Finished Something- Glacier Bay Scarf

Finished a scarf that I started last year.  I decided I wasn't allowed to start anything new without finishing something.  This pattern was pretty simple.  It seemed to initially take forever but once I remembered the pattern and got back into the swing of things (a year knitting hiatus makes you rusty)  it was smooth sailing.

This is the Glacier Bay Scarf knitted in Red Heart Super Saver Mulbery Mix.  I lot of k2tog and yo but it makes for an interesting zig-zag piece.  To the scarf collection it goes!!

Neutral Eye Go To

Okay, here they are.  The swatches from the Hard Candy palette I got for Christmas.

Can you see the colors on my skin?  Perfect for when I want a light touch of eyeshadow but don't feel like anything bright.  Definitely great for work as well.

No Flash	Flash

Sorry for the crappy presentation.  I have forgotten how to do this blogging thing!  I just remember how fun it used to be so I am giving it another shot.

My Natural Hair- Week1

WEEK 1-  2/21/2015- 3/1/2015

Straight flat ironed hair, what do  I do with this.  Not much.  I got it done on Saturday and wore it out until Monday.  My Monday night workout pretty much had me back to natural in the middle and still smooth around the edges.  Ponytail time, or since the cut I will say pigtail.  Yep, smoothed it out in a pigtail for the rest of the week.   I contemplated just reverting all to natural but I wanted to start fresh with some new products as well.  So until Saturday, what my wash day was it was a pig tail.

In the mean time I stocked up on my goods (posted here).

THE WASH PROCESS:

Sectioned into 4 sections

Light finger tangling with coconut oil

Cowash each section with Tresemme Naturals

Detangle each section with Denman Brush

Apply Aphogee Keratin 2 Minute Reconstuctor and put on plastic cap.

Left in for Approximately 10 min while I took my shower

Rinsed each section and ran Denman through it

Applied Alikay Lemongrass Leave-In Conditioner to each section

Applied Design Essentials Naturals to Each Section

Applied the magic potion oil to each section.

Each section was twisted with a clip on the the end to air dry

THE STYLE:

After a few hours of drying I put a part in my hair and put about 10-12 twists through out using As I Am Twist Defining Cream .  A few pieces of hair were dry not still damp so I spritz a little water as needed and let it dry.  After drying, mostly air dried but had to do 15 min under the hooded dryer since my daughter was anxious to get out of the house, I rubbed some coconut oil on my hands unstwisted and fluffed.  

THE VERDICT:

My hair feels good.  Definitely not as much hair on the shower floor.  I think it is because of the cut but am not sure if it is because my hair was coming from a flat-ironed style.  We'll see next week.  The ends look 20 million times better and I am so glad I decided to get it cut.  The strange thing is it doesn't look shorter.

Hair Products Haul

Yaaaayyyy... new products to try.  I got my hair cut last weekend and wanted to start fresh with new products.

Here is what I got:

Denman D31 brush- Amazon
Hair clips- Sally's Beauty Supply
Wide Tooth Comb- Sally's Beauty Supply
Bobby pins- Target
Combs- Target
Magic Potion chock full of various oils- my hairdresser
Spray bottles- Target
Tresemme Naturals Conditioner- Target
Design Essentials Natural Daily Moisturizing Lotion- Sally's Beauty Supply
Aphogee Keratin 2 Minute - Sally's Beauty Supply
Alikay Naturals Lemongrass Leave-In Conditioner- Target

A Little Hard Candy

I go through phases with make up.  From absolutely nothing daily to full face for about 1 month.  Full face for me is only eyes, lips, and some foundation.  I can't do all of that everyday.  Lately I have been trying to find that middle ground though.  You know, just a lil' sumthin' sumthin'.  For me that middle ground is lipgloss and eye make up.

These Hard Candy items were either gifted to me or by me.  The Hard Candy Top Ten Eyeshadow Collection in Feelin' Blue belongs to my daughter.  Can you tell how much she has used it?  I gave her this palette ages ago and it pretty much remains unused.  The colors look wonderful however, I know I don't gravitate toward blues and she obviously doesn't either.  The goal here is to watch a few videos and rock out an amazing blue eye sometime this month.

The brown set is one that was gifted to me by my daughters.  They know I love makeup and they also know I keep it basic.  This neutral palette is right up my alley. The kit came with some other goodies as well.  I will give the mascara and eye crayon a try as well as the eyeshadow.  Bronzer may be a little to advanced for me right now though.

Knit It- Chunky Monkey Boot Toppers

Who doesn't love boot toppers?  Exactly!!!  I must have looked at a ton of patterns but I finally settled on one that would incorporate a new technique for me-- CABLES.  Who doesn't love cables?  Exactly!!

This was a quick gratification project using bulky yarn that I knitted over the course of 2 days.  The pattern can be found on Ravelry.

Bacon Wrapped Chicken with Sautéed Spinach

Bacon makes everything better is what I have heard.  All the fancy, smancy bacon wrapped recipes around.  For a while I have been wanting to try one but I decided to wing this one.

Initially, I just wrapped the bacon around the chicken and let it cook.  My next bactch I decided to cook the bacon until it was relatively done but still flexible enough to wrap around the chicken. My wrapping technique leaves something to be desired but I wrapped it around and threw it in the pan, let the chicken cook and ta daaaa.




Sauté some spinch and make a halfway decent presentation.  The girls liked it.  Liked it enough to eat at least.  I will try this again.

Salt and Vinegar Kale Chips

Admittedly I am very bored with food.  Yes, yes, I know food is not here to entertain and please me but to serve as a source of energy and nutrients for my body to function.  The problem is I get bored eating healthy because I don't have a variety of healthy recipes in my arsenal.  Armed with a ton of kale in my refrigerator I was determined to do something different.  I did hear mention of Kale Chips a while ago so I was up to the challenge.  A quick Pinterest search yielded options galore but who doesn't love Salt & Vinegar potato chips.  Salt, vinegar, olive oil and kale.  Easy peasy!!!

So get your ingredients mix them up to you liking put it on the pan and bake.  This is really something that is a purely to your liking type deal.  Experiment to find what you like.  Flavor, crispness, type of kale, etc.  It was fun having my girls come taste and give the "not-quite-thumbs-up-but- let's-tweak-this" approval.  If that is really and approval.  They helped and we determined a bit more vinegar and more salt would be fine.  These shrivel up quite a bit as you can so so pack as much as you can on your baking sheet but make sure it is still only one layer.

We even burned a batch causing the smoke detector to go off so keep a close eye and check often.  One minute does make a difference in hearing your smoke detector go off.  This is going to definitely be made again!!!  Probably a lot.

I can't wait to try with Old Bay, Curry, Chile and Lime.  So many options.

WELCOME 2015

Happy 2015 everyone!!!! Another year has passed with ups and downs, joys and disappointments and everything else that goes with this journey we call LIFE. Looking back, 2014 was great and as I look forward to this year. I am excited for all of the greatness and potential it holds as well.  Wishing all of you the best 2015 ever!