Earrings and headbands and flowers, oh my!

I love dangling earrings. I rarely ever wear studs. But I've had so many pairs for so long I started running out of places to store them all! Thankfully my crafty friend Amber came to the rescue with an idea she found on the webernets. It's actually quite easy. All you need is:

1 Picture frame of your choice, preferably a larger one

1/4 yard of netting, whatever color you wish

6 thumbtacks

Pretty scrapbook paper or paint

And you get this!

How perfect is that? I now have more space on my vanity for the things that actually go there. What a blessing!

Now for another fun and crafty storage idea. I have a bunch of headbands that totally come in handy on bad hair days. But it is such a pain to have them all jumbled in a pile in my bathroom drawer! Here's my solution:

You can use anything cylindrical for this project. A Quaker Oats container is probably your easiest bet. My friend Amber and I made them from these cylinders we found at Home Depot. It's such a nice way to store headbands so they don't fly all over the place when you're looking for a color you want.

And in honor of all craftiness, Katie and I decided to start taking hair-bow making into our own hands. We've started with cinched ribbon hair-bows. You can find the tutorial here. We had a lot of fun making these cuties:

And in conclusion to this cutesy post, I bring you this little heartwarming moment courtesy of Katie and the May-Merz

It looks like Katie is reading a story to May-May. I thought it was darling. <3

Living on a prayer

It's been a while since I've blogged. I apologize. These last couple of week have been a strange time in my life. I feel changed coming and I'm not sure whether I'm prepared for them.

I think it's time I found a new job. Without going into too much detail, my salon is sort of falling apart. Brad and Kay, the owners, are divorcing and it's making everything crazy. I've been going back and forth for a while now trying to decide if I should stay or go, but I haven't really made a decision until just a few days ago. I decided it's time I left Bradz and moved on. I have to stay in the downtown area since that's where my clientel is based, but that's okay. I'm sure I can find something. I don't know where I'm going or when quite yet, but I do know that it's time for me to move on.

I also decided the other day that I was going to just take the nail tech tests and get my nail license here in Austin. How hard can it be? I just have to do a little bit of acrylic and a couple of other things and I should pass the tests. I went and bought an acrylic nail starter kit that had everything I need to practice and take the test. I practiced on Katie last night and while I'm definitely not the best, I believe I can fake it well enough to pass the practical exam. Acrylics are a lot harder than they look, actually. The video from my starter kit makes it look so easy, but they really aren't. Once I receive my nail license I want to work someplace that offers nails, waxing, and facials. I learned how to give manicures and pedicures when I was in school so I might as well do them along with my waxing and facials....

Which brings me to another point: I don't want to work at the Lake Austin Spa Resort anymore. I KNOW! I'm crazy right? Well, here's my reasoning. I'm tired of facials. They aren't my passion. I know I give good facials, but I don't like doing them anymore. I used to love them, until Brad started giving my half priced facials all weekend long and burned me out. And if I work at the Lake Austin Spa, that's basically ALL I'll be doing. It's a luxurious spa. I want to work at a day spa. I'm an extremely social person and facials are not social. I respect my clients and give them peace and quiet, but then I'm left alone with my own thoughts for an hour... or more when I have multiple facials back to back. I hardly speak to anyone and it's beginning to wear down on me. I love waxing because I get to chat with my clients, and I become friends with them. I know about their kids, their jobs, their boyfriends or husbands (or wives, I do have a couple male clients). They come in to see me about once a month and they update me on all that's going on in their life. We're friends on Facebook and I feel like I am part of their lives. It's a wonderful feeling! I don't know, it's kind of hard to explain, but since I started working at Bradz my goals and aspirations have changed and it really took me by surprise.

So I've started actively looking for someplace else to work. Wish me luck, job hunting is hard. I know I can find something if I really put my mind to it. Oh, and P.S. None of this should be mentioned on Facebook. I HAVE to be friends with my boss on there and if she found out over Facebook that I was looking for another job she'd be furious.... thanks friends.

I Am the Messenger

Markus Zusack. My love. My favorite. My escape. I love the way he writes. And he's done it again with his book I Am the Messenger. Almost as good as The Book Thief, but not quite. Such a wonderful story. Had me guessing all the way to the end. How heartwarming. Don't be surprised if your Christmas card this year is a playing card. I'm inspired.

Remember the Alamo!... and the rest of San Antonio!

While our Madre was here we decided to take one day and drive down to San Antonio to finally see the famous Alamo!

It was freakishly hot, but we managed pretty well. By the end of the day I felt like my face might have melted off though...

We're cheesy picture posers

That's one giant cactus behind us

It was amazing to me how much the road across from the Alamo reminded me of the cheesiness of Niagra Falls. Tons of stupid little Ripley's Believe It Or Not wax museums and rides, virtual reality tomb raiding rides, and gift shops that were ridiculously overpriced. I thought Texas might have just a little more pride than that to put those stupid things across from the Alamo, but I was wrong.

Fun house mirrors: gotta love 'em. We only used the mirror up at the front of the fun house... we didn't pay the 20$ per person to go inside.

Biggest dinosaur robot I've ever laid eyes on

I loved these bar stools at the Rainforest Cafe on the Riverwalk

Someday I will have this chandelier hanging in my house.

Are we sisters or what?

And a little something interesting. When we got home that day my mom took May-May potty and found these little baby bunnies right outside of our apartment! They were just hanging out by this tree all by themselves. They were so cute I told Ander to catch them so we could have them as pets, but Ander said we should leave them alone so their mother could find them. They were adorable!

What it's like to drop off of the face of the earth

That really is how I've felt lately. I've been looking at everyone else's blogs thinking, "man, I feel like I don't even exist anymore. I have posted ANYTHING lately!"

Well, here's the scoop: KATIE MOVED IN WITH US FOR THE SUMMER! Yes, that's right my friends, my sister is here in Texas. I never thought I'd see the day, but here she is! Okay, lies. She got here a little over a month ago, and that's why I haven't really blogged anything. We've been busy! But busy people are happy people.... right?

Katie has an actual digital camera, so I am really lucky to have REAL pictures on this post today. Be prepared, there's a bunch.

I've decided that I think May-May likes Katie more than me. Every time we come home from somewhere she runs straight past me to Katie. But that's okay, she is just excited that there is someone new around the house.

About a week after Katie got here, Mom came to visit us!!! It was so exciting! We had a blast! She was here for about a 5 days and we had so much fun! I love my mom so much. I decided we should take May-May to the dog park in Round Rock and then watch the bats fly out from under the freeway. Too bad the bats all flew out about 5 blocks down from us. Oh well, we had a good time anyway.

My mom is so much more tan than me and Katie. It's strange.

That's okay, Katie and I are just poster children for being "skin cancer free!"

Kaite is an artist. A WONDERFUL artist at that, so Ander had the brilliant idea of Katie drawing the Kool-Aid man on one of our pitchers. She delivered beautifully:

Katie got some better pictures of my purple hair. It needs to be touched up now, one of these days I'll get it done. I've just been so busy at work these days...

I know this post is a little choppy, bear with me. I have a lot of random pictures. This happened one night when mother nature decided Austin was a little too dry. It was absolutely pouring rain. Katie and I were in Wal-Mart finishing up our grocery shopping when the storm hit. We were absolutely soaked to the bone by the time we got home!

For the Fourth of July all of us Anderson Mill ward couples (and Katie) went to go and watch fireworks in Cedar Park. We played cards until the fireworks started, and the fireworks were pretty cool! All in all it was a good Fourth of July!

There is more to come everyone. Onto the Alamo!

Words cannot describe

This little number suddenly showed up in front of one of the apartments next to us. Somehow I feel like our apartment complex just got a little bit more ghetto...

Purple people eater

I put purple in my hair. I know, it sounds lame, but it's actually kind of fun. Really. Listen, I wear my hair in a bun almost every day for work. I need my hair out of my face. So when I went to have Lorie put highlights in my hair I told her to put a splash of purple underneath so when I wore my hair in a bun it would look a lot cooler:

Now, the only problem is the purple hair dye came from kind of a crappy brand, so.... needless to say, I'm literally waking up in the morning with a purple neck. I've washed the purple hair five times now and it's STILL bleeding. Lorie told me it's the product line and this doesn't normally happen with better color lines. Oh well, luckily at Bradz we have tint remover for the skin so I haven't had to walk around looking like the purple people eater. I really do like the color though, don't you? A splash of color for the summer!