Fang Shui

This made my Monday! (Thanks to my friend Pam for posting this!)

Yes, i'm a Crazy Cat Lady!

Moob is checking things out...

Found an awesome deal on the Pei Pod pet beds online, and I couldn't pass it up...sadly, all they had left was pink...but its still super cool!  Moob seems to love it!  As soon as I put it out, he was inspecting it.  Its great for him, because he's a big cat and he needs space to stretch out.  Ed really liked it too...except he did make a few comments about it being "pink", but all in all, I'm pretty happy with it...and so is Moob!

Took him a  moment before the Moob was making himself comfortable in the pod.  

Politicky

I normally don't like to get too political on here, but my friend Pam had posted this on her Facebook page and felt that it was worth sharing.

My sentiments exactly!

Hairy Situation Part 2

Over the weekend, I had a couple of inches of hair chopped off.  I thought that having it cut would get rid of most of the black hair.  Sadly I'm left with two tone hair.  It looks black in the first photo, but is more of a dark brown in person.  My roots are lighter than the ends, but I'm going to have to learn to live with it until it grows out.  My hairdresser said that the only way to really get rid of black hair dye it is to bleach it out, but she didn't recommend it, because it is so damaging.  She told me that growing it out would be the best and healthiest solution, so I'm going to follow her advice and let the rest of the black grow out, and eventually I'll have it cut out.

Here is my hair in normal daylight.  Can hardly notice the two tone colors.

Here I am under the harsh kitchen lights...you can see more of a two tone color, but at least my ends don't appear to be black anymore.

A Hairy Situation

Me and my freshly dyed black hair dated 2009

Several years ago, I thought it might be fun to dye my hair black.  At first I thought it was great, it was a big change for me and I really liked it.  Had I known how difficult it was to remove it from my hair once I changed my mind, i most likely would not have done it.  The main reason I've had my hair black for so long was that I was afraid to chemically treat my hair or end up having to bleach it, which would really damage it.  My ultimate goal was to get rid of my black hair with minimal damage.

First, I tried growing it out, but it was taking a super long time and I'll admit it...I'm an impatient person.  I managed to grow it out at least 2-3" but I was beginning to hate the 2 tone hair.  My roots were lighter than the ends and I wanted to even out the color.  Since I couldn't wait to get rid of it I decided to head over to the beauty supply store and talk to someone there to see what products they would recommend, that didn't include bleaching out my hair.  The girl recommended a color remover that would remove the black but leave your natural hair color behind.  It came in a bright yellow box, and when I used it, it was super smelly.  It took over a week for me to entirely get rid of the odor in my hair.  On the box it said that I may need to do more than one treatment of this product to get the desired color result, but after that first try, I decided to look for another product that was less stinky.  Besides, all it did was lighten my untreated hair and most of the black still remained. 

Very disappointed, most of the black remained, and only my untreated roots were lightened.

After that disaster, I did a little research online and read many rave reviews about Color Oops which is sold at my local drugstore.  I figured it was worth a try.  Should have read the instructions more carefully the first time I used it, had I known that I would have to spend up to 30 minutes in the shower rinsing off this product, I would have put it back on the shelf.  So I decided to give it a try and followed the directions carefully and rinsed until I just couldn't take it anymore, which was about 25-30 minutes.  Afterwards, I felt water logged, but I did notice that some of the black had been removed, but not enough to make a noticeable difference.

After color ooops...minor difference, but still see a lot of black

I ended up heading back to the beauty supply store to see what other products were available to me.  I found a hair color remover by Tweezerman which promised no odor and rinsed out in just minutes.  Surprisingly this had no odor and seemed to work much better than the other products I used.  I've noticed a major difference in the fact that there is a lot less black in my hair. Most of the black seems to be concentrated in the front part of my hair and on the ends.

 I may have to do at least one more treatment to fully get rid of the black, but I'm thinking of opting just to get a lot of it cut off in order to give my hair a break from all the chemicals.  I've probably suffered some damage from all the processing, but someone had recommended that I try Aussie 3 minute miracle and I must admit, that really helped make my hair look and feel much healthier than it did before.  I'm hoping to get the majority of the black cut off and just let the rest grow out since it will mainly be on the ends of my hair.

 Still have some black on the ends!...soo hard to get rid of!

 That big ole black patch is bothering me a little, but is more noticeable in photos than in person.

Still have patches of black to deal with, but I think I'll just try to get some of it cut off and then let the rest grow out.  Making an appointment to get my hair cut this evening...lets hope it will look much better afterwards.  By the way, my natural color is a reddish brown color or dark auburn.

In this photo , my hair looks darker than it does in person.   I like to see the side by side comparison, it makes me feel better seeing where I started and where my hair is at now.  Eventually I would like to go lighter, perhaps some blonde highlights...but I'll wait on that for a bit to give my hair a break.

Garage Sale Goodies

Every year, Ed and I head over to an annual church garage sale, which has some of the best deals I've ever seen.  Below is some of the things I purchased.  I will say that this year wasn't quite as great a previous years, but I still managed to get some cute stuff.

Here are some of my favorite purchases from the garage sale

Some psychedelic mushrooms made of alabaster

Nothing says the 70s like a groovy big eyed Owl 

 Fell in love with this planter!  Loving the matte finish on the exterior and the glossy light blue interior!

I'm not sure if the 72 refers to the year it was made?  Unsure of what the big G stands for either, but I love it!

The following day Ed and I took some more stuff to Goodwill and here are some cute things I spotted (but didn't buy).  

These mugs are hilarious!  Love the expressions with the goofy tongues hanging out!

 I do *heart* cats!

Huh? Nothing says Easter more than a puppy with bunny ears?  I think the pup is as confused as I am!

 Kitty gathering...what are they up to?!

 Groovy vintage ashtray...shame it has a big ole chip at the top.

 Cute kitty creamer, meow meow...give me some milk!

 Had my eye on this big wooden Santa!  He was at least 5' 5" tall and only $10!  Sadly, I don't have the space to store something like that!

 Looks like someone had too many drinks while on vacation...and bought this beauty! 

A vintage Bradley doll.  She was so interesting and unique.  Love her nurses uniform.

Morning Photo Shoot

 Started off taking a cute photo of this chair with cat pillows.....

 Here comes the Moob!

Mooby always has to get into the act.

Moob blending in with the cat pillows.

Easter Break

Ed and I decided to head on down to Brigantine, NJ for the Easter break.  Luckily, the boss was nice enough to give us Friday and Monday off so we had a nice long weekend down there.  It was nice to get away, but I must admit, there isn't much to do in Brigantine.  We did manage to head over the bridge to Atlantic City, NJ to check out the sights and get some of the famous pizza at Tony's Baltimore Grill.

 There is a seediness about this place...I think part of it stems from the red neon glow from the sign.

 If you ever come here, I suggest that you order the pizza, it takes awhile, but is worth the wait.

For some odd reason I liked this 60s, 70s decor.  This place has looked as though time has stood still.  The waitresses were friendly, but had that hard edge to them, as if life hadn't always been kind to them.

After stuffing ourselves with pizza, we headed over to the Atlantic City Boardwalk to walk off all that cheese!
There is a mall area on the boardwalk that we wanted to check out, sadly, most of the stores were closed...except this one!

 SUGAR!!  An amazing candy store right on the boardwalk of Atlantic City!

 They have virtually every type of candy you can think of!

 This is a replica of Lucy the Elephant made entirely of jelly beans!

 M & M's in every imaginable color!

 Giant Gummy bears!

 Pez galore!

Here is the sign about the Lucy replica.  Thatsa lot o' beans!

After checking out Sugar, we headed up the boardwalk and stopped by this casino, with a wild west theme...

Most of the weekend was spent walking on the beach and admiring this view from our deck.