Spring is such sweet, sweet relief. No more slushy boots, no more icy roads.

I’ve put away my nice warm boots and I’m back in Converse (photo from Amazon.com). So is the teenaged assistant at the kids’ karate class, which worries me: do Converse bridge the generations, or is one of us off our mark?

I like the Burt’s Bees tinted lip balms: I keep one in my pocket and use it like regular chapstick, but I like the little bit of color. When I bought the Sweet Violet (photo from Amazon.com), I’d expected a purpley color for fall—but it’s more of a lilac-pink, perfect for spring.
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I’ve been experimenting with doing my hair in casual updos, and what has become abundantly apparent to me is that I need more clippy/pinny things (and also more strength/flexibility in the armular region, but one thing at a time). I have a large clip; and I have two smaller clips that together are just barely enough to hold up my hair; and I have a side-claw clip. Annnnd….that’s about it. Oh, and I have an assortment of barrettes and elastics, too, and some hairpins I’ve never successfully used for structural support.

I don’t want to go too wild with decorativeness. Or rather, I DO, but I’m worried it’ll take the look from “Casual Updo” to “Thinks She’s Going to the Prom.”

On the other hand, something fully practical like the Caravan Thick-Hair Tortoiseshell Barrette (photo from Amazon.com) in my shopping cart doesn’t exactly stir the soul. What I’d like to find is some clips that are sensible (i.e., hold up big chunks of hair comfortably) but also pleasing (i.e., PRETTY)—without overdoing it (i.e., PROM). It’s a fun challenge.

I noticed that Caravan hair clips were in general getting good reviews, so I browsed that section longer and found some good possibilities. The Tortoiseshell Flowers barrette (photo from Amazon.com) seems like exactly the sort of thing I’m looking for: the tortoiseshell makes it casual/plain and goes well with my shades-of-brown-and-blonde hair, and the flower shape makes it a little prettier than a rectangular barrette.
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I’ve been considering a tattoo. At this point, I don’t know if I’ll actually get one, or if I’ll get one and then get lots more, or if I’ll decide I don’t want one after all, or if it will be something I’ll dither about for the rest of my life.

For now, I am having fun experimenting with temporary tattoos. It’s a good way to experiment with size and placement and whether I actually LIKE art on my skin, and it’s been fun to go to the pool and have all the other parents wondering if I actually have a big unicorn on my upper arm. I’m totally lying: I have not gone to the pool with a temporary tattoo. It’s because I’m worried people will either (1) think it’s real or (2) know it isn’t, but think I think they think it is.

But! We’ve been having fun with them at home. The ones I bought the most of are only $1.50 a book (they’re small books—those little Dover ones that are about the size of a notecard), and contain about the same square inchage of tattooage whether there are 4 largeish ones or 20 small ones. Amazon has them on their “4-for-3″ deal, so if you buy four books, one of them will automatically be free. If you buy eight books, two will be free. And so on. (Make sure you check each listing to make sure that one has the “4-for-3″ deal mentioned under Special Offers. All the ones I got did—but there are other sellers selling things on Amazon, and of course theirs don’t qualify.) All photos below are from Amazon.

Henna tattoos. This combines the tattoo fascination I’ve never acted on with the henna fascination I’ve never acted on. I also got the Henna Paisley and the Henna Floral ones.
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Okay, PROBLEM: remember when I did the post on cheap but good brand stuff, and I mentioned my favorite Dove face moisturizer and then expressed panic that it seemed to be gone from their web site, and then Andrea said YES, her sister emailed Dove around Christmastime and the face stuff is discontinued?

So I panicked and went to all the stores around here looking for stuff that might still be on the shelves, but it has been too long and it is GONE. So I looked on eBay, which is where I sometimes get good deals on the discontinued Bath & Body Works lavender-vanilla conditioner I like so much—but no, the sellers are still in their “Ha ha, we took the opportunity to buy up something we heard was being discontinued so now you can’t get anywhere else! Nyah-nyah, pay us $50 for a $6 moisturizer, LOSERS!!” stage, which is such a cute stage but it won’t last long. (In the beginning, eBay sellers were trying to sell SAMPLE bottles of the lavender-vanilla conditioner for TEN DOLLARS EACH—but I recently got four full-sized bottles for less than twenty.)

In any case, I don’t feel about the discontinued Dove moisturizer the way I felt about the discontinued lavender-vanilla conditioner (transcript of my reaction to the news of the discontinued lavender-vanilla conditioner: “OH GOD WHY HAST THOU FORSAKEN ME?????”). I wouldn’t go so far as to say I “don’t mind” switching face moisturizers, but I DO mind messing around on eBay, and I don’t have the “I can’t find anything similar” feeling I had about The Particular Beloved Lavender Scent.

But which to try?
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Every so often, someone will do a post on things they will/won’t buy generic. I am strictly brand-name on things like lotion and body wash and conditioner—but I’m CHEAP brand-name, which seems like it could be its own category. Like, I buy only brand-name face moisturizer, but the brands I like cost less than $10 a bottle; that seems different than only using La Mer.

So today I’d like to talk about the things we like that are brand-name but CHEAP.

1. Dove Deep Moisture face lotion (photo from Amazon.com). I don’t have a link for this one, and it is for a panicky reason: I saw it on Amazon for, like, $40 a bottle by non-Amazon sellers, and there’s no way I’m linking to that crazy talk because it’s usually $7 a bottle. So I went to the Dove site to get a link from there instead and THE FACE LOTION IS NOWHERE ON THE SITE. Does this mean it’s…gone? I last bought it when it was on a good sale, and I got three bottles of it so I haven’t needed to buy it for a long time.
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My mother needs to choose a gift for a 15-year-old girl who likes lip gloss, jewelry, her pet beagle, and Harry Potter. My mom is not fond of choosing gifts and I am, so I’m helping. And I’m posting, because if I’m doing the legwork anyway, it might be something you can use if you have a similar mission and would like to save the research time for something else.

Harry Potter Charm Bracelet by Islandgirlzjewelry on Etsy. I like the way it’s pretty and colorful even when you’re too far away to tell that it’s Harry-Potter-themed.
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I had such a nice Christmas! Paul gave me these sweet earrings:

(Bird Girl earrings from Marmar on Etsy) (photo from the shop)

and the new Lynda Barry book I would have had to buy for myself if I hadn’t gotten it as a gift, because I couldn’t wait ONE MORE MINUTE:
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I have been MOODY and GRUMPY recently, and so I have been buying a number of little things that seem like they’d increase the cheer levels around here.

Zak Designs Happy Spoon (photo from Amazon.com). These are about $5.00 each online, but I sometimes find them at Home Goods, TJMaxx, and Marshalls for $2.50 each (or, on one happy occasion, on clearance for $1.00 each). There are also cheeky (winking) and surprised designs, but I only like the smilies. I have them in white, green, and orange so far, and I bought one each of red, white, orange, and green for my cousin for a wedding present. (The $5.00ish shipping for a single spoon is daunting, but it’s not per spoon: that is, if you order, say, four spoons, the shipping is $8.00ish. And the set of one cheeky and one smiling is free shipping.)

Cheap fun glasses (photo from ZenniOptical.com). Eight bucks a pair, baby. I ordered a bunch of pairs a couple of months ago and have been very happy with them: they’re just as good as the prescription glasses I got at the optician’s office. So I ordered a few more pairs, including the ones above. You’ll need your prescription to order, but your optician will have that on file and it’s easy to get a copy (call or stop by—the prescription is right in your file and legally belongs to you). A little trickier is getting your PD, which I think stands for pupillary distance: the optician measures it but it’s not part of the prescription so you have to ask for it separately.
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I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s trying to cut back on superfluous spending lately—cramped budgets! Looming holidays! Insane daycare costs! Medical co-payments! Babysitters! Pants for my son who keeps getting taller but not wider so nothing ever fits, ever!—so I thought it would be fun, and possibly even useful, to share a few of the things we’ve bought lately that have been worth every penny and then some. Caveat: these have to be things we’ve bought for ourselves, not for our kids, okay?

I’ll go first:
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Can we talk about hair-care products? You know, AGAIN? It’s one of my favorite subjects, really, second only to zombies. If only there was a magical juxtaposition of the living dead and a really wonderful styling lotion . . . it could be called Straaaaaaiiiiiiggght and maybe the packaging could feature this awesome photo.

Anyway! Here is a list of my top favorite hair products, in no particular order:
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