I’m a dork

A Pregnancy Haircut Before Birth? Gulp.

February 23, 2012 By Lisa Leave a Comment

Today I had an all-important doctor’s appointment to get my 39-week Are-you-ready-to-give-birth-yet? check (that crazy update will occur with tomorrow’s post complete with belly pics). As I stood up from the table, I noticed the mirror on the back of the exam room’s door. (Have you all noticed this, too? Why do doctor’s exam rooms each have mirrors on the back of their doors? What the heck? Anyhoo…)

When I stood up, I noticed in the mirror that my layered hair was slightly tucked behind my ears, with my long layers to the back and my short layers draped over my shoulders, basically making me look like I had a long bob. It suddenly hit me… that’s not a bad look for a haircut! I grabbed my Droid and snapped a quick pic, so you can help me be the judge:

What do you think of that length? I’ve had a length similar to this before, but I have GOT to be honest, after the Epicly Uncool Hair Fiasco of 2009 (and pretty much every year we’ve moved and I’ve had to find a new salon), I’m a bit gun-shy in the not-wanting-to-be-butchered department. Because I have skillz in the hair-butchered department. I am the Bermuda Triangle of bad cuts, y’know.

I’m also a wee bit nervous about such a drastic change just before giving birth. If I cut it short, it might not go back into a clip or ponytail as easy, and those first few weeks at home, convenience is goooood. But I’m also concerned about the Vulcan Death Grip fingers newborns are born with, and the whole hair-pulling thing, which is why I’m leaning towards “yes” as to getting it chopped.

This time, though, I would probably not get layers, I would probably just stick with the bob. Maybe a teeny-weeny little bit of layering at the ends, to lighten up the weight to give it a bit more bounce.

Maybe kind-of like the Anne Hathaway ‘do from this post*? Yeah?

Except not red. Noooooot red. I am too tan to pull that off. But the cut? Cute, yeah?

*PS – Don’t know where all the comments went on that hairstyle post. I wish I could access them, you guys had GREAT insight last time I needed your help. Sigh.

First Post. New Blog. Hold Me.

February 9, 2012 By Lisa Leave a Comment

I, Lisa Douglas, did the unimaginable (for me) – I traded in my happy-go-lucky Blogger blog for a shiny new WordPress one, professionally designed (with artwork from moi), and I have to tell you, while the thought of learning this whooooole other platform scares the bejeebus out of me, I couldn’t be more thrilled. And intimidated.

You see, to get into the nitty-gritty of why I chose to make such a drastic move, particularly when I’m featured in a book declaring me a long-time “Blogger-lover,” content to stay on that platform for-ev-er, it’s a long, drawn out, technical, Google-based story. To sum it up, my site wasn’t being recognized by Google, wasn’t searchable anymore, and it was dying, flailing about in the search engine, flopping like a fish struggling to survive on air, to be frank. Nothing I did on Blogger fixed this, either. My only recourse was to drop Blogger like a hot potato and start over.

My blog designer, Greg, did his best to stick with me through 1100+ posts, battling the codes and all the gobbledegook that comes from having four-plus years of someone’s chronicled life being transferred over. He fought valiantly, sleighing the dreaded migration beast. It wasn’t an easy task, being such a mammoth-sized blog and all, and I’m sure there are some hiccups that need remedying, still. But look at her, will you?

I drew the doodles, the notepads, and small icons in the post. Greg, before battling my migration, masterfully designed my logos, coupled with his coding genius, and got my ol’ blog to shine like a new penny, loading ridiculously quick, to boot. My talented artist friend, Robin, designed my signature in her one-of-a-kind handwriting. (I’ll be sharing with you the portrait she made for me once I receive it.)

If you are reading this via reader, email, or some other means other than visiting my site, I invite you to come take a look. Give ‘er a whirl.

What do you think?

(And please let me know if, at once, if you find a link that doesn’t work anymore, or something doesn’t look right. I am doing my best to pour over it one post at a time, but it’s going to take me a bit.)

Princess Doll Cake – The (Almost) Caketastrophe

January 5, 2012 By Lisa 243 Comments

Let this post serve more as a warning to you folks attempting to make your own Princess Doll Cake, m’kay?

Note the strategic blurring of the photo around the edges, particularly the bottom. Don’t ask what happened to the bottom cake. It wasn’t pretty.

First, save yourself some trouble – not every cake needs to be made from scratch. I’m not a big boxed cake fan to begin with, but there are some decent all-natural and organic cake mixes out there you can use. Take my advice, use them. Don’t be like us. Frosting and decorating this monstrosity is enough of a hassle without the added torture of baking a cake entirely from scratch added to it.

Second, be sure to follow directions, especially when it concerns the decorative frosting. Y’know, the frosting you’re not familiar with using, haven’t made in a long time, using all-natural food coloring you’ve never used before. Yeah. That.

Don’t wing it. Read and follow the directions. Completely. And when you get to the part of the directions when it tells you to “let it sit for fifteen minutes” before using it, LET IT SIT FOR FIFTEEN MINUTES. Or else your yellow icing is too drippy to be decorative, and instead of ruffles, you get drips. (See top picture for details.) See how the pinky-white is so much better than the yellow? Yeah. That’s because it sat while I ~~messed up~~ did the yellow. *slaps forehead*

Thirdly, if you use a real doll (as we did), and use a batter bowl (like ours from Pampered Chef), the doll’s feet will stick out below, requiring the need for a second cake to go underneath. By making a second cake, we were able to thwart the foot dangling issue, but for the love of whatever you consider holy, do yourself a favor, and don’t make it look like mine.

(For the doll cake recipe, cooking times and more, go here. And for the doll cake “picks” to use instead of a real doll, to ensure no feet dangling issues, see Wilton’s site for a good selection, or your local crafty store, like Joann’s.)

Also, allow yourself extra frosting, and make sure you use regular frosting on the intended “frosted” parts (those you plan to frost with a knife or spreader, especially on the second cake) or else, be prepared to smear harder-than-normal frosting on the bottom cake. You’ll be left wondering what the H-E-double-hockey-sticks you’re doing, and whether you can take pictures of the top part of the cake without getting the bottom, since it’s a complete and total disaster area. (See below.) *facepalm*

But in the end, it’s actually funny (in an ironic, kind-of way), because the kids actually marveled at the cake. (No really, they did!) ”Wow, mom! You made the cake look like her dress!”

(Even if I didn’t think it looked that great, it sure did to them. Mostly.)

Besides, it was pretty cathartic to hack into that bad-boy once the singing ceased, the appetites were whetted, and the knife was sharp. After all the pain we’d gone through, and mistakes we’d made, seeing the cake being served, and half gone, gave me a weird accomplished sense of pride (and thankfulness the dang thing still tasted good despite being only semi-okay to look at).