secrets of a stylist: i love lucy.
Hope you all had a wonderful week and enjoyed a looooong weekend! It's been a comedy special around here with hints of I Love Lucy! WARNING: this post contains blood, feet, and a lot of F-bombs.
Growing up there wasn't many redheads on TV so when I found one, I definitely took notice. I fell in love with Lucille Ball at a very young age. Her beautiful porcelain skin against those stunning red locks and her ability to make people laugh was undeniable. She was an inspiration for sure. She was sooooo funny. Not only her words, but her physical comedy was amazing!
Thursday, I was walking up the steps from my living room to the entryway and caught my second toe (the one adjacent to my big toe) on the lip of the step and face planted onto the tile. Thankfully, my hands caught me and I didn't smack my face and knock all my teeth out. It hurt like a MOFO. Zoe came running up to me as I sat there stunned, hair all askew, cussing. I looked up and Stella was on the couch just staring at me with her cute little handlebar ears (the ones she gets when she spots a bug on the ground). I was so pissed and in pain, but I couldn't help but think of what it must've looked like and was kind of disappointed that nobody was here (but the dogs) to witness it. I laughed out loud. It felt like a Lucille Ball moment. I don't think my toe is broken, just very very bruised... a bad case of "toe jam". :)
My poor toe.
My sweet Zoe who came to my rescue!
Awhile ago, I ordered these health test things for Jeff and I called Viome and had wanted to do them since they arrived. So I decided Saturday was the day! We got everything all laid out on the kitchen island and read the instructions AND watched the video! I wanted to make sure I did it right. First up is a poop sample...we will skip over that part. You are welcome. Next up is taking a blood sample where you prick your finger with one of those little gun things and then fill up 4 minivettes (a tiny tube with a plunger on it) of blood to transfer to a couple of vials....easy. Just put the tip of the minivette up to the drop of blood and it will fill up all by itself. Like magic.
The instructions...look at how easy that is.
Well, after pricking my ring finger and squeezing the daylights out of it, I could barely get enough blood for one, let alone 4! So I pricked the inside of my middle finger with another gun thing (they send you two!) and again, only a little came out. I did the whole windmill arm thing trying to increase my circulation- nothing! So now I'm out of little prickers and only one minivette left that hasn't clogged. I had ordered 3 kits total so I dug into the 3rd one and grabbed out another gun thing and this time I prick the center of my middle finger and it's ON. I didn't want it to stop bleeding so I told Jeff to squeeze it while I frantically got the minivette up to it. Blood is everywhere.... it's running down my hand and I think there's more on Jeff than going into the minivette. I need 2 more minivettes but they're in the box so I have to find them with one hand and open the little bag with my mouth! He tells me to put the tip of the thing by the hole but there's so much blood that I don't even know where that is anymore. But, we did it. And all I could think was...Why didn't we video tape this? So stressful but so funny! Can't you just picture Lucy doing this and passing out in between pricks when she looks at her finger??
Not a scene from I Love Lucy but so random....
This week I had a video meeting with a stylist from West Elm. It's a free service they offer their cardholders and I thought, why not? I have wanted to redo my office for awhile but I feel stuck. There's so much stuff in there I may actually need a professional organizer instead of a designer! After visiting with the (much younger) consultant, I gave her a quick tour of my home so she could see my style and not just the cluttered office space. And her response..."It's like I Love Lucy meets West Elm!" I laughed and thought- "What a nice thing to say!" and "Who is this girl?" I texted Jeff what she had said and his response was... "Is that a compliment?" Ha! Is it? I think so.
My current office. So. Much. Stuff. Please don't judge me.
One of my favorite things about Lucy is that she didn't seem to take herself too seriously. As a fellow redhead, I needed her in my life to find solace when the kids at school would call me Glow Worm (do you remember that toy?) or Casper the Ghost or other remarks about my skin or hair color. I was called carrot top by teachers and other adults too. I only thought it was endearing when my dad called me that as a little little kid...and now, of course. :)
stylist tip: Embrace your uniqueness! The things that make each one of us different are the exact things we should be celebrating! After many years of dying my hair and many attempts at self tanner, I'm finally, truly, embracing my ginger-ness. I haven't colored my hair in years and I don't use self tanner or sit in a bath of Lipton tea...I totally tried this as a kid! I would do ANYTHING to make my skin tan!
My favorite Lucille Ball quote: "Love yourself first and everything else falls into line."
Did you know that redheads are considered unicorns?
stylist secret: I smoked cigarettes for over 20 years and a few years ago, I quit cold turkey. On my 30 day mark of no smoking, I wandered into this little boutique in Denver and found a bracelet that says "I'm a fucking unicorn". I bought it as a little reward for myself for making it that far. And I've worn it every day since. It reminds me that no matter what I am going through, I can do it. Because I'm a fucking unicorn.
These are on my wrist everyday. The unicorn one is by Lux + Luca. The black and silver one says "Fuck Cancer" in Morse Code and I wear it for my friend Kim who is fighting breast cancer. She is also a fucking unicorn (not in the ginger way but in the strong magical way).
I used the app called Smoke Free to help me quit. It tracks your progress, you can write and share your goals, get support, see how your health is improving, and it gives you challenges to accomplish. It made a huge difference in my ability to quit for good.
As you can see, it's been 3 years, 8 months, and 2 days since my last cigarette. This is the same as 1,340 days, 32,178 hours, or 1,930,709 minutes. Guess how many cigarettes I HAVE NOT smoked? 20,112! Twenty fucking thousand...are you kidding me?????
I changed the mantra on the app to my favorite reminder. :)
Speaking of unicorns....check out this video by Tim Minchin...soooo funny!
Watch one of my favorite Lucy episodes is here.
Thanks for reading! What's your unique characteristic that you love about yourself? Or should love!? Any other favorite redheads out there? My second ginger love was Molly Ringwald in Sixteen Candles (still a favorite movie of mine).
Until next time, cheers! xo tina (aka a fucking unicorn)