Curly hair, 4 ways! (plus links to more!)

My camera is still broken, so many apologies for the quality of some of these pictures, especially the ones I had to take myself!

I've been wanting to do this for awhile because I get a lot of questions about how my hair got a certain curl in emails and comments. I use a lot of different curling methods and will include links for more at the end, but here are my four favorite. I wanted to keep the results as accurate as possible, so I didn't use ANY PRODUCT for the process. None. No hairspray, no teasing, no mousse... nothing. Everything is based on my hair (just above my chest in length, thin), so results will vary depending on your length and texture. 

First we have the standard hot rollers. I've had these Conair rollers for nearly 10 years! These aren't my exact set, because mine aren't in production now but these are really close. Depending on your hair length, choose the roller size. I recommend either a multi-set or one that has only jumbo and extra large sized rollers, especially if you have really long hair. 

I like to roll my hair up and then do my makeup while the curls set. I start with the littlest rollers on top and then mix the medium and large sizes up around the rest of my head. The less hair you wrap around the roller, the more tight and long lasting your curl will be. If you use only 8 jumbo large rollers on your whole head, your waves will be much more relaxed than my final version, which used all 20 rollers in the kit.

Lots of big, bouncy curls! I like to tease my hair first and put spray in before rolling, then you would get awesome volume in addition to the curls, but again., there was no product or teasing involved in any pics!
TOTAL TIME: 45 minutes, 10 minutes to roll the hair and 35 to heat and cool. It's important to allow the curl to cool and set before removing the rollers, however that last 35 minutes is hands free.
HOLD TIME: 1 day at the most, even when sprayed. The next day my hair will have volume and body, but not have any real curl.
My friend, Claire, introduced me to the power of a a curling wand. I had seen them in stores, but wasn't sold on them until she showed up with GORGEOUS waves one night and cited the wand as the source. She said that she had actually done her hair the day before and they were still that awesome the next day. She was really into the wand because her hair had a hard time holding curls, and this worked so well. I love the wand, this is my favorite way to curl hair and the most in-depth in this post. However, it's the most time consuming at about 30 minutes for my hair length, so I don't do it often. Remember, if you curl larger sections than 1 inch and have shorter hair, your time will change.

Start by sectioning off all of your hair, leaving only a small amount down. Grab 1 inch sections (more or less depending on how curly you want your hair) and wrapping them around the wand. Hold for 10-15 seconds and release.

Continue to curl the bottom section. 

Once the bottom section is done, release another section from one side of the head. I release the hair and then flip it back over my part, pulling down 1 inch sections as I'm ready to curl them so that straight hair doesn't mix in with already curled hair.

Here's a fresh finished curl.

One side nearly done! It doesn't matter too much if you roll the hair toward or away from you, but when I get close to my face, I prefer to roll hair away so that it stays out of my face.

One side done, getting ready to release the other side and finish!

I took some up close and far away shots so you could see just how curly this is. The curls are tight and go from the crown to tip. 

TOTAL TIME: 30 minutes

HOLD TIME: 2 days if you use hair spray, the next day they'll be more beachy and relaxed. 

I also really love the 3 barrel irons on the market today. These create actual waves vs. curls from the start. The results are akin to the love child of a crimper and traditional curling iron.

Using a 3 barrel, you'll follow the exact same process as the wand, only you want a thinner section that is wider. My section may be 4 inches long, but it will be thinner than the 1 inch sections I wrap around my wand.

Start at the top and clamp. I hold for about 20 seconds.

Release the hair and move your barrels down to the uncurled section, repeat as necessary until the length is completed.

There it is! I started a little too low. My iron should have been closer to the base of my neck, which made that little kink there. 

Final product! Much more messy and less defined than the wand, it's also much quicker.

TOTAL TIME: 20 minutes

HOLD TIME: 1-2 days, when sprayed. The second day will be more relaxed. 

The last method is a simple no heat strategy, used for ages. Every night, I braid pigtails in before bed. I can't stand my hair in my face at night and one big braid down the back of my head is also annoying. On nights where I go to bed with wet hair, it results in light, beachy waves that last all day. I didn't bother with pictures, but I did have two of the finished project that I forgot to upload, so I'll update with them in an hour or so. You can see one finished picture in the collage below.

TOTAL TIME: 8 hours, or however long you sleep. It takes less than 2 minutes to braid. 

HOLD TIME: All day. The results will be much better if you put in a mousse before and spray with a curling/sculpting gel in the morning. 

Ta da!
And as promised, here's a method for EASY PIN CURLS that I used when my hair was super short. I also have one here for NO-HEAT DOWNTON HAIR. Also, I used both my wand and 3 barrel iron when I had a short stacked bob, so I recommend them for varying hair lengths.
What's your favorite way to curl hair?
All the best, and as always, thanks for reading! 

Easy Ballerina (workout/beach cover up/summer) Cropped Tee AND GIVEAWAY!

This is just a super quick post that anyone can do, completely no-sew, fun and perfect for summer.
A lot of things come down to ballet for me. I'm a total sucker for anything ballet pink or even remotely related to dance. And so, very often, when refashioning or creating an item, my brain immediately wants to make something that I can use for practice or class.
This is exactly one of those items! I adore loose, slouchy cropped tee's for ballet class, but they're also great for working out, a cute beach cover up (especially over a polka dot suit) or with a pair of the high waisted denim shorts that are destined to be super popular this summer.
Normally, something this easy wouldn't merit a blog post, but about a million years ago I commissioned a bunch of 'la vie' shirts in two different styles. The one pictured and then another which says, "je vois la vie en rose". I literally had no idea what to do with them. I thought it would be fun to refashion some and give them away! If you want to win your own, comment below with your e-mail address and shirt size. You can also opt to have them 'as is' with no refashioning :)

To make your own, grab a baggy tee and a pair of scissors.

Measure out how much you want to cut off and chop! Remember that the shirt edges WILL roll up if left unhemmed and take that into account.

Lastly, cut the collar off right underneath the seam to create a slouchy neck that will still stay up on your shoulders. The cut of this shirt is considered to be "feminine" so the arms are already treated. Otherwise, I would normally cut the sleeves to make them a little more angular as well. I'll update this post soon with a pic of a different shirt as an example.

Here's the finished product! Want your own? Comment below!
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Clean Eating Avocado Chevre Hors d'oeuvre

I love food.
I recently PINNED A RECIPE from Saveur.com to the clean eating board for a delicious looking cucumber tomato open faced sandwich. It had an avocado spread and everything about the photo made my mouth water.
I read over the recipe and was inspired to create an hors d'oeuvre version this week, amping up the spread to make it more of a stand alone feature and creating bite sized versions of the sandwich. This is the result!
Here's the thing: when an experiment is performed, one never knows if it will turn out well or not so this wasn't supposed to be a blog post.
I didn't take pictures of the process. I don't even have a photo of the bowl of spread.
I only have pictures from the brunch where it was eaten.

My husband was eating his own self-prepared (thanks, John!) almond butter sandwiches and wondered what I was going to be having with a friend who came by yesterday, so I snapped a couple pictures with my phone and sent them over, the spread was in the fridge so it isn't even pictured! This is the best I can do. Please note the discrepancy between the right and left platters. This perfectly represents my diet, a huge sugary sweet tooth combined with a zest for health... and a big plate of allergy compromises in the middle.

But two steps forward and one step back, right?

Also... the donuts are clearly not clean eating approved. I have no regrets.

I bought this chevre because the packaging was so charming. I like goat cheese and tolerate it MUCH better than products from cows, but generally have purchased a different brand. I'm really glad. So glad that I went with La Bonne Vie. It was AMAZING! This is the cheese I used for the avocado spread recipe. I'm not sure if it's clean, but the short ingredient list looks pretty good. Being organic would help, you can substitute in organic chevre if you find it. The cheese on the left is Dubliner cheese from Kerrygold, which is one cheese worth making dairy exceptions for. I love it.

I treated the cucumber and tomato slices with dill, sea salt and pepper and placed them on a platter with two types of Back to Nature crackers. The spinach, square shaped crackers were awesome dipped into the spread.

Finally, these rounded crackers were the base of the hors d'oeurve. A slab of spread, cucumber and tomato (quartered to make them cracker sized) topped them off and made little bites of healthy, filling happiness. For extra joy and happiness, put a little slice of dubliner cheese on the cracker as well. 

Ready for the recipe? Here it is!

1 ripe avocado

1/2 package (2 oz) of chevre

1 clove of freshly pressed garlic

salt and pepper to taste (I used 1/4 tsp of each)

Mix ingredients until smooth, I used an immersion blender which really worked well to create a nice consistency and get the spices integrated evenly. 

I hope your week is going well! All the best, happy JUNE and as always- thanks for reading!

DIY Oscar Blandi Inspired Dry Shampoo (all natural)

I have been an avid dry shampoo user for YEARS. Years and years and years. I started with Batiste which comes as a spray and moved through dozens of brands from there. Some were better than others- and some were disgusting (the liquid based sprays? Pass.) As I became more and more rooted in a natural and organic lifestyle, as well as more frugal, the idea of making my own dry shampoo became really appealing. Dry shampoo is a necessity for me, as I like to only wash my hair about twice per week. At first my hair was really oily, which is what made dry shampoo a constant companion (I kept some in my drawer at work!) but as my scalp adjusted, I needed it less and less. I still use it on my third day with dirty hair and LOVE the way it texturizes and adds volume. My hair on day one (super clean) is so flat and blah. Day three hair? Ah. So much better. 

Anyway- there are LOTS of recipes online for super easy dry shampoo that only involve one or two ingredients, but mine is specifically tailored to Oscar Blandi's version which I have used for years and enjoyed. My big problem with his is that it's full of some dangerous chemicals and ingredients. However, the ingredient list can be simplified down to just the necessities and be just as effective- and much more affordable! 

First you'll need to mix up your ingredients. To make it the most like Oscar Blandi's, you'll need to use rice starch. It can be hard to find, but there's some for sale on Amazon.com and you can also locate it in the bulk section of health food stores (I think Whole Foods has it- call first). If you really can't locate rice starch or don't want to pay for it, you can substitute in corn starch. Try to use organic corn starch, though.
RECIPE*:
1/2 c. rice starch
1 tbs. baking soda
1/2 - 1 tsp. kaolin clay powder (depending on how dry your hair is)
3 drops lemon oil
3 drops tea tree oil
Combine the ingredients in a bowl and whisk until well mixed. The starch + kaolin absorb oil, the soda absorbs odor. The tea tree oil is for bacteria + dandruff and the lemon oil is for scent/cleanliness. Normally I recommend people don't put citrus oils anywhere near their hair since they're so drying. But the point of this IS to dry, and also such a small amount won't be too drying on your hair. If you have a natural perfume you like, you can opt to spray the mixture with a few spritzes of that instead.
*you can upgrade any of these ingredients to organic to make your dry shampoo organic instead of natural.

Once it's all mixed in, transfer it to your container. I just use the same Oscar Blandi container over and over and funnel it in. I like it because the tip on top makes it easy to apply the powder directly to my roots in small portions so that it doesn't get over applied. If you haven't got something like this, you can use the color applicator bottles that come in hair dye kits. Clean it out really, really well before using. Or, you can buy one for $2.29 from Sally's that has never had any chemicals or dye in it!

Always shake the bottle before applying (remember to put your finger over the tip!) Here it is applied to my roots. I have pretty dark roots since I never have my highlights applied there. As long as you take care to rub the powder in (and in some cases, brush it out with a bristle brush), there's nothing to worry about as far as color. Even though I'm sure it's fine- there's a mental block that doesn't allow me to add cocoa powder to dry shampoo as a means of darkening it up. It just seems gross for some reason, even though I'm sure it isn't!

And here I am enjoying a fantastic cup of coffee from my sweet husband immediately afterwards! It's an instagram (aunak) so the quality is horrible- sorry! I didn't think to take a picture of my hair aside from the roots and I washed it later that night. You can see though that it doesn't look greasy and has some nice volume at the roots. My hair is very, very thin so dry shampoo has been a huge help in adding body and volume. I never have to buy anything to make this, since these sorts of ingredients are staples in homemade products and are kept on hand, but if you haven't got some of these ingredients, they're all worth the investment. 

I hope you had a fantastic weekend! We celebrated birthdays in our family (mine and my brother's), visited the zoo with my nieces and ate more food than any human should. My husband did a really sweet birthday week surprise for me that perhaps I'll share as an idea for others to use as well. We'll see :) All the best and as always, thanks for reading! 

Clean Eating Meat Lovers Pizza (and dough!)

We've read so many negative things lately about food doing our whole CLEAN EATING CHALLENGE that I wanted to throw in a couple of recipes to show you how normal food is totally possible. Pizza is a favorite around here (as I'm sure it is everywhere?) that I even found ways to eat during my gluten-free season. I still have to eat it without cheese, but it's really just as delicious, believe it or not! Especially when loaded with the good stuff! Making pizza at home (dough included) is really easy. Often I make huge batches at once and freeze them in pizza sized portions. If you toss the dough in the fridge, it should that within 24h or less. I wanted to share my current favorite dough recipe and how we turned it into a meat lovers pizza that was still clean! 

DOUGH*:

4 c. organic whole wheat flour (I use either bread or pastry, which can be purchased at whole foods)

4 tsp. yeast

4 tbs olive oil 

1 tsp. sea salt + more for the crust edge

3 large cloves of garlic, minced/chopped/pressed

1 tbs. organic seasoning mix**

1/2 tsp. ground black pepper

1.5 c. hot water

Mix all ingredients together. Roll dough into a ball, place in a bowl and cover to allow it to rise until it has doubled in size (45-60m). 

**You can purchase organic seasoning anywhere these days, including Meijer. If you can't find an organic Italian mix, create your own by combining basil, onion powder, oregano, thyme and rosemary. 

*This recipe is enough for a large pizza to feed a family of 4. If you have less people or want a thinner crust, halve the recipe. 

On to the toppings! First, I sauteed 1/4 of a white onion and 3 large baby bellas (both chopped) in a pan with a little olive oil and ground pepper. Once they were looking good, I added 1 lb of organic ground chicken + 4 strips of Applegate Organic bacon. You don't really need this much meat, but I wanted to make extra so that half could be used for a pasta dinner the next night. Maximizing time. However- if you like your pizza super topped, use the full portion. 

You can use any meat you'd like, as long as it's organic. Applegate organics has a large selection, including sausages! Ham, turkey, whatever you want! I haven't seen organic pepperoni, though. 

Once your toppings are ready, preheat your oven to 400 degrees and roll out your dough to the desired thickness. I like to treat the edges of the dough to flavor them. Usually this means sprinkling some fleur-de-sel around the edges, but you can substitute sea salt in a grinder. Rubbing in fresh pressed garlic, ground pepper or even a little onion powder is delicious. For extra points, use a brush to put melted Kerrygold or organic butter around the edges before adding spices!

Next we throw on some organic pizza or spaghetti sauce, which can be found in most groceries these days. Meijer has their own brand that's very inexpensive! One side has cheese (organic, self shredded is the cleanest you'll get) and the other half is without because of my allergy. If you want the pizza to be more clean, omit the cheese entirely. It really is still good!

Pop your pizza in the oven for about 30 minutes, less if your dough was spread thinly and more for thick crush. Check it around 25 minutes to make sure it doesn't burn.

Here's my cheese-free slice. I already miss it. Yum.
If you have any clean eating recipes to share, feel free to post below! All the best, and as always, thanks for reading! 

Clean Eating Challenge: information, recipes, plan, togetherness!

So have you been hearing a lot about Clean Eating?
So have I. I've written several times about my parents and how healthy they are, and how that has impacted my view of health and food. We were never into eating junk at our house, but these days even food that seems safe is becoming so preservative and GMO ridden that it's hard to navigate the grocery aisles safely. We have tried to eat real food and to pay attention to labels, but now it's time to really up the ante. I decided to really give clean eating a go and asked the FACEBOOK group if they'd like to join me. The consensus was YES! SO here's the promised post.
First of all, what is Clean Eating? Dr. David Katz who is the director of Yale University Prevention Research Center helps define clean eating by saying, "Food that’s clean is food that’s for the most part real food and not encumbered with things that compromise health: artificial flavorings, artificial colorings, sugar substitutes." 
When you consider that definition, clean eating seems much more attainable! Nothing is off limits, it's just a matter of making sure that everything is *real*, actual food. The problem is that a lot of our food is filled with nasty preservatives that are extremely dangerous- including produce (see my post about that HERE). And we really want to avoid GMO's, which are ingredients- especially corn related (sugar from beets, corn syrup, corn starch)- that have been tampered with. Just so you know- GMO corn has been outlawed in many countries, including RUSSIA because of the enormous tumors it causes in lab testing. Yuck.
Let's keep it easy, ok? I'll include some links at the end for people who want to go more in depth. Here's a cheat sheet for the rest of us:
DO:
1. Stick to organic. A great, easy way to eat clean is to buy organic. This is the number one way! Sauces, meats, produce, grains- nearly everything you need can be purchased organic and save you the worry of wondering. If you notice something you eat often is on sale, stock up. I'll buy several jars of organic pasta sauce when it goes on sale for $2 at Mejier because we will go through it!
2. Consider your sugars. Refined white sugar is not for us! Stick with raw sugar which is brown in color with larger granules. Other acceptable substitutes? Honey (raw and organic local is best!), agave and stevia. Be careful with your stevia brand- make sure it's all natural.
3. Look at labels. Check the box for stamps of approval- you will often seen stamps that look like the ones below. One signifies that the product adheres to standards for USDA organic food and the other shows the product is part of the non-GMO project and contains no ingredients that have been genetically modified.

4. Make big dinners. The easiest thing for lunch prep is to just make a big dinner and take the extra for lunch. Carry it in BPA free plastic or glass containers. Don't buy them from the Container Store. Right now you can get Disney/Avengers themed food containers and sandwich holders at Target in $1 section. It's also good to check the clearance at T.J. Maxx, Marshalls + Homegoods. If you're an anti-left over person, consider trying it a different way. Fish or poultry from the night before can become part of a salad. There are ways to re-work it so that you don't feel like you're eating the same thing twice. 

5. Follow blogs! I always recommend this. But here are some great blogs to follow about clean eating with lots of recipes, a quick google search of "clean eating" and "blog" will help you find the perfect blog for your personal tastes and needs. 

6. Use a tracker app. If you have a smart phone, download a free app that tracks what you eat. We will all have different goals or motivations for clean eating, but whatever they are, it's easier to stay accountable if you use a food tracker. There's something about having to record the food that makes you second guess if it's the right choice or if there's something better you could feed your body. If you want, you can join me on My Fitness Pal, my user name is aunak. That would be a great way to commit! I checked out some clean eating apps, most were generally about recipes and how-tos, but not really accountability apps. 

7. Remember: beverages count. What you drink can also be filled with a lot of yuck. Drink water, or FLAVORED WATER, organic coffee (lots of crazy pesticides in coffee beans) and organic tea. Honest Tea is a company we recently tried that makes organic beverages including lemonade. 

DON'T:

1. Eat processed meat. Avoid standard deli meat, bacon, sausage... anything like that. I read a study HERE recently that showed how pancreatic cancer rates go up in people who eat them. Yikes! At Whole Foods I did see a lot of organic bacon (pork and turkey) and lunch meat. I'd have to look into it more, but they'd at least be better options than standard deli meat and other processed yuck. I read how processed meat was produced and almost gagged. 

2. Buy produce on the naughty list. You can see that list again HERE. It's really important to avoid conventional fruits like apples, which can have up to 80 pesticides in them! Organic is the way to go in that situation, but not all situations. So it's good to check the list :)

3. Forget about dairy! Dairy can be tricky. Try to buy organic milk, sour cream, cream cheese, greek yogurt and cottage cheese. Stick to grass-fed cheese. As for butter, I prefer Kerry Gold (Sam's Club, Whole Foods, etc.) over organic because it comes from Ireland where the cows graze on fields with low pesticide risk. 

4. Ignore seasonings. Remember- seasoning is often contaminated with preservatives and other bad ingredients. Make your own by combining your favorite spices with some powdered garlic and onion! Use delicious fleur-de-sel, freshly ground pepper and home-grown herbs. Also remember to buy organic salad dressings and look out for things like Miracle Whip, which have several GMO ingredients. 

5. Stress too much. The goal is health here! Maybe you can't make all of these changes at once, so try to just make a few and see how it goes. I do promise that it gets easier as you learn more about what to look out for and how to make substitutes. You will have a healthier you and a healthier family, one change at a time. 

Favorite sweet recipes:

Clean eating granola bars

Paleo Peanut Butter Cups

Magical Paleo Brownies

Almond Strawberry Cheesecake

This is one of my favorite clean snack bases- just a few tablespoons of organic almond butter + organic raw honey and a dash of cinnamon. You won't believe how good it is! You can use it on celery, organic crackers, apple slices... the list is endless. So delicious. The picture quality isn't great- it was impromptu since we happened to be eating it late last night. See THIS BOARD for more recipes.

Favorite brands:

Late July- they make the MOST delicious organic tortilla chips. There's a mild green mojo flavor that I can't even talk about. 

Applegate Organics- they also have an Applegate Naturals, but the Organic line is awesome- bacon, deli meat, chicken sausages- you name it! SO delicious! As I said before, I'm not sure how good this is for us since there still must be some processing involved, but if you need to have these things- Applegate is a good alternative. I see it all the time at Whole Foods, but I just checked and you can get it at some Walmart locations, too, so if you haven't got a WF, there you go!

Annie's- This is a great brand for families with small children. Awesome organic shells + cheese (white and yellow cheddar), to-go snacks and more! They are a little on the expensive side, so look for sales. They also have gluten-free for those of you who are Celiac. 

Full Circle- This brand is widely circulated and even is carried at our *extremely* small grocery store in town. They have mostly canned goods (delicious baked beans), but also sell dry beans + quinoa to go. I really like the quinoa to go, you can just pop it in the microwave and eat it in a few minutes. It's delicious with just a little salt and pepper. I try not to use the microwave, so this is a rarity. They do also carry a good variety of organic milk. 

Back to Nature- they have a HUGE array of delicious crackers. 

**There's a good brand of fresh chicken sold at Walmart. It isn't as awesome as locally raised, organic chicken, but it's a good and nationally available alternative. I can't remember the name, but will update this asap. 

Further reading:

I've created a PINTEREST BOARD which you can follow for recipes, articles and information as well as pin to yourself! Community!

The Gracious Pantry is a great blog for clean eating, as well as Clean Eating Mag. 

Fit Day's article HERE.

Final thoughts:

A great way to detox your system in conjunction with this challenge is to squeeze the juice from one lemon into a cup of hot water 3 times per week. Lemon is acidic, so it isn't a bad idea to rinse your mouth with water afterwards and avoid brushing your teeth immediately. If you ever see that pin going around about using lemon juice and hydrogen peroxide on your teeth- avoid it. That's a horrible idea. 

I've just seen some really disturbing things about US grown rice on the news over the last few days. There's a shocking amount of arsenic involved, you may want to google it and decide for yourself what the best course of action is for your family.

Remember, again, not to stress! If you want to do any or all of this challenge, that's awesome. Don't feel pressured to be perfect or change everything at once. We're all about health here, and even tiny changes can make a huge impact! You can join me at my fitness pal if you want to connect that way (aunak) or pin to/follow this BOARD on pinterest. I would also love to hear any feedback or advice that you have about Clean Eating!

All the best and as always, thanks for reading! 

Random Tips, Part One

SO every now and then there are a little tips I'd like to share. They're too small to be entire blogs, so I decided we'll start batching them up and releasing them in stages. Let's go!

SCUFFED/RIPPED UP SHOES

These are my favorite boots. I love them and wear them *all the time*, but because of the way I walk, they're falling apart. The heel scratches all over them, ripping off the 'material' and exposing the fabric underneath. Sad. So as a temporary fix (I have another in the works) you can do this to make the rips less noticeable. 

Simply mix up the correct shade using fabric paint and apply it to the exposed fabric. Allow it to dry and then either apply a second coat, or wash the extra of from around the edges. 

QUICK DISTINGUISHER

I always struggle with identifying which ear bud is for which ear, so recently I painted the right side with one coat of pink nail polish. Done! Now I always know immediately which bud to grab. I use nail polish to decorate with or to ID all the time- much more often than it goes on my nails! Several years ago I worked in an office that required two keys to get into, and they would be used 10-20 times per day! So I painted one of the keys to distinguish it. It was super annoying to stand at the door and guess which key to use. 

'AS IS' MERCH

Have you ever wanted to buy something from a shop, but noticed the item had an issue? Tear, stain, etc? Give it a good look before passing it up! The above is a sweater that I absolutely loved and had been stalking at Macy's for weeks, waiting for a good sale. It's a good Spring sweater since the sleeves are shorter and it has a nice row of buttons down the back. The fit is really slouchy and cute, too. Imagine my distress when the beloved sale day came (marked down to $12 dollars!) and the only one left in my size had a major black stain thing going on. You can see it in the above picture, all in the white stripe.

I chose to buy the sweater anyway, and was given a 10% discount! If the same thing happens to you consider...

a) Can I fix it myself? It may be as simple as some stain remover or a little stitch. 

b) Can I pay someone to do it *very* cheaply, or a friend for free?

c) Where is it located?

A lot of tears, rips, stains can be easily solved with a google search. And if you can't fix it, you can patch it! Luckily, the stain came out in the wash, but if it hadn't, there was already an applique at home that was *perfect* for this! You can get appliques at pretty much any craft store and iron them right over the unsightly tear, stain, etc. 

BEST BRUSH CLEANER

Let's talk about the BEST way to wash your brushes! I used to always wash my brushes with baby shampoo, but didn't think it was the best idea. It was always too soapy and then took forever to rinse. Plus the baby shampoo was expensive at the rate I went through it (I wash my brushes after every single use). I saw an idea HERE from The Daily Quirk about using vinegar and dish washing soap that was supposed to be amazing. I subbed out the dawn for Seventh Generation Natural detergent (and would recommend using a natural/organic brand) and give it a whirl. I put about 1/2 tsp. of soap in a plastic storage bowl and then put my brushes in (about 5-7 at a time), next I filled the bowl with vinegar til the bristles were nearly covered and swirled them each around a little bit to activate the bubbles. Lastly, I let the brushes sit for for a few hours in the mixture and then take them out. The original author didn't rinse hers, but I always rinse mine. The water in the bowl is disgusting and the bristles always rinse CLEAR when I put them under running water! It's amazing. Next, I shake off the excess water and lay them flat to dry. I hear that you should lay your bristles down so that the water doesn't run into the handle and loosen the adhesive, but I don't like what that does to the shape of the brush. 

TOO SHORT SUN DRESSES

This is lovely, bright patterned skirt is actually dress. It may not seem like it would be too short, but let me tell you... it *barely* covers my booty. I mean, barely. Like... I-can't-sneeze-without-a-wardrobe-malfunction barely. I have a couple of dresses like this that either were always too short or met their fate in an accidental drying. This one started out way too short. I remember being SO excited to get it. My really cute friend, Amber, who owns a jewelry shop on ETSY happened to be wearing this dress in a picture she sent me of my pearl necklace for our wedding. She made my jewelry- that's how I met her :) And she was a saint. I was super difficult and asked her to redo it a few times til it looked exactly like the non-existent necklace in my head. You should check her out. 

Anyway- Amber was SOOO darling in it! And I immediately wanted one, too. But... Amber is like 5'1'' (right?) and let me tell you... the appropriate length on her didn't translate to me at all.

The easiest fix? Tuck the straps in and wear it as a high-waisted skirt with a coordinating tank. A lot of people end up still thinking it's a dress. I do this all the time with my too short dresses. Ruched tops like this don't require any stabilizing, but you may need to add a belt for some. 

Another option is to wear it as more of a tunic with leggings or shorts. But I like the skirt best :)

And that concludes our very first "Random Tips" post! I hope you're all geared up for the weekend and Mother's Day! I for one can't wait to get my mani-pedi with my SO awesome mom + nieces over the weekend. All the best and as always, thanks for reading!