Wow! October is almost over!

I need to start taking photos again. I need to start updating again.

Things are going to start moving along in my life, and I'm getting excited.
I finally have a job, too.

Hampton Beach Weekend

Nothing is the same as when I left.

LUSH Henna Hair Dye Review!

I finally found the time to dye my hair using the LUSH henna hair dye. Now, I have to say that the process wasn't all that fun, but the outcome was very much worth it!

  This is what the Henna looks like right out of the package. It's just a large solid block that you have to cut up and add boiling water to.

It what pretty tough to cut up, and it doesn't smell that great.

 It doesn't look that great either.

 This is what  my hair looked like right before I applied the henna to it.

Right after I applied the henna, and wrapped my head with saran wrap. I made myself a turban for good measure.

Caca Marron is the shade of henna I used.

The whole process took a couple of hours from start to finish, and it wasn't easy. After getting it ready before applying I separated my hair into sections, and started in the back to work my way to the front of my head. I also applied a small layer of vaseline around my hair line so avoid dying my skin. When you mix the henna with the water you want to get it to a "yogurt-like" consistency, which took forever to do. But I think that if you cut your henna much smaller than I did mine it can be avoided.

Applying the henna was...well, it was very messy. They suggest putting down news print on the floor before starting, which is a good idea. If I had an extra pair of arms the whole process would have been much easier and cleaner, so if you're planning on using henna hair dye get someone to help you.

After getting all the henna in my hair, I wrapped my head up and left it in for an hour and a half. Rinsing it out was absolutely awful. It took a long time to get everything out of my hair. DO NOT TRY TO USE SHAMPOO, the suds just make it worse. I wish I had know this prior, but conditioner works wonders! As soon as I tried the conditioner everything just washed away and the color I was left with is kick-ass!

I don't have a photo of it at the moment, but I will definitely get one up soon. The shade I used, Marron, is described as a chesnutty-red color. If you're using this shade and you want a more brown than red then don't wrap your hair up like I did. I chose to go with the more red shade. I love it! It's very...brassy. Does that make sense? It just has a richness to it, and looks so good in the light. My hair also feels a lot stronger than it did before I dyed it.



Overall, I think if I had been better prepared during the dying process it would have been a LOT easier than what I did. Haha. But the results are wonderful. I've never been so pleased with any chemical dye I've used, plus there's absolutely no damage done to my hair. It's worth trying, regardless of the trouble I went through. Just make sure you know what you're getting into before you use henna. Despite my trouble, I would use the product again, and it'll be a much smoother process.

Today begins a healthier life style!

Why today? Well, mostly just out of convenience. Westly has his vacation this week, and I took four days off.

No more sleeping until noon. No more lounging around when we could be outside doing something, anything. We need to eat better, and exercise more. I'm really excited about it, too.


We stopped by his parents house earlier today and picked up a juicer. I just had a glass, and oh man! It is tasty!

 

Right now we just have fruits; oranges, strawberries, cantaloupe, pineapple, but we're going to be incorporating a lot of veggies too! Neither of us are big veggie eaters, but juicing will be an easy way to get the right amount of both fruits and veggies for us. I'm not necessarily on a diet, I just want to eat things that are healthier for me over all. And it's not just a diet change, it's a complete lifestyle change.

Just a quick update, now I'm off to the gym!

Henna Hair Dye

So I ordered my henna hair dye from LUSH!

I can't wait for it to come in, although that won't be for another week or so. I went with Marron, which is suppose to give hair a deep, rich chestnut color. My hair is naturally a dirty blonde, which is entirely too boring. I've had my hair almost every color, and it's definitely had some damage dealt to it with all the bleaching. But I don't have to bleach it with this! And it's all natural! I've been trying to slowly transition into using only all natural and organic products for my skin and hair.

There's a lot more steps that go into using henna dyes rather than chemical dyes, but I think that will just make the results more worth it. Like I said before, I've only heard great things from all these products, and it seems like all their customers are always greatly please, so I'm excited to try another product from LUSH.


I've also decided to try a different cleanser for my face. What I have already is the Fresh Farmacy cleansing bar, which has helped my skin a LOT. But I think I need something a little stronger. I have oily skin, so I got Coalface, which also helps with troublesome skin and it helps balance out oil levels. So I'm hoping this will do the trick and clear up my skin! I  have a feeling I'll have to do a combination of the two cleansers, though. Farmacy in the morning and Coal before bed. We'll see.

 I think next I'd really like to try a shampoo and conditioner. Maybe something that will give some volume to my hair. I'll be writing a review on the henna hair dye and the new cleanser as soon as I get them!



Has anyone ever tried henna hair dyes before?

Finances

Yes, yes. Finances. I know, it's not the most interesting of subjects, but I'm proud of what I've been able to accomplish in the past couple months.


We've been saving up all my waitressing tips since I started serving at my job, and we've finally saved up enough money to get the car paid off! It took a lot of conserving out money, and just barely scraping by on food to get here but it was sooo worth it! We had just under $5,000 to pay off. And now that it is paid off, Wes lowered his insurance policy to just above the state requirement so now he only has to pay $74/month. All in all, we'll be saving about $400/month. Which is great!

That mean we can get a personal loan paid off, all the computer stuff paid off. And then I can finally get that car fixed up so I can drive myself to work.


After all that we'll start seriously planning for the wedding, get a budget together and also start saving up for a down payment on a house. Eeeee! I'm so excited! Life is beginning to take shape.


I feel like I'm at such a good point in my life, I mean, I'm only 21. I'm engaged to a wonderful man. And we're in the beginning stages of starting our lives together. I not to take things for granted, and I just feel so lucky to have everything that I do have right now. Things keep looking up!

We got Zero fixed

This morning we took Zero to the vet to get him fixed.

I picked him up from the vet around 4 and brought him home before heading back to work, as soon as I let him out of the cat carrier he was so cuddly and he could not stop purring, it was so cute. I wish I could have stayed home with him.

He also ended up having to get a small hernia removed in his belly. When I got home today some of his stitches were already coming loose, it looks like he's been pulling on them a lot. Thankfully nothing opened up and he's not bleeding or anything, but to keep him from tugging on the stitches I had to make him a little wrap.

He looks so silly. It's just a sleeve from an old shirt. He's not pleased with me right now, but it had to be done. The stitches come out in ten days. I love kitties with shaved tummies!


Sorry, Zero. You're a trooper though!

Jellyfish!

Just thought I'd share a little paper and button picture I  put together today.

Nothing too fancy.

 close up of the jellies

Hope you like it!

Exit Through The Gift Shop

Another movie review! I may even end up making these a regular posting, I watch a lot of movies.

Exit Through The Gift Shop is a documentary that shows us the journey of frenchman, Thierry Guetta, an LA resident who owns a vintage clothing shop. After an obsession with filming every aspect of his every day life, he gets into the habit of filming the street artist know as Space Invader, leading him into meeting many more well know street artists including the talented British artist, Banksy - who also happens to be the director of this film. Thierry will quickly come Mr. Brainwash.


After following around multiple street artists, filming every moment of it, Thierry claims to be making his own documentary on the subject. After months of filming and nothing to show for it, Thierry is encouraged to put down the camera and become a street artist himself. This is where Mr. Brainwash is born, becoming a star almost overnight. Mr. Brainwash opens an art gallery show displaying all his "work", most of which is suspiciously similar to the styles of the artist that he surrounded himself with during his filming.


Most of the footage was captured by Thierry's filming adventures. Exit Through The Gift Shop has a great humorous feel to it, and can be easily enjoyed.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I have some exciting news!

I just made an appointment with Priscilla of Boston to check out wedding dresses! Ah!
I'm so so so excited. The appointment is for August 20 @ 1pm!

I've got a fairly decent amount of people coming along for the ride including: my mother, my grandmother (Oma), my sister, Westly's mother, Westly's sister, my best friend Jess (maid of honor), and my two brides maids (one just so happens to be a guy!) That's nine altogether, including myself. I wish everyone could come!

It's about a three hour trip from here to Boston, so we still have to figure out all the kinks in transportation. I do think we're going to be renting a van though, if not, we'll probably just take two cars and assign drivers.


I've been meaning to make the appointment, but I just got around to it today. I guess I'm super early though, because the lady I spoke with said "Wow! We're not even booking that far ahead yet!" Ha, and I was worried about getting in on that day!


I've looked around for dresses online, and I have a good idea of what I'd like. But I can't say anything for sure yet simply because I'm not sure what will be most figure flattering for me until I try them on. I do really love lace though! I just want something elegant and simple.





I hope everyone has a great Valentine's Day!

xoxo

LUSH Cosmetics: Review

As stated in a previous post about LUSH products, I'm doing a review on the items that I've purchased. I just only received them earlier today, but I just tried them out! I was so excited when I finally saw that I had a package awaiting me.

So I opened up my little brown box and in it was not only the two items I purchased, but also a small zine called LUSH TIMES, which I'll be flipping through shortly. It's got a ton of other products featured. Along with that there were two small samples soaps.

Fresh Farmacy cleanser: The bar was actually a bit bigger than I anticipated, and much more fragrant. Which, both, are very good things in my opinion. This cleanser is a pale pink wedge bar with a very strong floral scent. At first I was a little taken back at how strong it was, but it's actually very calming. You can definitely tell that the products are hand made and very organic. The soap is a little gritty at first but it lathers up really well, and leaves your skin feeling so clean and so soft. I love this product already and I've only just used it once! Now, again, this particular cleanser is specifically formulated for oily and "troublesome" skin.

T-Tree Toner Tab: When I took the tables out of the box they were a bit crumbled, but they're individually wrapped so it wasn't much of a problem. As directed, I boiled some water up, placed the tab in a semi-shallow bowl, and after I let the water cool down just a bit I poured it right over the tablet. It dissolved very quickly and fizzes a lot. After the fizzing all you have to do is keep your face over the steaming bowl of tea tree water and enjoy it's effects. It's extremely refreshing! I heard mixed reviews about the tablets, that they smell too strong, and if you keeps your eyes open it burns. I didn't have either of these problem. It's got an herbal smell to it, but it's fairly subtle and I enjoyed it. For me, it was very soothing. I didn't have any problems opening my eyes in the steam of it, either. Though it is more relaxing with eyes closed, but it certainly didn't burn. You can also just get tea tree water from LUSH as opposed to the tablet, but I think I much rather prefer the tablet. it's like a small spa visit in a tiny package, plus you can keep the left over water and use it as a liquid toner for future uses. My skin feels so amazing and smooth after using the t-tree toning tablet.


I enjoyed both of these LUSH products and I will definitely be ordering from them in the future. In fact, I do plan on getting their henna hair dye in Marron pretty soon, which I will also do a review on.

I'll do an update on these product in about two weeks to see if they've done what they claim to do in helping my skin so stay tuned!

Icicle photos!

Hello everyone, I just wanted to share a few of the ginormous icicles hanging around here.

I couldn't even get the entire icicles in the photos they're so big! Some of the biggest ones are almost 9ft. As pretty as they are, and as pretty as the snow is, I'm growing very tired of it. As I'm sure everyone else is. Snow is only great the first time, after that it's just too dirty and yucky and cold.

As it's getting a little bit warmer here, things are starting to melt during the day. This is beginning to be a problem, because now all the icicles outside our windows are starting to melt, and the water is starting to seep through the walls. I've knocked down a lot of the smaller icicles but most of them are just too big.

But alas, they are still very pretty.

The Parking Lot Movie

With all the snow storms lately Wes and I have been searching Netflix for 5 star movies to watch while there's nothing else to do. So far every movie we've picked out has been great, but my favorite of them all was The Parking Lot Movie.

The Parking Lot Movie is an independently filmed documentary about a particular parking lot located in Charlottesville, Virginia called The Corner Lot. It's such a charming film with a lot of strangely eccentric and lovable characters involved in this one parking lot. The owner of the lot has employed over a hundred people to work for him since he first opened the lot in 1989. We go through the day-to-day with former and present workers of the lot, which funnily enough, most of them don't even drive themselves.

This film has a very Zen like feeling to it and it's hard to not instantly fall in love with. In a way, it's a right of passage for most of the guys involved, some of which take the job much too seriously. It's a way of life. It's a struggle with society.  It's more than just a parking lot, while at the same time "it's just a parking lot."

A simple idea turned to a simple film, and it's definitely one I would recommend to everyone.

If anyone else has seen this movie, I would love to hear what you thought about it!

LUSH Fresh Handmade Cosmetics

I just made my first purchase from LUSH. I've heard so much about their products that I just had to go take a look for myself. Everything is completely all natural, including some vegan products. There is a wide variety of all sorts of things for every skin type, which, to me, is awesome! I have combination skin and it's very acne prone so finding any product that fully works for my skin has never happened. NEVER. I've tried everything out there to help my skin out and nothing seems to work. So I'm giving LUSH a chance. I only just got a couple items to try out, including:

Fresh Farmacy cleanser. 

 

T-Tree Toner Tab

I should be receiving these products within the next week or so, and I will definitely be doing a products review on them. I read a ton of customer reviews on the site and they were all positive. All product have at least 4 stars, too. Hopefully it works with my skin.



There was a lot of other products I would like to try as well, like moisturizers and color supplements but the two I purchased are a good start.
They've also got a line of hair dyes made from henna, coffee, and cocoa butter. They have four different shades,  Rouge, Brun, Noir, and Marron. I'll be trying out the Marron in due time. I've heard only great things about the henna hair dyes and I'm so excited to try them!


Have you tried any LUSH products?

Food Blog

Hello friends!

I've made another blog, a food blog. I'll be using it to upload photos from my mobile phone of my meals and snacks throughout the day.


You can find it here: http://thefrenchpassion.blogspot.com/



* I've also put together a new layout, I needed something a little brighter. Hope you like it!
I'll try to add some more content to this blog in the next few days. :]

Sewing!

For the longest time now I've really been wanting to sit down and teach myself to sew. I've done a few small critters in the past made from felt, all hand sewn. I've never worked with a sewing machine. I bought one for myself about two and a half years ago and haven't used it until today. It was a lot harder than I ever thought it could be, and now I wish that when I was choosing a machine I went with the simplest of designs. It's going to take a lot of practice to get use to using this machine, but I'm ambitious.


For my first project, I went with what I thought would be easiest: a pillow.

Honestly, it took me a few hours just to complete it. I had to start over a couple times too, and after getting it all together before stuffing it I though I did a pretty great job.  Then I had to stuff it, I used stuffing from an old couch pillow that was filled with holes. The hardest part of this was closing the small hole I left myself for the stuffing, and I have no idea how other people do this, but I ended up hand sewing it shut after attempting to use the machine to do it. Next time I will definitely be using a zipper!

For a first project, it came out just fine. It's cute and silly and I had fun making it. It was definitely a learning experiment and I'm looking forward to making all sorts of other things. If anyone has any good beginner project idea I'd love to hear them!


What was the first thing you've ever sewn and how did it come out?

BabyCakes!

As a Christmas gift I received this BabyCakes cupcake maker.

I've just finally gotten a chance to use it last night. It's great! You just make the cupcake batter as you normally would, put it in each of the individual chambers, and close the lid!

The cupcakes bake in just about six minutes.

The only thing is, while going through all of the instructions in the manual it said that the paper backings aren't needed as they are in conventional oven. The surface is non-stick and the cupcakes should pop right out. Now you can use the paper backing if you'd prefer, and I would absolutely recommend it. I chose not to use them, and I did have some trouble getting the cupcakes out of the chambers. They came out just fine and they were cooked perfectly, but the bottoms of the cakes were a little broken and crumbly because I hadn't used the paper. Oh well, they were delicious! And for next time I know to use paper.

BabyCakes cupcake maker also come with a small recipe book with a bunch of cupcake recipes, frosting recipes, and is also good for making pie and tarts. I will definitely being using this baby often, and I will be trying out the recipes they offer. The above cupcakes are a bit sloppy, and I had never used an icing bag before. It comes with the bag and four tips for decorating, I plan on practicing different techniques each time I use the machine. Overall, it's great.

Holiday Cards

http://twitter.com/#!/TheDaintySquid

Wow! I totally forgot about making Valentines! This must be done this year. I remember handing out cards in elementary school and how fun it was. It's such a sweet idea to keep up even now. I did mail out Christmas cards for this past holiday season, most of which went out to Tumblr friends. They were all hand made and I really liked how they came out. So I'm definitely going to be doing it again for Valentine's Day!


Thanks Kaylah for the reminder!

These cookies are so adorable!

(source)

If anyone wants a handmade Valentine, shoot me your address at: thekiddnapping@gmail.com!

Weekend Recap!

This weekend was great!

First I got called out of work Friday night so I got to take the time to clean out the closet in the bedroom and start reorganizing everything. And boy, was it a LOT more than I thought! It definitely needed to be done a lot time ago, but I'm so glad I finally did it. It's not completely done, but I've gone through most everything and decided what we're throwing out, what we're keeping, and what we're donating.

Saturday was a very late McDonald's Christmas party, Wes is a manager there, so we headed out to Rutland, VT. The drive out wasn't too bad, a little over two hours. We checked into our room, then went to see if anyone we knew had showed up yet. We started off with some drinks, had a surprisingly delicious dinner, they did awards, and then we danced out butts off all night. My body is still pretty sore from all the dancing! I guess that makes up for all the high school dances I never went to.

Just a couple photos from the drive out.

 Sunday before we left Rutland we went to Denny's for breakfast with a couple friends. The whole trip was much more fun than I had anticipated. For a McDonald's Christmas party, they did a pretty great job. I got to see a bunch of people I haven't seen in what feels like forever. It was totally worth it, and I'm glad we went and had a great time. We got back home around one and just relaxed the whole day.

Now it's Monday, and I'm back to work tonight. It was a fantastic three day weekend though. I wish I had taken more photos, but I was having too much fun to go back for the camera.

<3 Katie

Introducing!

Salutations and welcome!

As with most new blogs, introductions are an easy way to start off.

I'm Katie. I'm 21 and I reside in the beautiful Berkshires of Western Massachusetts. Now, instead of getting into too much detail with this first post, I'll try to keep this simple and just tell you what my plans are for this blog.



Prepare to see a LOT of kitty posts. I have two cats, Twig and Zero. They're my babies.

This is my lovely fiancé, Westly. We've been together since May of 2008, and we got engaged on August 11, 2010. I'll be posting a lot about wedding plans. We're pretty silly most of the time.

I'll also be posting photos here and there from my 365 photo project for 2011. I'm a little behind as of right now because I haven't had a battery charger for my camera, but that will change soon. You can find my photos on my Flickr account.


Other random things will be posted as times goes on. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask. Happy blogging!


And to finish this first post off, I'll leave you with a my profile picture for this blog.

<3 Katie





[A special thanks to elycia for the kind words of advice in starting this new blog.]