Jewels of the Sea Swap and Why I Like Deadlines

Thrice in one week I've waited until the day a project was due to start AND complete it. And this swap, above, was no different. Heather, the hostess, sent out an email yesterday saying that she's already receiving swap pieces but not looking but the artists had posted photos of their contributions on her swap Flickr site. I went on to see what was what and got so inspired that I finally sat down (didn't have any hairdos to keep me from getting at it) and created these...

...I was really trying not to do what anyone else was doing but I was edified by how the other artists were "packaging" their pieces. So instead of just doing the pendant, I made them then mounted a scallop shell onto a sea-inspired postcard, filled the shells with brown paper shreds, then tied the pendants onto the card/shell with ribbon. Here's how they look...

I hope the ladies like them and I can't wait to see what comes in my mail!!! Thanks so much Heather!!

Hair today, gone tomorrow, the final entry...

Okay, when we last left off I had just burnt about half of my hair off and the other half broke off. This is the last of hair I'm going to blog about for a while, since I don't have any of my own left. The photos will be backwards but I'll catch you up. Above is the end result; not too bad, right? And in about a month when we go see the family in Oregon I might not even have to wear the wig all the time because...

...here's how it looked after I shaved it last night and there's a little something there and should be a half inch more in a month. I thought I'd beat the paparazzi to getting these photos on the Internet. I convoed with Brit today and she said that's the best way to go...cell phone cameras and such...

...and here's the original fried hair. Send a heartfelt email to me if you'd like full instructions on how you can also get this look. Disclaimer: Must be 50 years or older, be peri or completely menopausal, or just off your meds before I disclose the secret to this good look. It helps to have a good attitude when messing with one's own hair and using umm...products for...umm...not one's hair type. Once you step out of the shower, where you were safely in the denial environment certain that can't be your hair in those clumps going down the drain, and pull the towel off to see the above, panic sets in. In that panic you try to think what you can do next and what comes to mind is that you have a very good friend who survived breast cancer a few years ago and still has the wigs she had from chemo balding. And voila!!!, you have PERSPECTIVE. Just like that you realize that it's just hair and that it will grow back. It doesn't hurt to have a best friend who's had a brain tumor removed recently either. Heck, I haven't seen my real hair color in over 20 years so this is my opportunity to see what's really going on up there. Until then, it's fun to have some "real" hair to play with (the wig with way more hair than I could ever have). Several folks have mentioned that I should stop messing with my hair which, durrrrr, I clearly can't since I don't have any but I think I'm done for a while.