Shades of Brown

I did a quick twist hairstyle on V last night for a temporary style as we prepare to put in yarn braids this weekend!  I have been wanting to buy these shades of brown barrettes and beads for quite a long time and I FINALLY did it!

As it turns out, she doesn't currently have a lot of brown in her wardrobe, but I think that brown is a really great neutral color that can go along with anything she wears without really clashing.

We took these pics early this morning before the sun had joined us, so I had to use the flash.  The glare on the barrettes makes it a bit difficult to see the true colors, but I think you get the idea. Here are a few more pics.

Don't these colors just feel like fall?!?!

Katie

Tidbit Tuesday - Custom Color Beads!

DID YOU KNOW???

If you are in need of just the right color beads to match an outfit, or don't want to buy 5 packs of multicolors just to get enough of a few colors to do a whole head of braids, then here's something to try...

...painting the inside of clear beads with paints/stains for plastic!

Having the color on the INSIDE of the bead gives the bead a totally different look. They seem to glow and the color is a bit more subtle. I opened up a pack of Snapaholics' Medium Clear Barrels and chose a few colors from my craft paint box, and went for it....about 1 minute later, here is what I had:

Look at how beautifully they glow! The pink ones were painted with a frost type of paint.
I gave it a coat and let it dry, then gave it another coat. Otherwise the paint was too thin and spotty. Now, I was using plain old acrylic craft paint. I did a bit of research and they do make paints that are designed for plastic. I would highly recommend using this type of paint so that it bonds to the plastic. Because of course the key to this trick is will the paint stay on in the presence of hair products? If the right paint will stay on, then a whole new world can open up to you for customizing your hair bling! You can also try using the acrylic paints (available at any craft or big box store in a zillion colors) and then spraying them with a sealer.

One thing you can try is the stains that are used with kids' craft "stained glass" kits,

which are suncatchers actually made of plastic. I saw this nifty set of stains in Michael's right next to the above suncatcher kit:

So one need only try a couple beads on a test braid. If the stain holds up, voila!!! I have never seen packaged hair beads with the color on the inside of the bead, so this would be something original. I bet your little one gets lots of compliments on her custom colors!!!

If you try it and it works, send us photos!

A Sidewinder Style and Little E's Buns!

Not much time to write today, but I thought I would get some pics out to you all of some recent styles.  First up is a Sidewinder do' on B:

It is kind of hard to tell from these pictures but the sidewinders were wound onto braids.  I braided about 6 locs together in three places going from forehead to the back of her head on each side.  This looked really cute with the Orange and Purple outfits she had on!
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I have to admit my frustrations with doing Little E's hair!  It is just so different from my other girls hair.  Pretty much any idea I get for their hair I am able to do.  I might end up changing things as I go along for one reason or another, but at least I always have PLENTY of hair to do it!  Little E just doesn't have much going on up there!

I had a much different idea for this style, and it just wasn't going to happen.  I actually wanted to put beads on the braids that went into the buns also.  Here is the irony!  Even though E's hair is to thin and fine to do the styles I want to do, her little braids are often TO THICK to fit beads on!  It's so weird!  The other thing is that E's hair is really VERY fragile.  I know that B and V's hair needs to be handled with care, but it seems that all of the products and techniques I use on them do a great job of keeping their hair healthy and strong.  E, on the other hand, it seems no matter what I do with her hair it breaks.  And I hate to see her loose ANY of her hair since their isn't much of it.  So I don't actually style her hair that often.  It seems to do best if I just wash it, comb it, and leave it alone! Anyway, this style did turn out pretty cute, in the end, so I should stop complaining, but I just thought I would let you know my thoughts on doing E's hair!

Katie

Note on Comments

Hi everyone! Just an update about our comments on KMC....we were allowing anonymous comments (although moderating) but nearly all of our anonymous comments have turned out to be spam and it's becoming more frequent and gunking up our inbox. So, we are going to turn off anonymous commenting. If you have something to say to us but want to remain anonymous, you can just get a free dummy email account with yahoo or gmail or whatnot, and then say what ya gotta say. Or of course you can send us an email! Thanks everyone...

Now, stay tuned for Katie's post on B and E's latest styles. E's is ADORABLE!

G School Picture Day!

Today is school picture day for Miss G! I didn't really know what I was going to do  for sure until Wednesday night. Last year we did ponytails with some beads and snaps:

So I knew I could not do ponytails again!

Anyway...our new Full House dvds came from Netflix, and our exchange student

(who just recently asked to stay with us for a whole year instead of just 6 weeks..yay!)  has decided that she LOVVVEEEESSSSS Full House. So everyone plopped down with homemade pizza to watch. So this was my chance! I decided I wanted to do this knotted tiara style again for school photos:

but when i made the knots on Wednesday night, I did not put them back quite as far. So instead of the tiara being right at the top-back side of her head, they were more on TOP of her head. She was not wild about this, and I didn't like it as well either. Since we are in soccer season right now and I am somehow, some way, inexplicably head coaching, I knew I would not have time on Thursday night  after practice to redo all of the cornrows and knots. I had to think fast. So for Thursday I sent her to school WITH the knots, but instead of leaving the back of her hair down,  which would have accentuated the "knots popping out of the top of your head" thing, I did "messy" half pulled through ponytails up high behind the knots. It was a very formal look, a definite updo. She still was not liking it that much and didn't want to go to school with it. I had put a transparent mini ballie around each knot (instead of a big bead on the tail like in the above photos) so we had the kind of rainbow tiara thing going on. However, the magic happened when I told her that wow, this was like a very FLOWER GIRL kind of hairstyle. Ohhhhh my goodness. That changed everything. As soon as the hairdo was in any way associated with a wedding, she was all over it. Then I also bet her a dollar that someone would compliment her hair, since she has never worn a full updo before. I told her she had to be honest and tell me if she got a compliment, and then I would not owe her a dollar. She liked that, and then spent the rest of the way to school planning who we knew that might be getting married and whose wedding she could crash be a flower girl.

So, needless to say, I do NOT owe her a dollar, in fact I should have had her pay ME a dollar for every compliment she got on her 'do on Thursday, cuz I'd be going out to sushi lunch today! Everyone loved it. So what I did have time for last night was putting in a few soft rollers to make some spirally curls (am ordering me some Soft Spikes today) to frame her face. I wish I had also done the bangs, but they would have been SOOO short! So now, she's ready:

The locs really spiralled well....So, off to do some web shopping for soft spikes!

When we get the finished photos, I'll definitely scan and share!

If you are interested in this hairdo, I would be happy to explain it in another post.

Have a great day!

Cloth Diapering -The Info

In the most basic way possible I am going to give you some info on all of my favorite and most important diaper info.  This is kind of hard to do because there is actually quite a lot that goes along with cloth diapering and I could write an entire book.  If anyone has questions, I can answer those, but lets just go with a list of my favorites for now....

My favorite place to buy cloth diapers is Kelly's Closet!  Because they are out of state for me and they offer free shipping on orders over $49, I don't pay shipping OR tax when I purchase through them and I can do it from the comfort of my own couch!  You can also earn reward points for ordering through them to be used on future cloth purchases.  And since they have almost everything you can imagine on their site, you hardly need to think of buying anything from anywhere else!  

Kelly's Closet (which is a part of DiaperShops.com) also has an AWESOME blog called the Cloth Diaper Whisperer!  They talk about EVERYTHING you ever needed to know about cloth diapering.  Yes, ALL of the answers are there!  But they also do weekly giveaways of cloth diapers and other related products.

Dirty Diaper Laundry is my favorite mom run blog.  There are an unbelievable amount of different types, styles and brands of cloth diapers and this mom has made tons of youtube reviews of them.  She is adding new ones all the time, so if you are thinking of purchasing a new diaper, I would check out her thorough review of it first!  

My FAVORITE cloth diaper detergent - which is now the ONLY detergent I use, is Rockin' Green!  It comes in many yummy scents.  The soap is scented with essential oils that will not leave build up on your diapers but unfortunately for us, Little E seemed to have an allergic reaction to the oil.  Fortunately they also make an unscented version!  They also have different formulas depending on if you have hard or soft water.  (Can be purchased from Kelly's Closet and earn you points!)

It would take too long to go into explaining the different types of diapers in this post, but for those of you who are curious, I have several favorites diapers.  I prefer One Size diapers because they grow with the child and don't require you to buy new diapers when your child grows - plus you can use the same stash of diapers if you have two children in diapers at the same time (just need to adjust the snaps).  I also prefer pocket style diapers and diapers.  My favorite brands are Bum Genius, Knickernappies and GroVia (formerly known as GroBaby).  Out of the different diapers I have used, those are my favorites.  Although there are many more I would like to try!  

I believe every single one of these places and diaper brands can also be found on facebook.  Becoming fans of them will often alert you to special giveaways and coupon codes, so that is yet another way to save money!  

I more recently discovered that there was a cute little brick and mortar cloth diaper shop in my own town, and I believe in supporting local business so it is a good idea to google that and see if there is one near you too!  The owners are usually more than happy to answer any questions you have and then you can check out the different kinds of diapers live and in person!

There are also many WAHM (work at home mom's) that make and sell cloth diapers, and people also sell gently used cloth diapers.  I haven't fully explored those options, because when Little E started on cloth I thought I was just using her as a guinea pig for the next baby.  I had no idea that she would take so long to potty train and end up wearing them for the next year and a half!  Anyway, I kept my stash pretty small because as a toddler she didn't need as many changes in a day and I was trying to be as money conscious as possible.  So I only bought what we needed.

I also didn't buy a lot of the accessories that would make cloth easier - like a diaper sprayer!  If I would have known I would be scraping poop out of diapers for the next 18 months I would have bought one when we started, but since I didn't, it will be the FIRST purchase if another baby comes along!  Another thing that makes dealing with the poop easier are diaper liners.  They are a very thin piece of gauze like material that you lay inside the diaper and when the child poops you just pull it out and toss the whole thing in the toilet.  It is flushable and biodegradable!  They aren't very expensive, but I wouldn't use them with every diaper change.  I only put them in diapers when we were going to be away from home or I was fairly confident that E was about to poop!

Well, that is a pretty good start!  I hope I haven't bored you silly!  If so, don't worry, we are now totally diaper free in this house, so I have no need to talk about my diaper addiction.

For now.

Katie

Soft Spikes on V

Not a whole lot to say about this one.  When I reviewed the Soft Spike Curlers on B's locs I told you all I wanted to give them a try on V.  So I did!  She is still sporting her Back to School cornrow pigtails.  We just took out the beads and put in the Soft Spikes:

The little cornrow in the front was too small for a Soft Spike so I used a straw.  It is the kind of straw that already has that handy little bend in it, so I just cut the long end off and used a rubber band to hold it together.  If you recall, she did have 2 cornrows in the front, but I took the long one and added it to the pigtail.

I guess I haven't learned my lesson.  I had V take a shower before we put these in and I had her rinse her hair really quick.  This was kind of a big step for me since I normally don't have her get her hair wet while it is in cornrows.  But I am trying to teach myself that it is OK!  The bad news is, those braids just won't get dry overnight in the Soft Spikes if you get them that wet!  We squeezed the water out of them, patted with a towel a little, and in the morning I even used a blow dryer, but when I took the spikes out, they were STILL DAMP!  URGH!  The curls didn't hold as well as I would have liked because of being damp.  If her hair had been totally dry, they would have been AWESOME!  Here is the finished look:

That curl ended up a bit tighter than expected!

So you can see the ends of the braids were curly, but the tops fell pretty straight.  Next time I will be sure to not get them very wet.  V did say that she did not mind sleeping in them at all - so that is good!  Overall, the style looked cute even it it wasn't the exact outcome we were looking for, and V was very happy!

Katie

Tidbit Tuesday

Did You Know.....

That I went shopping today!  Yes, I splurged a little.  We have been very careful with every little penny for the last few months as we knew my hubby's job was coming to an end.  BUT after only one week of being unemployed he has landed himself a shiny new job!  Praise the LORD!  So, I decided I would use some of our YouTube money to get the girls some FUN new hair stuff instead of boring stuff like shampoo!

Here is what we got -

Brown and Burgundy yarn for V's new Fall Inspired Yarn Braids!!!!!  Coming soon!

For Little E - her hair is SO fine and thin I needed smaller hair ties for her!  These are like as big as a ring.

For All the Girls - Even Me!  Aren't they pretty?  And on Clearance!!!

B will probably get the most use out of these.

For B to wear during soccer games.  Her team is Yellow and Black.  Only $.99 each at Hobby Lobby!

Gotta Love the Dollar Spot at Target!  For all my girls on Halloween!

If only I had managed to track down the brown beads I need for V's Fall Inspired Yarn Braids!  I am SO excited to put those in I don't know if I will be able to wait the 2 weeks that I was planning!

Happy Tuesday!

Katie

WINNERS!! WINNERS!! - Storage Photo Contest

HOORAY! It's time to announce our storage photo contest winners! We had lots of good entries and are happy to see that so many of you are SOOO organized! Somebody's gotta do it!

We have selected winners in three categories! We have prettiest, largest capacity, and most organized & portable.

For prettiest, we are pleased to show you Holly's desktop caddy! I just love how cool that second photo looks showing all the stuff in the compartments and drawers. We love how Holly co-opted this desk/office organizer into a hair goodies organizer!

Holly says: When it came to organizing B's hair stuff, I wanted something chic that would go w/ her room decor and wouldn't take up a lot of space.  So I found this awesome white wooden "tower" w/ drawers.  It sits atop her dresser, it spins and has compartments for most of our hair goodies.  The well in the center is nice and deep and we have two tubs of product stacked in there.  The only hair items that aren't in this storage unit ( we found this at Michael's in their scrapbooking section btw) are our spray bottle (we store it in the fridge as it has water and aloe juice in it), a tupperware filled with our pony beads that is stored in my closet in my bedroom, and a soft travel purse where we keep all her head bands and extra soft hair ties.  If there is some type of hair do-dad that we are never using and it's taking up extra (precious) space, we get rid of it.  I don't want a lot of overflow.  :)

Next up, we have largest capacity. Danielle won this one! I actually have one of these sets of drawers for extra clothes in my house, but I wish I had thought to get one before G had locs! And we had tile floors that this would have rolled SOOO nicely on!

 Although they are nice because they save space and can squoosh all tight together, I am not a huge fan of baggies, though, because about a million times I have thought one was closed and went to pick it up and.....well, you know...

I do really like how she stores bobby pins and those snap clips on long strips of what is probably thin cardboard. Much neater and less headache to separate than having them tossed together.  Overall, i like how she is storing things in SMALL storage inside this BIG rolling cart. And she can use the top of the cart as a tabletop while she is actually doing a style, to boot! Nice!

Finally, we come to most organized & portable. It was a TIE! Two readers, Cate and Kristi, have the same storage containers, which are actually PHOTO storage bins (the second photo). Now THESE are nice! We found them on Amazon.com and they are for sale in the Amazon widget in our sidebar, along with tons of other great stuff!!! Please support us and buy yours from our Amazon shop! Look for "Large Photo Keeper with 12 Cases" Here are Kristi's:

If only Kristi had been my next-door neighbor and could have inspired me to be this organized with my beads! Siiiggghhhh!!!! I LOVE that photo organizer storage unit! The best part about it, other than the sheer neatness and awesomeness of how appealing that is to the eye, is that if you spill anything, you only spill the beads in that one little box.

And here is a link to Cate's blog post all about her storage, which she happened to have done in February of this year (that cool spilled beads photo above is hers too!). It's probably easier for you guys to go read what she has to say and see her many photos.

We also absolutely LOVE Cate's header photo. It shows how totally awesome little girls can look in their totally free hair, untwisted, unbraided, free, curly, kinky, coiled, spirally, and natural. We adore seeing that! If you go to her sidebar, and click the tag HAIR in the tag cloud, you can see all her hair posts, and now that I am looking thru them, she has some doozy hairstyles in there!

So all of you ladies have won 2 free packs of beads, barrettes, or ballies from Snapaholics! Please contact me at info@snapaholics.com about your prize!!!

Thanks to ALL who entered the contest! We hope we can post all your storage ideas in later posts!

The Many Reasons I LOVE Cloth Diapers!

When we started this blog I told you I would be talking about some of the other things I am passionate about.  I know you have been waiting ALL summer to hear about my love for cloth diapers.  So today is your lucky day!

This might actually be the only time you will read about cloth diapers on this blog (until we are, hopefully, some day blessed with another baby bottom to diaper).  As you know Little E just turned 3 last week and it looks like we are nearing the end of our diapering days with her.  So as I tenderly pack up our beloved stash of cloth I am going to reflect on the many reasons I have fallen in love with them!

1.  I LOVE cloth diapers because it makes me happy to know I am taking care of the planet by not filling more landfills with yucky diapers that won't decompose for a few hundred years!

2.  I LOVE cloth diapers because it gives me an opportunity to teach my children about the importance of taking good care of this beautiful earth.

3.  I LOVE cloth diapers because using and reusing the ones that I have saves me TONS of money that I would otherwise be spending on hundreds of disposable diapers that would get thrown away after one use.

4.  I LOVE cloth diapers because they are ADORABLE and come in more colors and patterns than you can even imagine.

5.  I LOVE cloth diapers because Little E looks so ADORABLE in them with her big fluffy booty and it is so fun to match the color of the diaper to the colors of her outfit.  (ya know, kind of like matching your hair bling to your outfit - accessorizing is oh so fun!)

6.  I LOVE cloth diapers because Little E is so tiny that her pants wouldn't stay up without the extra bulk!

7.  I LOVE cloth diapers because they look so pretty hanging on the clothes line.

8.  I LOVE cloth diapers because I can save even more money by line drying them instead of using the dryer.

9.  I LOVE cloth diapers AND cloth wipes because they keep all those yucky chemicals away from my daughters precious little bum.

10.  I LOVE cloth wipes because I didn't pay one penny for them!  I recycled some of my big pile of old receiving blankets, cut them up, and (with the help of a dear friend who has domestic skills that I lack and a sewing machine) we made them into a stash of wipes that can be used over and over again just like our diapers!

11.  I LOVE cloth diapers because they required me to buy a special kind of detergent that is free of chemicals and toxins to wash them, which led to me using this detergent on ALL of my families laundry which is healthier and safer for ALL of us (including the planet).

12.  I LOVE cloth diapers because making the switch to cloth inspired me to make other changes in our lifestyle that are healthier, safer and less expensive for my family.

13.  I LOVE cloth diapers because so many of them (and the detergents and other diapering accessories) are made by small business in the US that were likely started by and are still run by moms just like me!

14.  I LOVE cloth diapers because so many of the parents that use cloth diapers have formed a wonderful community of people who strongly support breast feeding, co-sleeping, baby wearing and other elements of parenting that are important to me, but aren't as popular in my local community.

15.  I LOVE cloth diapers because I NEVER have to send my husband on an emergency run to the store  for more diapers!

16.  I LOVE that if we are blessed with another baby I can reuse ALL of the diapers that I have used on Little E on a new baby bottom!

17.   I LOVE cloth diapers because on hot summer days your baby can run around in just a diaper and still look cute - cute - cute!  OR if they get there dinner all over their shorts, just take them off and turn em loose!

18.  I LOVE cloth diapers because they have such cute and funny names - Happy Heinys, FuzziBunz, AppleCheeks....

After that long list, would you believe me if I told you that 3 years ago I would have NEVER have imagined my self cloth diapering!  I don't particularly like doing laundry, and the idea of putting poopy diapers into my washing machine kind of grossed me out.  I can't really tell you what first sparked my interest in cloth.  Actually, now that I think about it, it was probably the moms on the hair group!  Years ago I remember some of them talking about their addiction to cloth diapers and I thought they were CRAZY but I also thought their wee ones did look awful precious in some of the pics they posted of them in their cloth.  But it wasn't until Little E was over a year old that I saw my friend using cloth on her newborn son and I was inspired to give it a try for myself.

Boy am I glad I did!  I honestly don't mind the extra laundry at all.  And I am a pretty busy mom.  But it was just a matter of getting into a routine and than it is simple!  And after four kids and four pets, I am no longer phased by poop, so, no problem there.

I know I said this would be the only post on cloth, but I can't really tell you all the reasons I love cloth and then not tell you about my favorite brands and styles of cloth or where to buy them or not share any of my other great cloth related resources.  So stay tuned next week for a follow up post.  If you have any questions, leave them in the comments and I can try to address them in next weeks post!

Do/Did Any Of You Use Cloth Diapers?  

Katie