A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

I wanted to talk about the picture I just put up for my profile.

Taken September 8, 2013

There are several things I want to talk about in this picture.  To start with, I wanted to have a profile pic that would show off my curly hair.  How can I be the Curly Texan without it?  It's all natural too!  When I was younger I didn't know how to keep them nice so I desperatly wanted straight hair.  I got my curly hair from both sides of my family, but my parents didn't have curly hair.  It skipped them.  They had uncles that had really curly hair like me, so they didn't really know what to do either.  I have learned through experience what to do with my curly hair and I am so gitty that I have them!  I recently got my hair cut, really short on the back, the girl needed help from another stylist on the back because it was curling so much and she need skinnier fingers to cut it.  The girl giving the extra help said, "Oh, do you know how many people want your curly hair?" she asked me as if I was only going to straighten my hair (yeah right...) and I said, "Yes I do.  I hear it all the time."  And I really do, and I like that something that God gave me that is special can be seen so easily.  Sometimes the gifts a person has can be over look by the person that has it because its something inside making it harder to find and easy to dismiss.

How to take care of Curly Hair:

1-Use hydrating shampoo: Use shampoo that is meant to hydrate hair.  You don't have to get shampoo for curly hair, just as long its made to hydrate.  If you don't put in hair products to style, shampoo only every other day.  Washing your curls everyday will dry them out causing frizz and your locks to seperate.  If you use hair products to style, wash your hair everyday otherwise it will get greasy.

2-Use conditioner: Anything to help hydrate.  Leave-in is good to use also.  Follow the instruction.  Too much can be really gross.

3-Styling products: You need these much of the time.  Use hair oil if you have regular to dry hair.  If you have oily hair then use moose to hold down frizz.  When putting in moose, gel, oil or anything like that, cover the ends first then the crown of your head.  If you start at the crown of your head when using oil, you will make your hair uneven, the crown will be very oily since that's where the oily-ness starts and with the moose, it will weigh down your hair or make it harder than the rest of your hair.  Never start at your hair line!  Not only will your hair get uneven and oily but so will your skin causing break outs.

Tip: Until your hair is dry, keep it off your face.  I would always break out on my cheeks and then I noticed that it would get worse after I cut my hair again and since then I have been very careful to keep the wet styling products off my face so I wouldn't break out anymore.

I have really short hair, but if you have long hair, when using styling products, start application as if you were making a ponytail at the base of your skull and work it down to the ends then do the crown of your head.  I used to have my hair reach down to my lower back, so I have experience with long curly hair too, I'm not pulling this part out of the air.  For my curls, medium hold has worked best for me with both long and short hair.  I like my curls to hold but not be crunchy.  If you use a blow dryer, please use products that will shield your hair from the heat.  Too much heat is one of the worst things for any hair. 

Different kinds of styling products: wax, moose, foam, gel, silk drops, hair oil, creams, pomades, hair spray (I don't like that for my curls because it makes them crunchy but give it a try for yours), heat shields, and hair glue...I'm sure there are more than that but those are ones I have tried.

4-Try everything!: Try from the $0.99 shampoo and conditioner up to the $25.00 bottle of shampoo and conditioner.  Save up money if you need to be able to try all these things, but don't be afraid to explore.  It will take time.  I have been trying different products since I was about 13, so I have over 10 years of trying new and old products and I am still finding better products than before.  It will take time.  You need to use each product at least two weeks before you really know how it effects your hair.  Buy the smaller bottle when trying to find what's best for you; you don't want to get the big bottle when the conditioner weighs your curls down and you try the shampoo without the conditioner and the shampoo dries your hair out.  Waste of money.  When I was younger the professional and the super cheap stuff would dry out my hair (I tried two or three brands for each), now its different, so as time passes, try new things also.  Explore to know what is best for your curls and remember it will take time to know what you like best.  Right now I am using Regis Enchanted line (it smells just like Victoria Secrect's Love Story and I like their heat shield!), before that I used Evercurl from L'oreal, before that Everclear, before that I can't remember, it might have been Clear.  I used Everclear when I first saw it and as soon as Evercurl came out I got that.  It worked better than the original.  Sometimes you will find a brand you like but the type is not the best.  Try different products from the same brand.  Companies make diffents products for a reason: to fit the needs of more people.  Keep a small notepad and pen in your bathroom and after using a product for at least two weeks, take notes of what products you used, the results and if you like those results.

My Ring

When my husband proposed, it wasn't really a proposal, we just said, "Okay, what date do we want?"  Sweet in a way, it had been two months or so since our first date.  The ring I got for our engagement was a perfect snug fit, as well as the wedding band, so when I become pregnant, they didn't fit me anymore.  I didn't loose the weight, still "working" on it, and Tom gained weight during my pregnancy also, so we got new wedding bands after Evelyn was born.  We went to James Avery.  A Texas love. 

Tom had wanted a hammered ring before, so that is what he got. 

Amore Band by James Avery.

I got the Claddagh ring.

Adorned Claddagh ring by James Avery

The Claddagh ring symbolize giving ones heart to ones love.  My mother in law has a lot of Irish in her and her birthday is on St. Patrick's Day, so Tom likes things that are Irish and I always thought the Claddagh rings were romantic.

My Shawl

The shawl I am wearing in my picture was made by my sister in law for my birthday.  When Jer and Emma came in July for vacation, Rachel had a ball of red yarn that she had been working on everytime I saw her.  She even took it with us when we went bowling.  I asked her, "You've really been working on that, do you have a date deadline you're trying to make?"  It didn't even accure to me that it was for my birthday.  I got it just this last week.  She has four kids, three of which are home schooled the fourth is a year old...she had plenty of reasons why it took a while.  My favorite color is red, that's why she made it red.  The accent color of our living room is red too.

The Backround

What's in the backround?  Behind me in the picture you can see two things: a painting I made that says "Love" and a sign that says "Bless This Home" with faux glass knobs and large name tags hanging off each knob.

I painted that Love while watching Love Actually.  I can't remember when I did it but it had to be before 2007.

The "Bless This Home" sign I bought at Hobby Lobby at 60% off!  I cut out tags from scrapbooking paper and hung them with red ribbon.  They kept spinning and flipping around because they were so light, so I cut cardboard and glued them together to weigh them down.  Each tag has one of our names on it; Tom, Erica and Evelyn.

I like to be playful in my pictures, cheesy and totally young, yeah, but to me, curly hair means playful.  I've gotta show that!

(1,509 words, give or take a two, not including this or links)

Baby Showers

For the past four baby showers and 1st birthdays, I made things; three blankets and one carseat canopy.

Most recent was a blanket for a woman having her third child, a boy. 

Best picture I ended up getting

I went to high school with her and her husband.  We were all in JROTC together and me and April were also in band/marching band together.  They are a year or so younger than me.  Tom works with the husband also.  Tom had forgotten to tell me that they put up the baby shower invite at the station.  Luckily, I saw them at Wal-Mart the day before the shower.

"Hey!  You never said if you were coming to the baby shower or not," April said.

"What baby shower?" 

Yup.  That's how I found out.  So Evelyn and I went to see if there was any fabric/pattern I would like to use for a blanket.  Evelyn picked out a robot print.  I wanted to use orange fleece (April's favorite color) but gold was the closest I could get to it.  April was suprised to hear that I made it.

"You made it?  But I just told you about all this last night..."

"Yeah, I made it last night."

If you make blankets, to make a baby blanket, you know it doesn't take long.  I have been sewing since I was 12.  For Christmas I asked for a sewing machine, I still have it too!  So making the blanket wasn't a long process, 'specially since I have been making a lot lately.  I have fun with it too!

My cousin just had her third child, a little girl.  My aunt held a baby shower for her about a week and a half before she delievered.  I wanted to try to make a carseat canopy, so that's what I made her.

Cotton on one side.

Minky on the other.

Reversible makes it possible to add toys inside for the baby!

I made it reversible to make it more interesting and have a place for the toys.  I wanted to use white Minky for sure.  My cousins favorite colors are pink and black so that was a given too.  Turns out that they bought new covers for the carseat that were pink and black and she had wanted to also get a canopy to go with it so she got very excited about it.

Before that, my oldest cousin's youngest turned one.  It was a Toy Story themed birthday party.  I made a blanket.  I stitched a star in the center.

Not the best blanket I've made.  The fabric I used for the back was thick, fluffy and moved a lot.  I tried very hard to make it work.  It think that it turned out nicely but it was harder to work with.

The first blanket from the four recent sewing gifts was for my second oldest cousin's youngest boy at his 1st birthday party.

This blanket took so long.  I put batting between two cotton fabrics.  I kept doing it wrong.  Over and over and over again.  About the fourth time is when I got it right.  It was worth it.  It turned out better than I expected.  I stitched boarders to keep the fabric from moving.  The very middle square had a little extra stitching.  You can see it a bit in the picture.

I love to sew!  Have any tips from your experiences?  Please tell me about them!  I can use guidence to better my abilities.  I'm not that good.  Average I'd say, even though I've been sewing for so long.  I would like to get better.  Help me in anything sewing, please!

Thank you blogging world!



Summer Vacation

A tradition that my husband's family have started a couple years ago was that we would visit each other every other year.  My husband has two (of three) brothers in Tacoma, Washington and his two sisters live in Texas, one in Houston and one down the street from us with my mother in law there and across the street from them.  This summer was their turn to come down to see us.  Sadly only one brother and his daughter were able to make it and not also the other with his wife or little girl Madi.  Last year, she and Evelyn had so much fun together.  They are a year and a half apart so Evelyn was able to have a lot of fun with her.

We spent two days at the beach.  When the Washintonian Brothers come, they say, "I can spend the whole week at the beach."  So we try to spend at least two days there.  I grew up in this area and my sister in law and her family have lived here for over 10 years so the beach is something we always have, as well as the heat and sun.  So the Texans usually limit it to two days, especially for the little kids.  We always have fun though, using bodyboards and making mountains of sand.

Heading to the water!

We spent three days in San Antonio at a time share.  Its a time share only hotel and very nice, felt like a home and not a hotel.  We had a four bedroom, three bath suite. 

The great room.  Looked bigger in person.  Love the beams!

Looking at everything all I could think is, "If only our house looked this put together."  Everything matched so well.  Everthing!  The table was an 8-12 seater.  I want a table that big!  We have a big family, Tom's side sounds big huh?  His is the small side.  It's only me and my brother but all of my mother's sisters and brother are here and most of all their kids and grandkids which means that we see them regularly.  I would love to have a larger table like that.  Then we could have stuff at our house too!  I'm going off track though...

The first day that we got to San Antonio, we went to Six Flags Fiesta Texas.

Evelyn with two of her cousins.

Evelyn absolutely loved it!  We bought a cup from there and now when she sees it she tells us that she wants to back there.  So maybe we will go again next year with my parents or wait for Stevy (my brother) to get back and take a long weekend.

We also went down the Riverwalk.

Evelyn and Tom

We had a fun time with the family.  Sometimes family can make you frustrated or annoyed but family is what completes you, makes you whole.  Family is what can make you smile.  Family is what can bring you back from even your darkest times.  Family is a big melting pot of personalities, love, excitement and especially a little craziness.  How else could you still go on loving each other?

Examples of craziness! 

Love you my family and I'm constantly looking foward to the memories we will make together!

Evelyn's Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 3rd Birthday

This July, Evelyn turned three years old.  I always start her birthday plans in January.  I am forgetful so to keep myself from forgetting anything needed for a smoothly flowing child's birthday party, I start the plans six months ahead.  So in January, I was planning to do a Disney Cars themed birthday party since it is one of Evelyn's favorite movies.  I had been finding things all over Etsy and getting ideas from different sites online since Thanksgiving last year or so and January comes and Evelyn loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse so much.  I had to change it.  I couldn't keep her from having a Clubhouse birthday party.
So Evelyn's 3rd birthday party was Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!

To start the party plans, I needed to plan Evelyn's outfit.  I asked her if she wanted to dress up as Minnie and she told me, "No, I wanna be Mickey Mouse!" and threw up her arms with excitment.  So I asked her again a few days later, to be sure that's what she wanted and she said the same thing.  Evelyn doesn't care about being a boy charcter as long as she has fun being that character.

The Outfit

I planned on making her outfit simple.  I used red shorts (borrowed from my nephew's pajamas) and cut two large circles out of white felt and sewed them on making two verticle stripes.  She wore a black shortsleeve shirt, plastic Mickey ears and white gloves.  In a neighboring town (5 minutes away), there is a music store that carries marching gloves in both black and white for middle school to university aged marchers.  I bought a white pair and cut the fingers off to the edge of her fingers.  I used a black permenant marker to make the three classic trademark black lines on the back of all the gloves of Mickey and friends.  I could've stitched on the black lines but like I said, I wanted it to be simple.  I was going to sew two of the fingers together but didn't since I knew she would want to wear the gloves most of the party; eating and playing would become difficult.
I wore a red shirt with Mickey on the front.  My shirt was a last thought so I got it late.  The only place I had to find one was Wal-Mart.  They didn't have one in my size that was red, white or black.  I went to the pajama section and found one easy and right away.  Even better that its just a t-shirt made from jersey.  Can't tell its a pj shirt.  Tom already had a red polo so he was covered.  That was one reason why I forgot that I needed a shirt.  Evelyn had her outfit and Tom had his shirt and I went out of my mind...in a sort.


The Place

Evelyn's first birthday party was at my parents, we didn't have the floor in our house finished so we had it there.  A water party.  Her second birthday party was at our house and was also a water party.  This year's birthday party was at a park in our little Texas town.  It's at the very edge of town so the wind blows nicely through and there is a large open crop field next to it so it's easy to see the sun setting making it even more lovely.  There is another park in town that houses all the baseball fields but it has very old equipment.  The park we had the party at is almost all new equipment with a new walking path that little kids ride their bikes on and a pavilion that was built earlier this year in addition to one that is still in very good condition.  This park is usually the one we visit so we decided to have the party there.  We ended up arriving ten minutes before the party started with nothing set up.  We were lucky though that we were able to get the new pavilion which is also closer to the play area.  The kids played before the games and while we still set up.  The weather was nice for being South Texas; in the mid 90s or so with good wind.  At the end of the party a storm went around our town so it became very cool for mid July in Texas.  I think we picked a good spot.


Games

game 1)   I wanted to make a Toodles.  I had to make Toodles!

inside

outside

I bought a tri-folding poster (what children usually use for Science Fairs) and used construction paper to make Toodles.  I traced a large serving bowl for the face and a top from a smaller storage bowl for the ears.  Dinner plates could work too but we have square plates so I had to find something else.  I put Mickey Mouse Clubhouse gift wrapping paper on the outside so it didn't look so plain and incomplete.

I used Toodles to play an on going game that lasted through most of the party.  Just like Toodles in the show, our Toodles would help us with the party.  Our Mouseka tools were Mickey Mouse ears, a number 3 candle, a pinata stick and the mystery Mouseka tool (which was a bag of Minnie bows).  I used a staple gun to staple it to a light pole.

The children at our party ranged from ages 2-10 with one 1 year old.  The ten year olds are twins that didn't participate in the games, just played at the park and hit the pinata which was what we expected them to do at a party of a three year old.  All the others knew all about Mickey's Clubhouse so it was easy to play this game.  It started with the children gathering around the pole with a "closed" Toodles, then I welcoming them to the party and told them that we were going to start the games.

"Does everyone have their Mickey Mouse ears?"

"Evelyn doesn't!" my nephew shouted.

"Oh no!  We need a Mouseka tool to help us!  Everyone say 'Oh, Toodles!'" I instucted.

"OH TOODLES!" they all shouted.

I opened Toodles and the game began.  We continued it; a bag of Minnie's bows for a game (see game 4), the candle for the cake (which we couldn't lite because of the wind) and the pinata stick for the pinata.

game 2)   My mom found an inflatable bean bag toss game that was of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  It was unexpect and was pretty much at the last minute but I was glad she found it.  It was awesome for the kids!

(We hooked it on a rebar that supported a tree so it would stay in one place)

game 3)   I wanted to play a fishing game.  Evelyn likes fishing, I think it reminds her of my brother who is half way through his two year mission in Mexico right now.  So for the next game I made fish out of construction paper and magnets and put them in a baby pool.

(I put large rocks inside to keep it from flying away)

"Uh oh!  With all the noise from the birthday party we woke up Pete!  And Pete gets grumpy if he doesn't get his nap!  We need to go to Mickey pond and catch him some fish to make him happy."

The children fished in "Mickey Pond" and all recieved an extra large lollie pop when they caught a fish, which they all did, we made sure of course.  They had fun fishing!

game 4)   I wanted to do a "Pin the Bow on Minnie" game but I couldn't find anything online that I could buy from a store except Etsy but even then it wasn't what I wanted.  So I made one myself!

(All these pictures were taken after the party so they are a little mess now as you can see)

I got a picture off Google Images, enlarged it and printed it up in quaters and used it as a templet.  I used black construction paper and a red marker for Minnie's tongue.  I cut out different colored bows and each child had a different color.  For this game we needed to call for Toodles.  We picked our Mystery Mouseka Tool and recieved a bag full of Minnie's bows.  Evelyn did the best.  She didn't have her eyes covered though.

A storm was forcasted to come in, which we didn't know about until we saw it coming, so we rushed after the games.  We called Toodles for the candle and cut the cake.

We called Toodles again and then hit the pinata.

The Goody Bags

My cousin made the goody bags.  I picked out the picture and wording and she made the bags.  We put mini composition books, a mini skateboard of Mickey's Clubhouse, Mickey crayons, mini flutes and I think one other thing that I can't remember right now.

The Pinata

My cousin, Bob, wanted to buy Evelyn her pinata and Evelyn had said, from the first day that we told her she would have a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse birthday party, that she wanted a Goofy pinata.  If you are unfamiliar with pinatas, it is a, usually, large character from a children's movie or show made of paper mache.  It is filled with candy and sometimes small toys.  You tie it up on a tree so that you can pull the pinata up and down.  The children beat the pinata until all the candy falls out.  It's a lot of fun!

The children weren't able to break it on their own.  I had to break it.  That's what a Mommy must do.  Wink, wink!

Rules that my parents made when we were kids was that every child would get three hits and no one could run to get candy until the child hitting has done all three hits, and the child is to drop the stick if kids run to get candy.  We have a marked off area too that we tell the children not to cross.  This is one thing I see children obey better than about anything else you tell them.  I think it's for the candy.  Kids love to hit things and get candy.  The only time it could ever possibly be allowed.  Evelyn had gotten very good at hitting a pinata, tough like Mama!  She is ready for t-ball next year.

(Pictures of Evelyn with her pinata coming soon!)

Decorations

While looking for ideas for the party online, I saw that one mother used fluffy, pointy paper decorating balls in black and I thought, "I can do that with regular paper lanterns and add black ears to make Mickey heads and red paper lanterns and add white paper dots to make Mickey pants."

I hung them with fishing line.  I underestimated the amount I needed so only one side of the pavilion had them.

I also made signs that I put next to the bag of Mickey Mouse Ears and signs next to the food that was hot dogs.

(Pictures soon to come of the decorations)

It was a long day but it went very well.  I enjoyed myself and I think everyone else did too!  Time to start preping for Evelyn's Fourth Birthday Party!  Thinking Jake and the Neverland Pirates or Doc McStuffins...hmm...or maybe something not even out yet!  She does love anything of super heros.  Maybe it can be a super hero party and as a "goody bag" they would get a cape instead?  Sounds fun already!  Yay for childrens birthday parties!