A New Piece for Slate

This past weekend was busy busy busy.. one thing I worked on was this updated secretary for Slate:



Originally I had planned on painting the piece white, but lately I've been more apt to keep the original finish on vintage/antique pieces if they are still in pretty good shape. As much as I love painted furniture, sometimes it's sad painting over beautiful wood that has been untouched for decades. I even like it has a couple scrapes and dings... it gives the piece character ;)

Even though I didn't paint the piece, I did give it an update. The bookcase had doors but they were in bad shape and couldn't be salvaged.. so I tossed them and kept it open. I papered the back walls in leftover grasscloth from our bathroom. After I added the wallpaper, I stepped back and was glad I didn't paint it!

It's currently available at Slate.

Curly Hair In The South

If you don't have curly hair and live in the south, then this post may be somewhat boring and unhelpful for you. But I thought I'd do it to help any girls out there in my situation.

I have super thick, stubborn curly hair.. it's something I've dealt with my entire life. Sure, I'd LOVE to have Anne Hathaway's gorgeous silky brown hair, but once I heard a mom tell her kids who were whining: "You get what you get and you don't pitch a fit". It's stuck with me and I love it.

Anyway, when I lived in California, the weather was SO dry and it was great for my hair. I was able to have my hair cut short and wore it down everyday. I even was able to have side swept bangs!

Me in California in 2009

But even though my hair was awesome, my skin was miserable.. there would be nights I couldn't sleep because my skin was so dry it was painful... even with a humidifier.

Here in Charlotte it's HUMID. I grew up in Dallas, so it's more familiar to me than the dry weather in CA.. but it's pretty terrible for my hair (but amazing for my skin).

Anyway, what started me on this tangent is that I finally found a good mix of hair products for this crazy humid weather in the South.

First I mix these two products together. I use a ton of Moroccan oil because I need it.





I've found this combination works really well.. the gel "freezes" the curls and the oil makes them soft.

Then, I use this mousse:



And if needed, I use this (not every day though):



This combination really works well in the summer humidity. This week I had a friend of mine take my picture outside for a "head shot" and this combo saved my hair from looking crazy:



And an outtake where you can see my hair better:



I won't lie to you though.... I still wear my hair up in the summer 99% of the time - but that's because wearing super thick, curly hair down is like wearing a wool scarf around your neck in 110 degree heat!

EDIT - I forgot to mention I buy all the above products at Target. I know there are TONS of "high end" products that would be wonderful and magic for my hair, but I can't stomach spending $40 on a small bottle that I will just use up in 3 weeks (my hair requires a large amount of product because it's so insanely thick). All the items I mentioned are around $5 or less. So I guess you could say it's for the "thrift" curly haired girl in the South ;)

Dreams

Our home is so perfect for us right now in this stage of our lives.. when we found it, I loved the layout and I loved the fact that there were minor changes that needed to be done that we could financially do to make it "ours" - i.e. granite countertops, tile, etc. Nothing MAJOR (although any home could always be updated majorly haha).

But being the dreamer that I am, I can't help but dream of the day we can buy a home and I can completely gut the old kitchen and build my dream kitchen.















And my favorite of the bunch:



Kitchens are just so pretty, aren't they??

[ all images found via pinterest ]