I’m trying to avoid packing right now so of course I have a bunch of post ideas floating in my head that don’t have to do with moving.

I recently bought some new prescription sunglasses that I absolutely love. Unfortunately, they did not come with their own case, and they don’t fit into the case for my regular glasses.

I started searching for a case that would fit both pairs of glasses, since that would be more convenient than fumbling with two different cases every time I want to change from my glasses to sunglasses or vice versa. I wasn’t finding anything I liked.

Then I decided to just look for a case for my sunglasses. I gave up on being able to cart the two pairs around together and figured I’d have more luck. But do you know how hard it is to find a glasses case that will fit a big pair of sunglasses?

On a whim, one night I decided to check out Etsy. And what do you know – I found exactly what I was looking for, only way cuter than I ever imagined! And bonus – it fits both pairs of glasses and a cleaning cloth.

If you’re ever looking for something and you’re not having any luck in the stores, check out Etsy. Seriously, it’s worth it. Not only will you find what you are looking for, but it will be handcrafted and you will be supporting small business.

When you get to be my age, your hair starts changing color. In my case, it’s going from a wonderful bright red to white. All this white that’s coming in at my temples and cowlicks is making my hair seem a bit dull. So I decided to do something about it.

I’m cheap, and even though I have a great hairdresser who can do color as well, I figured for this go-around I’d try to find a semi-permanent color to try it out. Do you know how hard it is to find semi-perm color in a drugstore? Also, do you know how hard it is to find anything close to my shade of red in a drugstore? It’s not easy at all.

But, I was in Ulta, that great wanna-be hybrid of Sephora and a drugstore cosmetics aisle, when I found this: Umberto Beverly Hills U Color 8.43 – Light Copper Gold.* Since it was a reasonable price, and it looked like it was as close to my shade as I was going to find, I grabbed it.

After waiting a week (due to time issues, aka laziness) I finally went for it. I secured an old towel as a cape, put on the gloves, and cut open the packets as directed. Then I just started randomly dumping the stuff on my hair with one hand and trying to mix it in with the other. It may be a DIY kind of thing, but I might have better luck with a brush/bowl next time – and the kit does come with a brush so you have a choice.

I scrubbed the stuff in and waited the requisite amount of time before rinsing, then I put my cape/towel on my head to absorb the dripping. Even though my hair was darker because it was wet, I could see a difference on the tiny bit of hair that was showing. The instructions included washing and conditioning, so I took a shower.

When I got out of the shower, again I had a towel on my head.Now my normal hair styling routine is pretty lackluster. I have wavy/curly hair, and anyone with this kind of hair knows that it pretty much has a mind of its own. My hairdresser is great because her hair is the same way and she doesn’t try to fight it, which a lot of stylists want to do. Anyway, since my hair has a mind of its own and I have no talent for making it do anything I want, I don’t own a blowdryer. I just throw some curly hair mousse in it, make sure nothing is sticking up really weird, and walk away. The more I try to do something the worse it looks, so I learned a long time ago that I shouldn’t try.

I went about my day, going out for a little bit, and when I got home I looked in the mirror again since my hair was dry. The verdict? I love it. It’s very close to my natural color (the ones that still have color, that is) and it’s a lot brighter and shinier. Since it’s demi-permanent it’s a lot gentler on hair and it doesn’t stink like permanent hair color does. It’s supposed to fade out over about a month, but I think it might last a bit longer and I’ll wait until my hair is unbearably dull before using the other packet. There are 2 applications in the box so it’s like getting a 2 for 1.

So does anyone dye their hair red with at-home hair color or know anyone who does? Did you like the results?

*This is an affiliate link, but I was not compensated in any way for the product or this blog post. I paid for it out of my own pocket and all opinions are 100% my own.

So, what do I like and not like about my brand new iMac? Here’s a list:

The Good

• One cord to rule them all. Seriously, I have ONE cord. No more power strip and electrical spaghetti underneath my desk. Now when I drop beads or other crafting supplies, I can actually find them. And if I need to unplug something, I know exactly what each plug is for because there’s only one.
• It’s shiny and pretty.
• I won’t have to unplug it, open the case, and blow out a metric ass ton of dust because it’s a sealed unit.
• The dock. I like that my apps and folders live in a nice neat little line at the bottom of my display, which helps keep everything else clean.
• The interface is more intuitive than Windows, which is really easy to get used to.
• The file structure is in English, making it really easy to get into the deepest darkest reaches of system files and figure out what they are. Other operating systems that shall not be named look like their file structure was made up by a 3 year old at a computer. Seriously, what the heck is SKDKCIVHR.com?
• I have so much more room on top of and under my desk. More room to fill up with craft supplies!
• The support has been phenomenal. They transferred my files, showed me how to use the thing, let me ask as many asinine questions as I wanted, and didn’t laugh at me. The salespeople are easy to get a hold of, a support person IN THE USA is easy to get a hold of, and they have tons of Apple-created tutorials online. Granted, some of this isn’t available without purchasing the One to One service, but since it’s been about 10 years since I last touched a Mac (I used a 2nd generation Grape iMac!), I’m basically a first time user all over again, and having tons of Mac experts at my disposal to answer questions with a smile makes a huge difference.
• A lot of the software that I would want to be able to use my iMac to the fullest is included in the standard price – iPhoto, iMovie, Garage Band (which can also teach me to play an instrument) are included.
• So much more drag and drop than I was ever able to do on a PC. Drag and drop is super easy, way easier than browsing for a file or copying and pasting it.
• iWork, which is Apple’s answer to Office, is a couple hundred dollars cheaper than Office and can open Office docs and save stuff so Office can read it. This makes it fully compatible if you’re sending stuff to a PC user.
• Did I mention how shiny and pretty it is?

The Bad

• I have to unlearn a lot of PC habits, like double-clicking. I may never fully rid myself of those habits since I still use a PC at work (no choice in the matter there), but that’s OK. I’ll also be less likely to try to enter my work network password into an iMac at home. Yes, that was a problem I had with my home PC.
• The Apple on the front of my computer doesn’t light up. I would like this to not only light up, but be able to choose the color. I bet you can all guess what color I’d pick!
• I can’t think of anything else I don’t like about my iMac.

Do any of my readers use a Mac? Tell me what you like and don’t like about it, and if you have any cool tips, please let me know!

I’ve been pinning like a madwoman lately, and if you were to look at my Pinterest boards, you’d see an overabundance of aqua. I’ve already declared that aqua is my favorite color, and Mister and I even got into a discussion on a post about turquoise about my love for the color wherein he declared it to be aquatealquoise. It’s been known as that ever since.

aqua + teal + turquoise = aquatealquoise

Did you know you can search for things on Pinterest? I searched aqua, teal, turquoise and a few other terms to find kindred spirits who also have boards dedicated to this wonderful color. I followed them to enable myself to feed the addiction for all things aqua. My favorite, though, has to be this:

Source: parisatelier.blogspot.com via KirstenL4W on Pinterest

I think I shall crown myself the Queen of Aquatealquoise.

When I see something aqua, my first thought is, “Oooh, pretty!” followed by a closer inspection of the item. As I look at it, I can feel the happy growing inside me, then I try to figure out how to incorporate this aquatealquoise item into my life, even if only in my dreams. Do you get this reaction to your favorite color? Or am I the only one?