DIY: Kool-Aid hair color!

The girls go to private school and have to dress pretty conservatively, so in the summer they LOVE the chance to cut loose a little with their appearances! One of their favorite summer traditions is dying their hair tips with Kool-Aid! I feel better about it than regular hair dye and it pretty much washes out over a month or two, especially with time spent in the pool. And if it's NOT all gone, we only dye the last few inches that will need to be trimmed before school starts anyway! It's so cute and fun and I thought we'd share how easy it is with you!! 

1. Buy packs of Kool-aid at the grocery store. You need three packs of the same flavor per color. Just about any color is going to show up great on blonde hair, brown hair needs a darker color like red or purple. Each color needs its own small plastic bowl.

2. Put hair in a ponytail at base of neck then a second ponytail holder to mark the point that you don't want the dye to pass. My girls think this hairstyle looks like Jasmine! ;)

3. Dump the Kool-Aid into the bowl and fill the bowl about halfway full of warm/hot water. It will be THICK, so give it a couple stirs to dissolve the Kool-Aid. Then microwave the bowl for about a minute to get it really good and hot. 

4. Dunk just the part you want dyed into the bowl and let it sit for 10 minutes. I kind of swish it around every once in a while to make sure the color gets all the way through the hair. We can't do this step without making a MESS so we usually do this on the floor/seat of my walk-in shower with the girls in minimal clothes! LOL!

5. Leave ponytail holders in and rinse the hair with cold water. 

6. Leave ponytail holders in and dry with a hair dryer. I take it down when it's still a little damp and then finish drying completely to make sure it doesn't get on any clothes, etc. 

Purple is kinda subtle on brown, but so pretty! 

Wild and crazy for Pep! LOL!

7. That's it! Enjoy! Happy summer!!

DIY Boutique Elastic Hair Ties!

After buying these for close to $2 each in California last month, and LOVING them but realizing how quickly they get stretched out, I searched out info and figured out how to make our own for about a quarter each! And it's SO easy the 7 and 9 year olds were cranking them out in a snap! You can make them, too!!

You'll need: Scissors, a ruler, a lighter and 5/8" fold over elastic in your choice of print or solid. You can buy this elastic at most fabric or craft stores. I bought ours from poshnpretty.com. I'm happy with my elastic, but there is a pretty broad range of thickness/stretchiness in the ones we chose and you would obviously get a better feel for each piece if you bought them in person. We got all kinds of colors and prints on this site, ranging in price from $.40 to $.99 per yard.

Here's the steps:

1. Pick your elastic. Measure and cut the length that you need (9" for a hair tie, 20" for a headband)

How cute is this chevron??

2. Fold the cut piece in half, with the shiny or patterned side out

3. Keeping the pieces as flat and smooth as possible, tie a knot in the middle and work the knot towards the end as you tighten it, leaving tails of fabric hanging out. Ends will be frazzled looking!

4. Use a lighter to seal the ends. Don't actually touch the flame to the elastic!! The elastic will stay super hot for several seconds. (no picture of this, couldn't figure out how to do it all at once or how to ask a kid to either hold the lighter or a camera close to a lighter! LOL!)

5. That's it! We made 6 headbands and 49 hair ties in about 45 minutes for a total cost of about $17! Awesome!!

6. Enjoy!!

Friday iPhone photo dump! :D

Today I am linking up with Jennifer over at Ramblings of a Suburban Mom for the Friday photo dump! I love cleaning out memory space on my phone so I can take MORE pictures - but let's be honest, I never actually DELETE them all, this is why I now have the maximum storage and still sweat having enough! ;)

This week has been our first week of summer break! Yayyyy!! I love my girls SO much and LOVE having them home!! Here are some of the things we've done in the last week!

Dylan had her dance recital and her team performed both numbers they have worked on all year. We also had tryouts this week for next year's teams and she was over the MOON to make the team that she was wanting so bad. The tryout process stretched over three days and was SUPER challenging. I am so proud of her and her hard work! I love to see hard work rewarded! In the last pic, we are having celebratory ice cream after tryouts, Dylan is not impressed with Pep's goofiness! (a typical scenario ;))

The girls are in the midst of full blown obsession with their bikes right now. I tore them away a couple of days to go out for lunch and to the pool, but it's mostly all about bikes!! They've also been doing some crafting and having a great time playing with Siri... LOL

There are a few things on my phone for me this week, including this DVD of the UL Championship game that came in the mail! Sent a picture to hubby and we are planning a watch party this weekend! I bet it's stressful all over again! He has already said, what if they don't win this time?? Haha! And I have tons of pics of the newest Louis Vuitton catalog. I've been a little bit obsessed with the creative photography in it and am working on a blog post to highlight some of the more unusual LV items in my collection!

All in all, pretty calm week. Lots of time hanging out with the kiddos and enjoying the nice weather! I love summer break!!

And stay tuned!! My very first monthly giveaway is coming this weekend!!