I hope everyone had a wonderful long weekend. We're redoing our entire sprinkling system and with the rain we've had, that translated to plenty of mud & muck, so needless to say we had a "fun" weekend! But thankfully we have wonderful friends & family that came and helped out. It's nice to know they aren't just "fair weather friends!"
I just wanted to let you know that due to the holiday weekend we've extended our Stylish Mode headband giveaway a bit. I felt bad that I timed things badly with the holiday, so we're extending it through June 6th. So if you were gone and missed entering daily, you can get some more entries in between now and then. So head over to our giveaway over HERE every day to enter. If you missed our review about the headbands they sent us, you can read it here. They are truly fabulous!
And lastly, one of my long time & loyal readers Micki, (to whom I forever owe because she's the one who first told me about Curlformers!) e-mailed me the other day about a hair site she stumbled upon. Of course I had to go take a peek. It's called Hair Romance.
I know what you're thinking -- another hair blog? Yes - but I had to share this one because isn't for little girls. I get e-mails all the time from you mom's wanting styles for you, and well, she's got a bunch and they are beautiful, so I thought I should share. She doesn't have as many step-by-step pix, but there are some great ideas. She just posted today they've put out an e-book and she is so talented - so go check her out & send her some love!
Anyway, hope you all have a fabulous day. Don't forget to go enter our giveaway and then go check out Hair Romance! I'm off to go dig in the mud! Ugh. :-)
First I just wanted to remind everyone not to forget to go enter the fabulous giveaway we're hosting for your chance to win $25 to spend at Stylish Mode on some beautiful headbands. Go check it out HERE!
I realized it'd been ages since I did a Hawser braid and since you make them using rope/twist braids I thought it'd be fun to try it out using my new & fun variation the uneven rope/twist braid.
You really only need to know how to do those 2 things, so if you don't, or need a refresher, go HERE to watch my video on how to make a Hawser braid, and HERE to watch my video on the uneven rope/twist braid. If you are real new to all this and need help with just a basic rope/twisted braid, you can watch THIS video.
Part out a square or rectangular peice of hair on top of the head. I did mine off set to the right a bit because I wanted her ponytail in back not dead center either.
Make an uneven rope/twist braid & secure it temporarily with a clip once you get to the end.
Take the remaining hair and pull it back into a ponytail. Add your rope braid. I secured it with a 2nd small rubber band rather than including it into my main ponytail.
Divide the ponytail into 2 sections.
Make 2 uneven rope/twist braids. Be sure to make the left strand be the small one for each twist.
Not sure what I did, but my left one went a bit wonky! Secure both twists with little rubber bands at the ends. Be sure you twist both these uneven twist braids the same direction or your Hawser braid won't work.
Then twist them into a Hawser braid. You should just simply be able to twist them the opposite direction of how you made your twist braids & have this work. Twist it nice & tight so it stays tight & cool looking! Secure the ends together with another rubber band. I didn't bother pulling the other 2 out, just for added security! :) Looks pretty cool, huh?!
We added one of our favorite big white bows from All Things Ribbon to cover up where things join together and curled the end of the braid & that was it. A really unique but awesome looking 'do!
Perfect do to keep her hair up off her neck since it's finally starting to get warm here. If you try this one out, we'd love it if you'd share with us on our Facebook Page! And don't forget to go enter our giveaway!
Since headbands are all the rage this year, I'm so excited about this review! If you have been around our site long enough, you'll probably remember we had a giveaway featuring Stylish Mode & their beautiful headbands over a year ago on our giveaway blog. Well, this time we're not just doing a giveaway (more on that in a minute**), but Stylish Mode was kind enough to make headbands for us & sent one for each of the the babes to try out. Now keep in mind - technically they don't make them for little kids, but being that my kids have big-ish heads, er, larger than average heads (thanks to their dad!) based on their measurement page I figured we'd probably be ok! So in my opinion, outside of a toddler or a kiddo with a tiny head, these fabulous headbands are great for us all. But again, my girls heads measure big so my disclaimer is they aren't the norm!
Stylish Mode sent us 3 different headbands. They are their Bandana Head Scarves. I couldn't find the one Goose picked out, so it might not be available anymore, but these are pics of the other two.
If these look at all familiar, it may be because the girls wore them in the video we made when they announced winners for a giveaway we had where we posted the winners on our Facebook page. You can watch it HERE if you want to see more than just still pictures!
***So I've got to say how impressed I am with the quality of these headbands. Becka from Stylish Mode hand sews all of these and she's got some major skills that I wish I had when it came to the sewing machine! Where the strap attaches to the scarf is so well sewn - it's not going to ever come off or come apart. We're talking high quality. The edges around the front and back of the bandana part of the headband are serged so that you can tuck it or fold it under to your liking. They are really well made & to top it off they come in countless fun & beautiful fabrics to suit your every mood or style.
*** Stylish Mode has so many different types of headbands on their site, but I really am liking the idea of these Bandana head scarves because of how versatile they are in their width. The day the girls wore them I took several different shots with them scrunched up in a skinnier headband look, as well as spread out further. Goose has worn hers to school several times and prefers to wear hers totally spread out and pulled clear forward to her hair line, whereas, Bug and Bee like theirs scrunched up more like a thick headband. Sometimes Bug has hers "half way" scrunched. You can wear your hair any way you like when wearing these in your hair. We just opted for quick & easy styles when I took these pictures.
*** One thing Goose has mentioned several times when she's worn hers is how much she loves that these cloth headbands don't bother her behind her ears where the ear pieces of her glasses hit. I think sometimes with regular plastic or hard headbands they hit about the same point where her glasses do and so it is a bit of an issue. But with these being made out of fabric they don't rub or hit and she really likes that. Being that I don't wear glasses, I would have never thought of that as a problem!
So here's a bunch of shots I took of the girls wearing them. I made a few collages because I had so many pictures! If you want to see the whole thing bigger, you'll need to click on them!
Since headbands are totally what's in, Stylish Mode is definitely your one stop shop if you are in the market for any! With summer on its way, these are wonderful to keep your hair back, or if you're having a bad hair day, they can hide that too - all the while looking fabulous! My favorite thing I'm looking forward to with these is that they will keep the sun off their parts so if I forget to put sun screen in their parts, they won't get sunburned. We're headed to the coast this summer and they will be great while the girls are playing in the sand and wind and they'll keep the wispy hairs out of the way.
We totally LOVE our headbands from Stylish Mode!
Overall, I am highly satisfied with the fine quality of Stylish Mode's headbands and would highly recommend these to anyone. Now if I could just shrink my head so I could wear them!
**Now, I did mention a giveaway back at the beginning of the post! So if you are interested in seeing how you can win a gift card to Stylish Mode & score your own fabulous headbands -- head over HERE to find out more about that!
*I was provided 3 headbands for this review. No other compensation was exchanged. The opinions expressed are my purely my own.
So last week when Blogger decide to go crazy and block access to post anything (I'm in the process of changing things btw) this was what I was hoping to get posted. A while back Jenn @ Girly Do's sent me a link to THIS video. She thought it might be a fun thing to do w/my girls hair since it is so long. I'd put it on the back burner in my mind and had plans for it (more on that in a later post) but then one day I was experimenting as I often do & realized I didn't need ribbon to get the same result. And this is what I came up with.
So here's a quick video I made showing the technique of what I'm dubbing "The Figure 8 Braid." It really is quick and unique. It reminded me a bit of our uneven rope braids that I did recently. Anyway - here's the video:
Most of the pix I took are in the video, so I won't bother reposting them here. For this simple style I just did a braid on each side & secured them in the back with a rubber band. We topped it off with one of our favorite bows from All Things Ribbon. The girls both wore this style the same day & received lots of compliments on it!
We hope you try this one because it really is easy and will have people asking how you did it! We'd love to see pictures and have you share them with us on our Facebook page!
We interrupt today's actual planned post for a message from Sesame Street:
Maybe if you're a Sesame diehard, you've seen or heard this, but yesterday was my first. And for all I know - this has been on other blogs & I'm way behind the times. So I'm sorry if this is a repeat. But yesterday, while talking to my husband on the phone, Bee was watching her favorite show in the other room (aka Elmo - as she calls it) and I heard this song being sung. I had to tell my husband to hold on because I didn't think I heard it right! I went out and had to watch the tail end of it. I came back in to my computer & went right to YouTube and was happy to find it. So I just had to share ... since of course ... that is exactly what we are all about around here. We are trying to help others love their hair ... one head of hair at a time! And even though we've got blondies around here it doesn't matter I just love the message of this fun video. Regardless of our hair type, our age, or our race, this simple little video sends such a great message that we all need to embrace what we are given and LOVE OUR HAIR (and ourselves!) I think girls in general struggle so much with self-esteem issues, so I think this song is just fabulous! I wish that everyone could just learn to love what God has given them.
Anyway, thanks for letting me share this with you today since I'm fighting a headache and didn't feel like sitting very long in front of the computer today. To read more about how this song was inspired, you can can go here.
So I hope you will all take a moment today to look in the mirror and look at the beautiful person staring back at you - and have your daughter's do the same. {HUGS to all of you!}
Wasn't sure what to name this one, and the "poof" part was really hard to capture with pictures - since it was subtle - but it's a quick & easy style & looked really cute in person. So that being said - here it is!
Part the hair off center on the right side. Then part out a triangle of hair up front on the right side of the head. Make a little pony tail & tie off with a rubber band.
Then section off the hair behind the triangle. From your off center part down to the ear make another part.
Get it nice and smooth & angle it towards the back of the head.
You are going to make an uneven 3 strand braid. Use the little ponytail from up front as your middle strand for the uneven braid.
Braid all the way down & secure temporarily with a clip.
Take the rest of the hair hanging down in back & make a ponytail & secure it with a rubber band.
Here comes the "poof" part. As you go to add your uneven 3 strand braid to the pony tail in back, push it forward a bit up front & it will add a bit of "poof" or "boof-age" to the front.
Be careful that as you secure the braid with another rubber band to the base of your back ponytail, that you don't pull it tight & loose your "poof" up front.
Curl the ends of your ponytail a little & add an accessory to cover your rubber bands & you're done. This pretty white one is from Gimme Clips.
Like I mentioned, the "poof" part was hard to capture in the pictures, but it really looked cute in person. Depending on the age of your dd, you could push it up a bit more for even more height if you want. Ours wasn't too drastic, but you could tell in person that it wasn't just pulled straight back.
There you have it! A quick and easy one for those mornings when you want more than just a basic ponytail or braid!
Not sure where this came from, but I found it a while back as I was surfing the web one night ... it made me laugh because I remember always thinking when I was younger how perfect all the "princesses" in movies & people on TV's hair looked so wonderful ...
But I'm so glad that I've figured out my own ways to make my little Babes look like fabulous princesses & share the ideas with you all. Hopefully this way we don't have to worry about how the Disney Princesses look because with all the hair blogs out there you have resources to make your dd's look like princesses every day & there are no "unrealistic expectations" - because it IS possible to have fabulous hair every day!
Sorry for the rambling, but although this cute little sign is slightly true -- thanks to hair blogs - I believe it is false! Just my random thought for the day.
Hope everyone has an amazing Mother's Day weekend & you are treated like the Queens ... because you all are ... and that's what you deserve!
I got an e-mail from Jennifer U. back in December with a link to a commercial from the UK for a perfume called Nina L'Elixir starring Florrie, a beautiful singer. After listening to the commercial I couldn't get the song out of my head. So I poked around a little more & found the entire music video and just love this song. It is totally a "happy - pick me up" kind of a song. If you're in the UK you've probably seen the commercial for this - but I'd never this version of the song or seen the commercial. I hope you'll watch it:
Seriously - don't you feel happy now?! I realize this song is a remake, but I love her version and I love her voice. Not only is it a catchy song, but Florrie is simply gorgeous & Jennifer was curious about her hairstyle. If you want to see the actual commercial for the perfume you can go here. It's basically just a shorter version of the actual music video w/the perfume ad at the end.
So a couple months back I'd done a version of her hair and then took a few screen shots from the video to share here, but my computer decided to crash while I was in the middle of things & I lost what I'd worked on. And well, life happened and I never got back to it. So I'm finally getting around to "re" posting this!
Her hair isn't anything that is majorly hard or new - but I just loved it, and so thanks Jennifer for asking about her hair & for introducing me to this fabulous song! Here's a few still images that I grabbed from the video:
She's just got a romantic loose & messy side braid with a fabulous jeweled headband to dress it up. Amazing how something so simple can be so beautiful!
Our attempt at her style differed a little because from the looks of it Florrie has bangs - or at least layered hair up front allowing the front bangs/fringe to be swept back. So since my girls don't really have layers, we improvised!
I let Goose's hair just part right down the middle wherever it wanted after I'd brushed through it. Don't make a straight & exact part for this. Then I randomly curled pieces to give it a bit of volume & texture. Not hard curls but waves w/my flat iron.
Take the hair so it covers most of the ear and pull it around the right ear. Bring the hair towards the left side of the head.
Leave a bit of hair out on the left side up front if you don't have bangs or layers that naturally would fall out. Start plaiting your braid - but do it loosely.
Finish your braid & tie it off with a rubber band.
In the back I wanted to give it a slight twist so it wasn't hanging down so far, so I anchored it with a bobby pin.
With the hair left hanging out of the braid I teased it a little bit to make it look a bit messy.
Then I gently pulled it back towards the braid and anchored it down into it with a bobby pin.
Then to make our braid a bit messy & fuller looking I gently pulled on the sides of the braid.
Viola! No more nice & clean looking braid - a fuller & messier looking braid instead. And that's it - you're done. You've got your loose side braid! Add a headband or other accessory & that's it.
We didn't have such a fabulous headband like Florrie, but I picked this cute pearl one up at the Dollar Store a while back & it looked great with her pearl necklace.
Another time recently we did basically the same thing, but Goose didn't want her hairs covering her ears as much, so we didn't leave things quite as loose, but we left some more hair down on both sides leaving room for wispy curls instead. I think I like this version better on her.
Loose side braid #2
Like I said, this is such a cute & simple style, but dressed up with the right accessory, and making it loose instead of really tight and adding a few curls up front & it dresses it up & makes it so pretty. Perfect for any occasion or age. Thanks again Jennifer for tipping me off to this fun song & pretty style! Whenever I need a pick-me-up I listen to her song now!
Thanks to DSO (Digital Scrapbook Obsession) for the great stuff for my new blog look. Also, to Digifree.blogspot.com for all their great links to fun free scrapbooking stuff!
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