Dry, Tangled Hair Rescue

Since about 2 months into my pregnancy, I noticed that my hair texture was changing. It became really straight and extremely easy to manage. It also grew very long, even though I used heat every month to straighten it. I straightened it because it normally takes me a looooong time to detangle my curly hair in the shower. When it's not straight, I wet my hair in the shower every few days, if not every day. (Because it's relaxing, not for any healthy hair reasons) I wet my hair often but don't comb it often...see where I'm going with this... Tangles tangles tangles when it's finally time to comb! Well, I had no patience for that while pregnant because back hurt, tired, rather eat, shower can't be as hot as I want etc. Straight was just easier. I could wash, dry and straighten it an hr because it was unusually easy to manage. Bun at night, waves in the day.

 Fast forward to my postpartum self. My curls are growing back, and my hair is very long but the ends of my hair are dry and straight. (I will be getting my ends trimmed next week) I also have less time in the shower because baby...see where I'm going with this... Tangles tangles tangles.

Here's my hair straightened after baby.

You can see my dry, straight ends here.

The product that I can 100% count on in the shower to detangle my hair (so I can comb it) is Macadamia Oil Deep Repair Mask. I wash or rinse my hair, squeeze it out a bit, GENEROUSLY apply the mask then shower shave etc. After I shower, I comb my hair with a wide tooth comb while the water runs through it. I use my trusty Denman brush next to really get all of the tangles out. Done! Some days, I leave the mask in for a day or 2 before I rinse because I'm just a conditioner junky. When I rinse this stuff out, my hair feels really soft and moisturized. I love it and I'm positive it will help me have healthy hair again. 

Here's The denman brush I use. I got mine from Sally's for about $10

Ulta and CVS sell the repair mask for around $36 for a 8.5oz jar. This stuff is expensive and worth it but I buy mine on Amazon. $16, comes to your door, order more when you start running low. Perfect. I've also seen the line at Marshall's and TJ Maxx but I've yet to find the repair mask there. 

**Ever since about 3 months postpartum my hair and hairline have been falling out like crazy. I read it would happen so I'm ok with it, although it's really not cute. It's starting to grow back so hopefully soon I'll have a hairline again. I haven't done anything to try to grow it back because it's hormonal and I'm just gonna wait it out.**

You can see how much has fallen out in this picture :(

**Yes, I'm nursing in this picture and I'm one of those people who feels comfortable feeding my baby in public. There's a whole seperate discussion surrounding that**

I Have A Baby...

The last time I posted, I was anxiously awaiting a little bundle of joy. She was chillin and came almost a week late 3/4, 7lbs 3oz. at 12:24pm via C-Section. I was geared up to push but after an overnight hospital stay with contractions as close as 4 or 5 minutes, and a subsequent epidural, progress stopped and baby's heart rate was dropping with each contraction. I turned from anxious to worried in .2 seconds as I was scared for her life and mine under the knife. My family was with me and we cried and prayed together for a healthy baby and it all turned out fine. Seeing her little face was the best day of my life and it was the beginning of my new life as a mommy! 

I joke to my cousin (who encourages me to keep writing) that this will basically be a baby blog because I literally never shop for myself anymore. So if you get tired if seeing my baby's picture or hearing about her, forgive me, she consumes my thoughts. I love her unconditionally. She literally keeps me from sleeping, eating, exercising, staying up late with my husband, going out with my friends, traveling and fitting cute clothes but I would not trade my new life for anything.

I love being her mommy and those things it mentioned aren't lost, just occur less frequently in my life. I have noticed that I can do more the older she gets and that's encouraging. Also, I have tons of mommy friends now and it's great because they don't mind if I cancel because "we had a rough night" "I don't want to put on pants", "I haven't showered", " we're napping"...they get it! They are the lamest excuses but they're real. Ok enough about me, here she is...my beautiful, sweet Maci Eden.

**Will carry out the list of posts I promised from my previous post...just maybe not as fast as I'd planned. Maybe during naps?**

If you're still out there, still reading and still care, thank you. 

40 Weeks Pregnant

When people say you're pregnant for 9 months, they are lying to you. If you go full term, you are really pregnant for 10 months, which is basically almost a year of growing another human being inside your stomach. I wasn't prepared. I mean, my husband and I were trying to get pregnant, I've seen my sister and sister-in-law and friends go through it but I still wasn't prepared.

I'm so thankful to have my first pregnancy be such a great experience. It really is the most amazing thing to know that you're growing a tiny baby. It's also one of the scariest things I've ever done. I'm responsible for the well being of this child inside of me and that's an amazing responsibility!

On the other side of that spectrum, my body has changed so much it's scary. Not just the outward appearance but also what I like to eat, how fast I get out of breath, how my skin behaves and even how often I poop! (I know, tmi) but when you've known yourself for 29 years, you can easily predict your body's responses right. Then all of a sudden, everything is different. Every day, something new happens that your body has never done before. It's a learning process and I've been enjoying it.

So the day I found out I was pregnant, I looked like this. I was dying my hair and I took a pregnancy test while the color was processing. (Yes, I dyed my hair while pregnant. 3 or 4 times actually. (after this time, I switched to a brand with no ammonia) I went to check on the test and got the best news, it was positive! I decided to take pictures, knowing I would likely never be the same :) So at this point, I was already a month along with no symptoms.








Today, I look like this. I'm happy at 40 weeks and 1 day and anxiously waiting for a pain to hit me. I've never been so excited about being in pain!!




This was yesterday, on my due date. I joked with my sister that I dress like I'm going to the gym on purpose but I really went to Starbucks, then walked around the mall :)

This video is from last night. My husband works out after work and I do the video for about 30 seconds then I sit down! I count it as my exercise since I put in the effort to stand up lol. Anywho, the black stuff on my face is a clay mask that I was spot treating with. (I've had terrible acne since being pregnant. We'll talk about that in another post.)

I'm hoping I won't be posting anymore pregnancy shots. Just me and baby shots...cross your fingers for going into labor tonight! Follow me on Instagram @GStarMi. I'll post baby's pics there first :)


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Changes

Since my last post, so very long ago in June of 2013, there have been a few changes in my life. If you're not following me on Instagram, you wouldn't know that I am pregnant! I was actually due yesterday, February 27th. That day has come and gone and I am now waiting (impatiently) for a sweet baby girl to arrive. Since I have so much idle time, I figured I'd start blogging again, as I have so many updates for you all! I hope you all are still interested in what's going on because I'm beyond excited to share with you!

I think I'm going to start with:

1. what I look like today...pregnant at 40 weeks
2. Jump aaaaaalllll the way back, almost a year ago and post my wedding pictures
3. pictures from my shower and bachelorette party
4. a few home decor pictures, since that what's I've been doing while pregnant
5. Post a nursery tour
6. Pregnancy stuff, what I wore etc.
7. Whenever the baby decides to come, l will definitely write about her :)

I can't wait to talk with all of you again :)




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The Worst Part of Getting Married

What have I done? I've made a terrible mistake! Can I have a do-over? Is it too late to change my mind?

These are all of the questions that are going through my mind as I stand at the Social Security Office, application in hand. Who decided that this is the process for a newlywed to change her name? Wtf am I here for? I feel like I am the only sane person in line. Other folks are looking like they are running from the law, up to no good, changing baby daddies and so forth. The cop that lets you through the METAL DETECTOR just gave me the screw face and said "are YOU here for a new social security card?" Like, ma'am you might be in the wrong place!

I made the mistake of deciding to hand deliver my marriage certificate, thinking it would be no problem to fill out a one page application, show my ID and give it to someone sitting at a desk. Wrong! It's like the DMV but worse in here. Smells like a mingling of cultures and looks like an intake room at a prison. Like row after row of full chairs waiting with a number. I've been here for 15 minutes and I haven't even gone through the security check yet.





So I was next in line to be frisked and took the opportunity to offer a sweet smile to the older cop. Blinking up at him, I politely asked him a few honest questions.

1. Is there a separate line for people turning in marriage licenses? No.

2. How long have people been in here? Hours.

3. Should I just send in my application? No, because you also have to send in your actual drivers license.

4. Is it less crowded on a Monday? No, you should come15 minutes before we open or 15 minutes before we close.

Thank you sir, seeya next week!



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Location:Executive Center Dr,Charlotte,United States

A Little Life Saver + crushing on Renny Vasquez

So, in my quest to make my wedding a success, I decided not to have my hair and makeup done professionally. I'm the type (like a lot of you) that wants a certain look and other people just seem to make you look like they want you to look. The professionals are really good at what they do but have never really been good a what I want them to do. On my wedding day, i don't want to be disappointed, look different from my normal self, have to fix what I already paid for etc.

I'm not worried about my hair, i do it all the time and know how to make it last all night. My makeup, on the other hand, never seems to last as long as I'd like it to. I've always relied on Instagram and YouTube to get ideas and tricks of the trade when it comes to makeup. This morning, I was looking at Renny Vasquez's Instagram and I was like HOLY....his models were looking terribly flawless and natural. I said to myself, "Mia, this is what you should look like at your wedding".

Here are some of his pictures from Instagram. These girls look so great!
His website is HERE and you can find him on twitter, facebook and Istagram

I saw that he was using and airbrush system called Belleto so I thought I'd at least try to get the same one that he uses. That's a step in the right direction. I can't get him but I can use some of the same products. I'll have to do my best with what I have to work with right? So I checked out the website and the systems for about $500 a piece for the starter kit. For that much I might as well hire a professional! I'm a girl who likes a deal so I kept searching and found out that Belleto was on Hautelook today and I got the whole thing for $110! Score! I got the dark kit with yellow undertones, I think. I figured I could do my Mom, Gma, sister, cousins and friends with it.

If you're looking for flawless coverage for big events or light coverage every day, you might want to look into this while it's on sale. Check out Belletto Studio to find your color and HauteLook for the sale. hurry though because it ends soon!

Engagement Party!

My fiance and I had a Halloween engagement party on the Saturday before Halloween. When I first brought up the idea, Al wasn't too happy about it. He didn't want Halloween and the costumes etc. to get in the way of celebrating our engagement. I felt the exact opposite. The only reason we would be having a party was to celebrate our engagement, so to me,  the attire or date didn't make it less about us. Well, in the end, we had a great time, all of our friends were dressed up in really funny costumes and we have great pictures to remember it all.

I have always been a huge fan of Halloween. As a little girl, my mom always took us trick-or-treating. We lived in a great neighborhood where everyone participated and it was a blast. When I was 6, we moved into a small neighborhood where nobody did trick-or-treating. Lucky for us, my mom and dad used to take us back to our old neighborhood so that we could trick-or-treat. When I was about 11, we had this huge, ugly conversion van (sorry Dad, but it was ugly...he loved that van. Secretly, so did I). My parents would invite all of my friends to pile in and they would take us all to my old neighborhood and we'd have the best time! Well when I got to the 8th grade, I finally decided that I was too old to go trick-or-treating so my mom agreed that I could have a Halloween party! I was so excited and we turned our garage into a spooky...garage? I dunno, it was fun. Cobwebs, bats, dry ice cauldrons, skeletons, black lights, the works. My friends and I had a blast, so we did it every year. Fast forward to my grown up self, I have a warm place in my heart for Halloween. I tried to explain this to Al but he just ended up agreeing to it...probably to shut me up about it! lol

Here are a few pics :)

Here's what our invitation looked like...

This is the front of the invite (I love sugar sculls)

The invitations were inside this paper bag with a candy bag that I stamped with this cute little skull. I hand delivered all of these invites to my friend's doorsteps. It was a little creepy for them to find something random on their porch but that just adds to the Halloween theme right? 

I saw this in a magazine so I did it with a few of my friends. They are just spray painted shoe boxes.

Here's how mine turned out, before we added the pumpkins, bats, spiders, skulls and lanterns 

I made these lanterns by spraying vases white and putting halloween tights over it. The vases were from the dollar store, the tights were from Walmart. 

My Mom and I had the best time planning our costumes :)

Here's Al shopping for beverages...Frugal McDoogle! 

Here's a little treat for our guests to take home. 

Our friends was very generous and let us have the party at her house.
These are some of the decorations that we put up outside.

I made my costume the day before the party by gluing all of the leaves around my parent's house (that my Mom didn't want anymore). I also bought some leaves from the dollar store. 

and this is me trying on my top and being sad that I still had to make the bottom :/ 

Here's how my Eve costumed turned out. 

This is my super cute older sister dressed as a little girl at a sleepover. 

Here's the cake that our friend made , or actually, this is after we ate the top two tiers :)

I love paper lashes...it's like when's a good time to wear them? Halloween! 

Flo and Steve Urkel 

Here's my friend who was a peacock.

Sha nay nay lol!

Edward Scissorhands 

Cher and...a guy with an afro wig :)

Al was Grandmama! lmao

I Should Be Ashamed :(

I should be, but I'm not! I haven't blogged since October. What was I thinking? I'm so thankful that a lot of you have pushed me (guilted me) into starting again. I love to do it, I love talking to all of you and  responding to emails etc. I got busy with wedding planning and neglected my precious little blog space. Not to worry, I have tons of pics to share!

Comment or email me FollowMeToFashion@gmail.com and let me know what other stuff you guys wanna know about the wedding, my life, or whatev.

Also, if you aren't already, please follow me on Instagram @Gstarmi. I post photos pretty often there!

Let's start with some more dress options, those are always fun!

I tried on so many head bands and accessories and this ribbon was so annoying hanging down my back.

This dress is by Amsale and i thought it was really interesting. Excuse the weird way I'm standing...

 

I really like the scalloped neckline on this dress. I love lace so this was right up my alley.  This dress is by Modern Trousseau and it's called Field.

This jacquard dress was definitely one of my favorites. I probably would've picked it if I were having a fall or winter wedding. I just thought the fabric was to thick and heavy for May. It was by modern Trousseau and the name is Regan.

it had pockets!

Here's how I want my hair...some variation of one of these. I'm doing my hair and makeup for the big day so I have some playing around to do to see what looks good on me. I know a want soft curls and a low bun.

The top left picture is what i like, maybe a little messier than that though.

Of course i'm into braids, and I know I want a low bun so this might work.

I like how her hair is sort of swirled into this bun so I can maybe recreate this into a lower bun...

I love love love this makeup! It looks so natural and soft even thought they clearly contoured and highlighted the hell out of her face (in a good way). I don't want to look too overdone but I definitely want a flawless complexion like this! I need to practice, lol!