Observations Of An Amateur Housewife

Monday, April 23, 2012

Pinned & Did -- Heatless Curls

Over the last few months I have pinned several heat-less hair curling methods on my Pinterest boards. I've tried three different methods on my daughter's hair, and I thought it might be helpful to someone if I posted the results of each of these methods. My daughter's hair is pretty thick and heavy, medium texture with a slight wave to it. It does not hold curl well at all. In two methods her hair was very long, in one method it was about 3 inches past her shoulders. 


1. Sock Bun Curls -- I really had high hopes for this one. You can find the tutorial here. It seems to work great for a lot of people. Basically you roll the slightly damp hair up in a bun with a sock, and sleep on it over night. In the morning you should have wonderful curls that last for 2 days. This only takes about 3 minutes once you get the hang of it. On Lily's hair, though, it basically curled her hair under. It did give her a lot of extra body, and I really liked that she didn't have that bed head part in the back of her hair. Plus, the bun looked super cute! I've tried this a few times, with variations like leaving her hair wetter, putting gel in it, putting mousse in it, and the results are always the same. Maybe her hair is just the wrong texture for it or maybe it isn't layered enough. Oh well. I will probably still do this in her hair when I want to avoid the bed head look. 


My Pinned & Did Grade for the Sock Bun: C+ due to lack of curl.




2. Headband Curls -- this one works by wrapping the hair around a headband and sleeping on it over night. You can find the tutorial here. I had a little trouble at the end, when wrapping her hair (which was shorter in this one) around in the middle. It just didn't want to stay in and kept popping out. I finally secured the ends with a ponytail holder and that held it. It took about 5 minutes. The next morning, it was frizzy-straight on top and quite curly underneath. I think maybe the top layers or her hair were not damp enough. After a couple of minutes touching up the top layer with a curling iron, it looked pretty cute. Also, the curls stayed in for most of the day, which is VERY unusual for her! The next day her hair was  wavy with a slight curl at the ends. Overall, I liked this, and it didn't take very long, which was nice. Next time I'll try it when her hair is a little more damp. 


My Pinned & Did grade for Headband Curls: B+






3. Twisty Bun Curls -- I can never remember what these are actually called, so I just call them twisty buns. ;)  For this one, I twisted her slightly damp hair into 5 or 6 super tight little buns, taking care to place them high enough up on her head that it wasn't uncomfortable to sleep in. I also made sure I did not have a part on the back of her head. You can find the tutorial here. I LOVED how these turned out! Super curly, all I had to do was a little bit of de-tangling with my fingers, and the TEENIEST amount of touch up with a curling iron (like 1 minute) and it looked beautiful! This was my favorite look of all the methods I've tried, although it did take the longest to do--about 15 minutes plus the touching up the next day. The curls stayed in for about 2 days. 


My Pinned & Did grade for Twisty Bun curls: A+




That's it for today, thanks for stopping by!

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Lily's Room Rearranged and Almost Done

I finally got Lily's room re-arranged in a way that fits the room and everything we wanted in it. We had to move the vanity out because I needed to use it in the Master Bedroom, (no counter space in the bathroom, oh well). I did have to promise her though that she could have the vanity back someday, and we came up with an idea that worked a little better for her age anyway. Here are some pictures of what it looks like now. There are a few things that would be nice to add, like a bed skirt, a rug, and maybe a pillow on the little toy box seat. I'm trying to decide about the collage wall, do I want to add to it, to fill up the whole wall, or leave it the way it is? What do you think? Enjoy the pics!


 (Pardon the crooked bed. The frame is a little warped and needs fixed!)



To learn how I made this hanging fabric lamp, go HERE. The butterflies I found at Meijer, I think they still have them. I found the cute little paper mache birds at Michael's and just spray painted them yellow. Oh, and the little dresser used be to 70's orange wood, but after 30 minutes and 2 cans of white spray paint, I think it looks a lot better. Maybe I'll switch out the knobs, if I get around to it someday.

 The Princess Silhouette is a silhouette of Lily that I made inspired by this vinyl decal on Etsy. It just reminded me so much of Lily, and I thought it would be neat to have her face be the silhouette. I love it! 



The banner was made by hot gluing scrapbook paper to ribbon. The paper tray and basket were both spray-painted, they used to be black. The pink mirror was taken off an old orange hand-me down dresser and spray painted. That funny looking jar is home to "Rainbow", Lily's betta. Looks like Rainbow's bowl could use a cleaning...that mirror too...someone should really do that...


Before putting these cheapo shelves from Walmart together, I used spray adhesive to glue Michael Miller Dandy Damask fabric to the back board. They still look like cheapo shelves, but now they are CUTE cheapo shelves. To hold coloring books, pencils and crayons,  I mod-podged scrapbook paper over formula cans and a cereal box. I'm glad I could use those pricey formula cans for something!





                          That smudgy mirror is just embarrassing. What do you think about this collage wall...should I add to it, or leave as is? I plan on putting Lily's name in the large oval hoop somehow, and probably putting something in those empty frames too. 
Overall, Lily and I both love the room, and it makes me happy just to look at it! When its clean. Which it isn't right now. So I guess I'll just look at these pics instead...
Have a great day everyone! :)