Kitty Deschanel

8/2/20: I've updated this post (from several years ago - no COVID haircuts for me) with a funny haircut story . Enjoy! You know those girls who obsess over their hair and have a standing appointment with the salon every 6 weeks? That's not me. I've always been the type of girl who gets her hair cut just once or twice a year - whenever Great Clips or Super Cuts sends out a $4.99 haircut coupon.  When Groupon offered 50% off at a top-rated salon, I decided to splurge. The deal included highlights and a glamorous cut. I'd only had experience with adding my own highlights at home , not quite successfully, and was in over my head. Haircut Story Haircut story from a girl who has no idea what to do at the salon. Because these things always seem to happen to me, I have a silly haircut story from the salon.  I wish I'd thought to bring my camera with me. When my hair was being highlighted and was crimped into dozens of foil pieces, I looked like I could have been the baby o

Are you ready to be your best self? These are my most popular  self improvement   articles , covering sleep improvement, beauty advice, cosmetic dentistry, and health. All you need is sleep - the story of my life! Self Improvement Articles Beauty & Health Self Improvement 1.  How I Lost 8 Pounds Without Dieting or Exercising   2.  The Complete Guide to Jessner Peels 3.  Be a Lifelong Learner  (Free Resources) 4.  The Best Jewelry for Your Face Shape 5.  Who Wants Pretty Skin? I Do! I Do! 6.  My (Actually Delicious!) Beauty Smoothie 7.  At-Home Sauna? Yes, Of Course 8.  Shopping List of Foods That Reduce Depression 9.  The Best Eyeliner for a Cyclops 10.  Chemical Peels Before and After  (Professional and DIY Chemical Peel) 11.  Revlon Frost & Glow Review 12.  I'm in Red Light Therapy 13.  Ouch! No More Uncomfortable Bras 14.  The Secret to Soft Summer Feet 15.  Blond! Blond! Blond! Coloring Your Hair from Brunette to Blond 16.  How to Detox   17.  Rosacea Be Gone! The 5 Bes

Remember when our dream home was under construction and it was difficult to imagine how our white kitchen with brick backsplash was going to turn out?  With high, mirrored cabinets, was it going to look ridiculous? You can bet I had more than a couple sleepless nights worrying that is was. We have now been happily enjoying our home sweet home in the New Mexico mountains for almost 3 years. The best part? The kitchen! White Kitchen with Brick Backsplash I've had a reader email to ask about our wood ceiling and thought my other blog readers might enjoy having the same information. Here you go: Q.  What kind of wood is the ceiling in your house? It is beautiful. We are looking at rough-cut pine for a cabin that we are renovating. Debating on if we need to stain or seal it. A.  Our ceiling is actually just the everyday pine tongue and groove boards they sell at Lowes and Home Depot. The reason ours looks different is that we had them installed upside down so that the rough

Update to my previous post: NO BABY! WOO HOO HOO!! Here's a funny repost that will make you just as happy about this news as we are. The Happiest Baby on the Block ...is not our baby because Sexy Nerd accidentally drowned it. Poor baby Nuke. Yes, Nuke (short for Nuclear) would be the name of our baby , if we had one. Thank goodness we don't! The Albuquerque library system has a scam running. I went in the other day to pick up a book I'd reserved. Directly in front of the holds, they had a beautiful, eye-catching display of baby books.  Ack, just what my baby madness didn't need! Very clever, library. They know that little kids are highly likely to damage and lose books, resulting in fines. Well it's not going to work on me, library! You can take your Girlfriends' Guide to Pregnancy and go to heck! Oh, who am I kidding? I was there to pick up my reserved copy of The Happiest Baby on the Block. And I already own The Girlfriends' Guide to Pregna

I'm reposting this because I'm currently having a bit of a maybe-baby scare. All those "we didn't socially distance" pregnancy announcements are pretty funny...until it happens to you! Okay, on to the repost. I'll just be here, freaking out. I did something stupid at work on Friday. Someone forgot their sippy cup of milk in the waiting room of our pediatric dental office. I placed it on our Lost and Found shelf, thinking I would throw it out if no one came for it by that afternoon.  Then, I forgot all about it. It was a hot weekend here in Albuquerque and we leave our air conditioning turned off when the office is closed. I knew the sippy cup of milk was going to smell, but it was so much worse than I'd ever imagined. Instead of just a cup of sour milk, I entered our office today to find this horrible, milk-jelly. Not only was it stuck to everything, it was dripping down the edge of the shelf and onto the carpet below. Apparently, the rotting

Quick side note: Google is ridiculous. Did you know if you search ' cake mix pudding',  every result is for cake mixes that contain pudding and recipes on how to add pudding mix to a cake you are baking? When I think of CAKE MIX PUDDING, I want a pudding that tastes like cake mix. If you're like me, you've arrived at the right place. What's your favorite kind of cake? You can easily turn it into a delicious, no-bake pudding. Cake mix pudding! Just think of all the possibilities: Devil's Food pudding, Red Velvet pudding, Pumpkin pudding, Funfetti pudding, Strawberry pudding... Here is a quick and easy and SO GOOD dessert recipe that can be made ahead of time for your 4th of July get together. This is a million times better than those boxed Jello Pudding mixes. Think of this as more of a thick custard - you'll actually be able to turn your spoon upside down without your cake mix pudding falling off! (At least for a little while. I don't want to s

Can you believe it has been 7 years since my first  Jessner Peel   and the resulting blog post (filled with gory photos - don't say I didn't warn you), which is still popular to this day?  I remember being nervous prior to my first professional treatment and thought it would be helpful to share my experience with chemical peels for anyone else who is considering this beauty service. How nervous was I? Here's what I wrote here on my site back in 2013: I hate my skin! Hate, hate, hate!! This week, at the age of 29, I had my first chemical peel. It was almost painless, but I'm told that my entire face is going to come sloughing off like a snakeskin, probably starting tomorrow. I'm also told that under  absolutely no circumstance  can I help the icky bits of dead, dried skin on their journey to the floor, where they will undoubtedly and repulsively be frantically gobbled up by Pica and Biscuit. Hands off, no matter how ridiculous and gross my face looks, or I'