Petite

Sad Package News

Posted by Vanessa on Feb 7, 2012

Last month I participated in a gift swap on Ravelry for the first time. I had a lot of fun with my partner’s package, made her a hat and bought about $30 worth of stuff that I thought she would like. I shipped the package on 3-day shipping over a week ago and since: nothing. I thought that maybe the package had arrived and person I had been assigned had, perhaps, just been busy and not gotten around to making a confirmation post but I recently asked the person in charge of the swap about it and evidently my swap partner is known to be pretty good about that sort of thing. Plus. I checked her profile and found that she had posted on other message boards recently.

In summary, I am beginning to suspect that my awesome package has been lost by the postal service. I have my fingers crossed that maybe there has been an unforeseen error (misspelled address or something) and the postal service is sending it back to me, thus the delay, but I really don’t know. I didn’t buy insurance or delivery confirmation for it because I am a cheapskate and am now deeply regretting my actions. Sarah (my sister) is really active in gift swaps on this website and she told me that the postal service lost two of the packages sent out in the December swap, thus she has sworn of the postal service and now worships at the altar of FedEx. I don’t have the funds (or the time) to do another swap in the next few months but I may have to keep these alternate shipping methods in mind for the future if this is how it’s gonna be.

Why not make a random update?

Posted by Vanessa on Jan 7, 2012

First some sad news: my old man cat Big Hairy (the black and white cat in previous posts) was put to sleep several weeks ago. He had a saddle thrombus and I’d really rather not go into the details of that right now (though if someone asked I wouldn’t mind chronicling it in a separate post in the future) but suffice to say putting him to sleep was definitely the humane thing to do. He was 19 years old, which makes him well past being a centenarian in cat years. I had really hoped that he would live to the big 20, but ah well.

I would like to say that out of respect for his memory I waited a decent amount of time before getting another cat, but then my mom took me to the humane society “just to look around” a week later and I ended up coming home with this:

He is a 3-year old siamese mix and yes, he is cross eyed. He is also declawed but I swear that’s coincidental. I don’t advocate declawing cats and didn’t realize he was until after I had already decided to get him. He is also overweight and I am going to be rationing his food for the rest of his life, but eh. I actually had him on a diet cat food for a while but neither I nor Percy were very fond of it, and I’ve since switched him to a holistic cat food that we both are in favor of. I figure if I’m going to ration his food there’s no need to take even more fun out of his life.

I named him Percival, though we mostly call him Percy. My boyfriend calls him Demon Cat from Hell. We hadn’t realized quite how spoiled we were with Big Hairy, who mostly slept and snuggled for the last few years. Percy jumps on stuff and chews things up just for attention. We know this because he tears things up in our presence A LOT but not so much when we aren’t at home. He also can be perfectly sweet one minute and lean over to bite you the next. I think he’s kind of bipolar, but I still love him to pieces.

Anyhow, it occurred to me after a few weeks that Percy could maybe use a friend, and after getting the okay from our landlord I offered to get Mike a cat for Christmas. He has a much longer patience span than me but after a few weeks we ended up coming home with this:

We eventually decided her name was Scout. She is a 6-month old torty/tabby. We also got her from a humane society, albeit a different one than Percy.

If getting Percy was behavioral shock than Scout was almost a panic attack. For the most part she is perfectly sweet and doesn’t have any of the weird personality quirks Percy has. Nevertheless, it had been a really long time since I’d had a kitten. Mike tells me that climbing the curtains and running around for no good reason are perfectly normal behaviors for kittens, but it’s not something I was used to.

Mike had wanted to wait a while before getting a second cat but I’m glad we didn’t. My main reason for pushing it was because I was certain the longer we waited the more difficult it would have been to adapt Percy to having a second cat around. I still think I was right. Percy harrassed her almost non stop in the beginning, though he never drew blood or anything like that. They’ve gotten used to each other since and sometimes I even catch him licking her face.

Also, he stopped maniacally biting our feet shortly after we got her.

Summer Garden

Posted by Vanessa on Jun 22, 2011

I decided to try growing vegetables this year, and so far have… encouraging results? What I mean is, they’re growing, but I’m really not sure if I’m going to get any actual food off of these things. Anyhow, it’s an experience, if nothing else.

Here is the garden, as of about two weeks ago. From left to right you have tomatoes in the large grey containers, peas in the three smaller ones, and a banana pepper plant in the green one. I have also planted a bell pepper plant since this picture was taken; it was a gift from Deanna.

Ever since I moved in and expressed a wish to grow vegetables my grandparents have offered to set aside a bit of their lawn for me to play in, but I chose to do containers instead. I figure it’s an investment for future apartment living. When we do clearance on garden center at work this year I’m probably going to stock up on these stupid containers. The good ones are effing expensive.

My tomato plants. The ones on the left I bought pre-grown at work for like, 99 cents apiece after the seeds I originally planted decided to never grow. I’ve actually gotten two edible cherry tomatoes off these things this week, which is encouraging.

I’m insanely happy about the ones on the right because they did grow from seed, and are growing fairly fast. They probably won’t have fruit until later in the season, but my mom says that ones grown from seed tend to produce a lot more fruit than the ones you get pre-grown at the store. I’m pretty curious about this one and hoping it works out, if for no other reason than I really can’t remember if I planted big tomatoes or cherry tomatoes, and am DYING to find out!

My peas. What can I say, I also love peas, and it helps that they are easy to grow. In fact, I also grew these from seed. They are starting to fall over now because I haven’t given them anything to climb, and Deanna has offered me some of the posts she got for her garden this year. I’m intending to replant them in a bigger pot before I take her up on that, as putting the stakes in these little pots would be kinda stupid. Plus, the white plastic pot is actually cracked because Mike stepped on it (we were moving a couch, so I forgive him), and needs to be thrown out, and since I recently had to throw away my spider plant and asparagus fern (RIP) due to the evil, EVIL of the fungus gnats I’m wanting to use these clay pots to plant new ones.

And last but not least, the banana pepper plant. This was an impulse buy, as I’ve never seen anyone else grow one but it sounded really good and was like, $3 at work. I’m thinking I need to look up directions on how to grow one though, because the stalk is turning purple, which I think could be a sign he’s getting over watered. Plus, I have no idea what time of season to expect food off of this guy. But if I can get him to live, well, I DO like banana peppers. Especially in salad…

The label amused me!

Posted by Vanessa on Jun 13, 2011

I saw this a couple of weeks ago and decided I HAD to try something with this label on it. Label of cat juggling fire = automatic win. Luckily (for me) they offered a sweet wine, as I never seem to like any other kind. I’m drinking it now and it’s pretty good. Will probably buy it again at some point.

Sitting on the Windowsill

Posted by Vanessa on Jun 13, 2011

Quick and Easy Ingredients for Homemade Deep Conditioner

Posted by Vanessa on Apr 28, 2011

Previously I posted about washing hair using baking soda and vinegar. As I mentioned, the vinegar works pretty well as a detangler but not as well as a normal conditioner, so it’s probably a good idea to deep condition it once in a while. Here is your guide for improvising deep conditioner at home. You can use any combination of these ingredients to help out your hair. I generally just mix everything together with a fork, but some people prefer a blender. To each their own.

Egg: Works great as a base and is consistently the first ingredient I use when I start mixing together a conditioner. The protein in the egg white is very good for hair, helping to repair damage. The yolk is good for your follicles. Either part of the egg will add shine. I’ve read that a lot of people like to separate out the egg and only use either the yolk or the white on their hair, but I generally just use the whole egg. Keep in mind you can get too much of a good thing. Exposing your hair to too much protein can cause it to break, so make sure to only use this as a once a week or less type of thing. If you have super long hair use two eggs. Leave the egg in for at least 15 minutes. Rinse the egg out in cool or lukewarm water so it won’t scramble in your hair. The only issue I have with using egg is that I find the smell unpleasant, though I find that adding some of the other ingredients listed below can help mitigate this (especially with lemon juice and cinnamon).

Yogurt: similar to the egg, it repairs damage and adds shine. Make sure to use a plain yogurt bereft of artificial sweeteners, as they can be bad for your skin, especially if you are acne-prone. In addition to having a protein profile similar to the egg, the active cultures in yogurt are also good for your hair and scalp. Yogurt is an especially good one to use after sunburn, as it can help soothe irritated skin. I personally prefer the egg, as it is cheaper than the yogurt and I just like it better, but if you want to avoid the egg yogurt has some benefits the egg doesn’t provide, such as smelling differently and being safe to rinse out in warm water. There’s also no reason you can’t use them together, if you want.

Olive Oil: Some people hate adding real oils to their hair but I find that olive oil (especially when coupled with the egg) is especially beneficial to dry, frizzy hair. I never make conditioner without using a teaspoon or two of olive oil.

Honey: There’s a lot of interesting information on the internet regarding the restorative effects of honey on hair. I’ve read some articles where people claim that adding it to your hair treatments can help regrow thinning or even balding hair. In my case I’ve found it helps regrow broken hair and also think it is beneficial for split-ends and flyaways. This is another one that can also be helpful if you’ve sunburned your scalp.

Lemon Juice: This obviously isn’t a conditioning agent but it can still be beneficial as long as you restrict it to a teaspoon or so; enough to get beneficial effects without weakening the conditioning agents. Lemon juice is particularly famous for being a natural lightener, especially for people with light-colored hair such as blonde. It is also useful because, like vinegar, lemon juice helps loosen and rinse out product that can stick to hair. If you want quicker action as far as highlights in your hair try spraying lemon juice on it and sitting in the sun for a while.

Cinnamon: this one is also a natural lightener, though it’s more favored among people with darker hair as it tends to add highlights with a brown tint, unlike lemon. Be sparing with this one, as too much of it will make your scalp burn. The other nice thing about it is it’s pretty much guaranteed to make any mixture you add it to smell much nicer. I’ve read that if you really hunger for cinnamon highlights you need to try leaving it on for a couple of hours instead of just fifteen minutes and you’ll see much more visible effects.

Some ingredients I haven’t tried that ought be mentioned:

Avocado: With the nutrient, fat, and oil content in avocado this makes perfect sense to me. I personally haven’t tried it because they’re expensive and I prefer to eat them instead of saving part of the avocado for my hair.

Cocoa Powder: The opposite of lemon juice and cinnamon, cocoa powder will make hair darker. The person I got this info from uses it to keep her hair a nice, even black.

Other oils: may be beneficial for hair, but I have great faith in olive oil and prefer to not deviate.

Mayonnaise: a lot of the ingredients you end up using when you mix an at-home deep conditioner are in common mayonnaise. I’ve read several positive reviews from using this as a conditioner. Personally, I’m not a fan of the smell, and besides we stock veganaise instead of regular mayonnaise, and I have no urge to use it in my hair.

Vinegar: both white and ACV vinegar are extremely common for hair use. It softens hair and helps rinse out product. Since I use it as a daytime conditioner I have no urge to add it to my weekly deep conditioner as well.

It Works: Washing Hair with Baking Soda and Vinegar

Posted by Vanessa on Apr 11, 2011

It was my sister who turned me onto this idea. It turns out you can use baking soda rinse to replace shampoo and ACV rinse to replace condition/detangler. I surfed the internet for some info and the recipe I’ve been using goes as follows:

Baking Soda Rinse: 1 tbsp baking soda in 1 cup water

Vinegar Rinse: 1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar in one cup water.

As of this posting I’ve been using this recipe for six months with no problems. It really does get my hair clean and smooth, and I’m saving a ton of money by not having to buy shampoo, etc. at the store. However, here are some tips.

Do
• Keep in mind that it takes 2-6 weeks for your hair to adjust to a change in product. In most cases with store-bought stuff this means your hair responds great for the first couple of weeks, and often not so great thereafter. In the case of the baking soda switch your hair is probably going to be really greasy while it adjusts to not having all of the natural oils stripped out in every wash. I just wore my hair in a ponytail during the adjustment period, which lasted about 3 weeks in my case. I also went back to washing my hair every day during this time, and once it was over was able to resume my regular schedule of shampooing every other day.
• Invest in a deep conditioner for use once every 1-2 weeks. The vinegar rinse is more of a detangler than a conditioner, and after a few weeks my hair was getting pretty frizzy and not holding on to a lot of moisture. I’ve been using an egg-based recipe (detailed in this post) once a week on my hair, which has completely fixed the problem for me.
• An addendum to the previous: while baking soda rinse works great on a daily basis, it’s never been able to completely get all of the grease out of my hair when I deep condition. So, should you follow my example you are probably going to need to invest in something extra for use on the days you deep condition. In my case this means that once a week I use my boyfriends shampoo (a temporary solution until I dredge up the money to invest in a healthier shampoo for those days, as the boyfriend uses a brand I don’t like)

Do Not
• Buy spray bottles thinking they will work better for your scalp. I did this and I was completely wrong. You really do need to pour this stuff over your head to make it work. A spray bottle can be useful for spraying the tips of your hair, maybe, but it’s too much of a pansy to really penetrate your hair. If you DO buy a spray bottle anticipate having the unscrew the cap to pour some on your scalp regularly. If you have long hair the rinse will flow down from the top of your head get the rest of your hair on the way down. Please note that I started using this recipe when my hair was long enough to touch my ass, and I know what I’m talking about. Most people use an old shampoo bottle and pour the stuff all over your scalp. Anticipate using the equivalent of a cup of each rinse every time. Oddly, the amount of rinse I use hasn’t changed much despite the fact that I recently cut off 18″ of hair.
• Be afraid of the vinegar smell. As with other uses for vinegar, the smell goes away once your hair dries. I usually can’t smell it once I rinse the vinegar out under the shower spray.
• Avoid regular white vinegar if the ACV is an issue for you. Apple Cider Vinegar is the default preference for many people who do this, but white vinegar should work just as well if you’d rather try that. Use some common sense if you decide to try another vinegar. A lot of the others are a bad idea, ex: I’ve read some rather hilarious things about people who were disappointed when balsalmic vinegar didn’t work for this.

A lot of people have different reasons for switching from shampoo to this recipe, or a recipe similar to this. If this topic interests you, but you want more info, please feel free to check out the following links. Or hell, do a google search, which is where I get most of my information anyway.

This person at GreenAsAThistle has tips on how to mask the vinegar smell, among other things.
Melinda at 1GreenGeneration has a very nice article about her transition from Shampoo to this sort of method.
Christi at NatureMoms has a tone of information about the effects of harmful chemicals in shampoo, and other reasons to switch hair care methods.
Similar reasons, different application method at HealthHomeHappy.
Even more options discussed in an article at Suite101.

It Works: Cornstarch Paste Removes Bloodstains

Posted by Vanessa on Jan 19, 2011

It was actually not me, but Mike who found this one. He had stubbed his toe at work and his sock got to absorb the damage. We haven’t had to deal with stains often enough to keep a stainfighter around, and he had read this at-home cure in an extremely handy book given to me by a friend: Extraordinary Uses for Ordinary Things

However, Mike had to work that day, and I was already doing laundry, so I ended up trying this instead. It was pretty neat!

Directions:

1. Make a paste out of cornstarch and water.
2. Apply the paste over the dry bloodstain you are trying to remove.
3. Wait for the paste to dry. As the paste dries it pulls the bloodstain out of the garment.
4. Once the paste completely dry it stops pulling out blood. Dust off the dried paste into a trashcan and throw the garment into the wash.
5. When the garment comes out of the wash, the bloodstain should be gone

I could not believe how well this worked. It was fascinating (and also kind of gross) to watch the cornstarch paste turn from white to red while it drew out all the blood. I threw the sock into a normal load and when it came out I couldn’t tell it apart from the other socks. All the blood was completely gone. I highly recommend this remedy to other people if they ever have need of it!

It doesn’t really work: lemon, egg and cornstarch facial mask

Posted by Vanessa on Jan 10, 2011

Like a lot of people, I have really dry skin during the winter. I also have a lot of skin sensitivities and allergies that have ultimately left me averse to most over-the-counter products. Baby smooth skin is still not attractive when it’s covered in a red rash and you constantly have the urge to scratch it. I use pure oils for my arms and legs, but I have some sort of weird combination skin on my face that results in oily residue even when I’ve got flakes of dry skin. I generally wash and go on, and maybe rub a wet rag over it to get rid of skin flakes. Moisturizers and expensive products just aren’t my thing.

That said, I do like to experiment with around-the-house products, as previous blog posts can attest. So when I found some recipes for cornstarch facial masks I figured I had nothing to lose. Since I have problems with flaky skin I started with a recipe I pulled up that targeted that.

• Juice of half a lemon
• 1 beaten egg white
• 1 tbsp. cornstarch

To give credit where credit’s due, the page I pulled this from is here: http://www.tips4.net/2008/08/finding-inexpensive-and-natural-skin.html.

Trying out at-home alternatives has worked well for me in the past. I’m counting this as one of my disappointments. The idea behind the recipe is sound, but it just doesn’t deliver. First off, the recipe yields a watery substance that is difficult to apply. Half of my mixture ended up in the sink because it dripped right off my face. Also, while I’ve heard and read a lot of stuff about how egg can be good for skin/hair, applying it to my face still felt pretty gross.

Now, to give some credit where credit is due, after a few minutes the mixture did harden to my skin and leave the tight feeling that I’ve come to associate with facial masks. I thought, “Aha! It’s working!”. But alas. While my face did feel cleaner and nicer once I washed the “mask” off, I still had just as much dry, flaky skin once the mask was gone. I was back to rubbing my face with a damp rag.

In conclusion: there’s got to be better stuff out there. I am interested in trying the cornstarch vinegar mask. If I get around to trying it I’ll let you guys know how it goes.

Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown

Posted by Vanessa on Jan 9, 2011

After a bit of an unintentional hiatus (briefly explained in previous post), I’ve finally uploaded new pictures from my camera and, as such, have lots of new post material. Since the holidays are only getting further away I want to start with the picture of our Christmas tree this year.

Yes, that’s right, we had a Charlie Brown Christmas tree. To tell the truth, we almost didn’t put a tree up this year. Working in retail wore us out on the holidays pretty early in the season. By the time Christmas actually came around we’d been out of holiday spirit for weeks. Then Mike saw this and thought it was perfect, and managed to get it for pretty cheap too. So it all worked out.

As far as the choosing of the actual tree, from the beginning my preference for a tree was “not real”, as corpse in living area is unattractive, I don’t care what anyone else says, and “not very big”, because a large tree is more than I want to deal with. This hit those specifications perfectly. Surrounding it with Christmas cards was a spur-of-the-moment idea that made the area look more festive and not so empty. Then we just put the presents under the folding table we set the tree on. All-in-all it was a very good Christmas this year, but I’m hoping to be able to skip out on the retail work next time, if at all possible.