5 Easy Everyday Hairstyles for Short-Medium Length Hair

Grr. This is the second time I'm writing and saving this post, so hopefully Blogger won't eat it, again! 

I don't know about you, but every time I cut my hair, I love it for three days and then regret it. I'm almost instantly impatient about growing it out and frustrated with having to style shorter hair. With natural waves that aren't wavy enough to do anything pretty on their own, short hair requires quite a bit of work for me. I've come up with five go-to hairstyles that are easy, fast, and perfect for everyday.

blow dried with french braided bangs:

 messy, loose ponytail:

 blow dried and bouncy:

tousled curls:

 sleek and smooth (flat ironed):

I finish just about every hairstyle with a light mist of light to medium hold hairspray. I don't do this for hold, though. With my superfine hair, it's easy for layers to get lost in the cut, so a mist of hairspray helps pull out the texture and not make it look so flat and one-dimensional. The most common style I wear is the blow dried and bouncy, just because all that requires is for me to flip my head upside down and dry it with a paddle brush. But I love variations on that style, like adding the french braid or a twist to my bangs, or just pulling the bangs straight back into a little pouf. May I reiterate "little?" I've also been loving the small things blog for when I get into a rut! Kate is armed with tons of quick, easy styles that will dress up your hair. 

For those of you who were waiting to see a more true representation of my new color, this is pretty on point! I'm loving it! I still have only washed it the one that I rinsed the color out, so I'm sure there are a few slight changes on the horizon. One I'm hoping for is that my highlights will shine through just a bit for color dimension. Otherwise, I'm very pleased. This is exactly what I was hoping for.

What do you think?

My Ugly Jeans

There's never time to DIY around here. Except when it means I take a pair of ugly jeans, chop them off, roll a cuff, and have some appropriate length shorts. That, ladies and gentlemen (probably just ladies?), is exactly what I did to these jorts.

before:

after:

shirt and tank: Old Navy, jorts (DIY): Charlotte Russe, sandals: Fergalicious, necklace: Etsy 2009

Yes, the side of my shirt is pulled up. Yes, I wore another black and white striped tank under my shirt. Yes, I walk around like this all.the.time from having a baby on my hip.

So, better as jorts, right? I really needed something appropriate and comfortable to transition into fall with long sleeved tops. I rather like my ugly jeans, now.

*This was my Saturday outfit- so, before hair dye. 

Thought I'd Fix That {FundayMonday Link-Up}

One of my sweet friends has serious "rootaphobia," ie: the fear of roots showing when hair color grows out. I was drying my hair on Saturday night, thinking to myself, "I'd really freak her out right now." After seeing my friend at church, yesterday morning, and mentioning how I thought about her when I was eyeing the serious crisis condition that my hair was in, she said, "Why don't you just go darker?" 

That seemed so easy. Why didn't I think of that before?

So, I took myself to my personal playground (Sally's), had a little conversation with a staff member (I always ask for someone who is a certified stylist), and we decided (ahem, I'd already decided, but just wanted to make sure she suggested the same thing - and she did) that I should do an all over color and tone it. My hair always pulls warm/golden/red tones, so I knew I'd have some red after dying it. I went with Wella 7A, Smokey Light Ash Blonde. I always use ash color on my hair because of the natural golden tendency. Just so you can grasp where I was and where I went, I started as a Wella 12A (level 10 is considered blondest blonde on most color scales). Going to a 7A was a scary jump, but my natural color is a 7. I'll have to get some outside/natural light photos for you because my yellow bathroom at night isn't really giving a good idea of what my color looks like. I did some before and after for you, though! Let me know what you think.

 Before:

(For those of you have have rootaphobia, don't look!)

Before/After:

After:

(The middle photo is my natural color.)

You can clearly see that I still have a lot of golden tones in my hair, which is from its natural tendency, but also because I dyed some seriously bright hair. I haven't toned, yet, and I want to give it a week to do it's thing in the wash before I go buy more product. Overall, I'm pleased with the outcome and pray that this will help me keep my hands out of the hair dye aisle for a bit. I'm so wishy washy when it comes to my hair color and as much as I'd like to just be able to pick up and go to the salon whenever I want a change, that's not in our budget. Next time I think I'm going to have a nervous breakdown, just tell me to go eat a piece of chocolate and not to dye my hair.

Linking up with Still Being Molly and Lipgloss & Crayons for FundayMonday!

Weekly Roundup {8.24.13}

Each Saturday, I plan to share some memories from the week. Unfortunately for you and me, this past week included a big, scary spider. I mean BIG. So, husband killed it. Then I found out it was the same spider that Charlotte was in Charlotte's Web.
We're jerks.

clockwise from spider (RIP):

1. Garden orb weaver spider - ie: Charlotte - ie: Dead.

2. Norah crashed on me after waking up at 6am and scaring the bejeebs out of hubs.

3. Yes, that's my leg. And I'm getting some outer thigh definition by day 10 of the squat challenge.

4. The only place Norah will nap without waking up to nurse is my bed.

5. I rearranged Norah's room and created a library area under the painting my friend created- and now, we have a Dempsey Library in our home!

Confessional Friday: My Perfect Day

I'm linking up with Leslie, of A Blonde Ambition {the cutest little preggers blogger in Internet Land, now that Molly has had baby Lilly!} for Confessional Friday. 

Today's topic is:

How you'd spend your perfect day...

And let me tell you how tough it was for me to come up with these! I haven't thought about what my perfect day would be in a long time. I'm generally busy trying to make sure everyone else has a perfect day. Or... at least trying to make sure they live through the day. C'est la vie, yes? So, mine...

* I would wake up in a beach villa, California king sized bed, covered in fluffy white pillows and a white down comforter, next to hubs, by the sound of crashing waves, and to the smell of coffee brewing and bacon cooking.

* After getting out of bed, I would take my time getting coffee and reading my bible and devotion, eating breakfast, and getting ready for my day.

* Hubs and I would take a morning walk on the beach and collect seashells for the girls (because they're with Gigi or Grandma while Daddy and Mommy are on a grown up vacation).

* Hubs would go play golf while I got a massage, facial, mani, and pedi.

* I would go shopping with an unlimited budget and buy way more stuff for the girls than myself... because let's face it, their clothes are stinking adorable.

* Hubs and I would meet back up for drinks and dinner on a private yacht, then we'd go swimming in clear blue water that's lit by the base of the boat.

* Back to the beach villa for coffee, dessert, and special grown up time.

image via Kempinski (maybe we should be heading to one of these hotels!)

Momformational {Fashion & Faith Link-Up}

I went to an informational and planning meeting for our local MOPS group last night and wore one of my favorite tops that I own. I think I'd wear this baby every day if that wasn't... dirty. I will say that I was sad to see how low cut the neckline was because I'd originally purchased the top to wear with the big tear drop statement necklaces and it just doesn't look right with them. Can't win 'em all.

 shirt and jeans: Old Navy, necklace: GroopDealz, sandals: Fergalicious 

Yes, I got a little too much sun on my face. And yes, we'll address the hair color dye-lemma another day.

Linked up with Lindsey of Ruby Girl for Fashion & Faith Thursday.

Apple, Ham, & Swiss Quesadillas

Holy catfish, Batman. Sound the alarms! Call Scotland Guards! Seriously, go to the grocery store with this blog post saved to your phone. Right now. You NEED to make these babies for dinner.

Ingrediamentes (yes, I made that up):

 whole wheat multigrain flat bread, chopped & sauteed ham steak, shredded swiss cheese, thinly sliced sweet apple, apple butter

Spread 2 teaspoons of apple butter on one side of your flatbread, sprinkle half of your cheese and enough ham and apple slices to cover half of the flatbread, then add the remainder of your cheese. Fold over and heat until cheese is melted and flatbread is lightly browned. I used olive oil non-stick spray and a stainless steel pan for cooking.

Tastebud. Explosion.

{You're welcome.}

Dinner is planned. Thank me later. 

Appearance and the Safe Zone

I've got to give it to Sadie. Her iPhone photography skills are fairly impressive- better than the non-photo I would have come away with had I not asked her to snap my outfit, right? I had no warning, whatsoever, as to when she was going to capture a moment, so here's what we've got:

 dress: Target, shoes: Cabrizi (Shoe Department), earrings: Target

There's no fun story behind why I wore this dress. We had to get some things at the grocery store on Monday and the girls both looked adorable, so I couldn't walk out of the house in my yoga pants and bleach stained tank-top because, well, I'd look like I kidnapped them and no one would think that was cool. Sadie really appreciates when I put a dress and some make-up on, so even on the laziest of days, I try really hard to make some sort of an effort so she knows I take pride in my appearance. I also need to work on taking pride in what I put on the radio during our errands... Girlfriend listens to every.single.lyric. This week, I've gotten, "Mommy, what is 'sexy?'" and, "Did he just say a bad word?" --in reference to Justin Timberlake's "Take Back the Night." Thank goodness she was asking about the lyric, "shut us down," and not, "I'll be damned." Yeah... back to our Christian radio station! That's my praise-worthy, family-friendly, spirit-lifting safe zone. 

What's More Fun than Making Old New? {FundayMonday Link-Up}

It's Monday! For a few more minutes, anyway. I'm linking up with Still Being Molly and Lipgloss & Crayons for FundayMonday and I thought that what I did for the girls brought all sorts of fun to Monday! Our week and weekend days sort of run together since I stay home and hubs works 7 days/week. We don't really get cases of the Mondays around here, but today? Today was different. Norah was sick last week into the weekend with roseola and poor Sadie had cabin fever like mad. I mean, y'all, she was mad and driving me mad. All sorts of madness. So, when Norah woke up feeling all better, I put my foot in my mouth by saying we could go swimming. Hah. Did it rain all day? Yes, it did.

So, what does one do with two children who are literally climbing the walls after being cooped up for 7 days straight? 

One goes to the attic. The attic is like Christmas. I'm not kidding- there's a lot of Christmas stuff in the attic. But there are also gazillions of old (to Sadie) toys that brought SO much joy and excitement to the girls today! I found a princess ride-on car, the Little People amusement park, and the activity table! Say what??? I mean, I'd been stashing all of this super extra Funday stuff up in the attic for like three years and just now remembered to bring it down? For real, we almost missed the wagon on these classics! Norah wouldn't have been too excited about that activity table or ride-on if she was a year older! 

Have you been up in your attic (or down in your basement) recently? GO!

Fisher Price Little People amusement park

Fisher Price activity table and Little People princess ride-on car

 We had loads and hours of fun with these three items and I look forward to the girls waking up to them in the morning. I totally forgot we had these gems (go Fisher Price!) and feel blessed that we have toys coming out of our ears so that I can start rotating some back into the attic!

While the girls were playing, I did one of my new favorite things- make quick pickles!!! I can't stop and don't plan to buy pickles from the grocery store unless it's a dire emergency. Ever. Again. Homemade is the way to go, so easy, and so delicious! My quick pickle recipe has been perfected, so now, I'm going to venture into canning so I can stock up for the winter. Can't let all of the summer's beautiful veggies go to waste!

I hope y'all are having a great week, so far! We are looking forward to getting out of the house and hopefully enjoying the pool a few more times before it closes! Check out the FundayMonday link-up by clicking the button below!

From the Mouths of Babes...

Don't let this sweet face fool you...

"Mom, I'm cleaning. I'm not happy about it, but I'm doing my job. I can't concentrate on talking right now."

Yep, that happened.

Things I learned today:

1) I'm in big trouble.

2) I need to be a lot nicer and more attentive while cleaning.