Positive Day in Hairland

So thanks to the tip off from my fabulous friend Jenn at Girly Do's - I too, am joining in on this Positive Day in the Bloggosphere that Dust Bunny Hostage has started. This all started from her daughter - and you can read about it HERE. But I thought it was a great idea - despite it not being hair related. So I hope you'll allow me to join in the quest to have a positive day and contribute to this beautiful young lady wanting the world to be a happier and more positive place!

The idea behind it is to count our blessings, to share the positive, and to share with others why we are thankful -- all the positive stuff in your life. And if you feel so inclined -- join in the fun & do this too. What could be better?

So here goes nothing. First off, I'm thankful to all of YOU. Because if YOU weren't out there, this blog wouldn't be what it is today. This has really turned into so much more than I ever thought it would and it's been a very fun thing in my life. I look forward to reading my e-mail each day to see who dropped me a line or sent me pictures, etc. It's been fun to make "friends" and get to know some of you through this.

Speaking of friends. I think, hair related, one of the best things that has come from this (second to the time spent with my girls) is the friendship I found. Yup - my friend Jenn from Girly Do's. If you haven't caught on by now - we are pretty tight. We talk every day and actually do stuff together - just us, as well as our families. I haven't had a best girl friend since Jr. High and she's really filled a void that I had in my life. I promised her I wouldn't get all mushy & stuff, but if you didn't know it already - I'll tell you -- she's amazing. She actually is a much more positive person than I tend to be, and so she actually helps me be a lot better in this area than I used to be -- so that's another reason I'm here writing this post. To focus on the positive. She truly makes me want to be a better person.

Other things non-blog related - I am so blessed to have a family. My husband is so wonderful and he encourages me to be creative and have fun in life. My beautiful girls are also such a blessing. I can't imagine life without any of them.

*I'm blessed to have health - and also a healthy family.
*My husband has been fortunate enough to have a job that has been stable through this rough economic time, and for that I am totally thankful.
*I am blessed to live in a free land.
*I am blessed with an education.
*I can worship as I like and know that I have a Heavenly Father who loves me (and everyone else!)
*I am thankful that I can stay at home with my girls.
*I have a warm bed to sleep in every night -- and air conditioning in the hot summer.
*My parents saw to it that we learned an instrument, and I learned the piano. I started playing when I was 5 - still play, and have been teaching since I was 14. I am truly blessed to have music as a huge part of my life.
*So, with that, I am blessed to have fingers to play the piano -- and to do hair. And ears to hear the music that the world holds.
*I have wonderful neighbor's.
*The sun was shining today and my flowers are not dead! (I tend to not have a very green thumb!)
*I am thankful to have dental insurance & was able to get my front tooth fixed so I don't look like a bucky beaver!
*I'm blessed to have learned how to use coupons to save money for my family.
*I am just really a blessed person - in every aspect of my life.

There is so much more I can say, but I don't want to bore you! I feel privileged to have been able to participate in Positive Day. This was a cool exercise. It's always good to stop and remember the good things in life -- we need to do it more often - that's for sure. Thanks Miss Diva Daughter over at Dust Bunny for spurring this great idea. Here's to a fabulous positive day to everyone!

Hawser Braids and a Bun

Before we get to the hairdo -- Just wanted to let you guys know who were guessing where we spent our vacation -- it was in Oregon. And holy cow - Maddie Girl even guessed the picture of the ocean to be Cannon Beach -- she was totally right! As well as that being Mt. Hood in the background of us at Trillium Lake. It's amazing out there at the coast as well as in Portland. We have family out there and had a fabulous time.

Because I am dealing with little ones with the stomach flu right now, I'm posting this do that isn't quite step by step pictures. After I posted the video on how to do a hawser braid, I was in love with them that I did several do's without taking pictures of them (I know - where was my head?!) Anyway, this is one that I remembered to take pictures of after the fact-- just before Bug went out to swim. So if you didn't catch the video - go refresh your memory - because that's really all this is.

Part the hair off center on the right. You could do it straight down the middle if you prefer. But part from the forehead back to the nape of the neck. Pin off the left side of the hair for now so it doesn't get in the way.

Then divide the right side into 4 different sections. 2 in front of the ear & 2 behind it. Make corkscrews or twist braids with all 4 sections of hair.
Then combine the front 2 corkscrews to make a hawser braid & do the same with the back 2 sections - tying them off with rubber bands. Let those hang on the right side for a minute.

Make a side ponytail with the hair that you had pinned off on the left side. Once you've made a ponytail, pull the front hawser braid across the top of the head so it's almost like a headband. Grab the bottom hawser braid and bring it across the back of the head and using another rubberband, add those to the ponytail.
Then I made the whole ponytail (including the ends of the hawser braids) into a corkscrew/twist braid and tied it off with another rubberband. Wrap it into a bun and secure with bobby pins. You can hide the end of the corkscrew, or leave it sticking out to make a turkey bun like I did.
Here's a side view of how it came over the top of her head like a headband.
That's it -- one happy kiddo ready to go and swim! (I normally don't dress her in shiny silver strappy outfits! :) )

TRIP for Tuesday

Ok, so I'm sure I could come up with a TIP for today, but I just got back into town after being gone for about 10 days on a faaaab-u-lous vacation with the fam. Didn't even know I was gone did you?! Ah, the lovely "post date" feature of blogger!

Anyway, this has nothing to do with hair today, but since we had such an amazing time I just wanted to see if you can guess where I went with a few pictures for "TRIP" for Tuesday! I know some of you may live out this way, so as soon as you see them you'll know! But I've got to say, it is sooo beautiful in this certain place & we had such a great time, it was hard to come back.

So you get to play "Where did we go on our Trip -Tuesday!" If you know me, and you know where I went, you can't play!

Unfortnately, you can barely see Bug in this picture - she's hiding off in my shadow on the right! But here's our happy little family!
Can't go to the beach without writing in the sand, huh?!Anyway, my TIP for today - is take a TRIP! Nothing beats time with the family - even if it's on a "stay-cation." It was nice to get away from it all - phone calls, computers (Ok, I cheated & logged on once for like 5 minutes!), the normal hum drum of each day, etc. & just spend time together. I'm sad it's over - especially because I was greated with throw up from Bee this morning. Nothing like being welcomed back to reality with the stomach flu! So, I'll be tied up, playing catch up for a few days, so hang in there with me.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful summer ... I think it's going by too quickly.

Oh, and PS - I just couldn't resist sharing a few of Bug's recent pictures we had taken. She turned 5 this month & so being the "on top of it Mom" that I am, I actually got them taken the day after her birthday! Sorry to those of you who have already seen these! ;-)
Ok, that's all for now! Promise!

Ear to Ear Pull Through's

To do this one, you'll need to be able to do pull through's. If you need a refresher on those, go HERE. Sorry for the funky coloring on the first picture. I've been messing with my camera since it took it's "swim" to see if everything is still working ok. So far so good :).

For this do, start on the right side of the head. Part from about the temple down and around to the nape of the neck. I sort of squared mine off, but that wasn't on purpose!
Make a ponytail and then pull the hair through - at more of an upward angle. You don't want to pull it through and have it aiming completely backwards. You want it to work across the back of her head towards the center of it.
Part off another section of hair just a bit above the previous one - following the same curve of the head from front to the nape of the neck.
With that 2nd section of hair, smooth it up like you are going to make a ponytail, and then grab the hair below from the 1st pull through. Secure it all into a ponytail, and make another pull through. Once again - angled towards the middle of her head (going left).
Repeat a 3rd time - parting it off, and making a pull through. With each pull through, it'll get thicker because you'll be including hair from the prior section.
Repeat the same thing -making 3 pull through's on the left side of the head.
When you are this far, you'll have 3 pull through's on each side and then the hair coming down from the middle of the head is hanging free. Smooth it back in front and pull all the remaining hair back into the middle of the back of the head
Make a pony tail right in the middle.
Sorry this pic is rather yellow - don't know what's up there. Once you've made a ponytail, then do another pull through - but this time, pushing the hair up from the bottom and out the top - making a cascading ponytail. So in the end, you should have pull through's from ear to ear!
You can leave the ponytail straight or curl it. You don't necissarily need an accessory with that type of ponytail, but she wanted this darling one from Every Little Detail in on top.
From the side:
And a silly pose & smile!
This was a great one, because she the next morning you could hardly tell she'd slept on it. We just redid the pony in back & we were done, lickity split!

Tried It Out Tuesday

I don't know if I'd call this a "tip." Maybe more like something we tried out recently and thought we'd share with ya'll. As we are headed out on a family vacation I've headed to the dollar store several times looking for cheap coloring books, etc. for the looooong road trip ahead of us. As I wandered the aisles looking at countless things, I came across these in the "beauty" aisle. I've seen these at other stores but for much more than I was willing to spend. So I figured I could spare a buck to try one of these out cuz if it doesn't work I'm not out anything.

I actually didn't want it for myself though. The problem I have is this: I'll bathe all the girls and then dry their hair once they've all bathed. Well, Goose is usually the first one through the shower & done and then walks around with dripping wet hair while I am still working on the other girls. For all the times I've attempted to show her how to make a "towel turban" she just couldn't master it, or the towel was too thick & bulky and would fall off in no time. And maybe it's just Goose who is an uncoordinated 7 year old - I don't know! And maybe you're thinking who cares?! But it bugged the heck out of me that the back of her jammies would be all wet and she claimed she just couldn't squeeze her hair enough or whatever. So I thought this could help solve the problem! And I'm happy to say, it did.
She can put it on her own head and then twist her hair up in it, fastening the little loop around the button on the back like it shows in the picture. It's not too bulky, and there isn't too much cloth for her to work with. I love the fact that it's one more thing she can do for herself, while I'm juggling the younger two. I wouldn't say that it totally dries her hair faster than a regular towel would (as it claims) but if nothing else, it does get some of the excess water out of her hair & keeps it up off her back until I can get to her to dry her hair. It's been very convenient I must say. The only draw back is if I were to try have this on Bug, the "tail" of the cloth isn't quite long enough and I don't think all her hair would fit into it since her hair is longer. We'd have to pull her hair up in it a little different so all of it would be covered up by the head wrap. Either way, it was a good investment for $1 and it's been a win-win for both of us - and she looks cute walking around the house in a pink turban I think!
So if you have the same issue with wet haired kids walking around the house - you may want to look into one of these since they are way cheap and if you don't end out liking them, you're not out much!

"E Z Combs" Review and Curls

(Photo courtesy of TV Products 2000)

I don't know how many of you are familiar with this hair accessory called EZ Comb, but I'd seen the silly infomercial as well as in ads at local stores. Months back I broke down and bought a package to try them out. They were $9.99 at Bed Bath & Beyond and I used my 20% off coupon so I didn't feel too bad about my purchase price! They come in packs of 2 and so I got a black one and a tan beaded one in my package. They looked pretty & thought they might be a fun new thing to put in the girls hair - or at least in Goose's since she's got the thicker hair of the bunch. So if you haven't seen these here's the video on how they work. They kind of remind me of a fancier version of a small banana clip that was popular back in the 80's.

So I watched this video & off we went to experiment with it. I must say I was a bit disappointed. I don't know if it was because it would be easier to do it on myself instead of someone else's head, but it was really tricky to get in. Well, I guess not tricky, but I needed Goose to hold the one side of the comb while I twisted her hair and sometimes the comb so I could get the other side in properly. Now keep in mind, I did this on her because her hair is thicker. I could understand if someone has thinner hair that this maybe wouldn't work. And also, the fact that she's got a smaller child head maybe had something to do with it too - I don't know. So my review on these may be totally false.

So, that was our first attempt. They've sat in my bathroom for months now and I've been stewing over them wondering what I could do to get them to work, because I think they are rather pretty. I decided to try using them with her hair curled. So last week we used our fabulous CurlFormers to get some added thickness/body to her hair.
I gently separated the ringlets with my fingers and then gently parted her hair from ear to ear making a 1/2 pony. I twisted the hair a little bit like this before putting in the EZ Comb. I don't have any pictures putting it in because both of my hands were involved with that task!Here's how it turned out. I first tried twisting her hair & flipping it up a little so the hair would cascade down over the comb, but that didn't work so we just went for this look instead. Simple, yet pretty.
Success & end of story right? Wrong. Within less than an hour Goose came back in & one of the sides of the comb had totally come out and the other side was still caught in her hair. Granted, she was playing around a bit, and like I said, maybe these are more for grown-up women. Women who work in an office, sitting at a desk all day and don't fly around the house being super princess!

So, due to my frustration with these I gave up! So I quickly did a 2 twists on the right side of her head and secured them with bobby pins.
Then I did a twist 1 more towards the center of her head with a section of hair & fastened it with a bobby pin. Then below that section I made a regular braid and took it up and over towards the right side of her head, fastening it as well with a bobby pin or two.
The end result was this - and it held up the entire day, curls, bobby pins and all!
So I have a question for you. Have any of you bought these & used them? Doe they work? I've read mixed reviews - but found none using it in kids hair. And for as many times as I attempted these in her hair, you'd think I'd get it. I consider myself to be pretty smart when it comes to hair stuff, kwim?! You would think for as much as you can twist it to "tighten" it, it should work regardless right? In my looking around (after the fact) I also found things called Hair Zing - which looks basically the same, but seems to come in more colors and different sizes and even have "girls collection." Not sure really how different any of these things would be in the end - but I'd like to know if any of you have had success with these or have been frustrated like me. I've tried just about every way they show to use these, but they just don't stay in. My vote is save your $10 and buy some cute bows instead! :)

Tip for Tuesday

Once again, I've got a tip for you related to swimming and summer time, I read this one in a magazine or saw on YouTube somewhere a while back (sorry I don't have the source.)

I believe at pretty much every pool or water park there are signs that say you should take a shower before getting in the pool. I've always assumed it was the "cleanliness" issue that those signs were posted. Not sure how many people actually do that - although I've seen people showering after they've been in the pool to rinse the chlorine off them, etc.

We all know that chlorine & sun can cause major dryness and other issues to our hair - especially if you swim regularly. So, the tip for today is to go to the pool with wet hair. Whether you (or your dd's) do it in their showers or before leaving your house - have wet hair when you get in the pool. Since hair is porous it will suck up all that chlorinated water and will tend to dry out your hair. But if you already go with it wet, your hair won't be sucking up all that chlorine water the instant you get your head wet. Make sense? So, doing as the pool suggests - showering before entering the pool - is actually a great idea - especially when it comes to your hair! Of course putting product in your hair that is supposed to help protect it from the sun is helpful too (if you're swimming outside), but I don't have any suggestions on that at this point in time! If anyone uses something that works good for them, let me know.

Oh, and I'm kind of a few days late on posting about this, but over at All Things Ribbon they are offering 25% off of everything right now. They've got some fun new bows and are also clearing out their summer dresses (sniff sniff) making room for holiday ones coming soon. So head on over there now if you are in the mood for some great savings and use the code "Summerfun" when you check out for 25% off your purchase. It's good through tonight - Tuesday 7/14 midnight.

Also, over at Kayte Bug Boutique they are having a $15 giveaway - so head over there to enter. The link is to their blog where you'll want to enter for the giveaway, but you'll need to go to their actual bow website to look around for what you might like to buy if you win.

Messy Bun - My Way Video

A couple months back when I did the post showing how I did messy buns - I've since had people asking for a video of how I do it. So for you who are more visual this is for you! Hopefully you can get a better sense of how I do these. Remember, you don't have to use the 2nd rubberband like I do in this video, you can just use the one and on the last wrap around, just don't pull the hair all the way through. But it works better on Goose to do it the way I demonstrate in the video. Let me know if you have any more questions on these!

Tip for Tuesday & Fun

Today our tip comes from Maddie Girl who is a fellow hair blogger and has some darling little heads of hair she gets to work on. She'd posted this in my comments, so I assume most of you didn't see this, so I wanted to share it as well.

After I posted this tip about hairspray buildup, she said she'd tried the baking soda trick but it left her with major split ends. So if you're worried about that, or having it happen to your little DD, this is what she suggests:

"You can take 1 cup of apple cider vinegar and mix it with 1 cup of warm water. (you shouldn't smell like a pickle after it's dry)" I assume once you've applied that and rinsed it out, you can shampoo & condition like normal & you're good to go.

She also gave a great tip for dry hair. Obviously, your little ones are most likely not in need of this - but as adults this is a fabulous tip. She said, "For dry hair, take 1 avocado, mix it in the blender with about 1 tablespoon of olive oil (yes, the same olive oil you use for cooking) smear it all over you hair and use a plastic grocery bag (or plastic wrap) to keep it from dripping all over the place. Leave it on for about 15 minutes and wash as normal." She said she used to sell treatments like that for $12 a pop. Much cheaper to do it yourself I'd say!

Also, I just thought I'd share with you a little fun I recently had - since it has to do with hair! My darling niece J. turned 12 recently and was having a fun girly girl sleep over party & she asked me to come and do all their hair for the party. It was a blast. While I was doing hair, they were doing nails and gabbing away! It was so cute! It made me excited (sort of!) for my girls to start doing stuff like that too! Anyway, although I've done hair for weddings, and dances, etc., I'd never stood and done 6 heads of hair in fancy do's before in one full swoop!! It was crazy! They all looked so fabulous & were so excited with what I did with their hair! My SIL told me that after I'd left one of the girls mentioned sleeping on her face so she wouldn't ruin her hair! LOL! It's a good thing I'd bought that 1 lb. box of bobby pins because I used plenty of them! In fact, by the end of the night, my right thumb had a crack in it from pushing in all those bobby pins! :) So I thought I'd share a picture of all the cute girls after we were done. You really can't see their hair too well, but you can tell they were having a way fun time! So thanks J. for asking me to come to your party. I had a blast!

Monthly Hair Share

I hope everyone had an amazing 4th of July weekend. (If you live state-side I guess!) I know we had a blast & I'm sad that it's over. Time is just going by so quickly. So here we are again at another monthly hair share - so I hope you enjoy these. We've got some fun ones this month & it's been fun having them arrive in my in box to look at & now I get to share them with you!

These first 3 pictures are from one of my new readers, Vera. She's was so excited to find the hair blogs - for a couple reasons. She's adopted a little girl who is AA - Miss M, (the first picture) and she was so excited after she'd done some of these do's that other AA people were complimenting her on it - which is a huge thing for her. That's so awesome I think!

And then to get her little toddler to sit still for these was also an exciting thing! Wahoo!
These next ones are so fun I think. They are from Jessica. Her daughter was having a fun church activity where they were having a 4th of July homemade ice cream party, and so for fun they tried something new.
How fun is that?! So cute & patriotic too!
That's one pleased girl if I've ever seen one! :)

This next one is from Kristen. Sorry the picture is a bit small - but hopefully you can tell that she did the "dressed up headband." Kristen said her daughter is an Irish dancer and usually wears a hairpiece. Ringlets are traditional. But for her first festival (competition) they weren't allowed the hairpiece. So they took some ribbon & did our little headband trick! People were so impressed and took pictures of it over and over! It looked great on stage, and lasted all day! That's awesome! Nothing like doing wonderful in the performance & having great hair on top of it! :)

These next ones are from Amanda. This time they are of some friends girls that she babysat for several days. She had 4 girls on top of her kids and found time to do cute hair too! Cool! There was a set of twins that she had fun doing "twiner" do's on. Too cute.

I think these next few pictures are do's from Hair 4 My Princess.

And she was excited that she was able to get the corkscrews looking good without starting from a rubberband. That was a big thing for me, so I hear ya! :)
And a darling face to match the hair!
Well, that's it for this months pictures. Thanks ladies for sharing with the rest of us. It's so great to see everyone out there spending time with their little girls & making memories together! Hope everyone has a great day! Don't forget - if you've got pictures you want posted and included in the next hair share - be sure to e-mail them to me!

Oh, and I had a few e-mails about new sites out there with bows and such

Bows 4 my 4 Girls is a fun new one to go visit.
Kyla's Kreations - she's just recently moved back to the states after a year in England & has got some beautiful things too.