Homefront: A New Journey

We are going to be embarking on a whole new adventure! In a few months, we will be packing up and moving from Texas to Washington state. I am pretty sure this makes move # 7 since I have been blogging, but all those moves were within a few hours drive, so this is a big one. All of my collecting and most of my furniture will be going bye bye. Which is interesting, because we have been in this rental house for one year now, and my lovely plate and gallery wall items never came out of the moving boxes. We have only a few things on the walls, ever since our last landlord turned crazy-town on us, we kept this place pretty nail-hole free.

It will be exciting to have a totally clean start. I have been watching episodes of "Clean House" on Netflix to mentally prep me for letting go of stuff. For our last move, I had a huge garage sale (even though  was 9 months pregnant), than took a truckload of goods to Goodwill. Funny that out of all of that stuff we got rid of, I only miss one thing. My three lantern light that my husband mistakenly sold for a single dollar :(

Since my mom is also moving with us, and she also has to storage units full of furniture 6 hours away from us, so that is going to be the most stressful part. Somehow hauling some of her stuff here and trying to get rid of the rest. During times of stress, I just tell myself that in a few short months, all of this headache will be behind us, and we will be enjoying a brand new life, in a beautiful, new place. And even though we will miss some very dear friends here, they will always be a part of us.

Prom and Bridal Hair by Me and my Downtown Studio Salon Team

 

 partial updo by me, elegant twists make a stunning partial

It is prom and wedding season and we have been going crazy with updos here at Downtown Studio in Historic Rosenberg, Texas! We have been doing lots of the relaxed and more creative style hair for weddings, and the teens are all about partial updos. Common requests this year are braids, twists and soft curls. Which is fine by me, it's one of my favorite styles to achieve! So scroll down for lots of creative inspiration photos by our salon. If you pin them, please attribute the photos to us, thanks!! If you are the The Sugar Land, Pecan Grove, Rosenberg, Richmond, Katy, Houston, Needville areas, come on by to get your hair done! We make it a party every time :) If you aren't local, come say "hi" on our facebook page for lots of hair styling tips and tutorials.

hair by me, a small french twist with little pin curls

hair by me, lots of woven twists and braids! love that reverse ombre

hair by me, twists and braids!

hair by me, more twists, braids and curls!

 updo by me, tiny braids are woven throughout

color and partial updo by Candice, extensions by Trecina 

updo by Candice

side braid updo with flower by Candice

 side braid bridal updo by Candice

mother of the bride updo by Candice

updo/chignon by April and Candice

junior bridesmaid partial updo by April

elegant woven and braided bridal updo by Candice

me and Trecina, hard at work

Trecina applying eyelashes, while Candice, the salon owner and updo extrodinare works her magic

me, April, Trecina and Candice with our formal girls

beautiful!

Much love from the Downtown Studio salon team and all who come for their special events!

Homefront: Christmas Tour of Homes 2012

I changed my long and narrow living room layout to three separate areas from the two I showed last week.  so this is a little teaser. More on that in another post though, because today is Nester's Christmas tour of homes, and I finally feel festive!

 Isaac is in first grade, and he wrote me a beautiful story of his Christmas plans!

 

Until I find my mini nativity pieces, the lion and lamb ornament will keep this cute stable company.

 

 The candle is an advent candle. You burn it one dot each night, until Christmas Day it is down to the last dot. I love this book, A Special Place for Santa. For those who struggle with meshing Santa and Christ together, it tells a lovely story of the historical Santa, and how he ties into the Christmas story.

 We made festive, candied, chocolate dipped stirring spoons for hot chocolate or coffee for the kids teachers. Check out the tutorial, they are so easy and yummy!


2012 Christmas Tour of Homes via The Nester linky party 

Sweet Treats: The Cake Thief

My hubs turned 32. His work had some big shenanigans, than gave him this monster cake. I, (okay, my mom) baked him a b-day cake (chocolate by request), and me not being a fantastic decorator (which I fully intend to remedy one day, well my Halo one was awesome)... outright STOLE the flowers off of the store cake and put them on the chocolate one. Ah-ha! It was spectacular, trick candles and all. And oh boy, did that bad boy smoke!!

The pilfered flowers had some smudging, so I just did some slight camouflaging with the chocolate icing

and used a toothpick to blend the weird edges, and it turned out alright. Sprinkles helped, naturally. By putting foil around the bottom of your cake, you can freely frost it without getting icing smudges all over the cake stand. Then you just pull the foil bits out and it's nice and clean!

 

 

 Yes, he got a venus fly trap, homemade cards, balloons and hugs and kisses for his birthday. 

I also made his favorite dish, chicken enchiladas... my first time! Recipe coming soon :)

 Some people say we look alike. We got confused for a brother and sister the other day  Oo

The trick candles kept relighting, it was a family effort to get them all out. In order to avoid a cake full of spit, we eventually resorted to throwing them in a bowl full of water.