How to Give an American Girl Doll a Temporary Afro

This tutorial outlines how to achieve a kinky-curly natural hairstyle on an American Girl (or any other 18") doll. Our method does not involve permanently altering the doll's hair in any way. Although the hairstyle is temporary, I promise all it takes is styling one time and it can be worn again and again. And the idea for doing so all came from my 6-year-old and her creative little brain.

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Cornrowed Shamrock Hairstyle Created with Scorpion Hearts #StPatricksDay

Yes. I went a bit overboard with this year's St. Patricks Day hairstyle (especially as compared to last year's style). The only real excuse I have is that my daughter is on Spring Break for the next two weeks *gasp* and, well, we have a ton of time. We also didn't have to worry about the "excessive" nature of the hairstyle as far as her school uniform policy goes, so we both wanted to do something funky and fun. I'm not normally a fan of scorpion hearts, but I think they work perfectly when creating the shamrock.

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Quick and Easy Flat and Box Twists #NaturalHair #Hairstyle

Yet another school-friendly quick and easy hairstyle for this week, which can be done with either twists or braids, whichever work best for your child's hair. In addition, we're hoping to get a super cute twist-out from this style, too, so it's sort of a two-for-one hairstyle.

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Quick and Easy Double Twisted Crown Up-Do #Hairstyle

Usually after we have a protective hairstyle in for a while I like to give my daughter's scalp a rest by doing either free hair or something really loose. Unfortunately, her school has been battling lice this past week so my goal with this hairstyle was to keep her hair up, well-oiled, and hopefully free from catching the little critters. Yes, kinky-curly hair can get lice, you can read all about that here. All of that being said, this hairstyle was a really quick and easy compromise. It took only 1/2 hour to complete and should get us easily through the week.

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First Grade Spirit Week Outfit Ideas

If you missed any of these school Spirit Week photos on Instagram last week, now's your chance to see them all in one place! Every school does things a bit differently, but I thought I'd share some of the ideas we used last week for others who may be looking for ideas for their little one for Spirit Week. Thankfully we didn't have a "crazy hair day" (like we did last year) so we didn't need to worry about it conflicting with her Valentine's crown of hearts hairstyle. Whew!

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Third Annual Valentine's Day Natural Hairstyle Parade: Part 2

Here it is, Part 2 of our Valentine's Day hairstyle parade with another 16 photos! If you missed Part 1, be sure to check it out here if you somehow missed the other fantastic hairstyles featured in that post!



Featured above is:

Child's first initial: Nannie (nickname)

Age: 9 years old

Mama: Marina W.

About the hairstyle: Style name...Valentines Delight (named by my husband!). I copied 2 styles from CHVC and merged into one. Very cute mature style for a girl coming out of that baby hair style age but not too mature for her young age.

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Third Annual Valentine's Day Natural Hairstyle Parade: Part 1

Looks like this year was just as big a success as last year! Once again, we've received so many photos that I'm going to be dividing them up into two days, otherwise they would take forever to load!  This has been so much fun for us, and my daughter's "crown of hearts" hairstyle that we did last week is getting so many compliments she wants to leave it in for the whole month! No doubt the cuties submitted for our hair parade will be getting just as much (if not more) attention with their adorableness.



I would like to thank everyone who submitted photos and for making this year's parade yet another success. The first half of the photos are posted below, and the remaining photos in Part 2 are posted here.



Featured above is:

Child's first initial: M.

Age:4 years old, almost 5

Mama: Angela H.

About the hairstyle: Simple style that took less than an hour. Love making her friends smile when they see the heart in her hair!

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Mouse-Themed Valentine's Cards with Matching Rainbow Loom Mouse

It was last month when my daughter approached me with the idea of using mice as a theme for her Valentine's Day. Originally she wanted me to make cake pops to go with her "big idea," but her school doesn't allow candy or sweets of any kind, so we opted instead for a Rainbow Loom mouse. Because 3D looms are SO easy for a 6-year-old (i.e., I'm officially a Rainbow Loom expert). Her entire goal for this project was to use the word "mice" in place of the word "nice" for her Valentines. Below is how we pulled it all together.

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Valentine's Day Halo of Hearts Hairstyle Tutorial #NaturalHair

We're pleased to present our entry into our Third Annual Valentine's Day Natural Hair Parade! Next week is Spirit Week at my daughter's school, so we had to do something that would work with the different activities they had going on. I was mostly thinking about "Fifties Day" and making sure that she had a hairstyle that would look something like a ponytail to go with her outfit. She's really happy with how the hairstyle turned out; I got a "Very classy, Mama!" from her, so that makes it a winner in my book, too!

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Valentine's Day Natural Hairstyle Parade 2014: Submit Your Photos!

It's the first day of February and, although my daughter's new school does not celebrate Valentine's Day, we're still going to be doing a fun hairstyle this year and we're hoping that all of you will join us once again! For the past few years, our readers have submitted photos of hairstyles inspired by Valentine's Day to share on the blog. In fact, last year we received so many pictures we had to break them up into two posts! This year will be our Third Annual Valentine's Hairstyle Parade and we'd like it to be our most successful ever!

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7 Reasons for Choosing Acrylic Yarn over Synthetic Hair for Extensions

This post is my attempt to answer one of the commonly-asked questions I receive about yarn extensions: Why do we use yarn over synthetic hair? Honestly, as with most things when it comes to hair, there isn't a right or wrong answer. In fact, most answers either fall into to the "right for us" or "not-so right for us" category. In our experience, yarn is more right for our family and my daughter's hair (although we've used both before) for the reasons outlined below.

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Adding Yarn to Flat Rope Twists Video & Tips #NaturalHair

As I mentioned in my previous hairstyle post, I've finally managed to get a video together than incorporates the technique used to add yarn to flat rope twists. I highly recommend that you watch through our flat rope twist how-to video along with our yarn extensions video tutorial, if you're not already well-acquainted with those two techniques. This video covers how to combine them to work yarn into flat rope twists.

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Versatile Yarn Flat Rope Twists Protective Up-Do #Hairstyle #NaturalHair

It is absolutely NOT necessary to use yarn to achieve this hairstyle, so if you like it and don't know how to add yarn to flat rope twists and/or cornrows, you can still do this. We chose to add yarn for a few reasons, not the least of which was to make a video on how to do so, as so many of you have asked me for a tutorial. Below are the step-by-step instructions for the hairstyle, and the video for adding yarn to flat rope twists can be found here.

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Looking Forward: Documenting Love for Children Who Have Yet to Arrive

("Our hope was to show our future children

the love we already have for them as we wait and pray for them. ")

I love this photo series. I fell in love with it back when my lovely friend first posted it on Facebook many moons ago. I love how hopeful it is, how the family is thoughtfully looking forward to the next kids that are going to join them. And I couldn't think of a better first post to start off this new year than sharing these pre-adoption images and the promise that they have so thoughtfully captured.

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Natural Hair Styling for your Child's American Girl Doll: Yarn Extensions

My daughter has been wanting an American Girl doll for the entire year. It was the only thing she asked for for Christmas. She only gets one present, so she made it easy for me this year. Or so I thought. I had been tossing around the idea of adding an American Girl hairstyle feature on the blog since she first mentioned she wanted one. I've styled doll's hair before, so I knew what I was going to be getting myself into. Still, having ordered the doll a month in advance and styling a bit every day, I still found myself up until the wee hours of Christmas morning finishing this look. I think it was somewhere around 3:30am when I finally finished the extensions. I didn't style the hair until later that day, after I finished my daughter's hair.

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Papercrafting Christmas Ornaments for Gifts or Decor #Crafts #Spellbinders

We normally like to give out gift cards to special people who help my daughter throughout the year, but this year we decided to make some homemade ornaments to go along with them. We made them for my daughter's first grade teacher, the principal at the school, and her piano teacher. These are a fun idea if you're looking for to spruce up the regular gift card idea, or if you're looking for a fun craft to keep the kids busy over winter break.

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DIY Hello Kitty Snowflake Window Clings #Crafts #HelloKitty

My daughter really wanted to share a little craft that we've been working on as we're decorating for Christmas. As most of you know, my daughter is a huge Hello Kitty fan, so we've taken this age-old technique of making homemade snowflake window clings and stepped it up a notch by adding Hello Kitty, herself, to a few of the snowflakes!

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Celebrating 6 Years with a DIY Rainbow-Themed Birthday Party

Another birthday party come and gone. Whew! Having taken my daughter to Disneyland for her birthday last year I had completely forgotten how hard it was to throw together a birthday party between Thanksgiving and Christmas. However, there's nothing like having a kid who's old enough to help out, especially during Thanksgiving break. There were no, "Mama, I'm SO bored," during the holiday because we managed to keep ourselves pretty busy putting together all of the homemade items for her birthday party that week. When the day of her party actually arrived, I only needed to assemble her push-up cake pops and decorate. Yay for pre-planning!

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Triangle-Part Yarn Extensions Tutorial and Style Options #NaturalHair #Hairstyle

If ever there was a hairstyle that incorporates a ton of other stuff we've already blogged about, this is it. Seriously, I think I've covered quite a few different techniques in this one, so if you're interested challenging your skills and know-how, this will likely do it. We have yarn twist extensions, flat rope twists, piggyback rope twists, and triangle parts, not to mention knowing how to cornrow (for the style shown above). Yep. I'm super happy with style and it's going to offer us all sorts of flexibility for the next month, especially when it comes to styling for Christmas. If you have questions about why and/or how we use yarn, or need any additional information on yarn extensions (including the pros and cons of doing them), we've got a slew of posts covering them.

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DIY Rainbow Birthday Party Invitations #Crafts

It's that time of year again! Nope, I'm not talking about the holidays, I'm talking about my daughter's birthday. She's turning 6 this year and I have to admit I'm super excited about that, in large part because that means she's old enough to really pitch-in when it comes to pulling her birthday party together. This year (like her previous birthdays) she chose a theme based on her Halloween costume. So, after having a snow princess party for her 3rd birthday, and a Hello Kitty birthday party for her 4th birthday, she's doing a rainbow party this year. (She went to Disneyland for the first time on her 5th birthday, so we didn't have a party that year.) We're still pulling the rest of the homemade decorations together this week, but the invitations have been completed and we posted instructions below.

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