Starting My Hair Education // Better Late Than Never

Last year one of my goals was to learn more ways to do my hair. I think that I did accomplish a few small things, but overall didn't get that far. I think hair has just always been difficult for me. 

I grew up with my curls in a slicked back ponytail or bun because it would typically get frizzy during the day at school. And if it was ever down, it turned into a triangle... not flattering. 

It wasn't until high school that my friends told me that my hair looked nice down and naturally curly. I believed them, and since then I have at least tried to let my curls be noticeable.

Beyond curls there is straightening.... and I have so much hair it takes forever and a day to straighten it, which makes me crazy... so I think I've been putting the rest of my hair edu off a bit. 

But over the weekend I purchased this fantastic book (that I wanted for Christmas) and have begun to play around with it. And I'm finding it surprisingly fun!

So far this is SO helpful and I have accomplished several average attempts at different buns and braids. But the instructions, tips and photos are really helpful, and make me hopeful that I can learn to do my hair in all of these gorgeous styles! :) To buy on Amazon, click here.

I also purchased a medium and extra large hair donut. It's much too soon to share any pictures of my actual hair... but I thought I would recommend these products to anyone on a similar journey, or anyone who loves doing their hair! :) 

Even if this is an old goal, it's better late than never right?

Do you use a hair donut? Which size do you like best? Do you prefer to roll it, or just use it to wrap your hair around? 

-so far, wrapping it around works best for me. But one of mine snaps as well.. so that will be interesting to try!

Have you read this book? Which styles have you tried? Which do you hope to accomplish after lots of practice?

-I've learned the French braid (yes, this is new to me..) the fish tail braid.. to no avail, the basic bun, the triple braid and braided crown. I want to accomplish beautiful ones like the Grecian braid, Dutch Braid and Mermaid Braid! 

Thanks for Reading,

Alexandra

Relishing Life // A Book Review

When I picked up Daphne Oz’s book, Relish: An Adventure in Food, Style, and Everyday Fun (purchase here), I was instantly intrigued by the idea behind the book (making the most of your everyday life) and the gorgeous glossy photos inside. It was still in hard back, and contained a LOT of content, a little more expensive than I (the thrift-a-holic) prefers to spend on books… but somehow I couldn’t keep from buying it, or make myself return it. For some reason I needed to keep this book. Even after I bought it I kept it on my shelf for several months before I finally started reading it on the flight home from our most recent vacation. Once I dove in, I couldn’t stop reading. I think I read about half of it on the two hour flight and then about another fourth in the week following. I took a break while packing and moving… but once I felt relatively settled I picked it back up and the end of the journey flew by. I truly relished this book.Relish is part cookbook part lifestyle guide and all very interesting. Oz ranges from the topics of cooking to maintaining friendships, Beauty to Travel and many places in between. I felt that I could really relate to Oz and her zest for life. I loved her positive outlook and her desire to make the most of even the most ordinary day. She advocates for indulging in wholesome delicious food, including dessert and taking time to relax and try new things … not just on the weekends.The recipes are partially exotic, slightly gourmet, a little bit healthy with some home-style thrown in there. Some are a little too out there for me to start with, but others I can’t wait to try like the Chile Jam Chicken with Sweet Potatoes and Peaches, Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies and Fudgy Banana Muffins.  I'm guessing that the more I cook from the book, the more I will branch out and try the recipes that are farther from my comfort zone!! She gives tips and tricks with each recipe and a description of why she included the particular recipe. I can’t wait to try some of them out and review them for you! I hope that it will add some new favorites to my rotation.Oz is a girl after my own heart, in the lifestyle sections of the book she shares her love of shopping in flea markets, entertaining her loved ones and exploring the world around her both near and far. I loved the way she designed her sections, because it wasn’t just cut-and-dry tips and tricks, it was filled with stories of her actual experiences both funny and insightful along the way. She shares a lot about her family, which I loved. There is nothing quite like the wisdom that we inherit from our relatives. I especially loved her story about her mother holding a dinner party when the family cat decided to come inside with a snake in his mouth. She turned it into one of the most memorable parties that they had because she went with it, and didn't let it ruin her evening. I loved that, and hope that I can remember the story when I feel the panic of imperfection seeping into my everyday life. (I’m a panic-er… I’m working on it..). These moments don't have to set a negative tone for the rest of the day! :)One section that I honestly didn’t expect to get much out of was the one on friends, family and romantic relationships. In general I feel like I’ve got a solid family life, definitely an extremely solid marriage and my friendships have been pretty inconsistent and oftentimes frustrating. So I just wasn’t really interested, but it turned out being one of the chapters that I’ve reflected on the most, specifically the friendship part.Oz explains the difference between having standards and having expectations of your friends (and other relationships). This is honestly something I’d never thought about before, but I found extremely helpful in my own relationship struggles. You’ve got to have standards for the people in your life (ex. My friends will not steal from me, my friends won’t insult me etc.), if they don’t meet them then they aren’t good for you. If you have a friend who breaks a standard that is really important to you, then that person doesn’t make the cut as a great friend! That might sound harsh, but really it helps you take care of yourself. That is a choice that you can make and a situation that you can control. But expectations are a whole different thing. Expectations are based on the actions of others, and the end results are not cut-and-dry. There is too much wiggle room that leaves you disappointed or hurt by others, you’ve lost the power of your own happiness. For example, if you expect your friend to show up for every get-together you have, and she doesn’t, YOU will end up feeling hurt, when the expectation is not something that you can control the outcome of, you're stuck upset and wondering what to do! I don’t know about you guys, but I tend to set expectations all the time, for me, for others and they are rarely fair… and almost never within my control. Reading this section actually helped me feel really free about a difficult situation going on in my own life! I no longer feel torn about how to act, feel or interact with someone who betrayed my friendship standards in the past (even if I didn’t know about this idea at the time). I really wish I’d read this back then...but I’m feeling so good about finding it now! It’s very interesting. In addition I read a great post by a blogger (& Singer/Songwriter, Brooke White) I follow that was related and just as helpful! The combo has really made me feel better. You can read her post on friendship break-ups here.Ultimately I think that I was meant to find this book even if just for this one passage. It has been so tremendously helpful in my healing process. 

Check out Daphne Oz's book Relish, you'll learn so much and really enjoy it!

Have you read Relish? What did you think?

Have you tried out any of her recipes yet?!?

What are you reading? Let me know in the comments!

Thanks for reading! :) 

Alexandra

The One and Only Rebecca

I'm on a reading rampage right now.

I just finished Rebecca and am nearly half way done with Mermaids!

Rebecca is another classic that has been on my list for a while. Once I found this gorgeous vintage $2 copy (above) I was in love. However, I had it for 3 years before I began reading it... so I'm glad to be checking it off!

The book started out with and eerie scene set in the present, but quickly moved to the past. It told the story of an unnamed girl who met a mysterious man in Monaco and fell in love. She married him and moved back to England with him. From there you learn the tortured past of both Mr. de Winter and his home. 

The story is filled with scenes that almost lead you up to another piece of the mysterious puzzle, but then leave you hanging. This style is kind of unusual for modern day readers, where something shocking happens in nearly every chapter of a book or episode of a TV show. At first I found it a little underwhelming, but realized that once I got to the actual action it ended up being more exciting! 

Beyond that I found quite a lot of it depressing. I found the main character very meek and irritating. She NEVER stuck up for herself! She spent nearly the whole book being more of a narrator than anything else. Constantly obsessing about Mr. de Winter's first wife and how she stacked up, I found her pretty hard to relate to. I feel that Du Maurier created her that way intentionally though, as she is never given her own name. She is only ever referred to as Mrs. de Winter, after she is married. It was extremely strange to read a book from the point of view of a character with no name! This became a very interesting thing to think about while dissecting the novel later.

It is interesting to read an older book, this one being from the 30's, that eludes to activities that could not be written about plainly at the time. Like (I'm assuming,) sex, drugs and excessive drinking. I think that for those reasons it would be very interesting to see a movie interpretation of the novel, to see what they thought was being eluded to. Sadly, there doesn't seem to be a recent movie version. Please make one BBC!! :)

Also, is it just me, or is Mrs. Danvers almost the creepiest literary figure ever?!? (picture above) I would not want to be near this woman!

The book more-or-less ended the way I expected it to, but I really enjoyed it.

Have you read Rebecca? 

What did you think of it and the main character? 

Have you seen any good movie or mini series interpretations of it?

There is also a "pre-quel" called Rebecca's Tale, which I own and might read. I think it will be a Wide Sargasso Sea to Jane Eyre sort of relationship. Very interesting, but not at the top of my list.

First Check off my Summer Reading List complete!

All for now,

Alexandra

Conquering Anna.

Like most bookworms, I have an extensive list of books to read in my lifetime. I'm guessing that in addition to this we likely each have a few books that are sort of the big kahunas. You know, the ones that are really intimidating, often thick and you've over-seen them being read by people you thought really cool or brainy... well for me one of the biggest was Anna Karenina.

I remember seeing it probably for the first time when I was about 14. I was at a friend's house, in this super cool library type loft that had tons of books, floor pillows, candles, maps.. the whole nine yards. I picked up the book and was mesmerized by the gorgeous cover photo. I had heard of the name before and never realized how huge it was. I told her that I really wanted to read it, and she explained that her older brother would be impressed and probably let me borrow it. Woah, that's a lot for a not-actually-that-literary-reader, not to mention boy-crazy 14 year-old to handle! Needless to say, I put it back on the shelf, quickly brushed it off saying "oh, that's ok. I probably won't have time to read it for a while anyway."

I finally purchased a copy for myself on a walking trip from our (now old) apartment to the nearby bookstore. I bought a used copy and was very excited. Purchasing it was a really big step, I never imagined that I would read it before I turned 40 let alone while within the year I bought it!

I had heard that a movie version was being made that had both Kiera Knightly and Jude Law in it. I was pretty excited about it and took it as a challenge to start reading it in time for the movie. Where we live, we get independent/foreign/non box office-y movies for a very limited period of time and only two at a time. I began the book despite the fact that I was about to finish my senior year as an undergraduate.

Once I picked up the novel, I could barely set it down. I made a goal to read just 2 chapters per day, and when I would get behind I would catch up as much as possible within a day where I wasn't so busy. This strategy kept me interested and also from forgetting what was going on in the plot. As I read, I came to find that this whale-of-a-book was actually quite accessible and much more quickly paced than I had expected.

During my reading, I found myself reflecting on some of the over-arching topics quite a bit. For one, I just felt extremely grateful that my husband and my "Mister" (?), lover, are one-and-the-same. I just feel so terribly for anyone involved in an affair. After that I found myself (surprisingly!) sympathetic for Anna's character. How awful to live in a society where you have very little to no control over your relationships. She had no options when it came her relationships. How awful not to have any options especially not to divorce. In this case I felt that and her husband (in my interpretation) was pretty absent and not meeting her needs. To be fair, it was very possibly completely unknown to him. But his affection for her wasn't really noticeable in the book.

Beyond those those thoughts, I found myself wanting to learn more about the history and culture of that time and period in Russia. I think that it would be extremely interesting, so if any of you history buffs out there have a recommendation.. send it my way! :)

Once I got into the book, it really didn't take too long to finish.. considering how long it is. (817 pgs!) The night that I finished it we went to see the evening showing of the movie. I had not really done any research and didn't realize how theatrical it would be... but I was glad to have seen it. I thought that it was really well done. I love a good artistically shot film! The costumes and sets were so intricate and gorgeous!

However, I had 3 thoughts on what I expected to be different in the film:

1) the depth of Anna's struggle was MUCH more drawn out in the book, even if you rationalize the varying lengths. I was hoping to get a bit more of a look into what drove her to her decision. It almost came across like a girlish whim. Which gives the whole plot and character a very different feel. 

2) Vronsky's mustache (period accurate or not) was not attractive at all. It caused a whole lot of grimacing on my part, especially during one of the love scenes.

3) This kind of goes with 1, but in the end Anna's actions seemed a little overly dramatic considering the quickness of the movie and the lack of explanation of her marital relationship.

KC on the other hand didn't find it that way as a non-reader-viewer. So it could be just me!

Have you read Anna Karenina? What did you think of the book or movie versions? What is one of the "big kahunas" on your reading list?

Currently reading: Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier

(a gorgeous 1935 copy that was a $2 steal at a local bookstore!) 
Read my thoughts after reading it, here.

All for now,

Alexandra

My New Favorite Book

How to Sew a Button and Other Nifty Things Your Grandmother Knew

By: Erin Bried

This book is a how-to guide for doing things the simple, cheap, eco and old fashioned way. Bried interviews 10 grandmothers who survived the depression and uses their wisdom as the basis for this book. She covers everything from how to play charades to how to make dandelion wine and everywhere in between. I especially enjoyed that she built pie-making into the book, because ever since I learned to make a pie (crust and all) I have thought it is something every woman should learn to do! The sections are short and extremely funny to read. 

My grandmother is my hero and I have learned so much from her so to see someone like Bried sharing what grandmothers from across the country know with the world is a wonderful thing. You will be sure to be pleased with this book. It makes a great gift and is especially good for young people who are learning how to live on their own. This is probably why I enjoyed it so much, because as I read it I got to decide which parts I wanted to build into my life as I build it.

Just a few days after I finished reading this book I had to use it! It was amazing. A friend in my house asked me if I knew how to unclog sinks, and I began saying "no, sorry" when I remembered that was one of the many useful things covered in this book! I hobbled upstairs and grabbed the book came back and we gave it a try! And guess what? It worked! Really well. 

Here is what we did (sorry for the lack of photos).

1) I scooped the water out of the sink as best I could.

2) measured 1/2 cup of baking soda and poured it into the drain.

3) measured 1/2 cup of vinegar and poured it into the drain. 

fizzing began.

4) put a kettle of water on the stove and plugged the drain.

5) after approx. 15 minutes or the kettle whistling we poured the kettle down the drain. 

I felt like a million bucks. No draino needed. No chemicals, no plumbers. We did it ourselves and it felt great. 

Just before this incident I was wondering how I would use a lot of my new knowledge without having my own house, here is the proof that you still can!

Alexandra