ice coffee yumminess

With the weather warming up, it just doesn't seem right drinking HOT coffee in the morning!  I use to make cold coffee and was quickly reminded of how easy it was and have started doing it mainly in the evenings for my nightly cup...but I'm sure it will become routine when I get out of school for the summer and have more time during my morning routine!

Our Target just recently converted to a "full" grocery.  Not a Super Target, but it now has SO much more food options and produce which is great!  As I was strolling each and every aisle with Allie on Saturday night...we ran across these K-cups from Archer Farms that we hadn't seen before.  I am a "Caramel Macchiato" kinda girl at Starbucks so these immediately caught my eye and I decided to try them out--and I'm LOVING them! 

I have used International Delight's Cinnabon for a couple of years now and will honestly cry the day they don't make it any more.  I've tried to try other things but no mam.  This is my jam and I'm stickin' to it! ;)  This combination couldn't get any closer to  my $5 grande caramel macchiato from Starbucks either!

• I use a quart size jar because I need the room for all of my ice.  Fill your mason jar with ice (I like my FULL, because the colder the better!) and creamer to fulfill your liking.
• Place the mason jar under your Kuerig and fill with coffee just like you would a normal cup.
• Once coffee is done flowing, you can place the lid on the mason jar and stick in the freezer for how ever long you like to get it even colder.  I usually drink mine right then and there and add more ice if needed. 
• This can also be done with a regular coffee pot...just pour your coffee from the pot into your mason jar full of ice!  
• Stick a straw in it and ENJOY!  No reason not to enjoy your mornings favorites just because it's hot out! ;) 

how to: clean tile grout

I recently started following iHeart organizing and ran across her recipe to clean grout.  I have white tile for a counter top.  I knew the grout was dirty, but honestly didn't know there was a way to ever clean it.  I don't have a TON of counter top space, so I just figured one day I would have to replace it all with something else and it wouldn't be a big deal.  Until I discovered that you can actually clean that nasty dirt out of those tiny cracks!  

Who knew they even made brushes JUST for scrubbing grout?!?  NOT THIS GIRL!  I found mine at Fred's for....ONE DOLLAR!  Yes mam!  Can't beat that!  I changed my recipe up a bit and ended up just using what I had on hand...and it worked great!  I am still SHOCKED with my results!  

I covered the bottom of my bowl with Fabuloso and then added BS until I got the consistency that I wanted.  

It should be a paste, not liquid-y or solid but kinda like toothpaste.  Mix the two ingredients and then using a spatula, or something that will give, to spread it out on your grout.

Here is the beginning stages of me spreading it out...this takes some time no doubt, but SO worth it!

After I finished spreading out the paste, I sprayed it with my regular cleaner and let it sit for 30 minutes.  Obviously the longer you let it sit the longer it will have to soak in all the dirt to prepare to be scrubbed away!

Before I got to scrubbing after my 30 minutes was up, I sprayed it with my cleaner again just to make sure it was moist, because some of it had started to dry.  I got my scrubber and started scrubbing!  This part wasn't easy....and I had to clean off my scrubber every once and a while, but you could literally see the dirty coming out of those nasty cracks...and it will make you want to JUST KEEP SCRUBBING! ;)

This is another section before cleaning...

I knew my grout was dirty...but know I really know how dirty it was--since I have seen that I can do something about it!  I've lived in my house 4 years in August...and I wish I would have discovered this before now that's for sure!

This was after I had done a little bit of scrubbing....can you see all that NASTINESS??  This area was a little dirtier because it's right by the oven and where a lot of meal prepping goes on, for me at least!

 And AFTER!

So happy with my results...and my light kitchen is even lighter now and I love it!  

Whether you have tile counter tops, or a tile floor...this will work for you!  I will say that it has taken multiple wipe downs to get all the baking soda residue off my counters, but it hasn't bothered me because of how good my countertops look now!  ;)

I'm happy to share my dirty tile grout with you--now that I know how to fix it! ;)  I would love to see you're before and after pictures if you try this out in your own home!  

coconut oil and honey hair mask {gone cray!}

I had seen a few things online and in some recent magazines about a coconut oil and honey mixture that was to be used as a hair mask to create a smoother feel and shinier look.  Sounds GREAT right?!

I have donated my hair once before for Locks of Love and am in the process of growing it out to donate again.  The first time I grew it out and as soon as it was long enough, I impulsively CHOPPED it all off one day when me and my current bf broke up.  So I never really got to enjoy it being long.

Hence to why my "growing it out" process now has taken so long--I've been  "enjoying it" before I cut it all off again.  Along with growing it out and keeping it long, my tips have gotten so dry and brittle that they literally fall off onto my bathroom counter every time I brush my hair.  Annoying and sad.  I get it trimmed semi-regularly but it still seems to break--I guess that hair is just really old and getting too tired to hang around any more!

{ENTER coconut oil and honey concoction sounding appealing to me...}

I went ahead and documented during the process so that I could share it with my readers--because I'm always up for sharing new things/techniques that WORK!  I'm always curious to read other's posts on things that they've used and whether they were happy with the results or not.

I had some coconut oil on hand that I used for baking, so I headed up 2-3 spoonfuls of that in the microwave and then squeezed in some honey in afterwards.  It made a nice liquid-y mixture.

My hair wasn't wet so I used a spray bottle to get it damp, but not soaking wet.  Then I scooped the mixture up with my hands and rubbed it into my hair.  Roots, tips, and every where in between.

Afterwards, I whirly gigged my hair up in a "Fancy Ashley 5-second bun" and set my timer on my phone for 30 minutes.

The following day was my first "official" day on the job and as I waited for the 30 minutes to be up, I started getting nervous about what it was going to do to my hair--and not in a good way!  But told myself that surely it couldn't be THAT bad!

{30 minute timer goes off.}

Into the shower I go to shampoo and condition my hair like normal.  Nothing was out of the ordinary.  My hair did feel a bit smoother, but other than that it felt pretty normal.

{fast forward to the next morning}

As I was chi-ing my hair, I noticed my hair was in little tiny clumps...like sticking together.  "OMG, what I have done to my hair?!"  I continued to chi my hair to make it look half way presentable (I have naturally wavy hair) and then I knew I was going to have to throw it up in a bun for the day!

I was bummed about looking like a slug on my first official day of school (not that all buns looks sluggish...mine just always do! ;) ) and bummed that my blog post I had in mind to share was no more.  But then I thought about it--everything we do or try in life isn't always going to turn out perfect.  Why should I just share the things that work out?  That isn't quite how life goes!  We as people are constantly trying new things, doing new things new ways, or doing old things different ways...and do we always expect them to be perfect or to turn out perfect EVERY SINGLE TIME?  No!  Should I not blog about something because I didn't love it, or because it turned out to be a disaster?  No!  It's okay to not be happy with every product or concoction and to admit that you weren't happy with how things turned out!

My hair is so thick, I basically had to re-bun it every period from it falling out.  Two loops around my hair does NOT do the trick! 

So that's why I decided to share my funny experience with you guys!  As some of you may have already read in a previous post...while wearing my hair in said bun on top of my head I had a girl ask me if it was my "Real hur up on top of my hed."  I politely told her that yes it was.

Everyone ending up saying that it looked fine in the bun...but at the end of the day I finally took it out of the bun to show my mom the oil clumps, and she finally understood why I had worn my hair in a bun all day! :P

I decided that night in the shower I was going to use a little bit of Dawn soap (like from the BP oil spill commercials, where they used it to clean off the animals) mixed in with my regular shampoo to clean it once more and officially get all of the coconut oil out!

This seemed to do the job.

I blow-dried my hair after letting it air dry for a little bit, chi-ed it in the AM and it was seriously shinier and smoother than I have ever seen or felt it before!

Since then, my hair has remained softer than normal...I'm not so sure about the whole shiny part as much as I am the smooth, but it definitely looks healthier than it did prior to using this concoction!

All in all--is it a horrible idea to try the coconut oil and honey mixture on your hair?  No!  Do you probably need to wash it twice afterwards and maybe add a little bit of Dawn soup?  Yes!

Life is about making mistakes and learning from them.  The only way to better ourselves is by making mistakes and learning how to do things differently the next go around--as well as LAUGHING AT YOURSELF!  {This is something that took me a really hard time to learn growing up...but thank goodness I finally learned better! }