Before I Sleep

I have lots to share, but I'm going to bed instead. So, whenever you head to bed think about this:

29

I broke into a cold sweat when I realized I'll be 29 in 2 months. 

OH 

MY 

WORD

This was not supposed to happen so soon and this was not supposed to happen with what I do and don't have going on in my life!

So, in an effort to make as many of you break into a cold sweat as possible I decided to make you feel as old as I do!

My brother Matthew on our Mac:

Crazy accurate:

 Look at how old they are now!!

This was NOT terrifying!

 This was considered safe playground material!

Sweating yet???

I am!!

I Have Great Hair

Cocky title huh? I did name my blog after my hair though. And, it's the most complimented thing about me. I get stopped at least once a day to receive a compliment about it, give out my hairdresser's information, or be quizzed about what I use in it. Therefore, I decided to fill you in!

My hair is the way it is because of God. :) Meaning, if you don't have curly hair I don't know how to tell you to get it. But if your curls just don't look good or aren't what they used to be I'll share my secrets! 

It wasn't curly when I was born. I was bald for 2 years. Then it was stick straight and blonde. 

Then straight and very dark. 

Then dark with a little red and CURLY!

 The curls showed up when I was 17. I didn't know what to do with them so I spent hours a day laying on my hair to straighten it and shoving it behind my ears.

Such a dork. Seriously.

For a year in high school I went curly. Then I wanted to look "grown up" and straightened it for college. 

On my first date with Z we went to the romantic Dairy Queen across the street from our campus. We walked and it started pouring on our walk there. I sat there our whole date wondering how crazy my hair looked and he told me he liked it curly like it was... The rest is history.

I embraced the curl! It looked AMAZING (this is my junior year in college with my former roomie who also has curly hair).

 Unfortunately, my hair was too easy, and wanting to complicate things I went and got it highlighted about a year after I started working for the top secret retailer back in 2004.

 Through the progression I've had MANY hair colors and alternated the curly straight thing! 

Blonde seems to be the most popular and voted for. All of the bleach has wreaked havoc on my curls though, and they've kind of vanished. Whenever I go through a brown spurt and dye it, instead of bleaching, they come back though! My most recent trip left me pretty Barbie blonde. I was feeling like my hair was pretty fried and I started googling ways to fix it. I was so desperate I was going to buy a box of dye and just get rid of the bleach. Fortunately I came upon this easy solution which has worked for me (and I have 0 hair education, so if it doesn't work for you, I'm not sure what to say!).

Simply whisk together one egg and about 1/4 a cup of olive oil (more or less depending on how much hair you have). Coat your head with this awesome mixture and let sit for 30 min. I usually do this and loosely tie it into a bun on top of my head so it's not dripping or touching anything. Then rinse it out and wash as normal. I guess the protein and the oil are really good for hair. I did this 3x's a week for the week after my hair was destroyed. Now I'm doing it once every/every other week. 

On top of that I always wash my hair at night so it can air dry. And I wash it every other day usually. On days when I wash it I go to sleep with it piled up damp on my pillow case

The off day I put it in a semi-horrific bun (that always gets me mocked) on the top of my head so I don't flatten or fuzz the curls

So, after doing the egg/oil treatments, the next thing I did since I'm going all granola, was try to figure out how I could stop using so many harsh things on my body and in my hair and hopefully bring some life back to my hair. I thought about going no poo but I color my hair. And I like it. Yes, I know I'm still throwing all kinds of toxins on my head. But, I'd like to cut back on doing it every single day! Anyway, back to no poo. You have to wash hair when you're coloring it. I also don't like the idea of the transition phase, and I read that no matter what your scalp smells like head (see #4 & 6 of the link). That's the grossest, greasiest smell to me. I can't do it. I want to smell "clean." Even if that's something that shampoo makers have trained me to do like Hallmark has trained me to love Valentine's Day! So, after much research I ended up switching to a shampoo bar with an occasional apple cider vinegar rinse, and giving up conditioner and most of my hair products! I got the bar on Amazon, but I later found it at Whole Foods and my local health food store. Here it is. I have the peppermint. My hair now smells amazing and my hair is SO much healthier, shinier, and my curls are back!! They're not as tight as they used to be, but they're on their way! 

(As shown in my Stitch Fix picture)

Getting My Stitch Fix

Have you heard of Stitch Fix? I hadn't, until I read a review and saw it in action on a blog written by someone I went to college with. It looked so cool, and I am the worst girl. I hate shopping for clothes. I love to shop with very few people. One is my friend A (the Texas friend). I go broke when I see her, which is the one good thing about her moving so far far away from me! She used to style me and be my fashion inspiration. 

I was in her wedding last summer. This was the AMAZING cake that her maid of honor made for the rehearsal dinner. 

 This is me... The blonde surrounded by shopping bags.

But, since she moved far far away my love for shopping has become non-existent. I was SO happy to hear about Stitch Fix and know that I could have someone that knew exactly what I liked, my size, and could put me a little out of my comfort zone and make me try on things I wouldn't have normally picked up. 

Here's how it works:

-First you sign up for their waiting list. I did while I was in Texas. My friend A was furious, because apparently she had the same business idea and didn't realize it already existed... But anyway.

-You receive an email that you are a member (mine came a month later I think?). You log on to their site and define your style, size, etc. 

-You place your order

-You try things on in front of your mirror and do a little fashion show

-You keep what you love and are then billed for it and you send back (in a prepaid envelope they include) what you hate. 

-If you refer someone you get a $25 credit after they've gotten their first order. 

Are we all clear? Ok, so let's see how I did (with a little poorly lit fashion show):

My order was placed on Monday and this came on Wednesday... Exciting :)

 Linus was as excited as I was to see what was inside!

 I took out this so/so cardigan to start with. Blah. It was too big and the color was just not for me. It went back.

 The good thing is that each item comes with a picture of how to wear it! I need that in place of my friend A!

Cute huh? 

I kept this one. I love how fluttery it is and the color! 

Then I took out this.  In my last job I worked with this girl that wore sweater dresses every day. HORRIBLE fitting sweater dresses. Therefore, I will forever be anti-sweater dress. 

 As shown by the look on my face. No. Way. It was not good news on my body. I am still proud of myself for trying it on though! 

 Meanwhile, Linus was celebrating the arrival of new clothes in my wardrobe!

 My next piece was a colorful racerback tank. 

 I loved the color right away! It's just ok though. It is $50, and I don't think I love it $50 worth.

Even so, I tried out the tag suggestion and I liked it!  

 And, I got this green scarf.

The tunic dress, the cardigan, and the I'm-not-sure-about-it blue shirt went back.  

Overall, it was super exciting to get the box, and gave me a better idea of how to fill out my stitch fix profile to get more stuff that I love! I can't wait to get my next fix! :)

If you want to sign up just click here and feel free to mention my blog so that I can continue to dress in things other than sweat pants :)

Kitchen Before, During, & After

I'm calling the kitchen done... For now. I'm happy with it in person, still not thrilled with how it photographs. I also still don't love the Tiffany Blue with the tall grey cabinet. I think when the two toned trend goes away I'll be taking the light color down to the bottom cabinets. But... with that ramble aside, here it is!

I toned down the white and replaced the hardware. The hardware replacement was a big pain because every single hole had to be filled, patched, and painted over and new holes had to be drilled. I painted the cabinets the same color as my living room with Behr's Wheat Bread. 

Overall I think it's nice and modern, and finally makes the backsplash make sense again. The white clashed with the backsplash that had 0 white in it. 

I do still feel like a sinner when I look at the oak cabinets in past pictures though. They really were pretty good looking weren't they? 

Too bad now though. This is reality and there's no going back! What do you think? 

How to Re-Cover a Chair

I had mentioned in this post that I'd added Tiffany Blue to my room based on this fabric:

It didn't stop at the sheets. It's hard to tell from this picture but if you look at the bottom right of the chair  you can tell that the cat has destroyed it with his claws. There is pink foam inside of this chair. I know this because of how much he's scratched it. I wanted to update anyway because the chair is ivory and brown and the rest of the room doesn't have ivory in it at all. The cat scratch gave me a good excuse! 

I ordered the final 1.5 yards they had left at Hawthornethreads.com of Vicki Payne, For Your Home, Stripes in Aqua fabric and my momma and I (I promise I helped a little bit!) got to work re-covering the brown and ivory chair. To do the same you'll need thick home decorator fabric, or other fabric with black out fabric in addition. You'll also need scissors, staples, and a staple gun. A creative mom doesn't hurt either!

Fortunately the amount of fabric was just right for the chair. We laid it over it, lined up the stripes, and flipped:

After we got one side stapled, the corners needed to be snipped to curve around the legs of the chair:

Although it was home fabric (which is usually thicker) the vines were still visible through the fabric, so we also had blackout fabric underneath it. There was no sewing involved in this project. We just laid both layers of fabric on and stapled. Here's a shot of the cat scratch corner:

We cut the fabric where the seat and back meet in order to get it to lay smoothly. After the bottom was stapled we flipped the chair over and placed the fabric on the back of the chair:

We tucked and stapled that in place

And here it is! The project was $18 and took about an hour! It also doesn't look like a slip cover, which was the goal! 

It fits right in, and is easy to change when I decide to redo everything again!