I can't believe I bought this dress

So I wear lots of patchwork-hippie, simple shirt and skirt combos. I sort of have a uniform. It's a style that works for me. My clothes are practical for a mom with two kids.

I've been wanting to get one of those cute handmade patchwork hippie dresses with the ties in the back, but I can't ever find them in my size. One that would have been a perfect fit came up on eBay recently, and I almost bid on it. Ultimately the price was too steep. I had just bought yellow kimono sleeve patchwork dress to wear to JiffyCon, and I didn't have much more to spend. (Come to JiffyCon and you'll see!)

I really like the new JiffyCon dress, but it's makes me feel a little crunchier than usual. Silly as this may sound-it is a fluff post, after all-I want to go on a fashion adventure this summer, get gussied up, and go out on a hot date with Chris. I feel the urge to branch out of my earth mama hippie crunchy sugar magnolia mold.

So on a whim I started looking for less crunchy dresses. I tried to push out of my comfort zone. I found that I like the halter top maxi dress style. It retains some crunch, and still looks charming and hot date worthy. I narrowed the choices down to 7, and I showed them to Chris. He helped me eliminate 4. In the end, this shimmery salmon backless plunging neckline floor-length halter won out. Even better, it was floor-length for little old 5' 9" me. Even better still, it was my size. It's as far out of my comfort zone as one can get. Chris said he picked another dress over this one because he wonders if I'll wear it. It's up there with the pirate bikini I got last summer in Puerto Rico as far as how much skin I tend to reveal. I wore that (a couple times). I picked up the vintage lace paisley shawl to go with it. The shoes I got a few weeks ago. I also got two packages of adhesive bras. Adhesive Bras! I just got a dress where the only bra I can wear more or less consists of giant band-aids.

Thanks to the platform heels and the lace shawl, the look retains just the right amount of crunchiness that I won't feel completely out of my skin. My mom had a shawl like that from the 70's.

So the big question of the day is "where the heck am I going to wear this dress?" Who knows, but I can't wait to go.

Dinner of Champions!

I was at Trans World Market, cruising the aisles, trying not to spend more than I could afford (and failed). And there it was: Friday night's dinner (see above).

How could I not spend $1.19 for Cock Flavored Soup?

Indigo Girl

I've been doing this off and on for years. Sometime between October and January, I color my hair black. My hair is naturally black, but the sun turns it reddish, and then I henna it mahogany in the summer, so it doesn't stay black for long. In the past I've used Miss Clairol blue black, and other "safer" herbal coloring kits from the health food store, but since I henna my hair, traditional color doesn't stay in very long, and it makes my dreads very unhappy. Tonight I'm trying something new: indigo! The recipe will follow.

Indigo reminds me of the film Daughters of the Dust, and Nana Peazant's indigo stained hands. (Daughters of the Dust is a Steal Away Jordan inspiration, too).

I need 2-3 boxes, bottles, or jars of any hair coloring preparation to do my hair. Three will cover it all.

Here's the recipe I used:

• Approx. 8 oz. or so of indigo (aka "black henna"). That was one jar of Rainbow henna (black) and 4.2 oz. of indigo from Acadia Herbals. I could have used another 4 oz, and Rainbow brand is very gritty. Too gritty for dreads. Normally I henna my hair with henna gel, but it's expensive given how much I need.
• 2 c. water
• 2 c. apple cider vinegar (I almost used kombucha)
• 1/2 cup black tea (an afterthought)
• 1 package of pectin (1.75 oz)
• Essential oils of ylang ylang, petitgrain, and vetiver (because indigo and vinegar smell nasty when mixed together)--about 1/4 teaspoon total.
• latex-free gloves (found in my lab coat after work last night)
• Plastic bag
• Towel

Bring the water and vinegar to a boil. Whisk in the pectin. Boil for 1 minute. Let stand for 10 minutes.
Add essential oils to indigo powder (I may have used too much, but it smells better than it would have if hadn't used them at all).
Mix the indigo and liquid together and let stand for 20-30 minutes.
It should make a gel. If half of my indigo wasn't so gritty I think it would have. It was more like a muddy, sandy gel.

I smooshed it all into my hair. It got everywhere. Halfway through the process I took off my shirt, put the bowl into the tub, held my dreads over the bowl, andsmooshed the indigo into my hair. Towards the end I just stuck the dreads in the bowl and mushed them into what was left. I needed more, but I coated most of my hair. Then I covered my hair with a plastic grocery bag, and played on the computer for a couple of hours.

I hate the rinsing part. It took 20 minutes to get all the henna out of my hair, where it usually takes an hour to rinse out all the henna cream. I still have a little plant matter in my hair, but not enough to be annoying or look gross. Next time I'll keep it on overnight. I didn't want to sleep with mud/henna in my hair, covered by a plastic grocery bag and a towel.

The next morning...
I looks much more natural than the hair dye, and my gray hairs are still visibly gray. The ends are still a little reddish brown, so I think I'll order more indigo, or some Surya henna cream, and do it once more in a few weeks. The powdered indigo wasn't as messy as I thought it would be. My dreads love henna. They feel silky smooth (for dreads) every time I henna them, even with the henna cream.

So here are my hair observations. Since I don't spend mych time on my hair on a daily basis, when I do something big like color it, I think about it lots.

• My hair is inconveniently long. I have to move it out of the way when I pee, I sit and lay on it (and get stuck), it entangles people, and I close it in car doors and windows, among other things. Even still, the benefits and conveniences outweigh the inconveniences.
  
• I spend more money per year on monthly eyebrow maintenance than I do on my hair. All I buy for my hair is henna, soap (the same I use for the rest of me), conditioner (which Chris uses up before I ever would), and hair oil, which I make myself. I splurge from time to time and buy a scarf or a hair toy, but I find people give me these more than I buy them.
  
• I spend very little time on daily upkeep and styling of my hair. A little water on the scalp, a little oil all over, and I'm good to go. If I want to get fancy, I can put my hair in a bun in 37 seconds, and do a half bun in 16.
• Strangers ask if it's all mine at least twice a month. (yes, it is, random man at the Y)
• I always go first whenever I play Aquarius.
• I find hair styling rituals fascinating. And shaving one's head is just subversive. (In a great for you, but no thanks for me way)
  
• I love to see people's reaction when I tell them I grew my hair out from less than an inch. (There's a picture elsewhere on my blog of me in my pixie cut)
  
• In my contraband drawer, I keep a Ziploc bag of my kitchen trimmings (I trim the nape of my neck every few months--the parts that won't dread, even after 9 years), and dead dread ends (the ends get thin, and I pull them apart). Next to my bag of White Rabbit candy, my fine fancy chocolate, and other items I won't mention publicly. It's the hair-cutting as an act of subversion thing.
  
• I think about cutting it short all the time. The thought makes me laugh.
• I have nightmares twice a year or so, where I get a haircut and regret it.

More about Daughters of the Dust.

Yeah, so, about those crocuses....

...buried under a foot of snow.

Saturday Chris (so sick of calling him Primo. Who doesn't know my husband's name is Chris? And who really cares?) and I went to see 300. It was entertaining enough, but first I must tell about the really cool thing about the movie. Tag team movie going! Meg and Vincent went to the movies first while we watched their kids, then we went to the movies while they watched our kids. My wish for having cool neighbors is coming true double fold.

So I liked the movie. It was like watching a comic book. And visually oriented person that I am, I didn't care that the dialogue sucked. It was a fun and fluffy movie. Here are the fun and fluffy things I liked about it.
The Casting Call
Buff, beefy, and beautiful need only apply. But I was put off by the fact that all those buff and beefy men had absolutely no chest hair, yet the most lush beards this side of Grizzly Adams. We're talking the Mediterranean, right? Whatever. There's a day spa out there with a really handsome chest waxing clientele.

Incredible Cinematography
It was like watching a comic book come to life. Which I guess it was.

Didn't take itself too seriously
At times I couldn't get past Xerxes stupid cheek piercings, and this movie will not win any awards for wardrobes (all those buff men in stupid looking loincloth/underwear were infernally distracting), but I don't think was its purpose. It was meant to be a movie with lots of near naked men running with spears, yelling and sweating like a deodorant commercial. It should have been called 300: Eye Candy and Violence.

All the women were beautiful
Equal opportunity hotties.

Kill Your Rapist
This wasn't really cool, but the one woman who had actual lines got to stab the man who raped her. It reminded me of a provocative tattoo I once saw of two pistols on either side of the woman's lower abdomen, and the words "Kill Your Rapist". Not something I would get, but a memorable and well done tattoo. I wish I could find a picture.
Here it is!

Faramir, Brother of Boromir
David Wenham, liberated from his ugly Two Towers/Return of the King wig, sigh. Sean Bean, who?

It was an entertaining movie. I still would have liked to have seen The Last King of Scotland, but Primo/Chris paid for everything. Maybe next week, since we saved money from not having a babysitter and from going to the matinee.

Hocus Crocus!

I have two yellow crocuses emerging in my front yard! Okay, so they aren't as beautiful as the ones in the photo. They're in my yard and it's mid March. That's why they're so cool.
My friend Rachel and I took Jed for a nice long and somewhat strenuous hike to Poet's Seat Tower this afternoon. The woods smelled like spring, the snow was slushy and slick. It sure beat working out at the Y.
The temperature was in the mid 60's today. I felt overdressed in my corduroy skirt.

We might get 1-3 inches of snow on Friday. March. New England. C'est la vie.

A Hair-Ripping Confession

I'm not as crunchy as I look. If the membership department of the Earth Mama Hippie Society read this, they'd probably ask for my membership card. I don't care. If they heard me complain that I don't like going to Amherst because of all the f^@%ing hippies I'd be in trouble, but not expelled. I said that to at least two people, both of whom have hippie tendencies, one of whom is a fellow Three Dreaded Ladies, and she totally agreed with me. It's really the disingenuous, Highly Unlikely-I Trustafarians that ruin it for me. I'm paraphrasing my fellow Three Dreaded Lady. Her words, not mine. Sometimes I have to go to Amherst, and I suck it up and deal, and it's not so bad.

If you're confused, I make herbal products and soaps and I sell them at the Farmer's Market in Greenfield. Our booth is Three Dreaded Ladies. The other Dreaded Ladies sell handmade clothing and cloth diapers.

As I said, my disdain and scorn for certain hippies in Amherst will not get me kicked out of the Earth Mama Hippie Society. Hippies can be viciously exclusive and scornful. Every hippie can tell you a story of being dissed or snubbed by another group of hippies for obvious and mysterious reasons. There's quite a bit of crunchier-than-thou going around. And since this is a fluff post, I will avoid a sociological observation of hippies.

My membership in the Earth Mama Hippie Society is in jeopardy because for about three years now, I have been going to a day spa in Northampton (another town that bugs the hell out of me, but there's good sushi there.) to have my eyebrows waxed and shaped. (Never mind that the name of the day spa is also the name of two dorms at UMASS, known for the crowd they attracted and the parties. Lots of hippies lived there.) I don't normally shave my legs but about once a year, I go totally Euro on the armpits. I don't even cut or brush my hair. But I do love to have my eyebrows done by a professional. This past appointment I think Ada outdid herself. She accentuated the arch so well, that when I raise my left eyebrow all traces of crunch leave my face and I look totally glamorous, even without makeup. I think I'll take a picture. I know, who cares, they're just eyebrows, and no one notices unless I point it out. Next time you see me, check out my fabulous eyebrows for yourself. They rock.

Warning: Pure Fluff Post

This post offers no intellectual insight, no deep thoughts, nothing. Not that I ever promised any of that in my blog in the first place. This post returns my blog to its roots of fluff and shit talk.

Sigh. There's a comic book waiting for me at home. I started reading it at the CVS while waiting for a prescription, but they were quicker than I had expected and I had to leave. When I got home, life took over and I never got to finish it. I've been waiting two months for the second issue of Samurai: Heaven and Earth to come out. I finally get it, and now I have to wait some more. I did get to see that Shiro has a big koi tattoo on his back, and he and Yoshiko got it on in a big wooden tub. Good for them.

This is one of the best drawn comics I've read. Set in the early 18th century, it's about a samurai Shiro and his lady love Yoshiko. Shiro's army is defeated and he is the only survivor. Yoshiko is taken as a spoil of war, Shiro travels all over the world to find her. There's swords, swashbuckling, pirates, Samurai, blood, gore, romance, people in cool garb, handsome samurai with big tattoos: pure fantasy fun. It's a little predictable, damsel in distress type stuff (Yoshiko gets sold to one brutish bastard after another. I'm hoping she'll kill one of them eventually and go find Shiro for a change). But that's okay, because the artwork is just so awesome. This story begs for a happy ending, and we could all use a happy ending from time to time. And the hero is very well drawn.

I'm hot for a comic book character. Sigh.

My first post about S: H&E.
IGN review.
My sentiments exactly, although I don't think the author emphasized the hotness of Shiro quite enough.
Another Reviewer liked the story more than I did. Still it's all abou the art.