Lately-ish

Haloti looks crazy!

I was at the self-checkout at Walmart, attempting to run my debit card. Apparently, their machines were having trouble. The terminal didn't take my card the first, or second time, but it did print out this "receipt" when it rejected my card the 2nd time. I took this to the cashier to see what I needed to do. The cashier looked at this for 1 second and then snapped at me that this was a receipt, I was fine to go. I just kind of shook my head as I left. Sure enough, this purchase never hit my bank account. Maybe the cashier should have taken 2 seconds to listen to me. 

Wild turkeys!

Seared Pork Chops and Roasted Baby Carrots with a Mustard-Pan Sauce.

This is inevitably what happens when I try to work out at home.

This is what happens when I ignore him when I'm trying to work out :)

Grilled Lamb Chops.

Siri is apparently an Oregon State fan.  This is the answer you get when you ask her what her favorite college football team is.

Coupon Haul 8/18/13: Spent $22.08 on $93.69 worth of product.

Coupon Haul 8/24/13: Spent $19.71 on $97.59 worth of product.

Coupon Haul 9/1/13: Spent $20.08 on $72.33 worth of product.

Hair freshly colored!

Making chocolate chip cookies for the hubby, watching football. It's starting to feel like fall!

Focus On: Co Washing

I've had a flirtation with co washing for about a year now. I say flirtation because I'm not exclusive with the co washing. I still use shampoo on occasion, especially if I'm going to straighten my hair.

Co washing is the process of using only conditioner when you wash your hair, no shampoo. Almost all women look at me like I'm insane when I tell them I co wash. Here some reasons why I can co wash, and get away with it:

1. My hair is not oily (ever).

2. My hair is coarse, dry, damaged, frizzy, etc.

3. My hair is naturally curly.

Co washing is definitely a commitment. It is the belief that your hair will become healthier, and your curls will have better definition the longer you don't use shampoo. Can this be true, you ask? My hair is healthier. My hair is softer. My curls do have better shape. My hair is not frizzy and fuzzy with oddly-shaped waves when I let it air-dry now.

You might be thinking "But my hair will be dirty if I don't shampoo!". I don't buy into this. I really work my scalp with just water before I use conditioner, for a good minute or two. Really stimulate the scalp. I leave the conditioner on for a couple of minutes while I finish up, and then really work my scalp again while I'm rinsing it out. I never feel like I have dirty hair. My hair never looks greasy or oily. My curls have a great shape, and they are soft. So soft. I never thought I would be able to have hair that soft without a crapload copious amount of leave-in conditioner and a good blow-out. Now I scrunch in some shine serum, spritz all over with some salt-spray, and let my hair air-dry. Most days I leave it as is. If I'm going out for the evening, I use my 1/2" curling iron to touch up any curls that are badly formed.

I'm loving it. I've been fighting my natural texture for years, and while straightening is fun once in awhile, man alive does it do a number on your hair! Blowdrying it straight can take 30 minutes, and then running a straightening iron through it can take another 15-20 minutes. Imagine the heat damage. And I had been followed that routine since I was 16. You can see why my hair is dry, damaged, frizzy, fuzzy, etc. Obviously, I'm saving a ton of time too. And that's more time I can spend baking...er, blogging.

My conditioner of choice at the moment is Aussie's 3 Minute Miracle. That could be because that's just what I'm using right now, but I really do think it's making my hair even softer. It's also extremely affordable.

And so my curly-haired friends, if you are flirting with the idea of co washing, or researching co washing, or in general just have hair the same texture as a horse (I do! Beauticians have told me that!), I recommend giving this a shot. You just might find what you've been looking for 30 years. Well, 30 years in my case :)

Product Review: Clairol Shine Happy Hair Glaze and More

It's been a busy week! I'm still attempting to get in shape, and I've been working hard this week. Long workouts that have been leaving me exhausted, and with really no motivation to blog. I've been in the kitchen a lot, but I haven't quite figured out the light in this new house. This leaves me frustrated. My big-girl camera also leaves me frustrated. Photography is hard, people! I'm making muffins today though, so I will be taking another stab at food photography. Hopefully, all these bad pictures will make me a better person :)

In the meantime, I've got a couple of new product reviews:

1. Clairol Shine Happy Hair Glaze-

I love me a good hair glaze. I haven't really tried one since John Frieda's years ago when it first came out. I'm not even sure they make that product anymore, although they should because I always got tons of compliments when I used it. This product also fetches some compliments. Let me be clear, this is not hair dye. It's a clear rinse. It will not add color to your hair. It's super easy- you simply apply it to wet hair, leave it on for 10 minutes, and wash out. The kit also comes with 5 weeks of conditioning treatments to use once a week. The glaze has a nice, fresh scent to it, which I love. After rinsing the glaze out and applying the conditioner, my hair felt so soft (big plus for me!) My hair still felt very soft after blowdrying my hair, and the product definitely brightened up my color. My hair looked like it had just been colored, minus the grow out at the roots :) I picked this up super-cheap on one of my couponing excursions, so in my opinion for the price, I would pick this up again. I've got another box in my stockpile, and I will be pulling it out in another couple of weeks. The verdict? Good price, adds shine, brightens color. I would buy this again.

2. Revlon ColorStay Pressed Powder

I was pleasantly surprised by this product. I love and use Revlon's ColorStay Foundation, so I'm not sure why I was so surprised by this product. I know a lot of people set their foundation with loose powder (most probably), but I've yet to find a drugstore loose powder that provides me the coverage I like. For the last couple of month's I've been setting my foundation with a Shiseido pressed powder that my friend gave me. I was not entirely satisfied with the Shiseido powder as for one, it looked cakey. Number two, the coverage didn't last long at all. I felt like I was constantly touching up. I finally ran out of that product, and moved on to the ColorStay. I'm very satisfied with this product. It provides excellent coverage, which for me in the winter, has to be full. I've also been dealing with some breakouts lately, so the coverage is much needed right now. I also find myself touching up a lot less than I had been with the Shiseido, and not having to touchup as soon. I really have only been doing one touchup a day with the Colorstay, and that I love. The verdict? If you are a full-coverage kind of girl, this is a great powder for the price. I'm glad I bought a couple of these, so I've got some backups. I'll be buying this again.

3. Pantene RootLifter Hair Gel-

I'm forever on the quest for the perfect volumizer. This product falls a little flat in the face of the competition. Pantene even makes better products than this one. I've been using this one the same as all the other volumizers, spritzing the roots before blowdrying. I'm not getting nearly the volume I usually get. I'm also finding my roots greasier the next day than usual. I haven't changed any of my other hair products, so I'm pinning that problem on this product. I prefer Pantene's Volumizing Hair Spray to this product. I've got so many other voumizers in my stockpile, I might not even finish the bottle on this one. For me, that's when you know it really doesn't work! The verdict? Ditch. I won't be buying this again.

New Year, New Haircut!

Here's some useless trivia about me for you:

Little known fact #1- I have been growing my hair out since I got engaged i.e. December 2008.

Yes, I've been growing my hair out that long. I must have the slowest growing hair on the planet, because I was only able to get the longest layer down to, well, about where my bra clips together.

Little known fact #2- I have come to terms with the fact that I wasn't meant to have 'Kardashian' or 'Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' length hair.

Isn't it every girly-girl's dream to have long, thick, shiny hair cascading in sexy curls down your back? Cue the wind-machine as you toss your luxurious hair over your shoulder, immediately causing the envy of everyone around you. Looks like this dream is just not going to happen for me. My hair was so damaged and dry when I chopped it all off. And speaking of chopping it off...

Little known fact #3- I chopped 7 inches off my hair!

When I went in to get my hair cut, I had no idea that's how much hair I had. Of course, I saw it on the floor when we were done, and I was shocked. That was a lot of hair! I'm ok with this because unfortunately the longer my hair got, the flatter it got. It needed to go.

So it's 2013. There's no better time to make a fresh start than January. And by the by? I think you can totally rock a shorter bob, and make it sexy :)