How to Dye Your Hair at Home - and How to Touch Up the Roots, Too

I've written about my friend, S, before.  She and hubby E brought home an adorable puppy a little while ago, and now the house is filled with little kids and a baby dog.  And a hub that works from home.  And S, who works from home, too.  It can be loud, it can be crazy.

When leads us to the morning that S missed her hair appointment for blonde highlights, decided she'd had enough of spending $100s at the salon, and drove her bad self to CVS.  There, with the help of sales clerk, she bought a box of L'Oreal for less than $10 and went back home -- where at her convenience, late that night after the kids were in bed and the hub was happy surfing the TV channels, she returned herself to her natural brunette color.

And she is so happy with the results, she's telling everybody that they should do this too.  Time saver, money saver. 

So, Dear Reader, here are two videos that show you not only how to dye your hair at home, but a great video that explains how to keep up with those roots once your hair starts to grow:

Here's a Great Video on How to Dye Your Hair at Home

Here's a Fabulous Video on Touching Up your Roots at Home

Limeade With No Calories and All Natural Sweetener (Stevia): An Option to Soda That's Good 4 U

Every once in awhile, I post here about stevia as a sweetener, because it's just so wonderful -- all natural, no calories.  So much better for you than those artificial sweeteners, and there are those that claim stevia has additional health benefits.  It's been used in Europe, Japan, etc. for decades - centuries - but the FDA hasn't been too accommdating to the marketing of stevia in the American marketplace until recently. 

Stevia is great for diabetics.  Stevia also helps with things like high blood pressure and depression, and Dr. Andrew Weil and Dr. Michael Murray are both big fans of stevia. 

When I first starting buying stevia, my only option were the bottles of loose powder or liquid at the local health foods store.  Then, Whole Foods and Sun Harvest started offing stevia in individual packets.  This was handy, but whenever I pulled the little green packet out at the restaurant, no one knew what it was. 

Now, TruVia and PureVia are in your local grocery store, brought to you by Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, respectively.  And other brands of stevia are popping up, as well.  Heck, I saw a big box of individual stevia packets for sale at Sam's Club under its own "Member's Mark" brand just last week. 

Now, let's think about limes.  Green, wonderful smelling limes.  They have all sorts of health benefits.  Limes  help digestion, help to heal ulcers, and they can detoxify the body.  Limes had stuff in them that help your gums too (as does stevia).  There's lots more on the health benefits of limes on the web if you want to investigate this in detail. 

Which leads us to today's recipe. 

Reba's Really Fabulous NoCal Limeade - Tastes Great and It's GOOD for You

Gallon pitcher
Juice of 4 big limes, 6 smaller ones
Stevia to taste (I still use my KAL shaker bottle, and put in around 12 shakes)
Water
Optional: slice another lime into circles and float them in the pitcher
Serve in big glasses over lotsa ice

This is so easy to make, and it takes sssooooo great.  I've given it away in quart jars, tied with gingham bonnets on the top and a bottle of stevia looped around the top with a ribbon to friends who I think will like stevia if they try it. 

Image: Backyard limes, Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

How to Sell Your Gold Jewelry

I"ve written here about buying gold, heck - recently, I wrote about a site that is selling SEEDS for barter - but this morning, I realized that I hadn't thought about the flipside: selling your old gold jewelry. 

There are those TV ads, where you send your old gold off in an envelope, and voila! a check comes back to you in return mail.  Is this the best way to exchange one asset for another?  Maybe. Maybe not.  There's lots on the web about selling gold jewelry - here's some of the best stuff that I found out there:

1. Karen Datko at MSN Money warns that you're better off selling your old gold jewelry as JEWELRY, not as scrap metal, and explains why.
2. Susan Carpenter at the LA Times advises you on getting your stuff appraised -- and discusses the option of leaving your jewelry for sale with a consignment shop.  Did you know that there are things you can buy on the web to value the quality of your gold by yourself, at home?
3. E-How has a video that discusses how to sell used gold jewelry, and gives you the scoop on cleaning your jewelry as your first step.  (There are also other videos that demonstrate ways to clean jewelry, I suppose there are various methods.)
4. Consumer Reports has some advice for you, too.  From here, I learned that you need to ask a jeweler to weigh your gold jewelry in pennyweights or troy ounces.  Then, they've got an online calculator right there for you, to input your item's weight and get its value based on the price of gold that day.  Cool.
5. EBay Jewelry Selling Guide is filled with all sorts of details.  Vintage jewelry?  Still in the box?  Little details that may make a difference in the sales price are collected here, along with lots of advice on setting a price and maximizing your sale. 

Image:  Gold and Platinum Rings, Wikimedia Commons - public domain