Fun idea - Headbands from Hair Things!!!

Hello friends!

I was sitting on the couch the other night, not even playing with hair things, and suddenly this image popped into my head!  What if I looped hair elastics together to form a headband?  So I went and tried it...and it worked!

I went to bed that night, and my mind started turning and I started thinking of other hair accessories I could use to decorate my little headbands.

Then when I pulled out all of our extensive collection of hair dodads (wow there is a lot of it!) I got this idea to use barrettes to secure the two ends of the headband and avoid the little "tail" I was getting.

Which then led me to this whole new idea for how to make a headband with hair elastics AND barrettes without needing to loop them together!

If you aren't quite sure how I did this by looking at the pics - have no fear!  I filmed a ridiculously long video to explain a very simple concept!  Check it out.  At least little E is in it, and she is fun to look at.

What do you think?  Fun?  Are you going to try it?  Can you add to my ideas?  Please post pics on our facebook page of what you come up with!

Katie

Oh where, oh where has Katie gone???

Enjoying some truly gorgeous fall weather in Michigan!

Oh man friends!  I seem to have disappeared again after a pretty good streak of regular posts.  Well, we are in the eye of the hurricane around here, otherwise known as fall soccer season!  

I am SO glad that Miss V is sporting those yarn braids right now, because we just have not had time for hair.  A few weekends ago I did change the piggyback braids in the front into more box braids, but it was a pretty quick process thankfully.

Here are a few pictures to show you what life has been like the last few weeks:

The Young Man on his club soccer team

The Young Man on his Middle School soccer team

Miss B on her club soccer team

Little E working on her soccer moves!

Let's throw in some hair pics.  I thought V's yarn braids looked great with this red headband, and Miss V (for reasons unknown) LOVES to wear headbands!

And here is a pic after we took out the piggy back braids.  The front is pulled back in a half pony, but you can kind of see the new braids.

We still have a week and a half until I take out the yarn braids and put in something new.  I have a bunch of cool ideas spinning in my head!  So if you can be a bit patient with me, I promise I will be back to posting when the hurricane has died down.

Katie

Katie Bradley Art Giveaway RE-DRAW!!!

Hello everyone! We are doing a re-drawing of the Labor Day giveaway of your choice of a 5x7 print! We never did hear back from the first winner, so some other lucky KMC reader is about to win! You can see all of Katie's work at Mossy Rock Designs on Etsy.

The fun part about this is that Katie Bradley has a BRAND NEW piece of art that you might choose. I have already ordered mine :) This is near and dear to me, having BOTH of my child's mothers honored in a piece of art.

Check out "Woven Together"

Isn't it lovely?

Well, without further ado, I have used the random number generator to choose our new winner, and it's comment #2!!! JANET! Congratulations Janet!

Janet said... [Reply to comment]

I am a fan of MossyRock designs on FB

August 28, 2011 5:21 AM 

Janet please email us at keepmecurly@gmail.com and let us know which print you would like from the MossyRockDesigns etsy shop, and also your mailing address, and we will forward it on to Katie Bradley.

Congratulations!

We have more fun giveaways in the future so keep reading!

We LOVE locs!

B and I (and Camera Guy of course) made a quick little video about one of the reasons I am jealous of her locs!  This isn't novel stuff but maybe you just never thought of doing it before.  Check it out:



Katie

Shades of Us WINNERS!!!!!!

Thank you to everyone who participated in this giveaway!  We hope you have enjoyed seeing all of the many different styles of accessories at Shades of Us.  Keep checking back at their site because she is adding new things all of the time!  In fact, she just added 50 new items yesterday!!!

The THREE lucky winners of this weeks giveaway chosen by Random.org are:

Comment #48

Michelle G said... [Reply to comment]

As I have been entering all my entries I was trying to decide which thing was my favorite. I couldn't so I had to do "innie, minnie, miney, mo" to come up with 091. But I also really like 073, 087, 070 and 088, LOL.

September 30, 2011 12:30 PM 

Comment #36

Precious @ Precious-Curls.com said... [Reply to comment]

I'm a new follower!

September 30, 2011 11:10 AM 

Comment #13

Dalene said... [Reply to comment]

I love the black & white circle flower, #87. It would be so versatile!

September 30, 2011 4:27 AM 

Congratulations!  Please contact Laura at laurapk21@gmail.com and let her know your accessory choice as well as your mailing address.  Laura is going out of town in a few days, so email her ASAP if you want her to mail them out before she leaves!

For all of you who entered the giveaway and did not win - don't despair!  Laura would like to offer you a coupon for FREE shipping on your next order!  All you need to do is head over to her facebook page ("like" it if you haven't already done so!) and leave a comment saying you are a KMC reader and you are dropping in to get your coupon code!  Cool huh?

Mommy Hair

So I have spent the last two days becoming completely addicted to inspired by stuff on Pinterest.  I knew Pintrest would be trouble before I even saw it, and I was right!  Such a wealth of awesomeness!  (and amazing time sucker!)

Anyway, I have been in limbo trying to decide wether or not I wanted to cut my hair.  I normally cut my hair every 6 months to a year.  I always do a big chop, let it grow, big chop, let it grow, short, long, short, long.  Well, after last nights browsing through braided hairstyle ideas on Pinterest I am quite happy that I haven't had the time or money to get my hair cut in a whole year and a half!  It is decently long right now, which means I can actually do some fun stuff with it.  And with all the great inspiration out there, I don't think I will be cutting my hair anytime soon.

Now, with 3 little girls to get ready in the morning I rarely have time to do much with my own hair.  Usually don't have time to blow dry it.  So I often wear it in some type of ponytail.  To jazz things up when I have a few extra minutes I throw in one of those cornrows in the bang area that goes back into a messy bun.  It's cute, but I need more than ONE hairstyle!

This video I stumbled on is PERFECT for me!  Meant to be done on wet hair, meant to look messy, fast and easy - PERFECT!  I was in a particularly big rush this morning but I had to try one of the styles out anyway.  Here is the video link:  5 Styles for Wet Hair in Under 10 minutes.

And here are the pics of my take on it:

My hair is not quite as long or thick as hers so it doesn't come out as amazing looking.  This pic was also taken at the end of the afternoon so my hair is no longer wet.

Because I was in such a big hurry I skipped the "dutch braid" as she calls it, better known to me as a "cornrow."  For that front section, I just grabbed a hunk of hair and made a regular braid.

So you can see it isn't quite as visually interesting up front without the cornrow but it still looked good in person.

I will be trying out more of these styles and others I have found on Pinterest.  Are you interested in seeing them?  Or do you just want to see kid styles?  I will also be modifying some things I am finding to do on the girls hair!

DON'T FORGET TO ENTER THIS WEEKS GIVEAWAY FOR A FREE SHADES OF US HAIR ACCESSORY!!!!!!

Katie

Shades of Us - GIVEAWAY!!!

Giveaway time!  Three lucky winners will win ANY hair accessory of their choosing from Shades of Us!

Have you gone over to the Shades of Us website to check out the cute and creative stuff she's got?  I think the really cool thing about this company is that you never know what you are going to get.  I was looking through the site last night and it had a ton of different stuff from the last time I was there!  I am sure it depends on what fabrics, flowers, jewels she happens to pick up at the time!  So if you buy something from Shades of Us, you can be pretty sure you won't see the same accessory on anyone else - they are so UNIQUE! Here are the pics of the cool stuff that Laura sent to Miss G!

 One thing I love about these clips is the very well-attached plastic faceted "crystal" button in the center. It really adds a fine finishing touch to these and makes them look very refined!

This unique hair clip was G's favorite. She loved that it was unusual and the black button off-center! (PS we have 4 floss hair wraps going on right now, with no end in sight! I did insist that we take out the first two which have been in for a couple of months! I've gotta tighten locs!)

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE remember to write a SEPARATE comment for EACH thing you do on the list.  If you put all of your entries in ONE comment you are selling yourself short!  Each comment gets a number for our random generator, so you want to get as many comments as possible.  

You have until NOON EST on Sunday, October 2nd to enter the drawing.  We will be choosing the winners from the comments left on THIS post!

To enter this giveaway please leave a comment on THIS blog and answer THIS question:

After visiting the Shades of Us website, which was your favorite hair accessory?  

____________________________________________________________________

If you would like to earn EXTRA entries do one or all of these things:

1)  Go to the Shades of Us facebook page and become a fan! Leave a comment stating you are a fan.

2) Head on over to our Keep Me Curly! Facebook fan page and become a fan. Leave a comment stating that you are a fan. (or that you already were a fan)

3) "Share" our Keep Me Curly! Facebook page with your friends and come back and leave a comment letting us know what day you "shared" us THIS week.

4) Follow @keepmecurly on twitter Come back and post a comment that you are a follower and leave your Twitter ID. (or that you were already following)

5) Tweet any unique tweet announcing our blog or the giveaway with @keepmecurly in it! Cut and paste your tweet (not tweet id status) and post as a comment. You can get 1 entry for EVERY new and unique tweet!

6) Become a follower of our blog or subscribe to our blog through an RSS feed. Simply post a comment saying that you are a follower. (or that you were already following)

7) Subscribe to Katie's youtube channel and come back and leave a comment stating that you are a subscriber. (or that you were already a subscriber)

8) Leave a comment on one of Katie's youtube videos. Leave a comment HERE letting us know the title of the video you commented on.

9) Place an order at Snapaholics between 9/27 and 10/1 Noon EST. Leave a comment including your order number and order date.

10) Grab our badge! If you add our badge to your blog leave us a comment saying that you are using it with a link to your blog.

11) Advertise our site or this giveaway in a forum or other blog! We would really love it if you wrote about our site or this giveaway on your blog. If you are passionate about natural hair care, or Katie's youtube videos have been really helpful to you, or if you love cute hair things, talk it up on your blog! Earn TWO entries for doing this one! Simply post a comment saying that you are talking about us with a link to the forum or blog, then put (first entry) then comment again and write (second entry).

12) Get a friend to talk about us or our giveaway on THEIR blog, earn two MORE entries! Just leave us a comment with a link to THEIR blog and tell us that you encouraged them to participate. Then make sure they enter the giveaway for themselves too!

________________________________________________________________________

The winners will be announced on Monday, October 3rd. It is the responsibility of the winners to contact us at keepmecurly@gmail.com to let us know their mailing address and the hair accessory that they would like. IF the winners do not contact us by Friday, October 7th, we will choose a new winner.

Who can participate? US only please.  Shades of Us is a new business and is not yet set up for international customers.

*** If you have any questions or if you have comments that are not related to the giveaway please feel free to email us at keepmecurly@gmail.com or leave your comment on a different post. In order for this giveaway to work we have to ask that you do not leave any other comments on this post if they do not follow the guidelines of the contest.***

Shades of Us Hair Accessories - Review

It's been a long time coming, but I told you all we had another giveaway in the making.  Here it comes!  These adorable hair accessories come from Shades of Us.  Laura makes them all by hand and she has quite a variety of styles.  She sent all 4 of our girls 2 hair things each.  Katie's girls were SO THRILLED to get this package of beautiful hair stuff that they immediately put them in their hair!

They have continued to enjoy adding them to different styles to spice things up.  Here are a few pics:

Little E's favorite color is yellow and we have used these hair things A LOT!  I like that they are a solid color because they are a bit more versatile, I can pair them with so many outfits!

Miss V is ALL about the pink, so this pink and red fabric flower is perfect for her!  I love how unique this one is!

I know the pic of B is a bit overexposed, so I included a pic of this one in E's hair too.  B loves orange and turquoise, so this is the perfect choice for her! Aren't the different fabrics cool?

 These flowers are great for older girls.  I think the colors are bold and gorgeous!  I am a bit afraid to send my girls to school in these though because they can be so rough on their stuff!  I am sure they or their classmates will destroy them.  So I am reserving these ones for special occasions.

Here is another precious flower that I think is well suited for younger girls.  I love how it is made of soft, touchable fabric.  

You can check out Shades of Us on Facebook or at their website.  They have many many more styles than what we have shown you here!  There is something to suit every little girls fancy!  And priced from $3.00 to $12.00 (for headbands) these handmade and unique creations are a great buy!

Please come back tomorrow for your chance to win one of these fabulous hair accessories!

Tidbit Tuesday

Did You Know???

That Little E is growing up way too fast!

I am sure most mother's feel that way about the baby of the family.  Right? I have probably mentioned before how much I love babies.  The baby/toddler stage is my absolute favorite!

I adore the fact that our family was knit together through adoption, but I lament the fact that I didn't have the opportunity to know and love on my oldest three kids when they were babies.

So when God blessed our family with Little E, I was thrilled to finally have a baby!  I think I was hoping she would stay a baby forever.  Clearly that is not to be, because my baby turned 4 last week and had her first day of preschool yesterday!  Oh how time flies!

So, I will share with you a little photo montage of E's birthday and first day of school - mostly pics of her cute hairstyles!  And since she is still tiny and cute as a button, we will all pretend she is still a baby!

Little E has been begging for Soft Spikes for months!  It is so cute because I don't think she really cares about the end result, she just wants me to take pictures of her looking like a porcupine head and put them on the computer like I do with her Sissys!  I put three tiny cornrows up in the front before putting in the Soft Spikes.

Do you see that cute yellow flower clip in her hair?  That is a teaser of something we have coming up!

Picnic lunch with mom and dad for her birthday!

Ready to open presents now that the big kids are home from school!

Ready for preschool!

I almost always do cornrows on E (or inverted french braids) because my hands are more comfortable braiding underhand.  I decided to try a more traditional french braid on her and it looks so pretty!

Painting at school!

So, the big question here is:  When do we drop the "little" and start calling her Miss E?

Katie