Hair Failure

I have super thick hair. Once upon a time it used to have really pretty waves and curls. Sadly I have lost most of my curl since having Emma. Now it just has some slight wave to it.
Enter Pinterest.
While browsing for some new ideas to do my hair I stumbled on a tip that was suppose to make your hair wavy. It looked super easy and I thought "brilliant I'll try it!"
So I braided my hair in pigtail breads and turned on my straighter. Once my straighter was hot I proceed to iron my braided hair.
In theory this would work like a charm. It would basically curl my hair in pretty much no time... The only problem was it didn't work.
What I felt like I would of looked like...

 

What I felt I actually looked like...

 

(Okay so maybe this is a bit exaggerated :)

All I did git was some weird crimps and a very slight wave that looked more like a crimp go bad. So my hair ended up going up for the day.
Maybe you need thin hair for it to work... all I know is that I will use my straightener as an actually straightener next time.

New Year's Resolution...well, one of the many anyway

Ah, the new year.  A time to look back on the past year and reflect on all the junk that we need to organize/change in our life.  At least that's what I do...besides remember all of the fabulous stuff that happened, that is. 
I would like to think of myself as a somewhat organized person.  Just don't look too closely in my cupboards and closets.  I generally keep my house clean - enough, that is.  Actually, it drives me nuts to not have rooms, that people see at least, look presentable.  I already sort of had a loose cleaning schedule just to keep on top of things, but nothing really set in stone.  Then I happened upon this little sweetheart, and decided to adopt it as my own.

cleaning schedule found here

But, there were a few things that I wanted to change to fit my own home and needs, so I sort of used it as a template to make my own cleaning schedule.  Then after printing it out, I laminated it, attached a dry erase marker to it (so as I could cross things out with great gusto once completed by myself or my slaves...I mean children), and hung it up over the light switch in my laundry room.  That way I will always see it, but not really in a place where my company will see it and know my secret to keeping an immaculate house.  That's what I envision, anyway. 
So, now that I'm all documented, I'm ready to hit the cleaning schedule and do some crossing out.  I can't wait!!  Sad that I get such joy out of cleaning, but I do love me a clean house.

Won't you be my Neighbor Gifts

So this year I wanted to do something not edible for our neighbor gifts.  Partially because I didn't feel like baking for days as I had quite a bit of people on my list, and because we all know that we end up with a pile of treats anyway. 
I started with just some frosted-looking ornaments that I found at Hobby Lobby for 3.99 per dozen (thank you 50% off sale!).

Then I took some cheap paint - really any paint will do - and painted on Frosty the Snowman faces and Christmas trees.  I did 36 of them and it probably took me a little over 30 minutes to do all of them.  It was crazy easy and took a laughably small amount of paint.
After the paint was all dry, which didn't take much time at all, I painted on some mod podge and then rolled the ornaments in some glitter that I had left over from a candle project that I did last year. 

Then I let them get nice and dry before I knocked off the excess glitter and wrapped them up for our neighbors and friends.  Crazy easy, especially when you have to make lots.  Plus you can hand them out whenever is good for you because, unlike food, it doesn't go bad!  Plus, I think they are a little cute.  But then, I generally think that anything with glitter is good.

Now how 'bout that for some cute/easy/cheap Christmas cheer?  I hope I find something like this for next year!

painted glass bottles

So every time I see something cute usually one of two things runs through my mind.  One being, "yah, right, I couldn't even attempt that" and the other being, "uh huh, like I have the time for that".  Well, this one I saw and I did not think any of the above.  I thought to myself, "hey, I could even do that!"  So I gave it a whirl!
I first saw the idea to paint glass bottles when I was watching the last bit of "The Chew" while making lunch, and it seemed doable enough.  They used all different sizes of bottles and colors to make a table center piece or put letters on the side of the bottles to spell out different words.  I decided that if I was going to try it, then I wasn't going to go nuts or anything.  So I did one small bottle and one color of paint.

STEP ONE:  I bought some delicious raspberry/cranberry diet Snapple and enjoyed.  Ah, refreshing, and only 20 calories!  Delicious to my pregnant person soul. 

STEP TWO:  Take now empty and clean bottle and squish paint that I happened to have lying around from previous projects into the bottle.
STEP THREE:  Swirl that paint so it coats the whole bottle. (I had to add a couple of squirts just to make sure that all the surface was covered.
STEP FOUR:  Let dry.  I dumped out all the excess paint.  I would let it dry overnight or at least all day. 

It looked pretty good that night so I stuck some candy canes in it to set by my favorite snowman.  He's happy.  I think it would also look great with some sprigs of Christmas berries of some sort in them.  Very festive.

I noticed on another morning when there was lots of light streaming through the window, that there were some spots that were quite transparent and not covered very well by the paint.  So I did another coat and that seemed to help a lot.

Now that I've given it a try, I think I see a lot of Snapple in my future.  But next time I am going to use bright girly colors to make some flower vases for my girls room to put on their window sill.  I'm also thinking about painting some old flower vases to put fake flowers in.   But that will have to be conquered another day.

Christmas Ornaments

Every year my family makes ornaments to give to each individual family. It is pretty fun to look in our tree and see ornaments and know whose family they represent. Especially since we are far away, it is like having a piece of them in our home :) I am pretty excited for what I made this year. But again it would ruin the surprise if I shared that with you know, so let me share with you what happened last year...

I was having such a hard time trying to figure out what to make for Christmas last year. Oh course I turned to Pinterest for help. Here are some of my favorites...

At the time I didn't have the buttons to make the first one, so my first attempt was the cookie cutter ornaments. I say attempt because it didn't quiet turn out as I hoped. I could not make my ornaments look good from both sides. Maybe my cookie cutters were to big. Or maybe I was just to impatient to make it work :) Either way that idea was a fail.
Next I tried the Christmas list ornament. This was a winner! I didn't have the red rolls like the picture above had. So I used what I had on hand. Here is what I came up with 

 I took a sewing bobbin and attached a strip of paper on it. On the piece of paper I wrote all the things that have happened through the year. For example: Graduation, Expecting Parents, Dance Class, Musicals... ect
I think it turned our pretty cute. It was super easy too which is even better!