Hair: My Weakness.

I am not good at doing hair. I've just never been able to do it. I don't know why. I've tried. I have actually thought about going to hair school just so I can do my hair! That's pathetic haha. Anyway, I'm naturally a dark blonde/light brown hair color but I always dye it. I switch back and forth between a deep chocolate brown color to a varity of blonde shades. For the longest time though I bleached my hair. It had it's ups and downs. I loved the color but it was so damaging. But I was young, stupid and away at college so I really didn't care. I regret it now. It's finally growing out and is some what healthy again except about 4 inches at the ends. (My hair at its longest point touches my butt when I'm looking straight ahead. Just FYI) However, even with all the new, healthy hair it's still dry and frizzy. The 4 inches at the bottom have a lot of effect. And to top it all off my hair is layered, like a lot.

With me finally starting to lose weight I feel the need to update my look a little. I looked for a while for a new hair cut/ style but I LOVE my long hair and don't want to cut it. So I'm left with coloring. In order to do this I need to get my hair healthy from root to tip. I've decided to try these DIY hair masks I keep seeing all over Pinterest. I was a little scared though I'm not going to lie. I've done both home and store bought masks before and it's never ended well. I did the mayo thing a few times (literally just cover your head in real mayo and sleep in it-Blehh) it kinda worked but it was messy and it smelled horrible. I did a few from Sally's and they were nasty! They did nothing except make my hair sticky even after washing it out. Anyway, After reading like 27 recipes, I gave up and just picked one. This is the one I've decided to try:

Mainly because I have all this stuff at home already and it's only 30 min instead of 6+hrs like some others I read.

So here's how it went down; I followed directions! Duh! Ha. I did however double the recipe just because my hair is so long and thick. It's really pretty simple. Here are my supplies

Also, I have eggs. Like a bunch of eggs. My mom use to have chickens (she recently got rid of them because she is moving) and would bring me tons of fresh, organic eggs all the time. Plus I would buy a few here and there when I needed some but was out. So right now I have a bunch of eggs. My problem? I hardly ever use them. Buying an entire carton is a waste in my house. I pretty much use them only to cook dinner or bake. My husband leaves the house at 4am for work so when I make him breakfast it's like breakfast tacos or a sausage and biscuit. Something simple and fast. An my son and I like to have fruit or turkey bacon to start our day. Anyway here is a fast and simple way to tell if your eggs are still good (just in case they've been sitting in the icebox for a while)

My hair before...

...and after

All in all I'd have to say I would recommend it!! It made my hair super soft and shiney. It laid flatter but wasn't heavy and didn't take away any body.

The smell was surprisingly good. It just smelled like my conditioner. I thought it was going to be nasty but it actually wasn't.

Some quick tips:

- I would maybe use slightly warm honey. It's hard to mix at room temp. But not too warm, would don't want it to cook the eggs when you mix it.

- definitely start by parting your hair Into even sections.

- wear an old shirt and use a dark colored towel over your shoulders. The oil can stain your clothes.

- rinse and repeat. I normally shampoo twice when I wash my hair but with this I shampooed three times to be sure it was all out.

- maybe use a shower cap... It was pretty hard to keep my hair up and out of my face and with this stuff in it I didn't want it touching me. I feel like a shower cap to stuff it all in would have been very handy.

They say you have to do it 1-2 times a week for a month to really see a big difference so I'll probably try it again a few times. I'll update in here if I get any just extraordinary results.

Let me know if you have a mask you love!

As always thanks for reading! Stay Beautiful,

Thrifty Days

Soooo....it's Thursday!!! Oops. I know I was suppose to weigh in on Tuesday but school started back and it's been a crazy week. I actually did weigh, I just never posted so here we are.

Before: 197lbs

This week: 194lbs

Lbs lost: 3!

It's been a good week!!

Stay beautiful,

Thrifty Days

Hello all!!!

Like I've said in many post, I'm a new mommy. My son is just over a year old so yes I still consider that new! He is an absolute blessing. He funniest little boy I've ever spent time with. But as anyone that is, has been or will ever be a mom will know, it's not all cupcakes and rainbows. Motherhood is hard. Really hard sometimes. We read and read and study and google advice but at the end of the day we just do that best we can! A lot of us have no clue what we are doing and are scared to death, especially the first time that tiny soul looked up at you and wanted to eat!!! With your new life long title comes a lot of ups and downs. Unfortunatly, for some of us, the downs start early...as in 8 months pregnant early!! I'm talking about baby weight ladies.

Ahh baby weight: the one of many things that will make you have physically being pregnant. Now not all women have to deal with this. Some women (which many refer to in not so nice ways) gain the recommended 25lbs or less, never have anything that closely resembles a stretch mark and walk out of labor and delivery smiling wearing their size 4 Miss Me Jeans. I was NOT one of those. I gained a total of 64lbs while pregnant with my son, got stretch marks everywhere, (butt, thighs, tummy, underarms...you get the picture.) and had so much water retention two weeks after given birth I lived in my husbands t shirts and basketball shorts. It was horrible. I hated myself. I hated pictures. I hated mirrors. Ugh!! I tried desperately for months and months to lose any kind of weight. I weighed 225 (ugh) when my son was born. At approx. 3 months old I was down to 210 mostly from finally losing that water weight, sleepless nights and constant efforts to try to breast feed-long story. Like a lot of women I know I stayed there. I lost maybe 5-8 lbs and it would come right back. I could never lose it and keep it off. Not a single pound. I entered into a "Biggest Loser" contest at my fire department - and lost. I joined a gym and worked out every night for months - nothing. I tried every diet pill, supplement and natural remedy I could find (within my budget) - still nothing. I couldn't figure out what in the world was wrong. Finally I took a trip to my doctor. I wanted to get my thyroid tested and anything she thought could be the problem. Everything came back normal. It was clear to me that she could see the desperation in my eyes and wanted to help but couldn't. However, she did tell me something that gave me hope and has helped me more than she knows. We ALL know that during pregnancy a lot of thugs are going on inside your body. Hormones. Water retention. Your blood volume doubles. You're feeding two people. You're expanding in multiple directions at one. Not to mention literally growing a tiny life from nothing. She told me it can take 18 to 20 MONTHS for your body to get itself back normal. That's a really long time. She said some mothers have no problem bouncing back and some it can take almost 2 years after actually giving birth. And for those of us cursed with the inability to breast feed it takes longer. While i hated hearing that (my son was 6 months at the time) it also gave me comfort. That meant maybe I actually wasn't doing something wrong. My body just wast ready. My hormones, metabolism weren't working right still not to mention the newly added stresses of being a mommy. So her doctorly advice to me was - keep on keeping on. She said keep doing what I've dedicated myself to doing. Eventually my body WILL start losing the weight. So I have been doing just that. And let me tell you, it's hard!!! It's so so hard. It's hard to look at pictures o my husband and I before I got pregnant and thing "man, I know he wants that version of me back." Don't get me wrong. My husband loves me very much. He's never so much as even hinted anything about my weight or body but as a women I can't help but feel that way. I know some of you out there get that. Anyway, it's hard to try on clothes and take pictures now and yes, even go to the gym. It's a little embarrassing and intimidating. Who knew you had to be fit to work out at a gym lol. But it's all starting to change.

I've been trying to lose weight since October 2012. The good new here is I think my body is finally I ready to start getting back into shape!! To date I've lost Right at 31lbs since the day I gave birth. I still have 33 to go until I'm pre pregnancy. I know it's cliche to write this post days after starting the new year so I would like to make one thing clear. This is NOT a New Years Resolution. It's something I've been working at for over a year. The timeing of this post is just weird. Haha. Anyway, since September I've lost 16lbs. And I plan to keep that going.

So here is my plan:

Every Tuesday I'll post here my updated weight lost, cravings, any yummy meals I've found and any bad days I've had. I've learned along the way that staying on track is really difficult. Having someone to hold you accountable is really a good thing to have. Also, one thing to remember is every BODY is a different body. We are all made different. Different genes, metabolism blah blah blah so yes it's harder for some and not one thing ever works for everyone. So here we go.

Before I got pregnant I weighed 164lbs. I wasn't "skinny" but I was thin for my body. I'm 5'6". I have a longer core and shorter legs. I have (at the moment) 36 DDD breasts which weigh a lot in themselves. I also have a large amount of American Indian in me. Because of this I have, and will always have, a big butt and thick legs. All of the women in my family are this way. Now we aren't "fat" we are just thick. When I was in high school I was a size 0. I could count ribs but still had a big butt and legs. Think Kim K. She is a good example of my body type. And the other half of me is a mix of German and Irish. So I will never ever look like this...

And believe me I am PERFECTLY okay with that. I just want to feel good about myself.

When my son was about 3 months I weighed about 210. During that time and September of 2013 I went up and down. Around my birthday I decided to really try. I told myself I have two weeks. If after two weeks of really trying I still lost nothing if would try something different. From around September 20th to about October 8th I lost 12lbs!! I was really excited. So I kept at it and in total lost 16lbs by the middle of Novemeber. Then the holidays started. I did not gain anything during the holidays so I counted that as a good job! However, the holidays are over and I'm ready to start up again!! So here I am! I started again on Saturday and have lost one pound.

Every Tuesday I'll do a weigh in. Here in my timeline in review... (Some of it might not make since but I went up and down for a while.)

Feb 2012 - 164

Oct 2012 - 228

Jan 2013 - 210

Sept 2013 - 213

Oct 2013 - 201

Nov 2013 - 197

Jan 6 204 - 197.6

I will be posting pics of my scale but my scale broke sometime between yesterday morning and writing this which sucks but oh well. But for now I'm going to post a few pre pregnancy pics so you know what I'm working towards and some pictures of me when last week and yesterday.

One more thing I would like to touch on while I'm at it is my stretch marks. It's one of the major things you notice as different in these photos. Yes I have stretch marks. I gained a lot of weight really fast when I was pregnant. I actually gained MAYBE 5pounds total until I was 7 months pregnant, about 28 weeks. When I started gaining I didn't stop. I went into labor early with my son at 34 weeks but didn't deliever until 37 so yes he was a little early. Anyway, I gained 59lbs in less than 10 weeks!! So I stretched out fast. Not to mention my son was really big. He was over 10lbs when he was born at 37 weeks. He also gained slowly for the longest time. He went from 4 lbs in one OB visit to 8.2lbs in my next visit 2 weeks later! I had a weird pregnancy. So yes I have stretch marks. I have a lot of them. I lotioned and oiled my tummy and legs every single day when I was pregnant hoping not to get them but I did. My mother on the other hand is one of those that we talked about earlier. She gained weight but lost it all within two weeks of having me. She literally wore her jeans home. She has no stretch marks. I was the complete opposite. It sucks. So no it's not all genetics like we are told ladies. I hated my stretch marks for the longest time. They made me feel terrible about myself. I just wanted them gone. I wanted a tight tummy again. Well my skin is starting to tighten up. Most of my stretch marks have faded to the white color that they turn to but they're still there. Some still purple. But I have learned to except them. I've been moms who have stretch marks like me with tight tummies and barey visible stretch marks. The only difference, they have a 4 year old. So yea I don't love them but they are a part of it. They are my scares. They tell a story of what my body was put through and survived to tell about it. So they are okay. I'm okay with them. :)

I look forward to losing what I can and I thank all of you in advance for coming with me on the journey! Feeling good about yourself is one of the most important things you can do to feel beautiful inside and out. Since this blog is all about DIY and things you love and enjoy, this is a perfect place to do this!! What better to love than yourself.

Thanks everyone!! Stay Beautiful,

Thrifty Days

Oh my goodness everyone!! I can not sleep!!! Here it is 5:41 in the morning and I'm wide awake!!! Why!?! Ugh. How irritating!

Just thought id share my frustration!! If you have any sleep tips comment below! I could definitely use them!!

Thanks

Thrifty Days

Well, well, well...we've made it!!!!!! It's the week of Christmas!! How has this come about so fast? I hope all of you have finished your Christmas shopping.

I love the holiday season. Every thing about is just so magical. When I was a little girl I couldn't wait until this time of year. As I grew up the magic sorta drifted away. Well after getting married and having my son, it's back! I want so badly to make our holidays something special and something my babies will always remember!

And yes ladies and gentlemen, I celebrate Christmas for its real reason. I do say Merry Christmas and not Happy Holidays. I know this is a huge debate amoung many groups today but since I am celebrating Christmas I say Merry Christmas. That is not meant to offended any one but we when celebrate birthdays we say happy birthday. When we celebrate Mother's Day we say happy Mother's Day right? So when we celebrate Christmas saying Merry Christmas shouldn't be this big of a deal!

I'll be posting again soon. I've found some great things lately and have made some great things. With all of our seasonal love and joy,

TD

I was walking around the store the other day when I saw the same sweater that I've seen in the same place in the same store like 1,000 times. And of course my first thought was "ugh someone buy that ugly thing so they can put new stuff out!" Truth be told, no one is going to buy that ugly sweater; sigh! Which immediately gave me two ideas. 1. I should have an ugly sweater party! 2. Write this post!

I wanted to write this post mainly for any newbs stepping into the thrifting world. Well further into my thought process I was like hey, why not make a "series?" So that's what this is. Thrifting 101. Each post will have a break down of things important to remember when searching for the best deals.

For my first post I wanted to tell you every and all stores I go to. A lot of people don't know how to shop cheap or where for that matter, and no not everything I buy is used. Actually a large portion of it are brand new things. I don't rely strictly on resale shops. If I did, I'd be playing a very dumb game. You never know what small consignment and resale shops will have (kinda, the next post will go over that). So without any further hesitation, here are the stores I shop at AND find amazing deals at.

Any resale shop! Most things here are trash yes but sometimes you'll find something amazing that is not trash that someone simply just did not want anymore. Those few things here and there make it worth the search.

Thrift shops. Yes there are a difference in thrift shops and resale shops. Everything at thrift shops is donated. This means you can get something amazing for really cheap! I find A LOT of my project and craft stuff at thrift shops. The most well known thrift shop (and one of the best for cheap cheap deals) is goodwill! I know every one says goodwill...seriously? That place is for poor people. Uh...no sorry. Not true. There are several around my house but I have one I go to most. Almost every time in there I see men in suits or ladies with big designer purses. Why?? Because it's cheap. And most of the time it's still really good stuff. Everything from art for your walls, kids clothes (a lot still with tags), workout clothes, formal/casual dresses. Everything. The have wreaths and flowers, ribbon and fabric, a hunch of glass wear for crafting and wood birdhouses and stools. All for so cheap. I love that place! It may sounds ridiculous but it's true.

Burkes Outlet. I don't know if every wear has one of these or by but I love this place too. The last Thursday of every month they move their "dots". Dots indicated the percentage off an item is. They range from 30-95% off. And this is brand new stuff. I've gotten $20 lamps for $3.50 before. $29 wine racks for $1! Home decor for less than $1. Yes you have to death here but the deals are fantastic.

Garden Ridge. Of my gosh. This place is amazing! They sometimes have amazigg sales also. Their redlined items are 50-90% off and "damaged" items (literally just a scratch sometimes or anything that's been on display) are 50% off there already lowered price. So the $150 chair with a scuff ends up being about $40 brand new.

Of course Hobby Lobby and Micheals. Again...the sales. I love both places. HB has a better selection for sure though.

And lastly, EBAY! This thing has been around for a while now and stays around for a reason.

If you're not noticing a patern here, let me break it down. Not everything has to be used, trashed or whatever. I buy a lot of brand new things for cheaper than I would used. You jut have to know our area and know the sale days for the stores you shop at. Read the newspaper (the what!?!). They run adds for stores and let you know that sales! Hello. Easy right? It's not hard you just have to know where to look.

Any questions feel free to email me.

[email protected]

Stay thrifty (and warm)

TD

I'm here to say that it's okay! So am I. I love Fall, I always have. I love the oranges and browns. I love the hay and pumpkins and even the smell. It's warm and inviting. Well this year I've been about cancelled TV show away from a mental flyaway. (Kidding!! ...kinda) Between work, school, the Hubs and the always lovely in-laws, my mind stays preoccupied. Thrifting, designing, decorating, creating; these are my outlets that keep me sane in an insane world. With all that being said, I literally just got around to decorating for Fall. And I'm okay with that. Why!?! Because My house ins't Walgreens or Walmart. I don't feel like fall should start mid July because Christmas starts two weeks before Halloween! You decorate for Halloween, then Fall (Thanksgiving...hello!) and then Christmas. It's always been sort of a tradition in my house growing up to put up and decorate the tree the day after Thanksgiving. You know, before I grew up and realized what Black Friday is! (yes I'm one of those) The saddest thing I think about all this is it's almost impossible to find anything Fall related In stores right now. You can more left over Halloween stuff. But again that's okay. Fall is prime crafting time! ;)

So don't let the money hungry business world tell you it's too late to decorate. (Annnnd now I'm rhyming) It's most definitely not. So throw some mini pumpkins and burlap down, scatter around a few leaves or whatever your Fall loving heart desires! I may have only started this week with the few pictured above but I can promise you I'm not finished, and probably won't be until December 1st!!

It's Fall y'all! Enjoy it while you can. :)

Stay thrifty and warm,

Thrifty Days.

P.S. - Sorry for my mini rant. It's just irritating. I fully understand and agree with the whole preparing early thing (I've been Christmas shopping since June-ish) but we need to slow down and enjoy our holidays one at a time!!

So like I said in my other post, I'm really in a wreath making mood. Idk why! So last night I pinned a ton of wreath ideas and noticed that I was really attracted to the burlap wreaths. I love burlap! I love the rustic feel it gives off. So with that being said, my next project is going to be a burlap wreath! Ahh I'm so excited. I'll be heading to the store after my husband and I eat "breakfast" (he works nights so 5pm is breakfast time for him.) see you soon!

Thrifty Days