I don’t used shampoo on my hair…at all. I haven’t “washed” my hair in over 6 months. I know some of you are probably thinking eww, right now, but stick with me for just a minute.

Yes, I do shower regularly. Yes, my hair is clean. What I mean by “washing” is using an actual soapy shampoo product. The little bit of research I have done has shown me that the average american shampoos their hair every other day. Many do so every day. I was actually one of the every day people. I have very fine hair that gets oily rather quickly and if I didn’t wash it daily I started looking a little grungy. Having 3 children doesn’t exactly give me the luxury of washing my hair daily, so I found myself going grocery shopping or picking my kids up from school feeling and looking pretty gross. No fun.

While I was doing some research on washing my son’s cloth diapers, I came across an article on “NoPoo”. After the initial yuck response left, I started thinking about the concept behind NoPoo. Basically, NoPoo means washing your hair without shampoo. Instead, you are using baking soda and water to “wash” and vinegar and water to “condition”.

So what’s so bad about regular shampoo? First off, it is loaded with chemicals that are bad for you and the environment. Even the natural shampoos have stuff in them that can be harmful. Beside the potential harm to the environment, it’s just bad for your hair! Really, washing your hair daily or even every other day is really bad for your hair. Your body is pretty self sufficient if cared for properly, especially when it comes to your hair and skin. When you wash your hair with regular shampoo you are not just washing away dirt, you are stripping all the natural oils from your hair. Your hair needs those oils to protect against damage and keep your hair and scalp healthy. So what happens when the oils are removed? Your scalp goes into oil production overdrive, which leads to even greasier hair that needs to be washed more and more often. On top of that, the majority of shampoos leave a residue on your hair. Notice how that pretty scent lingers in your hair? Yeah, that’s buildup. It doesn’t take long for that build up to start making your hair look and feel dirty, weighed down and unhealthy. Finally, shampoo is EXPENSIVE!

So why is baking soda better? Well, there are no harmful chemicals to damage your hair, it’s not bad for the environment and it leaves NO buildup. Baking soda wash does remove some of the oils from your hair, but it is much less harsh than shampoo so your hair won’t feel such a need to create an oil slick on your head to replace what was removed. Baking soda just leaves your hair clean. No fancy smell, no buildup, nothing…just clean hair. Now the baking soda can cause your hair to be a little more tangled since the hair cuticle is open. That is where the vinegar comes in. Vinegar acts as a sort of conditioner, it smooths the strands of hair, making it very manageable. It restores the natural pH and helps things like itchy scalp as well. And no, you don’t have to walk around smelling like a salad bar. You rinse the vinegar out completely and after it dries the smell dissipates.

I have been NoPooing for about 7 months and I really do love it. My hair feels so light and clean, it has great volume and it dries SO FAST since I don’t have all that buildup. My dandruff problem (which was miserable) had greatly improved, also due to the absence of buildup on my scalp. It’s super easy too. I keep 2 hair color applicator bottles (got them at Sally’s Beauty Supply for $1 each) in my shower. While my water is warming up I mix up my bottles. One bottle gets 1T baking soda and 3-4 drops of Tea Tree Oil (I put TTO in just about everything). The other bottle gets 1oz Apple Cider Vinegar and a few drops of sweet orange oil (for scent). When I get in the shower I wet my hair, fill the baking soda bottle up with water and squirt it all onto my head. I give my head a good scrub to allow the mild abrasiveness of the baking soda to loosen any dirt and then I rinse. For the vinegar, I fill the bottle up with water and carefully squirt it all over my hair. Some people leave it on for a minute, but I don’t and it still works fine. I don’t want to increase my chances of getting vinegar in my eyes, I’ve heard it’s pretty painful. That’s it. When I get out of the shower I throw my hair up in a towel, then dry and style as usual. I usually wash my hair once, maybe twice a week if I’m sweating a lot, and it is awesome! It took a little while to get used to not having the lather of the regular shampoo, but the results I got from my hair are so worth it and now it has just become my routine.

So give it a shot!

No, no, I’m not pregnant. Lord help my I might fall over dead if I found out I was. My three boys are more than enough for me right now. Anyways, the “it” I am referring to is an adorable, 3 week old little dachshund-pug puppy. Yep, we are getting a puppy!

It all started about 2 weeks ago when I was outside with the boys, playing in the front yard. These 2 chihuahuas from the ‘hood came running up to the boys and started playing. I expected the big boys to be fine, but I sort of thought Peanut might have a problem since he hasn’t really been around any dogs…ever. Well, boy was I wrong! He was more excited than both the other boys put together. It was the most precious thing watching my little 1 year old squeal and laugh as he played with these little dogs. Right there the seed was planted.

Now hubby and I have had dogs before. We had an American Bulldog named Mona when we got married. When the Monkey was about 18 months old she developed lymphoma and passed away. We attempted to replace her with a 6 month old lab-boxer mix….. yeah….that lasted about a week. That dog was a psycho. Hubby and I have had no desire to have a dog since then. Well, until now. Seeing my boys having so much fun playing with the two neighborhood dogs made me think about how much I really do miss having a dog of our own. Of course, hubby wasn’t convinced….but I knew he’d warm up to the idea.

I started researching breeds to find out what the best option would be for us. I knew we would most likely opt for a small dog this time and after talking to many friends and lots of web surfing, I determined that a Pug or Yorkie would be my best bet. More information pointed to a Pug so I decided to start checking craigslist occasionally to see if anything popped up. It only took one day for me to find an ad for dachshund-pug puppies. I took it as a sign and started working on Hubby, dropping not-so-subtle hints about how badly we need a puppy. He said “No.” on more than one occasion, but then he always had a big smile and the occasional giggle to follow…..I wasn’t buying it. Finally I got him to agree to go see the puppies and if he still didn’t want one I promised to back off. Well, we went to visit them today and……….

Meet the newest member of our clan!

Here are her brothers and sisters

Look at how tiny she is.

And of course, Peanut was super excited about meeting her. Well, actually he was more into playing with her mommy, since the puppy isn’t quite to the playful age yet.

She won’t be ready to come home for another couple of weeks, but I had to snap a few pictures to the big boys could see the newest member of our family.

I am so incredibly excited to finally get started painting my new home. Apparently the people that lived here before us completely trashed the house (we are renters) and whoever the property owner hired to repaint and fix the house up did a less than stellar job. The walls were painted this weird super light blue color. At first glance it looked white, but it was definitely blue. Paired with the cream colored base boards it was no bueno. However, we do love this house very much, so we decided to do our own little fix ups.

We really want to be able to entertain for the holidays so hubby finally decided it was time to get started. After a $150 trip to Lowes, we returned with 5 gallons of Olympic ONE Paint in Galactica and Earthy Ocher. Time to rock and roll!

Here are some before images of my living room, kitchen and dining room.

Check out this awesome stenciling on the back splash in my kitchen. Lovely, huh? Apparently the painters thought so since they painted everything except for this. Gross.

I have a little tradition that started when I got my first apartment and painted Bubby’s room. I like to paint scriptures on the walls, things about blessings, prosperity and protection. It may seem silly to some, but it’s just something I have always done. It makes me feel good knowing I have scripture written all over my walls.

Of course, we had to stop for a break dance break! The monkey was super excited about wearing mommy’s fuzzy socks

All in all it took us about 12 hours to tape off, cut in, paint, pull tape and touch up. Not bad for two people with three kids that hate painting. And our reward…..

Hubby proceeded to plop on the couch for the rest of the night ^^^

Recovery was a little rough since neither of us are used to that much physical activity all at once (sad I know), but the result was SO worth it. I can’t wait to get the rest of the house done!

I love upcycling! There is something so satisfying about taking an item that would otherwise be discarded and transforming it into something great. I especially love upcycling around the holidays since crafting can get pretty expensive. I have been seeing so many great upcycled ideas around the web lately and thought I would share a few that really caught my eye.

Coffee Cardboard Wreath

Soda Bottle Penguines

Recycled Christmas Card Letter Blocks

Gift Wrapping with Christmas Cards

Gift Tags

Recycled Card Ornaments

Baby Food Jar Christmas Tree

Bottle Cap Snowman Ornaments

Wine Cork Tree

Magazine Tree

Creamer Bottle Snowman

Paint Chip Gift Tags

Paper Plate Tree

CD Ornaments

T-Shirt Wreath

Recycled Sweater Trees/Elf Hats

Coffee Filter Wreath

Santa Can

Button Ornament

So what are some of your favorite Christmas upcycling projects?

While searching around the web for a good basic diaper cover crochet pattern I became quite frustrated by the lack of well written patterns. So I just decided to put my own together and post it for anyone else that had faced the same frustration that I had. Well, it turns out the pattern was pretty badly needed and within a week I had over 500 downloads. The great thing about this pattern is how versatile it is. You can add embellishments, trim, change the size, the possibilities are endless.

So if you’d like to download my free pattern just stop by my shop and snag it from the Freebies section. Or just Click Here.

I do love a good linky party. As a matter of fact, I am preparing to add one to my weekly blog calendar in the very near future. Here is a list of some linky parties I love.

SUNDAY
Everyday Sisters
My Backyard Eden
Under the Table and Dreaming

MONDAY
All Thingz Related
Cottage Instincts
C.R.A.F.T.
Craft-O-Maniac
Etcetorize
Keeping it Simple
Life Made Lovely
Lowercase Letters
Mad in Crafts
Make Ahead Meals for Busy Moms
Making the World Cuter
Me Making Do
Night Owl Crafting
Organizing Junkie
ReMade Simple
Sew Can Do
Silver Lining
Simpsonized Crafts and Then Some
Skip To My Lou
Sumo’s Sweet Stuff
Suzie Homecaker
The DIY Showoff
The Girl Creative
The Gunny Sack
The Trendy Treehouse
Today’s Creative Blog

TUESDAY
A Soft Place to Land
All Thingz Related
Boerman Ramblings
Funky Polkadot Giraffe
Kammy’s Korner
Mandy’s Recipe Box
Measured by the Heart
Oops I Craft My Pants
Places in the Home
Reinvented
Sugar Bee Crafts
The Brambleberry Cottage
The Project Queen
Tip Junkie
Today’s Creative Blog

WEDNESDAY
Blue Cricket Design
Clean and Scentaible
Domestically Speaking
Gingersnap Crafts
Lil’ Luna
Lollipops
Night Owl Crafting
Organize Your Stuff Now
Paisley Passions
Remodelaholic
Seven Thirty Three
Sew Much Ado
Sisters Stuff
Someday Crafts
Tea Rose Home
The CSI Project
The Sasse Life
The Thrifty Home
The Trendy Treehouse

THURSDAY
Crafty Scrappy Happy
Home Stories A2Z
The Creative Paige
The Shabby Creek Cottage
The Idea Room
Between U & Me
The Train to Crazy
Made in a Day
Somewhat Simple
House of Hepworths
Paisley Passions
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Living on Love and Cents
The Two Savvy Sisters
Seven Thirty Three
Fireflies and Jellybeans
Everything Etsy
The Beambleberry Cottage

FRIDAY
Creation Corner
Family Ever After
Finding Fabulous
Fun to Craft
Funky Junk Interiors
Making Lemonade
Momma’s Kinda Crafty
My Repourposed Life
My Romantic Home
Poppies at Play
Remodelaholic
The Girl Creative
The Shabby Nest
Thirty Handmade Days
Tidy Mom
Young and Crafty

SATURDAY
Be Different, Act Normal
Funky Junk Interiors
Remodelaholic
Young and Crafty

MONTHLY
I Heart Organizing
Shanty 2 Chic
Thrifty Decor Chick

Since my last post about our new Advent Calendar, we have been having lots of fun doing the activities inside each little gift bag. For our game night we got a new game, Connect Four Launchers. That was a big hit, I mean what boy doesn’t love launching things across the table. Of course, the game ended with the launchers being used to blast each other with little red and yellow rings (okay, maybe I started it….maybe).

On Saturday we finally had a craft activity. We were instructed to create a little christmas tree out of something fun. I had purchased some gorgeous scrapbook paper at Michaels when they were having the 40% off scrapbooking supplies sale. Originally I was going to get those cone floral forms, but they are just too expensive and I knew I could come up with a way to make a form without spending almost $30. Luckily I came up with an idea that worked quite well.

So, we gathered supplies:
Scrapbook paper
Glue
Scissors
A pen/pencil
A large mixing bowl

To start I had each one of the boys choose a sheet of paper they liked, this would be used for the base of the tree. Then I traced the large bowl on the paper (it just happened to be the PERFECT size) and cut the circle out.

From there I cut from the edge to the center of the circle. This cut allowed me to make the circles into little cone shapes that were the perfect size for our project.

Then I just dabbed a little glue on to keep the cone shape and set it aside to dry.

While the cones were drying I had the boys pick out a few papers they liked and I cut strips about 2″ long across the width of the page. I gave each of the boys scissors and asked them to cut each long strip into many strips about 1/2″ wide. Bubby diligently cut little strips of paper while the Monkey chopped away with his little scissors, but the results were perfect. We turned the bowl we traced back over and tossed the pieces of paper in.

By now the tree forms were dry, time to start decorating our trees. I just instructed them to use their imaginations and decorate their trees however they wanted to. I used my pencil to slightly curl the pieces of paper up so I could use them as leaves. Then, starting at the bottom, I glued each piece of paper around my tree form in rings, all the way to the top. Bubby decided to use his paper pieces as ornaments and glued them all over his tree. Monkey also glued the paper pieces all over his tree.

In the end we had these very colorful, creative and unique little Christmas trees. Best of all I got to spend some quality time with my boys, being creative, talking, laughing and just watching their amazing little minds work. I am definitely pleased with how this advent calendar is really enriching our Christmas this year!

This is one of my Pinterest inspired projects. I have had this idea pinned for some time now, anticipating using it in my kids’ bathroom to hold their tooth brushes. Then I ran into an issue with the new cleaning schedule: I had no where to put the markers. Then I remembered this idea I had pinned and decided it was time to use it. Luckily I had everything I needed already in my home, I just love when that happens!

You need…..
1 glass jar
Hose clamp that fits around said jar
Drywall anchor and screw
Drill
Filler for the jar (I used some red glass stones I had to match the holiday theme)

Making it happen….

First step is the drill a hole in the hose clamp. I chose to have the tightening screw to the side a bit.

Then just determine where you want to hang the jar and mark with a pencil. At this point, get your drywall anchor and your drill. I like to use these awesome heavy duty twist and lock anchors.

Insert the anchor into the wall, then screw the hose clamp into the anchor.

Then just slide the jar inside the hose clamp and tighten securely (not too tight or you’ll crack the glass).

Add filler if you’d like, throw some markers, pens, etc in and you’re done!

Stand back and admire your awesomely functional and cute 10 minute project.

If you haven’t read my Cleaning Schedule Post you should go have a look. I put the schedule together in the hopes that I would finally find a way to get a handle on keeping my house clean. You would think that, with Hubby and I both staying home all the time, we would be able to keep a clean house. That would be a completely incorrect assumption. I think being home all the time actually makes it worse because we are always here to eat, work, play, cook, etc. Yes we have time to clean, but we also have plenty of time to mess it up and since we are always home there is always the excuse that we can just do it later. Combined with the fact that we also have 3 children that are here most of the time….our house is always a mess and I hate it. Now that we have moved into a bigger house I have committed to keeping it cleaned up. Of course I require that everyone pitch in because I will get burnt out if I have to do it all myself.

The next issue that I needed to address is how to display said schedule. I didn’t just want to put it on the fridge where it would eventually fall down or get covered by an art project or certificate of achievement. No I knew that it needed to be displayed proudly on the wall in a way that would show it’s importance, yet still look great. Since I have this great empty wall space in the kitchen I decided that would be home for my schedule. I decided to make that wall the family command center where we would post menus, to-dos and other important items. Now to make it look stylish.

I knew I wanted to frame the schedule under glass so I could use it as a dry erase board. Originally I thought I would just design a large format print and send it off to my print company. The problem I had with that was, I had no idea how to design something that would fit the decor in my kitchen since we currently have no decor in the kitchen. I have an idea of what we want to do in there, but no specific colors picked out and no solid plans. I needed to do something a little less permanent, so I went a different direction.

First I found my frame, which was originally holding this lovely floral print that just screams “cheap hotel room” which I bought for $1 at a garage sale.

After a good sanding I sprayed it with a hammered metal spray paint from Rustolium (I am also using it for my DIY window treatments, that post will be coming soon).

Since the print that was originally inside the frame was mounted to a nice thick piece of cardboard I just used that as the insert that I would mount my schedule to. With it being the holiday season, I thought it would be nice to be a little festive so I picked out this pretty wrapping paper for my background. I just wrapped the cardboard insert with my paper.

I printed out a copy of my cleaning schedule, with colors modified to match the wrapping paper, onto a nice thick piece of card stock. I also created a menu that matched and mounted both to the wrapping paper covered cardboard. Popped it in the frame and voila! I just mounted it to the wall with my trusty Command strips and now we are on schedule.

So far so good, the schedule seems to be working too. I am already caught up with laundry and getting my house in order. Yay me!

I know this is sort of a controversial topic for many families and I want to preface this with the fact that I do not pretend to know what the right choice is. I am only doing what I believe is best for MY family and do not fault anyone for doing the same.

We do not teach our children that Santa comes in our home on Christmas Eve to deliver their presents. Hubby and I talked about this a LOT before Bubby was old enough to get the whole Santa thing and we came to the conclusion that we could use the idea of Santa to teach our children some amazing things without lying to them. Again, this is what I believe is best for MY family. I have a huge issue with lying and since we have been going through a little phase with Bubby regarding telling the truth I find myself asking very often “Have I EVER lied to you?” It is a huge point for us that as parents we will not lie to our children about anything, ever.

What we DO tell our children is that Santa is real. We teach them that Santa is more of an idea, the spirit of Christmas, the spirit of giving. We tell them that everyone is Santa. We also teach them that Santa is a great way for us to be able to give in secret. By saying a gift is from Santa, the person receiving the gift doesn’t know exactly who the gift is from and therefore the gift giving process is solely about the person receiving a gift and not about the gift giver getting recognition. The great thing is, it becomes kind of a fun game for them. They will find ways to sneak a “Santa gift” to someone just because they think it’s fun. I feel that it is important for my children to learn that giving a gift is about the other person and not them, I don’t want them to be prideful about their generosity. We will still put our names on a gift that has a special meaning or story behind it, but most gifts given on Christmas are “Santa gifts”.

We also use the example of Santa giving gifts relating to the gift God gave us by sending Jesus and the gift that Jesus gave us by dying for our sins. I guess I just feel like the whole idea of Santa could be a wasted opportunity to teach my children something so very important if we just did the traditional “Santa brings our gifts” story.

Of course we tell these stories a little differently to each child since they are of different ages, but Bubby specifically, seems to love the idea that he can be Santa. The way we have explained it seems to work pretty well, since we don’t simply say “Santa isn’t real” there is less of a chance for my boys to let the cat out of the bag with other kids that do believe. We make it very clear that some children do believe that Santa is a real person and we have no right to tell them any differently. I just feel like each family needs to decide how they want to handle this topic and just because we do it one way doesn’t mean it is the right way or the only way (which also gives us an opportunity to teach a little about diversity since not everyone celebrates the holidays the same). So there you have it, this is how we handle the topic of Santa.