No heat curl

I've always had straight hair. Stick straight. No volume or body. In humidity, it gets straighter. I need a ton of hair spray to keep curl in, and even then, it rarely lasts the day.

One of my new favourite blogs is The Paper Mama, and she has pretty much the same hair type as I do. When she posted this, I knew I had to try it.  If someone with stick straight hair can achieve curly hair that lasts, I want in! What makes the tutorial even better was that she posted a video, so you can actually see how she does it instead of guessing through pics.

Even though my pics are virtually the same as hers, I thought I'd post them anyway.

The first two are after my shower, with damp hair but not totally wet. I've done it before with it totally wet and the curls are a little too curly for me. I use the goody slipless headband so that it doesn't slip when sleeping (hence the name). You just wrap your hair around the headband, picking up sections as you go. Then you go to bed.

This one is after I woke up in the morning. A little messy but still all wrapped up.

This is after I took out the headband. It's a little random and messy, and they aren't perfect curls, but unlike every other day of my life, my hair has body and it's easier to work with. I find I can "do" my hair so much easier with a little curl in it, but I can't be bothered to curl it with an iron just to put it up. 

The hat pictures  in my previous post feature curly hair done with this method. 

I used this method last night before bed, and today I decided to do some messy french braids. Instead of stuck to my head flat braids, I got a little more volume and "oomph" without spending more than a few minutes.

So there you have it! Here is the link to the video one more time in case you'd like to try it.

Another hairstyle I'm doing a lot these days is this one from the Uber Chic for Cheap blog. I LOVE IT. Instead of doing the "gibson tuck" using an elastic as featured in her video tutorial, I just backcomb and pin up. I find I get the little tail of the pony poking through after an hour or so of wear. 

Something light

I've been getting into pinterest lately... It took my a while to "get it", but now I'm all over it. Especially hair tutorials.  If you know me in real life, you know I'm always doing my hair.  I'm not sure where I got my skills, but I seem to be pretty good at doing hair. I just kind of "get it".  I'm often doing friends' hair and my sis is always game if we're going out somewhere fancy. I can all sorts  of styles, though I really do it best on myself.

ANYWAY, I have recently become obsessed with re-creating this hairstyle.

I just absolutely love it.  I was skeptical that it would even work, since I have very fine, thin hair.  I can look a little bald when my hair is parted everywhere.  The first two time I tried, it failed epically.  I know how to do the twists, I know how to do the "gibson tuck", but for some reason the two together just weren't happening for me.  I was getting SO frustrated since this is what I'm good at! I can DO hair!!!  Today I tried again, and was a little more successful.  I'm still not there, but I'm closer.  (sorry about the crappy pics...)

What do you think?

Amazing Day

Yesterday was a day I was really looking forward to.  First thing in the morning, I planned on waking up and heading to the pool.  Well, I didn't do that.  (Ooops.)  Instead, I stayed in bed and read a riveting book, Into thin Air, which is about the Mt. Everest disaster of 1996.  It was written by the same guy who wrote Into the Wild (I guess he likes titles starting with "into"), Jon Krakauer.  Anyway, I'm hooked and really want to finish it.

After about an hour, I hopped up, and started making breakfast for my two friends (and bridesmaids), Katie and Kaitlin, who were due to come over around 10:00 to do some weddingy stuff.  I realized that I was out of a lot of things like milk, almond milk, fruit etc. which would put a damper on my breakfast.  So I walked the block to safeway and picked up what I needed (including cream for our coffee, which I NEVER get since I normally use milk, but it made the morning extra decadent) and finished up cooking breaky, made coffee, cleaned off the coffee table, compiled all that we needed to finish off our tasks, and waited for them to arrive!  (I got dressed somewhere in the too!)

We spent the morning eating, chatting, laughing, and ended up being VERY productive!  My method for the wedding is to get things done early so I don't have to freak out about them later.  I know it seems crazy to have the invitations all done and ready almost 6 months before the wedding, but I'm happier knowing it's one less thing on my to do list!  I would like to enjoy the month leading up to the wedding since we'll have family in town and I'd rather have time to have coffee dates instead of running around trying to find a guestbook. 

Anyway, we had a great morning, but I really missed my other two bridesmaids... Kristen, of course, is in Ottawa, and my other friend Vanessa is in Africa working at an orphanage, so they have missed a few of our crafty days.  I hope there will be other things for us all to do together!  (Though, I'm sure neither is complaining that they didn't get to lick envelopes and will be perfectly satisfied with coffee dates instead!) 

Then, I headed downtown to meet Matt, and then the two of us met with the minister who will be officiating our wedding to go over some details.  It was an awesome meeting, and he and Matt hit it off right away.  The minister is a long time family friend of ours, and I was really happy he could do our wedding.  I really liked his ideas and wording and flow and all that, so I left feeling really happy with the way our ceremony would "go". 

Then, we headed home, I had a quick bite to eat, and I went off to see my other friend Katie who was going to cut and highlight my hair for the last time since she's moving back to Nova Scotia!  It was a bittersweet visit, since we knew we wouldn't see too much of each other in the near future, but we had fun chatting and eating some chips and guacamole (and doing hair).

I ended my fabulous day with some vietnamese food and more book!  And visiting with Matt of course.  I felt so satisfied and happy with my day and fell asleep feeling amazing.

I just love great days!  And visiting with friends!  Amazing.

Still no hair pictures...

I haven't taken any that really do it justice. I'll get some good hair pics on here soon. Don't worry. (Because you're all DYING to see it, I know. All you can think about what my hair looks like and when you're going to see a picture.)

Matt and I are settling in our new place. I'm still trying to find places for everything and trying to organize things, but it's coming along well.

I tried to put a picture as my masthead but I guess none of the ones I tried were the right size. I'm not really sure what size I need, but none of mine were it. I'm bummed.

Last night was SO hot that we had all the windows open in the apartment. It was so hot that Matt got me ice packs to put on my body to make me stop complaining. It got really windy in the middle of the night, and when we woke up it looked like a tornado had hit the place. There were papers and napkins ALL over the living room and kitchen. Funny stuff.

I'm going to attempt to shave Matt's head tonight... We'll see how that goes. Maybe I can post one of HIS hair pics.


Update: * Matt wouldn't wear the cape thing that came with his clippers, so I decided to wear it instead. This is me pouting on the couch because he wouldn't wear the cape. And my extensions aren't in... Sorry.*

I moved!

It went really well. I packed EVERYTHING before moving day, so when it came time to pack up the truck, it took no time at all. The time consuming part was the putting away in the new place. I had lots of help but it still took forever. The new place has significantly less space to put things, so we're still trying to figure out where everything needs to go. It will come, eventually.

I need to upload some pictures of the hair. I haven't done that yet.


I just got a new (and FREE!) blackberry pearl and it's a little bit confusing to figure out, but I'm getting there. First thing was first though, and Matt got me two (FREE!) ringtones, so when he calls me is MIA paper planes and when anyone else calls me is that song by Estelle featuring Kanye West that I really like. It has a cool black and white video and it makes me dance a little bit.

My first Stampede as a volunteer came and went. I had fun and wore cowboy boots and a hat every shift I had. About five people came up and asked when I was in the Stampede Show Band because my cowboy boots, which are the red uniform boots that I conveniently forgot to give back when I left the band. I was only in the band for a couple of months, but I never gave back the uniform and they never asked for it, and now they have a new one so they don't care. The first time I wore them I told Matt that I bet people will know that I have stolen Stampede Band boots, and he laughed at me and told me that NO ONE would ever know, so it made me laugh every time someone recognized them.

It was my sister's birthday on the 11th and I didn't even post a happy birthday post. I am a horrible sister. I just had so much going on, though that is no real excuse. I post happy birthday's to so many other people and I didn't even give one to her. I did call her and sing happy birthday when she was at work, so it's not like I forgot it was her birthday, I just forgot in the blogging world. I'm sorry Kristen. Do you forgive me? She told me I could get her a spread the net net as a present, but I feel like as much as it's a good cause, it's a smidge boring for a BIRTHDAY present. Maybe I can get a net plus something else. Now don't go judging me for not having already gotten her a present. I wanted to know what she wanted, and since I was moving it all just got delayed. (Is "not having already gotten" right? Maybe "having not already gotten" is better? I think the second one sounds better.)

After having so much time off for moving and Stampede I now have to work a bunch. It's a tough life, only having to work half the month. I don't know how I'll ever go to having a real job where I have to work EVERY week day, ALL day. Barf.

I think I need to attempt to get back to a real schedule by going to bed. I've been working red eyes to and from Montreal and Calgary for the last four days. Working all night and sleeping all day gets normal after a day or two, but now that I'm finished, I'm all mixed up. I've only been awake for about 9 hours but it's already 2:00am and if I want to actually DO something tomorrow I should probably try to force the sleep thing. I need to find a little tiny book reading light so that I can read in bed without bugging Matt. On an unrelated note, does anyone know if dry cleaners give away hangers for free? We are in desperate need of more hangers.