way too much about my water...

I am slowly but surely getting some big things off my home "to do" list, though they seem to get added almost as quickly. This week I think I've changed at least half a dozen lightbulbs (each one a different kind, of course), a ton of laundry and dishes (call me Sisyphus on those tasks), and I finally switched out our shower head.

We have a little shower in the master bath, and I was quite excited to see it had a fancy looking rain disc showerhead when we moved in. It seemed so fancy. Seemed. SEEMED.

The one major disappointment I have had in our new home is the water. Something is wrong. I'm still not sure what it is. Maybe I'm not used to soft water, maybe it was a flow restrictor in that shower head, who knows - but the result was super traumatic goopy hair for me. I developed some sort of sticky build up almost immediately after we moved in, and tried EVERYTHING to get rid of it - clarifying shampoos, stripping shampoos, REALLY EXPENSIVE DUMB NOT WORKING SHAMPOOS, and even Dawn dish soap. That actually worked - for a while. So did getting a couple blow outs at a salon - though it was mortifying to go in and explain that my hair was disgusting and yes I do bathe and sorry you have to touch this but please please fix me...

It's been emotionally painful. Embarrassing. I cut my hair to try and take some of the bulk off and hope that made a difference. It did not. I tried all of the other faucets in the house, including scrunching under the spout in the bathtub. Still sticky.

So next step in my quest was to try a high pressure fixture (and hope and pray and bargain with the universe). The "Thunderhead" had great reviews on Amazon, so I ordered it. Then I let it sit in a drawer for a few months while I thought about whether or not it was something I could do without causing more problems (home maintenance is not in my wheelhouse - at least not comfortably). Then one day I got super fed up with slime head, and decided to give it a whack. Got old shower head off, and upon reading directions found that THUNDERHEAD still was required by law to come pre loaded with a flow restrictor. All the online reviews mentioned to definitely toss it out (otherwise, WHAT'S THE POINT?) but I couldn't get the damn thing to budge. Even with tools. And a lot of googling. So finally I took a hammer and a pointy screwdriver and just bashed it in, which totally worked, and removed the pieces with a tweezers. Game on.

After that it went on pretty easy, and other than my guilt over using 5 gallons of water per minute (I'm cashing in my credits from years of not watering my lawn) it's working fine. I've only used it once or twice so can't tell yet if it will fix my goopy hair (pleasepleasepleaseplease) but here's hoping.

easy crafted hair bow organizer

I made something! Something that didn't require glue dots! It came together so quickly I forgot to take real photos,  so here are just a couple from my phone.  I present to you TC'S new wall hanging hair bow organizer:

 It took less than a half hour to make and and under $20. For the base I used a 17" square canvas from the craft store, I think it was $12 regular so less with the ubiquitous coupons.  The fabric has bright little monsters on it and was $7.99 a yard, I used slightly over half of it.

I pulled it tight and used a staple gun to secure it to the frame. Then I ran three strip of ribbon across the front and stapled them to the frame in back. For extra security I stitched through the canvas and fabric and ribbon in a few places and adorned the stitches with a few beads I had lying around. This keeps the ribbon from bowing under the weight of the clips. Voila!

I'm so pleased! I actually might add more ribbon rows since we filled this up pretty quick, but I love that it is bright, organized, lightweight,  and basically makes functional things into art. Cheap and easy is also a bonus! 

The Cupcake's First Haircut

TC's pigtails had gotten so long, they sometimes dipped in her lunch. Her PIGTAILS! That's some long hair! It was baby fine and a little scraggly around the edges, so it seemed like a good time to clean it up a little with her first haircut. I didn't know how she'd take it, but it all went well! Here is the before:

I thought we were going to one of the fancy kid salons with chairs shaped like dinosaurs and unicorns, but it turned out to be pretty plain. I hesitated for a moment, but it was completely empty and that seemed like a bonus, so we just went for it. They did have monitors at each station showing videos - TC's was playing Tangled, which is a favorite!

The stylist was patient and clearly used to dealing with toddlers, though TC was unusually stoic. She sat very still and quiet, and followed directions for the most part, it was completely out of character :) She only blanched for a moment when the hair dryer came out, but she let out nary a peep during the whole production!

They took off four whole inches, and it looks GREAT!

Happy little goon.

 They even gave her a bonus braid, and it stayed in the whole rest of the day, including a celebratory trip to McDonald's and a rowdy afternoon in Playland! I might have to try that one again, I'm stumped for styles that can last all day at preschool - she often comes home with her hair clips in a baggie when I try something new. Fresh look for a fresh year!

Donate a chunk of hair to locks of love - Bucketlist #51

I've been in a hair funk for quite some time. Post TC I pretty much wore a standard-issue mom ponytail for two years, all about function with zero style or styling requirements. I had bangs for a while, which gave me the illusion that I had some sort of actual hair style, but eventually I realized I wasn't really keeping up with those either (my hair grows fast and I wasn't making it out for solo haircuts very often, even if they were fast and cheap, and NO WAY was I doing it myself. I have no skills for haircutting). As TC has grown and I've been able to steal a few moments away I'd started to sort of style my hair for some special occasions - I'd flat iron out the weird ripples that developed during my pregnancy, curl the ends under, it would look okay:

Christmas 2012

But I soon realized that even when my hair started out looking presentable, it would mat and knot under it's own friction and by the end of the day I'd have a huge rat's nest at the base of my neck. It was embarassing, I'm sure it looked awful, and it sucked to try and comb (rip) out. I don't know how people with long hair do it, if they just have thinner hair than I do, or brush it every hour, or use some magic product, but I couldn't take it. I was sick of the ponytail, and couldn't hack keeping it down, so I did some measurements and determined it was time to tackle bucketlist #51 - donate to locks of love.

Donations need to be a minimum of 10", so I divided my hair into 4 ponytails and put binders around 11" up, meaning the first cut was about 12" off.

My  hair is so thick, I think I get credit for 2 or 3 donations for this :) It was like an actual pony's tail when I wrapped it all up.

I didn't take any photos at the salon, I purposefully left my camera at home because the pressures of this mega cut were enough without feeling like I had to be in photos right away. The strange ladies next to me appeared to take several photos though, and couldn't stop asking me about what was going on (shouldn't going to the salon be relaxing? Who does that to other people?!?!) and basically narrating the whole experience (you're  not helping!)

I don't have any great "after" photos yet, but I definitely feel a foot lighter. The new cut makes more sense with the new texture of my hair (I got wavy during pregnancy, so it was really weird to have 4" of waves then straight for 16". Awkward), it's low fuss and dries quickly, or I can curl/iron it up for a different look. It looks WAY lighter in color with all the bulk gone too, neither good nor bad, but interesting.

I doubt I'll ever have hair this long again, so I'm glad I could make it count - the hair will help sick little girls feel better about their appearance with custom fit hairpieces, definitely a worthy cause.

Mermaid it is...

I had half an hour to kill yesterday before "book club" so I stopped at a local party store to see if I could get some costume inspiration. Even though it's not close to Halloween, they still had two long rows of costume accessories, including a lot of wigs. I wasn't looking to spend much money, but nothing I had at home had me very fired up. I ended up getting this wig:



It is called a "pirate wench" wig, but I plan to use it with one of my mermaid costumes - I'll take out the big floppy ties and add on my shell crown and some pearls, that should work. For some reason I just can't abide a short-haired mermaid, so this is the extra piece I needed to pull off either of my existing costumes. I thought the colors were sort of reminiscent of the multi-colored hair my mermaid tattoo has.



I also liked that it was long enough to feel long, but wouldn't completely cover my back or get in the way like a Lady Godiva wig would. I'm leaning towards the blue costume, in which case I need to find some pearls - the ones I wore at Coney Island were actually Ryan's Christmas garland :) But I loved how they looked, they really added dimension to the front. Even if they did try to choke me a few times. If I end up going with the green one instead, I think I'll make a new crown out of seaweed & shells, to match the more "flower child" feel of that outfit.

Decisions, decisions...

Is winter over yet?

This morning I looked in the mirror after my shower and I looked like I had the worst sunburn of my life. Not the part of the sunburn when it's all red and angry, but after that when your skin curls up and flakes off like old paint, or some kind of zombie. Ick.

Beyond the the hassles of shoveling and bundling up, my patience is starting to wear thin on what this weather is doing to my "look." Not that I've really done much to battle it, but I'd rather not look like a creature from a bad sci-fi show.

Enter silk drops:

I'm trying something new.
I am the ultimate no-fuss hair girl. I roll out of bed, shower, and leave. Yeah, that's right, I intentionally skipped brushing my hair on that list because *gasp* I often don't even do it.

I have very thick, straight hair. Not thick in individual strands, but so many strands that my stylists generally get sick of the hour long blow drying required and insinuate that I should just leave with it damp. Which I often do, having the attention span of a kindergartner, and being terrible at mindless chit chat.

Anyways, my current hairdo is the simple stacked bob, and I like to wash it and run out of the house like a chicken with my head cut off about 15 minutes late, so there is very little fussing with it. Unfortunately, this dry weather leaves it to fluff and frizz quite oddly. I can combat this with a flat iron, but without making a serious adjustment to my morning schedule, that's not going to happen.

So when I got my hair cut last week I shared this conundrum with my stylist, who recommended I put "some STUFF" in it.

I have no "stuff." I think there are a few cans of glitter hair spray in the back of my cabinet, but outside of Halloween I rarely put gunk in my hair. I'm gunk shy. It makes me nervous.

But now I have gunk! She recommended these "silk drops" which she promised were easy as pie. I was skeptical, but for $10 I gave it a try. You just use a few drops, work it through wet hair, and and it supposedly eliminates the flyaways and fuzz.

I've used it 2-3 times so far, and it feels pretty good. It's a little fragrant for my tastes, but it doesn't make my hair feel greasy or gooey or stiff. I wasn't sure if it was really doing that much, or if my new haircut should get the credit, so I skipped a day (but still actually brushed it - go me!) and my hair was all fuzzy strange kinks. I think that seals it, this is good stuff!

Big Rambling Update Post - because Thursday was excellent :)

Whoo hoo for Friday! I'm definitely ready for a weekend, even if it's a busy one. If today is half as good as yesterday, I'm on a roll!

First off, I got all my "yard lighting" put together and ready to set up outside next week. I'm a rookie when it comes to these things, so here's what I did: I asked the lady at Menard's in the lighting section. :) Genius! I told her I needed some bright outdoor spotlights that plugged into a socket (I'm not ever trusting myself to wire something). She pointed me to these:



They are perfect! It's a floodlight holder that has either a flat base or a stake (I used the stake), you can set the angle to illuminate whatever you need, and they hold a big old floodlight that should be perfect. Score! I also got two of these:



3-outlet power stakes, so I can use 3 lights on either side of our sidewalk :)I wish I could set this all up this weekend, but between the bad weather (will it ever stop raining/snowing?) and possibility of theft (don't want to risk it, and we live next to some strange teenagers) I'm not going to risk it.

Then, 2nd super happy thing I accomplished yesterday: I got my hair fixed! WHOO HOO! I mentioned here that I was unhappy with my last cut, but I never explained the story. It was too new and traumatic at the time, but here's what went down: One random Saturday hubby was hosting a bachelor party IN OUR HOUSE, so of course I needed to flee. A free open roaming Saturday is not good for me, I get ideas into my head - ideas like "I should get my hair cut - drastically - RIGHT NOW." My "normal" hair lady who I love works weekday evenings (Chris @ Rosedale Regis - I've ALWAYS been happy, and she's fixed other people's mistakes more than once - yes, I should have learned by now), so she wasn't an option, but I naively thought "hey, I'm just getting a stacked bob, shouldn't be a problem for anyone, right?" and headed to the Northtown Regis. Cue the horror movie music here.

I should have ran immediately when the stylist started asking me questions assuming I was in high school. When I told her I was 30 (essentially) she was aghast and made a huge deal out of it. One of my personal pet peeves is being taken for younger than I am (which happens all the time, but is still annoying) so that should have cued me in. It didn't, so I sat there while she butchered my hair.

By the way, speaking of young, she was a baby. Just out of beauty school, she was 20 or 19 and lives with her parents. Every little small talk topic that came up ended awkwardly as we totally disagreed - weddings, music, eek. Just some background.

She never moved, she stayed on my right side and reached around, which can't be good form. She clearly didn't understand what "stacked" meant because she left the back of my hair all strangely choppy and layered, with a really clear line where it did NOT blend into the sides - EEEEK!

I kept saying "I want it stacked" and she kept saying she understood, but clearly something wasn't going through. Stacked is this:



When I told her it wasn't right, she just kept taking it shorter. I slowly lost all confidence and started to panic. When she asked about layers, I lost it and told her to stop. Yeah, seriously. I couldn't handle her destroying any more of it - I already knew I was going to need to get it fixed, best to minimize the damage and maximize what the fixer would have to work with. I still paid her, but I think we both knew I was seriously unhappy.

I never took a picture of the back, but in my mind I kept seeing this:


and lest you think I'm overreacting because it's scary to have 8" cut off your hair and I didn't like the teeny bopper who cut it, I had at least 3 friends say "Oh it's cute!...but what's with the back?" yeah, that'll make you self conscious real quickly :)

So I ignored it as long as I could and let it grow back a bit, and then did what I should have done originally - called to make an appointment with Chris!

She fixed me. She took all the bulk and choppy feathered layers out of the back and stacked it like I wanted, and she blended in the weird reverse mullet line the hack had left. Here's an awkward self portrait (amidst my Halloween decor):



Suffice it to say, I feel MUCH better - and just in time for our photo shoot with Olivia tomorrow!

Which leads me to the 3rd major happy thing of yesterday, I found an "outfit" to wear! Well, more than an outfit really, I decided since we're having outdoor fall/winter photos, and it's been horribly cold and will possibly snow tomorrow, I'd take a cue from my lil' sis' engagement photos and wear a cute coat! This one caught my eye as soon as I walked in to New York and Co., and I seriously ripped this amazing scarf off of the mannequin and declared it MINE.



Yay, I LOVE it! It's bright and fun and warm, it has an adorable hood, and it was on SALE, always a bonus. I'll be wearing it with jeans and probably a turtleneck, and I hope it looks cute. Hubby will be clad in a winter vest and Henley, he hardly ever wears an actual coat. And Normy will sport his typical black & white fur ensemble :)

I'm still not back to 100%, and hubs had to wake me up because I was snoring so loudly last night he couldn't hear the tv, but I am definitely feeling better. Let's hope it leads to a fun and productive weekend, my last weekend before the big party!

To accessorize, or not to accessorize?

What do you think, can I pull off this flower headband? I scooped it up on a whim at Target ($7.99) and wore it to the wedding we attended this weekend. I thought it was a nice splash of sparkle in contrast to my black wrap-style dress, and it was pretty comfortable. I'm still struggling with my hair cut (there's a lot of swearing and tears when I try to figure out how to style it) and I'm afraid the headband makes me look even YOUNGER (*shudder*) but it's kinda fun too. I'm torn.

Finally a photo of that hair style...

Remember my bridesmaid hair for Al's wedding/"Bump-It" review here? Back before I chopped off all that hair? Well I finally got a photo of the finished product, thanks to a wedding guest whose picture I probably ruined with my big ol' head (but hey, it works for me!). Remember this is after hours standing in the pounding winds (no seriously - they were CRAZY! One girl had a wrap dress that kept going all Marilyn Monroe and we had to actually pin her down to keep the photos decent. Hilarity ensued) and possibly some frenzied polka, so I'm more than impressed at how well it held together.

New hair cut for the fail....

I got a haircut.

So far I absolutely hate it.

Oops.

I didn't spend a lot of time styling it this morning since I'm so down on it, but you get he idea. On the bright side, since it's so short, I know it's all "virgin" non-highlighted hair left, so once I do grow out my 10" I'll be able to donate to locks of love...in a few years. And its much quicker to blow dry...

BUMP-IT!

I even have ANOTHER product review from last weekend to share(so many new experiences!) but unlike my Sleep Number Bed fiasco, this is a GLOWING review!

A while back I ordered a set of "Bump-Its" off of TV.

You know, these things you see on Sunday morning infomercials?

The things Ellen DeGeneres surprised "The Office's" Jenna Fischer with on this episode of Ellen?

I'm a self-admitted hair tragedy, and most of the time I just can't be bothered but these were so hilarious I had to try them. I ordered a set, upgraded to the "deluxe" rubberized coating (supposedly that stays in your hair better) and even got a free "Hollywood" bump-it for "ordering now!"

But I couldn't figure out how to use them. Most of my problem was that everyone in all of their advertising photos has bangs, and I do not - so figuring out where to place them was confusing, and I ended up looking like a cone head. So I threw them in the back of my linen closet and ignored them for a few months, till Alison's wedding rolled around. I stuck them in my bag at the last minute.

At the stylist, I still had no idea how I wanted to wear my hair. We discussed a few options, and I mentioned I had brought a set of Bump-Its. The stylist went CRAZY! She was so excited and demanded we try one. She started with the back, so this is pre-bumpage.

Don't I have a ton of hair? At first we were thinking the front half up, with the back long and curled, but as she started to see how resistant my hair was to holding curls, she urged me to put it all up. That ended up being a GREAT choice, since we battled raging winds all day! I was happy for each one of the 7000 bobby pins stapling my hairdo in place.

First we tried the "Hollywood" Bump-It, the one that is supposed to create "EXTRA DRAMA." Maybe a little too much drama, I thought it was approaching Elvira proportions and the stylist thought it looked too "porn star." Probably not the look Al wanted in her wedding party, so we switched down to the regular Bump-It.


Here is the bump "in progress"...All that straight hair eventually got pinned up into the 'do, and I had a big silver flower comb on one side...but I don't have any good photos of the finished product yet! Can you believe it? I'm sure I'll get one eventually, but it didn't occur to me at the salon. Here's close to the end, with the "bump" looking pretty great...



The Bump-It was a HUGE success - apparently you just need some actual hair design skills to use it! The stylist said she was sold - it saved so much time for her, and gave a really even effect. It felt secure but not painful, and since it was solid it held its shape all night, as opposed to a backcombed bump which tends to fall under the weight of my heavy hair. It also seemed far less itchy than the tangled hair version, so I didn't mess with it nearly as much. Bump-It gets a win!

I bought mine online, but I've recently seen them in Target stores and even Rainbow foods! I don't know if you get the "special rubberized coating upgrade" but I noticed they were about half the price (Rainbow was $9.99!), so might be worth a try.

Here's the one pic I've stolen from someone who caught the back of my head in something - what do you think?

Neutrogena Anti Residue Shampoo

This stuff is awesome.

I have really thick hair, and though I don't use a lot of styling products, I do have recurring periodic issues with sticky waxy build up.

Gross right?

But it's true. It's not all the time, just off and on, and more often when I have longer hair. I can clearly remember being in elementary school and going to the Aveda Institute as a hair model with another little girl in my Brownie troop. I had beautiful white blond hair, done in a graceful side braid, with a fancy new beaded t-shirt (hey, it was the 80s...you looked like a fool too) but when they unraveled my braid the stylists in training were aghast and couldn't understand why it felt so strange. They insisted it was something wrong with my shampoo (really effective to lecture a 7 year old on her shampoo choice...what kid controls that?), but all I knew was that I was highly embarrassed.

Now days I realized that when I go long periods of time letting my hair air dry (which is most days - blow drying thick hair is wayyyyyyy too much work!), the build up starts, just in the back of my hair. But there is a cure!

I remember my mom rationing this when I was little, the crystal clear shampoo in the tiny bottle: Neutrogena Anti-Residue Shampoo, formerly called "clarifying shampoo," this stuff is amazing. Per the directions you use it once a week, it strips out the build up, and when you go back to your regular shampoo it works even better without that base of residue. I thought I remembered it being horribly expensive when I was a child, but I picked it up for about $4 at Target last night, not too bad for such an impact.

Today my hair is still air drying, but I can already tell it feels better, cleaner, and I'm so relieved. There is nothing like icky hair to make you feel self conscious and down. The smell is a little antiseptic compared to most hair junk these days, but not overpowering.

By the way, I review products and services on here because I like to share my opinions, and possibly give others the benefit of my experience. I don't get paid for any of them, good or bad - not that I'm not entirely open to the possibility - but it just isn't the case unless I've said otherwise. So far, it's all just out of the goodness of my own heart. Don't you feel better trying products someone has tried and recommended? Or skipping ones they don't? That's one of my favorite parts about reading blogs, finding new products or hearing how a "real person" felt about using something.
:)

The End of an Era....

Today, I'm a brunette.

It's a little odd.

I've never been a brunette before, except for about two weeks after high school that there aren't any photos of. In my wedding photos my hair looks pretty dark, but that is mostly the effect of 7 layers of hair spray and other shellac. But it was time to face the facts. I had mucky in between colored hair with 6" roots and random faded rainbow streaks. I have 6 weddings coming up which will likely involve a ton of photos. I had to abandon the trailer trash half bleached mess and get back to basics.

This is supposedly my "natural" color. The pics above give you a little comparison - I can't actually say I was a "blond" immediately before this, but I had definite blond ends, with an indescribable color of roots that it turns out are a pretty dark brown when not surrounded by yellow. Who knew?

I'm still getting used to it, and reviews have been mixed. The hubby's initial response was "Why did you do that?" followed by "It looks like a wig." (Seriously, of all the stuff I've done to my hair, THIS is where he stops playing along?!?!) But a dear friend assured me it's okay, and the kicker - SHE SAID I LOOK OLDER!

I should add a caveat here that I am not the typical youth-chasing woman. I am repeatedly mistaken for someone more than 10 years younger, and I just find it annoying. I get carded going to movies. MOVIES. That means I look under 18. I also get confused for a student at the high school I coach at. I don't consider it a compliment. So looking older is A-OK in my book :) Maybe I can finally pass for 25 now that I'm almost 30?

So, I can't decide if I like it, but it's probably better than the mess I went in with. At least it's relatively close to one color.

Rainbow Hair

I consider this an art project of sorts, it just happened to be wearable :) I'd been itching for a change for a long time but my traditional salon just didn't offer a lot of options for fun colors. I came across this photo on a flickr search and fell in love - RAINBOW HAIR?!?! WHO WOULDN'T BE HAPPY?!?! I've never been much for home dyed hair - I did Ryan's pink muppet 'do for a while and some bad bleach jobs in college, but even though I was going a little outside the box I still wanted it done well and professionally. So I sought out Moxie in St. Paul, and I was way happy with the results.

Nancy was my stylist (I since found out she's no longer there...of course, just when I get comfortable with a new person!) But I'm sure the rest of the staff is capable. They use Paul Mitchell inks, and the process is called "ink burning" - they bleached the hair first, then Nancy mixed up all my custom colors (she was SO NICE about it!) and painted them in, sealing with a flat iron. She then added some subtle layers so the color peeked out the back all around. I LOVED IT! The colors were so bright, I thought it looked like feathers. When I had it down the color was unobtrusive but unique, and if I really wanted to make a more drastic statement, I could pull the top back and the pink & red were very bright.

Though it's technically "permanent", it doesn't last very long. Water is the enemy, so with dyes you want to wash as little as possible and when you do, with as cold of water as possible. This was fine the first couple weeks - every other day I'd strap on my chic shower cap and warm up under a hot shower, flip it to cold to wash my hair as fast as possible, and then man was I awake! But as soon as I started my tattoo I needed to wash my back in hot water and it all fell apart...3-4 weeks it started to look pretty faded, I did have it re-done once (which wasn't that much - only $30 for the ink burn, cheaper to maintain than blond for sure) but now it's pretty much all gone. I was thinking of keeping it through the summer but who am I kidding - I'm lazy and cheap :) It was fun while it lasted though!