Summer Vespertine

The last days of summer are nearing the corner. The summertime has always been one of my favorite seasons. The long days, the warm nights, the care free clothes, the vacations. I think I'm ready to cool down though. I'm craving the crisp breeze of autumn air and some new change in my life. Today is a lazy Friday. I just got back from doing some job hunting. I have my playlist of Feist, A Fine Frenzy, and Ellie Goulding going on in the background. I have my coffee by my side, capturing some photo's of the outdoor life that lays out on our back porch, making a bracelet, and soaking up this downtime while I still have it.

xoxo
-Alexandra

The Lately: Swamps, Cities, Parties and Glitter

Wow. I cannot believe how much time I have spent away from my blog. I have been pretty busy finishing up all the paperwork for my new school year, finding scholarships, and still on the hunt for a job. During my downtime, I've spent it with Eric, the puppies, and friends. Although I have been away, I was STILL taking pictures of all the chaos. So here are my photograph's of what's been happening lately:

In the summertime, it seems nearly impossible to find outdoor things to do here in the south. So I did some research and found a swamp nearby that had some pretty cool reviews. I know a swamp isn't too exciting, but it was actually really cool. It's something that's very unique to the south and because I grew up in California, I was really excited!

Another exciting thing to happen was getting invited to go to Atlanta. A friend of mine had to make an early drive out there to drop off her brother-in-law at the airport. She invited me to come with her to explore the city for the day. We had so much fun. We were able to check out a world famous diner called Varsity. Then we checked out a historic cemetary, although the summer heat beat us. So we then opted for a nice air conditioned walk inside the Atlanta Aquarium. So much fun.

Aside from the exploring, I also went to my University's school orientation. It was fun, but humerous as I'm a transfer student and everyone else attending were college freshman. They had their parents with them and you could see how some of them were a bit apprehensive, excited, and nervous about this new stage in their life. I never really considered myself an "adult" this day. It made me realize how much I've grown up in the past year. But even so, I'm a little kid at heart ;) I even took a picture with our school mascot. When I went to pick up this photograph, the women told me it had been voted "best picture". I wasn't sure why, but it made laugh. Go Jaguars!

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My new phone case, hence the "glitter" title of this post. It's so pretty and ridiculous! It was only $5 too, how could I resist such a sparkly purchase?

Enjoying an afternoon on our back porch. Kisses


xoxo
-Alexandra

Hey guys! This is a quick post for now. Eric is busy with work all weekend so instead of pouting, I decided to have some fun by "doing me" this weekend. The result? A new haircut and color. I did it myself (because I don't trust ANYONE with my hair). I was hesistant at first, but I opted to do a a very dark brown/black color with a blue/violet base.

I know in the summer time, the trend is to make your hair lighter. Well, we all know the light hair didn't quit work well with me. So why not go exotic on the world and have dark hair to match tan summer skin. Who was the inspiration? I'll give you one guess....

The beautiful Kim Kardashian! I've ALWAYS been envious of the Kardashians dark lucious hair color, so I finally tried it out for myself and the result was fantastic! I'm so happy with it. Here are a few more pictures:

I know I said tan skin right? lol Trust me, the flash makes me look a lot more fair skinned than I am at the moment. More pictures to come soon. Hopefully with natural lighting.

What are you hair inspirations? Are you guys spontaneous with your hair cuts?

The Lately: Four Day Weekend

Wow, it's been a while. I guess I've been keeping myself fairly busy which is good, right? I hope everyone had a good weekend. Our weekend ended yesterday due to the Fourth of July holiday. I REALLY enjoyed those two extra days to hang out with Eric. As far as anything newsworthy, I recently received my acceptance letter to the university I applied to. My major will be communications! So that was a very exciting thing for me. My husband recently got promoted in rank, so congrats to him as well!

As far as capturing this weekend, I snagged a couple photos here and there. Hope you enjoy!

I started everything off with a manicure. A friend and I searched up and down for a good reviewed nail salon. We really like the place we found. I got my "pornstar" nails. In nail tech terms, this would be called a duck tip nail. Aren't they ridiculous? I probably wouldn't get it again as I get annoyed with fake nails after a while and I like to paint them cool new colors. But they were fun to get!

I did some DIY decor in the apartment as well. I got the idea from here. It's CD wall art! I picked out pictures from old Bazaar magazines, but I'll probably make more of these designs with pictures from family and friends as well.

Fireworks were obviously a must-see in the south. In California, they have a lot of bans on fireworks so 4th of July isn't as "festive". In the south, it's almost crazy NOT to see fireworks blowing off everywhere. I was so excited because I hadn't seen fireworks in a very long time.

The next day, all the boys went out on empty dirt roads to go rallying. Unfortunately, that meant running into a few fallen trees and using that "man power" of theirs to clear the road. 

The result of an empty dirt road. This is my husband in action! The boys get pretty crazy when they do this, but I even think it's really fun to sit passenger. A lot of adrenalin pumps you up.

This is pretty much the FINAL result of a rallying: a DIRTY car :]

The rest of the weekend was dedicated to relaxing and preparing for the REAL 4th of July. Eric and I had friends come over for a BBQ and to light off fireworks at the end of the night. I prepared SO much food for everyone. I was so excited to have everyone eat it.

That sums up what's been going on lately. Thanks for reading

-Alexandra

Get Rid of Red!

All products were purchased by me at Sallys Beauty Supply for under $30.

As you guys have seen from my previous posts, I opted to do an "ombre" hairstyle to change things up. Unfortunately, with my hair constantly turning brassy golds and reds, I ended up not really liking it on myself and knew the up-keep would be costly and high maintenance. So my only option was to reluctantly go back to being a brunette. As easy as that sounds, I knew I'd face the dilemma of having red tints to my hair, so I did some product research to find a way to avoid having that issue.

If some of you guys are new to hair or do not know much about the coloring process I'll explain it as simply as I can. Hair color is chosen off "base" colors. Base colors are used to neutralize other colors. Violet, blue, and green bases are used to get rid of orange, yellow, and red tones because they are opposite on the color spectrum. If you ever go into the bathroom of a platinum blonde, you'll probably see a purple shampoo in there too. The purple "toner" in the shampoo helps keep their hair free of golden/orange colors. When choosing to alter your hair color at home, it's crucial to pick a dye with the right base.

Another thing with at-home hair alterations is the health and porousness of your hair. I stripped color away with the bottom half of my hair so the texture, health, and color was different. Choosing to dye my hair back one solid color means I need to make sure the dye is evenly processed and distributed. To help this process, I purchased a neutral protein filler. Protein fillers help bond damaged hair so the dye can evenly process so you'll have one solid color. To use this item, apply the protein filler to your hair and allow to sit for 20 minutes. Do not rinse your hair, just continue to proceed with dying.

The two dyes I purchased and mixed (which is okay to do with the right bases) were Clairol Professional Second Nature in 2V Dark Ash Brown and 2N Dark Neutral Brown.

For those who specifically want to know how to get rid of red/brassy tones, the last item was a cheap little trick. It's called Ardell Unred and Ardell 777 Perfector. They were small, one time use packets that you can add into your hair dye to help prevent red tones and fading after coloring process.

So what were my results? A beautiful, dark, rich, natural brunette! And a happy one too! The color was even, the red/brassy colors I had before were very neutralized. Overall, I'd would recommend this process to anyone looking to do an at-home coloring session and making sure you get the results you want.

My hair color before.

My hair color after!

I hope this post helps anyone who's having issues with their hair like I was having with mine. Also, do you guys have any hair tips and tricks or products you swear by? I'd love to know about them.

-Alexandra

The Lately

Hello all. I've been pretty busy since last Thursday. My husband and I finally got a couch. That may not be exciting to most, but to us, we're stoked! It's so nice having a comfy couch to crash on. It makes it feel much more like home. We also FINALLY got a dining table. Honestly, I never thought making your own "home" would be difficult, but it actually is. There are SO many little things that go into having a home along with bigger, more pricier items that take more investment to purchase.

Aside from our "nesting" adventures, we also were invited to volunteer at a concert for a band called Sugarland. Has anyone heard of them? Eric and I had no clue who they were until the night before when we googled them. Even though they weren't our favorite genre of music, the event was still fun. The crowd we were serving were true "southern" cowboys. Everyone dressed up with their cowboy boots and hats. The women were all in dresses and heels. It was very different compared to a concert in California. All fun, none the less. I wasn't able to take pictures because it got so busy but I managed to snag one photo before the concert began.

We were also invited to a morning picnic with Erics division (I think it was his division, the military is confusing). We were able to bring our dogs and let them run around which was nice.

I tried to wear something cute and it was successful, but once again, the weather beat me. It got way too hot to wear the knitted sweater so I took it off and ended up with your average tank top and shorts for the day. Also, you can see my hair has become pretty brassy and orange. No bueno!

After the picnic, Eric, two of his shipmates, and I went off to get some lunch. We ended up at Checkers which we've never had before but were told "you MUST try the fries". They don't have Checkers on the West Coast, so we did as we were told. Sure enough, the fries were REALLY yummy.

Tip Toe Pink!

I'm the kind of girl who usually keeps it simple with her nail colors. I'm either dark black or a light baby pink. Unfortunately, I have a hard time finding that PERFECT shade of pink. It's either too light or it's too "hot" pinkish. Luckily, as I was roaming the make-up isle of Target, I spotted at the VERY bottom of a shelf the perfect shade of pink! The best part of this find was it was under $4. 

As you can see, I already had a manicure, so what a better place to paint "Tip Toe Pink" than on the tips of my toes! I love this color, it's the perfect shade. I'm excited to do my actual finger nails, but I want to keep my french manicure for a little while longer.

Aside from a good nail find, I spent my yesterday taking a mental vacation. Right now, the trend seems to be layering. But out here in Georgia, it's VERY hard to want to layer more than a tank top and shorts. It's so hot and humid all the time. I happened to have a very breezy, baggy top and crocheted vest that I bought from Forever 21 a while ago. Plus the new shorts I got from American Eagle Outfitters, which I LOVE. The outfit ended up working perfectly. I'm still iffy on my hair though. The lightness just doesn't suit me.

What do you think? What hair colors best suit you?

Today, I'm going on a quest to send out some resumes for a job. The transition from moving across country is hard. You don't have any friends or family here so it's easy to feel isolated and alone. Getting a job would be the perfect thing to help get me out of my funk before school starts. Fingers crossed and wish me luck!

-Alexandra

Ombre Hair Oops?

When I was in highschool, I was ALL about changing my hair. It didn't matter if I ended up frying it either; If I liked it, I did it. After a while, I started to realize a few things. 1) I can't afford to keep mutilating my hair each month and 2) I really wanted long Kim Kardashian hair. So, I managed to stop all urges for a VERY long time and got my long luscious locks. Up until recently, I was content with my dark brown hair. Then I started getting that craving to change things up again. Of course it wasn't going to be "normal" either.

Ombre hair caught my eye. To me, it was very summery, subtle but still enough to alter my look. Perfect for what I was seeking after rehabbing myself for so many years. I researched and watched many youtube tutorials to prep myself. I didn't waste time. Straight to Sallys Beauty I went for some lightener and toner. I did my magic and voila! A simple lightening session on the tips of my hair would come out easy and perfect right? These were my results:

Overall, I DID change my hair up. But, to be honest, I immediately started missing my dark hair again. Not only did I miss the dark color, I miss the health of it too! The lightening of course, dried out my hair immensely  So I guess it's back to hair re-hab. Although I wish I could pull this off with confidence, I'm just a sucker for dark exotic hair.