Thursday, November 7, 2019

5 Hacks for Mastering Naturally Curly Hair That You Need to Try!!!

Five Hair Hacks for Naturally Curly Hair



After almost 20 years of styling hair and having curly hair of my own, I have learned that every head of naturally curly hair has a mind of its own; it can poof out, frizz up or deflate depending on its mood or the weather! (LOL).  There are TONS of things we curly girls do to get our hair looking "ship-shape"! If you are new to the curl scene or are just looking for some new ideas, Here are some of the best Curly Hair Hacks you need for amazing curls every time.


Hack 1: Twist!!!

Looking for uniform curls? Then, twisting your strands is where it's at. Work a dime-sized amount of Studio One Curl Cream through your wet hair using your fingers. Use a wide tooth comb to really spread the product evenly through your hair. Then, part your hair into 4 sections, and twist the hair into small sections. Do this throughout each of the 4 sections until you have all of your hair twisted. Make sure that you have each twist the same size and tightness or the curls will come out uneven. Air dry your hair or sit under a dryer. Once your hair is completely dry, undo the twists and you are ready to go!



Hack 2: Scrunch!!!



Scrunching can turn loose, wacky curls into smooth, defined waves adding texture to the hair. Shampoo with Super Nourish Oil Creme Shampoo and then condition with Super Nourish Oil Creme Conditioner  applying first into your ends and then scrunching to work it throughout your hair.  (Remember..."Squish to Condish"). Rinse and towel-dry your hair by gently using a microfiber towel or a soft, old T-shirt. Then, scrunch Moxie Magnifying Mousse or Studio One Flexible Hold Gel (Get this Gel FREE when you sign up as a VIP in November) into it, squeezing out any excess water. Keep scrunching your hair gently every 5 mins or so until your hair is dry.

Hack 3: Plop!!!



This one is always fun to tell people about and is my favorite method for my curls! I love the look I get when I start to talk about plopping my hair. It sounds strange because plopping is a pretty new way of styling that involves flipping your head over and lowering your wet hair onto a soft t-shirt and then wrapping it up. While your hair is wrapped, the t-shirt gently soaks up excess water, cuts down drying time and really brings out  your curl pattern. It also helps those curls that aren't  very curly at the scalp area but curly at the ends be even all the way down the strand.  Apply Restore Leave In Conditioner to your wet hair prior to plopping, and comb it through with a wide tooth comb to detangle any knots. Then Scrunch a nickle-sized dollop of Air Dry Cream. You can keep your hair wrapped for 20 minutes or longer depending on how dry you want to let your hair get. When you are ready, take off the t-shirt wrap and use your fingers to gently place your curls where you want them.


Hack 4: Pineapple!


The pineapple hair technique, a term used by Curly Girls everywhere, is a way to protect your curls while you sleep. This method creates a pile of curls on the top of your head or a loose bun, that looks like the shape of—you guessed it—a pineapple! This can also be a cute style to wear anytime for a cute casual messy bun without wrecking your style. Why do you need to do this Pineapple thing?? Because by loosely tying up your hair on the very top of your head, pineappling prevents dreaded tangles and preserves your curls overnight.  It’s so easy, there’s pretty much no way to screw it up. Using a fabric scrunchie or one like this loosely gather your hair at the top of your head and secure it with the scrunchie. Don't wrap the scrunchie tight or there will be crease marks in your curls. When you wake up, remove the scrunchie and shake your hair out gently. Don't rake your fingers through your curls; this will cause frizz. To refresh any wacky curls, apply a bit of Restyle Instant Sculpting Taffy to your hair.

Hack 5: Seal!! 

Split ends are a any girl's nightmare and especially for naturally curly haired girls. Coarse, tangled ends are a sign that your curls are damaged. If you are anything like me, getting a trim always feels like you cut 5 inches off after the curls spring back up! So, your best bet is to prevent split ends by sealing, or adding hydration to your ends where you need it most.  If you have a lot of split ends and don't want to lose a ton of your length, apply a few pumps of Split-End Mender to your ends when your hair is damp. This will repair those pesky split ends!!!! When your curls are dry, the scalp's natural oils have a longer way to travel to reach the ends of your hair. To seal your hair when it is dry, apply a few tiny drops of REJUVENIQE™ Oil Intensive to your ends.

Each of us has our own curl pattern texture and style so what works best for me doesn't always work best for everyone. With the right products and testing out these 5 Curly Hair Hacks, you will definitely find a method that gives you your best curls ever! If you have any questions, please let me know. Give these hacks a try and combine techniques for fabulous curls every day!!!

Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Quick & Easy Dinners; Healthy Soups, Stews & Chili’s for Fall!!





Fall is a perfect time for Soups, Stews and Chili! As much as I hate to see the Summer come to an end, I do love to eat these warm, delicious meals. It’s great to have hearty meals that will warm and fill your belly on those chilly evenings. 
BUT WHO HAS TIME FOR THAT?!?!?!
Here I will share some recipes that we enjoy this time of year and are quick and easy to make! Most are low carb, low calorie friendly!

 1. Sausage Stew

This one is a Italian sausage and bean stew that is served with Parmesan cheese. It can be made in the crock pot or on the stove-top. My kids love it when I throw in those little soup noodles!!! 
In a 1 cup Serving there is approx 198 calories, Carbs 11g, Fat 10g and Protein 11g. Check it out!

Sausage Stew From Kalyn’s Kitchen


2. Chicken Tortellini Soup

This IS my absolute FAVORITE Soup. This recipe is the Ultimate comfort food! It is so easy to make and can be thrown in the crock pot or cooked on the stove-top. When we make this at home, we buy a rotisserie chicken from the deli and use the meat for the soup. 
A 1 cup serving of this soup has approx 193 calories, Carbs 19g, Fat 8g and Protein 13g.

Tortellini Soup from The Recipe Critic


3. Black Bean Chili with Lime and Cilantro

I love this Crock pot (or stove-top) Black Bean Chili with Lime and Cilantro that’s thickened with refried beans, and this tasty chili is gluten-free, dairy-free, low-glycemic, and South Beach Diet Phase One.

A 1 cup serving has approx 172 Calories, Carbs 23g, Fat 4g, and Protein,14g.

Black Bean Chili from Kalyn's Kitchen


4. Taco Soup

This recipe is from my mom. Where she got it from, I have no clue. Every time I make it ,I know I should take a picture but I ALWAYS forget. Let me just tell you that this could be the most easy one to make on the list. This is a hearty soup that has all of the Tex-Mex flavors we love. Serve it with shredded cheese, sour cream and/or green onions and this will be a hit in your family. 
And if you love Tex-Mex Food, Check out this recipe for delicious Black Bean Enchilada Ring HERE   
Instead of using spoons to eat this soup, we use fritos scoops!!! 
A 1 cup serving has approx 218 Calories, Carbs 23, Fat 5g and Protein 20g.







So there you have it! Quick, easy and healthy soups, stews and chili your family will love!
Let me know what you think of these recipes in the comments! What are your Fall Favorites???
Get your home Fall ready with this cute DIY Idea: Mercury Glass Pumpkin DIY

Monday, October 28, 2019

MONAT: Why I Ditched And Switched!

Monat: Why I ditched all other hair care.



I have been a hairstylist for almost 20 years. During this time, I have tried TONS and TONS of hair care products and never found any that I had really loved or felt really worked. Clients were always asking me for recommendations. My answer was always, "Eh, shampoo is shampoo!", and to be honest, at that time the shampoo I was using did NOTHING for my hair. My friends family and clients always loved how my hair looked but I wasn't happy with it. I hated how my curly hair looked and RARELY wore it natural. My regular hair routine consisted of washing once a week and blow-drying out straight (HEAT), Flat-ironing/curling(SO MUCH HEAT) and LOTS of products to make my hair smooth and shiny.
Then along came Amber!
My friend Amber contacted me to see if I'd like to try these "Amazing", "Naturally-Based", "Anti-aging" hair care products that she was loving and had transformed her hair! I reluctantly said, "Sure, What the heck!" and Amber dropped off a basket with some Monat products for me to sample. I read through the brochures and looked at all the products and thought, "Just another shampoo". Wanting to be able to give my friend an honest opinion of the products she so loved, I tried them.
ONE WASH



I followed the instructions on the packages to the letter. Shampoo Twice, Follow with masque, leave in for 5 mins, Rinse masque, apply conditioner, and rinse.
MY HAIR FELT AWESOME. Really, I could feel the difference with it WET! It felt incredibly smooth. I decided to put it to the real test... Blow drying! I would have NEVER Blown my hair out from soaking wet if I was going somewhere. With my curl, that would have been a frizzy disaster, and a real test of these products. I put in the tiniest amount of the Blow Out Cream as instructed and commenced the blow dry expecting frizz-city.
WHAT THE HECK!!????!!!!
SMOOTH.
SHINY.
HEALTHY.

I was flabbergasted. I didn't even need to use the flat iron!!!!!! ONE WASH. I was hooked. I went from not wanting to even try these products to not wanting to give them back with ONE WASH!!!!



How could I get these magical products in my life??? Looking at the options, I decided that the Market Partner was a great fit for me, with the biggest discount, I could use the products in my salon.
After a few months, I really started sharing the products with my family, friends and clients and they were seeing the improvement in their hair just by switching shampoo!



 Since switching to Monat products, I LOVE MY HAIR!!! Wearing my natural curl is awesome! I'm not afraid of frizz or crazy kinks like before and when I wear it straight it is so much easier to style. It has been amazing for me also to be able to have an income from this shampoo as a Market Partner because I don't actually have to be behind my chair to be earning!!!

 That has been an unexpected blessing for me! Not only have these products helped me love my hair, they have helped me pay bills!!! Are you ready to ditch and Switch???  I'm so glad I said, "Sure, What the heck?" and tried MONAT. Let me know, Send me a message, and I'll help you get started on your healthy hair journey!!!!!
Are you shy? Take a look for yourself, CLICK HERE

Thursday, November 16, 2017

From Outdated to Farmhouse: Sideboard Upcycle

From Outdated to Farmhouse: Sideboard Upcycle



The dining set that I finished early this fall had a sideboard/buffet that came along with it. The piece was in great condition and I really love the idea of having a sideboard in the dining room for storage. You can check out the original post about the dining set makeover HERE
This sideboard needed some work to bring it into my vision and this decade so I'm giving it its own post to show all the steps!

This is a before shot of the sideboard. It is in great condition... the doors and drawers all work fine! The hard ware and the carving on the drawer fronts needs to go. So, the first step is to remove all the hardware including the hinges. All those pieces would be replaced later. Then. the doors were taken off and the drawers removed.






The top surface was then sanded down to bare wood.  Next it was stained in Carbon Gray wood stain and finished with a few coats of wipe on Polyurethane. The rest of the body was then painted a country gray calk paint, then wiped down with a dark glaze. It was then finished with a matte polyacrlic.




The drawer fronts were carved into pretty deep. So, to get them to be a nice flat drawer front, I had to fill the carved parts with wood filler. Once the wood filler was dry, it was sanded smooth by hand with a sanding block. This process had to be repeated 3 times to get the drawer fronts to look smooth because the carving was really deep and intricate. Then, the drawers got painted with the same chalk paint. When the paint dried I could still see where I had filled the carvings. So, I took a sanding block and lightly sanded the paint and put another coat of paint on. Once the paint dried, I could tell that I had the nice smooth finish I was looking for.



I added some brushed nickel hardware (Drawer cup-pulls and knobs for the cabinet doors) and new brushed nickel hinges. The cup pulls that I put on the drawer fronts are the same ones that I used for the bar cabinet that I re-did last year... Check out that project HERE




The finished project really gives this piece an updated look.
Here's another look at the before and after!

Don't forget to check out the full project!
From Outdated to Farmhouse: Dining Set Makeover

 Green Butterflies

From Outdated to Farmhouse: Dining Room Set Makeover!!










A dining set project can be an immense amount of work but the payoff can be huge when it turns out just as you hoped. I had been thinking about re-doing a dining room set for a while. I had looked around for an old set that needed some love without luck. The “modern farmhouse” tables are so nice because they have great character and I really wanted a dining set that captured that style.
I stumbled upon a set that a family member was getting rid of... Here are the before pics...
The table itself has that farmhouse table feel with those thick turned legs. It looks really solid and sturdy! Perfect look and it has 2 leaves to make it bigger!

Not sure if  I need the hutch... but maybe I will be inspired once I start working.
The chairs are nice, there are 2 with arm rests and 4 without.
Here’s the base of the hutch,(or sideboard) which  I definitely wanted for storage. The drawer fronts were a little outdated with the carving patterns but I decided that I could figure that out.
The first piece of the set that I worked on was the side board. Full details HERE With my sander, I removed the finish on the top surface down to bare wood. The next step was to smooth the bare wood to a nice finish by working my way up to a fine grit sanding disk. I worked up to a 220 grit to get a nice smooth finish. 
Because it was summer and very humid, I moved on to sanding the seats of the chairs, the tabletop and the 2 leaves. Every piece that was sanded was to be stained. I wanted to wait for the humidity to drop a bit before the staining and finishing process.
This was what the finish looked like before I started sanding. It was outdated.
Here is the sideboard.




 Here are the chairs with one of the seats sanded down.
Sanding took FOREVER!!!! It felt like the sanding was going to last the rest of my life! The weather had cooled off a bit too (after weeks of spare time sanding) and finally, it was all done and it was time to move on to staining. Thank goodness!!! I chose to use a carbon gray stain. It’s pretty dark and is very cool tones the top of the table and the top of the sideboard had a lot of warmth left in the wood so this stain really toned that down and worked great.

The next step is to put a finish on the sanded areas to seal it up. I chose to use a wipe on poly. It’s got a satin finish so it is not too shiny. To apply, simply take a lint free cloth and wipe the poly on to the surface. It was really easy to do. The tabletop required more layers of poly so I did lightly sand in between coats and when the final coat was dry, buffed it to a nice sheen. OH SO SMOOTH!

Now that the staining portion was done, I moved on to the next phase which was painting. I chose to paint the rest of the surfaces with chalk paint. I used Rustoleum's chalked in country gray for the sideboard, two chairs with arms and the legs of the table. For the 4 armed chairs I used a navy blue chalk paint to match them to a cabinet that I had previously done for the dining room. You can check out that post HERE After the 4 armless chairs were painted, they got a coat of Matte finish poly-acrylic.
The rest of the surfaces that were painted gray, were then wiped with a dark gray glaze to give them a more antiqued look then finished with matte polyacrylic.
It looks absolutely amazing!!! Her are the after photos...


 Before and After comparison of the sideboard. There was a lot of steps to this piece and I will be explaining that in another post! Check that out Sideboard Upcycle

The set in the dining room!

Before & After of the table.





My little pup wanted in on the pictures. This project was a lot of work but I’m so happy with the way it turned out. Don't be afraid to give this furniture project a try!

Sunday, September 25, 2016

Thrift Store Finds: Bookcase to Bar Cabinet Upcycle

Thrift store Finds: Upcycled Bar Cabinet
Book Case to Bar Cabinet Upcycle!
I love finding unique furniture at the local thrift stores or garage sales. The pieces I find always need a little DIY magic and can be re-purposed into anything. Most of the time I am looking for something for a specific need, this time I was looking for a piece of furniture that my little mini-fridge could live in. I decided that it would be cool to have a bar cabinet idea, where I could hang wine glasses, store beverages in addition to hiding, I mean, housing my mini-fridge.
I came upon a beauty at the local thrift store for $40 bucks!
I got lucky that it has enough space in the bottom cabinet to house the mini-fridge while being narrow enough to fit the room it would go in.
the first thing i did was to remove the old, out-dated hardware. In the picture above, I had already removed the hardware and patched the old holes with wood filler. I then marked and drilled the holes for the new hardware I had purchased.

 The next step was to replace some of the door latches that weren't working properly. I was surprised to find new replacements at the local hardware store. they were pretty cheap too, like a buck or less depending on the size. They were easy to install because I tried to get the same size and then just put the new ones in the same spots as the old ones.
 Once the cabinet doors were working properly, I began to paint the cabinet. I chose a navy blue chalk paint. I used a brush for the detail and hard to reach areas and a small foam roller for the rest.
 Then I applied a back splash to the open part of the cabinet. I used a product that looks like tin ceiling tiles but is actually plastic. It was easy to cut to fit the cabinet, and then glued to the back using liquid nails. if you are noticing the cords coming from the top: this sweet cabinet has lights that are behind the shelves to illuminate the top 2 shelves and one light in the pull down cabinet. (love it!)
 After the paint was dry, I applied a coat of clear wax to the entire painted area. I applied the new hardware, a wine glass hanger, and moved the cabinet into the house.
 I love the way it turned out and I also love that it has lights in it! It is so much better than the mini-fridge on an old TV stand that was there before! I already have more cabinet space in my kitchen since moving all my wine glasses to the glass hanger!
Here it is with the lights off

 Here is a shot with the doors open.



the wine glass hanger.


The cute glass knobs:)

Before and after!

Check out more of my thrift store Upcycle projects: