And now....April!

We're 4 months into 2015!  I'm sitting here, drinking wine and strawberries after another successful pole fitness class.  We're working on handstands now, and it is tough work! March was an incredible month.  Besides going by in the blink of an eye, we put an offer in on a house in town, and it was accepted!  The house is actually a foreclosure, and we still have to go through the property inspection and appraisal.  I really hope it passes the FHA appraisal.  It's all I have been thinking about!  It is a beautiful house on an extremely nice lot, and it is in Anchorage!  It is wonderful, and seems perfect.  Although I am excited about the idea of moving into a big place with a big yard for the pups to run around in, I love my condo and I will miss it.  It is tiny but cozy and also perfect, although no yard.  The plan is to keep the condo and rent it out.  I love the part of town we are in now and the size of the condo was perfect for starting.  We have so many memories here!

Another thing I have been thinking about a lot is the people, (possibly family?) that lived in the house we are trying to buy, before it was a foreclosure.  I don't know where they are now, but I hope they are doing okay.  It seemed like they had a lot of plans and dreams for the house.  I look at the house and the yard, and I have a lot of plans and dreams for it, and it isn't even my house!

In February, we finished the remodel of our condo's kitchen.  It looks absolutely amazing now compared to how it used to look.  It is so beautiful and bright now, and the new white cabinets really made it feel more open and bigger.  We also got a new fridge (our old fridge was breaking), and I love it!  I almost want to take it with us if we get this new house, and replace it with a cheap one!  I love this new fridge.

I hope next week we hear back from the bank so we can sign the Purchase Agreement on this property.  I want to get the property inspection and appraisal out of the way so I can sleep more soundly at night.  And I suppose if the house ends up failing the FHA appraisal...maybe I will just splurge on the our Christmas vacation early.  I am praying that it passes the appraisal though, I am so worried.

Next week I also have an interview with our local Apple store, for a part time job.  Another exciting thing happening!  I LOVE Apple products (sorry not sorry), and I have since I was about 2 years old and I used to sit next to my dad while he worked on our old old old Apple II.  We have always had Apple computers while I was growing up, and now my house is full of Apple products.  I would love to work PT at the Apple store and learn more about their upcoming products and whatnot.  I am pretty nervous for the interview....I am terrible with interviews, and I hope it goes okay. :-/

I have been thinking a lot about traveling lately (as well as thinking about a million other things.  Why is my brain always wandering!)  I would love to go home again.   I always hope and pray that one day I can go again.  I would love to take Dash someone tropical.  Hawaii, the Caribbean, even Florida again....somewhere warm.  Dash wants to go to Greece and see Santorini.  That would be another wonderful place to go.  Traveling would be amazing.

Once again, nothing on my New Year's resolution list was accomplished.  Oh well!

Already into March!

Well, I have a confession to make about February.  I didn't accomplish ANYTHING on my Resolution List.  No reading.  No writing.  Barely any exercise.  And you know what? I am okay with it.  I am okay with it because something exciting may or may not be happening in the near future, and even if the exciting thing doesn't happen, I will still be okay with it.  I spent all of my spare time in February helping my husband fix up our condo.  We have the kitchen almost complete!  In just two weekends, our kitchen went from looking run down with 1970's cabinets and subflooring instead of real flooring, to looking light, bright and beautiful! We still need to paint the walls and the pantry and add one more strip of flooring (that we had to special order, boo!) but other than that we are done.  And next we will start on the bathrooms! :)  And I have discovered that I really like working on home stuff. 

I may even be working really hard on fixing up my condo for most of March.  Either way, it needs to get done, and we are determined to have it all done ASAP.

Today, I actually did do something cosplay related.  I had a photoshoot in my Fallout costume at Kincaid park.  It was really fun, although very cold, and it was perfect because there were not a lot of people wandering around near the bunker we were shooting at. 

Yesterday, February 28, was Alaska Gaming Convention 2015.  It has definitely grown since 2013, although I'm not sure I saw too many more cosplayers than the previous year.  I had a photobooth set up and everything, but I only managed to get a few people over to take pictures at it.  Most everyone else was out wandering around the convention having too much fun :)  Maybe next year I will cosplay also and try to do my small part to help promote the Alaskan Cosplay community :)  I'll post another blog update for Alaska Gaming Convention soon! 

1 Month Down!

Wow, January screamed by and we are already into February.  That is crazy! I finished my book for January a few weeks ago: The Toy Collector, by James Gunn.  It was a very good book.  Very well written and interesting, and not at all what I was expecting.  It is about a man who works as a pharmacist, and begins selling pharmaceuticals to fuel his toy collecting hobby.  The book is not what I would have normally picked to read.  I'm trying to branch out from my normal "zombie books" that I read constantly! My book for February is "I'll Scream Later", by Marlee Matlin.  I better get started! :)

I didn't write my chapter for this month. :(  Looks like I'll have to write 2 chapters this month!  It used to be so easy....what happened to all of my inspiration??  I haven't decided which story to write more of yet.

I have been doing very well on the keto diet for January!  Today I'm having some chicken wings, chili, and wine....so today is my cheat day.  I also had a cheat day 2 weeks ago for a girl's dinner night of lasagna and tiramisu.  I did not do so well on the 30 day workout challenge though.  I did a combination of Melissa Bender or pole fitness only 17 days last month.  I have to try to be better this month!  Pole Fitness is getting easier!  I can finally do the pole sit to bow, and the skin on my legs doesn't hurt anymore.  I am pretty excited about that.  I may have to skip tomorrow's pole fitness class, but it is worth it to hang out with a good friend I hardly ever see anymore. 

I'm looking forward to what February brings.  I have a cosplay photoshoot for my Fallout costume scheduled for some time this month.  Possibly the 16th, but I need to check with the photographer.  I plan on buckling down at some point to actually write the 2 chapters, I hope to learn more pole and do a little more running to get back in shape for running season.

And now, I'm off to register for the Big Wild Life Half Marathon!

Happy Feb 1st, everyone. :)

New Year, Same Old Stuff

Happy 2015 everyone! I can't believe it's 2015.  2014 flew by so fast, I don't think I even made any posts on this blog last year.  Resolutions for this year are the same old stuff.  I'm doing 3 30 day challenges by Melissa Bender, she has amazing workouts! They are similar to the Boot Camp class I went to in 2012, mostly body weight workouts with some dumbbell exercises thrown in.  I'm back on my keto diet, and it's only been a week but I am already feeling so much better! Funny how that works.  I hope to run another half marathon at some point this year, so I've started jogging again.  I have found a new form of exercise that I absolutely love, pole fitness, and I go every chance I get. It is so hard, but also so rewarding once I finally get to the point that I am able to do a new spin or climb the pole with more ease.  I hope to learn an inversion move soon, but it's been a few weeks since I have gone due to the holidays, so we will see. I also added a few new resolutions to my list this year...to read at least 1 book per month and write 1 chapter per month.  That's probably going to be the hardest to find time to do, but so far I'm almost done with January's book.  I chose "The Toy Collector", by James Gunn, and it is very good so far.

Dragon Con is coming up in about 265 days.  I'm in a predicament now where I need to find another host hotel room, which sucks because all the host hotels are sold out.  So I suppose I am going to try to find a room transfer.  I was excited about Dragon Con this year, but now with the added stress of trying to find a new room, I am not as excited.  I feel sad about feeling this way this year.  Since 2003 Dragon Con weekend has been my favorite weekend of the year, but this year it's just starting to feel like a hassle.  However my friend who is flying down with me from Anchorage is over-the-moon excited to go to Dragon Con again.  It's all she talks about and she has a lot of costume plans she wants to make :) I will help her as much as I can!

Rocket Raccoon and
Baby Groot at Senshicon 2014

Juliet Starling at Dragon Con 2014

 I have several new cosplay plans for 2015, but we will see how well I am able to finish these projects.  First on my list is adding a chainsaw prop to my Juliet costume, and a gun for my Rocket Raccoon costume.  Those will be the most challenging.  I am also in progress with making a Bulma Briefs (Dragon Ball Z) costume.  I haven't seen Dragon Ball in such a long time, but I used to love it! I've been thinking of watching it over again.  I also have a lot of new plans for upgrading my Fallout jumpsuit, including a new belt, AK license plate armor for the shoulder and forearm, and hopefully some kind of gun from the Fallout Universe, plasma rifle or something like that.  I also LOVE this "Hello Kitty Fallout Outfit" mod.  I don't remember where I've seen it, but I so want to make it!  It makes no sense, but I love it anyway. 

Bulma Briefs - pink dress

 outfit

Fallout Alaska at Senshicon 2014

 

Hello Kitty Fallout outfit

Nothing else is going on in this little town.  I hope 2015 is the year I am finally able to buy a nice single family home, but we will see.  We have been living in our tiny condo for 10 years, and we would like to keep it as an investment property but we will sell it if need be.  I know my dogs would love to have a yard to run and play in!

Nerium - An Honest Review: Day 10

Well, I had forgot to make the post on actual Day 10, which was 3 days ago, but I did remember to take pictures! I didn't see much of a change at all between Day 6 and 10.  I will be purchasing 1 bottle of this extremely expensive product, because I would like to go for the whole 30 days and see how my skin ends up.

On days 1-6 I started getting strange breakouts around my jawline and cheeks, almost like a rash.  I'm not sure if this is allergies from the weather change we recently had, or if the nerium played a part. Day 6 started out with pretty clear skin. I was surprised hat the rashy breakout disappeared almost overnight. By day 10 my skin had cleared up much more, but my wrinkles around my eyes hadn't changed much. 

I will be picking up my bottle today, and I will post again on Day 15 or 16. The photo below is Day 0 on the left and Day 10 on the right. 

I also want to add that although I didn't see a large change in my skin, yesterday I had dinner with a friend who I hadn't seen in person for the last 2 weeks (finals time, yay...) and she commented that my skin looked amazing and wanted to know what I was doing. She did not know that I had been using the NeriumAD, and said "well whatever it is, it's working!" 

Nerium - An Honest Review (Part 1)

*** Note!!! I am NOT a Nerium brand partner and I do not plan on becoming one!!!! ***

Well....it has really been a while since I've updated my blog! I have a new product review I am working on to post.  Recently a friend of mine began selling NeriumAD.  What is NeriumAD?  It's a skin cream.  And a pyramid marketing plan.  Nerium's second listed ingrediant is Nerium Oleander, a plant that is highly toxic to humans if consumed.  Apparently Nerium Oleandar has been having a few breakthroughs in the scientific world lately, and this skin cream is one of the products of it.

Despite hearing many bad things about Nerium, I had also heard just as many great things about it.  I was not sure if the great things may have been said by other brand partners in an attempt to try to get others to buy the product or if it really does great things to your skin.  So I messaged my friend and said "Sure, I will try your product for a little bit and see how it makes my skin look."  Right away she messaged me and said she would drop by the night cream and day cream with the instructions so I could begin the 10 day trial period.  Right now, I am on day 6.  Do I like it? I'm not sure.  My skin is, actually, the softest it has ever felt.  However it seems to be causing my jawline to break out in deep red purple zits.  I went through a similar experience when I started Alpha Hydroxy lotion on my skin, and when my skin finally cleared up, it was AMAZING (although I still had those pesky fine lines and wrinkles!) Maybe Nerium will be the same.  Once my skin gets used to the product and clears up, maybe my skin will be beautifully flawless and wrinkle free. (ha ha!)  Well, here's hoping.

So here is my Day 6 picture.  The left side is the first day I started it, before I applied anything. The right was this morning.  I've had a few people say that it looks like there is a big difference in my undereye wrinkles and crows feet.  I suppose I can see it a little bit.  I'll take another one on Day 10 and see what it's like then.

Hair Color Adventures part 2 - Blonde

I decided it was time to do another hair color blog.  This time I went from blonde to blond(er).  Although I was already blonde to begin with for this blog, this is the same technique I used to go blonde when my hair was a medium reddish brown.
Here's what my hair looked like before hand...

Although it was already blonde, my roots were growing out pretty bad as you can see in picture 2, and my hair was just feeling...dull.   I went down to Marie's Beauty Supply and decided to pick up some hair products.  I picked up (from left to right):

L'oreal Super Blonde (my favorite lightener), Matrix So Silver Shampoo (for maintenance), Wella color charm developer no. 20, and Wella White Lady T18 toner.

Yeah, that is a giant bottle of Wella Color Charm Developer.  Hopefully it will last until I need to use it again because I only used a small amount for this hair adventure.

I started with bleaching out my roots(only my roots! My hair was so blonde already I didn't want to fry it!).  This part is easy, I've done it so many times I could practically do it in my sleep.  In fact, I did this part while cooking fried chicken and watching Supernatural.  

Note: I don't recommend bleaching hair while frying chicken.

Here's what my hair looked like right after I washed the L'oreal super blonde out:

Don't forget to rest a towel over your clothes when bleaching so you don't ruin anything.  I've made that mistake before.

Yuck! What too yellow!!  I wasn't worried though, I still needed to do the toner.  The Wella toner needs dry hair to work with, I'm not sure if dry hair is actually required, but I find it works a lot better than wet hair. While I waited for my hair to dry, I mixed the entire small bottle of Wella White Lady toner and 2x the amount of developer. (1 part toner, 2 parts developer).  It took a good 30-40 minutes to develop.  I waited until it was a nice, thick, rich purple color before putting it in. The first time I did this on my hair I mixed the developer then put it right in my hair.  Um, dumb me.  It didn't work out too well.  

I applied almost all of that developer ALL OVER my hair, getting it everywhere I could.  I see now that I missed a few spots, oops, better luck next time right?  So I put it in my hair, wrapped a plastic bag around my head to not get anything too messy, and waited for about 15 minutes. 

Here's what it looked like when it washed out and I dried it:

 Yay!!  I hardly see any yellow in my hair now, most of what I see is on the tips.   So there's my hair adventure for this year.  I like the way it turned out!  Here's a few comparison pictures:

Before

After

No more roots!