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Blatherskite

Foolish gibberish

  • AboutI am also known as CraftyMoni elsewhere on the web. I am a Children’s Librarian. I am a photographer. I am a knitter. I am a reader. I am a wannabe poet. I blog. Sometimes I complain. I like to swear. I have a really twisted sense of humor. I think I might be a Zen Buddhist (Still trying to decide). Not a fan of organized religion. I am very liberal and can be vocal about it at times. I’m a daydreamer. Sometimes sassy. I try to be compassionate. I think I’m pretty nice most of the time. You can delve into deeper waters by reading these posts. You can see my photography on my Flickr page. If you like any photos you see there or on this site and would like to buy a print let me know. I would be happy to sell one to you! I blather about library stuff on  Twitter. You will also find me on Google+ and Facebook. Enjoy your visit!  
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  • Indian Beach, Oregon Coast
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about

I am a Children’s Librarian living in the Portland, Oregon area. When I am not Children’s Librianing I like to play with cameras and film. I also like playing the ukulele, knitting, sketching, and hiking.
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  • Adventures with henna

    June 10, 2012

    I have been wanting to dye my hair with henna for years. I was intrigued when Wendy of wendyknits started using henna to dye her own hair. I suppose this has been something on my unconscious “Awesome List” for several years! I am just realizing this. Something prompted me to take the plunge a couple of weeks ago (I don’t recall what that catalyst was) so I bought some from hennaforhair.com. I remembered reading that for the best results you want to use “body art quality” henna, and this place has it. It’s kind of spendy, though. And shipping is outrageous (So I would love to find a local seller of it).

    It came in the mail and, no time like the present, and, “don’t put off till tomorrow what you can do today” and all of that. I decided to just do it this weekend.

    It is quite the process. You have to mix up the henna with something acidic. I chose straight lemon juice. Mix up and let it sit overnight.
    Mixing up the henna with lemon juice.

    Beer drinking optional.

    Another quirky thing about this process is that it has to sit on your hair for-fricken-ever. So I got up at 5:00am and started the process. I washed my hair, dried it, had a cup of coffee, then I started smearing the goop in my hair. It took a long time to do this. And it was really disgusting. It was the most disgusting thing I have ever done in the name of beauty. I tried to coat sections of hair and when I was done I looked like Medusa. I couldn’t take a photo of myself looking like this because my gloves were filled with green goop. But here is a shot of my head right before I put the saran wrap on it.

    This is, hands down, the most disgusting thing I have ever done in the name of beauty.

    Yes, saran wrap. You wrap your head in saran wrap and then wait for hours and hours. I waited 3.

    Wrapped in plastic

    Then I rinsed it out. This was very difficult, as well. The mixture dried on my head and my hair was matted together. It didn’t come out easily. But, eventually, it did.

    Here is what it looks like now:

    red head!

    It is supposed to deepen in the next few days. But I actually really like it a lot! My hair actually feels pretty fantastic, too. Also, it covered up the gray hair really well. Admittedly, I don’t have very many gray hairs but they are there and I know exactly where they are and I don’t like them. Here is another snapshot of it in the sunlight. Do I like it enough to do it once a month? No. Perhaps every other month, though.

    Related articles
    • Color Your Hair Naturally with Henna (ylstylebar.wordpress.com)
    • Which kind of hair dye should I use? (ask.metafilter.com)
    • Caca Noir Mama Hair Henna (easyhealthyhairtips.wordpress.com)
    • Henna Love (aphroditekinks.wordpress.com)
    • How To Apply Henna To Texlaxed / Relaxed Hair (thestylenewsnetwork.com)
    • Henna Head (hergloriouscrown.wordpress.com)

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  • Six Word Saturday

    June 9, 2012

    Pick one book for intergalactic museum.

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  • The Awesome List, revisited

    June 8, 2012

    Oh Look! I found these  posts from a few years ago: 100 things to do before I go. Unfortunately I only made it to 40. I thought it might be fun to revisit these.

    .

    1. Visit Pompeii – yep. Still very fascinated. I will visit someday. 
    2. Visit Florence and it’s museums – Yes, yes, and yes. 
    3. Visit Rome – Why don’t I round all of these up into “Take a trip to Italy.”
    4. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to just spend an extended amount of time in Italy. Like several months. Or maybe a year. – Now you’re thinking, 2008 Monica. 
    5. Learn Italian – Yep. Need to take that Italy trip. 
    6. Learn to paint in the sumi-e style –  I lost interest for awhile there but now that my interest in doing art is surfacing I’ve been thinking about this again. 
    7. Learn more about Zen (and maybe practice it if it suits me) – Done! 
    8. Learn to play guitar – Meh. I’m more into the ukulele at the moment. 
    9. Learn to play the banjo – Still want to do this. I got as far as buying one but it is collecting dust. 
    10. Read all of the Newbery Medal winners. – Slowly working my way through them. 
    11. Learn the art of glass blowing. – Not interested at all anymore. 
    12. Get paid to be a photographer (travel photography would be ideal) – My dream job would be travel photographer/writer. 
    13. Write a damn good poem – I will forever be working on it. 
    14. Hike the Appalachian Trail. – Yes, and the Pacific Crest, too. 
    15. Live at the ocean (again) – This would be nice but I am really liking the mountains lately. I think I would rather have a cabin on Mt. Hood to get away to. 
    16. Learn to crochet – Done!
    17.Make a fancy quilt like “Dear Jane“ – I decided a couple of years ago that I hate sewing and quilting and I never, ever want to do it again. 
    18. canoe down the Little Spokane River – This would be fun. I would still like to do this. 
    19 run a marathon – Starting this Monday I am going to start training for 10k, so I will be on my way. 
    20. Serve on the Caldecott Medal committee. – this would be pretty darn awesome. 
    21. Write a Newberry Award winning book. – I’m not sure I am a children’s author. I love the idea of it but I am not drawn to this kind of writing. When I write I write poetry or flash fiction. 
    22. Learn to play piano. – Meh.
    23. Witness the Aurora Borealis. – YES
    24. Travel to Mt. Everest Base-camp. – YES. My weird obsession with Mt. Everest persists. 
    25. Go on a Yoga or a Zen Meditation retreat in India. – Not sure I want to do yoga but a Zen retreat would be interesting. 
    26. Go to Tokyo. – Why I wrote that I have no idea. I wouldn’t reject a free trip to Tokyo but it isn’t the first place I would choose to visit. What was I thinking?
    27. Donate a large sum of money to a good cause (yet to be determined) – This would be nice if I had a large sum of money to donate. 
    28. Visit the Egyptian Pyramids – YES.
    29. Visit the Mayan Pyramids – YES. I think Raf and I might do this next year. 
    30. knit the Fair Isle Short Row Pullover in the book Loop d’Loop by Teva Durham. – Meh. If I really wanted to do this I would have done it already. 
    31. Visit Yellowstone National Park – This would be fun.
    32. Become more generous – Hmmm. I suppose I could always work on this. 
    33. Eat a Pastrami Sandwich in New York City. – YES.
    34. Visit New Orleans. – Would love it. 
    35. Meet all of my blogging friends in person – Oh, this would be so freaking awesome. I almost want to put this at the top of my list. I seriously should make a point to meet all of my online friends in person, face to face. 
    36. Drink a Pint in an English pub. – Yes. Want to do. 
    37. Tour the Louvre. – I AM GOING TO DO THIS IN A FEW MONTHS!!!
    38. See Stonehenge – Should just plan a trip to the UK. 
    39. Learn to surf. – Not really interested in doing this anymore. 
    40. Read all of the Pulitzer Prize winning novels. – I am totally working on this and have gotten through quite a few in the past few years. 

    I think I will work on a new list that incorporates and condenses some of these things.

    I also thought of some new things that I will add! I will put all of that in a new post since this one is kind of  long.

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  • Tri-x

    Tri-x

    June 7, 2012

    Finally, after getting the color film out of the way, I tried the Tri-x. As you might recall, I had a mishap with this film in my 35mm camera. I ended up making a mistake with the 120 roll, as well. I metered the entire roll of film at the wrong ISO. SIGH.

    However, when I got the film back it looked fine.

    I took these shots around the Mt. Hood area.

     

    This one was taken on LoLo Pass Road. We tried to drive to Lost Lake but were thwarted by the closed road. This was the end of the line.
    This one was taken on LoLo Pass Road. We tried to drive to Lost Lake but were thwarted by the closed road. This was the end of the line.
    I dig the tones in this one. This was taken on the Salmon River Trail.
    I dig the tones in this one. This was taken on the Salmon River Trail.
    Rafael

    I love this film. I can’t wait to see what it looks like when I actually use it correctly.

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  • Wayback Wednesday

    June 6, 2012

    Our 15 year anniversary is tomorrow so I thought, for Wayback Wednesday, I would post a photo of the Mister and I in our younger days. This might be the oldest photo of us together that I have. There is no date on the photo, but I am thinking it was taken in October of 1992. I was 23 and he was 21. We had met maybe a month or two before and it was love at first sight for me. I knew we would get married the moment I saw him. We still make each other smile like that, after all of these years. 🙂

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