I want a think tank

Or, more specifically, a brainstorming group, or an idea generator. I want people who I know and trust and who think at least a little the way I do--or know how I think--to gather around once a month or something, and we'll just spend five hours or eight hours goofing off, talking, bouncing ideas, and generating wonderful collaborations and solo projects.

I know I could get this very thing in the Puttytribe, and I really want to, but I know for a fact that I can't afford the monthly membership fee. If it was a one-time payment, maybe, but I just can't afford it over and over. And that pains me, because I want it.

But also, I want to find people who live here, where I am, who I can trust and connect with and have on speed dial*, and work with and have fun with, in person. It's incredibly gratifying to know that I'm not alone, that there are other people like me** in the world, but it's also wildly frustrating to find that those people who are like me are 3000 miles away.

See, I've never been all that great at making friends in person and without the structure of a class or a group. But now I don't have a class or a group to hold me up while I figure people out enough to see who I want to be friends with--casual friendships with little in common exhaust me, and if I can't just be myself, if we can't be weird and think of crazy things together, why bother? I have no idea where, here, I can go to meet people, and transportation in this city is a problem.

But more and more lately, I have been feeling the need for a group that bolsters and amplifies the creativity of the people in it. I had that with my LobbyGirls in undergrad, and with my Troublemakers in grad, but now that there isn't school, and we all live so far away from each other, I'm feeling the loss. I want a place where I can go to just be, to collaborate and share and get ideas and work with people who have resources I don't have and needs I can meet--in person. I miss face-to-face communication. The internet is a wonderland of awesome for people like me who have trouble with strangers in the real world, but I don't want strangers, I want friends. I want all my friends to live close by again, and for us to have standing engagements to do things and to make new ideas and to create things with our own hands.

Think how wonderful that would be.

So this is my statement to the universe: point me in the right direction.

And it's my request to my readers: where can a girl go to meet people in a non-skeezy, non-scary way in Raleigh NC? Somewhere preferably free and low-stress and geek-friendly?



Notes:
*Does speed dial still exist? I have no idea if my phone even does speed dial...
**People with many and varied interests, who have lots and lots of creativity but also are shy and awkward and have trouble following through, who people want to classify but who resist classification. Emelie in the link above calls us Multipotentials, and I like that word.

Things money CAN buy that contribute to happiness

1. An upgrade that gets you out of coach on any airplane

2. Higher quality food that aligns with your morals and better nourishes your bodies

3. Healthcare so you don't have to fear getting g sick or hurt

4. Vacations and other sorts of time off so you do t burn out from over work

5. A nicer house in a nicer area, where people better suit the life you'd like to have, rather than the one you're forced to endure

6. Education, for personal enrichment and job advancement

7. Body upkeep--aesthetic as well as medical or fitness

8. Freedom to move somewhere with better air, water, jobs, schools, land, whatever

9. Time to seek personal expression and fulfillment

10. Tea

GrazeBox!

I first heard about GrazeBox a while ago, from Cara McGee, who I follow on a number of sites, who draws the most amazing pictures, and who mixes wonderful fandom teas (that alone would have made me a fan), but at the time that I tried to join, they weren't accepting new members. 

Then last month, they were, and I signed up so fast I gave myself whiplash. 

The Setup:

• It's a recurring subscription for a set of four delicious and healthy snacks.
• It costs a flat 6$ each order.
• It comes every two weeks in most places; there's a few places where you can get it every week, but I am not in one of those places.

Pros:

• There are 90 different snacks you could get at any time, and I'm pretty sure they're adding new ones periodically.
• They're pre-portioned to be healthy even when the snacks are a little on the less-healthy side.
• They're really original snack items. This box was BBQ Pistachios, spicy nuts, dried apples and toffee-dip, and a bread thing I'm going to give to someone else because gluten.
• You can rate each snack they send you so you can get the ones you love more often, and get the ones you hate not at all.
• You can tell them not to send ones that have stuff you can't eat (I'm just going to share mine, because there's too many off the list if I exclude gluten, and not all of those have bread-things in them).
• The box is recycled, recyclable, pretty, and sized to fit in your mail box!

Cons:

• The snacks ARE a little small, but that's because snacks are supposed to be. It's just that they're so delicious I want to eat more!
• I wish I could have it more often!

So, basically, TLDR, I LOVE this whole idea and I'm keeping it.

If you want to sign up, use the code QQ5YP9K7B to get your first and fifth box free!

Easy Polenta!

I watch a lot of Food Tv and Cooking Channel, so I'm familiar with polenta. I've also made the ready-cooked stuff and had fried polenta at catered parties. But I'd never made polenta until teamsters at when we were between meals and I was starving and we hadn't gone shopping for the day yet, so there wasn't much in the house.

But there was cornmeal!

So I made polenta.

For one serving, I did it this way:

- I cup of chicken stock, made with a cup of water and some stock base, heated to boiling.

- 1/4 c yellow cornmeal (mine is quite a bit finer than grits, but not so fine as flour; I don't know if that matters in the end!). Whisk it in a little at a time so it doesn't lump up like it did the first time I tried, using only a spoon. Seriously, whisk it. And sprinkle.

- Turn the heat down to low like when you're making rice, and cook, stirring, until it comes together with a texture like cream of wheat. You can taste a bit to see if the corn-bits are soft enough, but really, it suddenly looks like food when it's ready.

- when cooking is just about done, add in a teaspoon or so of butter and a tablespoon or two of cheese, and add black pepper. Add salt if your base is unsalted (mine was pretty salty, but it was perfect).

It starts out creamy and spoon-able, but as it cools it thickens up. It will form a skin, but I like a skin; if you don't, keep stirring it as it cools or add a layer of plastic wrap right over the top until its as cool as you want.

As it was so simple I think I could fancy it up a lot without making it all that much more complicated:

- sautéed onions and shredded chicken, like how I make risotto might be nice.

- use a tomato-based broth, then top with beans and taco-stuff.

- make it sweet by cooking it with milk and sugar and cinnamon instead of salt and broth.

- add super-sharp cheese, more of it, and top with sausage and veg--maybe country sausage and white gravy even!

- classic Italian style with sauce and braised meat and veggies!

So this is a Keeper, added to the rotation of Meal Options!

Do you make polenta? How do you eat it? What are your tricks?

Weekly Weigh-In - 158.7!!!!

I broke the 160 barrier! Whooooooo! Maybe at this rate I can be closer to 150 in time for my bestie's wedding in May and I can look GORGEOUS! 

Perfect poached eggs (if you don't leave it in the water too long like I did)

This is my GF answer to breakfast-for-dinner since I can't eat the waffles anymore and we couldn't afford the GF ones.

Rice + bacon + cheddar + poached egg

Om nom.

I love a poached egg, but doing it with the whole pan, stir, wrap it up thing is hard and I usually wind up with unflavored egg drop soup! So when I heard about this trick--use a microwave-- I had to try it.

It's so easy.

Put enough water in a bowl to cover an egg.

Drop a shelled egg in so that it doesn't break up.

Put a plate on top.

Nuke for a minute to a minute and a half, depending on how solid you like the yolk.

Eat yo egg.

I left mine in the water for about 30 seconds longer because I nuked the rice to warm it up and melt the cheese and it made the yolk solid, but still orange and translucent and that was fine by me, but next time I'm going to make sure the cheese is melted first so I can get that runny-yolk-rice-ness.

100 Happy Days Pictures - Week 1

Over on my Instagram, I've been doing a Thing. The 100 Happy Days Challenge, to be exact. I didn't sign up on the official website, but I'm using the tag, and I'm trying to remember to do this every day. Here's the roundup of the first week of things that make me happy, without any explanation or jabbering!

What makes you happy?

Documented Life - Groovebook vs Postal Pix vs Prinstagram

I take a lot of pictures over the course of a month. A bunch wind up on Instagram, but many, many more just sit on my phone, being erratically uploaded by various apps that are supposed to automatically back up my photos (that's a different post for another day!), and I get tired of a) sorting through them all the time, and b) letting them take up space on my phone that I could be using to take more pictures. I'm a visual person--I need more space for more pictures, and the iPhone doesn't allow for expansion of memory!

And then I found that there are nifty new businesses that let you print the pictures right from your phone! There's, of course, ones from Walgreens and Walmart that let you pick the pictures up in-store, and those are fine, but I wanted special photo-printing, and I especially wanted photo-printing for Instagram because I really like the old-style photo thing. I save most of my doctored pics as squares, anyway, so why not print them that way?

Here's the three I've tried out:

Groovebook:

Stats:

• Set up like a subscription: you automatically pay the same low fee every month, and as long as you upload your pictures, they send you a book of the ones you want.

Pros:

• 2.99/mo is by far the best price, whether you're going to print just once or every month, like I tend to do.
• Pictures are pretty clear, and all well-printed; I think the difference in the quality is in how sharp / high-rez the original picture was, and that difference would apply to ANY printing method because it can't be helped.
• 100 pictures! And they don't care if it's 100 individual or 100 copies of one picture, as long as there's 100 total prints to fill your book.
• Automatic payments, so you don't have to worry about forgetting to pay.
• Reminds you to upload a few days before your monthly deadline, which is the anniversary of whatever day you signed up.
• Supposedly easy to cancel; I haven't yet, because I'm liking it.
• Free app.

Cons:

• The paper is thin, only a little thicker than regular printer paper, and not as thick as even cardstock or a regularly-printed picture.
• Some cropping issues--minor, though; they just sort of trimmed the top and bottom frames off the square pictures, but didn't force them into the standard 4x6 shape or anything.
• My first book took three weeks to get to me; I don't know if that's because of a delay in the printing, or if it was because of the CRAZY WEATHER that keeps delaying everything, but it was almost time to upload my new pictures the day I got the first order.
• App is really simple. This might be a pro for you, but for me it was a little annoying; it exists basically only to upload the photos you'll need. And I don't know if it's changed, but when I had my Android phone last year, it did not work at all on Android; iPhone app is fine.

PostalPix:

Stats:

• Set up like pay-by-print--you only buy what you want.

Pros:

• Variety of sizes, from little 2x2 up to much bigger sizes, including aluminum prints, mouse-pads and iPhone cases. Prices Vary: see below.
• Very nice app, well designed and pretty. Simple to use.
• Fairly good prices.
• Got here quicker than I was expecting.
• Very good print quality, with a good fidelity to how I edited the pics to look on my phone.
• No weird cropping on the square pics; I haven't tried the regular rectangular ones.
• A nice semi-gloss finish.
• Very very nice.

Cons:

• If you're buying lots of pics, it can get expensive.
• Prices vary based on how many you order, as far as I can tell, and that means it's hard to tell exactly what each pic will cost.
• Shipping is not included.

Printstagram:

Stats:

• Order-in-batches for a set cost, quantity varying by size: 24 medium squares for $12, 48 little bitty ones for $15, plus photo-strips, frames, books, posters, business cards, calendars, some other stuff.

Pros:

• Very nice prints. I ordered the little ones, as you can see in the second pic there, because they were the right size for my calendar; the bigger ones would be perfect for Project Life or something like it.
• Came fast enough, well packaged, with great design.
• App is free and well designed.
• Lots of variety of prints.
• Matte finish is really nice and silky, and cardstock is good and steady.

Cons:

• Shipping is not included; they ship flatrate, so it's never any cheaper than almost-6$.
• Can get expensive if you're printing regularly.
• Finish doesn't like washi-tape; several of these little guys fell off the calendar over the weeks and months after I hung them.

Overall, I like them all. I'm keeping Groovebook for daily-style printing, and I think I'll use PostalPix for most of my fancy printing because I can order just a few of them if I need to, and shipping is less, but I'd totally go with Printstagram if I had more money!

Do you guys use photo-printing apps? Which ones? What are their pros and cons?

Music Monday - Top Ten Depeche Mode Songs from WatchMojo.com

I can't even tell you how much I love these guys.

Good Ideas - The wish tree – Superhero Life With Andrea Scher

The wish tree – Superhero Life With Andrea Scher:



'via Blog this'

Ten Good Things - February 2014

1. Officially down ten lbs from my starting weight!

2. Made friends with Lexi.

3. Sent orders to Spain, France and Germany for the first time

4. Got to play in the snow!

5. Someone vaguely connected to us and somebody with the same last name as us did well in the Olympics, which feels like it reflects well on us, even if it doesn't.

6. Used art to avoid an anxiety attack successfully.

7. Set up my Wall of Awesome.

8. Mom got through a much needed surgery on her shoulder and is doing alright.

9. A2 called me pretty! I love complements from babies.

10. Only broke the Diet once, when mom was first home from the hospital and I didn't have the time to attention to worry about what I was eating.

What were your good things this past month?