Some girls can get DIRTY too...

This blog was inspired by this volunteer opportunity I took advantage of yesterday. I am a founder of a volunteer group within the company I work for and I try to participate as much as possible. I love giving back. Nothing feels better than helping those in need and in your own community. To be able to feel like your contributing to something means so much.

For those of you who follow this blog. It is true this is ALL about beauty! I have news for you. I'm more than OK going sans makeup to work, or getting my nails chipped, or letting my eyebrows grow in from time to time. I'm ok if my hair is in a bun and I haven't brushed it for 2 days. Basically, what I'm saying is sometimes I don't give a crap what the hell I look like. Can you believe it?

Baby Dee doesn't always have good fashion sense! :)

Lets rewind to my childhood. I used to play outside all the time. I'd roll in dirt and rough it with our next door neighbors and almost LOVED getting dirty. I also remember my Dad specifically yelling at me to brush my hair before we left the house. I sleep funny and somehow always managed to have a rats nest in the back of my hair full of knots and tangles.

When we knocked down our garage in our house years and years ago, my sister and I helped my Dad paint the walls, hammer in nails, stucko the ceiling. I had so much fun. I didn't care about getting dirty once again. My dad is my favorite person in the world so helping him was always fun cause he taught me so so much.

Fast forward to present day Dee and yesterday I spent 3 hours with 3 other men painting the opening of this women and children's center in Chicago.Needless to say things got messy. By the end of it I had droplets of paint on my face and in my hair. My blue nails and hands were coated in thick globs of paint and I continuously got made fun of the whole time I was painting.

"Dee, your pants are covered in paint."

"Dee, there is paint in your hair!!!"

"DEE! Why is there so much paint on your hands?!?!"

"Dee! You know your going to have to repaint your nails?!"

And I finally chimed in and said...

"LISTEN GUYS! I chose to volunteer today because I can care less about getting messy! Now let's finish this job!!

Trying to clean off the mess!

Paint stuck to nails.

When it comes down to it, dirt and paint wash off as well as makeup. None of this "stuff" really matters. ESPECIALLY when you're giving back to people who need help!

 Hope you got a laugh out of this! Thanks for reading!

Bored with your hair? Here are some trends to try!

For those of you following this blog you know by now I'm a huge fan of experimenting with haircuts and color. After getting my haircut this week (FINALLY!) and talking with my stylist I found out about some pretty cool new trends for the next season that I wanted to share with all of you.

• Red/Plum/Strawberry blonde color
• Braids
• Sock Buns
• Reverse ombres
• Bows 

Let's begin with the COLOR! I love color. Here are some ideas for people who want to try new highlight, low light, or base colors.

RED/BLONDE Ombre

Plum, Red, Blonde highlights and lowlights

I'm a huge fan of braids now that I have long hair. It's a great way to do something other than a ponytail. Check out some ideas that I liked.

Sock buns are fun and easy to do! Check out these pictures and a quick tutorial on how to achieve this look.

 

The 80's RECYCLED

I was born in 1985 halfway through the 80's and their ugly sense of fashion. I'm sorry to offend anyone who loved it but out of the 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's sense of fashion...the 80's has to be my least favorite decade. The good news is by the time the 80's ended I was 5 and prior to that had no clue that what I was wearing was so not cool. My mom dressed me mostly in leggings, oversize shirts, and sequence. My sister and I rocked side pony-tales and scrunchies like it was no ones business. And who even cares about what they look like before the age of 10? I mean, at least I didn't.

I noticed about a month ago all the websites I shop at online were starting to debut fall looks. These are some of the trends I was seeing:

Leggings and loose tops

Sneaker wedges

Jackets with big shoulders

NEON

Bangles

 
Now this is the 80's done right!! You may disagree and hate that the 80's are back but I really like how they made old trends better and more fashion forward for the 21st century. I knew I was going to like this seasons trends when I saw these.

The HAMLIT by Steve Madden

 I heard about this sneaker-wedge ideas several months ago through a girlfriend and at first I thought this sneaker wedge was a really bad idea. Well when I saw this pair it changed my mind.

Here is why!

1. I hate wearing heals unless it's a wedding or an important meeting at work. I have a 2-3 hour max of standing in them and then they immediately come off.
2. I LOVE wedges because they are easier for me to stand in but still pull off some height on my 5'3 frame.
3. I love GYM shoes. I'm a runner and growing up as a catholic grade school girl, I loved the right gym shoes.
4. I love to be comfortable but be fashionable.

 That was enough for me to purchase these. I want to be trendy for the fall and these shoes go with everything. I typically wear black, grey, white and neutrals in the Fall and Winter and knew when I saw these I'd wear them plenty. I have had these for about a week and really enjoy them so far.

Then I saw my mom wearing a gold bangle last week. It was so trendy and matched her outfit so well. I had to compliment my gorgeous mommy.

The conversation went something like this.

"Mom, where did you get that cute bangle?!"-Me

"Oh, I've had this forever. Make sure to save all your jewelry because it always comes back around."-Mom

EXPLOSION IN MY BRAIN! 

Shoot! I've thrown away a lot of old jewelry over the years and then this weekend while cleaning my room I came across this box. When I opened it, jewelry I wore in junior high sat in the box staring back at me. My mom's advice dawned on me again. I immediately closed my box of old jewelry that brought back so innocent times and told myself I'd keep it until the 90's fashion sense came back. Here's hoping if they ever bring 90's fashion back someday.

I have to admit it's a little funny to think that I'm old enough for the fashion sense from my childhood to be recycled but it's also pretty cool. Hope you enjoy playing around with this Fall and Winter's fashion/beauty trends because I know I will!


Thanks for reading! :)

BEAUTY LESSON LEARNED: Some TRENDS don't work for everyone.

This is a tale of my transition to long hair and the ombre look.

If you're interested...read on...


I chopped all my hair off in January of 2008. I had grown it and kept it long since I was 20 years old and after college really felt a need for a most sophisticated, grown up look. I definitely achieved it with my cropped bob and really enjoyed it. What I enjoyed was it was so much easier to style and it forced me to style my hair everyday.

My 25th Birthday

As of 2010 I decided to grow it back out. I really did start to miss my long hair. I was so sick of not being able to put a pony tail in my hair for long runs or being completely unable to get my hair out of my face easier. One of the other main reasons I decided to grow it was to finally get an ombre' look done to it.

The ombre' was this cool trend that became bigger about 2ish years ago. It basically is meant to look like your hair goes from dark roots to gradually getting lighter at the tips. I thought this was SUCH a great look and couldn't wait to reach my goal of long hair to achieve it.

CHECK IT OUT!

I imagined my hair would look like the pictures above daily and that I'd take really great care of it and I couldn't wait. Finally in June of this year my hair had become long enough to take the plunge and make my hair look more two-toned. It took several hours in the salon and much anticipation before I was able to see my styled new coif.

TA-DA!!!

I was immediately in love with my hair again. After all the awkward transitions of growing my hair out and cutting it regularly over 2 years, I was finally happy again with the look of my hair. Hooray!

Well, little did I know that summer 2012 was going to be crazy HOT in the Chicago-land area. Come mid July I noticed the light ends of my hair becoming washed out, blonder, weaker and upset with me. What to do!? It really bothered me. I went it to my favorite salon in town and had it re-toned (i.e.-re-coloring of the bleached part of my hair) which I learned then seals the cuticle of your hair. I was warned to stay out of chlorine filled pools and sunlight to avoid more damage to my hair. I also learned that when you put bleach in your hair you really are breaking down and weakening your hair. I was mad at myself. Why did I do this to my long hair?! I knew how thin my hair was and now I just put it through torture just to be cool. I felt like I needed to write my hair an apologize. Ha ha!

All jokes aside as of August I had had enough. I feel like I deep condition my hair every other day. My roots are so healthy and I haven't seen my natural hair color look so healthy in years and then literally the other day a light bulb went off--

I need to stop coloring my hair for awhile. I need to NEVER put bleach on my hair again. How could something so obvious take so long to learn you say? Well, naturally when I got in the habit of coloring my hair a few years ago and trying different hues and styles it became habit and something fun to look forward too. Who doesn't love mini make-overs from time to time to spruce their look up.

To conclude my so called "hair evolution" I have learned something important here. Some trends aren't meant for everyone to try.

For example, my sister also had the ombre' look done this year. The main difference between her hair and mine is simple. She literally has the most beautiful, thick, gorgeous hair in the world and mine just can't complete, nor handle this look and that is ok. So SHOUT-OUT to my sister, Corie, for being able to achieve this look and rocking it daily without the drama I have to deal with! YAY!

Here are some pictures of what an ombre' on AWESOME hair looks like:

Check out that GORGEOUS hair!

Sissy's enjoying summer!

Hope you enjoyed reading my tale/blog! As of next week I will be cutting my hair to help the healthiness of my hair return. Some trends are just not meant for me and that's ok! At least I tried! :)

Beauty Rest

 

The older I get the busier things seem to be. To be able to balance everything such as work, friends, family, hobbies, health and exercise can be a juggling act. To think women actually do all this AND have husbands and children is more than I can even imagine handling. I'm tired just thinking about it all. YAWWWN!!

This all brings me to the point of this blog. Getting enough SLEEP is super huge. It's beneficial to every part of our lives. Not only is it important to sleep but it's important to get enough sleep. Our body is repairing itself while we rest. Every day our skin is damaged due to stress, pollution and UV rays. While we sleep, our body creates more protein to help us to regenerate cells, in turn repairing our skin.

When your not getting the sleep your body needs to repair- it begins to show up on your face. This includes dark circles under your eyes, dull skin, wrinkles, crows feet, saggy skin, and redness in your eyes. Not only is your body harmed externally but the effects of inadequate sleep begin to effect you internally as well. Hypertension, high blood pressure, obesity, and depression are to name a few.

Maybe there really is something to be said for all those times you heard your mother or grandmother say:

 "Time for bed. You need to get your beauty rest."

 Because not only does it help make you more beautiful on the outside but on the inside as well.

Here are a few tips I've concocted for you to get a good nights rest:

• Drink some warm milk before bed because it relaxes the body. 

•  Take a warm shower or a bath prior to sleep. 

• Do not turn your bedroom into a TV room. Do not use any electronic products at least an hour or 2 before sleeping.  

•  Proper pillows and mattresses are KEY. 

•  Do not eat dinner or drink lots of water at least 2-3 hours before bed. You want to avoid waking up frequently during the night.

•  Stick to a schedule. If you usually go to bed every night at 10 p.m. make sure your in bed by then almost every night. Keeping a schedule keeps your body clock on track.

• Exercising regularly is known to help you sleep better.

• Avoid caffeine later in the evening.

• Sleep in a cooler room. 

All these tips should aid in you having a great nights rest. Adults 18+ need to be getting at least 7.5-9 hours of sleep every night! Make sure to make this an important part of your daily health routines to wake up to happier, healthier, more restful YOU!

Sweet dreams ladies! Thanks for reading!!