Cornrows plus Braids & DISNEY ON ICE!!

Their second field trip was to the Civic Center to see DISNEY ON ICE! 

Wow... I really cant believe it, they are growing so fast.   

Lil B has gone on many field trips but this was his second field trip while in Kindergartner and he's attending a bigger school than last year.   For Ms. Bree this is her second field trip, and she was so excited to ride the big yellow bus. 

Unfortunately, my children are currently attending different schools, and in order to decide which parent would attend the show we had to flip a coin. I wish we could have been able to sit with hubby and Lil B! I wasn't happy about that but tried to make the best of it. I think we succeed at it.

Although Ms. Bree has attended Disney on Ice every year since she was born, this year was different.  As she is getting older she is able to enjoy herself more because she understand what is happening during this type of events.

Last year Ms. Bree decided to wear her "Tiana" gown and obviously, we made that happen.  Unfortunately, she didn't enjoyed the show as much as I had hoped because she was afraid. 

As you can also see, "Mommy" was not as knowledgeable about her hair as I am today and her hair was simply secured in one pony tail:  

I can proudly say that her hair is healthier and her hair line is in better shape than it was a year ago.

Now that we have visited the past, lets fast forward to the "now".  For this trip we did two cornrows on each side, half a pony tail into five medium size braids and small box braids on the back.

The reason I did this is because it was simple and I could easily modify this style into another style, if we wanted to.

Products I used to style her hair:  (After washing and having her hair banded for half a day)

1.  Bee Mine Luscious Moisturizer
2.  Bee Mine Curly Butter
3.  Flower Snaps to keep the ends from unraveling.

NOTE: 

The next day I applied a bit of Eco Styler Gel (Argan Oil) and gently brushed the edges of the top section and secured it with a Pink Elastic by Goody's and use a Pink Flower to accessorize it.

This year was amazing, the show changed a bit, and although there were no princesses like last year, she still got to see Little Mermaid, Tinker Bell and one of her heros ....."Woody". 

I think she got a better laugh out of seeing Barbie and Ken!  She laughed, she sang along,  and it truly was a magical show for her.

It was a wonderful experience for them.  I wish I could say that about my little man but I didn't get to sit with him. (very sadden by it) But his dad said he had fun since his dad spent a few bucks buying him a Buzz Lightyear mug, spinning top and a few other items.

Our First Criss Cross Braid

I finally did it! My first criss-cross cornrow and I am very pleased with the results!!

It has been approximately five months since I took the challenge of learning  how to cornrow my daughters hair as it's a great protective style.

Below are a couple of links to some great posts which I believe are great for beginners:

"Cornrowing-for-beginners" by Beads Braids and Beyond and Learn Cornrows which is highly recommended by KandLandKurls.  

Now, Rory from Chocolate Hair/Vanilla Care has an amazing technique and many have learned by using a practice board, here is the link to her post "how-to-cornrow".

Although the above posts are great source of information, I'm more of a visual person.  While searching for youtube videos, I came across Kate's videos.  These are the videos that I truly learned from, the link to her youtube video is "How to Cornrow instructions".

Now let me tell you, as a beginner you will make mistakes, and after five months of practicing, I still make mistakes, specially when I have my six year old asking for snacks, or Ms. Bree needs a sudden "potty break".  Please remember it's okay to start over if you are at a point in your cornrow where you can start over, but if you are towards the end of the cornrow, just leave it! Most people will never notice your mistake unless you point it out.

After practicing straight and short cornrows, you will be able to do more than just simple styles.  I wanted to do something different this time.  I have wanted to try doing the criss-cross braid for a very long time, which I also learned from watching Kate's video "How to do Criss-cross Cornrows Part 1" and "How to do Criss-cross Cornrows Part 2".  I watched her video over and over again until I told myself, "this is it, I'm going to do this".

I opted to only do a single criss cross braid because I didn't know how long it was going to take me and i didn't know if Ms. Bree was  going to sit still for that long.

On my next attempt I will probably do as many three or four.

After a few days, I did a little modifying.  I undid the side pony tails and twisted her hair over night.  The next day I removed her twists. (twist out).

 and remember, keep practicing and don't forget to share your pictures and progress with us!! 

you can send your pictures to caramelcurlznswirls@yahoo.com

Our Thanksgiving Styles

This post was meant to be published the day after thanksgiving! Sorry about the delay...

Since we traveled to Grandmother's house to celebrate Thanksgiving this year, I am behind on a lot of things and now I'm playing catch up.

One of the many things  I completely love about my husband's family is all the family traditions they have and how important it is to be thankful for the great memories we are able to build every time we are together.

This Thanksgiving was very special for so many reasons.  We had plenty of time to spend with each other because we did the cooking ahead of time allowing us to have an early dinner and plenty of time to sit and reminisce.  In all honesty, I never get tired of hearing my sisters-in-law talk about the old days.

I also got the opportunity to spend extra time with our niece's daughters... they are twins!  Due to the great distance between our families, we don't get to see each other as often as we would like and I believe the children also miss each other, since Lil B and the twins are only a few weeks apart.

I have said it a million times before, doing hair can be a bonding experience, and this is exactly how I bonded with my beautiful twins nieces.

Ms. Bree opted to rock small cornrows into rope twists and medium size rope twist on the back (this lasted for almost two weeks).

We only used the following products to create this style:

1. Bee Mine Luscious Moisturizer / Bee Mine Curly Butter;

2. Eco Styler Gel (Argan Oil) - to make the cornrows.

I maintained her twists and cornrows with Bee Mine Juice Daily Moisturizing Spritz.

After doing Ms. Bree's hair, Ms Jai (twin #1) wanted to get her hair done and to my surprise she let ME do it!!    Ms. Jai;  she wanted something very similar to Ms. Bree's hair style and I was more than happy to oblige.  I made a few changes to each style in order for the girls to share but yet have their own unique style.

While detangling her hair, we talked about what was her favorite colors, what she likes to do and she was so relaxed and very talkative.  I loved it!  

On Ms. Jai,  I did two small cornrows on the center and rope twists all over.  The twins hair is less curly than Ms. Bree's.  I would say their hair is a combination of a 3b with a few 3c curls in between.

Twin #2: Ms. Jia 

On Ms. Jia I created two cornrows starting at the middle and along her hair line.  She also had rope twists all over.  

These are the products I use on them:

1.  Kinky Curly Knot Today to detangle their hair;

2. Bee Mine Luscious Moisturizer and Bee Mine Curly Butter to do the Rope Twists;

3.  Bee Mine Luscious Moisturizer with Eco Style Gel with Argan Oil to do the cornrows. 

As you can see on the above pictures, the girls are having so much fun in the kitchen with Grandmother (Great-Grandmother) and it is one of the most wonderful memories they will always have.

The children had so much fun together and they were very sad when it was time to say good bye!  

I know our children did not wanted to say good bye to Papa and Grandmother either!

Styles for Short Curls

As we all know, not every curly top has the same length or amount of hair.  Sometimes you may feel overwhelmed or confused when it comes to styling your little one's curls, especially if their curls are extremely short.  

Ms. J's hair is short and her mommy is totally okay with it and instead of feeling overwhelmed, she has found several styles that work for her lovely daughter.  She has also modified some styles to make that those styles work on Ms. J's short hair.  

Thank you Mrs Rachel for sharing these amazing cute styles with us! 

STYLE 1:

STYLE 2:

STYLE 3:

STYLE 4:

STYLE 5:

STYLE 6:

STYLE 7:

Ms. Rachel says:

"Other simple styles I have done on my daughter are the following:

• Afro puffs are an easy style you can create in minutes, you can create one, two, four... or as many as you want;
• braided buns;
• four cornrows... etc.

Plaits are great protective style and easy to do, it works on all length of hair and they can be done in different sizes as well"

PRODUCTS USED:

THANK YOU again Mrs Rachel and Ms. J for sharing these beautiful styles!!!  

The Importance of Family Portraits

YOU DON’T CHOOSE YOUR FAMILY- THEY ARE GOD'S GIFT TO YOU, AS YOU ARE TO THEM By Desmon TuTu.

This particular post is about the importance of a Family Portrait and not as much about hair. 

For my husband I, a family portrait is one of the most important things you can have in your home.  It's like a reminder of your family at a specific time in your lives.

Family members' schedules can be so difficult to coordinate, and it's easy to put off the portrait for another time when is more convenient.  

The important thing to remember is that the best time to take a family portrait is always NOW.  We all know, life is very unpredictable and we don't have control over certain things.  However, what we do have control of is the decision of taking family portraits and capturing as many special moments as you can.  

Families go through constant changes; they may expand, they may shrink, and they always age.  Our kids will not be kids forever and we all are constantly going through physical changes.

Below is our 2008 Family Picture, Lil B was almost two years and I was about five months pregnant with Ms. Bree. 

Remember how I mentioned before that "Families may expand", below you will see our 2009 Family Picture.  In this picture we wanted the grandparents to be included because THEY ARE part of our family and they play a big role in our lives. 

In this picture Lil B was three years old and Ms. Bree was almost eight months old.  Our family expanded by one little package!

You don't have to spend a large amount of money on professional pictures, several photo studios including Walmart, JC Penney and/or Sears offer different packages at low prices. 

But you can easily have someone take it for you while you are at a gathering of some sort or do what we did during the years 2010 and 2011, use the timer in your camera and take your own picture! 

In 2010, due to our busy schedules, we never made it to the studio BUT we still managed to take a nice photograph together and called it 2010 Family Photo.

In the picture above, you can clearly see the physical change in Ms. Bree who was 20 months old and Lil B was 4 years old.

I have lots of pictures plastered all over my family room walls and various size picture frames on my coffee and foyer tables.  I also have baby scrapbooks, which I made especially for each of my children. 

Now days I find it very difficult to do scrapbooks and I have opted on making photo albums through Walgreens Photo Store Online.  Upload the pictures, pick a book and done! You can pick the book up or have it delivered to your door. 

In 2011, I kept trying to find the perfect time to take family photos but never found it.  So again, we never made it to a photo studio.

This is our 2011 Family Photo:

While you can't see much change in Ms. Bree you can clearly see the change in Lil B. who was 5 years old while Ms. Bree wa  s 33 months.  

I'm thankful that my husband always reminds me that it's time to do our family portraits otherwise it would never get done and I'm more than sure that one day our children will thank their father too.

Come and share you family photos with us! 

Here are more of our photos