I am desperate for fall.
Desperate for the humidity to leave.
Longing for the incessant drone of the window air conditioners to stop.
Dreaming of a day without those miserable summer colds.
And almost giddy at the thought of lighting some huge, smelly cinnamon/pumpkin/harvest spice bomb candles while sipping hot tea.
And I really miss my jeans and boots. A lot.
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The winner of the Silpada jewelry giveaway is….
Congratulations and I am fully expecting pics of you and your bling! 
Last October, I wrote about visiting 1213 Hair Studio at the invitation of Kelly, the owner. She liked my photographs and wanted me – someone who uses irrigation as a car wash – to photograph her gorgeously chic salon.
My computer burned up from responding so fast.
I loved everything about this place, but it is pretty far away from our farm and with M.K. being a baby it was difficult to justify getting away just for my hair.
But if you have curly hair, you know just how frustrating it can be and this summer I’d grown sick of ponytails. My husband had grown really sick of my ponytails.
From Facebook updates, I learned that 1213 has a “Curly Hair Expert” and from photos of me, I learned that I needed one. And with my “baby” being over a year old… well, it was time to go back to that salon in the big city.
I liked it so much that I not only took a cell phone pic of myself but made Keith take photos of me at home… and then I splashed them unabashedly all over Facebook.
For anyone who has known me in real life they know that – for me – having silky, frizz-free, NORMAL hair is something to get excited over. I feel like it’s Christmas.
And so is this place.
I’m going back. Forever and ever. It can be my one day-away-from-home indulgence. I think all women need that sometimes.
When I married this serious, mature man I knew what I was getting…
I knew I was getting a man who had spent half a lifetime NOT wearing a wedding ring and who probably never would.
So I spent a few (and I do mean just a few) bucks on a plain silver band just to have something at our back porch ceremony among the fallen November leaves. The man wouldn’t even consider going to a jewelry store… I had to print out a ring sizer off the internet and measure his finger that way. It was just a few dollars, I wouldn’t even care if it got lost.
But he did end up wearing it. A lot. And it has beautiful dings and scratches and nicks that show how hard he works because he loves us so much.
So I spent a little more money on this ring today because this husband of mine left his two dollar ring in the shower on our vacation and the motel owners saw me coming a mile away and charged me thirty dollars to return it.
I paid it. I just couldn’t bear to let go of this ring that I refused to invest much money in so that I wouldn’t care if it got lost. I could not let it go. I won’t be quite settled until we get it back. It has dings and scratches and nicks that I love, you know.
To make me feel better and brighten my day, my friend Jennifer at Silpada Designs (she also has a way-cool advertisement on the left over there) is letting me give away these earrings.
I love these! I love the design, I love the size… I would wear these with almost anything.
In addition, Jennifer says that for anyone who books a Silpada show in September or October she is throwing in an additional $50 in free jewelry on top of the already fabulous freebies they get as a standard!
To enter, click on “comments” and tell me about something you have of sentimental value… or what color the sky is, or your favorite smell or – well, anything in the world. Just tell me somethin’!
The winner of the random drawing will be announced on Thursday, August 26th at 12:00pm EST.
Good luck!
