Ballsy is my blog about natural health, vegan food, sustainability, social justice, crafty recycling, literature, and other things that get me riled up.
I used Rainbow Henna in Mahogany, on top of week-old Light Mountain Natural henna in Light Red. I mixed the mahogany henna with Red Zinger tea (per directions in the package) to try to get more red tones. But it still ended up a sort of russety orange. Henna is fickle and most of my hair has been bleached, so I guess I’m lucky it looks a good as it does. It covers the roots pretty well, and it’s growing on me. I’ve decided to embrace it for a while. I’ve never been big on the color orange, but it has many associations I can get behind, especially right now in my life: fire, warmth, creativity, and the oft-neglected sacral chakra.
Plus, henna is pretty awesome stuff. My hair is so soft and healthy-feeling that you wouldn’t know how much I’ve been abusing it for the past couple years (dying, bleaching, dying, color removing, re-coloring, re-bleaching, etc.). And at $6, it’s the cheapest haircolor I’ve ever used.
As our anniversary approaches, Ben and I are getting a coincidental little flurry of unwedding-related press. The lovely Ariel Meadow Stallings featured me as today’s Offbeat Bride. And next Sunday I’ll be part of an article in the Seattle Times Gender F magazine supplement about women who aren’t planning to get married. The panel discussion for the article was fascinating, and I’m really curious to find out what got into the final piece.
Meanwhile, Washington state is taking the extremely slow road to marriage equality with a domestic partnership bill that looks pretty certain to become law. I was shocked to read that only 29% of Washington voters support marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples. I know that the state as a whole isn’t as liberal as Seattle, but it still seemed very low. I’d be curious to see a comparable survey back in Virginia, but my first fifteen minutes of research didn’t turn anything up and the dogged journalist in me is taking a break today due to over-consumption of wine at my other friend Ariel’s surprise birthday party last night.
I’m afraid you’re all going to start thinking I’m a spoiled princess, and sweetie might confirm it. But honestly, it’s completely unprecedented for me to get three surprise presents from three different people in the span of a week. Yesterday, I received this amazing necklace and earring set made by my dear friend Nikole from kyanite, czech glass, and sterling silver. Check out her other designs. She’s so talented!
Plus, we finally got the Nikki McClure 2007 calendar, which slipped through my fingers (a.k.a. sold out) twice, but is now available again. I hadn’t been able to bring myself to buy any other calendar after being spoiled by her 2006 work, so this is big news.
I’ve been feeling crappy the last few days (tummy troubles, headaches, and other non-serious unpleasantness that makes sitting at the computer much less appealing than lying on the couch alternating my lavender eye pillow with the new issue of Bitch). Also, I have a lot of paying work to do.
Still, I don’t want anyone to get bored and wander off for good, so I’m going to jump ahead of my self-imposed schedule and post this first in a series of entries on the topic of recycling logoware. I’m interested in the lifecycle of all that branded swag we pick up from companies we used to work for, from volunteer gigs, from friends, from schools, thrift stores, whatever.
If a logo means something to you, great. As someone who has designed and ordered branded swag in the past, I’d be a total hypocrite to dismiss it altogether. But if you’ve got a logo-emblazoned item that’s past its prime, why not unbrand yourself and create something more interesting and personal? Here’s one method I’m enjoying quite a lot for t-shirts and other fabric items.
Cut out the logo and use blanket stitch to clean up the rough edge.
Then back up the empty area with a fabric scrap and sew it on. Here’s where your creativity can really go wild. You’ve got a perfect frame for an embroidery project or for displaying a button collection (currently I’m craving these). If you find a really interesting piece of fabric, it can stand on its own (lace? a knitting swatch?). I went for a quick fix. I used some iron-on letters I had lying around from a previous project to express something I’ve been feeling lately.
I didn’t intend it, but I love how the crooked Z supports the sentiment. For a close-up and more of my babbling about craft projects…
Today in the wonderful world of crafty recycling, I bring you the plastic bag.
Tina sent it along with the mugs “for you J - reuse, renew recycle….” I told her if I did anything cool with it, I’d put it on this blog. So one of the exciting things I did last night (it was quite the wild Saturday in our living room) was cut up the bag and re-craft it into the following: 2 envelopes, 1 tiny envelope, 2 folded gift tags utilizing details of the design, and 7 simple hole-punched tags. I also made the green and red tags from another bag a while back, and I’m including them here as an alternative design possibility.
After spending a few weeks with WordPress, Blogger drives me crazy. I’m thinking the chances of me making future posts on TruthSpiral are pretty slim. So from here on out, if you’re not interested in my personal life, you can just skip over any posts categorized as personal. This is one of them.
Today is the 4th anniversary of sweetie and I’s first kiss on 3/3/03. Those of you who knew me then know that the lead-up to the kiss was extremely drawn out. We were friends for almost a year and spent many nights staying up late together, eating takeout from China Panda, listening to music, having deep talks, and even (after he was got badly bruised up in a car accident) hanging out in bed together. All without kissing or even acknowledging openly that we were rapidly becoming more than friends. Once we finally kissed, the permanence of our relationship was settled almost immediately. Two years later we made it public with this ceremony, and we’ll celebrate that anniversary later this month on the spring equinox.
Here’s a picture of one of my favorite spots in our apartment, a little “altar” to our relationship where we keep some of our favorite things. We keep it mostly to remember how lucky we are. Even though we drive each other nuts sometimes, I’m grateful every day to have found someone who loves me so good.
Want to see a close-up and details about the objects?
Dooce linked to this 12 minute video of Craig Ferguson speaking frankly about addiction. It’s sincere and surprisingly funny. The guy is a brilliant comedian, and it’s sad that this kind of honesty is so rare in popular culture.
I promise not to keep ripping off Dooce all the time (I quoted her last week). I’m well aware that a lot of people read Dooce, but if one more person sees this video because of me, I’ll be a happy camper.
This blog has some clearly defined themes, and I intend to keep up with them. But once again I need to digress into the personal. I’m feeling like the luckiest person on earth right now, in spite of various setbacks and the current vacuum in our savings account.
I came back from a delightful lunch with the lovely arielmeow to find yet another surprise prezzie in my mailbox! My friend Jenn had mentioned putting something in the mail for me, but I was expecting a card, not a full-blown double whammy present. She remembered me saying how I really want to read one of Vendela Vida’s novels and sent me this bookand a sweet card and a fantastic owl necklace that she picked up at an outdoor artists’ market on vacation in South Beach. I’ll post a picture of the necklace soon. All that just because she loves me. I have such amazing friends. You rock Jenn!
Plus, my career is picking up speed very nicely these days, and I feel like I’m doing quality work. I ♥ freelancing. Also, my new website is going to be way hotter than what’s up there now.
In gratitude, I give to you all my favorite new quote, something director Michel Gondry said to Lauri Faggioni, the artist who created the adorable fabric boat and animals for Gondry’s movie The Science of Sleep. She talks about it in one of the movie’s DVD extras, and it’s stuck with me as a wonderful inspiration for taking risks and (excuse my schmaltz) following your dreams:
If an idea is good, it’s on the verge of being stupid.
I’m working on a client project today, and when I’m done with that I’m itching to get back to work on my various new websites. I can’t wait to unveil them!
Plus, once I get something more substantial up at rootsreflexology.com, I can start blogging more about reflexology. Mostly fun stuff. Perhaps some celebrity foot analysis by yours truly, student reflexologist? For example, I have absolutely no authority to suggest that the way this mystery celebrity’s long second toes bend towards his big toes could mean that he is both visionary and self-important.
Seriously, reflexology isn’t really about amateur psychoanalysis, although a person’s feet can reveal a lot about them. Nor is it a painful form of quackery, as many of the articles I’ve been receiving since signing up for Google Alerts for “reflexology”suggest. This morning I finally received an alert about this refreshingly positive and informative article: Reflexology Finding Its Feet in a Modern World. Check it out and I’ll get back to you when I have more than these crumbs to share.
Tina sent us a surprise prezzie! Guess she decided we just had to have these mugs from Moon Doggie Coffee in NJ.
Moondog is Ben’s old nickname from the band Weird Blues, which he and Andy “Sundog” Hudson started in 1988. Moondog also used to be our license plate. Here’s a clip of “Moondog” the song:
