Cheater curls

If you know me, you know I "cheater curl" my hair at least 3x a week. Even though I have naturally stick straight hair, it's easier for me to go to bed with a wet head and wake up and do the whole flat iron curl trick.  (I call these cheater curls, because it takes me approximately 9 1/2 minutes to do my whole head... with a curling iron it would be at least double the time, and not even last half the day!)

Which means I was super excited when Brian from Misikko contacted me asking if I would be interested in reviewing a flat iron.

A few days later a box arrived on my doorstep from Hana Salon, and I eagerly tore into it. It just so happened to show up the day before I flew out to Baltimore so I threw it in my suitcase and tried it out that weekend.

Now, my mom is a hairstylist, which means I have used top of the line flat irons. I grew up using a CHI, and then traded that for a GHD, so I have a pretty good familiarity for the "best flat irons" out there.

How did the cheater curls turn out with the Hana Elite Flat Iron?

I'll let you judge for yourself...

The curls turned out great in my opinion! The Hana Elite is a 1" flat iron, which is the same size as I am used to. While it was nice that the flat iron had an adjustable temperature setting, I personally found it slightly intimidating. It doesn't seem healthy for your hair to be ran between two ceramic 400degree plates, but I had to go that high to get the curls to hold. Eek. Maybe all flat irons get that hot, but the 'ignorance is bliss' part of not knowing the temperature is more settling in my mind!

I also wish it had an automatic shut-off like my GHD flat iron does. I frequently rush out of the house every morning and forget to turn my flat iron off. My GHD turns itself off sitting idle for a set amount of time. The Hana Elite did not. Thankfully, I didn't catch anything on fire in our hotel room though!

I was pleased with the results of the Hana Elite, I would say it's comparable to the other "top of the line" flat irons I have used. And definitely a whole world better than any drugstore brand straightener!

(While I was contacted by Misikko to review their product, the opinions are 100% my own) 

Ringing in 2013

I figured if 2013 wanted to know who was boss, there was only one way to show it... by rocking the leather pants. (They're a heck of a lot less intimidating when you wear tall , albeit dirty, boots and a long sweater!)

And thus I spent the last few hours of 2012 donning my leather leggings for their first time out of the house.

Apparently, 2013 found this hilarious and slammed with a sinus infection on top of the myriad of other literal and metaphorical headaches I'm already dealing with, leaving me wondering if I'm even going to stand a chance against 2013 considering how it made it's entrance.

ANYWAYS - it's become a sort of tradition to ring in the new year at my cousins house, as he and his wife throw a party every year. It's usually the same mix of family and friends and I've come to love the laidback celebratory experience as opposed to huge crowds of crazy drunks at any given bar or hotel.

My cousin recently took the trophy in his fantasy football league, which apparnetly is in the 10th year running, and is some kind of big'freakin'deal. So, naturally, I highjacked it.

Somewhere south of 2am, after a night of dance battles, flippy'cupping, eating, drinking and having a great time it was time to retire 2012 for good.

Despite the rocky start, I'm determined to make 2013 an amazing year though! Bring it on!

Maryland 2.0

Two weeks ago I snuck back to Maryland for a few days.

It's funny how even after spending just shy of a week total combined in Frederick, MD I have become quite fond of the town and even fell into some sort of routine.

Per usual, LT worked all day Friday and Saturday while I proceeded to shop, drink coffee at their little cafe, meet him for lunch, and shop some more while waiting for him to get off work. In fact I did almost all my Christmas shopping while there.

Rough life, eh.

One of my favorite moments of the trip was Sunday though. LT had the day off, and since I was (HA) supposed to be flying out early Monday morning we had decided to go ahead and make the hour drive to Baltimore, spend the day on the harbor and get a hotel near the airport.

We spent nearly the entire evening just wandering around on the waterfront, ducking into shops, admiring the sites, grabbing drinks, and just talking.

Talking.

That's what I miss the most with him being gone. Is sitting across from one another, drink in hand, chatting about anything and everything for hours on end.

Phone calls just fall short.

Anyways, sob story aside. It was a really nice long weekend. We didn't do anything spectacular. Had dinner at a few spots that we had fallen in love with last time I was in town, watched a few movies, shopped a little, wandered hand in hand and just soaked up being together. It's funny how much you take the smallest things for granted.

I'm grateful he is only a short hour and half flight away, and keeping my fingers crossed that they wrap up their work there sometime soon to head home but no one really knows any info there for sure. Back to long distance'dom for now. Wahhh!

Theory of Evolution.

Last weekend I was out doing some Christmas shopping and texted my sister-in-law to see what my niece was wanting for Christmas. The response had me cracking up in the middle of TJ Maxx

I wandered through store after store looking for some sort of fun dinosaur book, toy, puzzle, anything. The tiny figurines I found were just way too boring. I had an idea pop into my head, and last night I headed out for some supplies and got to work.

After taking to my handy dandy notebook to sketch up some dinos, I was ready to get this prehistoric party on the road....

And in just a few short hours, a stack of flannel evolved into cuteness of Jurassic proportions. I present to you Bronte and Stag (poor Stag still needs eyeballs added)...

I have a feeling the little monkey is going to love her new cuddle buddies!

 

Five year journal.

How does a month fly by in the blink of an eye?

I figured if the world ended tomorrow I may as well get one last blog post up. You know... go out with a bang, right?

It's gotten to the point where friends and family are even pointing out that I haven't blogged since late November.

I was sitting next to an older fella on my flight home from Baltimore a few days ago (yes, I was able to go visit the boy again!) and he was writing in this "Five Year Journal". Each page was a date, with 5 sections, one for each year. And I thought to myself, what a cool idea... I need one of those!

And then I laughed and shook my head, realizing this blog is my five year journal. I'm quickly approaching the 4 year mark.  Four years worth of posts. Musings. Rants. Stories. Happiness. Heartbreak.

I promise to not be such a stranger, if not for my readers, for myself. Because nobody wants to look back on a blank five year journal!