Last week we spent some time in Washington DC, because NYBoy had a meeting with someone at the National Postal Museum.

While we were there, we check out a couple of the other Smithsonian museums – the American History Museum and the National History Museum… and as is compulsory in any town which permits it… the ZOO!

Museum is such a funny word, everytime I type it, I get the feeling I’m misspelling it – just because it looks so weird.

I have lots of pictures, and they will be up sometime but I can’t promise when! I still need to find some way of moving them off my camera without the cables!!!

I dyed my hair back to its original color too.

Summer sun was lightening the brown too much and some strands were almost blonde. It didn’t look very healthy.

So, I dyed it as close to my natural color as possible and am trying to cut down on my appliance-aided drying and styling.

My hair has so much natural volume (i.e. POUF), my head looks small and I feel like a kid again.

Hopefully this week I’ll get to fit in a hair appointment at Bumble & Bumble’s uptown salon in NYC, I loved it the last time I got my hair cut there and the lady who did it gave me a card after, so I can come back whenever I’m in New York.

I know it has no effect on how I shop (I go crazy shopping no matter what my hair looks like) but I want nice hair for FNO.

I have an invite from Ferragamo to go to their in-store party and meet the people who work at their office here, so I am definitely going to try to look my best.

Work tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday.

FNO on Thursday night.

Dallas, TX on Friday.

So you know where I’ve disappeared to.

I could NOT live without this stuff. I first read about it on MUA years ago when I was still living in Brunei, and this stuff was so hard to find all the way out there. I finally tracked it down at a store that imported hair products (Winmark anyone? haha I love that shop), I paid a huge BND$70 for this!!

I finished up two tubes, and stopped using it for a while, but I was in New York over easter break and me and NYBoy were browsing the aisles of CVS, as you do on Sunday afternoon. It was a few days before we were to fly back to Scotland, and I wanted to stock up on toiletries not available here – like Secret Scent Expressions deodorant, who doesn’t want their underarms to smell like vanilla? Anyway, so I found (or rather REfound) this! And it was only USD$14.19… Looks like I got ripped off big time in Brunei.

At the time, I had just redyed my hair using L’Oreal’s 10-minute system and it was cracking. I’m not even talking just split-ends, it was breaking on strands up to halfway up the hair shaft. So I was desperate. And…

I LOVE THIS STUFF.

Before I brought this back with me, I was using a combo of Bumble&Bumble Defrizz and Redken Fresh Curls Curl Refiner on my hair after washing and before blowdrying. I’ve switched the curl refiner for Potion 9, and my hair is so much softer, and I think the condition’s slowly improving.

Would definitely recommend it, I don’t know why I stopped using it in the first place. I’ve heard the new packaging makes it even easier to use.

It figures, I buy it in its old form not knowing it has a new and improved look!

In other news; today is a cranky day. NYBoy finds things in the news funny, WHO FINDS THE NEWS FUNNY?!

I hate having to wait until the punchline to point out that I don’t find it funny, when I know about 2 words in that it’s his kinda funny and not mine. I am in SUCH a bad mood, I feel guilty that he gets it taken out on him all the time haha.

I ❤ NYBoy, I really do.

I always start to feel a little down towards the middle of the week; I think it’s because I save all my Arabic work for Monday, so I spend Monday and Tuesday obsessively working on it, and by Wednesday I am T-I-R-E-D.

So when I woke up this morning, I figured I deserve to spend a little extra time on clothes and makeup, and I dug out my favorite skirt of all time (from a sale at Bershka!) and yellow + bronze eyeshadow from the Too Faced makeup music box I got from NYBoy back in January.

… and then I went out to do my ticket selling duty for the Management society talk coming up, and the wind messed up my hair.

Nice.

By the time I got home after ticket selling and an Arabic class, NYBoy was hopping around my room with excitement, playing music on my guitar (which he can’t play) to psych me up for my … BRAND NEW LAPTOP!!!!!

I have a 2.4Ghz Macbook with 4GB of ram, I don’t know what I need that for except to play Sims 2 (and possibly in the near future Sims 3!!!!), but it sounds impressive, doesn’t it?!!

I am so obsessed with Mac dashboard widgets. I have pink fairylights, a virtual pet, a hawaiian dashboard doll, an epicurious recipe search thing, the weather forecast, twitter updates blah blah blah…. I LOVE IT. My laptop is so pimped out.

I would take screenshots to show it off, but I haven’t got Photoshop installed on this machine yet and I don’t know whether mac’s come with standard photo editing software? Still a newbie.

And when I’m not pimping out my laptop, I’m on my iPhone playing Hell’s Kitchen.

I feel like such a geek today.

I love this.

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So I have spent all of the last week studying Arabic, and woke up early this morning to keep studying for my oral exam; only to be emailed at around 9 that the exam had been canceled.

WHAT?

First I was ecstatic.

Then worried, because how else are they going to make up the 20%?

Then slightly peeved because apparently it’s being moved to next semester, which means I’m going to have to spend my semester break in Amsterdam continuing to study Arabic (so I don’t get rusty), while the friends I’m going with get to chill out, because their exams are over! Not good.

So to cheer me up a little, because this change of plans has compleeeteeellyy thrown my plan of forgetting about university completely for a while after my last exam tomorrow – I’m ordering overpriced Japanese food.

And tomorrow to cheer me up even more after my last (until beginning of next semester) exam, I’m going to try out the Phytospecific hair relaxer that I got at Sephora, because blowing out my hair everytime I wash it to get the kinks out takes up too much of my precious, precious time. I could be watching TV instead.

I’m thinking of trying out Baked’s recipe for Sweet and Salty cake tomorrow after my exam too. I LOVED Starbucks’ christmassy salted caramel hot chocolate, and the recipe sounds like it’s cakey sibling.

He painstakingly dyed it brown and then I went to bumble&bumble in NYC
and got it cut! Best experience EVER.

Christmas is coming up and I know NYBoy has got me presents, so the past few days have been spent trying to figure out what they could possibly be!! Slowly ruling out possibilities based on what he’s already gotten me over the past 8 months and what else there could possibly be TO get me?!

Which led me to thinking of what presents I’ve gotten over the past few years that I still love today as much as I did when I first got them. And I’ve been trying to rank them in my head, which is hard when you have the memory of a goldfish. So my love of ordered lists and presents, leads me to….

MY LIST OF TOP 10 BEST GIFTS EVER!!!!

10. Tall black UGG boots

I like them, they keep my toesies warm. Not waterproof and snowproof though. Buying the special sprays and cleaning tools helped, but they still get a little soggy when it starts drizzling outside.

9. Disney Monopoly

I am a MONOPOLY FREAK. I love it. I love pretending I’m rich and going insane and throwing money around when somebody cheats me out of MY RENT on MY PROPERTY. I always win, because if I don’t there will be hell to pay.

Disney Monopoly is even more fun than normal monopoly because I can be insanely rich AND a princess. Cooool.

8. Sleepless in Seattle DVD

My favooorrriiiteee movie in the whole world. I watch it all the time.

7. MAC Mineralize Satinfinish Foundation

[LINK]

Good for faking a healthy glow when you’re actually really pasty and haven’t seen the sun for more than an hour a day for about 4 months. I can’t live without this stuff now that I’ve started using it.

6. Flight to New York

No explanation needed. NEW YORK HERE I COME!!!!!

5. Necklace from Tiffany’s (Heart link lariat)

[LINK]

Since I first got this, I haven’t taken it off. I love it, and that says a lot because I don’t usually wear necklaces.

4. Fish (Puppy & Kitten) and their baby biorb tank

I love animals. I never thought I’d love fish as much as I love puppy and kitten, they brighten up my day I don’t even mind the loud buzzing their filter system makes in the middle of the night anymore.

3. Pink iPod

Apple products move so quickly that my iPod is now quite the vintage model, but it still works, and it’s still pink. I never leave the house without it.

2. Louis Vuitton bag

I remember coming out of my last exam sooo worn out and being brought to Edinburgh on a completely spontaneous trip (I didn’t even have my purse on me!), we walked around looking at bags and I fell in LOVE with this one. Perfect size and so so so so cute. And I got it. Right there. Probably one of the most expensive things I own, it didn’t actually settle in that I had an LV dangling off my arm until like a week later.

SUCH GOOD QUALITY! I once forgot to screw the cap on a bottle of water tight enough (because I do things like that) and I put it in my bag and didn’t realize it had leaked everywhere until I reached in for my wallet because LV bags don’t leak?!?! There was a few inches of water swirling around at the bottom but none on the outside of the bag. Ridiculous. I LOVE IT!!!!

1. T3 Evolution Hairdryer

I LOVE THIS!!!! I got it for my birthday this year because NYBoy knows how much of a struggle living with curly hair is. It’s super pricey for a hairdryer but it makes so much difference, definitely definitely worth it. I only pull my straightener out when I feel like going super sleek now, whereas I used to use it everyday on my bangs at least. The T3 on its own fixes my bangs, and I got it with the diffuser and 3 brushes.

The diffuser is great for drying my hair and maintaining the natural wave, although less tangled and more defined, and the brushes are good for blowing out my bangs and sorting out the tangles at the tips of my hair when I’ve just woken up.

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There are so many other things I could add to the list but those are the things I love most!

Christmas shopping is soooo much hassle. I’ve picked out the most amazing present for NYBoy, the only problem now is putting together enough money to be able to buy it in time for it to be delivered before Christmas eve!!

It’s now just over a week until we leave for New York, and the excitement and nervousness is starting to make me REALLY antsy. I hope everything goes well!!! After the disaster that was last Christmas I’m a little less than optimistic. But it’s a different country and different people – so it may turn out really well.

I hope everyone else’s Christmas shopping is going well!!!

We get a whole week off, and we’re supposed to be mature enough to spend all of it productively. HAHA.

On Monday, me, NYBoy and a couple of the people I live with went to Edinburgh for some all you can eat Chinese food! I also got a new checked button down shirt from H&M which I have decided is my “curly hair day” shirt, Hello Kitty wet wipes for my purse (the entire section was Hello Kitty, I knew I had to buy something, but there was nothing I really needed!) and new makeup.

I LOVE my new makeup.

I’ve never really been big on foundation – I’ve never had problematic skin, so I never felt the need to put an extra layer of makeup over it? It’s one of the things I’ve been lucky with, but all the goodness that comes from having good skin is canceled out by the badness of having naturally curly hair. Anyway… I walked right up to the MAC counter and confidently announced I wanted to try foundation.

“Liquid or not?” Uhhhh…

“Mineral or otherwise?” What???

I had to explain to the very nice makeup lady that I have never tried foundation before! I have some very sheer NARS pressed powder, but it doesn’t show up much and I only use it because it makes my skin soft.

So she sat me in a chair and tested different kinds of makeup on my jawline and I fell in lovveee with this. She tried to convince me to buy a £25 brush too, but I’m not made of money so I figure my fingers will do the job until I save up a little to buy a brush!

It makes me look so tanned and my skin practically glows! Both of which are pretty noteworthy achievements seeing as I live in a country where the sun begins to set at 3 in the afternoon and I get hardly any sun through the clouds. I LOVE IT.

I might just be a girl, but the right makeup brightens up even the worst days

* I also got this and this from SpaceNK, and I think I may just have found a brand to replace (or be alternated with) my beloved Redken. I love getting super girly treats