Been a little busy

Busy was an understatement. Since February I've been a bit overwhelmed and now I'm waaaay behind here.

I will go back and post a few things that occupied much of my mind and money but I'm still in recovery mode right now, in body and mind and finances.

School is almost out, summer is just around the corner (yay!), and the calendar is lightening up some. Stay tuned, I'll get there eventually.

Feather Hair Extensions

I'm sure most of you have seen these by now. Feather hair extensions have spread from salons and into hair like wildfire lately. I've had mine in for roughly 3 weeks now and I had purchased the feathers at least 3 weeks before finally getting them put in. In only a month and a half the cost to carry a supply of these pretty feathers has more than doubled. Supply met demand, got married and had a baby that they named Inflation. Oh good Lord.

These feather extensions are actually pretty cool. I only waited to share them because I wanted to wear them first so I could tell you what they're really like.
They're a fun, no fuss way to add some interest to your hair. They are actual feathers that are attached to the with a micro ring used for hair extensions. There are usually three feathers to each ring, 2-3 rings total. They are incredibly easy to wear in the hair because they can be treated exactly like your actual hair. They can be shampooed, dried, and curled. The best part is, you don't even feel them in your hair. Ya just forget you even have them in.

So here's a peek at mine.

I chose to go with brighter colors. Pink, purple, teal & white. If these types of colors aren't for you, no worries. They come in natural colors as well. They take roughly 10 minutes to apply and last up to three months. The cost starts at $30 to have them put in. Just a fun 'lil somethin'

Semi-Homemade Springtime Cupcakes

I recently hosted a baby shower for my sister-in-law and my newest baby niece. The decor was spring-like and I was able to find some very cute goodies to go with the theme. So rather than ordering a 1/2 sheet cake, which I originally planned on doing, I instead made cupcakes and ordered only an 8 inch round cake. Together they looked great and gave more than one flavor option for the guests. I don't actually come up with these ideas until I'm out shopping for something else and stumble upon something I like and then change my entire plan. Thus creating more work for myself but in the end it's worth it. At least that's what I keep telling myself.

Now, in true simple complexities fashion, I want the finished product to look the way I picture them in my mind, only without a ton of work. So I cheat. I buy boxed cake mixes and fillings and frosting in a can, add some pretties and there ya have it.

Lemme show ya

I went with lemon flavor for these cupcakes. Since I was doing a lemon filling I decided to lighten up the lemon flavoring of the cake so I combined one box of lemon and one box of vanilla cake mix.

Then we have have the cutest ever cupcake wrappers by Wilton. I love Wilton products. They have a huge variety and they never disappoint.

I use a measuring cup to fill the cups to ensure that they all turn out the same size. I filled these about 3/4 full so they fill most of the cup as they rise.

I wanted these to have a filling so I used a canned ready-made lemon filling.

I used a piping bad with a medium round tip, inserted it directly into the top of the cooled cupcake and filled it.

Now for the icing on the cake. Yep, from a can. Doesn't get any easier than that.

Then, thanks again to Wilton, I found these super cute birds nests with jellybean eggs which went perfect with our theme. I used these to finish off the cupcakes.

...and the finished product.

Works for me! Mission accomplished!

Baby Blue Etsy Treasury

Here's a very pretty treasury featuring my blue vintage plate.  I love the vintage look to it.

'My Baby's Got the Blues' by TheRubyKitten

Baby Doll.... Blue Cotton Dr... aftershowersho... $40.50	Vintage 50s Blue Cat Eye Eye... Vintage50sEyew... $124.00	Cobbies Blue Shoes 9M pegasusvintage $16.00
powder blue - vintage felt h... whichgoose $15.00	Organic Cocoa Facial Mask - ... DressGreen $9.00	Lampshade / Retro Elegance /... lauralights $185.00
Off White Satin Carnation Fa... treasuredarlin... $35.00	Ipperwash 1 - 8x10 Landscape... jennifersquire... $70.00	Bowtastic 3 erinkeys $22.00
1970's Whimsical Peony D... jessjamesjake $48.00	Baby Blue Boudoir Bloomettes... undertheroot $55.00	Vintage Blue Decorative Plat... GoneTheSun $4.00

Treasury tool is sponsored by Lazzia.com A/B image testing.

Love it!

Can I just say, I love the background I have on here.  It reminds me of the end dance scene in Footloose.

That is all.

~Me

New Hair - extensions!

Once every year or so I give in to the fact that, despite my best efforts, I was not blessed with good hair.  So in go the extensions.  I've had them in different lengths and colors and it's a good way to have easy, workable hair for awhile.  

This time around, with the help of a fellow stylist, I got a couple inches added in length and filled in the thickness.

Here's a before of the back

and after

From the side before

After

We've all seen hair on these young girls, usually on myspace, that is obviously extensions.  You know the ones, short layers and long, super straight strands of hair... ack!  If done right though, by a professional, you would never know that someone has them in.  Just take a look at a Victoria's Secret catalog.  Every single model has some sort of extension work going on.  I know this because I recently read an interview from the on-set stylist.  Even with my hair, several of the stylists I work with didn't realize I had them in because they look so natural.

There are several different methods of putting in extensions including clip-ins, bonded, sewn, and micro rings to name a few.  My extensions are keratin bonded onto my hair and is 100% human hair.  Each extension strand comes pre-dipped in the bonding keratin.  With heat, the bond melts and is hand-formed around a small section of my natural hair.  Hair is made of keratin so that's why it adheres and holds on so well.  With proper care the extensions will last approximately 3 months.  Proper care of these particular extensions means they need to be treated more gently than your natural hair.  It's best not to shampoo the hair (or any hair) daily.  They need to be conditioned well but take care not to apply conditioner at the bond.  It's suggested to avoid any kind of silicone based product including any "smoothing" product lines.  Doing so will help prevent the bond from sliding off the hair.  You can style the hair just as you normally would, trying to avoid excessive heat from flat irons or curling irons and it's good to use a leave-in conditioner for added protection.  It's actually best to just wash (and condition) and wear.

The cost to have this done varies depending on the individual stylist and your own natural hair's thickness, texture and length desired. Including the cost of hair, it will run anywhere from $500-$1500.   You can have them done in just about any color or combination of colors, including bright "fantasy" colors for those with a little wild side.

If you're looking for a new look and think extensions is something you would like to try out, leave a comment or contact me and I would be more than happy to share more details with you.

~Ang

Redneck Games: NASCAR

When I was a kid there was never a ball game on in our house.  Instead, it was NASCAR.  It wasn't till I started dating my husband that baseball and football was a front running topic among the guys and because of their interest in the sports they had leagues of fantasy sports.  In an effort to form a more common ground with my dad, my husband formed a fantasy NASCAR league among my family circle.  It started small for the first few seasons, a hand full of guys that watched the races.  Eventually it grew year after year, adding cousins, friends and friends of friends, complete with web/chat site, a prized trophy that gets passed to the winning team each year, and an annual dedicated draft day that's decorated with a whole lot of trash talk and colorful language.

The season starts with the Daytona 500 and this year the draft was held at our house.  Very early in the morning around 4:00-5:00am my husband was up to start the cooking.  He decided to make smoked pulled pork sandwiches which turned out amazing and I'm not just saying that because it's one of my favorites.

At 9:00am everyone starts showing up and every guy has at least one of the following three items in their hand... their draft picks, beer, food.  I offered coffee and they looked at me like I had two heads.

The race starts at 10:00 so they don't waste any time getting started on the draft.

How many rednecks does it take to....


From the circle they're calling out who's up next and cursing each other over who took which driver.  It goes something like
"Carl Edwards"
"Taken"
"Son of a..."

Once they wrap things up it's race time.  Every time there is a crash someone says "who's driver is that?"  "your guy took my guy out, expletive, expletive, expletive."

Throughout the day spouses and kids filter in.  During the race you won't likely find an open seat in front of the TV, there are others in the garage (man cave) watching the race out there, others gathered around the food set up, kids playing video games in the other room, and a lot of laughing and just having a good time.

I believe the head count came up to around 35 people this year and you can bet your hiney we used paper plates and plastic forks. Eesh.

As soon as the race and interviews with the drivers ends the crowd started to thin and as the guys leave they say stuff like "see ya later, good luck this year" and in their head they're saying "I hope your driver doesn't qualify, or gets pushed into a wall and gets knocked out of the race and loses their sponsor."

Ah yes indeed, it's race time.