This month hasn't been so great for me. I had my car back for a week and then ended up wrecking it on my way home from work (I was going to quit and not go into work that day but figured if I could work a few more days to recoup what I spent on car repairs...). I was on the interstate, traffic was flowing and I wasn't even up to the speed limit (before I get accused of speeding!), but the car in front of me came to a sudden stop. Completely destroyed my old Deville (Emerald Jazz). That alone tore me up. I was going to get my mom's car fixed and running but felt like I needed something in a rush for the purpose of work (...this is my constant mistake). I purchased another car which seemed to check out ok and well. After I bought it from (from a guy on Craigslist...I know. But I also know my Cadillacs and this guy did pretty good at covering up even computer issues), it's all gone even further downhill from there. I had it one day, Dec. 6th, and it's been with a mechanic ever since. This whole car situation has been a nightmare.

I'm definitely not in a Christmas mood this year. I didn't even celebrate it last year because I got sick from some customers at work (the poor kids shouldn't have even been out shopping in the condition they were in but of course...then the parents let them destroy the entire children shoe department). Which that was probably for the best since it was the first year without my mom. And this year, it still doesn't seem right. It's been rough not having a car and worrying about getting to work. Luckily I was able to get some of the main gifts for my loved ones thanks to online shopping. But I still have a lot more Christmas shopping to do with no indication I'll be able to do it anytime soon.

I briefly had my hopes up a bit because our system at work which allows us to put in our time off requests allowed me to request my birthday (Dec 26) off. We usually have a blackout period from Thanksgiving to New Year's that won't allow us to request off. However my boss wouldn't grant it (doesn't surprise me) since it is a major retail day...*sigh* but it would've been great to have had it, or even the day after it, off.

I'm really hoping and praying that things will get better soon. I made a video with a brief update of some of this but it was just too Debbie Downer/

I did start the process of getting rid of the red hair. I started out bleaching the underneath part where it was the darkest. I mixed the bleach (30 vol developer) and left it on for an hour. Then I mixed up a bleach rinse of 20 vol developer with the powder, clarifying shampoo, and a little bit of water (forgot the ratios) and put that on with the bleach still on there. I left it all on for an additional 30 minutes. It left my hair bright orange (like UT Vols orange...yay?). I used the Ion Repair Solutions after washing it. It was super shiny and silky *shrugs*. My hair usually looks and feels better after a good bleaching, haha. That was about a week ago. Last night I decided to bleach it again but I only left the bleach on for about 30 minutes since it looked like it was platinum (the bleach I use is blue in color). I rinsed a strand just to make sure...but of course the strand I chose ended up being the only platinum strand. Everything else is still orange but not extremely. Actually it's a nice golden blonde in a lot of lighting but it still has that orange ting at certain angles. Again, this was all the darkest portion of my hair that was still a deep burgundy which I bleached. So I have hope for the rest of my hair. I just need to get to get some more developer since I'm out of the one I normally use.

I was going to do a lot of Christmas nail art this year but just haven't felt like it with everything else going on. Hopefully I'll have some positive updates soon.

This week has been really stressful but I'm finally forcing myself to blog in hopes of maybe feeling a little bit better. I had car problems coming back home from an icky day at work Sunday, and while it was being loaded onto the tow truck, something else happened to it that has caused it to be in the shop for 6 straight days now. Fortunately a family friend is available and offered me a ride to and from work tomorrow. But I've been stressing out massively about work and having to miss it. I hate my job but it's still my job for the time-being and I work my tail off to do what needs to be done and then some, as well as all the other junk that gets thrown at me. And with Black Friday being less than a week a way...ugh. Normally I would enjoy my time stuck at home but again, stressing over work. Every day there was a slight chance that I could get my car back but at the end of each day was disappointment. Every morning I had to call in explaining that I still don't have a way to work but if/when I get my car back, I'd call and let them know I'm on my way. That didn't happen. Every time the phone rang, I'd get my hopes up but still, no car. I'm still on edge even though tomorrow is Sunday and the mechanic is closed. I guess my nerves won't calm down until I have my car back. Although I have tried to force myself to channel my creative energy into being productive. I had a little bit of success but not as much as I would normally have had if, well, there wasn't the unsettled feelings at hand.

Since the last blog update, the Hon-Bun took me on a nice little Gatlinburg trip. He took me to the arts and crafts loop in the Pigeon Forge area. We met several neat and inspiring people. It was fun getting to spend more time with him and getting our creative wheels spinning (more than usual). I reeeally want to go back soon!

Also, in the last blog I mentioned that I would update about my hair. It's still red...but a blah!red. I miss my blonde and I'm somewhat in the process of going back. I've started using a clarifying shampoo and I'll probably try a vinegar rinse to see if that does anything. I want to strip as much of the color out before turning to a bleach-type method. I made a video from when I was about to touch up the red the last time. I also mention the mixture/ratio of what I used to get my red color.

And here's a pic from visiting the Hollywood Wax Musuem during our Gatlinburg trip which shows what my hair looked like 2 weeks after I touched it up (I think it still looked pretty good, the color was still really vibrant).

(That's right! Moi with the King of Pop, Michael Jackson! It's ok to be jelly.)

Red Headed Step-Child

"Red-Headed Step Child" is what a few of us at work are called...so hey, might as well go with it!

I'll post the extensive video below of my dye haul.

Anywho, I started with one of the boxes of de la Ritz  ColorEazy dye  in 3RV Medium Auburn from the Dollar Tree, just to experiment because I felt like being daring. ...but not too daring because I just used it for mainly the under layer.

During the process of dying it. I used snack-sized ziplock baggies to separate and hold the sections being dyed.

Mmm, so ~*sessy*~

One box contains 1.4 fl.oz. of the color cream and 1.4 fl. oz. of the developer. This was barely enough to cover the sections that I dyed, which was about a total of 1/4 of my hair. I forgot how long it said to leave on the dye but I think I left it on about 20 minutes longer than I was supposed to. *shrugs*

The result!

The color came out pretty good! It wasn't as vibrant red but what I dyed was darker hair. As for the texture, my hair didn't feel much different than it did before (I have thick, coarse hair). But it still wasn't quite the shade of red that I wanted so the next day I decided to go to Target (aaand see the 2nd video below). There I bought Revlon Colorsilk in 48 Burgundy. I was also hoping to find some sulfate-free shampoo but no luck so I bought some low-sulfate shampoo and conditioner. I used 2 boxes, with quite a little bit left over (which was great, even though I had an extra box just in case). Btw, there's 2 fl. oz. of color and 2 fl. oz. of developer in the Revlon Colorsilk, just fyi. The color turned out great! But it still wasn't what I wanted, which was expected. But this is what it looked like after 2 washings.

The blonde wants to break through and be freed! 

Breaking Blonde.

I've since fixed and enhanced the color to more of what I really want but I don't have any pics for now. I'm going to try to get that together in my next post. :)

La de da

Today marked the 6th month anniversary for my Honey Bunny and I. We didn't get to see each other but last night we hung out at the mall like teenagers, haha. There's also a zoo trip in the works for tomorrow. We also took a trip to Chattanooga recently. I want to do a separate post for that journey. I filmed some videos on my iPod Touch but I need to figure out how to edit them all into one video. I love my Superman! ;)

I found out a couple of weeks ago that my store is closing. Here we go again! Although we don't really know when we're closing, which is aggravating. 

Oh, and in case it's not obvious by now, I am a total nail polish addict... Yep...

And just for the heck of it-

It's been forever and a day since my last update. Surprise, surprise...

I now have a very wonderful boyfriend. I turned to online dating and we met through Plenty of Fish. He's the only guy I actually met up with, so I pretty much lucked out. :) Yay, I actually have a social life now, lol, but it's still greatly hindered by work. Although sadly he's my only motivation to keep my job. Ugh, let's not get started on work...

I bought an iTouch, which seems to record in a lot better quality than my camera, so I hope to have more videos and updates since it seems like it would be more convenient than the "set-up" I've got now.

O hai, check out this henna tattoo that my boyfriend's cousin's fiance (hehehe) did on me. This was her first time applying henna but I think it turned out pretty good.

This is a few hours after she applied it. I was told to leave the paste on and let it flake off on its own without purposely washing it off.

And this is what it looked like 24 hours later, after it all had flaked off and darkened.


She did it nearly 3 weeks ago, and it's almost all gone by now (except for a tiny fragment on my wrist). I read that it was supposed to last about 2 weeks. There was a lot of fading that began about the 1 week mark and from there, each day, it gradually went away.