I feel like Mary Jane Parker

Although I've had two showers this weekend, I didn't wash my hair until after the gym tonight to let it set for 48 hours.

Not having done color since 2002, I thought more of the color would wash out but the re-pigment treatment really helped!

Re-pigmenting, if you haven't had it done, involves covering your beautiful baby blonde hair with goo the color of a highlighter. Because you strip out the pigment to go blonde, you need pigment to help go back to a darker color.

Anywho, Gavin and Rich, the colorists, told me that I wasn't allowed to look in the mirror so they turned the chair around a la What Not to Wear.

What they didn't know is that I could see my hair in the mirror across the salon. I literally yelled (pardon my French) "OH MY FUCKING GOD!"

Bright. Orange.

I looked like Ronald McDonald.

Gavin and Rich held my hand and told me to trust them. They were right.



(Props to DH for taking my picture. This one is much more flattering than in the bathroom with overhead lighting and no flash! Also, my boobs look really big. Do they look like this all the time? Heaven help us!)

Parfait!

I am the first person to admit when I am a failure in the kitchen. DH is very forgiving and we head out to Cowboy Star when my experiments are duds.

However, tonight I reached perfection. Cookie nirvana, if you will.

Behold:



These are, without a doubt, the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever made.

My tips:

• Due to our convection oven, I lowered the temperature by 50 degrees
• I added 1 1/2 tbs vanilla
• 3 cups of flour and extra baking powder
• Cooling down the batter for two hours before attempting to bake
• Fewer chocolate chips and double the walnuts

The extra flour and baking powder kept the cookie quite high, as did the cooling down. If you start off with dough that is too warm, it flattens too much. Also, by keeping the cookies high, I was able to get the optimal crunchy rim with gooey, almost cookie dough-ish center.

I tell ya, this baking thing is a science.

Voila

Sometimes you gotta change your hair color impulsively.


Hmm...do I like it? (Pardon the lack of concealer. Whoo boy those are big circles!)


It's definitely shiny


Not too bad from this angle...


Yeah...I like it.

Oh the clothes...

So a funny thing yesterday. It was my normal day off so I headed to the gym around 11 to get in a quick couple of miles on the elliptical. (Yes, I'm still suffering tendonitis so only low impact cardio for me!)

Anywho...AMC was running a marathon of a little show you may have heard of:

Mad Men

Oh my stars...it's heavenly.

I am already obsessed with mid-century furniture and now I'm craving a makeover and a new wardrobe.

The clothes, the set design, the makeup -

All pitch perfect.

How badly do I want a wasp-waist dress like Betty?

Even though I'm definitely more of Joan.

I mean, really, Joan is a hell of sex bomb but she's always perfectly presentable and covered up.

You know she's never left the house without a girdle.

Let's just say that we have a very similar figure and now I'm trying to figure out a way to become a redhead in the time before our big trip in two weeks.

If I'm going to Europe, I want to be the best looking American that I can be!

For fun here are some more Joan looks that I would wear in a heartbeat:
Joan disproving that redheads can't wear red.

Every girl needs a little black dress. And check out those curls! Mee yow!

Tight sweaters, pendant necklace, coordinating pencil skirt, and updo. Check.

I would run over your grandmother for this dress. Perfection.

Ditto this tweed skirt. Tricky length, though. Below the knee. Hmm.

Anywho, I was watching MM and suddenly realized I had been at the gym for THREE HOURS. My quads are killing me but I'm now hooked on a fabulous new show.

Worth it?

Absolutely!

Perk up your morning...

We here at the Elliott household have been bitten by the bully bug. The bully bug manifests itself in lots of time on SoCal Bulldog Rescue, looking for bullies to adopt, reading training books, and dreaming up names for our future furry child.

Right now SCBR is sponsoring a contest for the most Ador-A-Bull bulldog in SoCal. If you click on the link, you will find HUNDREDS of owner-submitted pictures of Bullies.

DH and I spend an hour or so, going through. If you can look at pictures like this:

and not have a crazy smile on your face, well, you don't have the bully bug.

For a $15 donation, you get to vote on the bully pictures in various categories. The winners will be turned in a calendar and sent to all the voters.

You can't tell me that isn't the face of Miss March.

So go to SoCal Bully rescue and pick up a calendar. It'll lift your spirits AND it will help rescue bullies from shelters, provide care and homes to adoptable bullies, and in general, make the world just a little better.

And you get to look at puppies. Does life get any better?

RIP, director of my child/teen-dom.

I am so sad that John Hughes has died.

As we all know, I went to an all-girls boarding school in the middle of no-where. We had two tv rooms (one in each dorm) and MANY a Saturday afternoon was spent watching TBS run 16 Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Pretty in Pink.

(Side note: did anyone else notice this in the mid/late 90s? JH movies were on EVERY SINGLE WEEKEND.)

I can remember the very first time I saw The Breakfast Club. Hoo boy, I had such a little rebellious crush on Judd Nelson's character. "Being bad feels pretty good, huh?" Hee.

You certainly can't deny that Molly Ringwald giving Judd her diamond earring was a pretty sweet gesture at the end of the movie. *fist pump into the air*

Was anyone else disappointed that we never heard the end of his joke:

"A naked blonde walks into a bar with a poodle under one arm, and a two-foot salami under the other. The bartender says, I guess you won't be needing a drink. Naked lady says...
OOOH SHIT!!!"

Man, I'm going to have to dig a copy of the BC out of storage and give it a whirl while DH is gone this week. But back to John Hughes:

Think about all the other great movies he directed or wrote:

Ferris Bueller - "Not that I condone fascism or any ism for that matter. Isms in my opinion, are not good. A person should not believe in an ism, he should believe in himself."

National Lampoon's Vacation/European Vacation/Vegas Vacation and most importantly, Christmas Vacation.









"Clark! I don't want to spend the holidays dead!"










"Look kids...Big Ben! Parliament!












Weird Science - "So what would you little maniacs like to do first?


And then there are the movies that you probably forgot he was instrumental in bringing to the screen.

Home Alone, anyone? 101 Dalmatians? Beethoven?


He was able to tell the truth about being a teenager with a lot of truth and a heavy dose of humor.

RIP, John Hughes. We're gonna miss you.

Footy

Hello lovelies! I know, I know...bad blogger. I've been really busy, I promise!

I promise more this week but I had to share my new favorite shoes. After all of my foot problems (black toenails, achilles tendonitis, double-jointed toes...) I decided that all shoes purchased in the future *MUST* be comfortable.

So I give you the greatest work shoe - the Cole Haan Calista Air.

The Air line of Cole Haan's feature Nike technology in the soles so that it's actually possible to walk around in ALL DAY. Yippee! I ended up buying a pair in smooth black leather instead of brown suede.

That's another thing - NO MORE SUEDE. I love suede shoes but I ruin them in .2 seconds.

So it pained me but I also got rid of my favorite pair of (suede) pointy-toed, stiletto ankle boots in favor of the Frye Tina boots on the right.

I've wanted a pair of Frye boots for FOREVER. Well, technically ever since I saw Love Story and fell in love with 70s style. Frye are wicked comfortable and can also be worn all day without pain. Woo hoo redux!

Well, that's it for the mo'. More big news (no, I'm not expecting, Muhmoo) to come this week! G'night lovelies!