It Seemed Like a Good Idea...

I’m not sure what possessed me to try this, it just looked…interesting, or like something someone needed to test. Anyway, there they were, little bits of false eyelashes that were supposed to be glued individually to the eye area to make a realistic set of lashes.

Mind you, I have never, in my life, worn false eyelashes, but hey, we’re in the South, home of some of the biggest false eyelashes and hair in the world, so how do they do it? Theatrical displays run in the family so I had to check it out.

So I brought these home (very inexpensive from CVS) with the proper glue substance and guffawed at the fact that salons charge some $40 to apply these suckers. Surely I could do it with my eyes closed.

It turns out you have to do it with your eyes closed, since applying them means closing one eye and then blocking the other eye with the hand applying the lashes. My first attempt (eye number 1, lash number1) went pretty well. Beginners luck. Subsequent attempts resulted in lashes on my eyelid, eyebrow, cheek, hand and finally the floor, which started to take on a creepy look like a little spider gathering.

I proceeded doggedly on, glue was beginning to form stalagmites on my fingers and my original lashes were becoming one with each other. I finally called my Dear Husband to have a go. He is gainfully employed as a Dermatological surgeon, (“…the cancer, I forgot about the cancer…”*) so I figured if anyone could do it he could. Apparently it takes more skill to apply these lashes than a surgeon, used to tiny maneuvers, could manage. Even weirder, he made no comment about my trying out these little beasts as though I do this sort of thing all the time. I’m figuring that either:
1. He secretly liked the looked of random lashes on my eyelid,
2. He was also curious about this process, since he might one day have to perform this operation in his office,
3. He knows me a little too well.

Finally I had to give up. Resistance was futile and I had wasted enough time in my stubborn insistence that I could conquer these little beasts.

I made one last attempt. I tried a different approach, and it worked!




So if any of you women or men out there get the urge for big false eyelashes, pay the $40 bucks, it might be worth your sanity.

NOT that I'm condoning this kind of behavior.

Except for Johnny Depp.

The big hair is next.



*Seinfeld, for those of you too young to remember.

Trying out a New Format for a New Season

 I thought I'd try out a new format for a little while, unfortunately I lost all my links so I'll have to rebuild those.  Remember, 'Patience is being able to wait peacefully' or at least that's what I tell my kids.

Winter, Winter, Winter

Though we may be chastised, though we may be shunned we must be bold and true to our beliefs and shout from the rooftops..."We love Winter!"


I had given up hope early in the season of seeing any hope of a cold winter with, well, actual cold.  And yet as I stand looking at the blowing leaves, with brown crispness and nary a sign of humidity or sweat, it is Winter I see.  I had wondered what we would do with our generous supply of cold weather gear, our downs, our hats and gloves and scarves.  It seems I worried in vain, for here upon our mountain home (at 1500 ft.) there are signs of frost, and crystal stalagtites formed from mountain run-off.  
The wind is biting, our painter is wearing long underwear (granted people down here were long johns if the temp goes below 60), my leather driving gloves are back out and ready to rumble and I can put on a cashmere sweater without passing out from heat exhaustion.  And as the final icing on the sweet-tea, there were a few snowflakes fluttering furtively around today as if this was new and uncharted snowflake territory.

Fall herself was pretty spectacular, with more and

 longer lasting colors than we have ever seen anywhere.  The leaves piled up so high on the side of the road that we could drive through with a very satisfying crunch, swish and swirl.  (I'm sure we fully endeared ourselves to our neighbors doing this)  We hadn't realized how much we couldn't see through the density of the trees until the leaves fell off.  For instance we had no idea that we were so close to the back of the school or the road on the hill above us.

Robb has somehow forgotten how to dress the girls warmly and keeps sending them to school with light coats.  Luckily indoor recess happens if the weather is colder than freezing, as apposed to Wisconsin were indoor recess happened if the weather was colder than 0 degrees F.   Them were tuff little kids in Wisconsin.  Also snow pants were required as part of the dress code.

 
I can't say it's been an easy adjustment moving again and to a place so different from whence we came, but it certainly has been a beautiful one.