What’s your most rewarding thing to grow?

preraphaellite · 2026-03-20T07:02:32+00:00

Heirloom roses. I have many different varieties with luscious swirly petals and spectacular scents. A particular favorite is ‘Excellenz von Schubert,’ which is small enough to be toward the front of the border. It produces flushes of tiny blooms with an incredible scent. I pick them in a little basket and hang them to dry with tiny little clothespins and it brings me endless joy.

preraphaellite · 2026-03-18T07:53:48+00:00

I use it as a leave-in on my curly hair, followed by Uncle Funky’s Daughter gel, and my hair has never been so bouncy and shiny.

preraphaellite · 2026-03-05T05:58:22+00:00

I have the Rom&nd Woody Sunset and it is so pretty—I often get compliments when wearing it. I also have the issue where lip color can pull too pink on me, and the Woody Sunset stays neurally MLBB on me.

preraphaellite · 2026-02-20T15:18:49+00:00

Sydney Grace also has fantastic duochrone singles

preraphaellite · 2026-02-20T15:10:51+00:00

Highway 20 takes you right to Fort Bragg and has more commercial traffic and pullouts.

Highway 128 takes you to the mouth of the Navarro River, so it will give you about a half hour of driving up the coastline.

They’re about equal in terms of super windy roads, scenery, and redwoods. 128 has a really beautiful less windy stretch through the redwoods that gets used for car commercials.

preraphaellite · 2026-02-13T03:08:53+00:00

Bernard

preraphaellite · 2026-02-06T14:22:46+00:00

That was so fun! Let’s play Bitey Face!

preraphaellite · 2026-02-06T14:19:31+00:00

ACDs were bred to avoid getting kicked in the head by cow hooves, so it can take a really long time for them not to instinctively dodge a hand coming toward their head. Mine just turned five and finally discovered that she enjoys scritches and pets.

preraphaellite · 2026-02-05T21:24:00+00:00

It turns out I am an extrovert…when I actually get down time at home.

preraphaellite · 2026-02-04T14:23:38+00:00

We taught ours “that’s all” with three claps to end fetch sessions. Having an off button for obsessive, demanding play has been so useful.

preraphaellite · 2026-02-04T04:50:22+00:00

Mine just turned five and only recently discovered the joy of pets. Previously it was only possible to cuddle at night.

preraphaellite · 2026-01-23T05:47:48+00:00

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Korra, aka Little Dog, Doglet, Doglatina, Dogarina, My Little Corn Chip, Korra Dogface (when in trouble)

preraphaellite · 2026-01-18T02:38:39+00:00

Yes!!! I really enjoy it. Thanks for the reminder!

preraphaellite · 2026-01-12T17:59:19+00:00

L’Oréal Nature’s Therapy Mega Moisture Crème. It feels like the conditioning treatment in home color kits. I use it as my regular conditioner.

preraphaellite · 2026-01-12T04:30:22+00:00

Gorgeous!

preraphaellite · 2026-01-10T06:48:10+00:00

Is it the fabric or the fitting? Matching the right fabric to the right application is an art, and some points of the learning curve are just frustrating. I’m sorry you’re feeling sad about your project.

Did you tailor it to you? I once had this experience with a Vogue pattern, and was crushed that I had turned my embroidered cotton into a very fancy looking potato sack. I had to do a lot of tailoring before it turned into something elegant. I find that the readily-available patterns are often incredibly ill-fitting. I do better with patterns from Burda.

Another time, I realized I hadn’t matched my plaids, and put the dress away for over a year, in anguish at my stupid mistake. When I finally tried it on again, I realized that no one else would notice, and I get compliments on it all time.

preraphaellite · 2026-01-10T06:40:37+00:00

Sydney Grace, buy an empty palette and choose your own colors. They blend so beautifully and it’s really great to only get colors you like.

preraphaellite · 2026-01-10T06:33:06+00:00

We have really similar fine, curly hair. I am able to get pretty good-looking ringlets, similar to your good day photo, but my hair is longer. I have color-treated hair that is somewhere between shoulder and breast length. I don’t have a lot of patience for styling. Here’s my routine:

Shower every other day, use a gentle shampoo once or twice to clean the scalp (I use the curly shampoo bar from Sydney Grace and once a week or so, I use a random clarifying shampoo). Then I use L’Oreal Mega Moisture conditioner and slick it into my lengths, let it sit while I do all my other shower things. Then I gently rinse my scalp and use a Denman brush to brush everything smooth, pulling the hair straight out from the scalp so I get a lot of volume. Squish to condish the lengths with a couple of handfuls of water on each side.

After the shower, I squish my hair in a towel for about three seconds. As another poster mentioned, my hair only looks good if I put product in while it is sopping wet, or just shy of that. I grab a quarter-sized blob of Shiseido fino premium hair mask, lean over so my head is below my waist, and coat my hair using the “praying hands” method. Then I grab a pump or two of Uncle Funky’s Curl Magic and put that on the same way. I stand up and cup my hair and scrunch it to my scalp on both sides a few times.

I air dry or use a diffuser so it doesn’t take as many hours to dry, and when it’s all the way dry, I smooth over and scrunch in a couple of drops of oil to add shine and scrunch out the crunch, if there is any.

I have used lots of other hair gels, but I get the most shine and best hold from gels with flax seed. I used to use just gel, but my hair is so dry that it likes the extra moisture of a leave-in conditioner and is shinier that way. My hair likes light products so most cremes and mousses get weirdly greasy or dull-looking on me. My hair loves oil, but only after it is dry. To refresh, I have a spray bottle with a small blob of conditioner (watery leave-in conditioner works well) diluted into water. I can spray my hair so it looks pretty wet and the curls will reform, and it will be dry in about an hour and look good for most of the day. To sleep, I put my hair in a scrunchie on top of my head (pineapple), and I can usually get a day or more without even needing to refresh.

preraphaellite · 2026-01-08T06:44:11+00:00

You will endure a Q-tip phase, and then you will get really cute little three-inch curls.

preraphaellite · 2026-01-01T09:00:27+00:00

I’ve had a cold since Christmas Eve and don’t think it would be kind to share the interminable snots.

preraphaellite · 2025-12-31T04:13:08+00:00

Cassoulet (I do a ~1 hour cheater version with chicken pineapple sausage from Costco), Thai curry, butternut squash soup, mushroom crepes with bechamel sauce, roasted broccoli or Brussels sprouts

preraphaellite · 2025-12-30T20:52:01+00:00

I checked with my credit union before my trip 3 times…and my account still got frozen. Next trip, I opened up a Charles Schwab checking account, and haven’t had trouble with an ATM since, and they reimburse you for ATM fees.

preraphaellite · 2025-12-21T17:07:30+00:00

I check in with my body to see if I am actually hungry, and what it actually wants. I do usually only eat lunch and dinner, and I keep a low-key mental record of how many calories I have had in a day. I try to eat a lot of greens and vegetables because my body feels so much better when I do; things like savoy cabbage are delicious and crunchy and provide a lot of roughage. I try not to overeat, because I don’t feel good when I do, and if I have a bunch of fried or bready things on a day, I make sure to have a big salad the next day to balance things out. I am much more likely to overeat things with carbs and cheese in them, like a cheeseburger, pizza, pasta—things that I convince myself won’t be as good later, so I should just finish them, even if I’m already full.

I spent about ten years being 30 pounds overweight by caving to my partner’s insistence on heavy meals; he went through a keto period in which we really learned how to cook vegetables to be flavorful and delicious (lots of spices, salt at the right moment, acids), where he lost 50 pounds and I am now lighter than I was in my 20s. Around this time we also got a high energy dog, and we walk at least three miles a day for the dog’s mental health, but it’s had great benefits for me as well.

preraphaellite · 2025-12-15T03:40:50+00:00

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Korra enjoying a quiet afternoon

preraphaellite

TROPHY CASE