More Summer Fun ... Dip-dyeing Hair

Well, my girls arrived home from gymnastics camp. Our two-hour car ride home was filled with stories about camp and their achievements throughout the week. They made new friends and met up with a few they met last summer. They had an amazing time and cannot wait to return next year. I am overjoyed to have them home!

Upon returning home, they were set on dip-dyeing their hair. Although I myself get highlights regularly, colored hair is simply not something I love. But ... it IS summer, so I thought, what the heck ... why not let them do it. We chose the easier route, the 5-minute dip-dyeing process. I wrote out the instructions below. It was really pretty simple and the girls were in love with the results.

The girls chose to use two packets of cherry and one packet of grape. I dyed their hair for five minutes and the color turned out amazing. They loved it immediately! If you try this, be sure to use unsweetened Kool-aid. You don't want sticky hair! Also, make sure you cover your clothes and work area so you don't stain any unwanted areas.

Color stays in for approximately 2-6 weeks.

After about 1-1/2 weeks, the color still looks pretty good. It does seem to be a little lighter, but otherwise seems to be holding pretty well. We had fun doing this together and they just love their new 'do! I'm sure we will be dyeing it again very soon. I sure hope next time though that they don't pick blue!! :D

Oh, I should let you know ... if you do chose to try this, be aware that anytime your hair is wet, the color has a tendency to run and could stain your clothing. We found this out while swimming. I did use Zout and all the dye did come out of their swimming suits.  

If this is something you think you might want to try, but you have a question, don't hesitate to ask!! 

Happy Wordful Wednesday!

- tish xoxo

Wordful Wednesday | Fun in Photoshop

It's been awhile since I've taken my camera out this summer or had even had time to play around in Photoshop. Last week while the girls were away, I finally got a chance to learn a few new tricks. Awhile back, Alicia of Project Alicia posted a great tutorial on How to Fake Polaroids and using Polaroid frames. I've also been enjoying her posts this summer as she has been creating a digital scrapbook of all her family's summer activities. And though I'm jealous of those who can sit down and create amazing scrapbooks out of paper and printed photos, I'm not one who can take the time to make this happen. So the idea of creating a few scrapbook pages in Photoshop and printing them out into a book appeals to me.



So I started with downloading Polaroid frames from fuzzimo.  They download as JPEGs which means you cannot insert a photo into them in Photoshop (they need to be a png or psd file) so I followed Alicia's tutorial on How to Create a Clipping Mask. It was fairly easy and you get beautifully framed photos - perfect for scrapbooking! 



I enjoy shooting summer flowers and then looking back at them in the depths of the winter. It brings me joy and gives me hope as I look forward its end. 



I think I'll make a little book that I can keep handy for some of those cold, dark days. Kristy of Life-n-Reflection put a cute little memory book together. You can find it in a post entitled The Inspired Notebook. It looks like a fun little DIY project that even I could handle! :D 


The Polaroid frames I used in this post are Polaroid.frame-16 by fuzzimo. In the photo above, I used two layers of the Woodlands-3 overlay by Kristy of Life-n-Reflection.



And in this last photo, I used a texture of Kristy's called Springsong to enhance my photo. Its a beautiful free download she shares on her site. 


It was so fun having some time this past week to play around with my photos. Though I'm not the craftiest of people, I am enjoying the creativity I can explore in photos and Photoshop. 


Have a happy day!
-tish xoxo

Dinner for Two

Our girls are away at gymnastics camp this week (sad face). Its really quite different here without them. Its so quiet, I miss hearing their feet hit the floor in the mornings, their sleepy faces and bedhead hair when they wake up. Its hard to believe, but I even miss running them here and there. Last summer, my husband and I traveled while they were gone. We spent a good part of the week in Boston and then met our neighbors for a few days in New York City. We tried to keep ourselves busy in an attempt to pass the time quicker. This year, as we will soon be beach-bound, we decided to stay at home, but planned a few things to do. One of which was to do a little cooking together.




My husband chose the recipe for our first meal and did all the grocery shopping. He decided on Seafood Paella. Paella is a Spanish rice dish originating in the eastern region of Spain known as Valencia. So, with Giada DeLaurentis' recipe in hand, we began to cook.

We cleaned and prepared the clams and mussels as well as the sausage, chicken, shrimp and halibut.






The vegetables, to include 1 medium fennel bulb, 1 medium red bell pepper, 1 small onion and 6 large garlic cloves, were chopped.



We sautéed the vegetables in some olive oil before adding to a base of clam juice and diced tomatoes in their juices. We then seasoned the mixture with 3 turkish bay leaves, smoked paprika, saffron, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper.



The recipe we used called for spaghetti, but we substituted Arborio rice instead. We covered the mixture and let simmer for about 25 minutes with the subsequent result. 



We steamed the remaining clams in butter and white wine (and ate every single one). 

 



Our review ... excellent recipe = amazing dinner. This recipe will be most definitely be used again. Cooking together was so enjoyable. We do so on occasion but we are looking forward to making it a more regular occurrence. 



We took our meal outside, topped it off with some homemade Sangria and enjoyed our dinner for two.



You can find Giada's recipe here. 
Note: We substituted one cup Arborio rice for the spaghetti noodles.

Cheers! 
-tish xoxo

A Peek at Our Week via Instagram

Another busy week of summer has flown by. We've enjoyed more sun and pool time, reconnected with friends we haven't seen in awhile, gotten more cousin time, hopscotched (for the first time in a very LONG time), made refreshing watermelon coolers, watched some amazing sunsets and even made cucumber rings for every finger and then ate them all one by one.


Yesterday, the girls and I along with some of our besties took a small road trip to State College, PA to the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts 2012.


(Check out my face in the corner! I was concentrating very intently on getting everyone in the photo! ha ha)



It was bustling with people and the art was phenomenal. There were award-winning artists from all around the United States displaying and selling their artwork. If you are interested in more information, you can check out their website here.  After sipping on smoothies and enjoying the art, we stopped for dinner and then ended the evening with a little shopping and ice cream. It was a perfect evening with our girlfriends! :)


By the way, these are all Instagram photos I've taken this past week. If you want to check out what else we've been up to lately, you can check out my Instagrid. I'm participating in the Summer Daze Fun Photo Party with Alicia, Kristi and Rebecca. You can follow them for more summer fun or search #summerdaze hashtag on Instagram to see what everyone else has been busying themselves with this summer. I'm also participating in Favorite Photo Friday with Lisa at The Long Road to China. She's an incredible photographer/blogger whom I've recently discovered lives relatively close. Her photos are amazing and her children are dear. Stop in and say hi and while you're there check out the other participants' favorite photos of the week. 


Enjoy your Sunday! 
-tish xoxo

Birthday Week!

Our summer always includes a birthday celebration. This week, we celebrated Addison's 14th birthday. It was an extra special weekend for her as she met cousins (on my husband's side of the family) for the first time. They all hit it off and were inseparable all weekend.



We shared a cake with the family which quickly turned into a cousin cake fight!





Daddy and sissy photo-op with the birthday girl.



The next evening, we celebrated again, this time just with our immediate families. Isn't she lovely? 



My sister, Sarah, and Morgan.



Here is most of our family ... somehow my uncle escaped the photos. 

Present time!



After everyone left, we set off a few of our own fireworks, both celebrating our Country's freedom and giving me the opportunity to practice some nighttime photography.







We're loving every minute of summer here. Hope you are too! 
-tish xoxo