After the success of the braid challenge from Pinterest I asked my friends what they would like me to try out. Spring Cleaning was the top choice and I was happy because I have been wanting to do some hard cleaning around the house. As usual I started digging through Pinterest, reading blogs and tutorials from people who provided tips on how to get your house spotless. Just so you know if you want to try the same cleaning techniques at home know that apparently you need: 1. a lot of baking soda; 2. a lot of corse salt; 3. a lot of lemons; 4. Dawn Soap and 5. vinegar. These items came up every time for cleaning kitchen, tubs, faucets, you name it.

How the Challenge works: 
[Each day for 5 day I will pick one item to clean and discuss whether the suggestions on Pinterest were true or just a bunch of crap. I will update the post each day so you can either bookmark my awesome blog or you can subscribe to receive an e-mail alert when I update the post. You can also become one of my devoted followers.] Please do :)

CLEANING YOUR KITCHEN SINK

This only applies if you like me have a stainless steel kitchen sink, otherwise you can stop reading this or you can be mesmerized by my cleaning story. I originally find the information on DYI Ready but also added my own twist (brush, towel).

What you Need to Clean your Stainless Steel Kitchen Sink: 

Lemons (2)
Corse Salt (as much as needed)
A toothbrush (optional)
A bath or kitchen cloth (optional)

Cut your lemon in half and pour the salt until the surfaces are completely covered. Rub that lemon of yours on the sink and rinse with water. For the heavy scum use a brush and brush that dirt off your sink. I personally used the cloth to make sure there were no residuals of the lemon or salt and to make sure the sink would shine. The lemon is supposed to break down the scum and provide a shiny look.

Here my before picture:

After picture:

I don't see any difference. I just had a clean sink, but I still had some scum and was not shiny as suggested. My sink smelt good and for once I devoted 10 minutes of my energy cleaning the kitchen sink. So still worth it and definitely all natural, which is great if you have kids. What the lemon really worked on was the faucet. It really made it shiny and eliminated the dirt.

What do you think? Did you try this out at your house? Leave a comment below. Check back tomorrow to see what else I am cleaning that requires little to no time.

HOW TO CLEAN YOUR CHOPPING BOARD 

Day two of this week challenge is all about how to clean your house in less than 20 minutes. One of the items I have been wandering how to clean is my plastic chopping board with obvious stains from tomatoes, spices, or meat. I have been reading different blogs about how to clean cutting boards. I was shocked people use bleach (yes you heard me). How in the world are you going to eat after using bleach on a cutting board? I opted for natural remedies including lemons, salt, and baking soda.

First, I followed the directions of the Real Simple blog, which suggests to cut a lemon in half, squeeze it on the board and let it sit for 20 minutes. I took it further and after 20 minutes I rubbed salt using the lemon. Then I added baking soda and with the sponge I just rubbed and rubbed. You want to rinse the cutting board under warm water and watch the results.

Before cleaning the cutting board:

After cleaning the cutting board: 

Magic happened here.

HOW TO CLEAN COPPER PANS AND POTS

In theory cleaning or polishing copper pots should only take you 10 minutes. All you need is lemon and corse salt. Cut a lemon in half, pour salt on each half of the lemon and rub on the surface you want to polish. The acidity will strip away the built up on the bottom of your copper pan in no time.
For the edges on you pot I used a bristle sponge and I gently rubbed it until all the scum was gone. This part was time consuming because I have not polished my copper pots in a long time. The more you wait the harder you need to rub.
Before I cleaned:

WHAT YOU NEED:

After I cleaned: 

I decided to do a 7 days Hair Challenge taking hair braids tutorials from Pinterest and recreating these looks. I saved ideas and braid tutorials on my Pinterest Profile and looked for how to braid your hair and do cute easy hair undos.

The first challenge this morning was a Dutch braid by Barefoot Blonde. It is an upside down braided bun, which according to the blogger, is really easy. Below on the left side her final product (photos by Barefoot Blonde), on the right mine (my own photo).

It was not easy. It looked easy but after the second attempt I gave up. You can only see one strain of my braid at the very top of my head. I was not able to lift each single strain of hair and start my braid at the very bottom of my head. You can also see how sad my bun is. Despite having a lot of hair I was not even able to get a good bun. This was a total disaster. Even BuzzFeed could not replicate the complexity of this dutch braid.








Today my friend Christina challenged me on a messy braid bun featured on Latest Hairstyle by Jenny Strebe. I thought this could be potentially easy since it has the word 'messy.' I can camouflage imperfections. I was wrong of course and my attempt failed miserably today too.

First, I realized soon that I did not have the correct supplies. My pins were cheap and old which made the entire bun fall once I walked out the door. (Yes, I walked out the door like that). I did not have the right elastic bands. Mine were big and well yellow!! I also forgot to make the braids look messy and bigger. And the top of my head was too composed. But surely enough my trainer commented on my braids then proceeded to make me do one minute of jumping high knees- I had braids all over my face slapping me hard!!! Is there a tutorial on braids for incompetent girls like me?

I challenged my friend Christina to do the same as she always looks good with whatever she does with her hair. No surprise she was much much better than me. She shared some tips for beginners like me.

Tips and tricks on how to braid your hair: (I just copied what she sent me, yes lazy me, but I made comments from the beginner's point of view). 

Top Knot with Under Side Braid

This one was pretty easy for me, as the version with just a ponytail used to be one of my “go-tos” when I was a cheerleader in high school. [hint here: if you are a cheerleader your braiding skills will improve]. Some tips and tricks to be successful with this hairstyle:

- Section off the front portion of your hair. This helps you know where to stop braiding and it will help with the securing of the braid. - If you don’t know how to do a “Dutch braid” or “inside out braid,” instead of pulling your strands overtop of one another, you can take them underneath. - Sit on the edge of a bathtub or you WILL get dizzy! - Braid your hair as tight as possible and as close to your head as possible for the best results. - SUPER IMPORTANT, don’t stop braiding once you’ve run out of new hair to pull in, keep going almost to the end that way when your securing it with a hair tie, your braid won’t come undone. - Swoosh your hair around into a bun and secure with bobby pins. [beginners buy bobby pins] - To get the braid to look larger and thicker, take your fingers, or the metal end of a rat tail comb and starting at the thickest part of your braid pull gently at each section working your way back down to the base of your head. - Hair spray and GO.

Strand “Messy Bun” Braid

Fist warning, this is NOT a “5-minute” hairstyle when your hair is as long as mine! The end result was cute, but definitely this is not an “all day” look for someone with heavy hair, but would work for a dressed up date night. [I agree. Once I got to the gym my fell apart at the first jump] - I started by spraying some dry shampoo throughout my hair to create some added texture and grab. I try so hard to pull of the “day old “ hair, but my hair just looks greasy, so dry shampoo is an easy fix. - Section off the front of your hair and secure it so you can work easily on the back pieces. - When I separated my hair, I braided my hair straight back to get the same look as in the picture. - Instead of braiding all four sections at once, go ahead and mess up these back two sections by just tugging at them from within the braid and then pin them up. - This step is IMPORTANT. When you do your front two braids, you MUST pull your hair in the direction you’re going to pin it, or you’ll have two ridiculous bumps at the front of your head. [I was wondering why I always look like a Star Trek character] - I left these two tight to add visual interest and pinned them back. - Be sure to tuck in the ends, or you’re hair will end up looking weird. (Ahem, Ginevra!) Yes to that! - Bobby pin! Bobby pin! And hairspray.

Can we please give an applaud to Christina. Seriously, look at my attempts and hers. 

Day 3 of the braids tutorial challenge: 

I found the picture on Head Quarters For Hair which inspired me to give it a try. I think I  am getting slightly better, don't you think? I am waiting for Lulu to send me her version. 

Day 4 How to braid your hair from beginners:

I am so proud of this creation. The inspiration for today's challenge was the top picture on the left side. I could not find the original source with the tutorial so I had to improvise. I think it turned quite nice beside the green elastic band. As usual I want to show some of my friends' creations which are amazing as usual.












My friends' creations: two different friends with a lot of hair!!

Day 6 (I skipped a day): 

For a lazy Sunday I found an easy (so it appeared) braid pulled in a high bun. The picture from the top left was taken on Pinterest and it appears on the blog Daily Makeover. The remaining of the pictures are my own recreation.

What I learned: brush, brush, brush you hair so it will not create bumps. I never ever brush my hair but you can see it makes a huge difference. Also, having dirty hair helps and it does not even look I have dirty hair. Last, use some hairspray. It not only holds everything in place but it also gives a shine to the hair. I think I am starting to get this all 'how to braid your hair.' Remember to subscribe to my blog if you want an automatic update on the challenge.

Day 7 how to braid your hair 

It is finally here the last day of the braid challenge from Pinterest. It has been so fun and it was even more fun when few of my friends joined me. I have learned that with practice you can improve your braiding skills. While it was clear that the tutorials on Pinterest were from professional bloggers who probably tried and tried many times to get it right there is no reason why people like me should not try. I got so many compliments for just having a screwed up braid and it did not take too long. 

Now I am off to the next challenge from Pinterest. Do you want to challenge me? Then post a comment below with a picture of your challenge (must be from Pinterest) and I will try to recreate it! 

 

The first picture with the model was taken from PoPular Haircuts. 

If you want to challenge me leave a comment below and attach a picture. You can always tag me on Instagram.

I don't even remember when I last posted or talked about fashion, babies, and fitness. It has been quite  crazy few past weeks. We usually begin traveling quite often in the Spring, which means the laundry piles up in the house and we just don't spend as much time inside.

I wanted to share some pictures from The Avett Brothers's concert at Cascade Park in Tallahassee. If you are ever trying to find things to do in Tallahassee check out concerts and festivals that Cascade Park offers in the Spring.

So this past weekend it was the opening of The Word Of South Festival, which is a literature and music festival (free) through out the weekend. (what more do you need right?). The Avett Brothers (paid concert) opened the festival on Friday night at Cascade Park. To tell you the truth, although I listen to the band, I just did not really care about the concert because I was having such a great time with friends and being outdoors. When you don't get to go out often you are just happy you are out.

Cascade Park, located at 1001 S Gadsden St. is a 24 acres park located downtown Tallahassee. Despite the complains from locals while building the park, they were able to build an amphitheater for concerts and live music events. Attendees can either buy tickets to have sit or lay on the grass, which I actually prefer. There are food trucks and drink kiosks everywhere, although lines can be quite long. Even better they have a full bar. Yes, real cocktails, not the same cheap beer you find at most concerts. I really suggest anybody to just go at least one time. Bring your blanket and just relax as the sun goes down.