A new friend!

While having my afternoon walk with Charlie-dog tonight. (I only walk one dog at a time, Tuesday is Charlie's turn) I found a little scaled friend basking at the end of the driveway. I ran back inside calling for Monkey to introduce them. Why I would call Monkey who has a distinct dislike for snakes beats me, but I thought they should get to know one another. I later heard monkey on the phone with his friend Andy....."She comes calling me outside, and didn't tell me why. Then I find her at the end of the driveway pointing at a snake. What is the first thing my wife does? Yes of course, she picked it up, what else would she have done. Only my wife sees a snake and decides to make pals with it. What woman do you know actually likes snakes?" It's true, I can't think of more than 2 or 3 women that the first thing they would do to a snake is to pick it up. Most of them would have frozen in fear, and gone running and screaming the other direction. What can I say, I love snakes, I think they are a wonder of God's creation. They way they move is absolutely beautiful, and I love holding them and feeling the strength of their muscles pulsating. Snakes really get a bad name for no reason. They are fantastic for pest control, and a sign of a healthy garden. Poor snakes, ended up with a bad rap just because of a social stigma. Look at this creature, and tell me she isn't beautiful! I walked around with her for an hour or so, and then let her go safely in the backyard near my pond. I thought the pond was a much better place to call home than the end of the driveway to get smooshed!

Soap

Yes, I am blogging about soap. Not ordinary soap, organic soap. WHY? Well, I have battled for a good many years with an extremely irritated scalp. I have been plagued by a constant stream of very irritated little bumps all over my head. These bumps would get so bad that I would often wake in the morning with open sores on my poor little noggin that both took ages to heal, and hurt like the dickens. Think open wound meets hairbrush, and shampoo. Shampoo in an open wound burns. It burns a lot. I got into a terrible cycle. I would wash my hair, and attempt to skip a day in between, then my hair would get so oily Exxon would call the house. I then had to go to washing every day. The only problem with that was that the more I washed, the more irritated my scalp would become. I went to a dermatologist who told me that what I had was seborrheic dermatitis
which is essentially dandruff. Now mind you, I didn't have "dandruff" no flaky skin, just a very irritated, bumpy, red, hot scalp. The Dr's treatment for this involved 5 different medicated shampoos that I would alternate daily. Not only was this expensive, it didn't work. All 5 shampoos just managed to irritate my head more. I decided that I was not going to foot the bill for something that just made it worse, so I went back to regular shampoo for many years, and just learned to deal with the pains. Until now. I have discovered the answer to my prayers. Burt's Bees Super Shiny Grapefruit & Sugar Beet shampoo. The key to my miracle shampoo? No parabens, and more importantly no Sodium laurel (or laureth) sulfate. SLS is usually the second ingredient in most normal shampoos and this chemical is what makes soap lather up. It can also be very very irritating to a small percentage of people. I also suffer from a fairly rare skin hypersensitivity, which in layman's terms means that my skin gets abnormally irritated at the slightest of things. If I were to take a Popsicle stick and lightly write hello on my arm or chest I would greet the world with a deep red howdy in about 2 minutes. I am now fairly certain that the two are related. I cannot recommend Burt's bees products more highly. They are about as pure as products from large commercial chains can get. I am certain I am not the only one plagued with such sensitive skin, and after having such a hard time discovering something that completely cleared up every last bump and hot spot on my scalp I felt it was only right to share the wealth. Try out their products, you just might be amazed!

( On a side note, you MUST use conditioner with this type of soap. When you put it in your hair, and lather up, your hair will feel quite sticky. That is totally normal. As soon as you rinse it out, and put on your conditioner that feeling will go away, and leave you with amazingly soft shiny hair. I promise!)

just a few quick picture updates......there's paint!

Just thought I would show off a few of pictures of my living room remodel after we painted and finished the curtains. The curtains were actually a set of sheets I got at home goods, and re-worked, along with two solid white curtain panels I cut in half. I don't think I could have found a better pattern to match the retro feel of my room! I Have to apologize for the awful quality of my pictures, but I just can't seem to make my stupid camera take any decent pictures, unless they are macro closeups! I need a new camera!

Cubed

I finally started making some definite decisions about the design in my living room, and after seeing this room. I am totally excited about my prospects!



So here is the layout for my room, I realize just looking at the pictures it was hard to tell what was where. This is where I started.




And this is where I am now!

Here is the room in color!

I went to Wal-mart to pick up a some ink for my printer, which by the way is still not working, and I found the cubes I wanted to use for a coffee table! Not to mention at $19 each, they were a real steal! They are just the right height for the sofa, and you can pull the tops off them and store stuff inside. Storage is always a plus for our poor cramped house! I haven't yet decided if I will paint or sew an accent on them yet, but they make a great coffee table, foot rest, chair, and storage area! There has been a bit of discussion about buying a third one, as I thought they weren't quite long enough to go with the ginormous couch we have.

My head is just spinning with ideas, I will post some more pictures as things develop! I have TONS in store, that is yet to come.

My giant decorating leap.....

So I have decided to be brave, and actually decorate my living room...Monkey and I found this great static cling poster from the 2007 Sarasota film fest. We were bargain shopping, and got the biggest bargain of all...freebie! Man I love finding good trash!!! We decided to put the picture in a shadow box frame and light it from behind. I got some great help from my great friend Michele, about how to pull the room together with a great trendy retro feel....So, here's the room before,


And here is my inspiration.




I realise that the light in this room is terrible, and I fully intend on getting some true white bulbs, I really don't like that yellowy hue they give off.

I am going to take the rugs, and cut them up, then sew them back together into a sort of color blocked area rug. That was another super idea from Michele. Plus we were lucky enough to find the rugs on clearance at Wal-mart.

Now for some painting, and building of cube storage ottomans, and sewing of pillows....OOOOO I am so excited!!

Please please if you have any input let me know!!!!