Modest Monday: My Favorite (Flowered) Dress

I shared about this dress before HERE, but it never received it’s proper attention, as it IS my FAVORITE dress!!! I rarely pay full price for things like clothes, but I was too scared to lose out on this pretty dress, so I bought it, then and there!   A year and a half later and it’s still my favorite!! 🙂

The dress was a tad short, so I added a strip of lace along the hem.

I just ADORE flowers!!

I still love this jewelry from Connor Inspires Amy on ETSY.

We tried a new spot for photos at my in-law’s and I LOVE seeing the GREEN behind me!!

I found the beautiful dress at Target.

Happy Monday!

My Safer Hair Care Routine That Actually Works

After two years of trying to find a way to wash my hair without all of the chemicals, I feel like I’ve finally found something that works!! Yay!! I went through so much frustration and a lot of gungky hair days to get here. I tried horrible baking soda and both kinds of vinegar, lemon juice, all of the Trader Joe’s shampoos, Burt’s Bees, African black soap, etc, etc, etc. Blech! And my hair was always dry and gunky. My scalp was completely out of control. Needless to say, I was frustrated, and even shed some tears over that horrible, untouchable hair. 😦

You can see the thick layer coating my hair here. It was so hard trying to hide it as much as I could all of the time…and not touching it, yuck.

Then we got a filter for our shower head, because, guess what? Most people raving about these methods have soft water…and we have super, duper HARD water. Ack! I miss that super soft Oregon water. The filter helped a little, but not enough. Then I started this routine: aloe for the scalp and Suave Professionals lower sulfates shampoo and conditioner, rinsing with reverse osmosis water from my in-law’s vacation house.This was the BEST my hair had been for a year and a half!!! But it wasn’t great, my scalp became very irritated and I had to warm up the water every time, and carry some with me when I traveled. All of these were a pain. I started pouring brewed camomile tea and using it for one of my rinses as a natural way to lighten my ever darkening hair. ( I accidentally bought the one for blonds, instead of rooibos for redheads, but who cares because I now have a more important reason to use it. 🙂 ) And occasionally mixing Tea Tree Oil into my shampoo for my poor scalp.

Then about a week ago, our water jugs were empty on the same day I decided to give Peppermint Oil a try instead of the tea tree oil that seemed to make things worse for me, and I found my new routine!!!!! 🙂

So here’s my new wonderful routing that gives me back my freedom from carting around the water, and gives me back my softer hair again:

Aloe on my scalp, rinse with Camomile tea, brewed and cooled. (Sometimes I skip the aloe now).

Suave Professionals Shampoo, rinse with shower water.

Suave Professionals Conditioner, rinse with shower water.

Finish rinsing with shower water. (Sometimes I still use the reverse osmosis water for rinses).

I use a little aloe as a gel for straightening my fringe (bangs) and taming in general if needed. And we now have our own aloe plant!!

Deep condition with coconut oil when needed.

Mix a couple of drops of peppermint oil into shampoo when need for scalp healing.

It is actually in better condition now than in this picture, but you can see…no gunk!! And no more fuzziness on top, it was quite ridiculous!

And enjoy your soft and luxurious hair!! 🙂

It’s so much easier to travel with a tea bag and a big cup than carting around soft water!

I’m still in shock over this fabulous discovery!! I think the tea does for me what the lemon juice/ vinegars do for others, but didn’t do for me. My hair has always been on the oily side, and they just made it oilier, the tea does not. This routine works better than any of the others I tried, and is so much easier for traveling!

Have you found a natural hair care routine that works for you and isn’t part of the “No Poo” fad? Share it here in the comments! 🙂

 

Modest Monday: Green and Cream Daisies

Happy Monday! It’s the day after Resurrection Day and time for a Modest Monday post, so here’s what I wore yesterday! I bought this gorgeous dress from Kohl’s last summer for my Ellie costume from “Up” for a Pixar themed party. I LOVE it!!!

Here are the beautiful details of the dress:

I wore a tank halftee underneath for more coverage and my white cardigan. My friend gave me the “He is Risen” necklace, but it didn’t exactly match, and necklaces looked odd with this beautiful lace neckline. So I took the pendant off of the chain and pinned it onto my cardigan. 🙂

My brand new shamrock ring!!! When we were engaged and looking for my wedding ring, we couldn’t find what I had always dreamed of since high school, a shamrock ring with three emeralds and a diamond in the center. I finally found one at Avon, but it was silver coated. Then I found this one months ago at shopirish.com, but it was sold out. 😦 I figured my chance was over…but then it finally showed up again!!! Yay, sterling silver so I can wear it everyday. I’m super happy! It isn’t exactly what I had imagined, but i”m happy with it! 🙂

Hope you all had a wonderful Resurrection Day!!

Our Irish Party

Ack! I’m finally sharing about our Irish party with our friends! I started it days ago, but kept getting interrupted by more urgent things. Anyway, here it is!

We have some friends that love to celebrate the Irish culture like we do, so we sometimes have get-togethers in March and mix the American with the Irish cultures.

So here’s our serving table with drinks, dessert and the food I forgot to photograph as I was hostessing. My mother-in-law brought some green carnations for the table. We had Bewley’s tea (my favorite tea!) in our Carrigaline shamrock tea cups, punch made from rainbow sherbet and 7up for an American touch, Shepherd’s Pie, Steamed Cabbage and White and Brown Soda Bread, served with Dubliner cheese.

For dessert we had a field of shamrock cookies and some rainbow cupcakes. All yummy!!!! 🙂

And here’s our table, festive and fun!

Some of the decorations:

Gnomes, mushrooms and egg cups as tea lights.

Shamrock and flower plants and this adorable painted rock my Sweetie found for my anniversary gift!

I made this table cloth several years ago, and collected the napkins from somewhere?

We had loads of fun eating, visiting and listening to Van Morrison and The Chieftains. The girls were even surprised to hear they ate Brussels sprouts sneaked into the gravy of the shepherd’s pie…and didn’t hate it!!! 🙂

The girls spent hours in the Bear House and Secret Garden, on the swing and saying hello to the horses next door. The adults spent that time catching up, visiting, eating and cleaning up.

And HERE are the recipes if you’re interested!! 🙂