Blonde Rosie Blog

life isn’t perfect, but your hair can be

Published on January 12, 2017November 17, 2017 by blonde rosie1 Comment

I wanted to let you know that I washed my hair today. You are probably like, okay..but why are you telling us that you washed your hair? With my work schedule, I wash my hair two times a week because it takes so much precious time out of life to do. My hair routine revolves around dry shampoo because my hair gets oily very fast. With my frizzy hair I often have to use serums and products to keep my hair tamed which causes oil and more dry shampoo is needed. In my calendar I plan when to wash my hair, that is how little time I have to style my hair!

While I try to spend as little time as I can fussing with my hair during the week, I also spend a lot of money on my hair and a lot of time in a salon chair. I am at the salon at least once a month and block off time in my calendar to spend time on my hair. I get a lot of compliments on my hair because it is healthy and dyed a perfect shade of blonde. With a new year, comes an urge to make a drastic change with our hair. If you are thinking about going blonde, going for a major chop or getting bangs, here are some tips and advice.

1) Go to a Professional

When I was a freshman in high school I started dyeing my dirty blonde hair blonde platinum blonde. Once a month, I would have my mom dye my hair with box dye and while I loved the look and the low costs, after a few years I started to see the damage it did to my hair. I always had long hair, and I was forced to do a major chop to get my healthy hair back. Now that I found a salon that I love (and trust) I know that I can sit down in the chair, stroll Instagram and not look back up until it’s all done! It usually takes a few appointments for them to correct any color damage or hair mistakes from a previous salon. I found a hair salon that allows you to have a Hair Membership- it’s like a gym membership where you only pay a monthly fee and can get unlimited hair cut, color and blowouts. Every month I book a root touch up, every two months I get a trim and every 3-4 months I get new highlights. With this investment, I can protect my hair keeping it healthy and shiny in between salon visits.

2) Use The Right Hair Products

I am always the bargain hunter, but a few years ago my hair stylist lectured me on using the right products for my hair. Using a cheap shampoo is great for the wallet, but you are literally washing money down the drain. My hair started to get brassy, I was losing my blonde and my hair looked like bleh. Influenster reached out to me and analyzed my hair with a questionnaire. I love the blow out look I get from the salon, but lack the energy to use various hair tools and a million products to achieve the look. Influenster and Loreal sent me a package of L’Oreal Hair Expertise Extraordinary Clay Mask, Shampoo & Conditioner. My roots are oily, my ends are dry and with every product I use it fixes one issue and damages the other. I have used the Loreal Hair Shampoos and Conditioners for years, but with the broad line of shampoos I never knew which one to use!

Plus, I love the blue colors of the bottle because it looks so pretty in my shower! After one use, I loved the way my hair air dried and it felt very clean. My hair also kept its blonde color post shower which is a huge plus!

3) Invest in a hair mask.

I use a face mask twice a week and have a moisturizer routine every night, but I didn’t see the benefit of using a mask. But then I did my research! After using the L’Oreal Hair Expertise Extraordinary Clay Mask I cannot imagine a shower without using one now! It is important to know that not all hair care products are made equal! Lately, hair care is changing drastically. So take advantage of the changes and improvements in hair care. On Pinterest, there are all of these DIYs with mayo and eggs and I was not letting any of that touch my hair! But now companies like Loreal are investing in hair products.

L’Oreal Hair Expertise Extraordinary Clay Mask is applied to dry hair and left on for 5 minutes. I was happily surprised by the clay, it was a smooth texture without any gritty feeling. It is light and airy and not like a dense clay like I was expecting. This combination makes applying super easy and easy to wash out. The result is clean and silky hair without having to apply any other products. I am in love with my hair and I want the world to know it!

5) Protect your shine

The sun, product build-up, overuse of hair tools and chlorine all dull your hair color and dull your shine.

6. Purple Shampoo

To prevent my hair from looking brassy , use a purple shampoo. This helps hair from turning brassy, which is my biggest hair problem. Once a month I use a purple shampoo and I recommend this one!

Thank you to Influenster and Loreal for sponsoring this post and sending me my new hair care favorites for free for a review!

now is the time to buy a winter coat

Published on January 11, 2017January 11, 2017 by blonde rosie2 Comments

For todays Wear it Wednesday, I am sharing how to save money on winter coats. After all of this snow we have been having (it even snowed in Dallas, Texas!), all of us had to bundle up to survive the cold. If this snowstorm made you realize you need a new coat, good news because now is the time to buy one!

Keep scrolling to find out how to get one for cheap this month!

One of my skills in life is getting the best bargain when I am shopping. I have ways of finding J. Crew for super cheap, finding Lilly Pulitzer pieces for only $10 and have two closets full of clothes that I never paid full price for. In college, I always had friends borrowing clothes out of my closet because I had so many great pieces to wear.

Today I thought I would share with you how I have built an amazing closet over the last few years. One of my biggest trick is to never buy anything full price. I get a lot of my clothes at consignment or Goodwill for just $2.99, Crazy, huh?? It takes some practice and patience to sort through the junk, but I have found some amazing pieces for just a few dollars. When I went to Texas last year, I went to one of my favorite consignment stores and bought a whole new J. Crew wardrobe for our 10 day visit. I spent only $200 for dresses, shirts, pants and a few Lilly Pulitzer pieces for that summer.

An expensive purchase that everyone needs to have is a winter coat. For my first job out of college, it was so close that I would just walk the five blocks to work and not drive. My first winter home I realized that my college peacoat or North Face was not going to cut it for the commute to work! In January, I started to look for a proper coat for the winter, and when I started to look in department stores I found that there was nothing left in the stores or I didn’t like the options. Then I went over to the clearance section and found a big puffy coat from Vince Camuto for under $100! There were a ton of coats in clearance because the stores in January are trying to get rid of the winter clothing and make room for resort wear!

At the store I work in, all of our winter coats are in clearance as well. And you might have gone last week and realized they were not your size. Here is a helpful hint, for Christmas a lot of people get nice coats for their kids or family members, but after Christmas a lot of them were returned. When they are returned, they go straight to clearance because we don’t have room for them on the floor anymore. If there was a coat you saw but didn’t get in time before it sold out or it was above your budget, be sure to go to the stores now and check clearance!

I shop a lot, but I am very smart when I shop… Just like every other girl, I want the newest trends and to fill my closet with beautiful things. I have made some big purchases lately, but I have to point out that they were all on sale. Christmas time is the best time to buy perfumes and makeup, and January-March is the best time to purchase a coat. Just remember that the day a new style hits the stores, you don’t have to buy it right away. Wait a few weeks (or even months) and I can guarantee it will go on sale or be in clearance!

My red coat is on major sale right now! Fellow blogger prepsterange and I have the same coat and we are both obsessed!

SHOP MY LOOK

#goals : declutter

Published on January 9, 2017January 8, 2017 by blonde rosie1 Comment

One of my yearly goals is to clean and declutter. This may not seem like a lot of fun, but decluttering you room, your home, car, closet, etc. brings so much happiness into your life. Walking into a space that is messy makes me very stressed out. It’s hard to go to bed if I have clothes on my floor or there are dishes in the sink. It sounds crazy, but waking up in the morning and everything is in its place helps me get out of the house faster. This is coming from the girl who loses her keys at least once a week (because I put them in a new place every night)!

Cleaning seems like a big task, but if you do one big clean in the beginning of the year and maintain it, it’s not as scary as a task. One way to make it easier is to declutter. Go through each room at a time and then go through each drawer, and each category of clothes. I wrote another post on this here that I highly recommend.

Another exciting project that I am starting is the Home Organization 14 Week Challenge. It started when I found this Facebook group and every year they have this house cleaning challenge. Each week there is a different room to clean and it provides a to do list to make sure you go through all of your items, purge, declutter and do a big clean so it is easier to maintain throughout the year. You can find the challenge here.

Over the weekend I started with my kitchen and checked off a lot on my to do list, but there is still a lot more fun to be had! Since I did this last year, so far the cleaning has been very easy to do. I created places for everything last year, so it is just me putting some things back to where they belong.

My parents are in for a big surprise when they try to find things this week! I am sure they want to kick me out of the house after all of this cleaning!

Who wants to do this with me??

Perfectly Plaid

Published on January 8, 2017January 8, 2017 by blonde rosieLeave a comment

So on on this marvelous snow day I thought I would share my new bed with you guys! I have been wanting to do this for weeks and this snow day finally made me get to it!

Okay, quick story: When I was in college, my parents surprised me and completely my bedroom. I was that person who still had a childhood bedroom when I went away to college, but found it so difficult to throw things away and change much. After sophomore year in college, I started the purge… I literally threw everything out that did not have sentimental value, and everything that did have sentimental value I put away in a box neatly and of course labeled! I still have a majority of my childhood furniture, but upgraded from a twin bed to a Full bed while I was in college. However, it was a really ugly bed that we just had laying around the house. So Junior year is when my dad created a headboard to go over the ugly bed. He spent so much time with the stuffing and burlap to make it look like one of the pretty beds I wanted! Fast forward a few years and the burlap is stained, ripping and the bed is literally breaking in two! So for Christmas, my dad surprised me once again by buying me a bed on Overstock.com. And when I say surprised, I mean he pulled up the website and told me to buy anyone that I wanted (He’s a smart man!). On Christmas morning this giant box that we have been hiding in the guest bathroom came out and I got a new bed! It took my dad and I two hours to get my old bed apart and the new one up. My dad kept saying that this was worse than building a Barbie Dream House!

On Christmas, my mamma gave me new sheets, a new duvet, pillows, blankets, the whole lot! I am in love with my new bed and I have a trip to Ikea planned this week because when you improve one thing in a room, everything else has to be updated!

Fun fact, where my bed is now was once a kitchen! My floor was once an apartment and I chose my bedroom to be in the living room/kitchen because it is so much bigger than the room meant to be a bedroom. (You can see my guest room here)

My bed takes up an entire side of my bedroom and I actually prefer it this way because it’s very cozy and at night I don’t have any distractions like a pile of laundry or a dresser with things on it to stare at all night. My mom decorated my bedroom in a French Hotel Room when I was in college and I love how clm the room color is. While I personally may have outgrown this theme, I still love how simple and clean the room is. There is very little on the walls and the furniture are all antiques my mom found. My two bedside tables are items she found while antiquing and the flower carving she found for only a few dollars at Goodwill. If you are in the process of renovating a bedroom or getting an apartment, I highly suggest going to Goodwill or second hand stores. I hate knowing that when we are done with things that they just sit in a landfill polluting our Earth. It takes some digging and going to a few places, but you can find some very interesting pieces of furniture that don’t look cookie cutter from an Ikea catalogue.

Another fun fact about myself is that I worked in a hotel one summer while in high school. It was one of the worst jobs I ever had, but it is a right of passage in my town because every girl does it, but I learned a lot about cleaning and making a bed. Since then, when I make a bed, I make it the hotel room way! I just really like everything to be neat!

I am obsessed with pillows (!!!) but like to the point where it is becoming a problem. My decorative pillows here are from Target. The two fluffy ones are from the Dollar Bin at Target and the two decorative ones were seriously marked down clearance. The snowflake one was $4 last year! The decorative blanket on my bed is also from Target! When my mom asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I just told her bedding and Target!

My duvet and sheet set is flannel and I am in love. I know black is not the traditional winter color for bedding, but when I saw it in the store on a bed display I immediately took photos and sent them to my mom with the only words saying NEED! The bedding is Martha Stewart at Macy’s and on major clearance right now. It’s not available in stores anymore, but my parents were able to order it online. This is honestly the most comfortable bedding I have ever slept in! My mom has bought Martha Stewart sheets for years and never understood why she was obsessed, but after these flannel sheets were put on my bed, there is no going back!

I do have a large bedroom, but my closet is very tiny and I don’t have much room in there for storage. I have two dressers, but since they are from when I was a little kid the drawers are very small. To get creative in making more space, I took one of the under the bed storage plastic containers I had from college and I have all of my pajamas in it. That way all of my pajamas are in one place and near my bed. I also have another one that has all of my sheets for my bed. I hate the idea of a linen closet for sheets for multiple beds because everything just gets thrown in there and gets messy fast. Since being home from college, I have all of the sheets to the corresponding bed neatly placed in a box under that bed. That way, when we have to change sheets we don’t have to go far to get new ones!

I have built a bit of a collection of slippers over the years and have them neatly placed in a basket by my bed. If you cannot already tell, I like when things have a place. If it does not have a place I try to find a permanent place or I get rid of it. Since I started to adopt this philosophy with my things, my room seems so much more clean and open! On the side of my bed I got a Pottery Barn basket from Goodwill that I keep extra blankets and pillows in.As you can already tell, I like bedding accessories and when they are not being used, I just put them in the basket to make sure they are not on the floor creating a mess.

I hope you enjoyed my little bed tour and let me know if you have any other questions!

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Blend in 2017

Published on January 6, 2017January 4, 2017 by blonde rosieLeave a comment

I have always struggled with bad skin since middle school so I have always worn foundation to cover my face flaws. Since switching to higher quality face moisturizers my skin tone has definitely improved from its previous splotchy and red face I was used to. Now I can wear makeup for fun and not because I am trying to hide my face! For work I do a 6 minute face and wear minimal makeup. What has changed my makeup routine dramatically is switching to a Beauty Blender. A lot of makeup vloggers and bloggers have talked about them for a few years now, but I thought it was silly to spend money on a sponge. A month ago I found one at TJ Maxx for $4 and thought I would try to see what the hype was all about. I tend to mix different shades of foundation, concealer and moisturizer so blending has always been tricky. Now with the beauty blender I no longer have awkward lines and my makeup looks more natural.

Here is how to use one

Rinse the Beauty Blender so it is damp
Put foundation on Blender and apply makeup to face

It seems easy, right?? I apply face moisturizer first on my face and let it dry a bit before I apply my foundation. Then I pour foundation onto my Beauty Blender and dot my forehead, cheeks and chin so there is foundation spots all over my face. Then I start to rub the foundation in with the pointed part of the Beauty Blender. I apply face powder with the applicator it came with and apply a highlighter and bronzer with my Beauty Blender. Previously when I would add bronzer or highlighter you could see the line of color, now with the Beauty Blender I can easily blend all of the products.

Start the new year with a new beauty tool in your makeup bag, I promise you won’t forget it!

cozy sweatshirt + pom poms

Published on January 4, 2017January 4, 2017 by blonde rosie1 Comment

wear-it-wednesday

A fellow blogger (PrepsterAnge) pointed out that lately I haven’t been blogging as much as I usually do. I feel like the last few months life has been so busy with the holidays and it getting dark outside so early I never had time to take photos for Blonde Rosie. I started this blog a few years ago because I was bored and needed a hobby. I didn’t care if no one read my posts or cared about what I was wearing, but I had so much fun doing it! Then I started to run into friends and family and they would compliment me on my blog or say that they looked forward to posts every week. I don’t plan to make money with Blonde Rosie, but I wear really cute outfits and feel it’s a shame not to share it with the world wide web! I hope to be more involved in my blog in 2017 and make some improvements. This started off with some cute outfits and some Post Grad Life advice, but now Blonde Rosie will be going in a new direction (TBD)! If you want to see certain things on Blonde Rosie definitely let me know! I love to do photoshoots and write, so let me know what you want to see!

For some reason I got the week off for both jobs and I have been doing a lot of lounging in bed catching up on my Netflix shows. I am in the process of doing another Netflix Recommendation post too because I am going through shows like crazy! I am a big Target fan, and I cut my spending budget once I switched jobs, so I had to stop my weekly trips to Target. In December, I broke my rule and did some Christmas shopping at Target and immediately fell in love with this fleece sweatshirt. I didn’t have the funds to spend money on another sweatshirt so I had to walk out without it. But luckily, Santa delivered it under the tree for me. I have been wearing this nonstop since I got it! Hurry up and go to Target because this is the most comfortable sweatshirt I own! And the pom poms are just too cute!!