Home Decor Inspiration: Living Area

My house is always a work in progress and thanks to pinterest, I can always keep an amazing board of inspiration photos! Seriously, I love Pinterest. Here is my latest inspiration for living areas:    source   source   source   source   source   source   source   source   source   source   source   source   source
You can check out my other home inspiration pics here. 

Oi, this week has been a crazy one. We started school, Eliza met her new teacher, and Brandon and I are contemplating new plans for the future. It has been emotional and exhausting. 
Brandon is kind of thinking of quitting his job in search for something more meaningful and more time to dedicate to school. I'm so happy for this decision because he has such a hard job and hates it. It will also give us way more time with him and he really wants to help me out with my business (which would be amazing) But it's also kind of terrifying because he pays most of the bills. So him quitting would mean we would have no financial security and the end of the month would be even more stressful than usual. 
Another thing we've been thinking about is moving. His job is the only thing keeping us living where we are so if he quits, that opens up a lot of doors for us. The problem is, it's kind of overwhelming. We haven't quite decided what the right move for us is. And I have to admit, the more I think about it, the more frustrated I get because any kind of change is not going to happen before Christmas.
Working and school has already got me so stressed out this week. But maybe it's because Eliza hasn't started school yet (this tuesday!) and we haven't gotten a good schedule in place. I know once we've got our days planned out, it'll come much easier. *Deep breath* I just have to hang in there! Oi. 

Vegetarian Lasagna

Who doesn't love a good lasagna? I know I do but I think being part Italian, I don't have much of a choice! The best thing about lasagna is that you can make one that'll last you dayssss (we've been eating ours for three!) and it gets better and better each time! I'm not sure lasagna is the most healthy thing... so I decided to take out the meat and add in a few veggies. I kind of used a combination of this recipe and this recipe. Like I said, we have been eating this the last three days (lunch and dinner) so if you only have a few people eating this, I suggest cutting the recipe in half. You could freeze it but I'm not sure how well it would fare with the zucchini and mushrooms. Sooo, freeze at your own risk!  Ingredients 8-16 oz. mushrooms (sliced) 1 jar of marinara  A box of lasagna noodles  8 oz. sour cream  16 oz. frozen chopped spinach  15 oz. ricotta  1-2 large zucchini  1 package of mozzarella cheese  1/2 cup mayo (you could possibly even leave this out) Parm for dressing 1. Cook spinach and lasagna noodles according to package 2. Mix ricotta, mayo, sour cream, spinach, some garlic salt (or real garlic!) and any italian seasoning you wish to add.  3. Saute zucchini and mushrooms until mushrooms get soft. You can cook these together but since I used my small cast iron pan, I had to cook them separately.  4. Start layering in a 9x12 glass cooking dish.  Suggested order: noodles, spinach/ricotta, veggies, sauce, cheese. You don't have to layer it like this but make sure that the last two layers are sauce and cheese. And preferably, the first being noodles.  Loosely cover with foil and bake at 400 for 30-40 minutes, let cool 15 minutes  Serve with freshly grated parmesan on top. 

I LOVE this. Despite being a little burnt out on lasagna right this second, this recipe is definitely a keeper. And I have to say, I don't miss the meat one little bit.

MsDressy Giveaway

 Are you ready for another super fun GIVEAWAY?? Need a new silk handkerchief, or embroidery HANDBAG, or a silver necklace with pearl?? Then you're in the right place!!  To enter this giveaway:  1. Register yourself at Msdressy.com by clicking here. (Don't worry, it's free!) 2. Like our Facebook fan page here.  3. Share the giveaway news with everyone! (Facebook, twitter, etc.)  4. Leave a comment with your name and registered email address below as well as the link you shared it! And now for the Giveaway Rules:  Less than 50 participants, the winner can get the silk handkerchief.  Between 50 and 100 participants, the winner can get the embroidery handbag Over 100 participants, the winner can get the silver necklace with pearl.  Send us the pictures of gifts and your reviews after you receive the item would be greatly welcome!  THIS IS AN INTERNATIONAL GIVEAWAY-EVERYBODY IS WELCOME!!! Winner's name will be announced after 7 days in this blog  And MsDressy.com is carrying out a HALF PRICE SALE. Hope you like it.  FAQs:  How will I find out if I won?  The winner will be announced after 7 days right here! So mark your calendar now -- and be sure to check back here to find out if you won!! Also to say congrats to the winner if ya didn't! :)  I live outside the USA. Can I enter the giveaway?  Yes!!! The GIVEAWAY is open to everyone, everywhere. No matter where you live, this fabulous gift could be yours! So spread the word!!  How does this giveaway work?  On the day of the drawing, a random number generator will select a number. After all the number is drawn, the winner will be counted based upon the order in which they commen here in this post.  How will I know if I won that gorgeousness?  MsDressy.com will contact the winner via email to request your name and address. You will then have 3 days to respond to the email. Otherwise another winner will be picked. Act!  If I win, who will ship my lovely item to me?  MsDressy.com will ship your gorgeous item directly to you! And oh happy day when this loveliness arrives at your door!! :D *This is a sponsored post

Hair & Body Products

So, I've done a few posts on hair/body products that I've been using. First, I went no-poo. This is something that's been accomplished over a period of time. Now, if I wanted, I could go 6 days without washing my hair and it won't be oily. That's pretty freakin' awesome. Of course, if I do strenuous activity everyday where I sweat a lot, then that would change but usually I don't. Now, I do take showers at least every other day and wash my body. But instead of washing my hair, I just rinse it out and massage my scalp. This helps to release some oil and move it down my hair, a natural conditioner! Also, this helps to loosen up any dirt or sweat that needs to be rinsed out. So, once I got the hair thing down I moved on to our other products, converting all to organic/natural products. Some we still use but we've changed it up a bit so I thought I would post an updated version of the hair/body products we use.  1. I wash my body with Dr. Bronner's liquid peppermint soap. I also use a mix of half peppermint soap/half water to "shampoo" my hair which I apply with a little squirt bottle.  2. Brandon has been on a bar soap kick and uses Dr. Bronner's citrus orange bar soap. 3. For a while I used organic conditioner but after I bleached my hair, it wasn't working out for me. So I went back to trying Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar  and LOVED it. I really don't mind the smell and it just makes my hair so soft and smooth. It's a great detangler and adds moisture back into my hair, taking out the frizz factor. I usually put a few tablespoons in a cup and then add in an equal amount of water. I pour it over my hair and if I feel like it, I'll let it sit for a minute or two. Then rinse and rinse well.
4. For Eliza's hair and body, we use Dr. Bronner's liquid unscented soap. And for conditioner, I use some random left over organic conditioner we have.  5. For face lotion, we use Shea Moisture African Black Lotion. It's hard to find apparently but I got it at Target. And it kind of just occurred to me that it might be intended for african american people? Oh well.  6. And for the rest of our's & Eliza's body, we use Shea Moisture Baby Lotion. This stuff smells WONDERFUL. We try to keep it pretty simple. Sometimes we'll try different Dr. Bronner soaps. Rose is a favorite of mine. And they just started selling them at HEB (where we grocery shop) so that makes my life easier.  Also, I thought I should mention, we don't use face wash. Whenever my face feels oily, I'll just rinse it with cool water and wipe off. If it's really bad, chances are my whole body will be gross and I'll just take a shower. If I'm in a crunch, I'll use the peppermint soap to wash with. But really, I'm fine with just a water rinse. 
**Update: Someone asked about makeup relating to washing your face. I don't wear makeup everyday and when I do it's only eye makeup. However, for the times I do where makeup, I have found a useful trick for removing it. I rinse my face with water to remove excess makeup and then to get off the rest, I dab some lotion onto my eyes and rub around/off with a towel. This completely removes all my eye makeup. And usually I use the Shea Moisture African Black Lotion because that's what I use on my face anyways. Then I continue to apply the lotion rest of my face. Bam! Makeup removed! 
So that's that! Do you guys have any favorites? Have you switched to organic products or gone "no poo"? I'd love to hear about it! 

A Few Things: Beauty

As I was driving to work today, I had the strangest train of thought. Something I've never thought before, like an "ah ha!" moment. I was picturing my face in a photograph that I recently posted. And in my mind thought, "Will people think I'm pretty?" I'm sorry if this sounds vain, but everyone thinks it right? And then I thought to myself that I am pretty. And I thought how lucky I am because I really do love all my features (well most of them!) and think they are "pretty". But then I thought, what if I looked like something else? Would I still love myself? And I couldn't help but think the answer would be yes. Because it would be me. And that's the only thing I can be.  I was given these features by my mother and father, they are a labor of love. And I love them because really, they are a gift. I think I'm beautiful (most of the time) but do others? And then I had a realization:   Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  This is so true. I can think I'm pretty but someone else might think I'm ugly. But no matter what, there's  nothing I can do about it... unless I get plastic surgery. Which I'm not going to do. So other people thinking I'm beautiful is completely up to them. (Or what society has chosen to be "beautiful"). People can choose to look at me and find me beautiful. Or they can look at me negatively and think I'm ugly. It's up to them and there's not a whole lot I can do to change their mind. So then I thought about how I view other people and how I would feel if someone thought I was ugly. And it made me sad because it would hurt my feelings if someone thought I was ugly. And if I thought someone else was ugly, it would hurt their feelings. And to know that I could cause that kind of pain, causes me pain.  It's not fair to think people are "ugly" because their features (which can not change) are different or labeled as "ugly". It's not fair to judge other people based on their looks because this is something they are given. You can't choose the way you look. But also, people are more than the skin they wear. Our body is really just a vehicle of transportation for our soul, the thing we can control and is truly us. It's just inconceivable that we've come to this, that looks are everything these days. It's just so... unfair and uncontrollable.  I guess my point is that I want to restructure my thoughts of what "pretty" is. What I've been learning the past year is how to think independently from society,  kind of start from the beginning because most of what I've learned is crap. I can't stand the consumerism, the obsession with things, looks, money. It's absolutely ridiculous. It's way too often that I have thoughts like this. Realizing how fucked up things are. Excuse my language but shit.  This is not the world I want my child to grow up in. I don't want her to have to grow up thinking that she needs to look a certain way to be beautiful or that she need "things" to fit in or be "cool" or to be rich to have a good life. The two things I tell Eliza everyday (more like a hundred times a day) are that I love her and that she is beautiful. And I will continue to do that for the rest of her life because that is the most important thing I can give her now. I can only hope that she will grow up truly thinking those things. I gave her life, I gave her a beautiful body to live it in, I hope that she will take it for what it is and not be restrained or suppressed by the ideals of our society. I hope that someday she will think of herself as beautiful. 

Girlish Garb: Striped on Stripes on Stripes

When I threw on this outfit, I knew I had to post it. This is like a combination of all my favorite clothes items and they all happen to have stripes! Oh and it was raining this day so of course, had to have the rain boots!  Outfit Details: Top-Forever 21  Shorts- thrifted  Boots- Target  Necklace- DIY  This is my new favorite necklace. I actually don't know where it's current location is.... but anyways I had to add a close up to show you guys how pretty it looks! 

Tips & Tricks: Backgrounds/backdrops

I want to start a new feature here! It's for business owners, or anyone out there that thinks they want to start a business.  When I started out with my store and selling clothes, I knew almost nothing about business. Heck, when I got going, I didn't even know I was starting a business! As I kept getting deeper and deeper into... well running a business, I kept wanting to improve and make it look more and more professional. I got serious about running my store, got a DBA, set up an accounting system, (all that fun business stuff) and now it really is a business! Wow that's weird to say?  I've learnt so much in the last 2 years about business and how to make things work; not only from taking classes in business but most of it, from trial and error. I've spent countless nights staying up to the early morning, trying to learn and soak up all the information I could of ways to improve my store. It's a continuous process and something I really enjoy. There's nothing more thrilling than learning about something you love and figuring out better ways to do things.  With the spirit of my blog, I want to start sharing with you my knowledge, the tips & tricks I've learned along the way. My business is a such huge part of my life so why not share it here? I've always been curious about how some people run their business and I hope this proves useful to someone! So this is my new feature, Tips and Tricks for business owners!  We'll start off with the first thing people see when they check out my store. The pictures. It's all about the set-up, quality, and attractiveness of your pictures. One of the main factors of that is the background. Being a clothes seller, I have to have a pretty large one. One big enough for a person to fit but since I have limited studio space, that's about all.  I started out taking pictures against a 3 foot wide space of plain white wall in my sister's old room. This was when we still lived at my dad's.    I used one of those stand up lights with three lightbulbs that could be moved to different spots. Horrible.  Then, I commandeered my dad's nice camera and started taking pictures with natural light. Much better.    I wanted to spice things up and moved on to use a grey sheet as a backdrop.  And even, created a portable set with some pvc, a sheet, and lots of those metal clippy lights. The result was.... ok. But this was just for those times I wanted to do a big "photoshoot" with friends or what not.  Then, we moved out of my dad's and I got to use my old room as my new studio. This meant that I had a lot more space to work with, and a permanent space where I could set up a permanent backdrop. Brandon got me professional lighting and a backdrop stand one Christmas (yesss!). I also decided to invest in a camera for myself (with Brandon's help, thanks babe!) And with those, came much nicer pictures. For those interested, here are the lights I use. Now, I turn on the room light over head and use two of those studio lights (on the two front corners of my set-up), pointed directly at me. And I use these light bulbs from Home Depot. Nothing too fancy. I got a cute sheet, set up my backdrop stand, and used that for my background. It's... pretty. Right?  When I got tired of the floral, I decided to go for a cleaner look. The ideal set-up was white walls and wood floors. However, I didn't have either of those. So I had to improvise! I took a huge piece of plywood, painted it white, and leaned it up against my wall; that was my background. Then I got some more plywood, cut to a smaller size (to fit on the bottom) and stained it a grey-type wash.  I was happy with this for a pretty long time. But it only gave me about 4 feet of space to move around and I kind of wanted a more natural look for the floor.  Above, you can see how I just flipped over my floor board and stained it brown. But I still had the problem of limited space to move around. I always had to crop my pictures to remove unwanted "behind the scene" footage. And soon I longed for a wider set.  I finally decided to go with some wood paneling. I had to buy 2x12's because they were cheaper than 1x12's (weird, right?). I lined up 8 of them, attached them all to two 1x4's (as you can see in the picture) and painted them white. It was SO heavy when they were all attached.  Yes, ignore the fact that I look like I've just finished carrying 8 2x12x6 pieces of board. That's a lot of work, people!  I sure was glad when I was done!!!  It took some primer and a few layers of ceiling paint before I got to the whitest white possible.  Since the last floorboard was too small, I bought a piece of luan, cut it to length, and stained it the same dark brown as the last one.  Pretty huh? But eventually I got tired of the panels. I know, I'm so fickle. I still wanted that crisp, white background.  I didn't want to completely trash my almost new set so I started thinking of ways that I could use it but still have what I wanted.  In the end, I decided to use the back part as a floor and used the floor to make a sign for when I go to shows/fairs! Then all I needed was a crisp, white, wrinkle-free backdrop! This was the hard part. I researched paper backdrops (those expensive professional ones), using different fabrics, and even thought about just painting the wall (but there were plugs in view, ugh). After lots of deliberation, I decided to go with fabric. Something heavy.... canvas! But did I want it that color? No, so I painted it white! Spray paint? No, that was too messy and wouldn't look as good. So I hand painted it all with white ceiling paint (because that's what I had and it's super white).  So I bought some a canvas drop cloth from Home Depot. I sewed a casing so that I could hang it and then I steamed it  before painting, to get the creases out.  The paint weighed it down a lot and made it pretty straight but still not perfect (kind of wavy). So I set up some of these hooks (up above) to pull it from the side. However, this set-up (using my backdrop stand) made it so I couldn't use the backdrop stand whenever I needed. So back to the drawing board! I decided to get a long steel pole, screw some curtain rod brackets into the wall, and hang the canvas up there. So nice!  Can you see the boards behind there? I made this mistake of waiting to take them out AFTER I painted my canvas.... woops.  Now my canvas was attached to the wall but still wasn't hanging as taught as I wanted it. So I went out and bought some white, wood trim and attached it to the bottom, very carefully, with tons and tons of hot glue. I cut down the boards so they would fit on the ground and put them in place!!! I still need to somehow attach them all together so they don't move around but it's pretty darn good right now.  The paint didn't COMPLETELY cover the canvas but I kinda like the rustic-ness the little patches add to it.  I love how clean and crisp it looks. Having this much white makes it so much easier to edit and now that my set is wide enough, I don't have to crop my pictures! I just adjust the colors to make them brighter/more accurate and I'm good to go!  Oi, that was a lot of info. Sorry if it's an overload. I've had quite a bit of experience with DIY backdrops. I think the current one will be around for a while cause frankly, I'm too worn out on them to change it! This part can be quite tricky and it took me a while to figure out exactly what I wanted and to be able to accomplish that cheaply without buying professional equipment.  Are any of you in the biz? What do you use for a backdrop/background?  Also, is there anything business related that you guys would like me to post about? Let me know!  *Speaking of business, my blogger friend Katia announced that she's opening up a shop! She makes these necklaces out of wood and they are amazingly cool. You should check them out: Kitty Snooks