We've Been Awarded!

A BIG thanks to Margaret from Take a Walk With Me for giving us the Versatile Blogger Award!

How sweet of Margaret to give us this award.  I hope that you all see us as being somewhat versatile even though we are primarily a blog about hair.  We certainly are versatile in the types of hair we are blogging about, and if you count the random diaper posts I did the other week, well, then, I guess we are even versatile in our subject matter!  

The rules of this award state that we are supposed to pass this on to 15 other blogs!  Well, honestly, I don't have time to read and follow that many blogs, so this is hard.  Do you think it is ok if we break the rules a little bit here?  I have 2 blogs I would like to pass this on too, and I am sure Steph has a few also.  I want to be true to the award and only pass it on to blogs that I think are versatile, and for the sake of keeping things interesting I don't want to mention any blogs we have linked to in the past.  So, here are my top two choices:

Amateurian - This blog is by a friend of mine, Angi.  She is a fellow adoptive mother of an absolutely gorgeous baby girl, and she also has two other beautiful children.  I love the diversity of topics that Angi talks about on her blog.  We don't really know each other very well, but I am fascinated by her as she just doesn't seem to be the kind of girl who was born and raised in a small Michigan town.  She presents herself as a very cultured, highly educated, super classy girl.  Basically everything that I am not!  But at the same time, she is totally down to earth and an every day mommy, just trying to do what is best for her kids.  She also runs several little side business that in themselves are totally diverse.  Love her!  Today is also a REALLY good day to check out her blog because she is giving away a Kindle and the competition ends tomorrow!  

I Love Purple More Than You  - I am really giving this award to the writer Julie, because she is SO diverse she has 3 different blogs!  This first blog is about her awesome self, her awesome kids and her 34 pets.  No seriously, she has so many pets I have lost count, but the most important one is her Giant Flemish Rabbit.  I had never heard of such a thing but now that she has one, I have vowed to own one before I die.  Julie was already hilarious and entertaining on her first blog, but she needed another outlet for her comedy so she started this blog:  Gingersnaps In The Morning.  It is like a daily news show about crazy things she finds in the media and pop culture stuff and it's totally silly and fun.  Third, she also has a daughter who is adopted and she recently started a blog all about her hair called Marlie's Hair.  That's pretty versatile right?

And Steph's choices are:

Welcome To My Brain. This is Christine's blog about lots of things (aka versatile) including adoption, parenting traumatized children, being a "freegan vegan flexitarian," owning an RV park, being a funky chick with a funky cool family, and everything and nothing all at once. She just plain rocks. If you are an adoptive parent, especially of children with any trauma issues, you MUST get to know Christine's blog.

Crockpot 365. This epitomizes the word versatile because you never DREAMED that a crockpot could be SO VERSATILE! Anything you can think of, Stephanie O'Dea can make in her crockpot. Your search for slow cooker recipes is over. Check out her blog!

Watching the Waters. In some ways similar to Welcome To My Brain. In many ways different. Corey is also an adoptive mom, also parenting traumatized children. A lot of times what Corey has to say makes me tear up. She also gives a lot of stuff away and posts good recipes! She is the organizer extraordinaire of the Moms' Retreat in Orlando.

So if you received this award from us and you would like to accept it, these are the rules:

 (which we did not follow!)

Thank and link back to the person who gave you the award.

Share 7 things about yourself.

Pass the award along to 15 other bloggers who you discovered and think are fabulous.

Contact the bloggers you chose and let them know about the award.

Oh Sheesh!  We need to tell you 7 things about ourselves!  Well, since there are 2 of us, how about we each tell you 4 things that you may not have known about us:

Katie-

1)  I was born in Wisconsin and therefore it is only right that my favorite food group is CHEESE!

2)  I was the captain of the cheerleading squad my Junior and Senior years of High School.

3)  I got married when I was 19 years old and recently celebrated my 10th anniversary!

4)  I used to be a Stampin' Up! demonstrator and I have a basement full of crafting supplies that I no longer have time to use.

Steph - 

1)  I lived in Japan for 3.5 years and played the Japanese taiko drums while there

2)  I just bought a very cheap 1978 Dodge Delta Motorhome for myself and my RV-obsessed daughter. It's unbelievably funky (read: 70's green and wood interior)! I am now not obligated to buy anything impressive for at least 2 Christmases and a birthday!

3)  I was once married in my 20's for 4.5 years!

4)  I used to be a Scentsy consultant and although I ADORE the product and the scents, I also no longer have the time to devote to it. But I have a lot of smelly good wax to burn for a long time!

Thanks for the award Margaret and have fun checking out some of our favorite versatile bloggers!

Our First Blogger Award!

My friend Corey thinks we are beautiful! She has given us our first blogger award, and we couldn't be more tickled. Corey is beautiful, and I read her blog faithfully. I met her on my very first trip to Haiti where I also met G. She was picking up her second Haitian child and we were at Wall's Guest House together. We sat together and chatted and had her daughter's birthday party at Wall's...a wonderful place that is no longer there because it collapsed in the earthquake. But I am so grateful to Corey and her family for answering enduring my few several  million questions on that first trip, and sharing their experiences with me. Her oldest daughter Jess was 9 or 10, I think, and was REALLY into Littlest Pet Shop. She and her little sister Tina wrote down "observations" every day in a notebook. Tina couldn't actually write yet and just made lots of marks, but she wanted to do everything that her big sister did! I also remember poor Jess was COATED in mosquito bites (worse than me. I didn't think that was possible) and klonked her head on the side of the pool one day and had to get stitches! Anyway, Corey has gone through a lot since all of her children have come home, but just keeps on swimmin'! And THAT is beautiful!

So, we here at KeepMeCurly want to recognize three beautiful blogs that are on a mission like we are....to keep hair beautiful and naturally curly. And to celebrate it!

1. Hair With Purpose - Just the name alone is beautiful! Andrea and Jennifer have two biracial girls. They are getting older and I love seeing that the girls are still natural. If you read their latest post on their blog, you will see why they are beautiful! That is what the post is all about!

2. Princess Hairstyles - The amount of time and love that this Mom spends on her daughter's intricate hairstyles can't be anything BUT beautiful! Katie has gotten a lot of her inspiration for styles from this blog, even though the styles she does are on very straight hair. But braiding is braiding and these braids are byoooootiful (we can tell her "little princess" feels very beautiful too!)

3. Cherish My Daughter - This is Natacha's blog, and she is Mom to FOUR "mocha girls." She styles all their hair and has learned from trial and error what works.  She is chemical-free and dedicated to making sure they feel beautiful and great about themselves. We are amazed at how busy she must be with four heads of hair to style, plus her own! This video in particular hit home with me, because I have thought about this a lot with G....and what she says is, I think...beautiful!

If you are one of the above, here are the rules:

Post the award on your blog, link back to the person that gave it to you, and give it to whomever you want to. But make sure they are beautiful.  You cannot give ugly people the beautiful blogger award.  It would just be wrong!