Tuesday, July 31, 2012

How to help coloured hair last longer

For a few months now, I have had pink in my hair, recently just dying it all magenta, and I have noticed the colour is lasting ridiculously well.

One big thing to remember for having bright coloured hair is, unless you are prepared to dye it weekly, you can't really wash it nightly. I wash my hair once or twice a week. Every time I wash my hair, I add a little bit of dye to my conditioner and apply it to my hair and this helps the colour stay bright for much longer.

I have read that washing your hair in cold water is also another good way to keep the colour locked in but in this weather, you aren't going to hear me say I was my hair with cold water haha!

I use Alfaparf Jeans Colour in Magenta but to get it the bright pink colour it is, when applying the dye, it was mixed with conditioner and left on for about 40 minutes I think from memory. This hair dye smells ridiculously good for dye and leaves my hair feeling nourished and soft too. By far my favourite and great value for money also.



My favourite conditioner to use is by Herbal Essences, I have recently just switched over to it and am really happy with it. Hello Hydration by Herbal Essences not only smells amazing (coconut and orchids - hello Summer!) but it leaves my hair feeling super soft after I use it too. I like to leave my conditioner in for about 5 minutes to let it really soak in and after I wash it out, my hair feels great.



So there's a quick look into how I keep my hair colour vibrant!
What are you favourite ways to lock in colour?

Tara-Lee xo


How to do a "hair bow"

Hello all you lovely Candylanders! Hope everyone is having a wonderful day!
Again, I have been super slack and haven't posted a blog in so long! That is all about to change, I need to get myself organised and make sure I keep writing posts regularly because when I don't, I miss it!

I have been asked by a few readers to put up a tutorial on how to turn your hair into a hair bow and I finally got around to doing it last night, this is such a fun and simple hair style, I wear my hair like this all the time =)



I dyed all my hair magenta the other day - loving it!

Step One - Make a high ponytail, but instead of pulling your hair all the way through, make a loop. Make sure the bit of hair at the end is facing the front.

Step Two - Split the loop in half, pull down and secure with bobby pins.

Step Three - Grab the ends of the hair that are facing the front and pull them over the middle and secure at the back with bobby pins.

So easy and cute!
Let me know if you give this style a go =)

Magenta and bows,
Tara-Lee xo


Friday, July 13, 2012

Eggs In Baskets

Happy Friday Candylanders!
This morning I tried a fun and cute little breakfast recipe for my little girl which she absolutely LOVED so I wanted to share it with you all =)
It is super easy and you could get really creative and add extra ingredients to it if you want to but because I was testing it for the first time, I wanted to keep it simple.

Eggs In Baskets

  • bread (cut off the crusts)
  • butter
  • eggs
  • cheese
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Butter both sides of each slice of bread and also grease the muffin tray to make it super easy for the eggs in baskets to come out once cooked.
3. Put bread slices into muffin tin and pop in the oven for about 5 minutes.



4. Once the bread has browned a little, crack an egg into each "basket" and bake for 10-15 minutes depending on if you want a runny or hard yolk. About 1 minute before you are ready to take them out of the oven, sprinkle some cheese over the top.



This would also work fantastically if you cut up some bacon/ham, capsicum, tomato, zucchini and whisked it all up together with the egg and added it all in together.
I also cooked some tomato and capsicum in the frying pan and put it on the side of my daughter's plate, she really loved that too =)



What's your favourite breakfast item to cook for your little one? Or yourself if you don't have kiddies yet =)

Fun in the kitchen,
Tara-Lee xo

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Toddler Friendly Veggie Muffins

Coming up with new and exciting snack and lunch ideas for a toddler is not always easy, so I wanted to share a little recipe for some Veggies Muffins I gave a go recently. These are perfect because you can pop them in some zip lock bags and into the freezer they go, ready to be thawed out when you need them.

Ingredients
  • 2 1/2 cups of Self Raising Flour
  • 1 1/3 cup of milk
  • 1 egg
  • 90g of butter
  • 2 handfuls of baby spinach, finely chopped
  • 1/2 grated cheese
  • 1/2 grated parmesan cheese
  • 1 grated carrot or zucchini (or both!)
(some tomatoes and bacon would be awesome in this recipe but I just used what was in the fridge at the time)

Preheat the oven to 200°C.
Sift flour into a large bowl and put aside.
Whisk milk, egg and butter together in a seperate bowl to the flour.
Add the mixture to the bowl containing the flour.
Add the veggies you have chosen.
Stir until it is all combined.
Bake for 20 minutes or until cooked through.
Enjoy!

Chicken and Veggie Soup

I kind of have to laugh when people think that diets mean you eat nothing or just "rabbit food", because they are so wrong, I have made some amazing meals since being on this diet that I will keep using even when I am not "dieting" anymore. One I wanted to share with you all is a Chicken and Veggie Soup. I have made this numerous times and O.M.S (oh my soup!) it is amazing. I altered the recipe a bit, it wasn't suppose to have chicken but I adding it and I had some trouble finding the can sizes that they requested in the recipe too so I will just give you my version of it...

Chicken and Veggie Soup.

300g of chicken breast, cooked and shredded
3 cups of chicken stock
1 medium onion, diced
2 celery stalks, sliced
2 carrots, thinly slice
410g can of sliced green beans, drained
1 small zucchini, sliced
400g diced tomatoes
1 Tbs Italian seasoning
1 Tbs garlic powder
Salt and pepper, to taste


  • In a large pot, pour in the chicken stock and then add the chicken, onion, celery and carrots, cook for about 10-15mins.
  • Add green beans and zucchini; cook, covered for another 10-15mins.
  • Add the tomatoes and seasonings; cook for an additional 15mins.
  • Serve with crusty bread and enjoy!

Totally meant to do that =/


I cut up all the ingredients earlier so I didn't have to rush to get dinner ready.


Miss 2 was having a ball dipping her bread into the soup.



Yum!


It is so easy, tastes delicious and what's best is that it is so healthy and good for you!
I love soup season!

Soup and crusty bread,
Tara-Lee xo

Just a thought for the Mummies out there.

Please note that I posted this blog previously on my old blog but I think it deserves to be reposted on this one for you all =)

I am a follower of many, many Mummy bloggers and admire each and every one of them. And one thing I admire about them is how brutally honest they are - about everything! I tend to keep things to myself and people close to me and these women just throw it out there - and I love it!

A lot of my friends don't actually have kids, and the ones that do, most of them are Facebook friends. We have never met, and if we have, we rarely hang out (being on my Learners does add to the fact that my darling daughter and I rarely leave the house so there goes hang outs for people who aren't a quick bus ride or walk away! Haha). Now back to what I was saying, most of my friends don't have kids, but there are those times when you have had a hard day and you just wish that you had a Mummy friend close by to come over and chat to (and to have a play date to help keep the little one sane also!). Friends without babies do the best they can to help but sometimes, unless you have kids, you just don't get it. And I am not saying that to be mean. It's just the truth.

I admire the women who just come right out and share on Facebook or their blogs 'Hey, today sucked, I am going crazy". I suppose I just admitted to Facebook and my blog readers that I have days like that too haha!

Do any other Mums feel like they are the only ones having a bad day, but then when you actually talk to other mums, you find out that everyone is in the same boat?! This is me every bad day! Haha.

Being a Mummy is no easy task but I assure you that, with all the "bad" comes the amazing.

So I say, let's all just chat to each other about our days and help each other out. Take 5 minutes to recharge and have a cup of tea - let your little one/s make that mess just for 5 minutes so they can have a refreshed Mummy and not a cranky pants one.

Becoming addicted to tea,
Tara-Lee xo

That glorious moment when pre baby clothes fit again!

As some of you are aware, if you have been following my blog for quite some time now, I have recently lost quite a bit of weight (19kgs for those of you that wanted to know the updated number hehe). My friends and family will tell you that there are certain items of clothing that, over the past few years, I have refused to part with even though they didn't fit. Well, I have news for those items of clothing - majority of you fit my body again! Woo Hoo!

One item of clothing I was desperately trying to squeeze back into was my pair of "pre baby" skinny jeans. Anyone else miss the feeling of their favourite pair of skinny jeans hugging their butt? Please tell me I am not alone! In a previous blog post on my old blog (which has now been closed down to makeit easier to follow my posts in just one blog), I wrote this to my beloved skinnys before I could fit them again -

Pre-baby skinny jeans. One day. One day you babies will be hugging my butt again and I will be able to slide you over my thighs with ease and there will be that glorious moment of doing the button up. One day my pretties.

A little dramatic you say? Yeah, that's me haha! But I longed to fit into them for a few years now. It was a special moment when I saw the zip go up with ease and the button not want to burst.

Do you have any pre-baby items stuffed in the back of your wardrobe that you keep in hopes of one day fitting into again? Mine have stared at me every single day (unless I am having a pj day and don't need to look at my clothes haha), out in the open, hanging up with all my "post baby" clothes.

What item can't you wait to fit back into? Or if you are back into pre-baby clothes, what were you most excited to fit back into again?

Thankful it is Winter because I live in my skinnys now because I can,
Tara-Lee xo

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

How to help coloured hair last longer

For a few months now, I have had pink in my hair, recently just dying it all magenta, and I have noticed the colour is lasting ridiculously well.

One big thing to remember for having bright coloured hair is, unless you are prepared to dye it weekly, you can't really wash it nightly. I wash my hair once or twice a week. Every time I wash my hair, I add a little bit of dye to my conditioner and apply it to my hair and this helps the colour stay bright for much longer.

I have read that washing your hair in cold water is also another good way to keep the colour locked in but in this weather, you aren't going to hear me say I was my hair with cold water haha!

I use Alfaparf Jeans Colour in Magenta but to get it the bright pink colour it is, when applying the dye, it was mixed with conditioner and left on for about 40 minutes I think from memory. This hair dye smells ridiculously good for dye and leaves my hair feeling nourished and soft too. By far my favourite and great value for money also.



My favourite conditioner to use is by Herbal Essences, I have recently just switched over to it and am really happy with it. Hello Hydration by Herbal Essences not only smells amazing (coconut and orchids - hello Summer!) but it leaves my hair feeling super soft after I use it too. I like to leave my conditioner in for about 5 minutes to let it really soak in and after I wash it out, my hair feels great.



So there's a quick look into how I keep my hair colour vibrant!
What are you favourite ways to lock in colour?

Tara-Lee xo


How to do a "hair bow"

Hello all you lovely Candylanders! Hope everyone is having a wonderful day!
Again, I have been super slack and haven't posted a blog in so long! That is all about to change, I need to get myself organised and make sure I keep writing posts regularly because when I don't, I miss it!

I have been asked by a few readers to put up a tutorial on how to turn your hair into a hair bow and I finally got around to doing it last night, this is such a fun and simple hair style, I wear my hair like this all the time =)



I dyed all my hair magenta the other day - loving it!

Step One - Make a high ponytail, but instead of pulling your hair all the way through, make a loop. Make sure the bit of hair at the end is facing the front.

Step Two - Split the loop in half, pull down and secure with bobby pins.

Step Three - Grab the ends of the hair that are facing the front and pull them over the middle and secure at the back with bobby pins.

So easy and cute!
Let me know if you give this style a go =)

Magenta and bows,
Tara-Lee xo


Friday, July 13, 2012

Eggs In Baskets

Happy Friday Candylanders!
This morning I tried a fun and cute little breakfast recipe for my little girl which she absolutely LOVED so I wanted to share it with you all =)
It is super easy and you could get really creative and add extra ingredients to it if you want to but because I was testing it for the first time, I wanted to keep it simple.

Eggs In Baskets

  • bread (cut off the crusts)
  • butter
  • eggs
  • cheese
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Butter both sides of each slice of bread and also grease the muffin tray to make it super easy for the eggs in baskets to come out once cooked.
3. Put bread slices into muffin tin and pop in the oven for about 5 minutes.



4. Once the bread has browned a little, crack an egg into each "basket" and bake for 10-15 minutes depending on if you want a runny or hard yolk. About 1 minute before you are ready to take them out of the oven, sprinkle some cheese over the top.



This would also work fantastically if you cut up some bacon/ham, capsicum, tomato, zucchini and whisked it all up together with the egg and added it all in together.
I also cooked some tomato and capsicum in the frying pan and put it on the side of my daughter's plate, she really loved that too =)



What's your favourite breakfast item to cook for your little one? Or yourself if you don't have kiddies yet =)

Fun in the kitchen,
Tara-Lee xo

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Toddler Friendly Veggie Muffins

Coming up with new and exciting snack and lunch ideas for a toddler is not always easy, so I wanted to share a little recipe for some Veggies Muffins I gave a go recently. These are perfect because you can pop them in some zip lock bags and into the freezer they go, ready to be thawed out when you need them.

Ingredients
  • 2 1/2 cups of Self Raising Flour
  • 1 1/3 cup of milk
  • 1 egg
  • 90g of butter
  • 2 handfuls of baby spinach, finely chopped
  • 1/2 grated cheese
  • 1/2 grated parmesan cheese
  • 1 grated carrot or zucchini (or both!)
(some tomatoes and bacon would be awesome in this recipe but I just used what was in the fridge at the time)

Preheat the oven to 200°C.
Sift flour into a large bowl and put aside.
Whisk milk, egg and butter together in a seperate bowl to the flour.
Add the mixture to the bowl containing the flour.
Add the veggies you have chosen.
Stir until it is all combined.
Bake for 20 minutes or until cooked through.
Enjoy!

Chicken and Veggie Soup

I kind of have to laugh when people think that diets mean you eat nothing or just "rabbit food", because they are so wrong, I have made some amazing meals since being on this diet that I will keep using even when I am not "dieting" anymore. One I wanted to share with you all is a Chicken and Veggie Soup. I have made this numerous times and O.M.S (oh my soup!) it is amazing. I altered the recipe a bit, it wasn't suppose to have chicken but I adding it and I had some trouble finding the can sizes that they requested in the recipe too so I will just give you my version of it...

Chicken and Veggie Soup.

300g of chicken breast, cooked and shredded
3 cups of chicken stock
1 medium onion, diced
2 celery stalks, sliced
2 carrots, thinly slice
410g can of sliced green beans, drained
1 small zucchini, sliced
400g diced tomatoes
1 Tbs Italian seasoning
1 Tbs garlic powder
Salt and pepper, to taste


  • In a large pot, pour in the chicken stock and then add the chicken, onion, celery and carrots, cook for about 10-15mins.
  • Add green beans and zucchini; cook, covered for another 10-15mins.
  • Add the tomatoes and seasonings; cook for an additional 15mins.
  • Serve with crusty bread and enjoy!

Totally meant to do that =/


I cut up all the ingredients earlier so I didn't have to rush to get dinner ready.


Miss 2 was having a ball dipping her bread into the soup.



Yum!


It is so easy, tastes delicious and what's best is that it is so healthy and good for you!
I love soup season!

Soup and crusty bread,
Tara-Lee xo

Just a thought for the Mummies out there.

Please note that I posted this blog previously on my old blog but I think it deserves to be reposted on this one for you all =)

I am a follower of many, many Mummy bloggers and admire each and every one of them. And one thing I admire about them is how brutally honest they are - about everything! I tend to keep things to myself and people close to me and these women just throw it out there - and I love it!

A lot of my friends don't actually have kids, and the ones that do, most of them are Facebook friends. We have never met, and if we have, we rarely hang out (being on my Learners does add to the fact that my darling daughter and I rarely leave the house so there goes hang outs for people who aren't a quick bus ride or walk away! Haha). Now back to what I was saying, most of my friends don't have kids, but there are those times when you have had a hard day and you just wish that you had a Mummy friend close by to come over and chat to (and to have a play date to help keep the little one sane also!). Friends without babies do the best they can to help but sometimes, unless you have kids, you just don't get it. And I am not saying that to be mean. It's just the truth.

I admire the women who just come right out and share on Facebook or their blogs 'Hey, today sucked, I am going crazy". I suppose I just admitted to Facebook and my blog readers that I have days like that too haha!

Do any other Mums feel like they are the only ones having a bad day, but then when you actually talk to other mums, you find out that everyone is in the same boat?! This is me every bad day! Haha.

Being a Mummy is no easy task but I assure you that, with all the "bad" comes the amazing.

So I say, let's all just chat to each other about our days and help each other out. Take 5 minutes to recharge and have a cup of tea - let your little one/s make that mess just for 5 minutes so they can have a refreshed Mummy and not a cranky pants one.

Becoming addicted to tea,
Tara-Lee xo

That glorious moment when pre baby clothes fit again!

As some of you are aware, if you have been following my blog for quite some time now, I have recently lost quite a bit of weight (19kgs for those of you that wanted to know the updated number hehe). My friends and family will tell you that there are certain items of clothing that, over the past few years, I have refused to part with even though they didn't fit. Well, I have news for those items of clothing - majority of you fit my body again! Woo Hoo!

One item of clothing I was desperately trying to squeeze back into was my pair of "pre baby" skinny jeans. Anyone else miss the feeling of their favourite pair of skinny jeans hugging their butt? Please tell me I am not alone! In a previous blog post on my old blog (which has now been closed down to makeit easier to follow my posts in just one blog), I wrote this to my beloved skinnys before I could fit them again -

Pre-baby skinny jeans. One day. One day you babies will be hugging my butt again and I will be able to slide you over my thighs with ease and there will be that glorious moment of doing the button up. One day my pretties.

A little dramatic you say? Yeah, that's me haha! But I longed to fit into them for a few years now. It was a special moment when I saw the zip go up with ease and the button not want to burst.

Do you have any pre-baby items stuffed in the back of your wardrobe that you keep in hopes of one day fitting into again? Mine have stared at me every single day (unless I am having a pj day and don't need to look at my clothes haha), out in the open, hanging up with all my "post baby" clothes.

What item can't you wait to fit back into? Or if you are back into pre-baby clothes, what were you most excited to fit back into again?

Thankful it is Winter because I live in my skinnys now because I can,
Tara-Lee xo