Curly Locks, Curly Locks

Hola!

Today I'm going to talk about the pill. No, it's not the pill you're thinking of, and no, I'm not pregnant. :) I'm talking about the pill I think should be invented, so pill scientists, listen up. This could be big.

We need a pill that will stop us women from talking about how frustrated we are with our hair. I don't know about you, but I've yet to meet a female who loves every last strand of her hair--the curlies want it straight and the straighties want curls. It's too think or too thin or too course or too fine.

So, don't mind me, as I share with the world a portion of my hair sob story:

When I was a baby, I had no hair. Not a strand--until I was two years old! When it did come in, it was thin and fine. (If only we were talking about something other than hair, that might be considered a good thing. But wait, I'm two years old right now. I digress.)

When I hit puberty (hate that word), some of my hair went curly, especially on the sides. As if all the other changes that come with the "p" word weren't enough, my side kinks made their debut. (Think Einstein.) And so I suffered through having weird half straight/half really curly hair for many years.

And then I grew up, got married, and after I started having kids, my hair went back to being straight. I was mostly thrilled with that, except for when I'd see a movie with Keri Russel in it--then I'd wish for my curls back. But wait, my hair never looked like Keri Russel's in the first place, so nevermind.

But get this. They're back! My side kinks are back with a vengeance! The hair that fell out after having baby #3 is growing in curly just like back in the good ol' "p" days. And boy, that's been a lot of fun-- short little whispy hair coming in against the rest of my long straight hair. It's awesome.

The bottom line is, I'm pretty sure hormones have a great deal to do with what our hair does, our skin does, our metabolism, our moods. So scientists, what we need is a custom hormone pill that is different for each girl, so that life can be really boring and all girls can look perfect and alike and be super happy all the time. Oh, and we'd want to customize our pill regularly since our hormones change every three seconds.

Until then, bring it, side kinks. I own you! :)

That's all.

XOXO,

Marie

A Love Song called "Sweet Nothings"

Hey girls!

Ever since Lissie and I wrote the song Pixie Dust together, I've been itching to write some more lyrics! It's so cool to send her my words and have her tweak them and write the music, and then sing it with that angelic voice of hers! So, this past week I worked on a love song about my husband and me. :) Seriously, Lissie, change anything! I can't wait to hear what you come up with!




Sweet Nothings

From the first time I saw you laugh,

All I ever wanted was to be with you.

When we held hands, I prayed you'd never let go;

At just eighteen, I would've said, "I do."

But you knew, oh, you knew.

We were still too young--

We needed to fly alone

Had solos that needed sung

And so like the gift of the maji

You let me blossom and become.

You said, "Goodbye, I hope someday..."

You said, "Carpe diem."

And it's those sweet nothings

That are really something to make my thoughts

Run wild with love for you.

If only you could hear all the ways I think about you.

Somehow I knew we were meant to be.

And you didn't tell me then,

But I knew you loved me:

The crazy me, the quiet me, the dreamer in me.

Yeah, somewhere I knew you loved me.

The sweet me, messy me, moonstruck me.

All of me.

That's why you said goodbye.

And it's those sweet nothings

That are really something to make my thoughts

Run wild with love for you.

If only you could hear all the ways I think about you.

Turns out you were right;

We had some growing to do.

And thank heavens I was right

Four years later, I said yes to you.

Now here we are, living our love song

I'm not perfect, always leaving things ajar

But instead of get annoyed

You just tease that I'm your movie star.

A kiss before you twirl me

And then you spin me into you

Though you normally don't dance

You know I love to.

Oh, your sweet nothings

They mean everything

And if you only knew

All the times my heart skips for you.

XOXO,

Marie

A Tea Party

Hey there!

My firstborn little angel turned six on Saturday! (Emma called Isabella her "first-born niece" the other day, and I thought it was so funny. :))


So, we sent out invitations on little doilies that said:

"Wear your fanciest dress and your mother's pearls;
We're having a tea party just for the girls!"

There was many an "oooh" and "aaah" as the girls arrived. Everyone looked so gorgeous!

We started the party off with some hat decorating.


Next, we played London Bridge is Falling Down while we waited for everyone to finish their hats. I was surprised how much they loved that!

I had so much fun pinning a tea party board on Pinterest for inspiration. There were oh- so-many cute decorating ideas out there and it was fun to implement some of them. I loved watching the girls walk single file out into our backyard. Despite their excitement, they were so graceful! It was adorable.

Every single day for a week, Isabella reminded her Daddy to bring home pink and red roses from his flower shops. That he did! It was the perfect touch.

And I finally tried out making these Martha Stewart Tissue Poms (so easy!):

At Isabella's request, there was cheesecake (Costco) with pink Oreos sprinkled atop:

Lovely gifts from sweet girls:

And petal throwing to top it all off!

It was a tea party for the storybooks, and I couldn't have done it without some of my own awesome friends lending me things (Jill, Erin, Court, Pat--thank you!), and I really couldn't have done it without my mother in law and her sister, Aunt Muriel. And last but not least, a big thanks to my husband for staying up late and waking up early to help me (love), and to Isabella for dreaming up so many of the details. I adore that girl.

Now, sometime I'll have to post about playing hostess! I stink at it! But six little birthday parties in, I think I'm getting a little better. :)

XOXO,
Marie

Mow, Baby, Mow!

I know I'm not the only one. Am I the only one? You’ve never mowed a lawn in your life either, right?



I’m happy to report that Husband and I went on a kid-free date this last Friday night. Thanks to my fabulous neighbor who started up a little babysitting co-op between four families, we will get to go on a date three Friday nights of the month! (One Friday night a month we get to watch twelve kids!) Brilliant, eh?

So, thank you for all of your comments and suggestions on “It’s Date Night!” They really motivated me to do something about not taking our kids with us on dates, and I feel armed with lovey dovey ideas now. ☺

In one of the comments, I had someone suggest that we teach each other something, and that got me thinking about our lawn. It’s struggling. I water it almost every day, and yet it still doesn’t grow much. Husband fertilizes it. I talk to it and look upon it with care and concern daily; that’s gotta count for something!

But we don’t mow it too often; or I should say, Husband doesn’t mow it too often (sorry, I had to tell them, Babe). I figure it’s kind of like getting your haircut regularly; it helps it grow faster and healthier. I think?

Since it was my turn to plan our date, Friday night seemed like the perfect time to have him teach me. I figured it'd be just like the movies when boy romantically puts his arms next to girl's arms and teaches her how to shoot an arrow, cheek to cheek. So, after a yummy dinner out, I had Husband drive me home so he could show me how to mow our lawn. Yes, he did a double take when I told him my plan in the car. You wanna what?

Turns out it was amazingly fun, and I plan on mowing my heart out weekly.

And the funniest thing is, while I was out mowing, my neighbors who are also in the babysitting co-op, drove by pointing fingers and laughing at me!

Turns out she’s a rookie mower, too. Just a few days earlier that week, she’d had her husband teach her how to mow. You probably had to be there, but it was pretty funny!

Now I know I’m not the only one!

XOXO,

Marie

A Penny for your Pin

Happy Monday Morning!

Have you guys become as obsessed as I have with Pinterest? It's genius, and a quick browse easily turns into an hour-long affair for me if I'm not careful! It's definitely inspired me silly, especially in the hair department. Who can feel good about a ponytail when the likes of this, this and this are floating around Pinterest with captions like "so easy!"


I'll tell you what, a lot of the hairdos are indeed easy, but most of them don't look that great with my signature side kinks and thin hair. But, inspired by this pin,


I did manage to go out in public with a fancier-than-normal do without feeling like it was a mess of bobby pins. I need to practice more, and I think next time I'll try and get it to come more from the side.

See my kinks? And my awesome "bangs" that are finally growing after loosing so much hair after having the baby? I'm just glad they're not sticking straight up in anymore. :)

K, next up, Emma bought me these awesome dishes at Goodwill last time she came to visit. Actually, she bought them for herself and I cooed over them so much and did things like this...

and this...

...that she left them as a thank-you for me. She is the sweetest and always knows how to give the best presents! But unfortunately, Husband thinks they are way too 70s and will have nothing to do with helping me hang them on the wall. He will have nothing to do with hanging any kind of dish on the wall. He said something about grandma??

But hell0. Don't they go so well with my pictures? Or maybe you're with Husband...speak up, speak up! So, in hopes of convincing him that hanging dishes on a wall is totally cool, I've been searching Pinterest for cute dish collages and boy, I want to go on a dish hunt and splash whimsical dishes on every other wall in my house ...maybe for date night this weekend. :)

By the way, that second one is fabric hoops! Be still my heart.



Okay, next up. Frames used as earring hangers. Husband actually made me this several years ago. I painted an old frame and he attached the wires for me on the back. I LOVE this thing. It hangs in my bathroom right next to the mirror above my sink and it's so practical and so cute! I think I just need a bigger one now. Or perhaps a collage of earring frames?? I'm a bit of an earring junkie and one 5x7 just isn't cutting it.

Here are some bigger ones I found on Pinterest:



And last but not least...ornate frames! I found this one for a BUCK at a garage sale a few weeks ago and hung it above my daughter's bed. I looooove it!

And some cool pins of ornate frames:

That's all for now. I'm trying to be less long winded. I've noticed that I'm the sister with posts a mile long. I just get on here and I can't stop talking!

XOXO,

Marie