Fall Inspired Yarn Braids

As you can see we have used three different colors of yarn.  I wanted to really make sure the colors were noticeable, but not over powering so, I still used a lot more black than I did brown and burgundy.  I used two strands of yarn for each braid so what I did for the braids with the brown and burgundy yarn was combine 1 piece of color yarn with 1 piece of black yarn.  Then I alternated like this: 1 all black, 1 half brown, 1 all black, 1 half burgundy, 1 all black, 1 half brown.....and so on.  I think I got the exact effect I was hoping for!

Originally I was also going to use red yarn, but once it was cut and lying out next to the other three colors it was just to bright.  I thought it would stick out like a sore thumb so I didn't use it.

Similarly, I had originally planned to use 5 beads per braid.  I ended up just using two shades of brown and one red bead.  But at first I also had a pearly orange and a warm yellow with them.  Again, I thought that was two bright and not quite the look I was going for, so I stuck with just 3 beads per braid.

I decided to go with a two step plan for these braids.  For the first 3-4 weeks it will be in this style - yarn braids in the back with Criss Cross Cornrows in the front.  I did add yarn to the ends of the cornrows so that they blend right in with the braids in the back.  They are just a bit thicker at the top.  After about 3 weeks, I will take out the cornrows and put the front into regular yarn braids and leave them in for another 3-4 weeks.  I did this last fall also and the braids in the back ended up being in for almost 8 weeks since I only changed the front, but they held up GREAT!  I am hoping for the same results this time around.

When I picked her up from school today she told me she got "like 100 compliments" on her hair today!

So these braids were inspired by my love of fall colors, but I was also inspired by one of our readers, Holly, who sent us these pretty yarn braid pictures awhile back.  I loved the colors in the first one, and I really liked the length of the braids (and the colors) in the second picture.  I tried to make V's braids a bit longer this time, but somehow they always seems to end up pretty close to the same length!

Katie

SECOND UPDATE! Painted Beads

Ok, I had two pink beads and one orange bead in her hair yesterday. The pink beads were painted with Folkart Outdoor Metallics Rose Shimmer

This paint is holding up very well. It's acrylic paint designed for metal, wood, terracotta, stone...like for painting flowerpots. However the orange bead is not doing so nicely...it's just Apple Barrel Acrylic Craft Paint. Here is how it looks at the end of the day, next to the two pink beads.

I like the look of the shimmery paint anyway, so I would definitely recommend the paints designed for outdoors.

The bits of orange that came off were nothing to just brush out of her hair.

Looking forward to your experiments!

UPDATE! Painted Beads

Hi everyone, I thought I'd update you on the status of our beads from Tidbit Tuesday that I painted on the inside. I braided three of her locs in front and added the beads and a snap (I'm a big fan of pink with orange!) and off she went to school. I asked her if she minded the big beads swinging around her face all day, and she shook her head and said "nope!! I like it!" (music to my ears).

So the outcome was, no paint on her locs! I checked later, and the paint was still on the beads. No pink locs. The next trial was last night. I oiled the braid with jojoba and coconut oil and even rubbed the beads back and forth. I checked if any paint had scraped off, and it hadn't! This is the acrylic craft paint I used, by the way. I haven't tried the stain yet.  With the acrylic paint, you need a couple coats.

I can't speak to ALL hair products, but these did fine with the coconut and jojoba oil...so far. If anything changes, I'll let you know. If you try it and have anything to add, please tell us!!!

(the incoming teeth crack me up!)

Notes about yesterday's hairstyle post...

Wow!  You guys left so many comments on V's style yesterday that I thought I would write a quick post to answer a few questions.

First of all, I LOVE wooden beads, but I don't have any!  These beads are just regular plastic pony beads, but they are the BGP size!  I really want some wooden beads that are even larger than these ponies but every time I see them in the store the inside looks so rough!  I am thinking those wouldn't be good on the hair.

Second, these twists are TWO STRAND ROPE TWISTS.  I have only played around with three strand twists once or twice, and I didn't think you could really see the difference between two and three strands so I have stuck with two strands.  BUT I would be happy to play around with it and make a video some time on how to do three strand twists.  If you want a demonstration on how to do the rope looking twists in yesterday's style check this video.

Third, I have been using a mixture of coconut oil and shea butter when I put in twists that I only plan to leave in for a few days.  The butter does not really substitute well for a gel, so if I am putting in a style that I want to last I use Taliah Waajid gel.  But for these twists I just gave them a good dose of my homemade hair butter.

Fourth, about the ends getting damaged.  I do like to work extra amounts of hair butter into the ends of the hair, but that isn't really going to prevent damage that will be done by barrettes and rubber bands.  I don't think there is anyway to get around that.  I trim V's hair every 4 months or so myself.  I just cut off the bit of damage from the ends and then she has healthier and easier to manage hair for a while!  If you don't want to cause any damage to the ends, then I would avoid EVER putting any barrettes or bands on the ends.  We all do things that cause some amount of damage to our hair for the sake of styling, we just want to be sure to way the good with the bad.  I try to go back and forth between beaded and non beaded styles to give V's hair a break.  But I can handle a bit of damage done to the ends every now and then.  Even with the regular trims I give her, her hair is still getting longer all the time.

I think that answers all of your questions!  Thank you for all of the nice comments.  V said a lot of people told her that her hair was pretty yesterday!  Stay tuned for pics of the new yarn braids I will be getting started first thing tomorrow morning!!!!!

Katie

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!
__________________________________________________________________________

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