Many of us have drooled over Jcrews’ beautiul tissue tees, with their ruffles and ripples and ribbon accents. My cousin, creative and thrifty as she is, decided to create some of her own, and they are gorgeous!

View the video to see our first creations, and experiment with your own.  We picked up a stack of inexpensive tshirts and sweaters from T.J. Max, Ross and Walmart. You can cut up fabric and embellishments from your local craft store or cut up a matching tshirt.

Total cost per shirt: $6.50 Jcrew’s price: $58

That is a saving .

So you’ve got a pair of shabby boots, don’t throw them away! It’s perfect timing to bring out the country “shabby chic” side of your wardrobe.   (chic is pronounced sheek)

Chic-i-fy  Your Boots

1. wear with Knitted knee highs, don’t be afraid to let them come over the top of the boot.

2. Flip the lip :  if you have the pirate look boot with the top folded down (which is a great look in itself) try flipping it up and check out the complete change in the look!

3. tights with leg warmers: make sure they are different but coordinating colors and like your socks, make sure the warmers just poke out the top of the boot! (this looks great to tie in a knitted hat and scarf: )

Ever wondered the secret to moist shine rich hair? Often the answer lies not in a specific product but how you apply and rinse your conditioner.

Condition:

Bleached/Highlighted: 

If you hair is currently chemically treated, like me,  you’ll want to condition end to root every time.

Natural Hair:

For natural hair, i only conditioned the mid-lengths and ends every time and the roots about once a week.

 Step By Step

1) don’t worry so much about hitting the top of your head with the mass of conditioner your holding in your hand. Try starting from the ends of the hair, working towards the top. This will help eliminate excess moisture on the scalp which causes that premature oily feeling.

2) Try just conditioning the mid-lengths and ends every time you shampoo and only the top every other time or about once to twice a week. Your hair is healthier the closer it is to the scalp, so the target area should be the mid-lengths and ends as this is where most splitting and damaging occurs  from brushing, hot tools, pony tails, clothing contact, and hair coloring.

This How To is for those of us trying to treat our hair better, but keep getting frustrated because our tactics do not seem to be helping.

Hair Patterns

There are many things that cause us to change the pattern of how and when we care for our hair:

1. New job that requires more bathing.
2. Just heard that washing your hair everyday is not good for it
3. Can’t understand why you hair gets oily so fast
4. Can’t understand why its so frizzy, but feels like silk
5. New hairstyle that requires more or different product
6. Stuck on old habits
7. Etc, etc, etc.

I know my frustration came from a few things, but mostly I was avoiding washing my hair everyday (who has time to style their locks every 24 hours?) but then I felt my hair wasn’t really clean! This frustrated me, because i had many friends doing the same thing with great success! Well one day i had a hair teacher say “if you can’t seem to get it the first time around, do it again” so i decided to try washing twice before i conditioned. What a difference!!! The soap even lathers up differently the second time. Weird? It totally works.

So now i shampoo every two to three days and am very happy with the results.

Shampoo: Try This

Shampoo: better to shampoo twice in a row than every day.
(unless you have that oh! so awesome extreme oil prone hair)

Many times people who try not to wash everyday fail to wash more thoroughly when they actually do shampoo. This causes frustration because the hair seems to get oily or dirty faster.

 Double shampooing: Try it. 

#1: Focus on the Scalp. Once to focus (and i mean really focus) on that scalp! you need to remove the dead skin and oil buildup as to allow the scalp to breath and help new hair grow appropriately.

#2  focus on the rest of the hair and really make sure all of the grime is out!

Hair brittle after your shampoo? Come back for tips on conditioning your locks.

A couple weeks ago our dear Maresah blogged on several companies that feature natural skin and face products.

This week we are highlighting a face mask from Arbonne as a giveaway to our readers.

Not to be left out in the dark, I decided to try a bottle of the product for myself. And i can tell you, this stuff is powerful! Not only does it rejuvenate the skin, it helps clean out all those pesky dead skin cells that cause black heads! The bottle recommends once a week, which means it’s going to last for a long time. ::happy sigh::

$45 dollar value. No, it’s not cheap (natural products never are) Which is why you should enter the giveaway!

Giveaway ends the 22nd. If you post a link from Facebook, twitter or your own blog we’ll enter your name twice.

*Leave a comment to enter, we will track your site links through our blog back-end. Let us know you posted a link and we’ll be able to match the link to the entry.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ENTRY #60, Emily at Glenn Fashions- YOU WON THE ARBONNE MASK. !