It's Giveaway Time!

This Giveaway is Now Closed. Thank you for entering! :D
 
Hey, everyone. I was recently contacted by the fine folks at CSN Stores to see if I would like to do another giveaway. I enjoyed my last foray into Giveaway Land, so I thought, why not. I think that my darling readers might enjoy a shot at winning $35.00 to spend at any of CSN's over 200 sites.

I am as excited as a bunch of monkeys on a swing set to be able to offer this giveaway. :D

Okay, here is the down and dirty. A.K.A. The Rules.

This giveaway is open to legal residents of the United States. (Sorry, but this isn't my rule.) It is for a code good for $35.00 good at any of CSN Stores over 200 sites.

Shipping is the responsibility of the recipient.

Giveaway is open until January 31, 11:59 PM MST.

One entry per person, please. You must be a public follower of my blog. Please leave a comment in this post only with your GFC name (please include any other name you might be registered under, so I can find you and verify that you are a follower, if you have one).

Please leave your e-mail address in the same comment. To avoid getting attacked by spam bot like creatures, you can break up your e-mail address. Example: janedoe (at) goofymail (dot) haha.

And that is it.

So... Enter! Win! Spend! What could be more fun? :D

What Brown Did For Me

My UPS guy dropped off the Biggest Loser scale I won in a giveaway recently held by Lady Lap Band. The box was so well packed, Bed Bath and Beyond really go out of their way to package their shipments. Under all of the packing material was pretty white tissue paper printed all over with soft purple stars. The scale, it's self was wrapped in pretty wrap and tied with a purple satin ribbon and bow. There was also a lovely little gift card with a message. It was lovely and like receiving a present.

The scale is nice. It is small and low profile, which I love, it makes it easy to use and store in my tiny kitchen. It works great and, has enough features to be very useful but is easy, peasy to use. A must for this tech challenged chica. :D

 My scale, all wrapped in pretty paper and ribbon. 

In use. Weighing my apple pear. (All apple pears that come into this house are mine. lol)

It is a cool day, breezy and clouds rolling in. I am hoping for more rain. :D

Food is okay... I am sitting at just over 900 calories, so far. I would be happier with myself if it were a bit lower. But it is by no means a catastrophe. I will still come in on target for the day and that is what counts. :D

I have housework to do but I am being a lazy slag and not doing it. I did make my bed and run my dishwasher. But not much else is getting done. I'll get at it, tomorrow. I am just not in the mood, today. 

My head is bad, again. I was getting flashing pindots and bigger, coloured circles in front of my eyes yesterday and last night and today, it is all rock and roll in my brain. Urgh! I had a few days break, tho for which I am grateful. This last head storm was a long, rough one. I am hoping that this one isn't as bad. We'll see.

Okay, I think I will go troll my blogroll and read everyone's updates. Later, lovies. :D

I am Kevelling

I had a busy day, today. Did my housework, then decided to do a few extra projects. I washed my pillows, mattress pad and freshened up my feather bed, today. The feather bed was easy, I just took it out onto my deck, hung it over the railing and spritzed it down well with a mixture of Downy and water in a spray bottle. Let it dry, repeated, flipped it and did the same thing on the other side. Now, you might ask why I don't take it in and have it cleaned. Because it would cost less to just buy a new feather bed. And mine is still in pretty good shape, it was just a bit stale and needed some freshening up. The Downy and water, sunshine and fresh air did the trick.

Two of my pillows are feather, too. I put them in the washer and let it start doing it's thing and looked in to see that they were all blown up, full of air. So I had to push them down into the water and agitate them by hand. In the machine because they wouldn't depuff. (Hmmm... Sounds familiar... :P) Then I let them spin and the washer fill for rinse. Then I had to push them down and agitate them by hand in the rinse water, then I let them spin out. And ran the spin cycle twice more. I had to let them stay in the dryer through three full cycles. Big, fat, king sized feather pillows take a long time to dry thoroughly. lol But they came out clean and fresh and just as fat and fluffy as when they were new. I still don't know if washing them again will be worth the hassle.

While all that was going on, I spritzed my mattress with the Downy and water mix and let it dry under my ceiling fan a couple of times so it could be freshened up, too. And I turned it, as I have been sleeping on the same side since Spring before last.

So, I am tired. I have been working my tail off around here the last couple do fays and my back and hips are killing me and I am taking tomorrow off! lol I will just do straightening and a quick once over, then I am going to plant my ass and rest my poor hip and back.

Lady Lap Band held a giveaway for a Biggest Loser digital food scale and... I won! I am so excited to win a prize in a giveaway and I am really appreciative of this. I need a digital scale, my poor old dial scale finally gave up the ghost and the old budget is tight, so this came at just the right time.

Thank You, Lady Lap Band! <3

 Food is good, today. I am topping out at 1440 calories for the day. I'll tell ya, come Thursday I had better have a loss on that scale. If I don't, I have some serious reassessing to do, I guess I am screwing up, somewhere.

Jay Leno just said that some study states that sleeping with a light on can cause obesity. Really? Hmmm... I sleep with a light on. I always fall asleep reading and I am afraid of the dark. So, that is why I am fat? It wasn't all that shit I shoved down my pie hole all those years? Dayumn! Does that mean that if I turn my lamp off and sleep in the dark I will magically be skinny? 

There you have it, my sweets. The answer to the obesity epidemic and the reason why you and I are fat. It's those damned bedside lamps. 

Chocolate cake for everyone! (Just be sure you turn off that light before you go nighty-night lolol)


All right. Who the heck knocked my plant over? Insensitive so and so's. They knocked down my poor widdle baby philodendron. Where is a triffid when you need it? ^^

Welp... I guess that is all I have, right now. 

Goodnight, gentle readers. 

Ooops! Sorry about the black font colour. I forgot I have a dark background and I don't know the html code to change the colour. (I know Vb but not html.) And I am not going to re-type all of that. 

And... The Winner Is...

Drum roll, please!


The Prickly Pinecone!!! 

Congratulations! You will be hearing from the team at CSN Stores.

Thank you, again for entering and for becoming a follower of my blog.

Thank you, everyone for participating in this giveaway. I enjoyed it so much and I hope that you all had fun with it, too.

My Giveaway is Now Closed

Thank you everyone who entered. I will be announcing the winner, shortly. :D

Had to Hide

I'm sorry I wasn't very present, yesterday. I had to hide. It was one of those down, shitty, weepy, stupid days I get. And when they hit me all I can do is draw my blinds and pull into my shell and hide from the world. I ate too much, yesterday. Not seriously. Happily, I only had healthy food in the house so I didn't do any damage but the fact that I was allowing myself to comfort eat... Well I took a bit of a step back, yesterday. Time to pull up and out of that right quick. Funny thing, I was hyper aware of what I was doing, while I did it. And a big part of me didn't even want to. Knew it was wrong for me, that I was allowing a bad pattern to, if only temporarily, reassert it's self.

In this case, the calories weren't my issue. The behaviour was. And I derived less comfort and less good feeling from it than I used to. In fact I think it is safe to say that I derived none. I was just on auto pilot. And it felt all kinds of weird and wrong. So... I think I learned something. And I think that slowly, steadily, a lot of my old reasons for my old eating habits and patterns are leaving my life.

Progress.

Weird way to see it, I suppose. But it is a good thing that I do.

I think... :D

I am feeling a bit more "back", today. I still feel a bit dark and twisty but okay to function. My blinds are open and my outlook a little brighter. And my eating back on track, thankyouverymuch. :D

Thank you all for your comments, yesterday. Honestly, I don't know what the hell I would do if not for all of you. You help to keep me centred, grounded, remind me of my purpose here and give me strength. And I am more grateful than I could ever properly express. <3<3<3

That is about all I have to yap about, at the mo. Oh! If you haven't entered my giveaway, today is the last day. I have linkage in my previous post.

Okay, off to read and catch up with all of you lovely people. Later, gators. :D

Last Day to Enter My Giveaway

Today is the last day to enter my giveaway. Clickety-click to travel to the giveaway and enter.

You have until ten, MST, tonight. :D

Scale Insanity And an Answer to a Question

So... I jumped on my scale this morning and it registered 343.0. No change. Then I tried it again and 342.4. I then got 342.4 three more times. Le Sigh. I am being driven insane by this stupid scale. I have a great weigh in then a terrible one or two then another great one and it is frustrating.

I know for a fact that I am losing fat. I can feel it. I can see it in the fit of my clothes. So I am not worried. I just have to keep reminding myself that the scale is merely a tool, not my be all or end all. There are a lot of factors that can cause variations in scale numbers. I need to not let it make me nutzy.

Last night, we pounded out a fast two miles and it felt to get out there and go. Husband is starting to burn out on walking. Each time we go, he tries to get me to shorten distance and seems more and more reluctant to go. Whatever. I really don't give a flying shit what he thinks or what he wants and he is going. He no longer dictates everything. And if he doesn't like it, he can suck it.

Has anyone seen It's Complicated yet? Funny movie. I happened across it the other day when I was channel surfing through all the PPV channels. (One perk of Husband working for our local cable company is free TV including a full boat open box and DVR, and free high speed Internet and free phone, including long distance. Maybe that is why I am sticking around? lol) I caught the movie part way in. I need to watch it from the beginning. Should record it, shouldn't I?

Okay, I have a banner on my sidebar that stated that if someone asks you to cut your long hair off just say no. I was recently asked why. I have that banner because I am damned sick and tired of running up against the assumption that everyone who is growing their hair is doing so in order to donate it to Locks of Love. And that if we aren't growing our hair for the sole purpose of donating it, we are somehow uncaring, selfish, horrible, monsters who don't want to help kids with cancer.

Here are a few little things for the Locks of Love army to chew over. Locks of Love is a charity whose mission statement is to make human hair wigs to be sold to children with alopecia or another medical condition that results in permanent hair loss. Locks of Love does not give human hair wigs to children with cancer who will one day re grow their hair. Locks of Love doesn't give wigs to anyone. The wigs are sold to the parents of the child on a sliding scale after a lengthy application process that involves submitting financial records, tax returns, essays and photos. Applying to get a hair piece for a child from that organization is about as intrusive as registering to run for the office of President of this country. lol

Locks of Love has benefited from the massive media push that mistakenly started hyping that the organization gives wigs to children with cancer and that every hair donation will make a child happy and feel good about themselves. And Locks of Love has done nothing to correct this massive misunderstanding. People line up to have their hair chopped off. Schools hold hair donation drives and little girls and boys with long hair are expected to step up and do their part and if they refuse, they are hounded by students and teachers, even principals as being selfish brats who don't care about other kids with cancer. How fucked up is that? How would you like your child to be harassed because he or she wants to keep their hair? How about your workplace holding a chop drive and pressuring you into donating, even if you really love your hair and it is a part of you and you don't want to cut it.

Locks of Love doesn't make wigs of very much of the hair they collect. The vast majority of the hair donated doesn't meet their stringent standards. Hair to be used in wigs must be perfect, virgin hair. It can't be coloured, bleached, highlighted or treated with natural henna. It can't have a lot of split ends, any breakage or even a strand of grey. Very fine or coarse or very curly hair is also excluded. All hair that doesn't fit the criteria is either sold or thrown away. Hair that is sold goes in to extensions, is used to make cores for golf balls and so forth. Locks of Love has an immense cash war chest, thanks to all the money they make selling so much of the hair they collect from donations.

Locks of Love outsources the majority of the wig making work. And the majority of the hair used in the wigs they sell to children is sourced from India, China, Eastern Europe. Very little hair donated here in America is actually used.

Locks of Love will supply a synthetic wig (at a cost, of course) to a child with cancer who has lost their hair due to treatments and will one day grow it back. I ask what is the point? If a child with cancer really wants a wig, they are easily obtained. Locks of Love isn't the only place to get them. People, adults and children who are undergoing cancer treatment are often immunosuppressed and human hair wigs aren't always a good choice for them. Synthetic is better. BUT more important than a wig to anyone fighting cancer that I have ever spoken to is a cure. Beating the disease and getting well. I have yet to meet anyone with cancer who sighed, "I wish someone would give me a wig!"

I understand that there are a lot of people who will shave their hair off in support of a friend or loved one fighting cancer. Sometimes they donate the hair to be sold or sell the hair themselves, to raise money for a cancer hospital or for a person's medical bills. Or they will decide to cut it and donate it to a hair collecting wig making charity. I think that this is a beautiful thing to do. To give a piece of yourself this way, if done freely is a wonderful gesture. And I would never judge a person for making that choice. It is their hair and they are free to do with it as they choose!

And please don't judge me or anyone else who chooses to keep our hair.

There it is. My reason for my banner.

One might get the impression from the above that I am anti short hair, or something. Nothing could be further from the truth. I am very much pro do your own thing. Whether you rock a chrome dome or tresses that flow to the floor or beyond, or anything in between, it is all good. I do like and appreciate the beauty of long hair. But I also appreciate the beauty of a fabulous short cut. And I would never impose my personal hair philosophy on anyone else. I like to grow my hair out. It is super short (to me, anyway) right now because I damaged it horribly and am growing out and cutting away that damage. Otherwise, it would be hanging somewhere around my mid thigh in length. To me, my hair is a part of me, part of my identity and it causes me physical and spiritual pain to cut it. I debate and waffle for weeks, sometimes months just to decide to trim it. When I have had to cut it short, I cried for days and days. I guess I am a freak... lolol

Bleargh! The humidity went away for a while and the heat is on. It is only eleven and I am already considering closing my windows and firing up my A/C. This heat is making me swell up. And sweat. Which is always fun.

Laundry day, today.

Have you entered my giveaway, yet?

No?

 What are you waiting for? An engraved invitation? lol

Click the link.

Go ahead.

Do it!

I dare ya!

:D

Return of the Puff Monster

The Puff Monster sucks.

I hate the Puff Monster.

I am trying to kill the Puff Monster.

With pretzels?

Seriously? WTF was I thinking? Salty pretzels don't banish the bloaty bloat bloat. They kind of make it happen. Pretzels are Puff Monster food. I didn't touch pretzels for over a week and no puff. Eat a small bowl of pretzel sticks and I am sucking down waaaay too much water to make me happy, keeping my feet up and watching my stupid ankles and feet slowly, steadily expand.

*sigh*

Of course.

I can't wait to get on my scale, on Thursday, if this keeps up.

Okay, somebody call the Waaahmbulance. I feel a serious pity party coming on. "Whiny, complaining biotch, party of one, your table is ready!"

I have been feeling increasing rumblings from my old self. My old, confident, fearless, outspoken self. She is beginning to chip away at the thick wall of reinforced concrete that has held her back for so very long. Sometimes, Former/Future Me overtakes Current Me and the most astonishing things happen for a brief, shining moment. Then I manage to stuff her back behind her wall. I need her to remain quiet for a while longer. I need to remain Current Me; keep the peace, keep everything on an even keel. I need time. I need to prep for her arrival. Because when I do cut that bitch loose, all hell is going to erupt everywhere and I will need to be fully her to deal with it.

And I have to tell ya... Hell or not, I am looking forward to the fireworks. I think it is going to be fun. It will certainly be entertaining.

Have you entered my CSN Stores sponsored $40.00 gift certificate giveaway, yet? If not, please click the link, travel to my giveaway post and enter in comments. The giveaway is open to public followers in the US and Canada.

Okay... That is about all I have to yap about, at the moment. I have thoughts swirling but can't seem to make them come together and flow through my fingertips to my keyboard. I suck so hard at writing. lol

Do You Like to Clean Your House?

No?

Well, neither do I. lol But I do it. And do it well. I am contrary, that way. :D

You may be asking why this subject came up, right now. Well, it is because There is a terrific giveaway of great cleaning products here!

Scope out the sudsy goodness:

All kinds of goodies to make your home sparkle and glow, just for checking out a great blog and entering. :D

Dude, That's Fuggin' Ugly!

A fine Thursday evening. Cool, cloudy and quiet, as Husband and Son are not home, yet. I expect them to walk in the door any moment, now.

So, I watched an episode of Oprah that I recorded yesterday. She had a gal on who wrote a book about women and food. I agreed with a great deal of what she had to say but I didn't learn anything I didn't already know or am not already working through. Basically, her premise is that our relationship with food is formed when we are young, that many of us use food to numb out (bitch has been reading my blogs lol) as a drug to keep us from feeling. When we release our food from having to be our drug, it is just nourishment and we have to learn to live and to feel our feelings. And so on. I just sat here, watching, listening and saying, "Duh!" a lot.

I do think that for anyone who is struggling with this concept, this book could be very, very helpful. But I don't really think I need it. And I certainly won't be attending her conferences or retreats.

Anyhoo... My own day has gone well. It is Subway Thursday. So, calories will be a tad higher than usual. But not too terribly much. I have decided that I don't need cheese or avocado every time I have a sandwich. It is just as tasty and filling without. I will save the avo or cheese as a treat. I can't do without my light mayo, tho. I think that a sandwich without mayo is like a day without clouds. What the hell is the point? lol


You know... I can't remember the last time I had a binge? And, I haven't even been thinking about it all that much, lately. I have had a few days that were a little higher, calorie wise than I really like, but they were due to a few poor choices, a little extra snacking or something. Certainly not a binge, as I see a binge. It is so nice not to have those nasty, obsessive, painful thoughts filling and swirling through and messing with my brain. It is a little weird. I am not used to it. But I am certainly not complaining. :D

So... I did a fresh mani. And I have to say, I am not a fan. It is Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Iced Coffee. If someone ever hands me an iced coffee that looks like this polish, I will most likely throw up on their shoes. This colour is that tragic. On me, anyway. Perhaps on someone with the right skin tone, it is lovely. But it isn't on me. I want to clean it off, so, so, so much! But I am making myself wear it until at least tomorrow evening.

Why, you ask would I do that to myself? Well, the answer is very simple. I deserve to be punished. You see, when I bought this polish, I had already picked up and put in my cart Hidden Treasure (squeee!!!) and had in my hand a gorgeous bluey, foily, ocean inspired colour called something Sea or something like that. It was so beautiful and I was salivating over it. So, what did I do? I started to doubt myself. I thought that I was getting too many "busy" polishes, that I needed a nice, quiet neutral.

So, I put down the gorgeous and picked up this monstrosity, instead. Yeah... I know. Nuts. Certifiable. That is I.

I had another lesson in trusting my instincts and myself. Everything in me was screaming for the pretty polish, but just for that short time, I felt as if I didn't deserve it, that I had not done anything to earn the privilege of owning and enjoying it so I had to get the quiet, neutral polish, instead.

Screw that. From now on, if a polish makes me squeee! I am buying it. And I am not keeping ugly and unloved polishes, any longer, either. The Iced Coffee has joined other rejects in the Zoya trade in pile.

Wanna see the fuggin' ugly?

Taken in evening light through my window, no flash. Slightly blurry, sorry.

With flash.

And, just because I like to make you suffer... One more. *evil grin* As unflattering as this stuff is in a photograph, you should see it, IRL. It is almost gag worthy ugly on me.

I will say this for this polish, it was a bit of a joy to apply. The brush is a little big and wide and clunky, especially to wipe the excess off, but it applied the polish very nicely. This colour is a creme and it was smooth as a baby's cheek and opaque in two fast, easy coats. Seche just enhanced the lovely smoothness and shine. It is an easy clean up, too. So, this stuff does have it's merits. The colour is just tragic on me. And I will never wear it, again.

When am I going to learn, once and for all to trust myself and be true to myself? I am doing better, but I still have a long way to go, don't I? lol


Painted Lady Fingers is Having a Giveaway!

Check out the link and her lovely polish blog and her beautiful floral photography. :D