Some words and usages have gotten on my nerves for years.
As a child I took an irrational dislike to the word "bangs". Why bangs? Is it really a slangy word for the "bang off" hairstyle? Just a useless word.
"Shabby-chic". If I am browsing the internet for a nice piece of old jewelry or a household item and the seller uses this abomination, they have lost my sale. What is wrong with "vintage" or the etsy word "upcycled". Why would I buy something shabby? I won't.
"Picky" as in "I am really picky about the perfume I use". This is a self-administered pat on the back, a back-handed brag that says "I have such discriminating taste". If that's how you feel, say so!
And there's always "invite" or "gifted" for gave. Those always grate at my nerves.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Henna. The Maximalist has never used commercial chemical hair dye
Henna. Mehendi. Lawsonia Inermis. That plant you grind up to make orangey red dye. The stuff of India's body decoration and a great way to brighten your hair or cover your gray.
The Maximalist swears by it and sometimes swears at it, but either way is probably stuck with it. It is said that once you start with henna, you can't reliably over-dye with chemicals like L'Oreal or Clairol. You risk all sorts of frizz, damage and mayhem. I am risk averse.
When did I start with henna?
As a teenager. Some girls were bleaching and streaking their hair for summer and the Maximalist decided to highlight her highlights instead. I always had red highlights, now there is more. An aunt of mine was a henna enthusiast, she told me where she bought it and I did it. At first and for many years it looked subtle as my hair was already a deep brown. As I aged and became grayer the white hairs have become red ones and each ear there are more.
Why henna?
The 60s and 70s called out for natural beauty despite the heavy sales of dyes and "rinses". The Maximalist was impressionable enough to believe the hype. And I liked that aunt a great deal.
Where do you buy it?
At first, I bought a little yellow tin with Cleopatra's image on it. Later it came in boxes and more colors (mixed with chamomile or indigo). More recently I turned to healthfood stores and bought various shades in plastic jars. The greyer I get the more I appreciate the indigo. Now, I buy from the Indian groceries and add amla or indigo to get a darker shade. My current favorite brand is Godrej's Nupur mehendi. It is henna mixed with a few other herbals:
Brahmi promotes hair growth
Skikakai leaves hair clean and shining
Aloe Vera moisturizes hair and makes it silky
Methi conditions, nourishes and revitalises hair
Bhringraj makes hair luxuriant
Amla darkens hair colour and adds shine
Neem fights scalp infection and prevents dandruff
Hibiscus rejuvenates hair making it shiny & silky
Jatamansi prevents graying of hair
Or so the package claims. I like it because it looks nice and costs $1.99 a packet. I can control my gray better if I color weekly and that also keeps the color darker. This henna is not the slightest bit grainy and it smells better than the healthfood store variety.
To keep it looking soft I moisturize with coconut oil. This happens two days after I color with Nupur Mehendi.
I am satisfied with the result and I do not have brittle dyed hair. I also do not have to contend with peroxides or ammonias or worry about what all those chemicals are doing to my scalp and brain function. I save money and I get a lot for the little I spend. And isn't that what maximalism is all about?
The Maximalist swears by it and sometimes swears at it, but either way is probably stuck with it. It is said that once you start with henna, you can't reliably over-dye with chemicals like L'Oreal or Clairol. You risk all sorts of frizz, damage and mayhem. I am risk averse.
When did I start with henna?
As a teenager. Some girls were bleaching and streaking their hair for summer and the Maximalist decided to highlight her highlights instead. I always had red highlights, now there is more. An aunt of mine was a henna enthusiast, she told me where she bought it and I did it. At first and for many years it looked subtle as my hair was already a deep brown. As I aged and became grayer the white hairs have become red ones and each ear there are more.
Why henna?
The 60s and 70s called out for natural beauty despite the heavy sales of dyes and "rinses". The Maximalist was impressionable enough to believe the hype. And I liked that aunt a great deal.
Where do you buy it?
At first, I bought a little yellow tin with Cleopatra's image on it. Later it came in boxes and more colors (mixed with chamomile or indigo). More recently I turned to healthfood stores and bought various shades in plastic jars. The greyer I get the more I appreciate the indigo. Now, I buy from the Indian groceries and add amla or indigo to get a darker shade. My current favorite brand is Godrej's Nupur mehendi. It is henna mixed with a few other herbals:
Brahmi promotes hair growth
Skikakai leaves hair clean and shining
Aloe Vera moisturizes hair and makes it silky
Methi conditions, nourishes and revitalises hair
Bhringraj makes hair luxuriant
Amla darkens hair colour and adds shine
Neem fights scalp infection and prevents dandruff
Hibiscus rejuvenates hair making it shiny & silky
Jatamansi prevents graying of hair
Or so the package claims. I like it because it looks nice and costs $1.99 a packet. I can control my gray better if I color weekly and that also keeps the color darker. This henna is not the slightest bit grainy and it smells better than the healthfood store variety.
To keep it looking soft I moisturize with coconut oil. This happens two days after I color with Nupur Mehendi.
I am satisfied with the result and I do not have brittle dyed hair. I also do not have to contend with peroxides or ammonias or worry about what all those chemicals are doing to my scalp and brain function. I save money and I get a lot for the little I spend. And isn't that what maximalism is all about?
Sleeping Beauty Wakes at McCarter...mad musings of the Maximalist
What the writer might have been driving at:
CPR as a wake-up kiss. No brainer there, but in the days of the Ambu bag and facial guards for those times that you do mouth-to-mouth, few people would do it in a hospital setting. You'd have to be really sure of who you're dealing with. So the rescue breaths in this case are significant.
The slighted fairy takes revenge. Yep. Another obvious thing. When we slight others especially in a showy way it is not unreasonable that they will take it out on us when the chance presents itself. This applies to all sorts of people. Plenty of those we overlook muster the strength to become powerful in little ways that we may eventually need. Don't be mean to people. You never know.
A totally sheltered child refuses to mature. In this case she stays sleeping for 900 years, but how many middle aged babies do you know who have never had to deal with the spindles and thorns of life (in this adaptation, the daddy-king pays people to remove the thorns from the roses).The Maximalist knows many. Sometimes they just stay immature and others do terribly destructive things to either "break free" or push the limits of their protection, for if there are no consequences nothing is truly forbidden. Our sleeping beauty was spared from all decisions and dangers, she decided not to participate. Eventually she teamed up with a man who was weaker and sicker than herself. I suppose this falls within the "destructive" category. Beauty makes the Sebastian Flyte choice and falls for someone she must care for.
Protecting a child from responsibility will cost you. In this case it took 900 years, but daddy-king ended up with a condo instead of a kingdom as he kept his child safe from responsibility and danger.
No one can live 900 years, 900 days or 900 hours sleeping without food or water. Apart from a fairy tale princess it can't be done, so let's not accept it as more than a metaphor for sheltered life away from "the real world", shall we? Good. As this is the stuff of fairy tales anyway. The Beast in "Beauty and the Beast" was merely a nasty self-centered fellow who people avoided.He acted like a wild animal, he wasn't one. The "real princess" in the "Princess and the Pea" was outrageously spoiled. Why a mom would want someone that "sensitive" for her son is another matter and "happily ever after" is open to interpretation. In that case, the Queen and the new Princess probably whined to their hearts' content over every intolerable trifle. Sad. But I think in the pea story the author was aiming for satire, don't you?
SPOILER: Daddy-king dies as the child grows up. Or does the child grow up when the protection passes into history? I am not convinced that the author really believes that dad's job/life is done when Beauty awakens. Seems the opposite is the more likely case. Her life was asleep, on hold, until daddy's care was gone and she had to wake up or die. No, I take that back...in the story "the handsome prince" was a planned successor protector. This princess said "no way". Had she been allowed life's little deprivations perhaps a handsome prince would have been more appealing as it was for Cinderella. This one just wanted to be "free". In Sleeping Beauty Wakes it is clear that the consequences of freedom were never considered. This is pretty realistic, actually. A protected child is free of protection and makes a crazy decision to team up with a young man with poor prospects and issues of his own. This one collapses when faced with strong emotion. Love, hate, frustration and responsibility all elicit strong emotions. A nice boy but not a strong one.
Anyway, the whole point is that we must allow our children to experience, loss, pain and failures along the road to maturity and adulthood. Frustrations are what makes people capable of handling frustrations and the crises which pepper our lives. They are also what makes us choose wisely and not impulsively as we begin to see the consequences of our actions.
It was a nice story even if you don't think about it too much. Good music and strong voices and a touch of humor. But if you look, there is more to this Beauty than meets the eye.
The refusal to wake up is the mother of all sleep disorders.Or is the Maximalist delusional?
Addendum: and please, dear author, no orderly or nursing assistant would ever have keys to the narc closet or legal access to that oversized syringe!
CPR as a wake-up kiss. No brainer there, but in the days of the Ambu bag and facial guards for those times that you do mouth-to-mouth, few people would do it in a hospital setting. You'd have to be really sure of who you're dealing with. So the rescue breaths in this case are significant.
The slighted fairy takes revenge. Yep. Another obvious thing. When we slight others especially in a showy way it is not unreasonable that they will take it out on us when the chance presents itself. This applies to all sorts of people. Plenty of those we overlook muster the strength to become powerful in little ways that we may eventually need. Don't be mean to people. You never know.
A totally sheltered child refuses to mature. In this case she stays sleeping for 900 years, but how many middle aged babies do you know who have never had to deal with the spindles and thorns of life (in this adaptation, the daddy-king pays people to remove the thorns from the roses).The Maximalist knows many. Sometimes they just stay immature and others do terribly destructive things to either "break free" or push the limits of their protection, for if there are no consequences nothing is truly forbidden. Our sleeping beauty was spared from all decisions and dangers, she decided not to participate. Eventually she teamed up with a man who was weaker and sicker than herself. I suppose this falls within the "destructive" category. Beauty makes the Sebastian Flyte choice and falls for someone she must care for.
Protecting a child from responsibility will cost you. In this case it took 900 years, but daddy-king ended up with a condo instead of a kingdom as he kept his child safe from responsibility and danger.
No one can live 900 years, 900 days or 900 hours sleeping without food or water. Apart from a fairy tale princess it can't be done, so let's not accept it as more than a metaphor for sheltered life away from "the real world", shall we? Good. As this is the stuff of fairy tales anyway. The Beast in "Beauty and the Beast" was merely a nasty self-centered fellow who people avoided.He acted like a wild animal, he wasn't one. The "real princess" in the "Princess and the Pea" was outrageously spoiled. Why a mom would want someone that "sensitive" for her son is another matter and "happily ever after" is open to interpretation. In that case, the Queen and the new Princess probably whined to their hearts' content over every intolerable trifle. Sad. But I think in the pea story the author was aiming for satire, don't you?
SPOILER: Daddy-king dies as the child grows up. Or does the child grow up when the protection passes into history? I am not convinced that the author really believes that dad's job/life is done when Beauty awakens. Seems the opposite is the more likely case. Her life was asleep, on hold, until daddy's care was gone and she had to wake up or die. No, I take that back...in the story "the handsome prince" was a planned successor protector. This princess said "no way". Had she been allowed life's little deprivations perhaps a handsome prince would have been more appealing as it was for Cinderella. This one just wanted to be "free". In Sleeping Beauty Wakes it is clear that the consequences of freedom were never considered. This is pretty realistic, actually. A protected child is free of protection and makes a crazy decision to team up with a young man with poor prospects and issues of his own. This one collapses when faced with strong emotion. Love, hate, frustration and responsibility all elicit strong emotions. A nice boy but not a strong one.
Anyway, the whole point is that we must allow our children to experience, loss, pain and failures along the road to maturity and adulthood. Frustrations are what makes people capable of handling frustrations and the crises which pepper our lives. They are also what makes us choose wisely and not impulsively as we begin to see the consequences of our actions.
It was a nice story even if you don't think about it too much. Good music and strong voices and a touch of humor. But if you look, there is more to this Beauty than meets the eye.
The refusal to wake up is the mother of all sleep disorders.Or is the Maximalist delusional?
Addendum: and please, dear author, no orderly or nursing assistant would ever have keys to the narc closet or legal access to that oversized syringe!
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Things I love today
Gardening and contemplating the joys of the harvest. My little pepper flowers appear to be giving way to little green fruits.
My new gardening catalogs. After ordering over 800 daffodils last fall it seems the Maximalist is a desirable customer. I received a catalog devoted entirely to bulk bulbs and another with natural solutions to everything.
Accidental successes! When I went to a local garden store I noticed a plant labeled "red currant". It wasn't. It was a gooseberry plant and quite a nice one. Of course it is in my yard now.
Marigolds
The wild array of peppers and tomatoes you can plant. The vast variety of the pricey specialty market is available for your garden and table at $1.49 a pack!
Lentil sprouts. Just a bit of the lentilly taste and lots of extra nutrients. I let mine get a bit green and leafy in the sun before the saute. They were excellent with some pepper and ginger.
Feeling a wee bit tired after a lot of digging and planting. It's a good sort of tired and I recommend it to everyone.
Cultivate your own garden!
My new gardening catalogs. After ordering over 800 daffodils last fall it seems the Maximalist is a desirable customer. I received a catalog devoted entirely to bulk bulbs and another with natural solutions to everything.
Accidental successes! When I went to a local garden store I noticed a plant labeled "red currant". It wasn't. It was a gooseberry plant and quite a nice one. Of course it is in my yard now.
Marigolds
The wild array of peppers and tomatoes you can plant. The vast variety of the pricey specialty market is available for your garden and table at $1.49 a pack!
Lentil sprouts. Just a bit of the lentilly taste and lots of extra nutrients. I let mine get a bit green and leafy in the sun before the saute. They were excellent with some pepper and ginger.
Feeling a wee bit tired after a lot of digging and planting. It's a good sort of tired and I recommend it to everyone.
Cultivate your own garden!
So the Maximalist likes marigolds...sue me
Marigolds have a bitter smell, are annuals, and have little to recommend them overall...or so it seems.
Nope not cut flowers, good guess though. They're a bit too short-stemmed for that.
And the Maximalist does like yellow and orange, but that's not it either.
The Maximalist hates aphids! Aphids hate marigolds! It's a "my enemy's enemy is my friend" sort of thing. AND there s nothing poisonous about marigolds, the Maximalist can use them as safe pest control!
Did you know that some plants like to be neighbors and others don't? Seems plants, like people, have their little preferences.
Check out this website for more cool plant combos to fight pests and for harmony in your garden. http://toadstoolponds.wordpress.com/2007/12/07/why-plant-marigolds-in-your-vegetable-garden/
Now I will sit down to a luscious bowl of lentil sprouts a small piece of salmon (wild caught, natch) and contemplate my gardening!
Nope not cut flowers, good guess though. They're a bit too short-stemmed for that.
And the Maximalist does like yellow and orange, but that's not it either.
The Maximalist hates aphids! Aphids hate marigolds! It's a "my enemy's enemy is my friend" sort of thing. AND there s nothing poisonous about marigolds, the Maximalist can use them as safe pest control!
Did you know that some plants like to be neighbors and others don't? Seems plants, like people, have their little preferences.
Check out this website for more cool plant combos to fight pests and for harmony in your garden. http://toadstoolponds.wordpress.com/2007/12/07/why-plant-marigolds-in-your-vegetable-garden/
Now I will sit down to a luscious bowl of lentil sprouts a small piece of salmon (wild caught, natch) and contemplate my gardening!
Monday, May 9, 2011
Next up kidney and lima bean sprouts!
Sounds good to me.
Remember that the sprout is more nutritious than either the seed or the mature plant. Checkout nutritiondata.com for the goods on the amino acid content of these things, then envision them lightly sauteed with a pinch of garlic and a handful of fresh cilantro! The color combination of the red kidney sprouts and cilantro should look as good as it tastes.
Maybe I'll do black eyes peas...hmm
Remember that the sprout is more nutritious than either the seed or the mature plant. Checkout nutritiondata.com for the goods on the amino acid content of these things, then envision them lightly sauteed with a pinch of garlic and a handful of fresh cilantro! The color combination of the red kidney sprouts and cilantro should look as good as it tastes.
Maybe I'll do black eyes peas...hmm
Maximal scent for spring in your garden and on the cheap!
The Maximalist loves scented garden flowers! And she especially loves the ones that come up every year and can be had for peanuts. Today I am reveling in the aroma of scented daffodils, lilacs, wisteria and broom plants!
All of these can be had very reasonably. Daffodil bulbs are always a bargain online and not all are the scentless yellow trumpets. Daffodils = narcissus and are the stuff of glorious parfums like Caron's classic Narcisse Noir. Lilacs come in blue, red, white and many shades of lilac of course. They perfume the air like nothing else, look spectacular massed in vases and are reliable bloomers. The wisteria is hanging in long grapey clusters now and the fragrance is from a distance fabulous and a bit too much close up. Wisteria is rarely an addition in parfum for this reason I would surmise, but I do own an old bottle of Houbigant's Wisteria soliflore that retains its beauty to today.
My most recent scented shrubs are the broom plants with their fluttery yellow blossoms and incongruently heady fragrance. Butterflies love them as do the honeybees...and the Maximalist. They are largish plants and that bloom from top to bottom and survive the harsh winter weather. My shoveling service dumped piles of snow on them and they returned as marvelous as ever.
I should aslo give a shout out to crab apple trees. Many colors, deep apple blossom scent and a long season as different varieties blossom at different times. They brighten the ladder of our day to day life and ask for a little water.Mine also get a little neem oil spray to harmlessly combat the pests!
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