Back To School {Giveaway}

Its back to school time. I KNOW--- I should wash my mouth out with soap for speaking such language, but its true. Only a few more weeks. I went into Target the other day and they were putting out school supplies. I had to go home and look to see how many more weeks it really was and low-and-behold... Its like four weeks away for us. I've even seen some friends on Facebook posting back to school pictures already! So some schools are already starting.

Well its been a fun summer, but it had to end at some point. So Beans and I wanted to offer to help out a little with school supplies. Weather you need a little extra for clothes or supplies, this lets you spend the money where you need it. Nothing says going back to school like a little bit of back to school help giveaway. This giveaway is for a $25 gift card to our favorite store to buy back to school supplies, TARGET. Thanks for entering and BEST OF LUCK!!

(Rafflecopter is new to me, so let me know if you have any problems entering. I think you start out by putting in your email address so I can find you if you are the winner. Thanks and good luck again.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Flash Back Friday {Flowers}

Its been a while since we've done a flash back Friday posting. Hope you don't mind that I am doing a Flashback this week. Luckily I already had the post done for Doll Hair because we've been getting used to a new brace for my baby to help his Hip Dysplasia. After three months with the Pavlik Harness on it wasn't enough. So we are on to the Rhino Abduction Brace. Its been a hard one to get used to. But he's adjusting to it nicely now and we are back on track!

I chose this tutorial because I love this flower. I've seen my flower popping up all over the Internet. So I am going to link you right to the video on YouTube. While you are checking that out please SUBSCRIBE to our page so you can be informed when we have a new video published. I'm really trying to get my subscriptions boosted, so please subscribe.

Thanks again and I'll be back next week with new videos, possibly a giveaway and other fun stuff. See you next week.

Doll Hair Restoration {Downy Bath}

Do you have a special doll that looks... loved? We have a few. One in particular is Beans' favorite Fancy Nancy doll. They sleep together, travel together and play together. They are inseparable.

When Beans got Nancy for Christmas this last year the one thing she didn't love was that Nancy had very curly hair. So the first thing she tried doing was combing out the curls so that she could play with Nancy's hair. That is never a good idea. You know what happened from there. We had out of control fuzzy hair.

That finally got really old! So this last week we were trying to comb through Nancy's hair. I was pulling hair out left and right and by the handful. It was awful! And it was still a tangled mess!!!

I decided to google doll hair. Because it was obviously nothing like human hair. The first lesson I learned:

Doll Hair Should ONLY be Combed When it is Wet.

Who knew?! I googled a few different sites that confirmed that doll hair combs out better when wet.

Well I was learning so much about restoring and fixing doll hair that it only made sense to give this a try and to see what we could do to restore/fix Nancy's hair to a better condition.

An EASY One for Long or Short Hair

This is a perfect one for long or short hair. And it can be done with one ribbon or you could use two or three and weave them intricately. We just kept it nice and simple for this tutorial.

However, I can't even begin to tell you how many people stopped us to get a closer look. And I have to be honest... this ones kind of a no-brainer. It didn't seem stop worthy to me, but we got stopped a lot. I think a big part of that is how much mom's love ribbons and headbands in the darling girls hair. And how often when its put in it doesn't stay in, or gets messy, or lost... you know the drill.

Start by making ponytails. You can have these as close as you want, the closer the more weaving you do and probably more interest to the style. However--- and this is the most important detail start at the top center and then do the EXACT same amount on each side. If you do five on the right make sure you do five on the left. This will make sure your ribbon weaving is balanced.

When you do your second row the only thing you need to consider is the width you need for your ribbon. Hold your ribbon up to it to guesstimate a measurement.

Next get a piece of ribbon that wraps around the perimeter of the head and has a little left over to spare for the knot. You will fold this ribbon in half and find the center of the ribbon.

Place the center of the ribbon over that first midsection between your two climber ponytails.

Feel free to secure that while you weave. That way it won't slip on ya.

Weave over the ponytail and then under the next. You know how weaving works. If you are using more than one ribbon you would do it the opposite each time so that if the first was over, under the second ribbon would be under and then over.

You will then tie the ribbon loosely underneath the hair completing the headband.

Viola! You have an easy cute hair do with a band that is totally not falling out midday. How fun is that? If I do this again I will use more than one ribbon and show a photo of that style, but this was Beans choice and we went with it. If you happen to try this style with more than one ribbon please share it on our facebook page wall. We love seeing what you are up to in the world of hair.

Test Braid #7--- Cage Braid

Its been a VERY LooOOooong time since we've done a test braid second day hair do. Beans hair hasn't been long enough to test braid in a while. So this is very exciting. This is the second day (slept in) braid from our Cage Braid hairstyle from the other day.

This is the pretty mess she woke up with. It looks nice and slept in. And we weren't able to braid far down the ends, so we have to do something to make the ends look good before we take out the elastics. Here's my prescription:

Start by taking your flat iron and curling the very ends under. That way when you take the hair out it will have a nice under-curve. That always helps. We've done this in the past to our second day braids, but it never hurts to restate a good tip!

Next one is to add a little quick "crimp" to some of those ends. You've probably seen it many times where you have curly middles and flat ends, well this will help eliminate that problem. (Great tutorial can be found for that at Babes site) Since we just need a little texture to those ends you can just do two or three little braids from both pigtails.

Make sure you curl the ends under still, even of those braids. It should look similar to the photo above. Your next step is to take down the hair and style it using the waves from the braids.

My thoughts on this one as a second day hair style is that its not consistent. Especially with that midsection that was left straight with the original braid. It leaves you with some that is curled and some that gets no curl. It still looks really cute though even though it is not consistent.

Its been a long time since we did a test braid post, so check out the past test braids at these links below.

Test Braid #1-- French Braid

Test Braid #2-- Four Strand Rope Braid

Test Braid #3-- Five Strand Braid

Test Braid #4-- Two Strand Braid

Test Braid #5-- Fish Bone Braid

Test Braid #6-- Ribbon Braid

Cage Braids

We've been doing lots of "cage braids" around our house. Why are they called cage braids? GOOD QUESTION. I don't know. I think it is named after the rib cage on a skeleton, but that is just my guess. This is a flat cage braid right up next to the head. You can do these in all kind of ways and it a ponytail it looks really cool. Beans hair is not long enough to show you that style yet. But this style we can totally handle--- and L♥VE. Hopefully you enjoy it too.

Our Sunday Style

What happened to our family on Saturday night that made Sunday morning so hard to get up for? I'm pretty sure these intense walks we've been doing in the evenings have made us a lot more tired. Totally worth it though. We get a little exercise and a lot of good family time.

Well for this weeks hair tutorial I am doing my best to do a tutorial on cage braids. You see these everywhere right now. People love cage braids. They are a regular braid the only difference is how much hair you add in to the braid. You basically just take from the very outer most boarder of the hair line and add little pieces of hair to the braid. If that doesn't make sense don't worry we are working on a video. This just gives it a different finished look to the braid.

I used them in Beans hair on Sunday as a quick hair do from being in rushed mode. I also did a cage braid on her hair on the fourth of July. It was hot and I just wanted the hair off her neck. This was a great way to achieve that.

What has been your favorite summer trend? In hair or fashion?

Lets Have a {perm} Chat

It's time for "the talk" everyone. The perm talk. How many of you are under the impression that perming your little ones hair would be a good idea? Or even with recent (adorable) movies with cute wild little red-heads, with curly hair make you want to perm your princesses locks? Well I wanted to have the chat with you about why I think this is a bad idea. If you are considering perming I hope you will read the following. If you know someone who is considering a perm please send them this way. I'd love to talk them out of it.

I know your out there with the idea and craze to perm your daughters hair. Back in the Shirley Temple days perming became a trend for little girls. I was totally a victim of this trend. I had permed hair and I totally loved it! LOVED IT!!! But we've learned a lot from the time I was a child. We now know the dangerous effects of perming your wee-ones hair. I know all about having an undefined curl pattern and wanting to make it more definite. Or having part of a head curly and part strait wanting to have consistency. I know some people want to perm not just as "a trend". I want to talk you out of the perm (with facts) and hopefully help you embrace the hair you have.

When you go in for a perm you are going in for a chemical service. The chemicals used in a perm can irritate the scalp, eyes and the fumes can hurt the sinus membrane. Because children's bodies are undergoing very radical biochemical changes due to puberty they may react very differently to various chemicals.

Maturity should be considered as well. The maturity to maintain the new wave pattern YES, but the maturity I am talking about is the maturity of the hair follicle. Beans hair is not mature (neither is your child under the age of 15). Its still developing all the layers that make up one follicle of hair. To throw chemical on an immature follicle can have lasting, DAMAGING effects.

Some salons will gladly perm your daughters hair and not take into consideration everything they know about trichology (the study of hair). It is your responsibility as the parent to know the dangers and possible damage that can happen. But (in my opinion) a good salon won't do ANY CHEMICAL services on anyone under the age of 16. (Just my opinion.)

We wait for so long when our babies are born to be able to do that first awkward ponytail on top of there heads. Its even more awesome when you can do piggy-tails out of little stubble's of baby hair. Just because they they finally have lots of hair doesn't mean its ready for the harsh world of chemicals that the salon world holds waiting for them.

Beans hair is not being permed in the photo above. I was just rolling a perm wrap for school to get credit for practicing rolling a perm. While I do think she'd be darling with ringlet curls I will not be encouraging a perm anytime soon. And even when she asks its going to be one of those things that gets shot down every time until she's at least 16 years old. Because sometimes we have to make decisions based on what is best for our child's well-being. And I promise you a perm and all the damage it can cause will never be the best choice.

BUT IF---- you decide to go against my judgement and EDUCATED opinion and have your darling child's hair permed AT LEAST insist on doing a test curl and wait for 48 hours to make sure your child doesn't have any reactions to the chemicals. This will also give you the chance to see if it will hold in her hair as well.

Waterfall Fishbone Braid

Happy Fourth of July-- WEEK. If your like me at all this celebration feels like a week long event. Its BBQ after BBQ celebrating with friends and family. I LOVE IT.This isn't a "festive" hair do, but its been on my "to shoot list" and that list is always growing.

About a month ago I thought about doing the waterfall braid with other braids... this was one attempt that I've figured out so far. I personally like it a little more than the original waterfall braid because you can see the braid so much better.



Watch the video and you decide.Which waterfall braid is your favorite? The original, or the new fish-bone waterfall braid? Your thoughts?

And please be safe this week while you are out celebrating.