Sharing: Curling Hair Tutorial by Amy at Karmincovers

photo via weheartit

Several weeks ago Jennifer did a post on how to style curly hair fast.  While this method works if you have crazy, wildly curly hair (which we both do,) if you don't have naturally curly hair, it's not going to work so well for you.
A week or two ago, one of my friends sent me a link to a video on youtube entitled How to Rock a Mohawk Without Chopping Your Hair Off.  Naturally, after reading such a title, like any good friend I was slightly concerned when my friend mentioned that she wanted to try doing the hairstyle in the video.  However, despite the name, the hairstyle in the tutorial is actually rather cute.  It looks more like a complicated updo than a mohawk.

However, back to curling hair.  The girl in the video, Amy who is half of the musical duo Karmin, also has a tutorial for girls with straight hair who want natural looking curls.  She uses a method with a curling iron that I've never seen anyone use before.  I haven't had a chance to try this out for myself  but looking at her end result is amazing!

Personally, I tend to use hot rollers rather than a curling iron just because it's so much faster to use hot rollers. Usually Jennifer and I use Remington H9000 Pearl Ceramic Heated Clip Hair Rollers

Also, while you're checking out her hair tutorials, I would suggest listening to some of the covers that her band does.  Amy has an amazing voice (in addition to her beautiful hair.)

That's all for today.  Good luck trying out curly hair!

Teacake Recipe from Paula Deen

In eleventh grade, my English class read Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, and just for fun our teacher brought us some teacakes in honor of the character in the book Teacake. Our teacher's mother made them, and I am making no exaggeration when I say a crumb fell on my paper and left a mark from all the butter in the cookies. The cookies were amazing, and ever since, I have been in search of a good tea cake recipe. I thought where better to get a teacake recipe than the southern cooking queen Paula Deen?

You can find Paula Deen's recipe for Southern Tea Cakes at foodnetwork.com

So I tried her recipe and the verdict is that while they were not quite what I was looking for, they were still pretty tasty. More sugary than the buttery taste I was looking for, however, they turned out beautifully. Thank you Paula Deen!

Hello from London!

Hi everyone!  I'm currently on my spring break, and I'm taking a visit to London.  I found this photo through pinterest.com several days ago, and I thought that you might enjoy looking at it. 

  

I think that the image is originally from The Wedding Chicks.  While I'm not too concerned about the wedding part, I really love the combination of the red in the dress with the red from the phone booth behind.  Then, there's Big Ben in the background.  So cute! 

Hopefully, I'll have a bit to share about my travels when I get back. 

Have a lovely day!

What to Do After You Wash Your Sperrys and the Laces Won't Go Back Into the Holes

If you have ever attempted to wash your Sperrys, you either left the laces in the shoes, thus ruining your laces or took them out and now have no idea how to get them back into the shoes. I did the second one, and my solution was to put ribbons in the place of the laces since they are thin enough to double over and still fit through the eyelets. I will take you through the steps of how I got the ribbon through the holes.


You will need ribbon, clear nail polish, tape, and a large bobby pin.

1. Thread the ribbon in between the two prongs of the bobby pin and push the ribbon down to the closed end.
2. Tape the end of the ribbon so that the ribbon forms a loop around the closed end of the bobby pin. Then, the ribbon will stay on when you pull it through the loops. The ribbon and bobby pin should resemble a needle and thread.
3. After you have the bobby pin and ribbon attached, you can slide the bobby pin into the eyelets and pull them through.

The solution is much prettier than my previous solution of simply lacing the shoes with old leather shoe strings in the front.

The 5 Shoes That Every Girl Needs

It is widely acknowledged that most women love shoes.  The average woman has anywhere from 15 to 60 shoes depending on which survey you decide to count.  However, what if you simply don't have the space for this many shoes or you just don't want to be bothered by so many? I've come up with a list of the absolutely essential minimum of shoes that should be in your closet.  After all, 5 certainly isn't too difficult to handle.

1- Black ballet flat - These are wonderful because you can wear these every day with almost any outfit.  You will look stylish while wearing these, and your feet will be much happier than if they spent the entire day in heels.  If you feel that you don't have enough cushioning in flats, you can always add inserts for even more comfy-ness.

2- Black high heels - These will be your more dressed-up shoes.  Again, I suggest black here.  However, you can possibly get away with buying these in any neutral color.  Black is just the simplest to choose and match.  The most important thing about buying your black high heels is that they must fit you perfectly and they must be as comfortable as possible.  If you have to spend more on this basic pair, it will be worth it in the long run.

3- Gladiator sandals - These may seem more like a passing trend than a basic that every girl should have in her closet.  However, if you are careful not to buy a pair too trendy and wild, you will be able to wear this through several seasons.  Gladiator sandals are perfect for casual outfits, but can easily be transformed to go with more dressy outfits as well.  If you are only going to own one pair of sandals, they should be gladiators.

4- Black strappy high heels - In addition to your pair of basic black high heels, you should add a pair of strappy heels.  For times when your black high heels feel too formal, but your gladiator sandals just aren't quite enough, these high heels can fill the gap.  I generally suggest wearing these with summer dresses, of course.

5- Tennis Shoes - While not as much fun as the other shoes listed above, everyone should own a pair of tennis shoes or sneakers if that's what you call them (thanks to my Canadian friends for being confused when I mentioned tennis shoes.)  You need a pair of shoes that you can wear while working out or for circumstances in which you find yourself being dragged on a hike.  Plus, quite simply sometimes your feet just need a break.  After all, they work very hard for you each day.

I realize that this list is slightly geared towards those who live in warmer climates because it lacks such essentials as winter boots.  You might need to adapt this list based on where exactly you live.  However, there are a few key points in picking out your own basics.  First, as you may have noticed every shoe that I have pictured is either brown or black.  This is because these colors work with almost everything in your closet.  After you have the basic covered, then you can move on to more fun colors.  You don't want to only own five shoes if one of them is in  a color that you can only wear with one outfit.  Second, don't be afraid to spend a bit more money on the basics.  Shoes can be expensive, but wearing shoes are well made will save your feet lots of pain.  You want your feet to be happy.

I plan to do another article soon on other classic shoes past the bare minimum that every girl should own.  Does anyone have any suggestions?

Traveling: Shakespeare and Company

I've been really lucky in being able to travel around some while I'm studying in France.  There's one place that I'd really like to share with you if you ever happen to be in Paris.  It's called Shakespeare and Company, and it's a wonderfully charming English used bookstore.

Now I realize, of course, that one doesn't generally go to Paris to buy English books.  However, it's right across from Notre Dame, so if you're going to look at Notre Dame, you might as well take a stop by this bookstore.

Being a book lover, I adored the inside of the store.  There are books, not just on the walls and in the bookshelf, but on every available surface.  The store is very tiny which means that each time you step into a new room, you feel a bit like an adventurer, and you never know exactly what you'll see next.

Sadly, I didn't buy any books because I'm supposed to be reading French books at the moment as opposed to English books since that's what I'm here to learn.  However, I will hopefully stop before I head back home and pick up a book or two.

Favorite Discoveries of the Week

Photo credit weheartit

Hello everyone!  This week on our favorite discoveries post, the focus is more on fashion and style.  The wonderful thing about many of these links is regardless of how into these two subjects you are or not, you can still enjoy taking a look at them.

The first link is for both the girls who love getting dressed up and the ones who don't.  At collegefashion.net you can read the 25 reasons why you should dress up every day. For those who already enjoy dressing up, the article will remind you of all of the reasons why you choose to do so, and for those who don't enjoy dressing up quite so much the article offers several reasons to inspire you to dress up a bit more even if it's not every day. 

This next link is about one of my favorite trends, the long skirt trend.  You can read this NY Times article about the long skirt trend that has been slowly gaining popularity.  I am very much a fan of this trend because there is just a limit to how short a skirt can go.  The article projects that the trend will last several years, so now would be the perfect time for you to get in on the trend if you wish.  And the wonderful part about the trend is that if you're more modest you can continue wearing the longer skirts after it ends, or if you aren't, then you can always shorten your skirts later.

Next, if you enjoy fashion and beauty but you like keeping it to the basics, here's another article by collegefashion.net about the 5 nail polish colors every girl should own.  5 is a number that's easily manageable, and your vanity won't be cluttered with too many bottles of unused nail polish, but you'll still have enough colors to switch up to match your looks.

To make the choosing of nail polish even simpler, you should stop by All Lacquered Up.  At this incredibly useful blog, you can look at tons of swatches from different nail polish collections that the blogger has tried out for herself.  If you are looking to pick your 5 nail polish colors as advised by the article directly above, this is a wonderful resource to make sure that you get exactly the 5 that you want.

Finally, I don't know about you, but I'm one of those people who never seems to  wear jewelry.  I own one or two pieces of nice jewelry that I really like and that I wear frequently whenever I remember actually remember to wear jewelry.  However, I recently stumbled on a post at The World According to Marilyn in which Marilyn talks about her obsession with jewelry and shows a few pieces of affordable jewelry that you can buy.  If you, too, are a jewelry lover, then you should check out this article.  If you're more like me, then you should still check it out as well for some inspiration on maybe just maybe adding another piece of jewelery to your collection.

Thanks you for stopping by this week.  I hope that you have a lovely weekend!

Book Review: Beat This! Cookbook

I know that it might seem strange for me to be reviewing a cookbook when I've pointed out that I don't currently have a kitchen and I won't have one again until June at the earliest.  However, Beat This! Cookbook by Ann Hodgman is just too enjoyable not to share.

If you cook often, you know that you have lots of cookbooks that you really only use occasionally for one or two recipes.  On your shelf, this one has the best pie recipe, and this one has the best casserole so you have quite a lot of cookbooks.  What if you had one cookbook with the best of every type of recipe all in one book?

Well, the claim that Ann Hodgman makes is that every single recipe in Beat This! is the best recipe that you will find for that dish.  Are all of her recipes as good as she says?  I can’t say for certain because I have yet to test any of her recipes for myself (I look forward to doing so as soon as possible, however.)  This new cookbook which was released March 7^th 2011 is the new and updated version of the cookbook by the same name published in 1999, so one would hope that these recipes are even more amazing than the last ones.

The best part of this book is the author’s style of writing.  While some might find her assertions that her recipes are the best slightly annoying, quite frankly I wouldn't want to try a recipe if someone told me that it was just an “ok” recipe.  The way that she describes her recipes is so enticing.  Her recipe for Brussels sprouts makes me want to try them just as much as I want to the brownies proceeding them, and Brussels sprouts aren’t usually a thing that you want as much as brownies. 

Ann Hodgman gives plenty of helpful advice before she gives you the recipe.  For example, she explains why frozen blueberries are actually better to use in pies something that I’ve never heard before.  Chances are that you will also enjoy the way that she gives tips such as “Triangles, by the way, always make a bar cookie look more impressive.”  As you may see, the style of Beat This! is different from most other cookbooks.  In addition to the above, Hodgman chose to arrange the alphabetically by the main ingredient.  This leads to some interesting combination next to each other, but why should all cookbooks be arranged the same way anyway?  I think that it works well for this book.

So if you are looking for another cookbook for your collection, I would certainly suggest Beat This! Cookbook.  Even if you don’t enjoy cooking quite as much as I do, you might enjoy reading through it all the same.

(I received a free version of this book from netgalley.  However, I was not required to review it favorably or at all unless I decided to do so.)

Favorite Discoveries of the Week

Credit - weheartit

It looks like my favorite links for this week are leaning more towards books/literature.

First, let's start with a post on The Simply Luxurious Life entitled Why Not Read - Part Une.  Shannon gives five very good reasons why one should read.  I can't wait until next week to see what she writes in part two.  I'm sure that you don't need to be convinced to read, but you should take a stop by anyway.

Now that you know all of the reason why you should be reading.  You have to decide what to read.  Right now I'm still hooked on Dailylit where you can have sections of books emailed to you every day.  I'm currently still reading about Jane Austen's life.  However, when I finish I want to read Crazy Busy Beautiful: Beauty Secrets for Getting Gorgeous Fast by Carmindy (yes, the make-up artist on What Not to Wear.)

Ok, this next one is a bit silly and really just for a bit of procrastinating.  It's still amusing though.   It's on Sporcle which I was first introduced to at college because college students are wonderful at wasting time.  Can you name the literary works in other words?  I'm not going to reveal how many I got right unless someone asks, but I'd like to know how well did you do?

If you're interested in something other than books this week, why not try some cooking?  Take a look at Pop-Tarts to Gold Fish: 7 Snack Foods to Make at Home on thekitchn. I'm really wanting to try the homemade oreos.  How about you?

Finally, for everyone interested in fashion, South Southern Style has a giveaway for Emma Graham Designs on her blog.  I had never heard of Emma Graham designs, but I love this first look at the line especially since I could see girls at my university wearing any one of the dresses to a football game.  If you don't live in the South, that idea might not make sense.  That doesn't mean that you shouldn't check it out though.

That's all for this week.  I hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

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