Peter Pan, Swords, And Suspenders

This past weekend my sister and her cheer team performed at the arthritis walk at UCI (University of California, Irvine). Between my sister and I we have ten years of cheer under our belts and its weird to think that this week is cheer try outs and she is done. 

^^ James and his tee tee aka auntie. 

We wanted to drive out to the event because 1. It was one of the last times my sis will be performing and 2. She is the smartest thing EVER and got a full ride to UCI next year so we wanted to check out her future campus!

James had the BEST time. And yes, he insists on wearing his Peter Pan hat everywhere. Even to places other than Disneyland. Clearly, if you own a Peter Pan hat, you wear it. Every darn day. 

This event was pretty cool. They had all kinds of free food and coffee, cotton candy and popcorn, face painting, clowns, bounce houses, and James' favorite- a man making balloons who made him not one, but TWO balloon swords that he was thrilled with! They even had free massages from the great people at Massage Envy. Yes, please. 

My kid was quite the little cutie and got stopped by a million people gawking over how sweet he was in his Peter Pan hat. He's the unique one, this child of mine. 

Outfit details- 

Tank- American Apparel

Suspenders- H&M 

Sandals- Salt Waters

Tips For Maintaining Platinum Hair

I know I JUST went platinum blonde, but the truth is, I've been platinum blonde for 9 years with a two year break. I definitely know a thing or two about platinum.

I recently decided I was tired of my drab natural hair and went platinum again...

^^^ This is me now. Today I want to talk about some basic tips I have for getting platinum hair and keeping it! 

Going platinum- 

1. GO TO A HAIR SALON! I think bleaching is scary business that should be left in the hands of a professional. I'm very daring when it comes to my hair but bleaching is just not something I recommend doing yourself. 

2. It's always easier to work with virgin hair. Getting your hair to platinum will be much easier to achieve if your hair hasn't already previously been colored. 

3. Depending on your current hair color, it may take several go's. My hair specialist bleached my entire head and then toned it. The result was a little too yellow for my liking. I went back one week later and she re-bleached me and re-toned. The result was perfection. You may need to wait longer than one week to re-bleach. My hair was virgin and extremely healthy to begin with. 

4. TONE! This is critical. Toner will get all those unwanted brassy tones out of your hair and should be left on anywhere from 5-20 minutes. 

5.  Never overlap. When you touch up your hair every 4 weeks or so, make sure only your roots are getting bleached and never any other part of your already bleached hair. 

Maintaining platinum- 

It's all about the products. I use a handful of awesome products that are amazing! I think every blonde needs all of these. 

Purple shampoo and conditioner! Purple is on the opposite side of the color wheel from yellow, meaning that a purple shampoo or conditioner will help eliminate any brassy tones that blondes tend to get between hair appointments. 

Every day I use a purple shampoo called Silver Shine from a little cheap salon called Master Cuts. I don't get my hair done by them but I swear by their silver shine purple shampoo. Check to see if there's a salon near you, they have them everywhere. This stuff keeps my hair bright and blonde and isn't drying or too strong so you can use it EVERY DAY.

Once a week I use Clairol Shimmer Lights Shampoo. This purple shampoo is really strong and will tone the heck out of your hair so I only do it once a week. If you leave it on too long it will seriously turn your hair lavender so be careful. If you used it daily you would legitly  probably have purple hair. It is really amazing, though and is perfect for getting your hair super BRIGHT and blonde. You can buy Shimmer Lights Shampoo HERE.

Normally I just shampoo with this once a week like you would normally with any shampoo. My hair lady recommended I leave it on my ends for 30 minutes right after I got home from bleaching and toning the second time to continue the toning process and it worked like a charm. Do this if you want extra toning. 

Just apply the shampoo directly to your dry hair and leave it on for 30-40 min, then rinse. Again, only put it on pieces you want to tone down. 

John Frieda makes a purple conditioner called Color Renew Tone Restoring Conditioner. I just ordered it online after reading wonderful reviews so I'm excited to check it out. You can buy the John Frieda Conditioner HERE.

It's A 10 Leave in Spray is what I use for a leave in conditioner. You only need a few sprays and it really helps condition your hair. Grab some It's A 10 Leave In Spray HERE.

Rusk makes a great product called Deep Shine Lustre. It is also a leave in that makes blonde hair so silky and shiny while keeping it healthy. Buy Rusk Leave In HERE.

Here are a few more purple/blue shampoos that have been recommended to me but ones I have NOT personally tried yet. 

Matrix So Silver 

Aveda Blue Malva  

Joico Violet Shampoo 

A few other tips-

Try to avoid heat products whenever possible. 

Make sure to visit the salon for root touch ups and a monthly toner every four weeks or so. 

Condition, condition, condition!!

Wash your hair less frequently. 

I hope these tips gave some of you hopeful platinums some good advice and  if you're already a stunning blonde, be sure to leave any additional tips you have or blonde products you love in a comment below!! 

Who Said Pink Was For Girls?

Pink doesn't hold me back from buying it for James. If its cute, I buy it and James wears it. I've always thought it was silly to put labels on colors and my boy rocks pink!

When I put James in pink or another so called "girly" color, I make sure to pair it with an obvious boy pant like denim! 

^^^ James has been going sans shoes for all walks in the stroller and outdoor adventuring in grandpa and grandmas backyard. With summer approaching and the warm weather upon us, mommy says that's okay. 

Sadly we are back home in Bakersfield now. I say sadly because I really love visiting my family so much. My sweet mom watched James for a few hours every single day when I was down so that I could do fun things like get brunch with friends, do solo shopping trips, and get my hair done! Bless her. It's so nice having family close and it's something that should not be taken for granted! 

Maybe I should clarify because it can be confusing... I am born and raised in La county (boarder of OC) but for the past two years we've been moving to different parts of CA for my husbands job. Currently in Bakersfield. We will be done with the moving next year (thank god) and finally relocating permanently back in Orange County where we'll buy a house. Hopefully a duplex with my parents. No joke. That's how close I want to be to them!! LOVE THEM! 

Now that this post just got so off topic lets wrap it up with some simple outfit details shall we?

Outfit details- 

Black jeans are Shawn White for Target and tee is also from Target for just $5! I think this ensemble cost me a total of $15! 

Happy Tuesday! Thanks for reading friends!

California Boy

After I took these low quality photos, I looked at them and it hit me- James is SUCH a California boy. Obviously I already knew my child was born and is being raised in California but it just hit me when I saw these pictures how much James just ELUDES California. The sunshine, clear skies, happiness, he has a palm tree on his shirt for goodness sakes. If that isn't "California", I don't know what is! Kind of perfect because these photos were taken in front of my parents perfect palm tree. 

^^^ yup, he is still all about the "paca" aka pacifier. 

Outfit details- 

Tank- Hello Apparel

Colored denim- H&M

Sandals- Salt water sandals 

Disney, We're Available

I'm thinking maybe if I eventually post enough Disney posts, a Disney rep will contact me and book James for something. Disney, James is fully available for all commercials and movies. You're welcome. I mean, look at these "head shots". The kid has posing down crazy good and you know you'd watch a commercial if James' sweet face was in it.

  

We went to Disneyland this week and had the best day. One of those perfect Disney days where the weather is cool, the park is empty, and the characters are plenty. 

I've always loved Disneyland, but I think I love it even more now that I'm a mom. Seeing things through James' eyes makes everything so much more magical. 

^^ James spent a good half hour running around the park with his arms up in the air chasing bubbles. This kid lives quite the life I tell ya. 

^^ I let James choose any candy he wanted from a HUGE candy store in the park and he chose the yuckiest one.. A marshmallow stick shaped like Tigger's tail. Maybe he did that so his mom and grandma wouldn't steal any. Smart kid.

^^ What do you mean there aren't anymore characters to see?!!!

I'm so thankful that I'm surrounded by fun things to do and amazing places to take my son. 

We've been having a really nice week down here with my family. My husband and I were able to sneak a couple day dates in to go out to lunch and see The Great Gatsby. I took James to a little kids gymnastics play class. He was more interested in running around like a wild man and didn't care for any parts that involved sitting down and listening. We've done some good shopping and gotten to see all our family. I hope your weeks have been equally as nice! 

Outfit details- 

Shirt- Target

Leggings- Jennifer Ann

I wanted to post a close up of the amazing leggings James is wearing so you can see that his name is written all over them! You can choose the font and the colors and obviously the name, too. Jennifer does sweet matching blanket sets, too!

Moccasins- Metallic blue sapphire c/o Fresly Picked

Follow Freshly Picked on Facebook and Instagram to get all the details on their huge upcoming sale!!

****Annnnndddddd, because I haven't updated you guys in so long I have a ton of Baby Gizmo posts to share with you, too. My paid job is to blog for Baby Gizmo so these are all my recent posts. Check them out for further reading.*****

 Baby Wearing 101

 10 Beauty Products And Morning Routines That Will Make Your Morning Life Easier

10 Mock-Tail Recipes

25 Uses For Baby Wipes Besides On Your Baby

Hands Free Sundays This one is really important to me and something I think EVERYONE should read.

Terrible Twos- Are They Really That Terrible?

Should You Sign Your Little One Up For Organized Sports?

Family Photos Done Right This one features my family and will give you a sneak peek at our recent family photo sesh.

Recipe: Peanut Butter Banana Cupcakes Just in case you can't get enough of my recipes.

How To Make Hotel Stays For Longer Periods Of Time Work Because clearly you all know I'm an expert in this field.

Supporting Other Moms

TGIF! I hope you all have an amazing weekend planned. Thanks for reading!

Recipe: Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel And Sea Salt Brownies

I'm back with a second recipe post today. Sorry or you're welcome (depending on if you're into sweet recipes or not... This is the last one though)

I should have titled this post brownies on crack because the title is so long. I'm not going to lie, these take a bit of work and have multiple steps but the pay off is TOTALLY worth it. These may just be the best thing I've ever made. When my husband tried them, I swear his eyes rolled back in his head and he almost fainted. MAKE THEM!!

Step 1- Brownies

In a bowl mix together- 

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup  melted butter

1 and a half cups sugar

1 and a half teaspoons vanilla

3 eggs

3/4 cup flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

(I actually doubled this because I needed to make a lot for Mother's Day)

Once you're done, line a baking pan with wax paper and pour your batter in. 

Step 2- peanut butter filling. 

Put the following in a bowl and mix until well blended. 

4 tbl of butter, melted 

1/2 cup powdered sugar 

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter 

Pinch of salt 

1 tsp vanilla

Pour the peanut butter mix on top of the brownie batter and then use a knife to swirl everything together like you see in the picture above. 

Take pretzel sticks and layer them on top in whatever pattern makes you happy. Just remember that you're going to have to cut these babies so try to arrange the pretzels in a way that will be easy for you to cut squares out of. 

Best part ever and NOT to be left out-- sprinkle ground sea salt on top. Don't skimp but don't overload. This really makes the brownies!! 

Bake them in a 325 degree oven for 40-45 minutes. Like I said, I doubled this recipe so my baking time was more like an hour or a little more even. 

Let them cool for 30 minutes before cutting them. Boom baby, you're done!

These brownies are straight heavenly and I will be making them over and over and over again. The combo of the chocolate and peanut butter and sea salt is SO dreamy and the pretzels are fun and give it a nice little crunch. 

Enjoy, and if you make them don't forget to comment and let me know how they turned out! 

Recipe: Candy Bark

I tried my hand at homemade candy bark for Mother's Day and I was VERY impressed with the results. I basically made up the recipe and just winged it. 

The first batch I made was white chocolate with Andes mints and Oreos. 

All I did was melt the white chocolate chips and then I stirred in the Oreos and Andes mints. The Andes mints turned the white chocolate to a light chocolate color. If you want the white chocolate to be white, don't add chocolate of any kind. The mint gave it an amazing flavor, though. This combo was my favorite. 

I also did a milk chocolate with M&M's and pretzels. 

Once the milk chocolate chips were melted I mixed in the pretzels and then I put the M&M's on top.  

Once everything is melted and mixed just smooth it onto wax paper on top of baking sheets and pop them in the freezer. They harden really fast. Use a knife to break them up. 

The white chocolate seems to hold up a lot better than the milk. For example, once I took them out of the freezer, the white chocolate stayed perfectly but the milk chocolate got melty VERY fast. I recommend storing them in the freezer until you're ready to eat them. 

I've already got a list of new mixes to try next (I'm thinking dark chocolate with rolos and pretzels would be bomb). I love trying new creations in the kitchen and I'm very pleased with how these turned out!!