New Hair, Our 10 yr Celebratory Dinner, and Summer Stuff

So if you follow me on instagram you probably already saw this picture...

I posted it saying I might have cut bangs tonight.  Well, I did cut a sort of bang, but then when everyone wanted to see I realized I did chicken out and didn't cut real bangs.  So, I said to myself, "Self, it's just hair.  And hair grows back.  Now get back in that bathroom and cut yourself some real bangs."

The first picture is my first attempt at bangs.  And then of course, the real deal.  Now friends, remember I am a liscenced cosmetologist.  I do not reccomend cutting your own bangs unless you know what you are doing.  Mkay?  ;)

I think I like them. 
I like the option of having them there.

I think bangs can create a very specific look.

I have always loved Anne Hathaway's character's bangs in The Devil Wears Prada.

But I have a very strong widow's peak and just figured I am not a good candidate for bangs.

But, I wanted em.

I wanted to try it out and see what I thought.

And how do you know if you don't ever try?

So, here are the bangs, all dolled up and ready for date night with my Mr. 

 What do ya think?

Want to see what I wore to dinner?

I scored that purple boudoir mirror yesterday at Marshall's for a DEAL! 

And yes I know it's purple, but it won't be for long.

I'm thinking about which color to spray paint it.

A couple of days ago I got a wild hair and decided to take the old desk out of our bedroom corner.  It was just a dust collector and I was sick of it.  So I mustered up some man power and tore that old thing down.  Sorry I have no before picture but here is the after...

I put the bench there until I found a boudoir mirror that I liked.

And then what do ya know, I walk into Marshall's yesterday and the first thing I see is that purple mirror.  So I took it home with me.  What color do ya think I should paint it?  Eventually I want to get a white duvet for our bed, so I am thinking maybe a grey'ish color for the mirror.  Thoughts?  Anybody?

Anyway, back to my hot date with Mr. Hass.

We brought a bottle of red zin from Benessere winery.  If ya want to read about when we visited Benessere in Napa you can click here.

It was really really good, and really fun to enjoy such a nice bottle of wine together in celebration of our anniversary.

As we reminisced about our trip to Napa I jokingly said to Mr. Hass,  "Well I guess some people drink to forget, but here we are drinking to remember!" He cracked up and then had to tweet what I said to his peeps.  We had a good laugh about it.

 Ten years is a long time.
We have learned A LOT of stuff in ten years. 
A lot about each other.  About marriage.  About how to make our marriage a priority after bringing kids into the picture.  And about life.  I can't wait to see what all we learn in the next ten years.  I'll probably be even crazier about Mr. Hass then than I am now.  :)

 We both had the seafood special of the night, wild sockeye salmon with a barbeque glaze, topped with a black bean and mango salsa, bok choi and rice.  We also had asparagus fries and ahi tartare for an appetizer.  Everything was SO fresh and so amazing.  My friend Nicole recommended Nick's in Laguna to us and I am so glad she did!!!  She also recommended the bread pudding dessert and so of course we had to try that.

 One of the best desserts we've ever had.  So good.  So fresh.  Warm and gooey and oh so good.  Worth every single calorie. ;)

 And in some other news,
we recently met some new neighbors and we are so happy that they moved onto our street.  Their kids are very close to my girl's ages and the second they met they seemed to become fast friends.  I feel the same way about their Mom and it is so nice having such a fun family live just a couple of houses down.  Today the kids had a blast playing in the pool together.

That's it from me tonight.

Mr. Hass just popped popcorn and we have a netflix waiting for us.

The Vow.

Anybody seen it???

Stay cool my friends.  Happy Summa.

Hairstylists in the making... & a GIVEAWAY!

Right now I am laying on my bed propped up on pillows, with the lap top on my lap.
Right now I am feeling tired.
Right now I am wondering what ages will my girls be when I do not feel completely exhausted by the end of the night?
Maybe when Claire is not three anymore, when we can understand her when she speaks, and she doesn't use screaming as her main source of communication?
Right now I believe that motherhood is the hardest job that I will ever have in my life.
(I know it is rewarding too, trust me I know, but right now it feels hard to me.)
Right now I am listening to pandora through my phone with my ear buds in my ears so that I didn't have to hear the girls crying/fighting/screaming while I cleaned up the kitchen after dinner.
Right now I keep having to hit thumbs down when a John Mayer song comes on my Matt Nathanson pandora station.
Right now Mr. Hass just told me that Whitney Houston died today.
Right now I am glad that soon it is bedtime for the little people in the house.
Right now I am wishing I had a glass of wine in my hand.
I am too tired to go get one.

I bought the girls this hair styling kit for $14 last time we were in Target.  I told them they had to share it and if they didn't play nice I would take it away.  The blow drier required batteries.  It blows air and everything.

I was so impressed with Hannah's form.  I think somebody's been paying attention when I blow dry her hair. 

Claire already has mad flat ironing skills. 

I was snapping away with my camera and telling the girls what a great job they were doing, and Mr. Hass was just shaking his head and laughing to himself.  "What?" I said to him.  He just shook his head and said he needed some more testosterone around here.  Then he said he needed a beer.  Then I heard him mumble something like, "Three.  Three women.  Three women with blow driers and flat irons and curling irons.  Three." 

That's right Mr. Hass.  Three.

But, not to worry Mr. Hass.  Because before you know it, they won't be screaming and crying during your Boise State football games, they'll be asking if they can borrow your car keys and stay out at so and so's house until what we think is much to late of an hour for young ladies to be out. 

I know it happens fast.  I do.
So even though right now sometimes I feel stuck in the day to day stuff, I know that I need to look for the good moments and hold onto them because these daughters of ours will be grown up and married making their own bread and pot roasts before we know it. 


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Since so many people asked me about where to find the kenra blow dry spray...

I bought an extra one to giveaway!!!
Here's how you can win it:
-for one entry sign up to be a follower (or tell me you already are)
-for a second entry tell me what products you use before blow drying your hair

I will randomly select the winner and post it on Thursday.

Peace out. 

Photos & Hair 411

Tonight I am sharing my first 6 days of shots for the February photo challenge:

Feb 1- your view today

 I meant to get a fun shot in the mirror while I was getting my hair done, but it never works out the way you planned does it?  This is my spot in the back where I mix my color and that was my view many times that day. 

Feb 2- words

 A very thoughtful gift from a client that means more than she will know.

Feb 3- hands

 My sweet Clairey Beary, showing me how old she is.
And because I couldn't decide which photo of her I liked better...

Feb 4- a stranger

 I'm gonna call this photo "strangerS on the 91 freeway".

Feb 5- 10am

 I was in the middle of a massive bathroom cupboards cleanout situation at 10am.

Feb 6- dinner

 From the Hungry Girl cookbook, "I can't believe it's not sweet potato pie".  Made with butternut squash.  UN-believably tasty.

I also made panko/coconut crusted chicken tenders with a sweet and spicy apricot sauce.  And organic greens with tomato, goat cheese and Italian Tuscan dressing from TJ's. We all LOVED it.

 The recipe for the chicken tenders I found on pinterest.  You can find it here.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


And now for some hair 411.
I recently discovered a product by Kenra that I am absolutely in love with.

 It is the Kenra Blow Dry Spray.  It is an advanced thermal protectant and it seriously smells better than any hair product you have ever tried.
I spray it on my damp hair as I blow dry each section. 
A little goes a long way.
It adds so much shine, makes frizzies smooth, speeds your drying time, and protects your hair against all of the heat styling that you might do to it.
I've sold one to nearly every single client in the last two weeks.

I tried to take a few pics of my new ombre-ish highlights for ya.
Now, don't judge the color too closely ok because I promise they are not orange.  The light in the bathroom at night just sucks buckets.

 IRL the colors are more of a caramely brown.  I also lightened up my root color just a tad.  I'm working on going a bit lighter, but I have been dark for a while so it is a process if you want to maintain the integrity of your hair.

See, they look more caramely here don't they?

Well, I'm off to watch Sea Biscuit on tv with the fam and drink my green tea with kamboucha.

Peace out ladies.

(and Dad.)

(and Donavon.)

(and Dusty.)

any other men out there reading my blog that I don't know about? 

;)

Lately

Howdy.

How was your weekend?
Mine was good.
B-U-S-Y but good.

Since life has been so darn crazy for me lately I haven't even shown you my new piece of furniture that I bought from craigslist last week... or was it the week before?  Like I said, life's so busy, who can remember the details?

Anyway, I have been searching for a buffet that I could use in my entryway for over a year now.
This area has been a little tricky for me to decide how to decorate for some reason. 
It was also just never a priority so it looked  like this for a long time...

then I finally got around to doing my wall collage which I blogged about here.

And then I found a great piece on craigslist to hold my china and some of my fancy things (which I have yet to find time to put in the new buffet), so now the entryway wall looks like this...

Everything on top of the buffet I bought last week at Kirkland's.

I thought this word art was kind of cute for Valentine's Day.  I'm not sure if I will keep it out after that though.

I found this lamp that was marked $54, and on sale for $29.98, and with my lamp coupon I got it for only $19!! Not bad eh?

The red parsons chair is from Kirkland's a couple of years ago, and the pillow in the chair I just shopped my house for.  I got that at BB&B last summer.  (It's an outdoor pillow but don't tell anyone mkay?)

So there you have it.
My new buffet.


Satuday Mr. H took the day off work to stay home with the girls so that I could go to the ISSE hair show in Long Beach with some of the girls from my salon.

I left the house at 10am and didn't get home until 10pm.
It was a looooong day but I had a really good time.

These are a few of the models for TIGI. 
At the shows you always see some really crazy runway type stuff.
Nothing I'd ever do on a client, but it's always fun to see the stylists working on the models and to take bits and pieces of what they do and apply that towards my work.

The big hair shows are usually a great time to stock up on supplies and to find a few good deals on tools and other fun stuff.
This year I was a little disappointed in the "deals" or lack of, but I was pretty excited about my new cutsie blowdryer (for me).  And I also got a great deal on a curling wand, which seems to be the hot thing right now.

The group after a long day of walking and shopping.

After the show we walked across the street to The Yardhouse where one of the girl's daughter was working.  Of course we had awesome service, and enjoyed some wine, good food, and a lot of laughs. 
Today in the salon we had an awesome cutting class taught by a Redken stylist.
He was a great teacher.  And I kept thinking he was a cross between looking like Mark Rufalo and Seth Rogen.  He was fun and now I am super pumped and motivated to get to work and have some fun with my clients this week.  Plus I have a hair appointment on Wednesday for myself!  I am thinking of doing something new with my color. 
 Kinda like this...

Or a little bit like this...

Stay tuned for that!

Oh and in other news,
I saw this on pinterest...

bahahahahahahahaha.

It Happens.

;)

Big Hair Tutorial Video

Well, here it is.

My big hair tutorial video.

How I style my hair down...

Okay, about the video...

-how ridiculous did I look trying to show you my new boots eh?  Smooth, Genn.  Real smooth.

-Note to self, next time raise camera higher on tripod, not a flattering height for all those double chins.  Ugh.

-We did not eat at Panera we went to Macaroni Grill.

-How bout that centering in the end huh?  I know, I should go pro with this videography stuff right?  ;)

-How bout when I said "thanks for talking to me".

Again, so smooth.  I think what I meant was thanks for watching, and listening to me talk to myself. 

I hope this video will be helpful to someone out there!!!

These are the products I used on my hair before styling...

sorry crappy cell phone pics, i was too lazy to go get the slr.

DermOrganic argan oil

Enjoy creamy pomade

06 sheer straight by Redken

The hairsprays I used:

spray and stay by big sexy, 12 fashionwork by Redken, and DermOrganic fast dry shaping spray

I know all that product is not for everybody.

But for me, the more product I use, the longer I can go without having to wash my hair.

Hairspray helps to absorb the oil that your scalp can produce.  I think some people fear the opposite of that, and they think that if they use too much product, their hair will become too oily.  Not always the case.  Especially for those with some natural wave or curl to their hair because it is naturally more dry.

finished product with the boots.  ;)

These were the Steve Madden booties/slippers I was attempting to show you in the end of the video. 

Cozy looking right?

The girls playing puzzles with our awesome babysitter.

Friday night she brought over belated birthday gifts for the girls.  How sweet is that!  The girls were so excited.  She brought them each a puzzle, a set of flashcards for their appropriate age, a bath sponge, and these cute princess decorations that turn into ornaments.

That's it for tonight from me.

I hope you liked the big hair video.

Give me some comment love if you did.

I am feeling a little vulnerable sharing it. 
I dont' know why.

Vlogging is kinda scary.

Happy weekend to ya friends!