After I shared my curly waves video, I realized I rarely left my natural curls/waves. So pretty much after I shared that video, I decided to go on a 30 day leave my natural curly hair challenge. I’m a week and a half into it, and it still takes getting used to. After I shower, I add some curling cream to it (to help get rid of frizz), then I scrunch and blow dry it a little. It’s a little less maintenance because I don’t have to wear curlers at night. On the days when my hair can’t decide if it wants to be curly or just looks more flat, I stick it in a bun.

Any one have any good product recommendations to spruce up curls, but not make it feel dry and crunchy?

You all know I love things clean and tidy. Fridays are my days to clean to start the weekend off nice and organized. Every night before the girls go to bed, they have to clean up their spaces to get it ready for the next day. I walk around the house and put things back in their place, so the next day we all start with a clean space.

With kids, there’s a lot of happy chaos, but if we don’t keep up with it, it can get overwhelming quickly (then the chaos isn’t so happy). Thus, I try to manage it, instead of the chaos overwhelming me. I don’t handle mess stress well.

A few years ago, during the craziness of my book writing, Ben and I started budgeting for a cleaning lady to come. Let me tell you how that has helped my sanity so much. She only comes once a month, so we still do a lot of our own cleaning, but having someone to do all the deep cleaning stuff, and things I don’t have time to think about like baseboards and dusting window sills, is such a blessing. With the four, homeschooling, and all the things we are involved in, this is a little splurge that I really cherish. Everyone says cleaning day is mine and Soul’s favorite day of the month. There’s truth to that. We aren’t here when she cleans, but when we come home, Soul and I are the first to enter, and we breathed deep and exclaim, “We love it!” We are silly.

While we do know this is a splurge we budget for, we still want the kids to learn how to clean and take responsibility for our home. We aren’t believers in giving an allowance (that’s not how real life works), so they are all given chore charts. There are some things they have to do daily/weekly because it’s their responsibility (they are consequences if things don’t get done), and there are other things they can do to earn money (this is how real life works). They sweep, vacuum, fold and put away laundry, clean out the dishwasher, and take care of their own spaces. I’m getting ready to teach Brave and True how to start cleaning bathrooms too. I started cleaning bathrooms in fourth grade, so it’s about time they learned too.

Saturday mornings are our big chore days. They eat breakfast, then clean the inside of the car, put away laundry, pick up leaves in the yard, and when all is done … the Saturday play commences.

When it comes to cleaning, Brave takes the longest because she dances and sings while she does her work (as seen in the photo above). It’s cute and funny, but I feel kind of bad when she’s been sweeping for two hours. Oye!

Mommy said we were going somewhere that evening and we kept asking, “Where?” At dinner, mommy said we were going to a party. As soon as Papi came home, we left and went to this big building, and we had to go through security while Papi and Brave had to put something back in the car. We had to wait for them to go through security too.

Then, we went through a door and went up the stairs, and there was a man there waiting to check our tickets. He told us we needed to go up higher, so we waited for the elevator. In the elevator, mommy said we  were going to the Lakers’ game, but I didn’t believe her because she told us that before when we were going to see Disney’s Frozen on Ice. Someone checked our tickets again and then we found our seats.

Soon, an announcer said, “Disney on Ice!” and two girls and a boy came out to do some tricks on the ice. Five minutes later, the show started! The army men from Toy Story came out, along with Jessie! After that, Woody and Buzz Lightyear came out with some other characters. They taught us a dance, so we could all dance together, and then they left the stage. Donald Duck, Goofy, Mickey Mouse, and Minnie Mouse came out and looked inside a treasure chest. They found a watch and a lamp, and then they went off the stage, and the storytelling began.

The White Rabbit and Alice came out, and said that they were late. They went to a party with the Mad Hatter and decorated the garden for the Queen of Hearts. Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum came out and painted the roses red too. The Queen of Hearts came out with all the cards. The funny part was that the cards had two heads!

As soon as the Alice in Wonderland characters left the stage, we heard a tick-tock, and saw Captain Hook and Smee! Captain Hook was scared because the crocodile was there on the ice too. Captain Hook went to look for Peter Pan’s hideout, while Wendy was singing the lost boys to sleep. They show kept on telling us more of the Peter Pan story, along with many other Disney stories too.

Brave’s favorite parts of the show were were Aladdin, Snow White, Ariel, and Lion King. Papi’s favorite part was the costuming for the stampede when Simba’s father died. Glow said she really loved Rapunzel, Lion King, and Snow White. Soul’s loved all the princesses, especially Princess Tiana. Mommy said she liked the costuming for Lion King and Alice in Wonderland. My favorite parts were Snow White, Ariel, and the ending because I saw Mulan, Ariel again, and Aurora. We all really liked all of the costumes throughout the whole show. It was such a fun surprise and we like going to watch shows together.
-True

Disney on Ice Treasure Trove runs in Southern California from April 14-17 (Ontario Citizens Business Bank Arena) and April 22-24 (Long Beach Arena). To get more ticket information or a list of tours going on, you can get more details here.

This post is in partnership with Feld Entertainment as a Feld Family Ambassador; complimentary tickets for the show were provided. I’m always so thankful opportunities such as this (my girls are especially thankful), and also for the time you take to support me and this space.

Turban Style Headband

Supplies:
2 – 3″ x 18″ strips of fabric, may need to be adjusted depending on head size
5″-6″ piece of 1″ wide elastic
Scissors
Sewing pins
Sewing machine

Directions:
1. Lay one fabric strip perpendicular over the other strip. Next, fold each strip in half, joining the short ends of each strip together to link the center of each strip together.

2. Overlap 1″ end of the elastic onto one side of the fabric end, fold the fabric around the elastic to sandwich it in. Pin in place and straight stitch across. Repeat for the other side of the elastic and remaining end of the fabric headband. Be sure to check the sizing of the headband before you attach the elastic. Then, cut and adjust your fabric and elastic as needed. This one was for True, but if I were making it for littlest one, I would have cut an inch or two off the fabric, so it would be more fitted on her.

I ripped the fabric strips because I wanted frayed edges. You can cut them for less fringe, or even fold and sew if you don’t’ like raw edges. True’s been into wearing bandanas as headbands (or as scarves), so we set off to make some of these turban style headbands for her. They were quick and easy, and I put some of my fabric scraps to good use. She plans on making more for herself soon.

I love seeing her style evolve. Each girl is so different, even though they share clothes. They just accessorize and pair things differently. True’s outfit here looks perfectly fit for spring, and I’d totally wear it too (though I don’t think I’m cool enough to pull off the headband though).

And oh man … I see teenage True in these pictures.

on true: striped dress, c/o french toast. sandals, zara (last year, but similar here and here).

The first project I tackled during spring break was making this ruffled sleeve dress. I saw this coat first and thought it would be cute as a dress instead, and a week later, I saw this dress (wish it had more structure than slouch) and it solidified my resolve to sew this dress. Give me two hours at my sewing machine, on a Saturday afternoon, and I come out of my craft cave with a new dress. In fact, True came out of my craft cave with something she sewed for herself too.

If I were stranded on an island and could only pick one craft tool … I would definitely pick my sewing machine. Again, I apologize for having no pattern to share. It’s relaxing for me to sew and not have to worry about photographing the process and measuring things out. When I sew dresses, it’s kind of my “me” time. The dress is basically 4 pieces with two long rectangles (one for each ruffled sleeve), and I gather each rectangle to create the ruffled sleeves.

Like I say, if you can sew a straight line, you can sew anything! Don’t be intimidated to experiment and make yourself a dress.

on me: dress, handmade (similar here). fringe sandals, banana republic (it’s much cuter on person than online). oval basket, french baskets.

This post is sponsored by Shutterfly. Celebrate mom this Mother’s Day with the perfect customizable photo gift made with Shutterfly.

We love creating art for our home. Check out this modern art piece we recently did or the quirky family portrait the girls painted. Actually, both of those were done solely by my girls. I give them the canvas (or sew it up for them) and let them go to town. I may be the one deciding the color palette, but they are the ones creating the art. There is just something so raw and beautiful with the art kids create. I’ll say it over and over again, kid art is my absolute favorite.

My girls are fortunate to have a lot of ladies lovingly mother them. I am their mom, but both grandmothers care for them with such love, and some of my best friends love them as if they were their own. Mother’s Day isn’t just a day to appreciate bio moms, but all those who love with a mother’s heart … full out with sacrificial joy.

For Mother’s Day gifts, I had the girls create their own abstract art. Each girl was in charge of a color and worked together to paint on poster board. Then, I took a picture of their finished piece of art and uploaded that to Shutterfly.

Once the images were uploaded on Shutterfly, there were so many things we could create. The girls and I had a hard time narrowing down what we wanted to put their art on. There were four people we wanted to make gifts for … two aunties and two grandmothers.

For one gift, we chose the hand drawn wood heart mason jar. This is for their Auntie Linda (who loves Uncle John, hence the L+J). Not only is it a beautiful drinking cup, but it makes a wonderful vase as well. Of course, we wanted to make this a heARTfelt gift, so we made her a design your own pillow with their artwork on it. We cropped the painting to have a specIfic portion of the art appear on the product. For Christmas, we gave her a lot of pillows for her sofa, so we wanted to add another one to her collection.

For another auntie, we chose the design your own candle (in grapefruit blossom scent) and added some of their artwork. I love how modern it turned out!

Every holiday, we always get stuck on what to get the grandparents. They don’t need anything, and they really love their grandchildren, so we always end up giving them some picture of sorts. They love it every time!

For Grammy (my mom), we can’t wait to give her this gold katy necklace with an itty bitty pictures of the girls. It turned out so sweet, so I think I’m going to have to order another for myself. My mom loves lockets and little things that holds pictures, so I knew this would be perfect for her. We also chose the personalized frame and used their art for it. I really love how you can customize so much!

Last, but certainly not least, we chose another photo wood personalized frame for Grandmama (Ben’s mom) and added a message to it. All we need to do is box it up and ship it to Texas.

Looks like we are pretty much all set for Mother’s Day at our house. I think I want to make some cards from their artwork and I am going to frame up their original piece. I think I’m entitled to the original *wink* (though I did order a pillow for myself too!). Once, I find a special spot for those things, I will be sure to share it with you.

I’m kind of addicted to all this customizing; I have some vintage fabric that I want to take a picture of to make into some pillows. The list of home decor things to make from art and photos can go on and on. I’m sure the girls would love to turn their Star Wars drawings into pillows for their room. They would definitely flip over that idea! I better get them drawing to see what else we could come up with. Are you feeling a little customizing obsession growing too?

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