Ahoy Mateys! Care for a donut?

Ahoy mateys! According to me sources, September 19th is International talk like a pirate day! Me thinks it high time ye old landlubbers spoke the language of the sea farin' scoundrels!

Okay, so I'm not entirely sure I'm good at this pirate talkin, but I do know that we had a good ol' time interpreting "pirate-wear" from what we had at the house! Above are two younger sisters, and a homeschooling friend of theirs. Krispy Kreme had a promotion on this special day that required you to speak like a pirate for one free donut, or to dress like one for a free dozen.

Nece

This young one looked more like a gypsy from the old story books every time I saw her. She found an old scarf for her head, kept on her school uniform white shirt, added a necklace, a knitted shawl around her waist over a tiered skirt, and black boots "completed" her look. 

Onna

This one looked like a crewma--woman for sure! A real rip-roaring time was sure to be had on any ship she sailed with. She stole my one hoop earring idea, but seeing as how she had a knife, I didn't dare dispute the originality of that idea. She wore a white button down, black vest, black boots, gold bracelet, and baggy breeches fit for the jobs she said she did: scrubbing the deck.

Monnie

I don't even know how to explain...To me she looks like a friendly thug cowgirl with a knife, but I know she tried. She wore a large white button-down shirt, a bandanna around her head, a few belts, a bracelet, and some boots. Fear not, she wouldn't hurt a fly and doesn't guard the ships treasures. 

Me

A pink polka dot square of fabric served as my scarf, a piece of felt stitched into a cone shape for my eye patch, my dads shirt, several necklaces and rings of mine, a leather belt, a vest I had already, an earring hooked into my hair, and one "gold" earring. On my feet were brown sandals worn with my dad's socks that had holes in them. I was going for a "cute underneath the grime" type of pirate. I used black eye shadow dusted on my face for grime lol. I will be honest and say I LOVED doing this. I was so in character that it felt awkward that the cashiers didn't immediately speak "pirate" to me!

No one was hurt in the writing of this blog, knives nor weapons of any kind were allowed in Krispy Kreme and were only in use for pictures and lunch.

Lizzi

Twisted Hair-and photography skills

Yes, this is my hair right now. First of all, let me address this photography. I do realize that the flash against this white wall (took the pic at night) makes weird shadows against the wall and make me look really weird. Sorry. I had to jump on pic monkey and slightly lighten it so you could really see my hair texture.

Now, the hair. This is actually my go-to "style" since I work out frequently and need to keep it orderly. I find, that although I feel like I'm doing it almost the same, it looks different each and every time. People naturally assume that I'm doing a twist-out (which is when you twist your hair to take it loose once dry to create "orderly" messy curls"), but I often take them loose, wash my hair, and retwist. I try not to get all up in my feelings when people say "It's going to look so pretty when you take it down!" Simply because I know they mean well and can't possibly know I consider this a style all it's own. I've had some assume that my hair was curly.

"Funny" story: I was out at the store with this style, and a Vietnam vet (for so his hat said) stood really close to me in the pastry line and recounted to me when he had seen his first black person. He laughed heartily while I smiled politely, then said, "But that was a real black person, not like you. By the way, I like your curls! Must take a long time to do that, huh?" I know that there are so many things wrong with his statements, but I feel that if I were to get upset at every ignorant thing people said, I would be upset all the time! I know people like that and it isn't cute. At least my hair got a compliment lol. 

Cheesy fake grin

For these twists, I used As I Am twist defining cream. Which I bought at a regular little beauty place down the street. Click on the picture to be taking to the brand site to see retail locations. 

 It is so delicious looking, the texture is actually really creamy and almost yogurt-like. Sometimes it takes thicker cream to get my hair to stick together and spiral, but this works for it! When it comes to shrinkage, this does make it really really draw up, but in a way that's a good thing. It makes my hair so boingy that friends have described the twists as looking like springs, and after styling with this particular cream everyone had their hands in my hair. I have anosmia (meaning I have no sense of smell), but since people have sniffed my hair afterwards and hummed appreciatively, I'll say it has a great scent. By the way, no one gave me anything to write this about this product, in a few months I may have found something I like better...but really I need a good leave-in! Any suggestions?

I feel that since you can see it a little here, I must say something about my face at least briefly. It is improving. Most of my breakouts are once a month, and then it's mainly around my jawline and chin rather than randomly everywhere. The hyper pigmentation seems to be improving soooo slowly, but I'm taking pictures for a few months-once every week (overkill I know) to kinda have a really accurate track of any improvement. I'm using several oils on it also, but I'll do a separate post on that eventually.

So...was that enough ado about nothing? 

Lizzi

Get through the Monday

Hello Lovelies! 

Who loves a good Monday? *Raises hand*. I'm sorry, I love a good Monday, but have you noticed those rarely come around? Today I felt as if I was never going to get through it. The girls started off the day so obstinate and contrary, which earned them an hour pulling weeds in dad's garden (you're welcome dad.) I will add to this list that I really really wanted peanut butter for my pancakes and we were out. Who runs out of peanut butter?! Enough whining, here are a few things that are putting a smile on my face this week:

Pirate day at Krispy Kreme. For those who didn't know, the 19th is national talk like a pirate day! If you go to Krispy Kreme and talk like a pirate you get a donut! Dress like one, and you get a box! Trust me, there will be pictures, and my sisters are going with me. 

My etsy shop filling up! I'm really enjoying filling up my shop, even though it's still sorta empty, I think it's the most I've had in it at one time. I've really refocused in the last month. I know what I want and I'm getting there! Check out the newest scarf! 

I'm starting back with my personal trainer! I actually stopped working with my personal trainer for the summer to save money--specifically for a special trip I wanted to make-and I can tell! I'm not a highly disciplined person, and a lot of times I won't push myself to the limit when working out. Until I get to a certain weight and fitness level for my PCOS, I need my personal trainer! 

Sewing with...I'm sewing with people! I'm home-schooling my sisters again this year, and we are trying to up the ante by getting together with some home schooled children in our church at least once a week! This week I'm going to be sewing with a home-schooled chick who is really creative-but doesn't do much sewing-and I can't wait! 

What's happening for you this week that helped you get through your Monday? If you don't have anything planned, get something going! It's not too late! As for me, in the coming weeks, Mondays especially, you can expect to start seeing pictures of the things that make me smile, because who knows? Maybe they make you smile too!

Lizzi

Ladies meetings, self defense, and flying carpets

Saturday I attended a ladies meeting with some friends at People's Baptist Church of Mcdonough; it was a phenomenal experience. I'm sure you ladies that attend events like this can agree that not every ladies meeting is really good through and through, but I look forward to attending this one every year! This year the theme was A Whole New World, and-like the last few years-it was a theme based on a Disney princess. As it turned out, Princess Jasmine had many things to teach us! 

The main speaker was a lady named Tam Bowman. Each of the sessions she taught had real-world applications, but my favorite was when she spoke on Ruth and reminded us not to settle for anything but God's complete will for our lives. For the very last session she taught, she spoke on hormone imbalances. This is a topic close to my heart (obviously) because I was diagnosed with it (Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome). I remember how suddenly I was reading everything I could get my hands on, and seeing that several friends likely had it but didn't know. As women, we're so used putting our own health problems/bodies after everyone elses, but that's so not cool. Mrs. Bowman told her story, listed symptoms, and suggested those that had these symptoms get their hormones checked. The whole thing was done in such a caring and sweet way that no one felt uncomfortable at all. 

One of the highlights of the meeting, was when the rest of the Bowman family (her husband and two sons) gave tips on self-defense and even gave a few demonstrations! While the whole family practices Krav Maga, a fighting style originating in Israel, her oldest son is the youngest instructor in the world and gave us some quick tips. My favorite tips were: if someone is in your comfort zone you will feel it in two places, your neck and your stomach, and "listen to your gut" telling you when something is off. Mr. Bowman gave us some scary statistics on abductions before the demo, but instead of rehashing everything he said, I would LOVE for you and your kids to watch these videos below. Try your best to ignore my comments, I really do narrate whenever I'm interested in something lol. 

This first video, he intro'd by saying that women fear having their hair pulled, and that while it's a rational fear, you need to be able to strike back when it happens.

This is one starts out talking about a child abduction and then ends out with good tips for ladies. 

So...I think you'll agree that it was a day well-spent! I wonder if I can send my request in early for next year's princess: Mulan!

Lizzi

Skating time

Today I decided to take the girls skating, but there was one problem: one girl skates, and the other doesn't know how! Monnie (on the left) got her first lesson from Nece (right) today. That's not sisterly love alone you see, Monnie is really really bad at staying upright with wheels on her feet. I'm pretty sure that it will be awhile before she gets the hang of it. It's easy to take the time I spend with my little sisters for granted (mostly because it's basically 24/7). To combat that, I'm making a concerted effort to not only take pictures more often to look back on and appreciate, but also do fun things that aren't always on the schedule. They're happy doing just about anything-thank goodness-so it's not difficult to satisfy their sense of adventure. 

Lizzi

Flaws...or gifts?

Perhaps our small flaws are what make us special. If they weren't, I wouldn't have had to accept my big feet-but that's another story.
What if instead of dreading people seeing something that makes us stand out, we held up a magnifying glass for them?
Oh wait, wait, don't get upset. I'm not talking about character flaws, I'm only talking about harmless things that make us quirky. For instance, my little sister sings all.the.time. Yes, it's a little annoying a lot of times, but it's part of who she is, and usually can't stop even when she tries. Besides the big feet I have an overabundant share of little "problems" myself, my most obvious being my acne (based on the fact that my whole body works wrong lol) and my hyper-active mind (meaning short attention span). I once knew someone that tended to point out every irregularity from "normal", as a problem. I worked really hard to fix myself in every way...but my natural thought process is far from that. Before life taught me that people often prefer assembly-line perfection, I mostly embraced my strangeness!
In case you need convincing, I would like to point out a few things:
1. Most awesome people that we read about in our history books we a little "different" based on the standards on those around them. Do you want to be "normal" or special?
2. Because of-not in spite of-some flaws, we humans often find great ways of doing things. For instance, I found great healthy recipes to battle my acne which I never would have bothered to do before.
3. One person's trash is another's treasure. Huh? Yeah, that's what I said. There have been many times that I wanted something someone had (like their hair) but it was the one thing about themselves that they wanted to change.

Have an awesome day!