these moments

Last night I left the boys with Roy and went to go get my hair done. On the way, I listened to Pearl Jam's Binaural album (meh) and while I was there, I read two tattered copies of Poets & Writers magazine (awesome). One of my graduate school professors was profiled in January's issue for getting her book published, and I was grinning while reading about it. She was one of my favorite professors - I interned with her, actually.

Right before Christmas, my mom treated me to a trip to the salon. I hadn't had anything done to my hair since I dyed it pink, and I was in desperate need of something. My hair has gotten lighter and lighter over the years, thanks to various stylists I've seen, and so I wanted to try to get back to my natural color (which is a kind of icky mousy color) so there would be less maintenance. So I got some lowlights. I really did like it at first but after awhile I started to feel really blah about it. So this time I decided to go for some more highlights, plus some red. My stylist also taught me how to make my hair look "beachy" by styling my natural waves. I was surprised at how cute I looked - most of the time I feel like a smelly old hag who is covered in mashed up food and spit up.

I came home a happy girl and was greeted by Roy, who was holding a sleeping Simon. Apparently Simon was not happy that I wasn't there to put him to bed and finally conked out in Roy's arms after screaming a whole lot. Poor little guy. We got Simon off to bed and Roy gave me his anniversary gift to me: a Daytrotter T-shirt! I was stoked. I have downloaded so much free music from that site so I'm super happy that I got a T-shirt to show my support. Bonus: the T-shirt was made in L.A., so we essentially bought local. Big fat yay.

(The picture above is me in my new hair and Daytrotter shirt. I am so happy in this picture because I feel so pretty. Honestly, I feel guilty sometimes for wanting to change my appearance through different hair color, etc. I feel like I should just accept myself as is and that by manipulating my appearance I am just giving into what women are expected to want while also not setting a good example for my kids. I have a lot of Very Serious Conversations with myself about how I should not want to get my eyebrows waxed, but there is no denying that when I look in the mirror, I am horrified by the giant bearskin rugs hanging out above my eyes. I just feel better when my hair is lighter and my eyebrows thinner. I enjoy wearing makeup because it makes me feel pretty. I like having flattering clothes. I can't help these things; maybe I should stop feeling bad about wanting to feel beautiful. I mean, as long as I recognize that true beauty comes from within, it's all good, right? I don't know. I struggle with this - a lot.)

I ate two special St. Patrick's Day cupcakes our neighbor gave us and went to bed. The remainder of the night sucked. Simon was up a lot during the night, and it was a definite flashback to more challenging times. We've had a couple of other difficult nights this week, which is strange because Simon has always done remarkably well at this sleeping thing. Oh well. There's not much I can do about it except hope that this passes quickly. Perhaps we will try some new things if this continues. In the meantime, zzzzzzzzzz.

But then.....



This morning Becki and I hit up the Savvy Chic Kids presale. The sale opens to the public on Sunday, but because I'm a consignor, I got to shop early and bring a friend along. Roy was a saint and stayed home with the kids (plus Becki's son Luke) while we went and dropped entirely too much cash at this most awesome of sales.

Here's what I got (see picture above - cute kid not included with purchase of these items):

an inflatable baby pool
10 summer outfits (mostly for Simon, some new with tags)
6 pairs of shoes
a big ol' bag of Mega Blocks
4 pairs of BabyLegs
4 cloth diapers
1 wool diaper cover
a wooden ride-on toy
a little Ikea chair (My friend, who was a volunteer for the sale, got to shop earlier than me and bought this for me because she knew I wanted it. Yes, I have awesome friends.)
a space-saver high chair/booster seat for Simon
a sun hat for Simon

I didn't deviate too much from my list. I got some amazing deals and I know everything will get used. However, I still feel guilty because I went over budget and I did some impulse buying. It is funny the space I get in sometimes, when I just become a rabid consumer. I try so hard not to be in my day-to-day life and then I go to something like this and lose sight of everything we're working for.

I know that I should not be so hard on myself. After all, buying used is a wonderful thing to do. I think it's that loss-of-control feeling that got to me, but at the same time, I felt absolutely elated to have scored such great deals. I mean, Stride Rite shoes for $5? A wool diaper cover for $8? You can't beat that with a big fat stick.

I'm choosing to focus on the positive. I got my kids some nice previously owned things, most of which they'll both be able to use. Emphasis on the previously owned - the green factor is huge, and that makes me happy. And in order to shop early, I got rid of some stuff we weren't using, and even if it doesn't sell, it'll be donated. It'll never be in my house again.

Happy weekend, everyone.

It's So Easy Being Green

I am a true environmentalist. I really am one of those people who feels that the earth does not belong to us - we belong to the earth. I am passionate about finding ways to adjust our lifestyle so that it's more earth-friendly. I don't expect perfection from myself - it's going to take me a long time to get to where I want to be.

But when I find a new green thing to do, I must confess that I get really excited.

First up, my dilemma about wrapping paper and gift bags with tissue paper. We always reuse what we get, but storing it takes up a lot of room. We had one of these things, which was very handy, but as we began to work on uncluttering our house, we just couldn't find a good place for it. So we sold it at our yard sale this past Saturday, along with all the wrapping paper in it, and made some lady very happy.

So on Sunday, when I had a gift to wrap for a birthday party, I did it differently: I used fabric. I had some leftover from making Charlie's quilt, so I cut out a piece, placed the present inside, gathered all the edges in, and tied it up with a cute piece of scrap fabric. If I were super duper crafty and gave myself a ton of time to do this, I would have probably made it all a little neater. However, I had a kid who was very interested in my rotary cutter crawling all over me at the time, so nothing else needs to be said.

Here's the finished product.




Super cute, and super simple! Plus, the green factor is wonderful: no wrapping paper that will be thrown away, a piece of fabric that is more likely to be reused, and less fabric in my growing stash. I'm not sure what I will do when I run out of fabric, but I'm sure I will think of something.

Now allow me to sing the praises of Craigslist. It's not always easy to deal with people through that site. So many of them are flakes or lowballers. It's annoying. But if you can hang in there, you can find someone good to work with to get what you want.

Last week, the temperature here dropped enough for Charlie to need some warmer clothes in the mornings and evenings. We had a few things, but not nearly enough. So I started asking around for recommendations for good consignment stores in the area (and even visited one). I also started looking through Craigslist to see if I could find anyone selling a big lot of baby/toddler clothes. I hit the jackpot on Saturday night, and we made arrangements for Sunday for us to come pick through her son's old clothes.

Here's what we scored.



You probably can't tell the sheer volume and quality of the clothes we got, so let me break it down for you. (Everything we got ranges from newborn sizes all the way up to 3T.)

6 pairs of shoes
3 pairs of socks
9 jackets
3 pairs of overalls
12 pajama sets/sleepers
4 pairs of jeans
1 pair of swim trunks
6 gowns (similar to sleepers, and supposedly good for newborns)
18 long sleeve shirts
6 pairs of pants
3 short sleeve onesies
4 long sleeve onesies
20 short sleeve shirts
2 sleep sacks
13 pairs of shorts

That's 110 pieces, if I added correctly, and we paid $120. Everything is in great shape (some new with tags), and the brands are incredible (think Robeez, Baby Gap, Gymboree, Old Navy, Airwalk, Puma, Chuck Taylor, New Balance, Carter's, Circo, etc). STEAL.

Now, 110 items of clothing may seem excessive, I realize. But the majority of them will outfit both boys up into the 3T sizes, and I think that's awesome. I'm sure that some things may end up being the wrong season/size for one boy, but I'm sure they'll end up being the right season/size for the other.

Green factor: HUGE. Buying used means that we are not contributing to the demand for new things. We're putting something to use that was no longer being used - less potential for it all to end up in a landfill. We're also putting money back in the pockets of actual people, as opposed to some huge corporation that has money coming out its ass (and probably shoddy business practices as well). And let's not forget how cost effective it can be to buy something used. I haven't really crunched the numbers, but I'm pretty sure that the six pairs of shoes alone would have gotten us close to spending $120 if we were paying retail.

So there you have it, our latest green adventures. We agreed months ago that if we needed something, we'd try to buy it used/secondhand (unless it comes from a mom and pop store/site), and we have been mostly good about it. I did buy the boys a few things at Target a month or so ago, and I felt so guilty about it. Live and learn, I say.

Or maybe I should rephrase that to live, learn, and go green. There's only one Earth, so we might as well take care of her.