Pony puff with twist out bangs

Hello everyone!  So the playing with my hair continues.  I decided to twist my bangs last night and then this morning I decided to wear my hair up in a pony puff because it has been so hot.  I took my twists out and really liked the look.  The frizz in the front didn't bother me, in fact I like it a lot! I then pinned back part of my bangs and added a flower for my finished look.  I like this look and it kept my hair off my neck on this hot day.  Until next time...
Blessings!

Sidewalk chalk everywhere

Chalk everywhere compliments of my 3 year old son.

Hello everyone!  Day two of back to school is done and I'm exhausted.  Is it too soon to start counting down the days to summer break 2013?  What a great summer break this was and now that I'm back to school I've forgotten that sleeping to 7:30am was sleeping in!  My geriatric dogs are back to getting me up at 5:30am and since my alarm goes off at 6am I'm basically up for the day. 

Well, up here in MN the weather has been heating up and we are having some very hot August weather this week.  My son is loving the new backyard and for his birthday he got some sidewalk chalk.  Don't tell him that the chalk is for the sidewalk.  He discovered that he can run the chalk on the sidewalk, place his hand in the chalk, and then stamp hand prints on himself and me.  What a joy it is to enjoy the last of the summer hanging out with my son in our backyard.  I know that one day very soon he will be grown up and sprinting out the door, so I have to hold on to these precious moments while they last.  Find joy in where you are now, because you're  not guaranteed another.  Until next time...
Blessings!

First high puff and pompadour...Blues look

I wouldn't be me without a flower in my hair.

Hello everyone!  With my hair growing out I have noticed that certain styles I did on my shorter hair just don't work out any more.  So, I love my curly fro hawk but it no longer looks good on me.  I did some research and found out the many naturals have been using banana clips to make fro hawks.  I purchased a three pack of clips for about $4 dollars at Walgreens and decided to play with my hair Thursday night.  Well, let me tell you that my hair may have a thinned out spot in the front, but everywhere else it is super thick.  All that clip did was snap open every time I tried to clip my hair.  So, after digging around in my hair stuff I came across some little tiny ponytail holders.  Since I was playing with my hair I thought "why not".  To my surprise I gathered all my hair and this little holder held my hair.  I was able to pull and fluff my hair to show case my curls.  This tiny little holder held my curls all day long and I never had to worry about a snapping clip and all my hair falling out.  

So, on Friday I decided to try a high puff with a pompadour in the front.  This was done on day 3 wash n go hair so I had some frizz, but still mostly curls.  I used some water to spritz my hair, then a little conditioner, and some Mop Top gel to slick the hair in the back and sides.  I used two pins to hold the pompadour down in the front. 

First of all this is my first high puff and second, I was totally blown away with the compliments.  I got so many compliments at school that I was thinking I need to do this more often.  A teacher friend of mine said my hair reminded her of Billie Holiday.  Wow!  Hello!  She loved wearing flowers and so do I.  So, I'm calling this my Blues look.  I still love my curly fro hawk and I plan to figure out how to do that style with longer hair.  As for my banana clips, well I'm thinking about donating them since I have only "tried" to wear one the other two are brand new.  Until next time...
Blessings!

Pictures of the pooch

I got her to look at the camera by tempting her with a treat.

Hello everyone!  This will be a quick post because I'm back to school and I'm already tired and ticked off at all the new policies.  Anyway, my mutt by the name of Peanut Butter (yeah I know isn't that an awesome name!) got a hair cut and Jazz Wife over at Slim Wavy asked for some pics so here they are.  I can't feature one mutt without featuring the other.  Luigi (I know your thinking where's Mario?) is our big dog and we got him at a shelter.  He is a wonderful dog and I highly encourage anyone who is looking for a pet to check out your local shelters.  Luigi is the sweetest animal I have ever been in contact with and Peanut is getting old and cranky, but I love her anyway.  Until next time...
Blessings!

He wouldn't look at the camera for longer than a second.  You'd think for a treat I could get one glance.

 

My New Car!

Parked in my driveway.

Hello everyone!  Yesterday the hubby and I purchased a new car.  We both worked summer school and saved every penny to put a down payment on a 2012 Mazda 5.  This is the first time I have ever owned a new vehicle and with the current market on used cars it was actually cheaper to buy a new car.  Hello!  I also got a red one!  I always wanted a red car.  The hubby came up with a great name for the new car (I hope that's not weird) so now we call her Penny.  Can you tell I'm giddy.  

Anyway, the Mazda 5 is basically the mini of the mini vans.  It's perfect for small urban families like mine and when we decide to expand our family in the future we will have the room with this vehicle.  I have wanted one since my son was born, but life seemed to always interfere.  I love that this mini van drives like a car, but gives me the room for my family and the gas mileage won't ruin my monthly budget.  Oh, and I bought it with only 124 miles!

First family photo with our new car.

Today my son begged me to allow him to "play" in the new car.  He wanted me to drive by the daycare and show it off to his "friends".  I reminded him that it was Saturday and daycare was closed today.  It didn't matter, he wanted to show off the new car so I buckled him in and whipped around the block where he yelled out the window at some friends "I got a new car".

My bachelor older brother messaged me that I have officially become a "soccer mom".  He's single he doesn't get the demands of a family.  I love my car and nothing besides maybe a horrible tornado could  diminish my excitement right now.  Until next time...
Blessings!

What I learned...One year natural

Pony rides for the kids, because I'm not showing you a picture of me on a horse.

 

Hello everyone!  I'm back from my vacation and feel like I need a vacation from my vacation.  From the horseback riding to hiking and then canoeing, I'm exhausted.  It was great to go on this retreat with my family through church.  I proved to everyone that yes, you can take a 3 year old canoeing.  We didn't catch any fish, but having our family (sister in law and cousins) with us made this vacation a lot of fun.

The cousins climbing the rocks while hiking Rib Mountain.

Last week was the anniversary of my first year natural and this got me thinking about what I have learned over this past year.  Besides learning to care for my hair I have learned a lot about myself and beauty.  I could go on and on about detangling with conditioner to the different styles and products I explored over this year, but I feel like talking about something different.  I want to talk about what I learned, now that does include hair care, but I want to go deeper. 


1.  Failure is good!  Yup, you heard me right.  Failure is good.  Now many of you know that I'm a teacher, so I'm not talking about taking a test and getting a F.  For all you folks out there that failed a test or class you really know that was from your lack of studying and or effort mostly.  The failure I'm talking about is the good failure.  The type of failure you learn from.  So many people look at the failure in their life and think only negative.  I'm here to tell you that failure is good!  You just need to adjust your way of looking at failure.  I see failure as a learning opportunity.  If you try and fall completely on your face, but learn from that experience you didn't fail!  Now yes, you didn't achieve what you wanted to and your pride might be bruised, but you learned something new.  So, I learned to embrace my mishaps and learn from them.  When you fail, get up and try again.  Don't make the same mistakes!

Picture of us in front of the Church at camp in Wisconsin.

2.  Beauty is only skin deep.  I have talked about this before, beauty is what we decide it to be.  We are raised to chase beauty and maintain it for as long as possible.  We spend thousands of dollars to achieve a certain standard of beauty acceptable to the society we live in.  Guess what, if you are lucky to live to a ripe old age that beauty standard we chase and try to hang on to wrinkles, spots, grays and basically completely erodes away.  So, since we all lose our outward beauty embrace who you are and what you have.  When I started to see myself as beautiful just the way I was made my mental transformation started to click into place and my curly hair was just part of who I am.  For me having a short transition and wearing my TWA really pushed this concept hard.  Wearing my TWA couldn't go unnoticed and I had to look deep within myself to find my beauty.

Hubby goofing around with Aunt Laura as we pose by the river.

3.  Be inspired.  Don't be afraid to try new things.  I watched lots of You Tube videos and in the beginning I thought "my hair isn't long enough to do that".  Then one day I watched a video on a very simple elegant style and thought "I think I can do that, but modify it a little" and that's when I was inspired to try something new.  So, my version of "Midsummer Romance" by Naturally Curious had me pin my sides back giving me an illusion of longer hair.  Don't be afraid to copy others styles.  They will look different on you and embrace that others might copy you (love you Minsek!).

Have I learned more than three things over this past year?  Heck yeah!  But, I'm tired and I can save something for another day.  I hope I have inspired you too look at your journey differently.  I pray that you look for the blessings in your life and push yourself to grow.  Until next time...
Blessings!

One Year Natural!

One year natural wash n go.

Hello everyone!  Today one year ago I cut all my relaxed hair off and became 100% natural.  This first year I didn't just style and grow out my hair I redefined beauty and how I perceive what beauty looks like.  I measured my hair and I have 8 inches in the front.  I know the back is longer but considering I started with 1 7/8 inches after my big chop I have grow a little over 6 inches this year which means I was able to retain the average amount of hair growth in a year.  Not bad, I'll take it!

I created a collage of my fro from my big chop to six months to now one year later.  I was sporting some serious big hair yesterday so I thought let's see how big I can get this hair.  I achieved this big hair (one year picture) by picking out my curlformers picked out look I wore this past weekend.  The picture with the blue flower was taken today after doing a wash n go.

I decided to created a one year video of my hair journey this past year.  This has been fun and don't ask me if I plan to cut my hair anytime soon because I'm part of the 2014 hair growth challenge, so I plan on growing it out until then.  I do plan to only do hair length checks every 2 months instead of every month.  I will post sometime next week what I have learned about my hair over this year.  Until next time...
Blessings!

Viviscal Update

Hello everyone!  I've made another short video updating you on the Viviscal supplement I have been taking since June 4, 2012.  Until next time...
Blessings!

First Ponytail

Hello everyone!  As my first year of being natural gets closer I have been playing with my hair.  Since the curlformers basically stretched my hair out I decided to try to pull ALL my hair into one ponytail.  This morning I used some water and gel to slick back my hair and then I gently started to gather and smooth my hair into a ponytail.  This is the first time I have gotten all my hair into a ponytail without needing any hair clips to bobby pins to hold down stray hairs.  This style really puts my face on display and my son told me seven times today that he liked my earrings.  Yeah, I counted!

First ponytail.

I was really surprised that my hair really isn't pulled all that tight.  No headaches or feeling that my edges have too much tension.  I comfortably wore my ponytail all day long and thought to myself that I could of done a ponytail two months ago. 

Now, I haven't forgotten to do an update on my Viviscal experiment.  I hope to get it done maybe tomorrow.  If not I will for sure update early next week.  My family and I are going to Adventure Camp with our church this weekend, so I will be busy.  Until next time...
Blessings

Curlformers... well kinda

Curlformers long and narrow.

Hello everyone!  I have been very busy lately.  My son had his 3rd birthday and the party was a hit!  My older brother, parents, and niece and nephew came for the party.  We also had some friends from California visit.  From the party to the company and then summer school paper work to complete I have been very busy.  Summer is flying by so quickly and my nerves are starting to get the better of me with registration for grad classes and getting ready for back to school.

Not happy with my Curlfomers results.

So, I finally got around to setting my hair in my Curlformers.  I bought them last year when I was transitioning and I loved the look.  This is the first time I have used my Curlformers on 100% natural hair.  I washed and deep conditioned my hair before installing the Curlformers.  I sectioned my hair and used my Mop Top daily conditioner, jojoba oil, and Mop Top medium hold gel.  Considering I was interrupted several times by my won't take a nap toddler, it took me about a hour and ten minutes to wash and install 40 Curlformers. 

Let me be perfectly honest, I really disliked the final results.  No, I hated the final results!  I even separated the curls and still hated the look.  You can tell by my lack luster look the I'm not happy.  The hubby and I were invited to a party Friday night and I wanted to look great.  Since becoming parents the only time I dress up is for church.  I wanted to have some wow factor going on, but no it didn't work out like I expected.  So, as I was racking my brain on what to do I decided to pick out my hair.  I knew it would get big and I figured if I had to I could always hop in the shower and do a quick wash n go.

Friday night rushing out to the party.

Well, I love the results of my picked out curls!  Of course I pinned back the front with a flower and then I just clipped the other side down to somewhat contain my fro.  This look really reminds me of my Bantu knot out.  I'm finding out that the hubby really digs the big hair and my son said that I was the prettiest mommy. 

Next day hair.

I slept in my silk scarf in my first pineapple attempt and the next day I was surprised that my hair looks basically the same.  My hair is really out there!  I like that I have these curls springing forth from my head and then all this volume.  In the past when I did my hair in Curlformers I would only get basically one day hair.  Here I am on day two thinking I might get day three or four hair out of this look.  So this is me embracing a failed attempt with my Curlfomers and loving the picked out look.  I'm glad I did something different with my hair because I learned something new.  Until next time...
Blessings!