I am not my hair....

My hair and I have had a bit of torrid history (like a lot of women). It really revolves around me having naturally fabulous hair but no knowledge or desire to learn how to tame it. 99% of the time you will see me in a bun, attempting to restrain the awesomeness of this beast on my head. I have gone so far as to shave my head in a sad attempt to cover up my rowdy locks. Well no more.... next Tuesday I made an appointment at a fabulous hair salon in town and am going to regain control of my hair. I have been to this hair dresser before and she worked magic, so I am hoping that lightning strikes twice.

I have no idea what I am going to have done with it, but I signed up for highlights and a cut. I am feeling a little bit daring so I think I am going to hand over the reigns to the hair dresser and have her do what she will with it. And brace yourselves.... I am going to buy product. Perhaps a few different kinds! I don't EVER use product in my hair, but I think I might start doing it. I have not a clue as to what to buy or how to use it, but I am going to be honest with my hair dresser, explain my ignorance on the subject and be an absorbing pupil.

In other hair news, Republic Salon (the salon which I frequent) is now selling some of my hair accessories and jewelry. The owner reached out to me after seeing my article in the paper this last Sunday, and I am so happy she did! I am really looking forwarding to having my items there and I think that it is going to be such a great fit! So if you ever getting your hair 'did' at the Republic, look for my items near the register!



For anyone who is curious, that is me shaving my head for a cancer fundraiser in 2007. I highly recommend to everyone that they should go bald at some time in their life. Also, if you click here, you will be taken to my old blog where I wrote some impressive haiku's about being bald :)

No.... I am not Pregnant. Sorry.

Goodness.... I really need to get pregnant soon or I need to stop saying things which lead people to assume that I am pregnant. Things like, "Guess What" or "Hello!"

Anywho, today is a big day. I had a feature story published about me in the paper. Here is a link to the article....

http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/121210/liv_755161133.shtml



I have been waiting for several months to announce to everyone about my top secret work with Anthropologie stores. In case you don't read the article (even though you totally should), here is a brief rundown... a buyer from Anthropologie contacted me about supplying their stores with 3,000 of my fabric flowers back in September. After much discussion and design alteration, the colors and styles for the flowers were finalized in October. They needed the flowers by the beginning of November, so I hired ten lovely local ladies to help me with the production.  After making 3,000 flowers in three weeks, I finally got them all mailed out. Three days later, they called me and asked for another 2,000 flowers by the end of November. Back to work we went! After weeks of little sleep and burned fingers, I finished the last of the flowers for them right around Thanksgiving. I am still recovering :)

Anywho, check out your local Anthropologie store and find my work there. I am very flattered to be included in their amazing collection of items and couldn't have picked a better venue for my work to be sold. Here are pictures of the flowers that are currently being sold by them.

Remember, don't forget to read the article and check out my stores on etsy!

www.nomsa.etsy.com & www.mycellardoor.etsy.com

Bad Dreams

For about the past week, I have had some crazy dreams. The kind were you dream about going to school on the day of the final and then realize that you haven't been to class yet that semester. Those sort of wake up in a sweat, filled with anxiety dreams. Not to say though that there hasn't been a little bit of awesomeness here and there which may or may not include Don Draper from 'Mad Men.'



I think though that the reason that I have been so stressed subconsciously is because tomorrow, I am having an article published about me in the newspaper. From what I understand, it is going to be a pretty long article and will have a few photos of me and my work. I did an interview about 6 weeks ago with a lovely lady from the Athens Banner Herald and ended up talking for three hours. Over the course of that long conversation and with the weeks that have passed, I now have no recollection of what I said and I keep having dreams that I said terrible things! Like how I always want to pinch people's bottoms or that I secretly stash chocolate bars in my sock drawer <sidenote: I do not want to pinch people's bottoms and yeah, I have a bar or two of excellent chocolate in my sock drawer. Don't judge>.

This article is going to be about what I have just spent the last three months of my life working on. It is pretty awesome and I am super excited to finally be revealing it to the world! Definitely check the blog out tomorrow, because I will be posting a link to the article! <unless I find out I did say something terrible>.

PS...My husband and I signed up at church to buy Christmas items for a needy child through Salvation Army. We got a little 2-year old boy named Dontavious who needed clothes/shoes/socks/undies. I went to Target to buy these items the other day and my ovaries practically exploded! I swear I started ovulating right there in the middle of the baby sweaters. I contemplated buying clothes for my future children, but resisted the urge. And by the way....2 year old boy underwear is so freaking adorable!

Sweater from The Gap. If you wanted to buy it for my unborn children, I would be alright with that.

Best Blogger In The World

First off, I love my husband. Dearly. He is the sweetest, most wonderful man ever. But goodness gracious, when he gets an idea in his head, he doesn't let it go. At all. So here I am, back to blogging, since I am apparently the 'Best Blogger In The World.'  My husband is the biggest cheerleader ever for this blog and so after five months of silence, I am back in action on the world wide web. He puts this intense amount of peer pressure on me to blog and even comes up with blog ideas for me, but alas, I don't do them ever, so he brings them up again, and again, and again. So I have caved.

I, Ashlee, have declared that for the next three months, I will blog every darn day, so help me. Right now, I apologize for the inane comments, pointless observations and all around silliness that will be sure to occur. Now....on to the blogging.

I really appreciate that my husband finds me so hilarious. I think though, he finds me way more humorous than anyone else. He loves whenever we watch movie previews together and after the preview ends, I usually subconsciously give a one-sentence comment/review of the movie. Even though these statements are boring, not that insightful and probably have no merit whatsoever, he adores him. Reasons like these are why I love him so. But....he thinks that these reviews would be absolutely hilarious/fantastic idea on the blog. I disagree, but as stated earlier, he is an elephant and never forgets an idea. So here we go.... a brand new feature on my blog..... One sentence movie reviews!

Black Swan: "Despite the fact that Natalie Portman is my Arch Nemesis, I really want to see this movie."

Ta Da!!!!  I can already hear my husband giggling .....
Don't worry, I will make this blog better. Promise.
PS.... I had cuban food for the first time tonight and I think I am in love. My husband, grandmother and I went over to a friend's house for dinner and she gave us a 3-course home cooked cuban meal. And then hired a magician for after dinner. For reals. A real magician. Sweet!!

Gardening, Round II

I can hardly believe three months has passed since I have blogged. Things have been so crazy and busy over in our household that blogging has been pushed to the side. Super quick updates....

1) The Husband and I moved from Washington DC, to Athens, GA

2) We do not live in a 500 sq foot home anymore, but rather a lovely house with my Grandmother-in-Law

3) My stepmom had a double mastectomy and is currently undergoing chemo until November

4) My Husband is helping his grandmother get elected to political office

5) My great-grandmother passed away at the age of 98

Obviously, a sentence doesn't do any of the above mentioned changes justice, but there will be times to go further into depth of each. Right now, I want to focus on my stellar garden and my awesome Husband who gave me my stellar garden.

Backstory.... when we first moved to Athens in the beginning of May, I desperately wanted a garden. Instead of sugarplums dancing in my head while I slept, I had swiss chard and eggplants twirling to and fro. I ended up getting a few pots and planting some cantelope, zucchini, squash, herbs and tomatoes. Over the next month and a half, almost all of my plants died because a) Georgia is hot and placing potted plants on concrete where the heat radiates back at them is bad and b) one needs to punch out holes in the bottoms of pots so the water drains (I didn't). After pouting about my failed gardening attempts for days on end, my sweet Husband dug up a spot in the backyard for me to properly plant and garden. The poor man had to use a machete to cut some big old roots in the ground and got blisters the size of quarters all over his hands from the shovel, but in the end, he declared it a labor of love :)

We bought more plants and planted them two weeks ago. I have already gotten to harvest some peppers (Serrano and jalapeno), despite the fact that I still managed to completely kill off my cilantro and cucumbers. Not sure what happened there, but you know what, I am growing one heck of a basil plant.

As you can see, since I am a true gardener, I must wear proper gardening attire. I learned all about proper gardening attire from my lovely Aunt Kerry who would always buy beautiful clothes and causally say, 'Oh, I'll just wear it to garden in.'





My lovely Husband watering my herbs. I was too afraid to transport them into the ground from their potted home, so they remain in their original home. Oh, and bask in the glory of my awesome basil plant. See how tall it is! Be jealous.



Here's a picture of one of my green bell peppers. This is for you mom!



My garden in all it's glory! Also, please ignore all the white patches around my garden. My sweet grandmother scattered her hair around my garden to keep the deers away. So far, no deer :)

Business Trip...

My Husband has been away on a business trip the last two days, and it is almost like I become a completely different person when I know he isn't going to be home for a night or two. Even though he has only been gone for 36 hours, I have somehow morphed into the stereotypical dirty male bachelor.

1) I have not bathed since Sunday. Not really that big of an issue at all for me, but I know my mom will find this disgusting. And honestly....even if he was home, I probably wouldn't have bathed still.

2) The dishes have not been done since Sunday. In fact, my work table still has my bowl from breakfast sitting on it. If you must know, the kitchen sink is terribly far away from the computer in my spacious studio apartment.

3) The laundry that I washed yesterday morning (hooray me!) is still unfolded and not put away.

4) I baked two dozen vegan molasses cookies on Sunday, and even though he ate a few before he left....there are two left.

5) I have watched Season 1 & Season 2 of '10 items or less' and Season 3 of 'Solitary 3.0' on Hulu.

6) I left the house once to go to the post office and Chipotle.

7) I have eaten quite a few frozen meals the last two days to avoid cooking or entering the kitchen.

As you can see, I like to let myself go when he goes away. I am always cooking and cleaning when he is around, so whenever he leaves I just hole up, work on my business for 20 hours straight and eat frozen meals. I miss him terribly, but I love being messy every now and again.

While writing this blog entry, the Husband called and let me know he will be home within an hour. I now need to hurry and go fix all of the above mentioned problems. Wish me luck!

Picnic in the Park...

Happy Sunday everyone!

Not to make all of my Colorado family jealous, but it has been simply gorgeous here in DC this past week! We are finally done with snow and rain and enjoying 75 degree days. That's right, a perfect 75 degrees.

Today the Husband and I decided to take a picnic in Rock Creek Park which is the largest park in DC. It is awesome because our high rise apartment overlooks the park, so all we ever see in the city is a canopy of trees. We decided to venture into today and found some picnic tables and had a delicious vegan feast. I made curried chickpea sandwiches with avocados  (click here for the recipe) and a huge bowl of mixed berries. After stuffing our faces, we sat and read our books for an hour. It was a lovely way to spend a bright and sunny Sunday. I hope you and yours made the most of it!

Hypochondria...

Hello, my name is Ashlee and I am a Hypochondriac.

<Hi Ashlee! Welcome!>

It's true. I am a bonafide Hypochrondiac suffering with a case of cyberchondria. Cyberchondria is a colloquial term for hypochondria in individuals who have researched medical conditions on the Internet. In other words, WebMd = my vice. It gives me my fix of daily dome.

If you tell me you have an illness, within 24 hours I fully believe I also have that illness. WebMd confirms my aliment and also lets me know three dozen other diseases I have. I don't know if you have been to WebMd lately, but they have this program on there called a 'Symptom Checker.' It is basically a human body and you click on the area that hurts. You narrow down your symptoms and then they show you the hundreds of possible diseases you have. It's awful, yet wonderful at the same time.

Last week, the Husband and I went into the doctors for full physicals. I went in with my full list of possible illnesses (blood clots, anemia, uterine fibroids, cancer, etc) and was completely dismissed by the doctor. Typically I like my doctor to say, "No Ashlee, you don't have any blood clots because of x,y,z." I like to be constantly comforted and pulled out of my medical delusions, and instead, he insisted on doing blood work. The nerve!

Anyway, today I get a call from the doctor's office saying they need to talk to me about my blood work and want me to come in. Oh, and the first available appointment is only five days away. Ummm....five days! Do you realize how many times I can convince myself I am dying in five days?!?!

Alas....such is my fate. I have been told it is not urgent, but still, I am anxious. I am going to try my best to not spend the next 12 hours on WebMD discovering horrible things. Wish me luck.

High Heels...

Today started out typical enough. Woke up, stumbled to the computer and then made my way to the bathroom to start my intense beauty regimen. First...I brush my teeth. If I am feeling fancy, I <might> floss.  Second, I wash my face with something. I have about four different creams/scrubs that I switch between depending on the quality of my skin that morning. Finally, I apply lotion to my face. Nothing fancy with SPF or anything. And that's it. Always.

But today, something happened. Maybe it was because Ke$ha was blasting through the radio, my dark circles were a little less noticeable or the fact that I have lost a few pounds recently, but I decided to get all done up.

Since I have started working full-time at home, my wardrobe consists of yoga pants, sweats and Pj's. And yes....those three are all the same thing essentially. No longer do I need to put on work pants, argyle sweaters or fancy shoes. No makeup, no hair styling, nothing! Yeah....it is as awesome as it sounds. But, occasionally I do become possessed with the notion of getting way too fancy for some mundane errand.  Today was that day. Make-up, pants with a button/zipper combo, and <gasp> high heels.

So after my clubbing make-up was complete, and my up-do was in place, I moved on to the clothes. Over the Christmas holidays, I went to a consignment store with my mom and bought a pair of 7 for Mankind jeans. Normally...$120 dollars, got them for $25!!! Problem was...they were a bit snug. I told myself that with five pounds of weight loss, they would fit like a glove. I had promptly forgotten about these glorious pants until yesterday, when I found them, tried them on and they fit like a glove! This is the point in the story where I do a dance in front of my mirror, shaking my rear, thinking how fine I look. I complete the outfit with a hot pink cashmere sweater (thanks Mom!), a chocolate brown velvet blazer (random I know...) and some fancy high heels. I typically don't wear heels ever as I have size 10 feet and still can't figure out how to use them properly.

Mind you, today I needed to go to Target to pick up some milk, laundry detergent and orange juice. The Target is only about a 15 minute walk away, so I figured heels wouldn't be bad at all.

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Anywho, I leave my apartment in my get-up, looking fabulous for all the peeps at Target. Side note: I don't live in that great of an area, so typically all of the people you want to look fabulous for are at work. Silly me forgot that dozens of un-employed men would be in front of their apartment buildings gawking and calling out. It is hard enough to walk in heels, and even harder when you are trying to not be molested.

After adding the required milk, laundry detergent, spaghetti sauce, and orange juice to my cart, I realized that this was going to be a difficult hike back home. I contemplated for five five minutes about buying some sensible flats at Target for the walk home, but my ego wouldn't let me do it. Besides, what else besides my fake alligator heels would match my chocolate brown velvet blazer so well?!?!

The next twenty minutes involved me balancing super heavy groceries, avoiding city grates, molesters, and attempting to walk home without my knees buckling. I managed to do it without any serious harm to any of my joints or pride, and all the while, I managed to look super fly.

I think there are some days when we need to dress up and look super fabulous, even if you are just going out to buy milk.

End Note: After returning upon the apartment and further checking myself out in the mirror, I determined the chocolate velvet blazer was ridiculous and shall not be worn again.