The Braid Crown: (Korona z Warkoczy): Tutorial and a giveaway!

I have about 7 months to enjoy my daughter's long hair. Mainly, because I don't enjoy mine. The second it starts to get below my shoulders, it begins driving me INSANE.

But Ella's is just so darn pretty that we're always trying to find cool things to do with it.

Today, we tried a Braid Crown. (Korona z Warkoczy is Polish for Braid Crown, and it's what my parents called it when I sent them the picture of her)

Here goes the tutorial...the giveaway comes after :)

What you need for the Braid Crown

*A hairbrush
*bobby pins
*clear elastics
*sea salt spray
*a kid with long hair
*patience

And here's what you do.... you divide the hair into two sections, like this...

Braid the sections and secure each with a clear elastic...

Spray both braids liberally with sea salt spray (which I love!)

Pull one braid taut on top of head and pin like so....

 

 

...and repeat with other side....

 

What am I giving away?

A bottle of this....

 

 

It's awesome, smells great and gives your hair that pretty, wavy texture that you'd get after a day at the beach. Sigh...I miss the beach.

To enter, all you have to do is comment with why you want this and your email address. 

Will announce a winner Friday afternoon, both via email and on here.

Bear with me, this is the first giveaway I've ever done.

Good Luck :) 

Desperation in the Kitchen: Sandwich Ring

Woo-hoo, cross one off my bucket list!

And nothing got burned or blown up!

I've wanted to make one of these for months and months and months. I found the original recipe here, but I didn't use chicken as the meat. I used black forest ham and rotisserie turkey. What can I say? I sent Gabe to the store for chicken, and that's what he came back with.

Whatever.

Here's what you  need.

Ingredients: 2 cans of Pillsbury French bread dough

one egg white

bread crumbs

poppy seeds (the original recipe did not call for these, but I totally used them)

lunchmeat/deli meat of your choice

tomatoes

lettuce

cheese (we used American but you can use whatever your little heart desires)

What to do:

Shape your two loaves (tubes!) of French bread into a ring. Excuse my beat up cookie sheets. They're well used.

Brush with egg whites and sprinkle with bread crumbs and poppy seeds. Ella has an odd fascination with poppy seeds on bagels, bread, etc. I asked my Dad and he said I was the exact same way, so I guess that makes sense.

It should look kind of like this. Kind of. Don't take my word for it.

Bake at 350 until it looks like this. Every oven is different, so I'm not even going to bother to tell you a time.

Cut off the top half. I was convinced I would screw this up. But I didn't!!!

 

 

Add your sandwich fixin's

Broil for a few minutes until the cheese melts.

Replace the top, cut and serve! Yay for crossing this off my bucket list! Yay for not blowing up the kitchen :)

Yumminess :)

Rag Curls ("Papiloty"): a tutorial

When I was Ella's age, my aunt Zosia used to curl my hair "na papiloty", using little cloth strips. For a seven year old, it was a huge deal because I went by myself across the dirt road to aunt Zosia's and got to stay there way past dark.

One night last week, Ella was asking me about my childhood and Zosia and my curly hair came up. After much begging and a google search of two, I set about curling her hair.

Here's what you need:

*some cloth strips (I cut the sleeves off of one of her t-shirts)
*a kid with damp hair
*patience

First, gather up your cloth strips. Depending on the thickness of hair, you may need more or less. I want to say I cut up about 16 and used maybe 10 or 12. I'm bad at this tutorial thing.

Brush your kiddo's hair out smooth. This may be a time to mention Ella's eclectic collection of bedcoverings. :) It may also be a time to mention how happy I will be once we cut our hair in October.

Starting at the ends, wind the hair around your cloth strip until you reach the roots. The tighter you wind, the tighter the curl will be. Once you reach the roots, double-knot your cloth strip. When you are done, it should look like this....

These are super comfortable to sleep on, or so Ella reported to me. When kiddo wakes up, unwind the hair from the cloth strips and have her shake her head out. If you want waves, brush the hair out. If not, don't brush. We just fluffed the hair into place and pinned it up, with some (Hello Kitty strawberry glitter) hairspray.

And here it is from the back.

Easy-peasy! Ella's decided that she will wear her hair like this "most of the time."
And...it was FREE!!!!
Have a blessed and beautiful day!