The Cherry Lola

I discovered this protein treatment on Quest for the Perfect Curl.  It is supposed to define curls and cut down on frizz and I have to say, it definitely does that.

Ready for a little experimentation?  Here's the mix.

16 oz of plain, full fat yogurt.  (Sidebar, if you want full fat yogurt from Kroger, your best bet might be the natural foods section)
2 tbsp of Bragg's Amino Acids  (This is in the natural foods section as well)
2 tbsp of baking soda

Mix that all up and let it marinate for a minute.  That means let it sit for you less country people.

Then, slap it on your hair and let it marinate for twenty-five minutes or so.

I used this treatment to help my hair rebound after I straightned it last month.  In addition to the frizz reducing benefits, it also acts as a nice protein treatment.  I'll be doing another one pretty soon since I just took down some twists and I'll post pictures of the results then.

Halting the Wedding Train . . . and Chugging Along

I was making myself a little crazy with the wedding planning so I decided to take a short break. 

I've never planned an event like this before, obviously, and I was fully prepared for it to be way more intense than it actually is.  The reality is that the size of our wedding, and the budget, kind of negate a lot of the stress and pressure.  We can't afford all the bells and whistles so bells and whistles get left off the list.  Which means our list is pretty damn short, lol.

I decided to take a step back and just let it ride for a while.

Now that I've had my breather and some perspective, I've decided to get back on the horse.  And . . . now that I'm no longer crazy eyed crazy person, my wedding vision has mellowed a lot.  And it was pretty damn mellow before.

Athens Awesome: Blockader Homebrew Supply

Wes and I like to explore Athens on slow days.  I thought it would be fun to write about our excursions.

Remember that post where I talked about how the internet convinces me to do stuff?  Well, I decided that I wanted to make my own ginger ale.  Every recipe called for a plastic bottle but I watched this documentary on Netflix about how plastic is toxic so I thought I would at least look into trying to find an alternative.  Which led me to google.  Which led me to Blockader.

Source

Wes and I decided to check it out.

This place is awesome.  It has this kind of dungeony, speakeasy vibe which I appreciated.  That's just gloss though, because it also has all the equipment you would need to really start cranking out some brew.  Even though we were there for pretty frivolous purposes (which I will blog about later) the guy, the owner, random dude ( I guess I should research such things) was an absolute fount of information.  And I have to say, we love it when people so obviously love their work.  Wes got to get some of his mad scientist yaya's out in conversation too. 

It's always nice to find your people.

Anyway, if you want to check out a cool local business, or embark on experimentation with homebrewing you should totally check out Blockader. 

Weekend In Review

I had the weekend off so we used that time productively.

Wes tried to study for a class and I repeatedly interrupted him.

We stopped by the UGA Hort Club plant sale.  Didn't buy anything although if we had all the cash in the world, I'd be slinging it left and right.

We went to J&J Flea Market.  Words can not do it justice and I didn't bring my camera.  Let's just say you could buy a live chicken, a Prada bag, some groceries, and XXX films, 2 for 5.00.  Redefining the one stop shop? I don't know.  They're open every weekend in the Athens, GA area, check it out.

(We bought a John Deere tractor lamp for five bucks.)

We went to Goodwill because we needed saucers and Goodwill is where we shop for household goods, lol.  We also scored a Brown Dog 3.0 for the Little Bit (stuffed dog), and a vase.  Random assortment of goods-four dollars.

We stopped by Sonic for Happy Hour while we were out that way.  Half price half gallons of sweet tea?  Sign me up.

We went to Sams because Wes needed Turbo Tax.  We wandered around the meat and produce section because that's why people really go to Sams on Sunday.

We went to the library.

We worked in our garden and I implemented garden experiment number two.  Also, we witnessed a small child, uh, watering . . . a plant.

I tried my hand at brewing ginger ale.

I cut out the muslin for my wedding dress.

How was your weekend?

Quickies: Update

Ladies and gentlemen . . . The Franken-Book is no more! 

I put my income tax dollars to good use and finally shelled out the cash to get my laptop fixed.  I don't even remember what I was doing when I broke it, just that it fell about three feet off a bookcase onto a concrete floor.  The screen was done but I was able to limp along with it by hooking it up to the television.  That got the job done but how can one really indulge themselves in internet lurking when everything they look at is fodder for everyone else.

Yum, privacy.  And what have I been using my privacy for?  Well, wedding porn, recipes, sewing blogs . . . I'm a little old lady, lol.

The FrankenBook . . . is soon to be no more

That's right.  The Feds repaid me my generous loan to our national government and I did the responsible thing and dropped off my beloved laptop at PeachMac to be repaired.  My Frankensteinian television hookup is no longer necessary.  

It will take a few days for the repair and Wes and I are already feeling the strain.  I think I'm addicted to my Mac.  It's just soooo much more awesome than Wes' Dell.  It streams Netflix better.   It hooks up to everything easier.  It's just generally awesome.

Henceforth, posting may be light until I get my baby back.  As all of my pictures and whatnot are on my laptop.  I can't wait. . .  we have been especially busy around here.

One Year Natural

Last year about this time I made the decision to stop relaxing my hair.  I made that decision because I was trying to save as much money as possible and I just could justify or afford the expense. 

I just left my hair alone for about six months and then in August Wes cut off the relaxed ends for me.  To mark the occasion, I decided it was finally time for a serious trim.  I am not that great at trimming it curly so I decided to flat iron it.

Considering what my hair usually looks like . . .

Well, let's just say that it was a serious two day undertaking.

First, I washed, deep conditioned, and detangled.  Then, in hopes that I wouldn't have much blowdrying to do, I banded it all up.

Banding stretches the hair by holding it in a stretched out position as it drys.

This is what a banded section looks like un-banded.  And it was still damp.

So I used the blowdryer to dry it a little more and stretch it a little more.

 And here's what that section looked like flatironed.

Tah-dah!  My whole head, untrimmed.

The side view.  Look at all that hair!

So it has grown to pretty much shoulder length in one year.

Trimmed and styled.  This is how I wore it to work. 

Except it drove me nuts after an hour so I snatched it back into a ponytail.