decisions decisions

The littlest guy has been part of our family for almost 6 weeks now. He's spending more time awake and has started cooing as well as eeking out the occasional smile, which is great after weeks of him just crying at me during his few waking moments.

What is not great is my hair. It's officially a hot mess that can only be worn in some sort of pony tail, braid, or bun. It's just too long too be practical for me, not to mention the ends are ridiculously damaged. It needs cut and how! No clue what I want to do with it though. I had been planning on getting a middy plus, but I've really been into more 60's hairstyles lately so I'm wondering if maybe I should just go with a bob of some sort. I don't want it too short because I've spent soooo long growing it out, but what's the point in having long hair if it's always pulled into a pony tail?


I'm thinking something in the Laura Petrie style could be cute. What do you think? 60's flip or 40's middy?


60's

or


40's?

The photo of Ava Gardner is actually pretty true to what my hair looks like when I cold set it on sponge rollers as far as tightness of curl and frizz factor goes. However now my hair is too long (and thick and heavy) to take a cold set very well, hence all the pony tails and updo's.

Do a gal a solid and help me decide. Flip or middy?

date night hair

I'm in a little bit of fragile pregnant emotions mode right now. I had the most stressful day in a long line of stressful days with my three kiddos today. I had texted my husband to say how overwhelmed I was and he responded that he already had a babysitter lined up for the night and we were going out to dinner! Aside from the timing being dead on, my husband has never planned a date out A.)without me telling him to take me out, and B.)done any of the arrangements on his own. He is a really great man and wonderful husband, but planning dates just isn't his forte, so this news on this day was amazing.

I kept the kids busy for a bit before I started to work on my hair and I had literally just finished and was about to lay on a good shellac of hairspray when the phone rang. It was my sweet husband, calling to say that there was a situation at work and we weren't going to be able to go out tonight after all. Despite his reassurances that it's all good to go for tomorrow night instead, I couldn't help but sit on the edge of the tub and cry my little preggo eyes out. Never the less, my hair looks good and I want photographic evidence of it.

front:

back:

Those stinkin' french twists are tougher than they look! I'm sure it doesn't help that I haven't really had hair long enough to do one in YEARS so it's completely foreign to me.

My husband has no clue when he'll be able to get home. I'm going to guess it'll be after the kids go to bed, so I need to get some sort of dinner going now that it's 7pm.

my very first youtube tutorial!

I've never made a youtube tutorial before, and it honestly isn't something I plan on making a regular thing, but I discovered this quick and easy 40's 'do and was just so impressed with the simplicity and effectiveness of it that I HAD to share it.

let's talk coif

Every week, usually on either Friday, Saturday, or Sunday night, I wash my hair and set it in sponge rollers. I believe the ones I have are by Conair and came in a pack of 4 different sizes.

It looks something like this. I start with hair that is 97% dry. I like to let it air dry as much as possible, but usually end up hitting the back of my head with the blowdryer on low because I get impatient. My bangs/fringe are rolled on a jumbo roller. In this picture I have them rolled towards my face, but I usually opt to roll them away from my face so I can easily shape them into a victory roll or pomp later in the week if I feel like it. I have a deep side part and the top of the heavier side is rolled on the large size rollers going upwards, everything else is directed down. Once I get the top rolled up, I roll a row on the jumbo rollers, and then the bottom I roll with the large rollers. With each section, I separate the hair that I want to go into the roller, comb through it and then lightly spray it with dilluted Lottabody setting lotion. I don't want it too damp because then it won't dry, but I also don't want it too dry because then there won't be much of a curl. It took a bit of trial and error to figure out what level of dampness worked for me. I usually end up using 8 jumbo rollers and 6 large rollers total. Once it's completely rolled, I tie a bandanna around my head to keep the rollers from slipping out of place while I sleep.

Typically the rollers stay in my hair for around 12 hours give or take a few hours. I take them out in the morning and break up the curls with my fingers before brushing through them and then using some sort of product to help smooth the frizzies. It ends up looking like this:

Voila! Tight, bouncy curls that are playful and fun.

This is what my hair looks like on day 6 of my set. The curls have relaxed and it's much softer looking, but definitely still a stable curl. I've brushed it every day, and only used hairspray on day 2. I also don't wrap my hair under a scarf or anything to sleep on it after the initial set. I just let it do what it wants at night. (Excuse the repeat clothing. I don't have a huge wardrobe normally, but adding pregnancy has taken it down that much more.)

I have to admit that sleeping on the foam rollers is not the most comfortable thing in the world, but I will gladly pay the price to have the luxury of not having to do anything more than brush my hair in the morning for an entire week and still have fab retro hair. Those ladies were onto something back in the day!!

Love in the Afternoon

I've always been an Audrey Hepburn fan. Always. In a time filled with blonde bombshells, she exuded glamour and charm and gave all us flat chested brunettes a shining ray of hope. One of my favorite quotes from her is from a 1989 interview with Barbara Walters in which she said,

"My look is attainable. Women can look like Audrey Hepburn by flipping out their hair, buying the large sunglasses, and the sleeveless dresses."

Though she was speaking more of her Breakfast at Tiffany's look, which is certainly iconic and stunning and yet also easy to emulate, I thought today I'd go for one of Hepburn's earlier looks. I've always loved her romantic looking pageboy bob from when she starred in Love in the Afternoon (1957) with Gary Cooper.

I didn't quite get all the bends since I used sponge rollers instead of pin curls, but I'm still pretty pleased with how it turned out.

What exactly *have* I been up to?

Hello. My name is Dott, and I am a text-book procrastinator. Ugh. I do it every time, think over and over to myself, "I'm okay on that deadline. I've got plenty of time." Only to realize at the last minute, "Woah! No you don't! You don't have any time at ALL!!! Get your butt in gear!!! Everything has to be done now NOW NOW!!!!" Ahem. So, I didn't really do any sewing at all in the month of June. Yeah, that's right. I pretty much wasted an entire month. There's still the rest of July and August till Self-Stitched September kicks off, though, and I vow to make the most of the next six-ish weeks. Last week I finally sat down and sewed the Vogue dress I last posted about. For some reason I was really intimidated by this pattern. Maybe it was the princess seams? I'm not sure. It ended up going together extremely easily and then, as always happens, I felt silly for making a mountain out of a mole hill.

I really love the way it turned out. I had to take it in a bit in the bust, but I pretty much have to take EVERYTHING in in the bust. Still though, I'm quite pleased with it.

I'm wearing the July Blossom of the Month from Belle Blossoms. Last month the B.O.M. was a rose and I received a beautiful peach colored rose. This month it is all about the orchid, and I could not be happier with it. Both blooms are incredibly realistic looking. They look as if you could bruise the petals. Orchids are some of my favorite flowers (I had green cymbidium orchids as one of the flowers in my bouquet and centerpieces when my husband and I renewed our vows back in May.) and the tropical flower is a great accessory for my Hawaiian inspired dress.

I'm not sure what I'm going to sew next, but I figure that I need to make at least one item a week from here on out to have a decent amount of self-stitched inventory. I'm thinking separates is probably the way to go.