On the Road Again!

Yesterday I drove down to Alabama to pick up my sister and adorable niece for the week. Her hubby has to work a lot this week, because of the holiday, one of the down sides of being a chef, you work more on the holidays not less! ;-)

I was a little nervous about the trip never having driven that far, and all by myself! The trip went perfectly smooth, even through downtown Birmingham at lunch time (there was some white knuckling and the incoherent babbling that appears when I'm nervous!) but Clark and I made it just under 4 and half hours!

Megan and Shawn s lovely little home, they have a pond in there back yard, can you say jealous much? And plush white carpet, I love soft carpet!

After Shawn got home from work they showed me around the neighborhood!

I feel in love with this little house that was only a few doors down from Megan's!

A private boat ramp that's only a few blocks away, between that and the fried pickles they have at their local Sonic they might be seeing me A LOT this summer..... ;-)

How is your summer going? 

Oh, and I'm so happy to see all of your little happy faces over in my followers section still, I was kind of worried about all of the hullballoo with google reader going away that I was going to wake up yesterday and find you all had disappeared in the night!

 I'm so thankful for each and everyone of you, be on the look out for a giveaway in the next few days to celebrate the fact you're all still here! =)

Curiouser and Curiouser.....

.....it seems like all the blogs I follow are worried about the upcoming demise of Google friend connect, and I'm curious, where did all y'all here about it? I never got any notice the dire news just showed up in the blogishpere, did you get an official email or something? 

When I google the subject, I can still only find the news on other blogs, nothing that seems very official, can someone help a girl out and let me in on the secret source? 

Henna Time!

I've always wanted red hair, and after seeing Megan's experience with henna, the lovely lass behind the amazing blog, The Nautical Owl, check out her henna experience HERE!, I decided to take the red hair plunge my self, well, not all by myself, I may have rounded up a few other victims....I mean volunteers.....

So, last week when my sister, her hubby and my adorable niece stopped by for a week on their way to Alabama, a few of us girls took a morning to cover out heads in stinky swamp goo, aka henna!

Before.....

I'm not going to sugar coat it, it smells like a swampy alfalfa field, and pretty much looks like it too. Is this really going to turn our hair red? 

Note Shawn's ( aka my sisters hubby) face, he's not sure about this at all!

One head down, two to go!

 I'm a leeetle nervous, all the other times I've dyed my hair it's turned orange, which would have been great had traffic cone been the color I was aiming for.....

All shower capped up and ready to wait the prescribed 2 1/2 hours!

Sadly I didn't get a pic of all three of us together, but here is an after pic of Megan, she got a ginger blond color, ain't she pretty? =)

And, here's mine, not a huge changed, but I knew going I that I would just get a faint red cast, but I love it anyway! =)

Some tips and tricks!

I got the henna from here: http://hennacolorlab.com/

All three of us did test on hair we got from our hair brushes (or from the hair catcher in the shower drain.....yes eww I know, but I don't brush my hair, so I had to get it from somewhere!), we just did a few teaspoons of the henna and some water in a plastic bag and smooshed it around with the hair, left it for a few hours then rinsed it off.

The website said you would need one packet for normal thickness, shoulder length hair, and said to get two for thicker or curlier hair, I got two for myself just in case, but me and the sister with the really short hair both could have just used the one packet, we had more then one packet left over after we were done!

It really does take a LONG time and A LOT of conditioner to rinse out the henna, I admittedly have super thick hair, but it took me a full 20 minutes of hanging my head upside down in the shower to get it almost rinsed out, the water was still faintly colored coming off of my head, but as my thighs and back were screaming from being hunched over, I decided 20 minutes was long enough!! 

The smell will last for a few days on dry hair and is still there when my hair gets wet, and the water still comes off of my head reddish, so I can't speak to how long it takes for the smell to fade and the color to not leech out! But, it has never rubbed off onto my clothes or pillow case!

Over all I am happy with the experience and the color and I will probably do it again, most like with a winesh color come fall/winter time!

Let me know if you try it, I would love to here about your experience with henna!

A B C,easy as 1 2 3.....

I have seen this on a few blogs and finally decided to steal the idea for myself!

 Feel free to take this list and use it write your own ABC's, if you do leave me a comment with a link, I'd love to read yours!

Ambition: To do all for the glory of God!

Bad Habit: I am one of those people who choose the squeeze the toothpaste tube from the middle or *gasp* even the bottom instead of the top!

Celebrity Crush: I would have to pick this guy!

           .....He's hilarious and I've loved everything I've seen him in, plus he fangirls with the best of us about shows like Doctor Who!

Drink: Icy cold Dr. pepper. Though I have recently discovered Sonic (How did I not know about this place, they have cheese sticks, can you say heaven in a drive though?) and the vast array of flavors you can add to your beverage. I can say with perfect authority that the blue coconut and Dr. Pepper go splendidly together!

Education: Public schooled through 6th grade then home schooled through the rest of middle and high school and that's all!

Food: I happen to share Sam Gamgees affinity for potatoes, boil em, mash em, put em' in a stew....though I would add bake and fry to that illustrious list! =)

Guilty Pleasure: Rice Krispie Treats Cereal, a childhood favorite recently rediscovered at Wal-Mart!

Hometown: San Louis Opisbo California

Ice Cream:  Ben and Jerrys Cinnamon Bun Swirl, though I discovered a recipe for toasted marshmallow ice cream on Pinterest last year and that definitely gives the Ben and Jerry's a run for it's money....and then there is this salted caramel truffle at Krogers that I have been known to throw a little fit over when it's gone.....maybe it would be easier to just say, ice cream goooooooood!

Jonesing For: Some friends! It's been a little lonely down here in good ol' TN! My church seems to be in short supply of people my age who are single and my current profession of nanny doesn't exactly give me much a chance for friend making either, so I'm a little at at a loss here!

Kryptonite: Cheesy romantic comedies or books, add a quirky best friend with zany wardrobe and I am so going to watch it! You want to know who watches all of the made for TV badly acted and or filmed Hallmark movies? That's right, this girl does and is not ashamed to say it!!!

Look-a-like: *grumble*grumble* The few people I've been compared to have been Rosie O'Donnel and oh, you look just the fat girl from that show, you know the one..... =P

Movie: Penelope, Bride and Prejudice, Beauty and the Beast, The Anne of Green Gables movies, Lost in Austen, Labyrinth, just to name a few!

Nickname: KatySue or TayTay

Obsessions:  Different versions of Beauty and the Beast and accents of all kinds!

Perfume: Vanille by Molinard, it smells like creme brulee and I LOVE it!

Quirk: I rarely ever wears shoes, and if I talk to you for any length of time I will be cataloging your smell and quirks so I can remember you later, most likely with a nickname, rather then your real name!

Regret: Not appreciating the carefree-ness of my childhood more and I really should have applied myself better at school.....sorry Mom.....

Starbucks: Iced Grande Caramel Macciato

The Last Book You Read: The second book the the Beyonders series, Seeds of Rebellion. It's a good series, but you shouldn't become attached to any of the characters  I hear from my siblings that not many of them survive the third book.....

Unique Feature: Normal length torso, itty bitty hobbit legs! I appear of an average height when sitting down but when we stand up my 24" inseam catches up with me and I am now shorter then most everyone in the room! And my big hair, it's a bit of a love hate relationship, but I figure I'm not in bad company in the big hair arena!

 Vacation: Would love to go on them, but never had had the budget to travel much!

Wine: Ice, ice baby. Ice wine is my very favorite! They wait to harvest the grapes until after the first frost, then have to pick the grapes and press them before they thaw, something about the freezing develops the sugars in the grapes and turns the wine into the sweet nectar of the Gods! ;-)

X:-actly what am I supposed to write here? ;-)

Years: Just like the lovely gal I stole the idea for this post from, (thanks Kellie!) I have taken twenty six turns around the sun on this third rock from the sun!

Zen: A good book, sweet tea or coffee and a cool breeze!

She Bangs, She Bangs.....

Anyone else remember William Hung?

Ahh, the good ol' days before American Idol lost it's spark! But that's another subject for another post..... Anywhoodle, this guy pops into my head whenever bangs are mentioned!

Onto a much more pleasant form of bangs, what girl hasn't looked upon Zooeys quirky style and fantastic hair with out a twinges of jealously? I know I'm guilty!

 *le*sigh*

 

I'd see picture after picture of her hair on Pinterest and try to talk myself into cutting my bangs like hers, but would always chicken out for one reason or another!

But as summer approached and my bangs began to look like this....

.....more and more. I decided to take the plunge and see if hipster bangs wouldn't work better then my current light fringe.

Long story short, I found the video below, screwed up my courage, took the plunge and couldn't be happier with the results!

I can put my hair up without looking like a peeled onion.....

(Yes, that's all bangs and I did my point a little farther forward then the girl in the video, I just have a massive amount of hair! So if you try it for yourself, you most likely won't get bangs this thick!)

 .....and they blend much better into my hair when it down! =)

Next up on the hair department, my older sister is coming in early June and we are going to attempt to henna our hair! I'm crossing my fingers the color doesn't come out orange, unlike every other time I've tried dying my hair!

 Has anyone out there tried henna, have any thoughts or tips? ;-)

Have you tried anything new with your hair recently? I'd love to hear about it!

Awkward and Awesome!

~AWKWARD~

~I KatySue Pillsbury am a opossum killer, or at the very least an opossum maim-er! I slowed down to let him waddle across the road, but then he stopped at the edge of the road, so I went ahead and speed up then the darn thing decided to play chicken with my car and let's just say he lost..... =(

~I can't be the only one who forgets to take to foil packet out of the ramen noodles before dumpling them in the water.....right?

~ My new shift at work, they got rid of the night shift so I am now working the 2pm-10pm shift and as nice as it is to have my mornings free, I would rather start early and finish at a normal time rather then start late and finish late!

~Did you know that tickets on the floor for the Micheal Buble concert in Nashville are over $1,000!? Sorry,  no one is worth paying $1,000 bucks to see, not even Mr. Buble! The nose bleed seats are even a wee bit above my price range, so sorry Buble, I will just have to continue enjoying your music from afar!

~AWESOME~

~The new shift did come with a pay raise, so that is a major plus!

~I finally gave in and cut myself some Zooey Deschanel bangs and let me say, I'm loving them! I'll post pics soon, I promise!

~Got to see the Lion King Broadway show last week! Another perk at work, I went with the family I work for, so my third row front and center ticket was paid for and I got paid to sit there and watch the show, so that was pretty awesome! 

~And a segway from the above item, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is coming to Nashville in the fall!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This girl is so excited and is totally shellin' out the dough for good seats and swag come show time!!!!!!!!!!

~I found candy coated popcorn! I had some form a mall when I was 6 or 7 and have been looking for it ever since. Why looking it up online never occurred to me before I don't know, but I did and now have a source for this most delicious treat!

If you would like to try some for your self, go to KuKuRuZa and start drooling!

And in June their flavor of the month is Huckleberry, yum!

Just a Little Bit of Life.....

I KatySue Pillsbury do raise the right hand of wrongess and admit the brussel sprouts (when properly prepared) or fantastically wonderful!

Mmm, brussel sprouts lightly sauteed with olive, salt pepper and craisins! 

New jewelry organizer that I've been crushing on for months. It's just as awesome as I thought it would be! =) Look now I have even more room for jewelry!

Have all y'all been to Hobby Lobby? It's a craft/home decor/magical store of wonders! I love it! I got the lamp that is in the picture with my jewelry organizer there. If you have one in your town I would suggest not taking your purse or you will have no money left!

Now that my jewelry is no longer a solid metal lump on top of my dresser (see above picture) it needed something to make it purtyful. Enter the vase in the middle which will change with the season. Hobby Lobby was having a sale on these fantastic plastic beaded flower stems and I might have gone a little crazy.....

My view leaving work at 6am every morning! I'm still in awe of the way the fog gathers in the low spots, it makes my smile every time I see it!

Does anyone else remember The Little Bits? Is was a show on Nickelodeon a looooong time ago. It was the adventures of David the Gnome and I loved it!!