April 5, 2010 - Oh Happy Daze

Captivating Curls

I thought I would share some of my favorite hair tips with

some of you fellow curly-Q ladies.

Step 1:

Shower; every day.

Step 2:

Shampoo your hair; but not with shampoo, and not every day.

let me explain: yes, you should shower every day (um…i shouldn’t have to tell you that), but most (pretty much all) shampoos on the market today have sulfates in them.

Sulfates strip your hair of some natural oils, and if you have curly hair then you know…

we aint got none to spare!

nobody wants to have scarecrow hair

EEK!

The solution?

No-poos

haha, i just love saying that. no-poos.

Now, I haven’t gone completely “no poo”, there are some actual home remedies ( baking soda and apple cider vinegar) that you could use,

i’m not ready to head that direction just yet…

but I DO use “shampoo” that is natural and has no sulfates – Hair One.

You can get it at any Sally Beauty store for about $10.

I know that’s more expensive than your average run-of-the-mill Pert Plus…

but I’ve been using the same bottle for 6 weeks and still haven’t run out

(and I use about 20 pumps each time I shampoo since my hair is so long)!

*Just a word of warning: No-poos don’t foam up or lather… they sort of disappear on your head, so it may take a little bit to figure out the right amount to use on your hair.

* Also, they don’t leave a “silky” feeling to your hair when you’re in the shower, like other shampoos would… this threw me for a loop the first time I used Hair One and I ALMOST used my regular shampoo right after it because I didn’t like not having the “slippery/silky” hair feeling after shampooing… don’t be alarmed.

at least give it a try!

What I love about Hair One is that your hair is silky and soft when it dries, which is more important than how it feels right after shampooing.

Step 3 – After showering:

DO NOT us a towel on your curls…

For the love of PETE, just don’t do it!!

terrycloth towels, even the high end ones, have a rough texture with lots of little ‘grabbies’ all over…

if you use one to dry your hair, it will create more frizzies and actually separate the curls.

Instead, I use an old t-shirt or a paper towel to squeeze the water out (squeeze, not ring)

Paper towels actually work the best, and if I do use those, they last me about 3 weeks since all i use them for is blotting

(not scrubbing or twisting, right? right?? I had better not see you twisting!)

Step 4 – the arsenal…

after getting most of the water out I put in my favorite products.

actually, I really just use this one:

it’s magical. it delivers smooth curls without disgusting “crunchy” side effects.

the other bottles are just remnants of failed attempts to achieve the perfect curls.

I don’t know why I don’t just throw them away!

Step 5 – Blow ’em dry!
After applying product and combing it through (with my fingers… PUT DOWN THE BRUSH!), I use my blow dryer with the diffuser attachment; it looks like this:

Just remember, the less you touch your hair, the fewer frizzies you’ll have and the more awesomely bouncy curls you’ll have.

*Disclaimer:

i am not a hair expert.

i do not have perfect hair.

i was not paid in any form for promoting these products.

i am not at fault for any hair mishaps you may have.

use these tips at your own risk.

i’m just sayin’

March 29, 2010 - Oh Happy Daze

Exhausted!

this is kind of sad…. but I’m exhausted from one of my Sunday afternoon activities.

nope, it wasn’t the awesome church service this morning,
nor was it studying for an exam I have tomorrow.

I am mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausted from….

wedding registries!!!!

haha, sorry if that was anti-climactic (it sounded more dramatic in my head)

Future Hubby and I went to Bed Bath and Beyond to begin our first wedding registry.

I guess I had kind of been putting it off for a while because, well
a little thing called a THESIS,

but also because I was afraid of registering too soon and then

having something become discontinued before the wedding.

First of all, there are WAY too many buttons on that little clicky-gun…
you don’t need half of them.

(it’s not even in a fun gun shape to enhance the “whip around the

corner and zap something” experience I had in mind)

Second of all, Future hubby took control of the gun because it

was “too confusing for me”…

(really, I just didn’t want to be bogged down with technology…

I wanted to flit around, dreaming of how I would decorate
our future home and which shower curtain would look
the most fabulous in the upstairs bathroom…
and that silly calculator on steroids would only bog me down! )

I realized this plan had backfired on me this evening as I was reviewing our registry online
lo and behold… what do I spy with my very own two eyes?
some surprise registry items, like this little fella…

err…. i just threw up in my mouth a little bit.

Can you imagine if I hadn’t seen it?!
some little ‘ol lady from church would have, and probably croaked on the spot!

future hubby thought he was soooo sneaky
what a phony balony!

*i know that’s not how you spell bologna,
but it seems more “rhymy” with phony when it’s spelled that way*

That’s not where it ended though…
after my first surprise registry finding I scoured the rest of the pages.

good thing, too.
certainly not something I would ever let grace any shelf of mine…

errr….

yeah, about that.

I don’t know if it’s the wording “girls night out”

the way it’s bedazzled
or that fact that some punctuation is missing…

all around… not something I’m dying to receive as a wedding gift.

I also found this picture on my camera

(please disregard the inappropriate closeness of this pic and the relative lumpiness of it all)

yes, that is the scanner-gun light on my heinie.

haha, wishful thinking on his part.

“no babe, you can’t register me for a heinie upgrade at Bed Bath and Beyond”

*jk, he’s not that kinda guy… mom you can put the shotgun down*

__________________________________________________

while we were at BB&B (kind of sounds like it should be the name of a bank), future hubby decided he needed a new pillow, on account of him not sleeping well the past few months.

well, ya can’t miss the pillow section!

a lot of poking, prodding, squishing, and “snoozing” ensued.

I pretended not to mind that he laid his head on each and every one.

I kept my “do you know how many heads have been on those” comments to myself.

I think we’ve found a winner!

(but still… gross!)

I guess back to the main point…

I’m exhausted, from an activity that should have been super fun, because even the simple task of choosing a pizza cutter resulted in this:

um…. I can barely make a decision in the morning on
apple butter or cinnamon for my toast;

how am I supposed to make a decision here?!

there’s just too much stuff in this world.

do we really need it all?

How is it that our mindset today has strayed so far from that of early Christians;

the mindset of more, more, more.

we just make things more difficult for ourselves.

we’ve lost the concept of “community”… the way God planned the earliest churches in Acts.

we’ve replaced the idea of “sharing and caring” with “me and my stuff in my isolated world”

is this stuff really what’s important?

i’m just sayin’

March 28, 2010 - Oh Happy Daze

Confessions

I have a confession.

actually, it’s more of an announcement.

I was cleaning out my bathroom bins last night…

– throwing away old makeup

– chucking dried up nail polish

– weighing pros and cons of keep 5 majillion half used hair product bottles (what?! i might use them one day!)

etc, etc.

anywho…. i’d like to report this ~~embarrassing~~ funny finding

go ahead… take a closer look

yup, you’re seeing clearly…. that’s 4 tweezers and 6 pairs of nail clippers

*wretch*

AND

i know for a FACT that i have 2 more tweezers and 1 pair of nail clippers in my car as we speak!

Who needs this many tweezers and clippers?

I’m not Chewbacca

though I wouldn’t mind being best friends with Harrison Ford…. *giggle, snort*

(no offense future hubby)

SO….

How did this happen?

two words:

GRADUATE SCHOOL

dun dun DUN!!!!!

I NEVER used to be this out of sorts.

forgetful, messy, unorganized, buying new nail clippers because I really needed to trim a hangnail but could find any of the other 5 pairs…

embarrassing, to say the least

I loaded those photos up so fast, my blog didn’t have a chance to blink.

because i wanted it to be public…

hopefully in sharing my “i can’t find it so i’ll buy a new one” sickness I can prevent this from happening again.

on a happier note:

I found my retainer!!!

(*yes, she is still in one piece and relatively clean….
…and yes, she IS glow in the dark blue!)

and this morning my teeth are aching so badly i half expect them to jump right out
of my mouth and run away screaming to find a better home (maybe the elderly lady down the street?)

…. I guess that’s what happens when (cover your ears dad) you don’t
wear it for 5 years and then try to jam it back into your mouth.

side-note people: TEETH CHANGE

i’m just sayin’