Gray Hair Update and December Christmas Shopping Mission

I know, I know, I really need to get Les to take a proper photo of me and my gray hair. I'm remarkably bad at self portraits, especially with the built-in laptop camera. BUT, I really wanted to update the blog, and we don't have internet at our little house yet, and we're currently ganking internet from a lovely, bustling little Starbucks in downtown Raleigh so I decided to just go for it. I don't foresee myself having a lot of blog time at work in the near future.

But there it is; full-out gray. That light color streak you see is really a shock of white-gray hair. And it is not alone. I'm 10 months into the gray experiment and I think it is safe to say I no longer have gray roots. I have gray hair. Not really even salt-and-pepper in a traditional sense. I have wide slabs of gray that lay thick across my head and hide nestled under my part. Those slabs, plus about 1,000 individual gray rogues sprinkled throughout the rest of my head. And I kind of like it. I don't love the way the gray hair is coarse and wiry, but I like the look of it overall. I just wish I didn't feel like it makes me look like I'm creeping up 64 rather than 34.

Anyway. It is what it is, and I generally like what it is.

Shifting gears here, I also wanted to go on record with my Christmas gift plan. This year, with a few very select exceptions, I will challenge myself to buy only Christmas gifts that meet one of the following 3 criteria:

1. Handmade/crafted AND I HAVE MET or CORRESPONDED with the maker - i.e. - Etsy is OK, but random department store "hand crafted" does not
2. Produced within 100 miles of either Chicago or Raleigh and I BOUGHT IT in one of those two locations (bonus, there are some really awesome things made around here, and around Chicago)
3. Somehow directly supports or promotes an organization that I trust and whose social practices I would endorse

I've already found some lovely gems that meet these rules, so I'm encouraged. And I don't have kids (or a hubby) pining after any particular gifts, so I've lucked out in that regard. I confess that last month I did buy Les a couple of things from a Big Store, but they were from a store that stores pretty well on the Good Guide, so I felt OK about it at the time. From now on, I'll be a stickler. Even if it means hours of agony over what to get my in-laws...

I'll let you know what treasures I find!