Another Wedding Hair Option

I’ve been continuing to comb the YouTube for wedding day hair options. Since my hair has gotten a little longer since I found the styles I mentioned here and here, I will be spending the month of October playing around in my hair more and more until I get things figured out.

But for now, I am still clipping and saving videos for future reference. Last week, Mahogany Knots posted a new style. After seeing it, I thought about it and thought about it. It really intrigued me, but in the back of my head I was thinking my hair is not nearly long enough. And then, wwestNDNbeautyy did it and I had to give it a try. Her hair is long too, but for some reason, having another person do it gave me a little more confidence in my ability to do it. Who knows? Maybe it’s just the power of YouTube.



This is my hair after setting it with the twists. I was still worried my hair wouldn’t be long enough but I pinned the twists to the side for the night and I was confident I could pin the hair up reasonably well. I moisturized and set my hair using ORS Olive Oil Smooth Pudding and used extra bobby pins to keep the sides smoothed in place while setting.



I was really happy with the definition in my hair after taking down the twists.



And the final result is absolutely beautiful. I think a few well placed flowers will really make this a stand-out contender for the wedding. What do you think. Any hairstyles or YouTubers catching your eye?

Ribbons and Blessings

I am a terrible procrastinator. I seems to always be caught at the last minute when it comes to gifts. But I am also very good at coming up with something at the last minute and on a budget. With the extended unemployment this year, the budget was very low to almost non-existent and I got a last minute notice that friends were adopting twins and their church was throwing a shower. I absolutely love and adore the couple and I had to do something for them. They have been wanting children for years and this was just such an extreme blessing that I couldn’t miss out on it. I want to cry just writing about it now.
So, what do you do when you want to make an impactful contribution but you have absolutely no money? Here is how I did it.
During the Spring/Summer, I did some cleaning out around the house and took a lot of movies, books and my Kindle Fire to my local used book/movie/music seller and came out with a ton of credit. You can check out that post here. What better way to welcome little ones than with books? Actually, just about every gift I give includes a book.
I had no idea what kind of book to get and I thought about getting a couple of movies as well, but kids are so picky about movies once they get to a certain age. These boys are two and starting to recognize what they like so I’ll let the happy parents deal with that. But books are a little different in my opinion. Books are more universal and as long as the pictures are super pretty, the story could be about anything.

Well, if you want pretty pictures, you can’t go wrong with Doctor Seuss. I combed the Doctor Seuss section and picked no only titles that I know and love but some that I had never heard of. I didn’t know about the body part books.

And since these are all used, the prices are super affordable. But just to spread the reading love a little more and allow for some movie shopping as well, I asked the store to split my credit so I could give the boys credit to come back. I think I was able to give $50 and still have plenty of credit left over for myself.
So, that takes care of the gift. What about wrapping? For that, I went into my supply closet and pulled out my bucket-o-ribbon.

A gift bag would have been a little too impersonal so I pulled out a mix of ribbons in lengths long enough to wrap around the stack of book a couple of times. I mixed different fabrics, textures and colors. I wanted something that was fun to look at and fun to get in to.

I was thrilled with the result and mommy was too.

So what do you think? Any fast thinking gift giving you want to brag about?

Sneak Peek

I’m putting together something special for my bridesmaids. I’m still trying to figure out what to do for the groomsmen. I am open to all suggestions.

Some Days....

Some days I just feel like rocking the puffy hair.

This was a braid out that did not dry completely before I had to take it down for the day.

These pictures don’t do it much justice but I really loved it that day. I hope you are having a fun hair day!

September Books

I’m slowly getting back on track. I am still behind for the year, but I’ve hit FIFTY-THREE books read this calendar year. That is amazing to me and I am determined to get as close to that 100 book goal as I can. I will make a big push in October as I will be attempting Nanowrimo and getting married and hosting Thanksgiving come November. All books links provided (in the sidebar) are from Amazon where I am an affiliate, but please support the book seller of your choice.

The Girl Who Stopped Swimming 


This is my third Joshilyn Jackson title and I am still thoroughly in love with her writing style and southern sensibilities. Just when I thought I could predict where she was going with the plot, she threw a curve ball at me and surprised me to no end. It’s hard for me to find more descriptive words to talk about this book other than to say that I love it and highly recommend it. There are 2 more titles in the JJ collection and I plan to read those by the end of the year.

  The Secret Between Us 


I am not particularly fond of books that start with the main character committing to a lie. Every parent wants to protect their child, but some lies are not helpful to anyone. I couldn’t get behind the lie that the character was telling and that kept me from liking her as a character. Not being able to like her made me see fault with other decisions she was making along the way. Was that the point? Does it help the story line to have the reader doubt and dislike the main character immediately?

  Broken


 I think this book would have been much more enjoyable had I read it and not listened to it. It took me a while to get into the book because the narrator reads at a very fast pace. It’s almost as if she is uncomfortable with the words so she reads them as fast as possible. Outside of this, she makes her twenty something characters sound like teenagers and I still think its creepy to read/listen to scenes of kids having sex. With that aside, the book is fantastic. Megan did a great job laying out this book and storyline. Now, because this book is clearly erotica, it is not recommended for everyone but it is a nice glimpse into how some married people relate to their single friends. And when the single people in your life don’t have juicy enough stories, it is nice to fantasize about a chance encounter with a stranger that has amazing stories to tell.

  The Husband Habit 



 I enjoyed this book in the beginning. The character was likable and I sympathized with her dating woes. But then she goes to her mother’s house and her internal dialogue becomes downright mean and bitchy. I am not a fan of the insults that get lobbed at people you don’t know. A pick-up truck with a yellow magnetic ribbon does not mean the driver is a country, gun-totting hick. That’s the kind of crap that starts to come from the main character when, in the previous chapter, she left the mean talk to her sidekick. And while I am not a fan of war, I don’t appreciate the author trying to make anyone that willingly enrolls in the military out to be war-mongering idiots. The love interested becomes a truly good man only after denouncing the tenants of military. This is irritating and just gave me another reason not to like the main character as she constantly made disparaging jokes towards the soldiers who are doing their jobs. I really wanted to stop listening to this book, but I finished it because the love interest was likable. Its just too bad he couldn’t be given a better woman. I’m also getting a little sick of the trope that perpetuates the notion that the man that is for us will be secretly rich and will step forward to make our dreams come true. The story was good and not completely predictable, but the characters are not likable and the political ideologies wrapped into the story line are infuriating. I can half heartedly recommend this title.

  Ask For It 



I probably listened to this book at the wrong time. I got bored half way through the book, but I don’t want that to reflect on what I think of the subject matter itself. Books like this are incredibly helpful for women navigating both at home and at work. I would like to be able to say we women have really turned things around but we do have a long way to go still. We do typically have trouble negotiating and knowing our worth. I have gotten better at this myself, but I still too have trouble demanding better treatment at home and at work. This book was a reminder that I can’t let things slip. I have to get back on track with asking for what I need and for what I deserve. This book doesn’t really give concrete steps to take but it gives plenty of examples and tools to use. This is a valuable resource to revisit from time to time.

  Friends and Lovers 



This is a re-read for me. I discovered Eric Dickey in college. This was the first title that I read and I remember enjoying it. I still have a couple of his books unread on my shelf but I wanted to revisit the first before I moved on to the next. The older me is nothing like the younger me that I was. While I enjoyed the story line, this style of character writing reminded me of all the things I actively chose not to have in my life. Lives are full of drama and some of us seem to attract it more than others. I like life on the calmer side of things and I shy away from people that live their life with an excess of trouble. This makes me second guess reading any more Eric Dickey titles but I’m going to try to give them a chance. Maybe his characters grew up like I did and will be more appealing in later writing. We’ll see.

 Outliers 



 Interesting, but nothing but pop fluff. You can take any set of data and get the answer that you want. Everyone wants a mystical reason for success or failure and when they can’t find anything unique about you, they put together random circumstances that seem to work together for a little bit of serendipity. I don’t know if this was supposed to be a motivating title as it fails at that so I’m going to consider this a coffee table book of trivia. There is no science involved. And just to illustrate how non-inspirational this book is, it points out that “you cannot escape the limitations of your generation.” Doesn’t that make you feel great?! I try not to read any reviews of books before I finish the book and write my own review-especially for a popular book. After putting down my initial thoughts, I took a look at what other over on Goodreads thought about this book. Many of them agreed with my assessment. This just further concretes the fact that we should not choose the books we read based on marketing or popularity. I bought this book years ago, but I did so because it was the talk of the time. Too bad I have this as an audible title. I would quickly take this to trade it in. But I do have to say that his conclusion wraps everything up nicely and says exactly what you should get from this book…”An outlier is not an outlier at all”.

Shades of Gray

Get your mind out of the gutter! This is not that kind of post.
One of the most fun things about planning a wedding, in my opinion is choosing the color palette. One color that has been front and center for me through most of the planning is gray.

I saw these tables at a bridal show that I attended. At the point, I had only decided to use a deep eggplant color, but then I saw it set against the grey table cloths and I was in love. At the same bridal show, I saw this dress in the fashion show and fell in love. The best thing about it, It has pockets. I love dresses with pockets. Since I insist on thinking of my wedding as a cocktail party, I was originally going to cut them short, but now that we are clearly having a fall wedding, we will keep them long, which will be absolutely lovely.

After seeing a coworkers toes painted gray and loving it, I started to think about the wedding and how grey nails would be perfect. I hit the local beauty supply (for China Glaze) and Whole Foods (for Mineral Fusion) and came home with several shades of gray to try out. The Platinum Silver is a definite no-no. You definitely cannot judge a color by how it looks in the bottle. Right now, the China Glaze Recycle is my favorite. The Elephant Walk shows a little blue and the the Mineral Fusion Slate shows purple sometimes. But, when I return to the shop for my next dress fitting, I will paint each color on a nail and see what they look like against my dress. The winning color will be included in gift set for my bridesmaids.

And of course, I can’t forget the gray sneakers that Famous Footwear gifted the attendees of Blissdom 2012. I am seriously contemplating buying a new pair of these (in the same gray and pink) and wearing them under my wedding dress. We’ll see how that goes.

What do you think? What colors are striking your fancy this year?