Don't Stand on That, You'll Break It: May 2014

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Summer Hair Help

Summer is officially here! And I'm in heaven! I love summer; I love the heat, the sunshine, and I love spending time in the water. But my hair doesn't.

Chlorine and salt can dry out and damage hair, sometimes even discoloring it.

I know a lot of women who swim daily, and want a way to keep their hair healthy in the summer months. So here are my summer hair tips!

1. Keep your hair from getting wet. This one is kinda obvious. If you don't want the water to damage your hair, keep your hair out of the water. Wear a swim cap, or put your hair up. But I know that this isn't always easy to do.

http://www.pollopass.com/beach-hair-beauty-secrets/

2. Wet your hair with water and conditioner before getting in the pool. Hair acts like a sponge and absorbs water. So a great way to keep the chlorine/salt out of your hair is to wet your hair and apply conditioner before hopping in the water. Your hair will absorb more of the clean water and conditioner, and less of the harsh chemicals.

http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/chlorine-wrecking-hair-skin-swimsuit/story?id=19718032

3. Rinse hair after getting out of the water. Get the damaging stuff out of your hair as soon as possible. Rinse or wash your hair as soon as you get out of the pool if you can.

http://www.realsimple.com/beauty-fashion/hair/hair-care/healthy-hair-with-less-hassle-00000000026374/

4. Wash with a purifying shampoo. A good purifying shampoo, like Redken's Cleansing Cream Shampoo, will strip the damaging buildup from your hair, keeping it from discoloring. Use it once or twice a week, instead of your regular shampoo.

http://www.redken.com/products/haircare/specialty-products/hair-cleansing-cream-shampoo

So there you have it! Get to swimming!

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Love Liberates

Today, Maya Angelou passed away. She was a poet, author, dancer, teacher, director, mother, and remarkable human.

She lived an incredible life, full of hardships and blessings, and her words have inspired me numerous times.

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Dance, baby, dance!

Last week, the girls had their dance recital, and, let me tell you, it was adorable!

They did a little tap routine in the poofiest, sparkliest tutus ever!

They are the two cuties on the very end.

They even got flowers, which I forgot to take a picture of. But they got them! And they were thrilled!

Happy dancing!

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

The cold never bothered me anyway.

Portia turns 5 in a few weeks (what?), and has requested a Frozen party. She is so excited! She is helping me pick the decorations, cake, and the other day decided that she must wear an Elsa dress.

That was the problem. Frozen stuff is still impossible to find! I located a few Elsa dresses online, but they were $40, or more. Ridiculous!

So I decided to let my little crafty side come out and make one. I looked at several patterns online, but they were all way above my skill level. So I kinda winged it.

I bought a white short-sleeved t shirt, a yard of blue satiny fabric, a yard of sparkly iridescent fabric, and some ribbon. I got the fabrics on sale, so total, it cost me about $10.

I sewed the blue satin around the bottom of the tshirt, and made a small slit so she could move around, and hemmed everything. I then sewed the cape fabric onto the shoulders of the tshirt, hemmed it, and sewed the ribbon on.

It took me about three hours start to finish, and it's definitely not perfect. But Portia is in love! And I'm pretty proud of myself!

Monday, May 12, 2014

Weird Kids

Looking back at my childhood, it's a wonder sometimes how my sisters and I turned out so normal (relatively speaking, of course).

Carrie and I especially were odd. Quite odd.

When most little girls our age were playing princess or teacher, we made witches' potions in the backyard. We would fill our turtle sandbox with water, mud, leaves, bugs, and whatever else we could find, and pretend we were evil witches, and the strange backyard concoction was our potion.

We were also quite maniacal. Well, to be honest, I was maniacal. Carrie just went along with my evil schemes.

We used to torment our older sisters, Daisy and Jeannine, by getting into their makeup while they were at school, so our mom put a little lock on the outside of their door. But that led to more shenanigans when we realized that we could lock them in their room. We'd wait until they were in there doing homework,lock the door, then tell mom that they were being mean to us. When she'd call them, they couldn't get out and got in even more trouble! Ha!

(Sorry guys.)

And now, the piece de resistance. This is the weirdest of the weird.

This is the reason Carrie and I didn't have any other friends besides each other.

This story takes place when I was about 7, making Carrie about 6. Our dad built us a little clubhouse out of spare wood, complete with working windows, shingles on the roof, and a peep-hole for when we played speak-easy.

He painted the outside and we decorated the inside with crayons. Instead of drawing flowers and butterflies like any other normal little girls, we used all the red crayons to draw a large blood stain on the wall. We then filled a pillowcase with stuffed animals and invited the one family of neighborhood kids to come over. We closed all the windows, sat them on the pillowcase (makeshift couch), and told them the chilling story of Wang and Chang, the siamese twins. One day, Wang woke up and found Chang, his other half, dead. The shock and horror of discovering half of himself dead, killed him as well. The kids were obviously terrified.
We then informed the kids that they were siting not on a couch, as they had assumed, but Wang and Chang's body. And then we showed them the blood on the wall. Needless to say, they ran home crying and weren't allowed to play with us anymore.

We didn't care, they were lame.

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Camping

You ready for a picture heavy post?

Good! Here we go!

We went camping!

Last week, Brandon and I drove to a park with the girls, and when they were mesmerized with a water pump, we realized that they'd never been camping and would probably love it. So I called my parents, the camping gurus, and last weekend we became one with nature!

We drove to Grand Lake, and found a great little campsite right by the water!

Portia and Margot were in heaven! They loved every minute of it, from sleeping in a tent to cooking over the fire, they even liked having to walk 100 yards to the bug-infested bathroom (I didn't). And they were even lucky enough to find a dead fish!

We have a couple of campers on our hands, folks!

Thursday, May 8, 2014

What I Love About Me

When I saw today's Write Yourself Happy prompt, I was actually really excited.

What do you love about your physical appearance?

Guys, you know how I feel about this subject. I'm a firm believer that we should love ourselves, inside and out. And part of loving yourself is being able to look past the physical imperfections, and focus on the positive! And once you start really looking for beauty in yourself, it isn't hard to find!

Shannon over at Smile and Write brought up an interesting point, that as society, we look down on bragging and talking ourselves up. But I think that sometimes, it's very beneficial to brag! Think about your good qualities and talk about them!

So here are 10 things I love about my looks, and yes, I am bragging!

1. I have big, bright, blue eyes. I actually have people stop me in public and comment on my eyes, and I love it!

2. I have great hair. Really, really great hair.

3. I have the legs of a super model. Seriously, they just go on and on. My 6'2" husband and I have the same inseam. It makes jean shopping a bit difficult, but when I get those jeans on, they look fabulous!