Beach Beauty: Part Deux

So I'm a bit later than intended with my results of the beach hair. But, alas, the results are in!

I definitely think the homemade spray helped! The sea salt and gel help to give hair that "dirty" texture hair needs to hold a style appropriately. However, with MY hair, I was not able to get the beachy waves by simply spraying and scrunching. I WAS, however, able to incorporate my old favorite technique: the diffuser. If you've never used a diffuser on your hair dryer, you're missing out. It's the device you attach to the nozzle of the dryer and has the little prongs which blow the air through and underneath your hair: you know, "diffusing" the air? :)

I sprayed my hair with my homemade beach spray. I actually got my hair pretty evenly wet. It wasn't just a light must, but my hair wasn't soaking wet. Then, I flipped my hair upside down and began diffusing. Now, when I dry my hair this way, I keep a bottle of firm hold hairspray close by. As I'm running my diffuser through my tresses, I also spray some hairspray over the hair I'm lifting. This helps to hold the hair in the "scrunched" position. Then, I pin a little section of the sides back to keep it out of my face, give a quick all over spray of hairspray, and you're done!

Unfortunately, I am having to post from my mobile device and it isn't letting me add a picture. But I will update the post ASAP and show you the final product.

All in all, I will definitely keep using the homemade beach spray. I definitely think it makes the stylin go faster and hold better. So, give it a try and let me know what you think!

Beach Beauty

So, this isn't a craft or sewing post, but I wanted to share with you what I've got up my sleeve for this week.  It seems like this week has been absolutely crazy with work schedules, home schedules, etc but I've been wanting to try something to make my morning routine just a little bit easier.  I often have the big debate over how to do my hair.  Pony tail or....pony tail?  Pony tail it is, then!  You see where I'm going....

Being a busy working mom, I've got to find a better way to make myself feel cute and look presentable without having to go for the "messy bun" trick every day. 

Enter:  Beach Hair

You know what I"m talking about.  The wavy, messy, cute, sexy, perfect-for-any-occasion hair. 

However, if you're like me, you're too frugal to spend the money on the pricey, name brand hair products.  I found this website via Pinterest that has the details so be sure to check it out!  With a little bit of sea salt, a water bottle and a couple other things (that I'm sure you have lying around) you too can make your own batch!

I don't have any pictures of my hair yet, since I just made this batch this evening.  But I will be trying it out tomorow and will take lots of how-to pictures then.  Supposedly, this is really easy and works great!  I'm all for it as the ingredients are common and inexpensive.  Easy enough, right?  I'll be sure and give you my two cents tomorrow!  Let me know how you like it too!

Old Chair, New Life

So, I've been wanting a chair for my craft room/office so that one of my dining room chairs can return to its home at the table.  But I wanted one that goes with my (soon to be) shabby chic decor and I didn't want to spend a lot of money...SO, when I found this old chair that someone didn't want anymore, I was delighted to try my hand at refninishing it.  Keep in mind, I've never refinished furniture so I'm sure there are other, more tried and true techniques, but this is what worked for me.

What you'll need:

Old chair

Acrylic paint and paint brush

Sand paper 220 grit

Fabric and batting

Appropriatey cut plywood if you need to make a seat from scratch

Staple Gun

                                                                                                                



Now, when I found this chair it didn't have a seat.  The frame itself was pretty sturdy, but I had to have a piece of 1/2 inch plywood cut.  I made sure to measure the inside of the frame, where the seat would actuall sit into it.  I also made the seat about 1/4 inch smaller than the measurements to account for the batting and fabric that I would be using to re-cover the seat.

Start by sanding your chair and seat.  My chair was pretty smooth, but it had one of those glossier finishes.  I needed to just scuff the surface a bit to make sure the new paint would stick.  I sanded the seat too because, well, who wants to risk a splinter on their seat? :)  After I sanded, I wiped the dust away with a dry rag and began painting.  Make sure you use acrylic paint.  I feel like anything latex will peel off in chunks that are too big for the "distressed" look I was going for here.

I'm kind of a perfectionist when it comes to painting so at first, seeing brush strokes were driving me nuts and I decided a second coat was necessary.  However, as I was going along with coat #1, I realized the brush strokes actually added to the look I was wanting. 

While I waited for my chair to dry, I decided to cover my seat.  I'll make that into a separate tutorial soon, but there are a ton of pictures I want to show you so I wont pile it all into one! :) BUT, this was my finished seat!

After my chair had dried, I began the "distressing" part.  *Like that play on words?  This part was actually very simple!*

I took my sand paper and began sanding off little spots of paint.  I made sure to focus on parts that would be naturally worn over time, like the bottoms of the legs, maybe the sides where one would grab to scoot the chair in, on top of the rungs, etc.  I also made sure to make my distress marks very random and not even or symmetrical.  I've also heard of people using a sock full of coins or something similar to bang against the furniture, making random dents and nicks in it.  I didn't want to go that far so I just stopped with the sand paper.

I wiped the dust off with my rag, set my seat in the chair and voila!  A new distressed, shabby chic chair for my craft room! 

 

I absolutely LOVE it!  It's exactly what I had pictured in my head.  The best part, the whole chair cost me MAYBE $25 and I learned that I CAN in fact, repurpose furniture! :)