The Hair Diary and Future apps

I am always working to make something better.

Although my kids, full time job, yoga, gardening, and lampworking have been taking up most of my time currently, I have been working as much as I can to complete the new version of The Hair Diary app for Android and iOS.

I also have an amazing idea for a new app that I will be working on in conjunction with The Hair Diary. I had been having an issue coming up with a name but I think I have it now!!

More on that later as I am not revealing anything anytime soon. But I am working on this and THD. I hope to have THD done soon.

What you can expect from this app:

• Updated Material Design
• Completely revamped layout
• Cloud Data
• Website login
• Social Sharing
• Overall better user experience

Everything in time. I need a vacation so I can really get some work done!!

Getting Back into Yoga

Funny thing, at my job we had a yoga class and of course I am all for it having sparingly done yoga here and there over the past 12 years. I started doing it when I was 18 when Inhale with Steve Ross was on Oxygen. I recorded the shows with my DVR and did it every night before I went to bed. I loved it!

I haven't been as consistent with it since then and do it whenever I need to relax or after running or a really hard workout to stretch my muscles. I haven't done it enough to be able to do a proper down dog, split, or anything remotely advanced. I would consider myself somewhere between beginner and moderate in terms of flexibility.

Anyway, I went to these yoga classes at work and the instructor taught the MELT method and Yoga Tune Up! I immediately fell in love!! I have a bad back and issues with my hands from years and years of doing hair. I have slowed down on doing hair significantly but am still having issues.

The melt method you are massaging your hands and feet with these soft or firm balls. They definitely help me to release the tension in the muscles in my hands. The balls are made to massage the fascia and help ease pain caused by repeated motions.

The Tune Up balls do the same thing but for other parts of the body in addition to the hands. The size of the balls change the intensity or deepness of the massage. Tune up has 3 other sizes, that I will probably buy soon, larger than the ones I have pictured. I bought 2 sets of them so that I could have them where ever I am. I carry the pictured set around with me everywhere. As you can see the letters are wearing off because my kids and I use them so much.

I started back doing yoga daily again. I want to build back my strength and flexibility again. I signed up for Daily Burn and so far I am loving the instructor Briohny. The was she explains everything and how smoothly she moves into the poses is just fantastic.

I strive to be as good as she is.

My flexibility issues are in my legs and groin mostly. I can do pretty good back bends, twists, and arm stretches. One of the hardest poses for me is probably Supta Virasana. I can barely lean back in that pose.

Downward Dog I am getting much better with, although I still cant put my feet flat to the floor. I am slowly getting there & learning to accept my bent knees... and working to straighten them!

I have always followed a few yoga youtube channels. YogaYak being my favorite. I recently came across KinoYoga and honestly I am appalled at all the hate that she gets!! They criticize her clothing, her style of yoga, just EVERYTHING!!

I started following her on periscope and love just watching her practice. Her flexibility is ridiculous!!

I want to do Yoga videos(maybe) but I dont think I would be that great to watch lol. Definitely not instructional...

Ughh... Anyway. All this to say Yoga is great! and I am hoping to continue to do it daily and build up my strength and flexibility, as well as finding more inner peace and happiness. :)

I'll talk more about it later.

New Addictions! Lampworking & Programming!!

Everyday I get home from work I have only 2 things on my mind. Lampworking and programming. 

I love programming. I have very logical mind and I love to work out problems and solve all kinds of issues. All day I am just thinking on how I can improve my apps and what new features I can add. I really wish that I had more time to just dedicate myself to it. I am close to being done with a new version of THD. I said before that I would have a new version out a few months ago, however I ended up going into a completely different direction than I originally was. This new version is going to be so much better in so many ways and I just cant wait to complete and release it!

I also have other ideas for other apps as well that I am currently working on. In due time...

More so Lampworking... I absolutely love it!! I have been making so many things and really just trying to find my place in the world. I have been mostly making beads and implosion marbles. I am trying to perfect my flowers on both. I made some murinni as well and attempted some sculptures.

The murrini and the sculptures I do need a little more practice as well as my dot stacking techniques. Other than that I am having so much fun with all of this! There are so many possibilities with glass and it is really exciting to sit down in front of a torch and create something you would never think you would be able to make!!

 My very 1st Goddesss bead!! She is so hot!! I never really liked goddess beads. Why make a naked lady out of glass?? But I decided to go ahead and make her to practice some sculpting skills and wow!! I am in love!! I want to make more!!

 This Pansy turned out pretty great! I wish there were brighter shades of purple and pink available!! It needs a little more work and sparkle, so I will try again! I also need to work on not boiling my glass as I melt it.

Just a few of the flower marbles I have made. 

Made a little wrap bracelet out of a bunch of the beads I am happy with.

Blue and white flower marble. :) 

One of my favorites!

 A little tree bead!

A handful of marbles! 

Blue flower! Blue mushroom! 

A pair of hearts! One for me and one for my little lady! :) 

My Malcolm's first time on the torch! 

 Making a wave bead!

And last but not least here is some of the glass I have bought. Once you start... You will never want to stop! I love lampworking and jewelry making!

Container Garden 2016 - Seedlings & Things

Here are 2 quick videos of what I have growing (and what is not growing) so far this year. I started container gardening 2 years ago. Started with just herbs the 1st year and added a few veggies the 2nd. This year I want to do much more!

Majority of what I have planted have come up beautifully!!! The only thing that I have had a real problem with is the Cilantro. My cilantro I cant get to germinate and I cant get it to grow beyond seedlings when I can! I bought a plant but that will only last for so long before it bolts and goes to seed.

Other than that I had an issue with Aphids and white flies. Because of that I will be keeping the plants inside. I have been spraying with soapy water to combat them and I pruned the crap out of my mint just to get rid of the leaves that were infested with the white fly eggs. I ended up tossing out the brussel sprouts that I had been growing since last year because the aphids  that attacked it! It was disgusting!!

I think I have a handle on it now and I am checking everyday to make sure there are no new eggs. This year I am keeping a spray bottle of soapy water and baking soda on hand at all times to combat the bugs and powdery mildew. Hopefully it will not become an issue like last year.

So far I will be keeping everything indoors as well this year. I am debating on if I want to set up a raised bed in the backyard, but I don't want to deal with the bugs!! lol

I will be updating my worm bin situation soon. I have definitely overfilled it and it is smelling and the worms are eating the food slower than I think they should. I need to redo the environment and I have been stuffing more and more shredded paper in the bin to help it dry out more and more. I would like to do the flow through bin again but have yet to really master it. Last year I ended up with kind of a gnat infestation.... Eww!

I am also going to be making grow bags out of landscape fabric. I think grow bags will be a better option for me since I am doing all containers so far. I don't want my plants to not do well and get root bound from being in the hard plastic pots.

I also bought a few new seeds. I typically avoid determinate tomato plants because I don't like the idea that once they set the fruit they are done. I want them to continuously produce!! But I saw the Red Robin tomatoes that stay really small but produce a shit ton of tomatoes!!! The grow within 30-45 days!! So fast!!

I am really excited about growing those in particular!! I have so many other seeds that I haven't even tried and some that would do best outside. My sun room has turned into a major grow room and I am thinking of adding a lot more with grow lights as well to help them along just in case they are not getting enough sun.

My lettuce and peppermint are doing great so far and I am looking forward to seeing what I can get to grow this year. The seedlings that came up look promising so far and I am pretty excited for a productive season in the container garden!

So whats new??

Just a little update on my life and most of the things that I have going on at any point in time. :)

So many things, so little time!!

Its Earth Day!!!

Winter or lack of

I live in NY and the weather here has been crazy!! Warm and sunny one day, then cold and snowing the next!(LITERALLY!!) This year more than any other I feel like our effect on the environment has really displayed itself.

It would be great if people as a whole worked together to save the environment! But alas, human nature...

Gardening

My container garden is starting back up! Some of them survived the winter and as soon as it got warm the damn aphids that were hibernating came out and infested almost everything!!! I got rid of a few things because of that and planted some new seeds.

No computer

I have been using and fixing my Macbook Pro for 7 years now and she has finally had it!! She wouldn't turn on for weeks at a time and when she did, she would give me a really hard time. Due to this I was really frustrated. I couldn't do YouTube. I couldn't update The Hair Diary app. I couldn't do anything!

Work

Working full time and recently all I have been doing is going to work and coming home and binge watching quite a few shows that I have become a little addicted to.

To name a few: Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder, Blindspot, Grimm, Quanitco, The Walking Dead, Fear TWD, The Family, Gotham, and many more. Ok my addiction might be a little bigger than I thought.

Kids

The kids are doing great! Aside from attempting to motivate them to keep the house clean(and mostly failing) they are keeping up with the things they should be and being much more responsible than expected. Malcolm is a hot mess as usual.

Life

I always have a million and one things going on at once. As well as a million and one things running through my mind at any given time!!! I do feel like recently I have just wanted to slow it down a little..,. Although I have slowed down on a lot of the things I do online, my life has not slowed down what so ever!!

I have been adding some new things to my life recently so I doubt I will be slowing down any time soon!

Lampworking

I have been interested in this for years since I started making jewelry. I wanted to be able to make my own beads and things of that nature because the place I was buying from sold them in bulk in much lesser quality than I would have liked.

I took a class just to I guess wrap my head around it until I had the money for it and bought all of the equipment that I needed to get started a few months after and have been melting away ever since!

I also let my kids take a class to make beads themselves and they love it!

Art

I am an artist at heart. I love to draw, paint, and pretty much do anything that has to do with being creative!

Jewelry

With all of the beads I have been making recently I pulled out most of my jewelry making stuff and will definitely be making some new stuff as time goes on! :)

Vegetarian

I'm vegetarian!!! and I am trying to get my kids to follow suit!! I made a conscious effort to stop eating meat for several reasons. Mostly do to how the meat and food production industry is run. Those people are barbaric!!!!

Wannabe Vegan

Sometimes I eat vegan. Sometime I don't. What's the difference? No dairy(I love cheese!), no honey(yum!), no eggs(nom nom), no nothing that is produced from an animal. Period!

One day.... I am taking one step at a time!

Home Studio

I have been spending a lot of time setting up a work / jewelry / art studio at home. I have tons of equipment and tools that I have accumulated and am constantly gaining more. At the moment I do think I have more than enough and that I need to slow down on getting new stuff and start producing some things. In time....

New Computer Build

Since having no computer had set me back so far I saved up all my pennies and bought parts to put together my very own Hackintosh!! With help from TonyMac and a few YouTubers I was successful in building an awesome and powerful computer that I can do everything I need on! I just need a more comfortable chair!

Youtube

My YouTube channel hasn't been updated since I chopped off all my hair last year. It will be a full year next month and I will definitely be doing an update. I filmed my Hackintosh build and will be posting that on my BeautyandtheBabies channel.

I really want to start doing daily vlogs, but my kids are nuts! They are interested in doing them so maybe the next generation will be better at keeping up than I was.... LOL

The Hair Diary

Right now I am working on an entire revamp of the app!!! I am starting everything over from the ground up!! I let my apple developer account lapse so THD is not available for iPhone at the moment. It will be available once again as soon as I am done with the app. :)

Bringing it all back together

I have been working to bring it all back together once again! The app especially is the most important thing to me with everything that I am doing online and I have some other things that I am working on for the future as well.

Again, one step at a time!!

Getting work done (or not)

I have gotten a lot of distractions out of my life and am much more sane because of it. My focus right now is getting as much work done as I can!! I really want my mobile apps to help as many people as possible!!



So whats going on in your life??? :)