Straw Curls

Hi everyone! Today I am going to show you how I like to curl my hair using the straw curls technique. It is very easy and you will only need a few things to do it.

What you will need:

• Straws (any size will work)
• Small rubber ponytail holders
• A comb

Begin by combing out clean damp hair. You want your hair to be pretty wet. If your hair drys fast you may need to wet it again in the middle of curling.

  

Then separate a small section from the front and comb through it. If you do bigger sections you will end up with bigger curls. 

Now grab one of the straws and put it under the section of hair that is separated. 

Continue wrapping your hair around the straw until you reach the ends of your hair.

Grab a pony tail and wrap it around the ends of your hair and the straw.

 It should look something like this. 

Now pull both of the ends of the straw together.

Then squeeze one of the ends so that you can push it through the other. 

When you push it through the other end be sure to push it far into it so that it stays.

Continue doing this all around your head. You may need to stop in the middle to let your arms rest. It can get very tiring if you do it to yourself. ;) Once you finish let them stay overnight and wake up to pretty curly hair! 

This is a picture of what my hair looked like the next morning. 

To take them out just pull the ends apart, take off the pony tail, and pull the straw off.

You should get very tight curls. All you need to do now is comb your hair and style it. Beware if you have full hair like mine DO NOT comb it out. It will go "poof" and be all over the place! Just use your fingers to separate the curls. Thankfully my sister came to the rescue when I combed it and she did a pretty updo for me. I will be sharing about it in just a minute. :)  Everyone's hair is different. Depending on the thickness of your hair and if it is naturally curly or straight will determine the curls that you get.

Now I am going to show you how I like to style my curled hair. It is very simple and can be done in one minute! 

Pull your hair into a loose pony tail.

Then, twist your hair half way up and secure with bobby pins, a hair clip, or some really pretty Lilla Rose hair sticks like I use! 

You can buy them HERE along with some other pretty awesome hair accessories!

My curls will usually last two or three days. At night I like to do a braid or a loose bun to help the curls stay less frizzy. Just finger comb through your hair and style it again. You can incorporate a twist or a braid into your updo if you want something different. :) 

Painting

The other day we went to my grandparents house and painted. I decided to get some pictures while we were there to share with you. :) 

As always, I began with a blank canvas. This is the hardest part...trying to figure out what to paint then how to paint it. I started with a circle.

My first intentions were to paint a flower. But the more I thought about it the harder it sounded. Then, after sitting there for a long time I decided to just go wild and use my fingers. Every single one of them... Thankfully we were just using acrylic paint because it washes of much easier than oils.  Here are what my fingers looked like. ;)

Lovely aren't they? After covering my fingers in paint I finally began painting more.

Can you tell that I am having fun? 

I decided to add a little glitter to it. Yes, I blew it onto the canvas. It was fun. :D

I think that I had too much fun with it. :) It is still a little wet in this picture. Next time I think I will paint a more detailed picture but this time it was fun to just paint! Maybe I have inspired you to go paint something. Just have fun and dig in! 

Glowing Jars

Have you seen these awesome glowing jars before? I saw one and knew that I had to try it! The only problem was that there were never enough instructions. With this tutorial I am hoping to make it easy for you to do yourself.

What you will need:

• Two long thin glow sticks (you could also use six short ones)
• One Mason jar and lid (it does not matter what size)
• Glitter (I found mine at Hobby Lobby) 
• An old pair of scissors
• Something to cover your floor (It gets a little messy) :) 
• A bag for empty glow sticks 

Some words of caution: I would not recommend to do this project with little kids. There is a glass tube inside of the plastic which causes the glow stick to light up when broken. When you through away the empty glow sticks be sure to put them in container so that it does not cut your bag open. 

Now, lets begin! The first step is breaking or activating your glow sticks. Next, cut the very end of your glow stick and shake it into the jar. Shake it really good just don't let it fly out of the top of the jar (I am speaking from experience here). :) 

Once you get most of the liquid out snip off the other end. This helps get the rest of the liquid out. Take the plastic pieces out of the jar and through them away. Do the same with your other glow stick.

Do you see the little pieces of glass in the jar? You can use your scissors to get them out or the end of your glow stick. You could also just leave them but it looks better without them. Put the lid on your jar and swirl the liquid all over the sides of the jar. Take off the lid and add the glitter colors of your choice. The more glitter that you put the better it sticks to the sides. You don't have to put glitter but I like glitter... :) 

This is what the glitter looks like in the light. 

Here is what it looks like in the dark.

All you have to do now is clean up! I have found that baby wipes get the glowing liquid off of the scissors but not off the floor. Any that gets on the floor goes away in about fifteen minutes. The jars last much longer though! If any liquid gets on the floor please double check to make sure no glass did.  

Please note, these jars only glow for an hour or two at the most. They are still fun to look at. They even look cool when they stop glowing because of the glitter on the inside. 

Marbled Fingernail Polish

When I first saw how to create a marbled look with fingernail polish I really wanted to try it. It did not work for me... I ended up with fingernail polish smeared all over my fingernails. It was not fun to try to get off. I even had a friend come over and try it on me. It still did not work. Then I tried a different technique and it worked!

What you will need:

• 3 or 4 different fingernail polishes
• Clear fingernail polish
• A baggie
• Scissors
• tweezers 

Chose your colors.

Pour a little of your first color onto the baggie. It does not matter where you pour it. Just leave enough room to spread it around. 

Then spread it out into a square.

Next add your second color. Be careful not to blend them together too much. 

Add a little sparkle to it if you would like. :) You could also use a toothpick to drag lines through it.

 Let it sit overnight or for at least five hours. Touch the very corner of it after letting it sit to make sure it is completely dry. The longer you let it dry the easier it is to separate from the baggie. After it is dry cut your square out of your baggie.

Then cut out a piece just a little larger than your fingernail. 

Next get your tweezers and separate the fingernail polish from the baggie.

Apply a thin coat of clear nail polish and let it dry for 30 seconds. You want it to be a little sticky. 

Put the cut marbled polish onto your fingernail and push around the edges.

Don't remove the extra polish around your fingernails yet. Allow it to dry and go to your next fingernail. Once you finish press down around the outline of your fingernail and pull the excess off.

Now all you have to do is put a clear coat on top. 

There you have it! It is very simple to do and looks great. Try different colors, Patterns, and more. I got mine to stay on as long as if I had just done my nails with a coat of polish. If you do a bunch of different squares of nail polish at a time you can have them whenever you want to do your nails.

Peppermint Sugar Scrub

This step by step tutorial will show you how to make peppermint sugar scrub. I made a lot of these for my family and friends for Christmas and they loved it! It is very easy to make and it keeps your skin feeling soft and moisturized. 

Here is what you will need:

• Two 8 ounce Mason jars (16 ounce will work too) 
• One cup liquid measuring cup
• Coconut oil
• Peppermint essential oil
• Red food coloring
• Sugar
• Two glass bowls
• Two large spoons

First scoop out big spoonfuls of coconut oil and press them down in your measuring cup. Measure approximately 1/3 cup. 

Then melt it in your microwave for 45 seconds. If it is not all of the way melted, heat it for a few more seconds. 

See how mine went over the 1/3 cup mark? That is fine. You just don't want to get too much more. Next, scoop two cups of sugar into one of your glass bowls.

Mix your melted coconut oil with the sugar and stir.

 Then add 10 drops of peppermint essential oil. You can add more than that if you choose. 

Stir everything up really well, and scrape the bottom of your bowl to get all of the sugar. If you find that you need more coconut oil just melt a little more and stir it in. Once it is mixed, put half of the sugar in your other glass bowl. Then add a little red food coloring to one bowl. A little goes a long way so be careful. You can use drops of food coloring or the icing food coloring. I used the icing food coloring because it was what I had. Mix it very well. You don't want any lumps of food coloring left in the bowl. I found mixing with my hands helped to distribute the color better.

Now it is time to fill your jars. Get a full spoon of either color and put it in the jar. Find something to press the sugar flat with.

Continue filling up your jar and switching colors as you go. 

This recipe will fill two 8 ounce jars or one 16 ounce jar. You can embellish the jar by adding a ribbon or even creating your own label. Also, you could try using different essential oils and different colors. Have fun!