well, if I had lipstick on I would be…but it is 9:30 and I have been home for hours!

next, I need to get my weight under control. Maybe oin 6 more months….

My long-term readers and real life friends will know that I have been loyal to the CHI Flatiron for years now. They last about 1 year each (just after the warranty expires), and everytime one dies, I try an (cheaper)  alternative, then return it to buy the beloved CHI since nothing else has lived up to my expectations.

Until now.

A few weeks ago, my CHI died. I bought a GHD on craigslist, and it was fake. In case you are curious, do not EVER buy a $300 flatiron for $90 from a guy that meets you in an apartment building lobby. That is all I will say about that. It is just too embarrassing.

The fake iron was actually not bad, but I was terrified that the fakeness of it would also mean it is cheaply made, and that it would burn my house down.  SO off the Trade Secrets I went, to buy another CHI.

The sales person convinced me to try the Avanti Ultra Ceramic Tourmaline Flat Iron, on sale for $70.  So I bought it, knowing it would be returned the next day, when I would shell out another $100 to upgrade to the CHI.

Well, I didn’t have to. The Avanti is awesome. Straightens as well (or maybe even better) than the CHI, at a fraction the price. Also has a 2 year warranty to CHIs one year

IN OTHER NEWS:

1. Here is the girl on her way to a birthday party yesterday. 6 going on 16, to be cliche:

2. My new TV series is Dollhouse. Love it. Harper’s Island is also so evil it is awesome!

No, not my belly again,  but my hair. I have continued to keep to my plan of not cutting my hair during my pregnancy, and seeing how much it will grow. I have been keeping up my high-lights and low-lights every few months (added a few more low ones today, and touched up my roots) but scissors have not touched my hair since April 26,  when I was just a few weeks pregnant! 

Wow, almost 8 months!  While my hair has grown…it has not grown nearly as much as the hair of pretty well every other woman I know would grow if they went 8 months without a cut (most women I know would have hair way past their shoulders if they did that!).  Oh well…slow growing hair has been a complaint of mine as long as I can remember. Luckily, the girl has her father’s fast growing hair! 

Anyways…it is nice to have a bit  more  length, and I have grown to really enjoy my curly hair since I have stopped blow-drying and straightening it every day in order to keep it in good enough condition to not cut.  The hair-dresser does straighten it though, and that is when I can best see it’s growth.  So, a re-cap:

April 26

September 21

Today

Sorry, I could not get the flash right for the last picture!

Annoyingly, though my hair has not grown very much… my nose, neck , chin and even my lips  seem to have taken on lives of their very own!

It is funny, everyone keeps telling me how my looks haven’t changed at all this pregnancy…but looking at the pictures you can see that they are wrong,  and it has just been the gradual process of it that has made it less obvious.

Remember how I said I was gonna take advantage of the hair growing pregnancy thingy and not cut my hair during this pregnancy? Well, so far I have kept true to my word. I have had my high-lights touched up once, and had low-lights added today…but I have not cut it since I was just a few weeks pregnant…on April 26.  So, that is 5 months, which is about 2-3 months longer than I usually go. It is growing a bit I think. Not as much as I would have liked (I was really hoping this plan would result in long-as in past my shoulders- hair, something I have not had in years…but that clearly will not be the case) but I do think it is getting some length, and is looking pretty healthy too considering how long it has been since I cut it. Normally, after 5 months it would be so ratty!! I guess a break from the daily blow-drying and straightening regimine really does make a difference. As an added bonus, I have started to really enjoy my curly hair, and it is so quick and easy. It is straight today…the hairdresser did it (and good thing, since it was straight in the picture after my last haircut too, so it is easier to compare) but I almost always go curly these days.

April

Today

I love this new dress, from Wal-Mart’s George line. It is not maternity, but is a great fit and so cute:

My hair’s new best friend is Tigi Cat-Walk Curls Rock Curl Booster. Gives me soft springy curls that last all day. Not so cheap, but it works. I am using it with Dumb Blond Shampoo and Conditioner for now, but will try Curls Rock Poo and Con when I run out:

My eyes, with grey and blue shadow and liner, and my new favorite mascara, Lash Blast. Thick lush lashes at a low price:

My new lip-stick, Covergirl outlast in Naturalast.  Looks like this for hours! I just need to touch up with the balm every few hours to keep up the shine and refresh the colour. I put it on just after lunch, and here it was when I got home from work over hours later (note my curls still look great too!):

While I am sharing pics, here is one of the girl a few days ago:

And this cute thing was hanging around our lawn yesterday. Don’t you just want to snuggle it all day long?

at only 11 weeks pregnant, pregnancy has already changed me in some significant ways:

1) My hair. I have decided to take advantage of  the fact that hair tends to grow faster during pregnancy, and not cut it the whole pregnancy (well, I did when I first found out…but not again) in hopes of finally having longish hair. This, of course, only makes sense if I keep my hair helthy. So while I do plan to keep up just enough high-lights to not hate myself (a few foils every 3 months or so) I am no longer blow-drying or ironing my hair daily..only for rare special events. Instead I scrunch it up with some curling gel and leave it to dry naturally. Some days, it works. Some days it doesn’t. By the time I realize it is a bad day, I am already out the door…so I am just living with it.

2) My nails. All those months I did not get pregnant I kept up my bio-gel nails faithfully, telling myself they were a little gift to myself for not getting pregnant. Now, they are gone. I grew them out gracefully for a while, filing down the line and keeping them polished and not too long, but last week they started falling off, so I knawed off what was left of them. My nails are now short, bumpy and the polish peels off easily. Luckily, pregnancy also tends to make nails grow longer and stronger, so they should be looking pretty soon. BTW, I don’t think bio-gel is a problem in pregnancy…it is just that it seems an easy way to start budgetting, and like bad luck to keep them up after I spent months considering them a “not pregnant yet” thing to do.

3) Ice-cream and pop. 2 things I never ever used to have unless they were served to me at a party or someone’s house. Not that I disliked them…but I they just seemed too indulgant to have on a regular basis. I am now living on mint chocolate chip ice-cream and diet cream soda.

4) Exercise. I always planned to keep it up while pregnant, but just like last time, have not. I am walking a lot, but have found myself mostly too easily tired to do anything more exerting. As well, I had a little issue last week. After going to my first belly-dancing class in weeks, and exerting myself (I would say a class is similar exertion to a low-impact aerobics class) for the first time in weeks , I started bleeding. I had an ultrasound the next days and there was no indicaiton of a problem or blood in the uterus, so we don’t know what caused it and are thankful it has not come back. I know the exercise my be unrelated..but it left me fearful to do so again. I will deal with the weight gain after the baby comes. Actually, I found it very easy after the girl (and I gained a lot). Between nursing and being a very social person who was always walking the malls and going for walks with other new moms I met, the weight melted off. What happened when I returned to work is another story though…

5) The belly. I am not sure where it come from. The baby is still the size of a kumquat and quite low…yet I have looked like this for a couple weeks already. Not only does my belly stick out…it is hard. Not as hard as it will get…but harder than just pudge. And no, it isn’t twins. Good thing too…I was wondering how I would ever manage to hide twins from everyone I know the whole pregnancy and delivery so no one would know and try to stop me when when I gave one up for adoption!

6) The girl. I don’t know if she got more annying, or I got more irritable…but she does not stop talking, and I just want her to stop. I feel a rush of love when she is asleep though!

Nothing to see on my chin folks, just move it along to my head. I got my longer layers chopped off and the shorter ones pretty well kept as is while I work my way towards a bob. I also got a few foil highlights added at the top:

of peekaboo highlights (and a trim). Ignore the flat hair…I asked her to not bother styling or using any product as I was just going home to bed anyways. 

In additional news, my pet peeve of the day is people that jaywalk, across main streets, on dark rainy nights, in dark clothes…less than a block from a cross walk. I narrowly avoided killing noticed from a safe distance two such people tonight.

UPDATE: The morning after, self styled:

it is okay, but I think I will get some highlights in the lower layers

I want to do something with my hair colour. The blond highlights are starting to look very drab to me. I am not sure if I should dye all my hair dark brown, or add more dark lowlights and brighten the blond highlights, or do something different like add some red highlights into the mix or dye it all dark and then add some blond peek-a-boo highlights. Thoughts?

Here it is recently: