Pinbusters – Straighten Hair with Brown Sugar

Have you ever wondered if the stuff people post on Pinterest is true? Well I have, and I test them all so that you don’t have to, ’cause ain’t nobody got time for that.  Click here to check out all of the pins I haven taken on. You might be surprised by some of the results!

Nope, I didn’t stutter mis-type. This pin (click for link) claims that you can straighten your hair with the kitchen’s best kept secret – the brown sugar. The simplicity of the instructions really should give it away. Mix brown sugar with water, spray on hair. Let air dry.

When my niece, Taylor, came to visit with her friend Olivia, I knew this was the perfect opportunity. Taylor has long, gorgeous curly locks. Even Cameron Diaz told her, “I love your hair!” (Yes, that happened, at a minor league baseball game when Cameron was dating A-Rod, and Taylor was stalking, I mean … casually ran into Cameron.) Here are my supplies,

Brown Sugar

my skeptical but willing test subject,

Goldi-curly-locks

Taylor

and the subject’s pre-treatment hair:

Beautiful curly locks.

Beautiful curly locks.

We followed the instructions perfectly. Step One: Mix one cup of water with two tablespoons of brown sugar. Step Two: Spray on hair. Step Three: Let air dry. Step Four: Marvel at your hair’s straightness. Here goes nothin’ …

DSC_0021 DSC_0024 DSC_0030 DSC_0028

The sprayer was not quite cooperating, because the sugar did not completely dissolve, and clogged the spray mechanism. Plan B: pour the sugar water all over the hair.

DSC_0033

Here comes the reeeeaaallly exciting part: the waiting. Yep. Mmm hhmmmm. Fun stuff.

<twiddle thumbs>

<whistle>

<play a few games of Super Mario Brothers … die frequently. Use 11 continues>

<make brownies in a mug>

Here is my test subject, unimpressed with her sticky sweet hair:

DSC_0035

OK, so her hair isn’t completely dry, but [SPOILER ALERT] when it dried, it looked just like this. I took a picture of the back so we could analyze a side-by-side comparison:

Brown Sugar Straighten Hair compare

I know it is confusing, but the picture on the left is from the original pin. Try not to get disoriented or confused, I know the similarity is striking. Brown sugar as a hair straightening tool turned out to be the kitchen’s dirty little secret – that doesn’t work at all. I can’t say I am surprised, I just wonder if people put this crazy stuff on the internet hoping it will get pinned like crazy and drive traffic to their website. That is my best guess.

No teenagers were harmed in this segment of Pinbusters.

FREE TICKETS to the Central Florida Home & Garden Show!

It is our VERY FIRST GIVEAWAY! We are very excited to share this opportunity with you guys! (Thus all of the exclamation points!!) The Central Florida Home & Garden Show is coming up next weekend (March 22 – 24) at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando. This is the place to go for innovative products, ideas, practical advice, and over 250 experts in one place. Friday is “Hero Day” with free admission for retired or current members of the military.

Home+Garden Logo (Click for link to their website)

We will be going on Saturday, March 23rd to watch the demonstrations, get our hands on those fancy new-fangled tools, learn some DIY tricks, taste some delicious samples (chefs from local restaurants will be peddling their edible wares – yes please!), putt for prizes, enter contests, etc. There will even be a Pet Pavilion for all of your furry friends’ needs.

The “key note speaker” will be going on stage at 12:00 p.m. and again at 5:00 p.m. on Saturday. Heck, we might just stick around for both sessions. Who wouldn’t want to see this face twice?

Jason Cameron_HiRes Headshot

Sorry, ladies, that is the largest picture I could provide. My apologies that it is so small. Feel free to enlarge it. Or make it your screensaver (who would do that? Just me?)

In case you don’t know (??) this is Jason Cameron of the DIY Network’s Man Caves and Desperate Landscapes fame. No, I’m not swooning. It is just, um, really hot in here. OK?!

HERE IS THE BETTER NEWS. We have four (4) free tickets to give away!

HERE IS THE BEST NEWS. The winner of our tickets (and us!) are automatically entered in a random drawing to win a meet and greet with James Cameron, as well as VIP front row tickets to his Saturday stage appearance. I don’t know about you, or The Boy, but I would really like to win that!

So here is how it works. I downloaded this Rafflecopter thing, and I hope I did it right. Here are the four ways to enter:

1. Like Pardon Our Sawdust on Facebook (1 point);

2. Follow TheGirl_POS on Twitter (1 point);

3. Tweet about the giveaway (2 points); or

4. Leave a comment below, telling why you would want to meet James Cameron (keep it CLEAN, please, our mothers reads this. Oh heck, they might be the ones I need to be most concerned about! Keep it CLEAN, Moms!)

The winner will be announced on Wednesday, March 20, 2013. I will announce and email as soon as the giveaway ends, so people can make their weekend plans. Also, if coming from the Tampa Bay area, and want to carpool, that would be possible.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Making Soup in the Bathroom

Wow. I can’t believe with a title like that, you actually wanted to read this. Really, though, it isn’t as bad as it sounds. I am going to fill you in on just one of the bizarre things we say around here.

Making progress = making progresso (a pathetic attempt to make it sound like Spanish) = making soup.

Totally makes sense, right?  Well last week and over the weekend we weren’t writing blog posts, because we were very busy being laywers and making soup.  The Boy was gone for a majority of last week, and when The Boy is away, The Girl will play … in mud. But not this kind of mud (for once):

Lydia 09

This kind:

Master Bathroom

I despise this kind of mud, but I am not allowed to complain. The Boy wanted to hire out the drywall work. I put the kibosh on spending the money when we know how to do it, we just hate it and are not particularly good at it. That is no reason not to do something, right?! (Don’t tell Keanu Reeves I said that, though. Being terrible at acting IS a reason not to do it, and I haven’t seen him in anything lately, so let’s not encourage him. And don’t get me started about his “band.”)

I got a very minor amount of taping and mudding done during the week, between working full time, deadlines, and being a single doggy mommy to the wild animal we allowed into our home (and our hearts … awwwww). So on Saturday morning, when The Boy went back into the office for yet more work (that is one hard working man!) I tackled a little more mudding.

Master Bathroom Master Bathroom

It may not look like much, and it is only the first coat out of three (or four? ugh), but that is definitely soup.

We planned to celebrate our anniversary on Sunday, since The Boy was gone on the actual day last week. “Sunday Funday” was to involve sleeping in, going out to breakfast, and having a fun-filled work-free day. In reality, Sunday Funday turned into demo, a trip to Home Depot, more demo, and some quality time in the attic. We did go to a movie in the late afternoon and relax in the evening, which was nice. I love how we spent our anniversary “fun day” – very much our style, and I would have actually been surprised if we had not worked on the bathroom. Is that love? Perhaps.

Master Bathroom

Master Bathroom  Master Bathroom Master Bathroom

The good news is that demo is 100% complete, the drop ceiling is GONE, and we are ready to hang the rest of the drywall so that I can mud, sand, curse, sand, sand, curse, curse, mud, sand, and finish the drywall. We went into the attic to suck out all of the insulation above the drop ceiling, and saved it in trashbags to put back in once the ceiling is done. Picture one of us on a ladder and the other holding Snuffalufagus (the huge shop vac) over their head. Yet again, I wish The Dog had opposable thumbs to capture that fabulous picture, but apparently she is never going to do anything productive around the house. We have learned to love her anyways.

Insulation is fairly cheap, so we really did not save it for monetary purposes. If you have ever torn down a ceiling (or climbed through an attic) and had fiberglass insulation all over you, you will understand that we did this for our own convenience and comfort. The fact that it saves a little money is just a fun extra benefit.

The bathroom already feels so much larger with 8 foot ceilings, as opposed to the previous 6.5 foot ceilings. It baffles me why anyone would ever choose to lower the ceiling – and in only one room of the house, no less.  But then again, I didn’t understand the bulkheads in the kitchen (that were not hiding ductwork, etc.), or the vomit-colored tile and accessories in the bathroom, so the builders of the 1970’s will remain a mystery to me. Just like Keanu Reeves’ career.