Why I Will Never Get Eyelash Extensions Again +The Best Natural Hair Growth Remedy

About three weeks ago I decided to get eyelash extensions again for the second time.  My hope was that this around I wouldn't pull them out like a total crackhead weirdo while I lay bed at night waiting to fall asleep.  Well, turns out I am a total weirdo and just like the first time I pulled each and every single eyelash extension out (along with my real lashes)...all at once.  I don't recommend this, ha!  The next morning I woke up and seriously scared myself when I looked in the mirror.  I had grossly swollen eyelids and these sparse (I could count all my lashes on two hands) itty bitty short, hardly noticeable blonde hairs that would have looked perfectly on my face if I was an albino.  Not a good look, people.  So as a follow-up to this beauty tester, I now give eyelash extensions an F...as in I'm never eFFing doing them again.

So that morning I frantically searched the web for the best natural remedy for growing back my eyelashes and everywhere I read said that castor oil will rapidly stimulate hair growth.  I read dozens of testimonials on Amazon and I just couldn't believe it.  People were raving about their results!  Some people even said that because of the castor oil, they no longer have to use prescription hair growth products. I mean, wow!

Since last week I have been applying it directly to my lash line twice a day.  It has only been a week but I am slowly but surely starting to notice a little bit of a difference on the areas where I literally did not have one single eyelash.  I can now see little tiny eyelash sprouts where just a few days prior I had nothing! SO YEAY!

Maybe it's just the natural growth process or perhaps maybe the castor oil is really working and stimulating hair growth! Either way I wanted to pass this little natural tip along, since I am sure I can't be the only weird one out there that likes to pull of their own eyelashes.

This also works on eyebrows and any other areas where you have hair loss, so I say give it a try if you need a little extra help in the hair growth department!

See also:
DIY Split End & Dry Hair Treatment 
Unusual Beauty Uses of Coconut Oil

Week 2 Update of Ronin's Swim Lessons (Video)

It's now week #2 of swim lessons for Ronin and I cannot say enough positive things about the Swim Float Swim program he is in.  He is doing better than I could have ever imagined and I am so happy that I decided to go with these particular type of lessons. He is already floating, rolling over and swimming on his own and I am beyond thrilled!

You can watch a video below of his progress, which was taken yesterday during his lesson.  I love that little pouty lip right before he went ;)



On a side note: Thank you to everyone who left sweet comments regarding our new house venture here on the blog and on Instagram.  We are so excited to get started with everything and I am looking forward to sharing all the updates with you!  As of today we get the keys, so tonight will definitely call for a little celebration.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Our Real Life Fixer Upper!

You may have noticed that since basically the beginning of the year I have been totally scattered here on the blog.  The truth is when my mind is somewhere else I really can't think about anything other than that.  Well my scattered-ness is all for good reason but first a little back story...

At about the end of January Ian and I were making our usual Saturday breakfast of eggs and coffee and he turned to me and said, "What do you think about us possibly moving?" Now, my husband is not usually the type to throw out crazy ideas, so I was a little taken aback and may have spit out my coffee.  Was he serious?  He was!  We have always thought our current home was amazing but deep down we have always known that it was not our "forever home."  Since I am usually the one with the crazy ideas, I was immediately on board and said, "YES!"  That day we went out to look at properties and started brainstorming about possible ideas in our dream location.

A couple months later after going back and forth on different ideas we concluded on what is now our Real Life Fixer Upper.  Over the next 6-8 months we are going to be completely renovating a horse barn into our dream home.  Through this process we will be sharing our experience, our design ideas our design choices and the final reveal... and providing tips and ideas on how to achieve the same look.  This is going to be the wildest adventure of our lives!

Here are a few pictures what the barn looks like currently...

Next up, demolition! Do you think we're crazy?! We might just be.  If you have any questions regarding our project you can leave them below and I will do my best to answer.

Things That Make Me Say Yeay + New Good Morning America Segment

A beautiful, flowering cactus that I captured while at the Moorten Botanical Garden.  I plan on enlarging this picture up and hanging it up somewhere in my home.

Freshly caught Trout from my husband's recent Mammoth trip.  I can't wait to BBQ all these babies up soon.

The boys painting bird houses for my Mom's birthday. She loved them!

My step-mom, Dad and I at their first event for their new wine business called Craveyon.  It was a blast and their wines are incredible!

Ronin is kicking butt in swim lessons! It's only been three days and he is already swimming and floating! I am so happy I decided to go with Infant Aquatics.  Also, if you missed my segment on Good Morning America last year, they will be re-airing it this morning between 7-8am PST.  With summer just around the corner, I am beyond thankful that this is getting talked about once again. Awareness and pool safety is so important.

Have a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend!

Ian and I are celebrating our 8th wedding anniversary over the weekend.  8 whole married years, wow! We are dropping the kiddos off with the Grandparents and having a stay-cation at our house.  We are going to drink wine, binge watch our favorite shows and do whatever the heck we want.  Seriously, nothing sounds better than that!

One Year Update of Ronin's Secondary Drowning Incident + His First Day of Swim Lessons

I can't believe that it has already been a year since Ronin had his near drowning experience.  As I sit down to write this post I am flooded with emotions. But above all I am beyond thankful that my almost three year old little boy is still here with us today.

Out of my two boys, I would say that Ronin is the more independent and fearless one. He wants to do everything his brother is doing and more.  He watches Max swim around our pool and I see how badly he wants to follow suit and swim and play right along next to him.  I love his desire for independence but at the same time I need to make sure his safety around water is number one.  Pools and swimming should be fun but I have to honest, every time I leave the boys at either my parent's house or my in-law's house (they both have pools), there is always that gut wrenching fear of, "What if?"  It literally only takes seconds to slip in the pool and for no one to see and I just do not want to have to worry about that any more.

I tried putting Ronin into a swimming program last year and it just did not work.  He was too fearful of the water and had no desire.  The swim program was great and it did help Max learn how to swim, but because of the special nature of Ronin's case they did not want to push him and he ultimately was still not swim safe by the end of the course.  I decided to give Ronin a little time and in the meantime do my research as to what kind of program I felt was going to be the best for him.

I came to the conclusion early this year that I wasn't interested in putting Ronin into feel-good bubble blowing swim lessons, where it can take up to a year for kids to learn and even then there is no guarantee. I wanted him to be in a program that was aggressive and guaranteed after a short amount of time that he would be able to swim and self-rescue if he ever fell into a pool again.

After looking into Infant Aquatics and talking with the owner in great length I felt confident that this would be the best program for Ronin.  Infant Aquatics teaches the swimming technique, Swim Float Swim.  Swim Float Swim is an elite swimming program that teaches kids the ability to float and breath, regardless of the water's depth, for an indefinite amount of time.  Ronin is in the Swim Float Swim three week fast track program, where it is one-on-one, 20 minutes a day, four days a week for three weeks. So it's a major commitment but completely worth it.  Yesterday was Ronin's first class.  His teacher, Mrs. Kris told us to arrive 10 minutes early so we could watch the boy before us.  We watched as the little boy (11 months) kicked his legs and swam and then rolled over onto his back in order to rest and get air.  I was blown away!  At first, in good ole Ronin fashion he was NOT excited to do something that someone else was telling him to do but after a few minutes he was learning the basics of rolling over and floating on his back on his own. I couldn't believe it!  I am so happy with the progress so far and it's only been one day.  I will continue sharing Ronin's progress throughout the program as well as a video of how is doing at the very end.

Thank you for those who have shared his story in the past and for those of you who continue to spread awareness about secondary drowning presently. I can not thank you enough.

Mother's Day Weekend Recap

This Mother's Day weekend might have been the best I have had to date.  Early Saturday morning my mom picked me up at 8am and we headed out to Palm Springs for our first ever mother/daughter overnight getaway (I know what?!).  We did everything I think you can possibly do in Palm Springs within the time we were there and I will forever cherish this special trip we had.  Here are a few snippets from my weekend...

We stayed at the Traida resort, which was beautiful!  Since our check-in time was not until 1pm we decided there was nothing better to do than to shop and bond...

Our first stop was Trina Turk.  They were having a 20% off Mother's Day weekend sale... so why not!  We were greeted with complimentary mimosas.  Two mimosas later and we each were buying brand new suits.  Haha! BUT on that note let me tell you that you will NOT regret purchasing a Trina Turk suit even after the mimosas have worn off...

Thrifting and vintage hunting... my mom bought a killer chair plus a super fun hat with bedazzled elephants on it (so her) for $30.

We made our own perfume and body oil at this place called Sinfulicious, which was SO much fun! My signature fragrance ended up being chocolate and mandarin orange and my mom's was lavender and vanilla.

We ate lunch at this awesome little place and then finally headed back to our hotel.  My mom and I were laying out by the pool and I  jokingly said, "We have pretty much done everything you can do in Palm Springs in one day except get tattoos."... My Mom replied with, "Lets do it and gets matching ones!" We ultimately ended up with similar tattoos that matched both of our styles. I could not love them any more!

That night we went out to dinner where my mom gave me the sweetest mother's day gift (I will share later this week) and then we headed out to the casino where she showed me how to play video poker on Game King. I am still confused, but so much fun!

The next morning we headed out to my favorite breakfast spot, King's Highway.  We shared the date shake and dungeness crab omelette and it was TO DIE FOR. So freaking good.

After breakfast we visited the Moorten Botanical Garden, which was beyond amazing!  It is truly a must see if you're in Palm Springs.  We each went home with the coolest little concrete plant holders and new succulents and vowed make this a tradition each and every year for Mother's Day from here on out.

When I got home I was greeted with kisses and flowers from my husband and hugs and homemade gifts from my boys.

It was a wonderful weekend indeed... well minus the part where Ronin decided that brunch was a dumb idea and started protesting. But other than that...pretty perfect ;)

Things That Make Me Say Yeay

After a giant baking fail with my boys the other afternoon we decided to trash our gross concoction (it was that bad) and just head out to the store and buy a treat instead.  The boys picked out these  delicious wheat free cupcakes from our local natural bakery.

Getting all packed for a girls weekend in Scottsdale Arizona with my beautiful cousin.  I leave early this am and I can't wait!  So by the time you read this I will most likely be sipping on a Bloody Mary getting ready to board the plane.

The coolest pair of chairs that are hopefully going to go outside in our new home. More on that later...

Afternoon shenanigans with the boys in their pirate fort.

The husband's yoga mat... YES I got him on board with hot yoga!  He loves it and has been going two times a week now.  The first time he went he took my bright purple flower yoga mat so I figured it was time to get him his own masculine one ;)

Have a wonderful weekend!