Friday, March 29, 2013

It's True, I'm Old Now

So last year, I made a list of 30 things to do this past year before I turned 30. I tried pretty hard to stay on top of it, but I'll admit I'm a bit of a procrastinator so it was hard to do things when you think you have a year to get it done, and then all of a sudden there's only a month left and you have a bunch of stuff on your list not done! :) Really, I would have done a lot better if the buying a house/moving part of our year wasn't so crazy, it was a lot of off and on, stop and go and I was pretty stressed and during that point I was like who the heck cares about this stupid list?! :) There's a few things on the list I'm really sad I wasn't better about, and there's some that I think I'll still get to even though I didn't do them during the "30 year", and I'm okay with that.


                                                            30 before 30

 1- Learn to play the guitar: Didn't want to cross this off because although I've tried to self teach myself, and I did help play some music for a primary activity, I still am learning and can't really play a whole song myself. :)

 2- Exercise 3 times a week or complete "Insanity": I was doing really well exercising earlier this year, and then the whole moving thing happened and I didn't have a treadmill anymore and I tried to do Insanity but dude, it sucks. So this is sort of half way.

 3- Finish 1 craft project a month 

4- Buy our first house:  YAY!!

 5- Go to Forks: I'm really kind of sad that we didn't get to do this, but like I said, its still something we're going to try to get to doing.

 6- Run a 5k : I did this and was pretty proud of myself, I'm not a runner and I tried really hard to become a better one, I thought I was going to black out a few times (no seriously though), but I did it! :)

7- Watch 30 classic movies : I'm crossing this one off even though I'm a few short because I'm still planning to watch a bunch more (can I tell you how in love with Cary Grant I am?!).

 8- Go to VooDoo donuts 

 9- Homemake everyone's Christmas presents 

 10- Donate blood (plasma maybe?): still planning on this!

 11- Grow hair out--no cutting at all! 

12- Paint 3 paintings: I did a ton of painting this year--of walls! I think I should be able to count it! haha I'm planning on doing some paintings for my house but haven't gotten there yet.

 13- Decorate a cake for each birthday 

14- Take the kids hiking this summer 

15- Find a waterfall: planning on finding one this summer

 16- Go on a date once a month: this is one of the ones I'm sad about, unfortunately we didn't get out for a date every month and it wasn't as big a priority as I should have made it.

 17- Go to the Temple once a month: ditto above.

 18- Be a 100% visiting teacher 

 19- Advance my "photography business"/ get paid for a big event 

 20- Do 3 photography trips/creative shoots/ outdoor shoots: I had some fun ideas to do for this, but unfortunately I just felt like I didn't have time, I did do ONE photography project, just not three.

 21- Yell less / be more patient: I tried. Really I did. (Have you met my kids though?!)

 22- Keep an organized calendar & dinner menu (no procrastinating!) : I wasn't perfect at this, but I really did work hard at it most of the year, got thrown off after the move and have gotten back into it, so I would say it was mostly successful.

 23- Have an all girl's themed party: I wanted to do a fun dress up party, but I'm going to count the baby shower I hosted and call it good. ;)

 24- Go to a concert: I was DYING to go to the Neon Trees/Maroon 5 concert that came through here but at $200 a pop, it wasn't going to happen. :/

25- Make a slideshow/movie for each kid: I just...suck.

26- Get new family pictures taken: Will do that this year for sure.

27- Stick to a budget: This is my husband's fault. ;)

 28- Make more friends / have more playdates 

 29- Decorate new house on a budget / document it on a blog : blog here: The Mint Cottage

 30- Have a big birthday bash!: We did a Roaring 20's theme and it was so fun to dress up! Huge thanks to my beautiful sister for helping put it together!










So what do you think? Do I completely suck for not doing everything? Would you make a list for yourself? If you did, what would you put on it??

Monday, March 11, 2013

Feeling So Hippie

So I would say in some ways I can be a pretty granola kind of gal. And in other ways, not so much. But I'm always up for trying new things, and so when I read this article about not using shampoo anymore I was intrigued.

Intrigued enough to ACTUALLY TRY IT.

Thats right guys, I didn't shampoo my hair for more than two weeks! (Ewwww, you say? Not at all! Keep reading!)

Now if you don't want to go read the article, the idea is that shampoo is actually really bad for your hair. It strips it of all its natural oils and because of this your scalp goes crazy trying to make more, hence greasy hair if you don't shampoo pretty much every day.

The process of no-poo, as they call it, is instead of using shampoo you use a mixture of water and baking soda to clean your scalp and a mixture of water and vinegar to condition. She says the first two weeks are the hardest because this is the time that your scalp is readjusting. So you might have really straw like or cotton-y feeling hair.

Soooo, now that I've given a really quick run-down: here's my experience with no-pooing:

I was all prepared for the yucky straw hair, but I didn't get that AT ALL. It actually was pretty much like my normal hair. I waited about four days to repeat the process and that was all fine and good. After about a week or so of not shampooing and using a boar bristle brush (its supposed to help distribute the natural oils from your scalp down to the rest of your hair) I was feeling a little...weird.

First of all, my hair never felt dirty. It didn't feel the same as normal, but I figured that meant it was still adjusting. So I kept sticking with it. As time went on, my hair was feeling pretty oily near the scalp. I don't mean greasy or dirty feeling. Just oily. This was hard for me and I was feeling like I wanted to do the washing treatment more often (when its supposed to be less and less, at least every four days or even longer). When I did the treatment, it would feel clean for that day but then the next day or the day after I would start feeling oily again. Also the ends were super static-y. That part is partly because of the weather, but it was extra bad when I was no-pooing. (also, they should re-name this because it makes me feel icky.)

Second, because you mix your solution up beforehand and let it sit in the shower, its room temperature. When you're in the hot shower, it makes the solution feel pretty cold on your head. This actually didn't bother me, it helped me feel exactly where the solution was and because I take pretty hot showers it was really kind of refreshing. But I talked to a friend about this, and the cold was one of the main reasons she stopped doing it, she didn't like that part at all.

One thing I didn't realize would bother me, was the shampoo smell. Doing no shampoo, my hair didn't really smell like anything at all, just hair. And I actually really didn't like that. I missed having good smelling hair. :) In the article she suggests putting some essential oils in your hair brush and doing it that way, but I didn't have any good smelling ones and didn't want to buy any because I'm lazy. ;)

I realize that its possible my hair was more oily because my solution of water/baking soda was off and I needed to add less/more, but it seemed so fickle and honestly, I just wanted my hair to feel good--right now. So when I was at the grocery store I found this tea tree oil/mint shampoo and conditioner--its sulfate and paraben free, which means its a much gentler and healthier option for your hair. So I didn't feel like I was a total failure.

And guess what guys?! IT SMELLS LIKE HEAVEN!! I seriously love how this shampoo smells, and when I blow dry my hair I smell the mint and sigh, and sometimes when the wind blows I smell the mint and ahhhhhh, it just smells so dang good.

So this in no way is discouraging anyone from no-pooing, I think its a great idea and could save you a ton of money, being you're only using baking soda and vinegar. I guess I'm just too impatient to try and figure out the perfect mixture and got tired of feeling like my head was just...off.

Other pro's for no-pooing though:

You get less fly aways (smoother hair).
It helps your hair grow thicker and faster.
You know how your hair is falling out all over your house? Not anymore!
Shiny, beautiful hair!
You only have to shampoo once, maybe twice, a week!
You're not putting terrible chemicals on your head! Win!
Your hair is in balance the way its supposed to be.
Could help prevent gray hair!
I'm sure there's more but I've used up my allowance of exclamation points!

Anyway, do you think no-pooing sounds absolutely crazy and gross? Or would you totally consider trying it? Maybe you can see what I did and avoid my mistakes. :)