we're not dead

but we havent posted for about a million years, sorree...

the change of weather/general poorness/feeling shit has stopped us caring enough to post. but today i was kind of inspired on the bus, by something really silly.

it was pissing down with rain, PISSING DOWN, so everyone looked gloomy, wet, grumpy, generally unhappy.

the bus drivers in london have these little speaker things where they say 'next stop oxford circus' or whatever, and this guy was really chatty and kept getting it wrong, 'here we are at oxford circus, no no no, its bond street sorry!' and stuff, which was quite amusing in itself.

then he did'nt realise he'd left the speaker on between stops, and the whole bus could hear him as he whistled and hummed at the wheel. it was really simple but people started giggling and smiling at each other. it wasnt like we'd caught him doing anything bad, he'd just left the speaker on and been whistling away at the wheel driving through puddles on oxford street.

it made me do a big smile. so for that i thank you Mr Bus Driver, for unknowingly sharing lots of smiles this rainy morning. thats what its all about really isnt it?

peace out blog fans xxx

Hair care is the new black

Welcome back!!

Its our healthy-hair survival guide: all it takes is a little TLC to start each day with vibrant, luxuriant hair. Even on a budget we have learnt that it is possible to give our hair the pampering we deserve!!

We have been turning heads with simple, free changes:

• Massage the scalp every day, when shampooing or when watching TV, it feels nice and its good for the scalp and hair yay!
• Moisturize and condition your hair right to the ends at night, it feels amazing in the morning! Miss Red just commented on my shiney hair last week, and i'd done this!!
• Once a week DEEP-TREAT After shampooing, take a few more minutes to condition your hair with deep treatments. Hot oil or rich, creamy hair masks, Pop on a plastic cap (or an old tesco bag in my case, yeah classy i know!) and let the conditioner sink in ten to 15 minutes before you rinse. or however long you want, clean the house with the bag on and nice loud music, its a good look!!
• HANDLE WITH CARE, its simple but its crazy the damage that can be done to hair by pulling and tugging it too aggressively when it's wet, a nice simple comb adn some conditioner always helps!

Heres some natural, cheap ways to make your own hair masks!! i love it!!!

1. Olive Oil Hair MaskMix
5 tablespoon of olive oil with 2 eggs. Apply throughly to hair. Wrap head with plastic wrap or a shower cap. After 15 minutes rinse well.

2. Honey & Olive Oil Hair Mask
Mix 2 tablespoon honey with 3 tablespoon olive oil. Apply throughly to hair. Cover hair with plastic wrap or a shower cap. After 15 minutes shampoo and rinse well.

3. Beautiful Gorgeous Hair Mask
After you shampoo your hair, pour 1 cup fresh lemon juice or vinegar through hair and massage and rinse with water. Apply your usual conditioner and wash with water. It will remove all the dirt and your hair will be shine sparkling.

4. Hair Rinse for soft and shiny hair Mix
1 Tbsp of following herbs with enough boiling water and let it stand for 1/2 an hour. Add 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar and mix well. Shampoo your hair. Pour mixture over hair repeatedly. Vinegar will seal the hair cuticle.
Use the herbs as following:
For hair general care: rosemary leaves, nettle, burdock root, elder flowersFor dry hair: chamomile flowers, comfrey root, nettle, elder flowers
For oily hair: lemon peel, , peppermint, lemongrass

5. Shining Hair Mix
juice of one fresh orange, water, 1 tablespoon Honey and a few drops (5-7) of sandalwood oil. Use as an after-shampoo rinse. Beat two eggs in a tablespoon of milk and apply on your hair. Rinse your hair after 5-7 minutes to get an instant shining.Add a 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar in water and rinse your hair.

6. For Damaged Hair
Mash a ripe banana with a few drops of almond oil and massage into hair. Leave it for about 15 minutes. Rinse with soda water and then shampoo and condition.

7. Dry HairMix
1 tablespoon of honey in half cup of full cream milk. Massage on the scalp and leave it for 15 minutes. Wash with a mild shampoo.

Try one of these we recommend it!! it feels a bit silly walking around witha bag on your head, but your hair will thank you for it, and as have mentioned before, great hair = great career/life/relationships/everything! get mixing ladies!!!

lunch and sky for freeeeeeee!!!wweeeeeeeee!!!

another fine home made lunch, man im getting good at this saving money business.

lunch with miss r the other day. id brought a home made lunch, so i went all out cheeky and just bought a drink in the pub and ate from my tuppaware while she had her meal. pikey!!!


just to get all hippy on you. look up people. the sky is amazing!!!!!!!!! and its freeeeee!! weeeeeee!!

miss cr.z.y. black

Miss Blacks Weekly Spend....

i cant believe its this time again.
again.
its always purse watch with you isnt it??!! ahhhhhhhhh!!!

ok, here goes:

sat 23rd oct:
i teach 3-6 yr olds dancing on sats, so i had to stock up on stickers:
£3
50p - a banana
£10 - oyster card top up (i always seem to be doing this! how expensive is london travel?!)
went on a DISASTER of a 'surprise' date with my boyfriend. (his brother called me and said 'what time are you going to the theatre?' so i realised it was the theatre. it was a 6 hour round trip to see a really bad production of romeo and juliet. gutted.
anyway, ended up spendings lots, petrol/food/drinks.
including a small drama where aforementioned boyfriend took his fish and chips back (embarrassing!!) anyway i probably spent
£25 ish

sunday 24th oct:
£15 tesco (tired and grumpy at work after crap night)
worked til midnight got taxi home.

monday 25th oct:
£650 rent out, booo!!!
£5 lunch

tues 26th oct:
£37 boots, mmmm

weds 27th oct:
£15 tesco
£27 mooncup

thursday 28th oct:
£7.50 yoga
£4 boots essential cystitis heeeelp
£25 a nice bit of cashmere from miss selfridge

friday 29th oct:
NOTHING YEEET!
probably 2 cranberry juices in the pub £5

total:
£829

doing well then.

miss black

Miss Red's Weekly Spend - w/beg Sept 23rd

Saturday 23rd

£157 - travel card (for the month)
£8.80 - lunch w/ JB
£50.12 - Waitrose
£9.50 - books from charity shop
£5 - cab home

--------------

Sunday 24th
Nothing

--------------

Monday 25th
£2 - tea and a bagel

--------------

Tuesday 26th

£1 - bagel
£13.40 - cinema

--------------

Wednesday 27th
£2 - tea and a bagel
£20.85 - 2 tickets to see The Blood Arm in December
£58 - mobile phone bill
£21.91 - 30th birthday present for KF

--------------

Thursday 28th
£2 - tea and a bagel
£6 - lunch w/ FFLH
45p - Maltesers
£4.60 cab home (it was raining and pitch black, I needed a pick me up, literally!)

--------------

Friday 29th
£2 - tea and a bagel
£4.75 - Paperchase (birthday gubbins for KF)

--------------

Total - £369.37
Money saved by not smoking - £35

--------------

Ooops...

It gets worse...

In my defence, if you take off the travel card (necessity!) I did spend less than last week. Still not good enough though, I know

I will try harder. I will try harder. I will try harder.

Miss Red x

Good advice: Britons in most debt

Stumbled across this article on the Radio 1 website. Bit of a wake up call after the recent talk of soap on a rope and Moon Cups and reminded us why we started this blog.

(Note from Miss Red: To Liza "I've never had a credit or store card, even when I was at uni. I was brought up understanding that you can't have and only buy what I can afford. How difficult is it to say no to a credit card?!" Get fucked you sanctimonious bitch...)

Is it safe?

*crawls out from under rock and dusts self off*

That was scary man. Can't cope with all this peace and love crap. I'm a Londoner born and bred so consider eye contact an act of overt aggression. I don't do well with poetry and public displays of affection. And let's not even mention the Moon Cup...

*shudder*

Thank God the bitch is back. God bless cystitis!

Miss Red x

ok, the bitch is back...

...i'm still standing by my choices of hippy poetry and talk of mooncups (which arrived last night btw) but the bitch is back.

with a mighty chip on her shoulder. i have been stuck down by an uncontrollable force of nature. well i suppose it is controllable if i hadnt drank 2 glasses of pink wine. i only had TWO fucking glasses, and i get it. the bastard that is cystitis, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh,
hardly sleapt.
nothing you can do but drink shit loads of water and cranberry juice and wee alot. its likes fire. fire. ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.

so right now the hippy shit takes a back seat. until i can even take a seat for more than 2 mintues without weeing.

AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

*thanks you for letting me vent that*

miss black x

Welcome to Tie Dye is the New Black!

Poetry? Really? Has it come to this?

There's far too much 'love in the room' and Miss Red, still reeling from the 'Mooncup incident', refuses to post until the bitchiness resumes...

"Fucking hippies..." she muttered, swinging a soap on a rope for protection.

We *heart* Maya Angelou & Patricia Lynn Reilly

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman

Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

- Maya Angelou

-----------------------
Imagine a Woman

Imagine a woman who believes it is right and good she is a woman.
A woman who honours her experiences and tells her stories.
Who refuses to carry the sins of others within her body and life.

Imagine a woman who trusts and respects herself.
A woman who listens to her needs and desires.
Who meets them with tenderness and grace.

Imagine a woman who has acknowledged the past's influence on the present.
A woman who has walked through her past.
Who has healed into the present.

Imagine a woman who authors her own life.
A woman who exerts, initiates, and moves on her won behalf.
Who refuses to surrender except to her truest self and wisest voice.
A woman who names her own Gods.
A woman who imagines the divine in her image and likeness.
Who designs a personal spirituality to inform her daily life.

Imagine a woman in love with her own body.
A woman who believes her body is enough, just as it is.
Who celebrates her body rhythms and cycles as an exquisite resource.

Imagine a woman who honours the body of the Goddess in her changing body.
A woman who celebrates the accumulation of her years and her wisdom.
Who refuses to use her precious life energy disguising the changes in her body and life.

Imagine a woman who values the women in her life.
A woman who sits in circles of women.
Who is reminded of the truth about herself when she forgets.

Imagine yourself as this woman.

- Patricia Lynn Reilly author of: A God Who Looks Like Me

The future of the blog...

we were discussing this the other day, thought you may be interested in where we're taking this bloggeroony.
it kind of stemed from us both reading an article in the observer woman supplement on women blogging about their sex lives.

Miss Red (MR) says:
have been thinking about the blog after reading that article
Miss Black (MB) says:
...
MR says:
couple of similarities between the blogs in the article:
1) took 2 years to take off, 2) all by women and 3) all about sex!
I think our blog is great but what do we have to make people come back every day
that's what we need to identify
MB says:
yeah i dont wanna fall in thier trap,we dont need sex to sell,i think they're a diff genration of bloggers,we wanna be the next step
MR says:
I agree
MB says:
simple things like knitting are things that pull people in
MR says:
but we need that pull and I can't think what it is/will be
MB says:
knitting tips/smoothie recipes etc
MR says:
yeah
MR says:
cheap food receipes like my lentil soup!
MB says:
exactly!!simple is key, i think it'd be lovely to be so british and sweet that we dont need to sell out with sex and drugs stories but be content in aprons, cakes, knitting and traditional stuff!!
in a kitch camp fun way, the kids are much more in touch with homely things now
MR says:
that's a great idea! stiching and bitching innit
MB says:
i think we're the 7/11 generation who have all been a bit shocked and knocked by terrorsim etc and are looking inside to what its all about a bit more, wanna make our mums proud
MR says:
a return to tradtional roles, I know the mums I know are all about that rather than rushing back to work to prove they can have it all
MB says:
yeah its about standing tall and saying yes we CAN have it all, but we CHOOSE tradtional.
not in a non girl power way
MR says:
fuck girl power
MB says:
but in more power through this
MR says:
exactly
MB says:
i think this is a much clearer angle, that we can both do naturally.

I feel like in someway together we can make a nice impact through this blog. i cant be bothered to log on and write about intimate sex/drugs/filth stories. thats been done. this is a ladies blog, about the struggles of everyday living and making ends meet. but ultimately having it all, through fabulous friends, family and positive thoughts for the future.

i tried to explain what blogging is about to my cousin, who gets impatient even checking his emails. its very difficult to engage someone like that into this world. but i hope that as time evolves there will become more excepted, easier ways of communicating that don't involve being sat at a screen, then my friends, the future will truely have arrived! and i'll be there in a delorian going '1.21 jigawatts, ha ha ha ha!!!'

i'd love it if one day a blog could be read like a newspaper or a book, or read to us somehow. so that we wouldnt have to be sat at desks/screens that hurt our eyes. and so that we could be active! my god the hours ive wasted sat at this bloody desk. i just want to be up and moving. but still communicating in this incredible way. and thats where the future lies. reading a blog whilst on a running machine, sending an email whilst doing yoga, reading a news website whilst doing the ironing. its in all these things that i cant wait.

people that say 'computers are the death of our society', have a very good point. but im hopeful and very positive that the future is bright. the future means greater contact, healthier bodies, more education, knowledge, patience, understanding and love. i cant help but feel like things have to get better, maybe thats the essence that keeps me going. maybe its the underlying truth my hippy of a mummy has installed in me. maybe im just hiding from the dark truth that things really arent so rosy.

whichever way, it keeps me smiling every day, it keeps me looking up to the blue sky and knowing that there is a point to waking up in the morning, there is love in the world, seeing a big smile, laughter, children playing in the park, watching young love holding hands at the bus stop, knowing that wherever, whatever that bright light sun will rise every morning on a new day, a day for a fresh start, new beginnings. a new day where things will and can only get better.

my fave quote of the day:

"i am not afraid of tomorrow for i have seen yesterday and i love today"

dont read on if you're freaked out by 'lady things'

its our 2 MONTH anniversay of our blog!!!

HURRAH!

How are we doing? are we spending any less? are we inspiring anyone else to spend less? are we genrally being good human beings??

we just had this IM conv, do not read on if you get queasy ready about tampax/lady parts/blood etc:

Red says:
how's the 'not spending any money' going?
Black says:
good so far and ive made lunch. you?
Red says:
I've bought gig tickets, paid my mobile bill and bought those sweets for my mate.
No tea or bagel and BYOed
Black says:
i bought 2 mooncups last night
Red says:
what's a mooncup?
Black says:
its like a tampon but lasts forever, or something. its a hippys tampax to save the world
Black says:
£18 and saves the environment, no more spending out of tampax, im trying it out!!
Red says:*scared face*
Black says:
i thought that too, but im up for trying it
Red says:
if that's what saving the enviornment and/or saving money is about you can fucking keep it, fuck that!
Black says:
mooncups are the way forward
Black says:
moonmoonmoon
Black says:
cupcupcup
Red says:
*pukes*
Red says:
where's the emoticons for I'M ABOUT TO LOSE MY BYO LUNCH?
Black says:
heeeeeeeeeee!!!

anyway on that note, enjoy your lunch!

Miss Black (hippy in chief)

Good Advice: Groucho Marx

It frees you from doing things you dislike. Since I dislike doing nearly everything, money is handy - Groucho Marx

1 MONTH BITCHES!

That's right: I've made it a whole month without smoking!

Never thought I'd see the day.

Man, it feels good! If for no other reason than I can now stick two fingers up at all the people who said I couldn't do it.

I realise that spite isn't the best reason to give up smoking but I'm a stubborn, competitive bitch and if someone says I can't do something, I'll do it, just to prove them wrong.

Yes. I know. This is not healthy.

This anniversary also signals the end of me talking about giving up smoking all the time, I promise. It's business as usual from now on...nothing but talk of being broke and Wentworth Miller! *wink*

I see La Black has subccumed to Boots (most of you know my feelings on Boots, but if you don't read this). She warned me that she was going yesterday but then quickly said 'Please don’t try and talk me out of it. A new eye cream is all I've got left ' before I could disapprove. Besides, who the fuck am I to judge? I went to Boots 4 times last week (I went again on Saturday).

She's off to Boots again as I type, to get lunch with her Advantage Points. Here's a snippet of the convo we just had about it on IM:

ME: Gonna get a Bugsy? (yummy sandwich with grated carrot, houmous, watercress & sprouts)
HER: no, I'm over bread
ME: Bread is so 2005!
HER: 2006 is all about sushi...it's the new grey
ME: You mean, sushi is the new black
HER: no grey is the new black
ME: OK, so sushi is the new grey, which is the new black?
HER: precisely

*sigh*

Miss Red x

i'm a new woman.its amazing what a trip to boots can do.

so i worked out yesterday i only had £84 to last me 2 weeks. but i spent £37 none the same on products in boots. do i regret it? hell no. i'm a new woman because of it. i went home and pampered myself, got a really good nights sleep and feel fabulous!

i got SO much stuff, god bless the multi buys and the buy one get one frees!

aloe and cucumber body lotion 2 for £3
cucumber eye gel £1.49 (boots own, just as good as branded ones)
cucmber face scrub £1.39 (as above!)
Boots henna deep hair conditioner BOGOF £1.98
Boots blonde shampoo and conditioner £1.39 each, save 78p for buying 2
Boots naturals night shift night cream reduced to £5.99
telescopic mascara reduced £6.99
pink blusher £4.75 reduced
Boots tinted moisturisor £3.99 reduced

and everything boots own was on triple points, so i now have £7.07 to spend with points. yay!

am i a complete geek? this has made me happy. i suppose its when everything else is a bit shakey, something like little treats from boots give me a temporary high. although my hair is so smooth and shiny this morning that this is no temporary high. i'm a new woman!!

shallow and proud,

miss black xx