Eugenia Kim

Since my hairdresser's been on maternity leave, and I've had two traumatic cuts that I've had to fix up by myself afterwards (my haircutting skills are pretty much on par with my knitting skills -- ok from afar, but a little scary up close), I've been a little obsessed with hats. I've noticed that even in winter here, I seem to be the only person wearing knit hats. Ok, nevermind the fact that it's 65 degrees and sunny on a cold day, or that I've been getting headaches from overheating my head, but hats are cute! And they look a lot better than my hair does nowadays.

I've always been an admirer of Eugenia Kim, the hat designer. I love the fact that her business started from an attempt to hide a bad haircut (yes, that in particular resonates with me), and that she's very accident-prone (see the Design Philosophy section). I have a particular affinity for knit hats, and of those in her collection, I'm a fan of the Heather cable knit hat. Being knitty myself, I love the chunkiness of it and the way she's able to put a little edge into cables, which can often come off as being a little too precious. I am also impressed with the fact that she can charge $190 for the hat, which is about as much as I would have to pay someone to wear one of mine. Here's more on Eugenia if you're interested. It's a good thing for us that she didn't become a doctor (nevermind the accident-prone thing).

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Top Coat

What is it about a sunset that looks so '70s? They're beautiful, of course, but once you snap a picture you can't help but want to feather your hair with your portable butane curling iron. And then you start to think you need to print cursive writing Deep-Thoughts-style over it. Whatever. I just wanted to show you what we do in the winter in San Diego. This picture was from earlier this month. The alien-like figure on the right is my daughter.

So I've been sick now since December. Most recently, my doctor prescribed me a nasal spray called FloNase, which is just as sexy as it sounds. At first I didn't read the instructions that you were supposed to squirt and inhale at the same time and then breathe out of your mouth, so basically everything came right back out when I exhaled. I had seen the instructions but kind of thought, what kind of idiot needs instructions to use a nasal spray? And maybe it was not such a good idea to get in the ocean in the middle of winter.

On to more important things. I haven't done my fingernails in a long time, but living in an open-toed culture year-round, I do mostly make sure my toenails are painted. For the past 10 years I've been a Seche Vite type of top-coat girl, but it was always kind of a pain to get. Easier here in SoCal than in other places (we have a ton of beauty supply stores that stock them, but for me, that involves putting two kids into the car, doing four sets of buckles, driving them there, undoing four sets of buckles, dragging them out of the car and across the street, making sure they don't eat/break/pilfer the hair nets/wig glue/bobby pins at the beauty supply store, finding the Seche Vite, paying for it, dragging them back across the street to the car...you get it), but regardless I still have to go out of my way to get it. And it is wonderful -- long-lasting, salon-looking finish that's super duper shiny. So I was pleasantly surprised to discover that at a fraction of the price, and available at your local [insert retail location where you go to buy food, toilet paper, contact lens solution], the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-Chip Top Coat is a winner. Not as gloppy as Seche Vite, it dries in 30 seconds and keeps a solid, shiny finish for a long, long time. I've converted.