Grey Jeans for Less

I usually don't aimlessly go to the local mall, but on a night when the Eagles are playing an evening game and traffic is impossible, it's a great way to kill time before heading home from work.

Now, I love to shop, but ironically, I do not like to shop without a purpose, mainly because it has the potential to really throw off my budget. To help keep myself on track, I only let myself go to H&M and Forever 21 (I can kill a lot of time in both). H&M has some killer fall options - I am a big fan of mixing tough basics with softer pieces, and they have a nice mix of both available, but I needed none of it. On to Forever!

My weakness at Forever 21 is their denim. For those of you who don't know me, I used to be a designer denim snob. Major. $300 for Diesel jeans? No problem. My pug is named Diesel. When my entire life changed four years ago, I bought one last pair of jeans as a farewell to designer denim and vowed to not buy them again for a very long time. I was thrilled to find that Forever 21 makes jeans with an amazing fit. They literally work on every body type and last forever. They truly are the sisterhood of the traveling pants. Slowly, I have turned even my most cynical friends from various financial backgrounds into Forever 21 denim devotees. Given my praise for Forever denim, you can imagine how excited I was to see their jeans were on sale for $7.80. I do not need jeans. But the sale included grey jeans - a color I do not have, but have been lusting for. 

Hm. What's a girl to do? If you're me and have about 25 jeans in a variety of colors, you sleep on it. Then you wake up at 4 a.m. and look at images of grey jeans on Pinterest. Then you decide you must go to the mall over lunch and that you can't live without grey jeans, and for $7.80, you should have just bought them on day one. Lesson learned and grey jeans purchased! 

Short Hair=Instant Regret

Hair has never been a big deal to me. In fact, I've had really short hair most of my life. Within recent years, I've worn my hair long, and really like it. Every now and then, I chop it and donate it, and then I grow it long again...only to repeat the chop, donate, grow cycle all over again. 

In June, I had just moved and was in the mood to change everything about my life. The moment my hair length shortened, I instantly regretted it, mainly because my hair takes forever to grow. I have no idea why I didn't embrace my new look this time, but I did not...not even a little bit. 

After doing some research, I decided to start taking Biotin, Fish Oil supplements (something my eye doctor has been telling me to do anyway) and established a firm every other day (at least) hair washing routine in a futile attempt to speed up my hair growth. Now you can go online and research which fish oil supplement works best and what brand Biotin you should use and pay an arm and a leg to get something fancy, but I am cheap and went straight to my local CVS and bought their generic versions. Also, I experimented with about three different types of dry shampoo during this time. Big Sexy Hair Volumizing dry shampoo was by far my favorite, with Tresemme's option leaving my hair smelling okay, but looking worse than before I used their product. 

I started the regimen above in early June. It's late Setember and time to take stock of my efforts. Obviously, I have no idea if any of those things actually helped my hair grow, but trust me, the growth I've experienced over the last three months is highly unusual for me. I am super excited that I have some added length and will definitely think long and hard before chopping it all off again! 

Have you tried any unusual supplements to make your hair grow? Multiple people told me to take pre-natal vitamins, but even my hair stylist debunked that myth (it's pregnancy hormones, not the vitamins that can be credited to pregnancy hair growth). 

My People

For those of you who read my old blog, you'll remember my absolutely love for "my people," or the craft fair vendors I frequent each fall. Fall craft fair season is my absolute favorite, as I simply can't have enough knits and/or leather in my life. 

Enter Bad Kitty Knits! Available on Etsy and central PA craft fairs, Bad Kitty Knits sells a really cool selection of knit cowl neck warmers, fingerless gloves, shawls, really cool knit and woven jewelry and, my favorite - head wraps. Super psyched to have gotten these two beauties for $23 yesterday!