Ah, hair. It can be a source of joy, beauty and even power, or it can drive you mad. This blog post is for those mad times. As you know, I like to think long term and focus on quality, so some of these tips require some learning time. But trust me, if you do plan ahead, 9 out of 10 bad hair days will go away. Yes, really.

1. Coconut oil.

I’ve tried so many conditioning and strengthening hair products, it’s ridiculous. The best one I’ve ever tried is something as boring as extra virgin coconut oil (I have the one called Cocosa, with the green label). I use a tiny amount to smooth flyaways and add shine, or to prevent frizz after I’ve done any kind of curls. Where coconut oil really triumphs, however, is if heated up, combed through the hair, and then left in there for as long as you can be bothered. I like to apply the oil, then braid my hair, cover it with a scarf, and sleep on it. After a shower the next morning, both my hair and scalp are super-happy.

2. Learn three hairstyles.

Only professional hair stylists need to know a whole bunch of different hairstyles for pretty much every kind of hair. You only need to learn three styles that work well with your hair. Granted, it requires a bit of time in the beginning to learn them, but once that’s done, you’ll be able to style your hair quickly and with a wandering mind. My three styles are; my natural hair, but with the ends curled inwards using straighteners; one french braid on each side of my head, with the ends pinned up to create a low updo; and a messy updo with my bangs away from my face.

3. Learn things on YouTube.

YouTube is my favourite place for tutorials. There are millions of them on every field, many of the uploaders have excellent skills, and you can pause and re-watch the videos as you please. When it comes to hair, I really like Let’s Make it Up!. Not only does she have plenty of great tutorials for specific styles, but she also does videos like The Braid Encyclopedia, what to do before you curl your hair and Bobby Pinning 101.

4. Read hair blogs (at least once in a while).

For info on hair that isn’t styling tutorials, there are lots of blogs out there. My favourites are Hair Romance, She Lets Her Hair Down and The Beauty Department’s hair section. Not only can you learn useful things here, but it’s also wonderful inspiration.

5. Know your tools.

I currently have five electrical styling tools. Actually, six, if you count the heated rollers. I use two of them – a blow drier and the ghd IV styler – 95% of the time. The more versatile a tool is, the better. With a good pair of straighteners you can straighten, flick, curl and give volume to your hair. I think I know at least three different ways just to create curls! Also, different kinds of clips/pins have different uses. If you know them, your hairstyles will look better and last longer.

6. Understand styling products.

Let’s start with volumizing mousse, shall we? I’ve yet to meet a girl who doesn’t own a can, and yet almost nobody seems to know what to do with it. If you want it to create volume, it needs heat. Same goes for salt water sprays. Remember to use enough of a product to get the best effect, and to apply it gradually to avoid using too much.  If your hair, like mine, is very smooth and slippery (hello, Nordic girls!), a product that’s very sticky can be super-helpful. I’m a big fan of L’oréal’s Studio Remix Styling Paste. It looks like it would be most suitable for short, spiky hair, but a pea-sized amound spread throughout the (semi-dry) lenghts of my hair works wonderfully. The got2b glued hair spray is also great for slippery hair, both as a finishing touch and to add texture before styling.

7. Rinse conditioner thoroughly.

I only just discovered this, and it has made such a difference. We’ve all heard that after a heavy conditioning treatment, you have to rinse properly. But my guess is you can probably rinse a bit more thoroughly even after ordinary conditioner. I’ve started rinsing about twice as long as I used to, and my hair is so much lighter than before! It doesn’t get oily as quickly either, come to think of it. Might be worth a shot if you think your hair feels a bit limp and heavy. After you’ve rinsed your normal amount, rinse a bit more. Then some more. Go on, a bit more. There you go.

8. Know what you like and what suits you.

If I forget to add a bit of extra volume on top when doing any kind of updo, I’m never satisfied with the finished look. It’s just something about my hair, the shape of my head, my face, that means I need some height on the crown. The good thing is that as I’ve realized this, all my updos now get a good start, and the chance of me liking the finished look is much bigger. If you know that you need a bit of hair loose around your face to feel comfortable, don’t start a hairstyle with scraping everything away from your face, for instance. But, if you’re willing to broaden your horizon, try to leave your comfort zone on a day you’re not doing anything important. Who knows, you might discover something lovely!

9. Tiny things can make a huge difference

Taking one extra minute to cover a hairband with a strand of your hair can make that ponytail look five times better. Messy updos always look better with somewhat curled ends, so if you don’t have naturally curly hair, spend four minutes giving your tips a bit of a curve with your straighteners. If you’re blonde, gold bobby pins will blend in with your hair for an elegant, pulled together-look – and black ones will instantly make a hairstyle look more casual. Neglecting such small touches can prevent a hairstyle from ever looking the way you want it. The devil is in the details.

10. Be realistic.

One of my biggest pet peeves nowadays is that in EVERY SINGLE TV-SHOW the “default” hairstyle for women (and even little girls!) is long hair that has been given big waves with a straightener. Pretty much 90% of hair on TV looks like that nowadays, and it’s just so boring. Also, I think it has somewhat the same effect as PhotoShop can have on how we look at our bodies/skin. We gets so used to looking at this huge, perfectly waved and glossy hair, that we forget that it’s pretty much never natural, and would require touch-ups every fifteenth minute or so, not to mention a surprising amount of extentions. Hair can be beautiful without styling it to death, and it isn’t necessary to look so bloody pretty all the time, either. We have more going for us than just that, don’t we, darlings?

This post contains closeups of my (sometimes) very unplucked eyebrows. You are warned. Also, I didn’t wear any makeup for this post, other than filling in my brows in the final steps, as I wanted you to see just how much a good pair of brows can do for a face.

One of the best compliments I’ve ever received was when a girl I studied with called me “the Eyebrow Queen”. Personally, I think my sister Cookie is the Queen, but I might just be the Eyebrow Princess. Part of it is because of fortunate genes (I am one quarter Hungarian, actually), and part of it is because I now have a brow routine that works great for me. Here’s how it goes.

This is what happens if I don’t do anything to my brows for about ten days – those Hungarian genes are both a curse and a blessing. Plenty of dark hair, which likes to grow pretty much everywhere unless I stop it. Also, my brows have started growing in a downward direction lately, probably because I sleep so restlessly and mush my head in the pillow. To whip them into shape, here’s what I use:

Mirror (yes, Cookie, I borrowed yours). Brow/eyelash comb and angled makeup brush from Eco Tools. Clean (and dry) washcloth. Knife sharpener. Nail scissors. Eyeshadow palette with cool brown shades. Tweezers. I sharpen my tweezers regularly, and it makes a huge difference. I suppose I could just buy new ones, but I don’t really see the point when sharpening them works so well. I use the washcloth to brush away plucked hairs as I go along.

First, I’ll use the tweezers and pluck the hairs I know without a doubt have to go. These grow mainly in the area between my socket line/crease and the bottom of the brow. Also, this is what I do about once a week as a general clean up; I only do this full routine about once a month or so.

Next I do some threading for an even cleaner look (I like this YouTube-tutorial; the actual threading part starts at about 7:20). In short, you use a piece of sewing thread to pluck away the hairs, and it catches even those almost-invisible hairs that are hard to see. I don’t use threading to shape the brows, but to do a more thorough clean-up, and I especially like it for plucking above the brow. I know many magazines say you should never ever do this, but… well, I’m a rebel. I also do more precise shaping at this point using tweezers.

Finally, I fill in my brows using an angled eye shadow brush and a matte, dark brown eye shadow. The shadow is a tiny bit lighter than my actual hairs, which prevents them from looking too drawn on. I find that the variation in colour helps them look more three dimensional. As for the shape itself, mine is slightly inspired by Audrey Hepburn:

This follows the shape of my natural brows quite well, which is good as it means less struggle for me and it looks more natural. When I apply the shadow, I take extra care to shape the arch nicely, and give it a good, sharp angle on both top and bottom. My style in general is very much vintage inspired, and also a tad dramatic, so it’s rather suitable that my brows be like that as well.

The tricky thing about eyebrow shape is that it is so individual, which makes it impossible for me to say make your brows look like this and they will be perfect. Sorry, guys, but I am nothing if not honest with you. What I can do, however, is give you all those little tips I’ve accumulated over the years:

– Brows are a bit like jewelry. Some are big statement pieces, some are delicate little things. No matter the kind, they all add something important, and should be appreciated for what they are. Don’t try to force them into being something they’re not.

– To fill them in, shadow or a gel product in the right colour tend to look very natural. Pencils can be good if you have gaps or want to draw in actual hairs, but keep it super-sharp and draw with many thin strokes instead of one thick line.

– As for colour, choose a colour that is a hair (pardon the pun) too dark rather than too light, if in doubt. Good brows enhance the eyes, whereas washed out brows don’t do anything at all. This is especially important if you have dramatic contrasts in your colouring, like me (very pale skin, very dark hair and eyes, for instance).

– Many magazines and websites teach you to hold a pencil up along your nose and over the tear duct to decide where your brows should start (like this). If I did that, my brows would look like this:

See? Not a very good look for me, and I’m not alone in this. I think so many of us are so afraid of the monobrow/unibrow that we over-pluck this area.

– Things to avoid: shaping the angle of the brow so far in that it looks like a V upside down, tadpole brows (a clump in one end, then a long, thin tail), and permanently sad brows (these start high in the middle of the face, and then taper down and outwards).

– If you want to fill in your brows, but find it tricky, I suggest you first take a look at how your brows are shaped. If the shape is well-defined, filling them in becomes much easier, as it is so clear where the colour should go. This goes for lighter brows than mine, too; having a good shape will help you either way.

– Growing out brows is a pain. To make it more bearable, diverting the focus is always a good thing (a fantastic lipstick will do the trick). Bangs are also an alternative. When desperate, seek out Frida Kahlo for courage. If you haven’t seen this movie yet, now is the time.

– If you don’t want or can’t be bothered to pluck your brows, I promise I don’t think any less of you. It can feel like such a chore sometimes, and nobody needs perfect brows to be beautiful. I will say this, though – whether you decide to leave your brows au naturel, or groom them carefully: commit to it.

Any tips to add, darling readers? And what is your brow philosophy?

One day Cookie and I got this idea. We were both a bit bored with our hair, and as we’ve been brain washed by Sigrid (who works at LUSH, and is also our super-lovely friend), we decided to go for some henna hair dye from LUSH. In short, henna is a natural way of colouring your hair. It takes a lot of time and makes a huge mess, but as there are none of those nasty chemicals in there, your hair will come out of it a lot healthier than when using regular dye.

LUSH has four different colours in their henna – the combination pictured above is what Cookie chose (equal amounts of Noir, black, and Marron, a chestnut brown), whereas I used two squares of Brun (plain ol’ brown without any red in it) and one square of Noir. If you don’t understand what I mean by “squares”, don’t worry, I’ll show you further down. First, I need to stress that henna does make a huge mess everywhere, so it’s important to prepare properly. Here’s our setup:

Nothing of ours got stained, fortunately, except for the chair and Cookie’s ring finger (there was a hole in her glove). Still, better safe than sorry, I say, so remove absolutely everything you can, and cover the rest, especially if you’re a newbie at henna or are doing this alone. Actually, here’s my best advice in this whole post: don’t do this alone. Trust me, a partner in crime will not only make the whole process more doable, but also more bearable in general.

I won’t go into detail about everything you’ll need or do, as that can be found on LUSH’s website or on the instructions they give you when you buy the henna. Still, I’ll try to give you all the tips we discovered on our own, as there are plenty.

The henna comes in these huge blocks that look a bit like chocolate, except it’s green. Don’t be alarmed, though, it’s supposed to look like that. To mix it into hair dye, you’ll need to… well, cook it, sort of. I’ll show you. Just please remember to buy a zillion disposable gloves for your very first time (I think we used about eight pairs, because we suddenly had to remove them to fix something or re-heat the henna).

This is the only photo you’ll see of me wearing this minty blue colour, I promise. But you’ll need to wear something you can throw out, as the stains of henna are the most stubborn bastards you’ll ever meet. They’re worse than exes and bad memories and salopes combined. Really.

And we’re off! First, chop up the henna. See what I meant about “squares”? We used four for Cookie’s long hair, and three for my shoulder length hair. It was a rather perfect amount, I think, especially if we hadn’t made it way too thick and then had some problems spreading it out evenly (more on that later). A lot of websites and YouTube-videos tell you to grate the henna with a cheese grater to avoid lumps; we just chopped each square in four and it was perfectly fine. Save your energy, because you’ll probably need it later.

When the henna is all in little bits, you need to cover it with boiling water. Then simply let it sit for a while, and try to get used to the smell. Many inhabitants of the internet will tell you all sorts of horror stories about how it smells like poo. Neither Cookie nor I thought so; it’s more like super-strong tea combined with incense. To me, the problem wasn’t the smell itself, but how the smell got so strong. You’ve got the stuff on top of your head, all over your bathroom, in your kitchen, and it gets very intense after a while.

Looks a bit like soup, doesn’t it? When the pieces start to melt, you use a fork to blend them with the water. Cookie and I were afraid it would drip all over the place once it was on our head, so we didn’t make it as thin as the LUSH girl told us (like thin yogurt, she said). BIG MISTAKE. When the henna is too thick, it is very hard to distribute on the hair, it dries too quickly and just makes more of a mess than necessary.

See? That is too thick. Poor Cookie was our test bunny, meaning we did her hair first, and even though the result looks good, the process itself was quite frustrating. She definitely did a better job on my hair, and we also made the henna much, much thinner, which helped, too. After you’ve blended the henna, you’re supposed to heat it up again until it’s as warm as you can bear. I know it doesn’t look very… nice when it’s mixed together like that, but be brave.

Once the henna is mixed, you’re all set to go. Cookie and I was so excited about mixing the henna that we forgot to prepare Cookie, so she slipped into a garbage bag as quickly as possible, and covered her hairline and neck and ears with something greasy to prevent staining on the skin. We’d bought one of these brush-thingies to distribute the henna, and it would have been rather impossible without one. You section the hair, cover the roots in henna, then work it out through the lengths. With Cookie I did the lengths and roots of each section at the same time, but that wasn’t such a good idea. Do the roots first, then the lengths. When everything is covered in henna, gather the hair on top of your head, and cover it with clingfilm. Then wait.

From here on there aren’t that many pictures, as I’ve already spilt nail polish remover on my MacBook and didn’t want my camera to suffer injuries as well. Still, we have tips aplenty:

– Better mix too much henna the first time, than to have to make more while half your hair is covered with it, as this would be stressful and make a mess everywhere. Just remember that you can’t re-use henna; once it’s mixed, it has to go in your hair or in the trash.

– Don’t make the henna too thick. If you think it’s just right, it is probably too thick. Add more boiling water.

– Keep the henna warm while you work it into the hair. We had a covered cup of boiling water on the sink, so when the henna got too cool and hard to work with, we could mix in some warm water.

– The neater you section your hair, the easier it is to get the henna evenly into the roots. When henna has been on the hair for a while, it goes stiff and a bit hard, so keeping things tidy makes everything better.

– When you gather the henna-covered hair on top of your head (before the clingfilm), try to balance it so the weight is distributed evenly. The henna is surprisingly heavy, and you’ll be carrying it around for at least three hours.

– We cut a strips of an old towel and fastened it around the head where the clingfoil met the skin. This helped prevent dripping.

We kept the henna in the hair for three hours. Some internet-people say to keep it for as long as possible (even overnight), but the LUSH girl said three hours allows the colour to fully develop, and more than that isn’t really necessary. Washing it out was… interesting. Cookie and I had discussed it, thinking it might be tricky as we don’t have a bathtub and we didn’t want to stain our entire bathroom. Also, the henna gets quite hard and crusty after some hours, so I was afraid it would knot the hair as I tried to wash it out.

Our solution was to fill a bucket with water in the shower, stick the head upside down into it to loosen most of the henna. Cookie said it worked great, and the mess was mostly contained in the bucket. For me, the process was a bit more… humiliating. You see, Cookie is a dancer, so standing with spread, bent legs and the head practically on the floor, without the support of your hands, for many minutes while rinsing out the henna, was pretty much her everyday life anyway. I, however, am not a dancer. Standing naked in the shower, head bent into a bucket with trembling thighs and a shower curtain that clings to you and the smell of henna everywhere… not my proudest moment. Still, the idea is good, so if you’re not a dancer, simply bring in a chair or something else on which to place the bucket.

Phew. Long post, this one, eh? Time for what I know you’re all waiting for: the before and after shots. My starting point was hair that had been chemically dyed about six months before. My hair grows rather quickly, so I’d say about seven centimeters from the roots are my natural colour here.

As you can see, the difference is definitely noticeable. The after picture was taken one and a half week after the dyeing, as the indigo (which gives the black colour) takes some days to fully develop. I’m very pleased with how there aren’t any orange tones there at all, and how natural the colour looks. Also, my hair has become so shiny it looks, as Maja put it, like Disney hair. I’ve always thought my hair generally looks healthy and happy, but now it’s a whole new level of shine up there.

Let’s do some pros and cons, shall we?

Pros:

– very, very shiny result!

– natural, so no nasty chemicals or stained pillow cases the night after you’ve rinsed.

– henna conditions and protects the hair, and mine is definitely healthier and happier than it was before.

– less expensive. One block (six squares) cost 149,- NOK, and I get two rounds of colouring from each block.

– I haven’t tested this personally yet, but they say henna colour lasts longer than chemical hair dye, and also fades more naturally/evenly.

Cons:

– the smell. I’m pretty sensitive when it comes to strong smells, and this was just too much for me. The resulting headache was fierce and lasted the rest of the day, and I still get a bit queasy when I get a whiff of it.

– the mess. It didn’t stain the whole house as I’d feared, but it was still a lot of work cleaning up. Dirty newspapers, bits of towel, all the kitchenware we used, clothing, the shower and shower curtain. The bucket was too dirty to describe, so that had to go in the trash.

– time-consuming. Preparing and applying the colour took at least an hour, then three hours to let the colour set, and then the whole rinsing process.

– nothing I’ll ever attempt to do by myself. I know many people manage alone, but I frankly can’t understand how.

In conclusion:

I love the result. My hair has never felt this healthy, and has never been this shiny. I really want to do it again, but I must admit I dread the smell and the resulting headache. Not everyone reacts as strongly as me, though (Cookie wasn’t much bothered by it). If you’re considering using LUSH’s henna, I suggest you find a shop and give one of those bars of henna a good sniff. Multiply it by five, and see if you think you can handle it. If you can: go for it! My hair has never looked better.

This is a text-heavy post about my experience at Makeover Studio Gholizadeh in Oslo. I would link to their website/Facebook page/twitter account/blog, but they don’t have any. I think they usually go by just “Makeover Studio”, but I’ve included the full name of the company to leave out any doubt about which studio this is.

A day in early February, I got a text message from my friend Ingvild. She’d received a phone call about a free makeup lesson at a place here in Oslo, and she was allowed to bring a friend, so would I like to come? Of course I would – I never say no to anything that involves makeup! A few days before the “lesson”, Ingvild got a second phone call from the same lady, who explained that we’d need to bring our own clothes for the photo shoot. Photo shoot? Ingvild wasn’t able to get a proper explanation, but was at least assured that everything was still completely free, except if we wanted to buy the pictures from our shoot. And so we went, just for the experience, and it turned out to be… quite the experience.

On the day, Ingvild and I found the address ok, and stood looking for the entrance when we were overheard by two girls. They had jet-black hair, too dark foundation and were both smoking. Apparently they worked at the Makeover place, and told us which buzzer to ring. We rang, waited, rang again, waited. After a couple of minutes, the smoking girls were going in as well, and this time someone actually buzzed us all in. We went up some stairs, and found a couple of open doors with lots of people milling around. There were no signs, nobody telling us where to go or what to do. I suppose we looked rather lost, for suddenly one of the guys running around told us we could wait “in there”.

“In there” was a room with two makeup stations, some couches and an enormous TV blasting a Victoria’s Secret runway show at full volume (perfect for boosting a girl’s confidence, don’t you think?). The other people there (all of them women or girls) seemed to be customers like ourselves, so there was no one there to welcome us or tell us what this was really about. The two smoking girls appeared and asked if they should do our makeup? By then Ingvild and I had figured this wasn’t so much a makeup lesson as simply “come and get your makeup done”, but we decided to stay anyway. I’ll admit I smelled a blog post in the making, and was determined to see what kind of place this really was, and fortunately Ingvild is such a good sport she stayed with me.

As many of you know, I am not a makeup artist. Still, I’m an educated fashion consultant, and work at a school that trains makeup artists, so I’m not a complete newbie. I know that makeup for a photo shoot is different from normal makeup, and I know that studio lights and the flash will wash out your complexion. That still doesn’t excuse or explain what happened. Firstly, the hygiene level was appalling. When applying mascara, she used the wand that came with the product itself (you’re always supposed to use disposable wands), and when she was done, simply gave it a few squirts of brush cleaner, then shoved it into the mascara again, to be used on the next client.

The other brushes were sprayed, too, and then somewhat wiped off, but everything still looked filthy and the foundation brush felt stiff and prickly with old makeup. The colours used on me were completely wrong for my skin tone. A yellow, shimmery eyeshadow was applied up to my eyebrows (great for slightly hooded eyes…), the brows themselves filled in so they looked like semicircles, the blusher/bronzer was orangey brown and the lipstick a brown, dull pink. When she was done, I had purple eyeshadow fallout all over my décolleté, and looked like this:

Absolutely everything about this makeup is wrong for me.

Ingvild had asked for an evening makeup with bright colours. Here’s what she got:

This is a colourful evening makeup..?

I can assure you neither of us have ever looked worse, makeupwise. Still, the makeup girls seemed satisfied, and pointed us over to a place where we “could do our own hair, if we wanted to”. Suffice it to say that the combs and brushes weren’t any cleaner than the makeup brushes, and the straighteners and curling irons were in the same state. I suppose nothing should have surprised me at this point, but I still found it unbelieveable that a place with the name “Makeover” in its name so thoroughly overlooks one of the most important aspects of a makeover: the hair. Then again, nobody there would have been allowed to touch my hair with those filthy things, so perhaps it was for the best.

Next up was the mysterious photo shoot. By this time we had seriously considered leaving many times, but decided to stick it out in the name of a good blog post. I’d already realized this wasn’t a place I’d send my worst enemy, and I needed to get all the facts. Our photographer was a Swedish guy who seemed bored to death and talked so quietly we could hardly hear him over the blaring music. He asked us if we’d ever done anything like this before. I said yes, and that I work in fashion, and the poor guy seemed rather paniced for a few seconds. Any sympathy I might have felt for him was quickly gone, however.

The shoot consisted of him talking us through a series of poses they must have found by flipping through a copy of Vogue, and then memorized fifty that looked good in the magazine. The problem was that some of these poses weren’t even possible for normal people, and only made us feel even more awkward and unattractive than before we started. Armes had to be lifted over our head, elbows pointing forwards, chins tilted so-and-so, shoulders pushed here and there… let me tell you, unless you’re as thin as Kate Moss and have Cookie’s flexibility and coordination, there’s no way you could have made those poses look good. Everything was done in a rapid-fire pace, and without the photographer looking at us at all except through the lens.

Afterwards, there was some more waiting and feeling overlooked, before we were sent to a room to look at the finished photographs. The technical level was good, I’ll give them that. Good lighting, sharp and clear photos and a good variety of backgrounds and styles. But none of that really mattered, because all we could look at were our uncomfortable expressions and (in my case) rather pasty overarms. As for the price? 550,- NOK per photo. At this point, I simply couldn’t help but laugh.

Before leaving, we found the lady who seemed in charge, and explained that we didn’t wish to buy any photos. She asked us if there weren’t any good ones, and I, trying to be tactful, said it wasn’t quite our style. She then looked me straight in the eyes and told me that “well, this is FASHION, so…”. I couldn’t utter a word in reply, it was simply too ridiculous. Ingvild and I laughed our way home, trying to ignore the people staring at our horribly made-up faces, before running to the bathroom for some makeup remover. It took a big pile of cotton pads, and a second cleansing with the oil cleansing method for us to feel completely clean again.

In conclusion, nothing awful or irreplaceable happened to Ingvild and I. But if we had been more insecure about our looks, if we’d trusted these people to make us look and feel good – which is, after all, the whole point of a makeover – the result would have been quite different. I can forgive people for not being able to apply makeup properly, even if it is their job. I find it worse to forgive someone jeopardizing someone’s health by not even keeping a basic minimum of hygiene. But worst of all is knowing how damaging an experience like this can be to a person’s self-esteem. Nobody there introduced themselves or even smiled at us, nobody asked us how we felt during the process. No part of the experience was individualized at all, and it mostly felt like we were mere things sendt along a conveyor belt. How they can have the nerve to actually charge people for such an experience is utterly beyond me.

In short, darlings: horrible makeup, rude and disinterested staff, appaling hygiene, unprofessional organization. STAY AWAY.

What better way to start 2012 than by doing something rather scary I’ve never done before? Susanne and Lillian got a video camera for Christmas, so I thought I’d use the opportunity and play around a bit. I hope you like it, and don’t be afraid to pepper me with questions if you feel the urge. Happy 2012, darlings!