Happy New Years!

Wow....where did 2010 go? This year literally flew by. I remember New Years Eve last year like it just happened yesterday....crazy!

Anyways, every year when New Years is approaching, I get a little excited because I have a chance to start over on a fresh page. I know a lot of people see New Years as just another day, but for me, it's a fresh start. Every year at my house, my family cleans the whole house from top to bottom, does ALL the laundry so that there's not one dirty piece of clothing in the house, and throws away things we don't need so that we can have a fresh start for the year. A lot of people do "Spring Cleaning", but we do "New Years Cleaning" lol...Also, a lot of people don't believe in making resolutions simply because they can never keep them. But for me, when I put my mind into something, I can achieve it. I only make resolutions that I know are possible for me to reach. Most of the resolutions I made last year, I completed them! So I have a new list of resolutions for 2011.

2011 Resolutions:

1. Lose some weight

2. Eat healthier. Eliminate fast food and junk food from my vocabulary and diet

3. Go to the gym 3 times a week (starting January 1st)

4. Finally get to BSL

5. Save $2000-$3000 in savings (I'm a broke college student with a part time job)

6. Re-invent myself. Since my hair is getting longer and healthier, I want to focus on make-up and weight loss now

7. Go to a new school to finish nursing

8. Put more faith in God and praise him more

9. Drink water more often than juice

10. Be more generous

11. Clean my room on a regular basis...I'm so lazy at times lol

12. Re-decorate my room

13. Take care of my skin

14. Prioritize better

15. Have more self-control

16. Get 8 hours of sleep every night

17. Stop spending so much time in front of the computer, and read more books

18. Be more frugal

Frugal Eyebrows

I haven't gotten my eyebrows done since November 13th! Its been a month and 5 days and I've been walking around with cave woman eyebrows...lol. But lately, I haven't really cared for my appearance because I've been too busy studying for finals, working, and being too tired for...everything! I waited a month to let my eyebrows grow back because when I last got them done, I hated the way they turned out. Lee, the lady who does my eyebrows at the nail salon, is very popular because she's the most skill full worker. So at times, I feel like her "celebrity" gets in the way and she just does what she feels like because she knows that you'll come back to her. I live in a small town, so there's not a lot of options when it comes to getting your eyebrows done by someone you know who does it good. People usually come back to her but never know what to expect. Well, I don't want to do that anymore. I don't want someone to mess up my eyebrows and expect me to come back in 2 weeks. I decided today that I will start doing my own eyebrows again. I remember when I was in the 7th grade, I used to do them myself and I was pretty good! Until I was old enough to get a job and relied on others to make them look good. I want to save money and do them myself and have them come out how I want them to come out. Today I went to CVS and bought a few eyebrow tools. When I got home, I got to working on my eyebrows!

Tools:

• 2 eyebrow brushes (bristle brush & 1/2 brush 1/2 comb)
• Eyebrow pencil to fill in brows
• Eyebrow shaper
• Eyebrow scissors
• Tweezers
  

One side is done, the other side is not. I'm just trying to show a comparison. For the eyebrow that's done, I tweezed them, shaped them and trimmed them. Then I filled them in with a dark brown pencil. I know I need to fill it in more towards the beginning, but it was late and I wasn't going anywhere so I didn't bother lol. No more paying $7 bucks every 2 weeks to get them done again!

Blow Drying Relaxed Hair Safely!

Relaxed hair, as you already know, is a lot weaker than natural hair. The chemicals in the relaxer break down the protein bonds in the hair strands making your hair more susceptible to breakage and damage. Everything you do to your hair should be done carefully and with caution to avoid a setback.

Yesterday night, I decided to blow dry and flat iron my hair. I am currently 2 weeks post relaxer. After a fresh relaxer, my hair tends to have that flatness that I hate! So I always use my one and only heat pass when I'm 2 weeks post just to check to see if my thickness is still there.

Blow drying my hair safely:
-Wash/light protein/deep condition/leave-in/moisturizing heat protectant
-Air dry for 2 hours
-Section hair into 4 parts
-Before blow drying each part, apply a pea size amount of moisturizing heat protector
-Blow dry section with lukewarm air
-Use wide tooth comb to detangle section while blow drying
-Don't hold dryer to close to the hair, hold a few inches away so that the heat distributes evenly

Results:
Hair should be nice, thick and have a lot of flow!

Eating Healthy: Turkey Burgers infused with Salsa & Swiss Cheese!

In the beginning of 2010, one of my goals for this blog was to blog about random new meals I tried. Well, this year, I tried several new things, but just never got around to blogging about them. The pictures never came out right in my eyes. If you're gonna post a food blog, I like it when the picture is nice and crystal clear. My pics never came out that way, so I never tried to even blog. Well today, I was starving and wanted something fresh and new. I decided to try a new meal. It was delicious!! I took pictures, and guess what? For some reason this time around, the photos came out pretty decent!

I made turkey burgers infused with salsa and Swiss cheese and added a side of boiled broccoli and carrots!

Ingredients:
(You will need)

• 1 pound of ground turkey

• 1 can of Original Rotel Salsa
• 1/2 of a lime (to clean meat)
  

• Slices of Swiss cheese (optional)

(depends on how many burgers you want with cheese)

• 1 Maggie chicken bouillon cube

Instructions:
Start out by boiling the brocolli and carrots first because you want them to be nice and tender. Remove ground turkey from packaging and place in a large bowl. Squeeze juice out of 1 half of a lime over the meat. Crush 1 Maggie chicken bouillon cube with your fingers and sprinkle over the meat. Mix everything together with your hands. Open the can of Rotel and drain the water out first. Pour salsa over the meat and mix together with your hands. Put your skillet on the stove and add about 2 table spoons of vegetable oil to it. Shape burgers and place them in the skillet. For burgers with cheese, place 1 slice of cheese on top of burger and place another burger on top of cheese. The cheese should be sandwiched in the middle. Let each side cook on the skillet for about 5-7 minutes each. In about 25-30 minutes or so, everything should be good and ready to eat! Bon Appetit!

November 2010 Relaxer Updates.

Hey everyone!

I relaxed my hair last Friday (11/19/10) at 17 weeks post relaxer! I got about 2.5 inches of growth, but guess what?? My stylist TRIMMED it! So now, I'm back to the same ol' length I was last November 2009. Basically, I get a relaxer every 12 weeks and my cousin trims off an inch or so every time I relax. A inch is what I usually grow in 12 weeks, so basically it's like starting back at square 1. I've learned that this is the WRONG thing to do if your aim is to grow your hair out. You will never get length if you trim EVERY single time you relax.

It wasn't until the other day, I was comparing photos of my progress for the year, or lack thereof, of my length. I can't believe my hair is the same length after a year! Its not that I have a bad regimen or bad products, because my regimen is working out wonderfully for my hair. My hair is thick, full, and bouncy, its just the length retention. I wear my hair in protective styles 90% of the time, but it seems like every time my relaxer date rolls around, my stylist just trims off what I grew. I love my stylist and everything, but it seems like I'm wasting money on having the same length for a whole friggin year. I've spent hundreds of dollars on this hair journey and barely APL is what I have to show for it after being on this journey for 4 years? That's crazy. You guys I really don't know what to do. Seriously I should have been MBL by now. I'm gonna start putting my foot down and telling my cousin to stop cutting my hair so much. I think I'm gonna get a trim twice a year for 2011, because I want to see length already. My hair is pretty healthy, its just the length that I'm tired of. I am truly disappointed and I actually wasn't gonna share my relaxer results with you all. I was thinking of going on hiatus and coming back when I reach BSL! But for some reason, I cant seem to stay away from updating you all on my progress.

My cousin said the reason why she trims with every relaxer is because I stretch too long. The longer my hair gets, the less stretching I have to do. I do get a lot of shedding, but my hair still comes out thick after I relax. She said when I shed so much, it kills my ends, so that's why she trims the ends every time. So she and I have come to an agreement to relax my hair every 8 weeks so that she wont have to trim so much, and so that I can retain some length. And I stand firm when I say I'm only trimming twice a year, every 6 months. Lets get this hair journey started over!

November 2009 relaxer

February 2010 relaxer


November 2010 relaxer...
I'm SO disappointed!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I just wanted to wish all my readers and followers a Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy sitting around the table eating dinner with your family and loved ones, because I know I will! I'm hungry! Lol..I cant wait to eat some warm apple pie with vanilla ice cream on top, my favorite holiday dessert! I also made delicious potato salad to bring to the party later on. Remember to be safe and have fun! Allow time to digest your food before heading out for those crazy Black Friday deals! I will be updating you all later on how my Thanksgiving went, and also my relaxer results. Stay tuned!

Vanessa Hudgens Inspired Nails

I got my nails done yesterday and really liked the combo that Vanessa Hudgens was wearing at a Red Carpet event. So I bought my blue China Glaze "For Aubrey" along with me to the salon. The gold color is from the salon....I dont know what the name of the color is. I like it!