New hair challenge!!!!

Getting a little end of the day hair twirling in :-)

 

So yesterday morning while I was driving to work I realized how badly I have "hand in hair syndrome."  Yup, this is exactly what it sounds like, this is when you just can't stop touching your beautiful luxurious hair.  You know, the mindless twirling of your curls around your finger while you drive to work, wait in line at the grocery store, sit behind the slow car at the ATM, wait for the collection plate to get to you at church.......So what's the big deal you ask?  Touching your hair can cause frizziness, drying, spit ends etc.  So, I decided to put myself on a new challenge, and by myself I mean me and everyone reading this.  On tomorrow I am going to challenge myself to not touch my hair, except for morning styling before leaving the house, for an entire day! What?!?!?

 

Okay, so now you know the challenge.  I challenge you to go one day without touching, twirling, caressing your hair.  If you don't make an entire day, keep note to see how long you can make it and then leave it in the comment section below!

 

Happy hand-free hair day!!!

Tootles for now........

Hump day happiness

Good morning,
Here it goes, my top 10 for the day

1.  God woke my family, friends and myself up this morning

2.  The brilliant idea, got it from a blog, to begin using cloth napkins instead of paper

3.  New DIY (making the cloth napkins)

4.  Paid my credit card off this week!!!!!!!!

5.  Meeting about a research collaboration project today (hooray for this, many hands make light work)

6.  Finished the grant I was working on, phew and it was a little one

7.  Church gathering tonight

8.  Great family circle (small group) at church Sunday evening

9. Made a cute pillowcase dress this weekend 

10.  No class today! 

Well, that's it for today.  Leave your hump day happiness in the comments section below

Hump day (sort of) happiness

Yeah, one day late, but better late than never.....

1.  God woke my family, friends and myself up this morning

2.  Awesome hair day today

3.  Great message at church last night

4.  Very productive work week

5.  Found out that Breana got a new job!

6.  Research is going well

7.  Winter weather is back (not that I like cold, but I like the season to feel like the season it is)

8.  No Friday robotics (for Rima)

9.  Saturday robotics (free day for mom :-)

10.  I have a family circle at church now, first meeting Sunday!

Share some hump day (sort of) happiness in the comments section

Tootles for now.......

How can you not love this family?

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Happy inauguration day Mr. President!

DIY oversized envelope clutch and purse

New additions to my accessories bin.  The picture is a little dark, but scroll down for close ups

Hello there lovelies~

A couple of weeks ago I was inspired by my buddy Shunta who made beautiful curtains and other great DIYs for her new nursery.  After seeing how wonderfully her DIYs turned out I decided to dust off the old sewing machine and create a DIY of my own. On Friday, Rima and I went to Hancock's fabrics.  I wanted to make an envelope clutch and needed some material to use as the lining.  Just after walking in I spotted a leopard print (no pun intended, haha) piece of fabric in the remnants bin (left over fabric that the store sells for super cheap).  At the store, for a total of $5.26, I picked up my leopard print fabric, a button and some new sewing needles, score!  After briefly googling how to make an envelope clutch I felt like I was ready to get started.  Yeah, turns out I wasn't quite as ready as I thought, and the task was a bit larger than I expected.  However, I am pleased with the overall results.  I ended up having enough leopard print remnant fabric to make a clutch out of it and to use it for lining of a denim clutch.   

So, I began the project with three pieces of fabric: denim to make an envelope clutch, leopard print to use as lining for the denim and to make an additional envelope clutch, and random pink fabric to use as lining for the leopard clutch. 

 I decided to put a button on the denim envelope clutch and a magnet on the leopard envelope clutch. 

After careful consideration I decided to go with the clear button. 

So, after I got everything ironed and laid out Miles decided to take over.  Yeah, this was an ongoing battle throughout the process, but I persevered.  

I measured everything out and began cutting to prepare for sewing.  I decided to make the denim envelope clutch 17" wide and 9" long.  The leopard print clutch I made 15" wide and 9" long with a 5" flap.  I added 2" on each side for sewing and cut using those measurements.  I decided to add cardboard to the leopard print bag to make it a bit sturdier, so I also cut out a cereal box to put inside.  I glued the box to the fabric.  While the glue dried I went on to the denim envelope clutch.  This clutch was for the most part easy to do.

1. I ironed all the material before starting
2. I measured the fabric for the outside and the lining
3. I made marks of the desired size and then cut the fabric
4. I lined up the outside fabric with the lining (backs facing each other, right side showing for both) and then sewed them together
5. I folded over all edges about 1" and then ironed
6. I folded over each edge one 1" again and ironed
7. I sewed the folded edges
8. I folded the front part of the bag over so that I had the shape of the bag with extra fabric left to use for the flap (so the clutch was folded into three equal parts)
9. I sewed the front and back together along the sides
10. I folded a triangle for the top flap
11. I sewed along the triangle of the flap and cut off the extra fabric.
12. I added a button and a buttonhole and voila

 

Unfortunately, this envelope clutch turned out a bit larger than expected and since I didn't reinforce it with anything sturdy I decided the best way to carry this would be to add a strap.  I used a gold strap that I had and sewed it into the envelope clutch to turn it into a shoulder bag. 

I did essentially the same thing for the leopard print envelope clutch except the top flap is just straight and I had to sew around the cardboard in the envelope clutch.  

 

 

As I said earlier, overall I am pleased with the results for my first attempts at this.  However, if I decide to make another envelope clutch I would probably make a no sew clutch or use a fusible interfacing instead of cardboard (sewing around cardboard is difficult).  If I decide to just make a purse/bag again I would probably still sew it. 

This was a great learning experience because I faced sewing challenges that I haven't before, but I overcame each one!  Hooray for me!  I think that my next project will be a dress or skirt.  

Tootles for now!

Hump day happiness!

Good morning, so happy.......

1.  God woke my family, friends and myself up this morning

2.  It was sunny on my drive to work

3.  I reminisced on some of the wonderful blessings God has given me in the past year (some of which already came this year)

4.  A wonderful time at Shunta's awesome baby shower this weekend

5.  Fun in Greenville over the weekend (it has grown so much and is so nice!)

6.  Rima's going on a trip this weekend to Asheville and she's been wanting to see snow

7.  Book club Friday for a book I just may (almost) finish before the meeting

8.  My Mommy

9.  A great start to this semester (key word this semester: prepared)

10.  The future-I'm very excited to see what the future holds for my family, friends and self.

Leave a comment with some hump day happiness!

Tootles for now.....

I'm in love!!!!!!

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I'm in love with my hair!  I have recently been re-inspired to learn my hair.  Yeah, yeah, I know, I've been natural for 5.5 years and should have things down now, but........still working on it.  However, I'm super excited about having this time now with my hair cut to learn all about my hair.  We all know some of the key needs of healthy  hair include healthy scalp, moisture, moisture, moisture, appropriate trims, and moisture.  So, I have begun my journey.  I began with finding out my hair's porosity by doing the porosity test.  Basically what you do is take a strand of your hair (be gentle because I hurt myself yanking a strand out) and place the strand in a cup of water.  Be sure that the hair is clean and without product.  Allow the strand of hair to sit in the water for about two minutes before checking on it.  

• Low porosity:  If the strand of hair remains afloat in the cup of water then you have low porosity.
• Medium porosity: If the strand of hair sinks to the middle of the cup of water you have medium porosity.
• High porosity:  If the strand of hair sinks to the bottom of the cup you have high porosity.

So what does all this mean and why do we care?  Basically porosity is how open the cuticle (outer layer of your hair) is.  The more closed it is the lower the porosity.  Hair that has low or high porosity is harder to moisturize than hair that has medium porosity and this is why we care.

Hair with low porosity stays closed and makes it difficult for water (or other moisturizers) to enter your hair.  Hair with high porosity stays open and easily allows water (or other moisturizers) to enter your hair and unfortunately to easily leave your hair.  

Okay, so now that you know your porosity how do you fix it?  Well, if you have medium porosity you're doing well and you should keep doing what you're doing.  If you have low porosity you should stay clear of products with low pH as well as heavy oils.  Instead you should use alkaline/basic solutions such as baking soda and light oil if you choose to use oils (ie. jojoba, almond, grapeseed).  If your hair has high porosity you should stay away from alkaline/basic products and use products with a low pH (think ACV), protein rich and heavier sealants (ie. castor oil, shea butter).  

This week I will test out the use of baking soda to rectify my low porosity and report back to you all on the results. 

I hope you found something helpful!

Tootles for now.....  

Tween hair

Wash and go hair, as usual

Yup, tween, as in that awkward Brittney Spears not a girl not yet a woman stage.  Well, that's how I feel about my hair right now.  My hair is starting to grow back (which I'm happy about), but it's at one of those, and there are many, awkward lengths where I'm just not quite sure what to do with it.  Of course there's always wash and gos and I still love being able to do this, but I want more.  One challenge is the front of my hair.  The top is long enough that it gets in my face a bit with the fresh wash and go.  Naturally this makes me want to pull the front back; however, the sides aren't long enough for me to pull it back with a scarf or headband yet.  And I just tonight realized how much I miss parts, but that's a story for another day.  So, I now have the wonderful new challenge of finding hairstyles for my current tween hair. I'll keep you posted on how that goes....

Leave a comment about how you handle, or have in the past handled, tween hair.

Tootles for now....

Hump day happiness!

And we're back!

1.  I woke up this morning

2.  I get to go to Greenville this weekend

3.  Classes have begun

4.  A ray of sunshine this morning poking through the clouds (idk how people live in places where it is never sunny!!)

5.  I was awarded the  summer research stipend that I applied for (hooray for not having to work for free this summer!)

6.  I get to see Greenville friends this weekend (yeah, I haven't been to G'vegas in a while, I miss it)

7.  It's a new year

8.  I made a shirt this weekend

9.  Tia and Tamera came back on last night (although it was a little awkward watching with Rima with the topics of strip teasing and race being the focal points of the show)

10.  Miles and I had a mini-walk last night (we haven't walked all week)

Leave a comment with some of your happiness for this beautiful hump day!

Tootles for now.......

Carpe Diem

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Okay, so we have probably all heard the phrase "carpe diem", latin for seize the day.  Well, I learned this lesson up close and personal this weekend.  Picture it, January 5, 2013....it is absolutely beautiful outside.  However, as the last Saturday I have before classes begin I decide to just stay in the house.  Oh sure, I thought to myself, geez it's beautiful outside (and beautiful days are kind of rare here in Florence this time of year, welcome to the land of rain and gray skies during the winter), I should go for a walk or something, but I didn't.  I decided to take it easy Saturday and to go for a walk tomorrow.  Well, Sunday morning I wake up bright and early to the sound of raindrops outside.  That's right, I skipped out on taking advantage of the beautiful day figuring that I would always have tomorrow to enjoy.  Unfortunately, tomorrow was not the type of day for enjoying the great outdoors.  Although it sucked, I really did want to take a nice walk this weekend, waking up to rain on Sunday morning and not being able to do what I had put off for "tomorrow" was a great lesson that I needed to be reminded of....carpe diem.  So, my mini lesson in seize the day because you never know what tomorrow holds rang in loud and clear for me.  

Yeah, it's moments like this morning that make me think God has a great sense of humor and every now and again does things just for laughs :-)  

Tootles for now, 

Have a great week and look forward to the return of "hump day happiness" this week!