Hair of the Week-braid out

I’m continuing on my love of the braid-out. My hair is at a length that just seems to work better with the braid-out that it did previously when doing flat twists. Braids take longer to set and longer to take down in the morning, but the texture and stretch that is achieved makes it worth it.



I can’t seem to get any really good hair shots, but I think this one did turn out pretty well. This was taken at the end of the day and I happy to say I still had good definition and minimum frizz at that point. But even on the good days, I have to set my hair every night by re-braiding it. The picture below is how it looks in the morning after taking down the braids.



I’m trying some new product combinations to increase moisture for the coming winter. This week’s combo is a shea butter/castor oil mix, DevaCurl Angel and ILY leave-in conditioner. I have a review of DevaCurl and ILY coming up soon.



And this is my natural hair tip of the day, week, month…. Since the length of the front of my hair is getting down to my chin and I don’t want to cut bangs, my hair and my glasses are not getting along. To keep my hair from mucking up my glasses, I have started putting small clips in my hair. I’m holding my hair back to show the clip but when my hair is down, the clip disappears below my hair holding the bottom layer to the side and away from my lenses. This little tip has save me a lot of frustration. Even if you don’t wear glasses, this is a good method for keeping your hair away from your skin when exercising or engaging in activities that would make you sweat. When I took this picture, I had just come in from walking around the neighborhood.

Pins and Needles

I had my first dress fitting today. Unfortunately, it was hard to enjoy it because I had a migraine but I made it through it. My seamstress, Mina, was very nice and understanding. Everything went more smoothly than I expected. Because my dresses are the perfect length and didn’t need any hemming, my alterations are very reasonable in cost.

I wasn’t very prepared for this appointment. I went in to the local David’s Bridal yesterday to inquire about alterations and they offered me an appointment for today. I wanted to share with you the few things I picked up to make an alteration appointment go smoothly.

1. Have your undergarments purchased and with you. Since I was expecting to have a couple of weeks before the first appointment, I had not yet ordered mine, but David’s will let you borrow units for the appointment. Now that I have a pickup date, I have a defined deadline for getting these on order.
2. Bring the jewelry and accessories you plan to wear that day. I have two custom sets made for me by Jill Zaleski. I was able to try them both on with my dresses to determine what to wear when and decide if any changes need to be made. This also goes for veils and shoes.
3. Style your hair as close as possible to what you will do on the wedding day. I will be doing a pin-up style for the wedding so when I go back for the second fitting, I will have an up-do.
4. Take someone with you. It helps to have an extra pair of hands to help dress you and to take pictures. And in my case, I was not feeling well and it would have helped so much to have someone to drive. Having my Mommie Dearest in tow would have been delightful. She hasn’t gotten to see me in my dress yet, outside of pictures and I don’t think I’ll be able to handle her tears on the wedding day.

No tips outside of what most wedding sites will tell you, but I have tired of the wedding sites and hope to provide a little info for those of you that feel the same way.

Frog or Finish Friday-Schaeffer Scarf

I have learned to stay away from knitting shops when I am itching for a new project or when a trunk show is in town. Both of these led me to purchasing this yarn. This is a very beautiful and slightly expensive yarn from the Shaeffer Yarn Company. I went to the trunk show and was captivated with the yarn and stories of the ladies that each yarn is named for. I am a sucker for a good story! I was very happy with this particular yarn pick. It is Laurel in the Empress Wu Zhao color way. It came with this lovely pattern for a criss cross wrap but for some reason, I was in love with entrelac and decided to do the Lady Eleanor Entrelac Stole, which is a very lovely pattern itself.



See the date tag on the photo? 2007! I have this project on the needles for almost a full five years. That is atrocious! Back on topic...

The problem I find myself with now is that I have many, many scarves and wraps and frankly, I don’t need another one. So finishing this project really won’t yield me a usable product. So, I’m sad to say this project must be FROGGED!

I don’t yet know what this yarn will become. It’s color variation and shine make it a little difficult to choose a project, but I’ll be on the look out. As usual, I am open to suggestion!

Cooling Down

The weather is starting the change and you know what that means--I need to get moving on this cardigan that I am knitting!

Now that I’m in a place where the weather will be on the cold side, I’m excited to see how this sparks my knitting. I love hand knit items. They are just so special to me, so I will be adding more to my collection.

I have finished the band on the last piece of this cardigan and will now be knitting inches and inches and inches of stockinette stitch. Since I need to catch up on my reading challenge, I will be sitting and listening to some Audible selections while I get this finished.

To keep myself motivated, I’m going to post more knitting updates until I get this done. If you don’t hear about, please send me a little message. Don’t let me slack on this one.

I had to add an extra shot. Doesn’t it look luscious!

Winter Prep-The Skin

The weather is starting to show signs of wanting to change. This is a welcome change for me as I thrive in Fall/Spring climates. Summer and Winter are not my friends and both wreak havoc on my skin. Over the past two years, I’ve noticed my skin getting more sensitive and I’ve really had to step up my game in terms of moisturizing and caring for my skin. I have never been a fan of lotion. It never seems to really soak in and it leeches back out at the slightest sign of sweat.

I still haven’t perfected what works for me, but I’m a lot closer. Here is a breakdown of the things that are working for me right now.

Of course, a good skin regimen is going to include actions that help boost health from the inside and from the outside.
The easiest thing we can do internally is to drink more water. Whether it’s bottled water or my chia water, I have kicked me intake up drastically over the past few months. I have noticed several benefits to the increase, the most important of which is the glow my skin has taken on and the decrease of dry patches. My lips and hands have become the spots that flare first so when I noticed problems with either, I immediately drink a glass or two of water before I do anything else. Even before I reach for topical solutions, I drink water.



Vitamins have also become vital to me over the last few years. I am well over due in thanking Centrum for stocking me up on multi-vitamins at Blissdom 2012.



In addition to a general multi-vitamin, I have incorporated a Skin, Nails and Hair Vitamin into my regimen. Because I started taking this at the same time I ramped up my water intake, it’s hard to say how much value it is adding, but I have seen enough improvement to keep it up. I picked this up at my local health food store. It is pricey but worth it when you have skin issues like I do.



Because I am not a fan of lotion, I have had to re-think my topical solution for skin care. I tried shea butter for awhile and my skin loves that stuff. The problem I have with that though is the time it takes to apply. Apply shea butter is not quick and I need something quick if I’m going to stick with it. Oil to the rescue! I’ve seen quite a few YouTubers make oil mixes for their hair and skin and I finally decided to give it a try myself.



I made a mix of avocado, coconut, castor and olive oils. The applicator bottle that use has measurement marks on it so I put in two ounces of the olive and avocado oil, one ounce of the castor oil and one ounce of the coconut oil. I go with less castor oil because it promotes hair growth and I would like the little body hair I have to stay that way. I does soften things up though. I take it easy on the coconut oil because it tends to over power the smell of the mix. I do love the smell of toasted coconut but I don’t want to smell like it all day. I keep this applicator bottle in the shower to apply while my skin is still wet. Talk about big improvement. With the exception of my hands which get washed several times a day, my skin doesn’t need anything else applied through the day. We’ll see how things hold up through the winter months.

Because I wash my hands so often, I do need to have something on hand to deal with that. I used to keep shea butter on my desk at work, but since shea butter takes a few minutes to soak in, I run the risk of getting things greasy as I work. Right now, I keep a bottle of cornhuskers lotion on standby but I am trying out a new body cream by ILY. More on that product line later.



I will be ecstatic if I can make it through the winter without those painful dry patches on my hands and legs. I would love to know what you all are doing to keep your skin healthy.

Update and Testing

My house is now officially on the market and I am sad. I’m in the process of putting together a few posts about preparing a home for sale. For now, I am cleaning and boxing up clutter and trying to make it look as good as possible for the strangers that will be walking through and critiquing my styling ability.

The testing part of this post has to do with the picture. I think my new cell phone may be coding pictures where they end up posting rotated. Let’s see what I can figure out. More soon.

July/August Books

July and August were the months of upset and change for me. I am slowly recovering from all the life changes that are going on, but what that means for right now is that I didn’t get any reading done. September is off to a great start so book reviews returning soon!

Tardy For The End of Summer Party

Even though many consider Labor Day to be the end of summer, some of us are still getting in those last BBQs and cookouts. Some of you are taking those last summer camping trips before you pack away the gear and hunker down for the fall/winter.

Well, my friends over at Hershey’s--yes, they are my friends now. Anyone that sends me such a great Easter basket is my friend for life! I’m on the tail end of this announcement, but my FRIENDS over at Hershey’s set up a special S’mores-Camp Bondfire campaign to help you end the summer in sugary goodness.

While some consider S’mores to be the perfect summer camping/cookout treat, I consider it the perfect fall Bon Fire/Tailgating treat. What’s better for a cool night than a warm, chocolate-ty, gooey S’mores. Nothing better. So while Hershey’s is finishing up this campaign, I encourage you all to go over to the Facebook page and tell them how much you are looking forward to the Fall S’more Snuggle. (Yes, I made that up!)

While my late post won’t get you in the running for any of the awesome prizes they gave away, take a look at some of the pictures and stories others have shared. I’m sure there will be a lot of great ideas for kicking off an awesome fall season.