Simply smooth!

It has been forever since I blogged.
Here's a little update:
I'm going into my last semester of Cosmetology school in September, my husband and I just bought our first home last month and I haven't had much time to sew but I have been doing quite a bit of Crochet.

In school this past week my class asked for volunteers in this new Brazilian Keratin treatment for your hair called Simply Smooth Keratin treatment. This is normally at least a 3 hour process that costs about $300 in a salon, that I got free. It is supposed to take out about 50-60% of curl in the hair and completely take out frizz. Not that I don't love my curls, but it is nice to have a change.
I got the treatment on Thursday night and I can't wash my hair for 4 days after. I'm going so crazy here that i've started putting baby powder in my hair so I don't look totally gross. And I still have 2 more days to go. Oh well! This is what we have to do for beauty. Anyway, when I do finally get to wash my hair Monday night, I have to use products that are Sulfate, salt, and Formaldehyde free. There are no chemicals in the treatment so it's actually really not too bad for the hair. It's supposed to last for 12-16 weeks as long as I use the correct products and don't over wash my hair.



Here's the before picture


And the after.





P.S- i'm thinking of changing my blog name. Any ideas?

Crochet today part 2

I am so excited about this magazine that I couldn't fit it all into one blog.
So here is part two; For the kids


I Love, love, love this poodle and it would match Lauren's bathroom decor perfectly.










Halloween costume hat's. So cool!




















Cute skirt.
















Owl bookbag










And some great camping crochet

Crochet Today!

So, about a month ago I got an e-mail from amazon, giving me a coupon for a years subscription to a magazine for $8.99. I found this magazine in the list called Crochet today! I have received 2 issues already and I absolutely love it. There are so many projects I want to try, and the greatest thing about it is that most of the patterns are in the magazine.

I have been looking for a chrochet bag all summer just like this one and was unable to find it. Now I can make it!

These pillows (below) don't really go with my couch but Im sure I can find a good reason to make them.

Love this cover up! although it seems difficult.

And I can even make jewelry, halloween pot-holders, and chair cushions.

I'm so excited!

Fly

Check out the shirt I made myself. I hardly ever make myself anything but I had to have this one. It's the Amy Butler pattern Lotus dress, tunic, cami. I got the fabric from our local shop called Pennington Quilt works it says air mail, and Par Avion on it.


I love that it buttons up that back but it is a challenge to button yourself. The pattern was fairly simple. I'm sure the next one I make will be much easier, you can change it also to make it a dress or tunic and it has the option for cap sleeves also.
You probably noticed that it's wrinkled in the back. That's not because it's too tight I just wore it to work that day and my husband wasn't home earlier to take a picture for me.

Let Your Heart Sing

My neices just had a birthday celebration. Their birthday's are only about a week apart so they celebrated it together at a Tinkerbell Tea Party. Unfortunately I got a nasty cold that turned into a sinus infection that week, so I was unable to attend.

Of course I had to make their gifts. I made them each a pair of pajama pants with fabric I got while I was in Lancaster. This pair with the fairies was for the 2 year old.

My favorite part of the fairy fabric is the glittery wings, and from what I've heard Brynna just loves sparkles.

This pair with the princesses was for the 4 year old.

They tie on the inside with a ribbon I attached to an elastic, and the bottoms are hemmed with the same coordinating fabric on both.

I am feeling slightly better now but cold symptoms have an awful tendency to linger for weeks.

My week got even better when my refridgerator died in the middle of the night and it was about 90+ degrees out.

Cherry baby

I whipped up this dress pretty quickly for my neice Lauren. Her mommy wanted something for her to wear similar to the pinafore top I made her sister Emily. The pattern came out of a newer book my mom got me from Amazon.com, called Making Children's Clothes by: Emma Hardy

Sorry for the blurriness, this kid just does not stop moving.

It was so quick and easy to make although I did get stuck on the yo-yo's because i've never made one before.

The top half of the dress is lined with the exterior fabric, I added an inch to the pattern and even made a longer hem and it was still a little short (the pattern does say for up to 5 yrs and she's only 3).

Now I have two other special neices that need some gifts for their July birthday's so I better get sewing.

Uptown Girls

Last weekend my family and I went to visit my Grandma in Connecticut. We went went shopping in Ridgefeild and we found this really cute boutique called Valery's. It had very affordable purses and jewelry. My Grandma bought me this bracelet (below).

Monday my mom and I took a girls day to Lancaster, PA to go fabric shopping. I got so much fabric for upcoming birthday's and Christmas, I just hope I can get most of my projects made before my summer break is over.

We went to so many great fabric stores and they all have much better prices than we have her in NJ. This store is the only one I remembered to take a picture of but it's called Zooks and it has almost all Amish women working there. We also went to a store called The Old Country Store, Bitty Kinna which was a beautiful store, and a few others whose names I can't remember.

Whoopie!!

Beautiful Irises in my back yard. We've never seen them before because there was a bush in the way that wouldn't let them grow.


One of my rose trees in the front of the house.

I took off work and school Monday and made Whoopie pies. There was so much batter is was almost going over the edge of my mixin bowl.

Yum!

Recipe from Foodnetwork.com

Ingredients
3 cups sugar
1 cup butter
4 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
6 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 tablespoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups milk
Filling, recipe follows
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, or preheat a convection oven to 315 degrees F.
In a large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the sugar, butter, and eggs together until well combined. Add the oil and vanilla and beat again.
In a separate bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients. Add half of the dry mixture to the egg mixture and beat or stir to blend. Add 1 1/2 cups milk and beat again. Add the remaining dry mixture and beat until incorporated. Add the remaining 1 1/2 cups milk and beat until blended.
With a large spoon, scoop out 32 circles of batter onto a baking sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool.
Spread filling onto 16 circles and place remaining circles on top, to make 16 Whoopie Pies.
Filling:
1 1/2 cups shortening
3 cups confectioners' sugar
1 1/3 cups marshmallow topping
Dash salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 to 1/2 cup milk
In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine all ingredients except the milk and beat well. Add just enough milk to achieve a creamy consistency. Spread filling across cooled cookie circles.

Born to be Wild

My sister in law and I found a picture of this online at http://babyfavorsandgifts.com/dog-on-motorcycle-diaper-cake-p-118.html. We decided to give it a try and make it ourselves. Thank goodness Jake was there to help.

It has: Bibs, receiving blankets, diapers, a bottle, socks, toy key ring, and a dishwasher basket for pacifiers. We ended up with lots of leftover stuff to give to the soon to be mommy and we made it for a very good price.

Ups and downs

In school a few weeks ago I finally got to do a real perm and boy do they smell. I really like the end result though. Unfortunatley this is the experimental head and it's cut super short now.

Last week I did highlights with the cap and then put a color on top. I chose Flame, the color didn't come out great in the picture but it is a very cool red. I think I want to do this to my hair soon.

This is a style after the highlighting. This hair really doesn't cooperate.

These pictures below are my first semi updo. All of the manikin's hair is short so I don't have much to work with. This is not a ponytail it's cascading curls.

Easter and Flowers

The flowering peach trees Jake planted last year were quite disappointing this year. The weather has been a lot warmer than a typical spring here in NJ. Usually early spring you wouldn't be able to see any of the red leaves on these trees, they would be covered in these beautiful pink flowers.

I decided last minute to make my neices, Emily and Lauren an Easter gift. I've had the fabric for this pillow case for a long time, so I finally decided it was time to make it for Lauren. She is 3 1/2.

This is a picture of Emily and Lauren on Easter with their Nana and Pepere.

My mother is going to be very angry I put this picture in here but I like it.

This is what I made Emily. She can't wear it yet but hopefully this summer she can fit into it. I made another Pinafore top with bloomers.

This is showing the back view of the Pinafore top.