MY BIRTHDAY BOY!

It was my Cory's birthday on Tuesday. He turned 27! I can't believe that we have known each other for 11 years! I love this guy with all my heart, and I am so glad he is mine.

When Cory was a boy, his family had a Shih Tzu named Muffin. We have been thinking about getting a second dog for a while now. When it got close to Cory's birthday, I started looking for a little pal for our Peanut. I found one that looked exactly like Cory's childhood dog. We found out that she had already been sold and were pretty bummed out! We were just going to keep looking throughout the week. However later that night, I found her. Our Muffin #2. She joined our family on Monday, and oh how we love her already. 

Peanut can't get enough of her. They will romp and play all day long! He will patiently wait while she is taking her many naps throughout the day, as soon as she wakes up the wrestling match resumes. Muffin is really good at defending herself. Those sharp little teeth sink right through Peanut's fluff. It's pretty funny to watch him try to shake her off, and then hold her down with his paws so that she cannot get him again immediately. 

I think you could say we had a great week! Oh and by the way, that cake was divine! The recipe is pinned on my Birthday Cake board. Cory Loves Muffin; I think that it brings back a lot of memories from his childhood. Some of those memories include Muffin #1 getting bathed 3 times in one day because she used to roll around in cow pies in the field behind Cory's house. We love our little Peanut and Muffin! There is one thing about her that is a little bit tough: potty training. Her bladder is SO small! 

TUTORIAL: PAINTED CORK BOARD

I found this cork board at my local Good Will for $4.99. It had a pretty stained frame and a wire to hang it by on the back. PERFECT PROJECT MATERIAL! 

This is what it looked like before I did anything to it. 

1. Tape the edges unless you are painting them as well. 

I taped the frame off with Frog Tape. I like it a little bit better than the blue painter's tape. It seems to stick a tiny bit better. 

These are the paints that I used. 

2. Paint the cork board with at least 2 coats. 

3. Place the stencil in a corner and start painting.

To paint the pattern I used a dabbing motion rather than a swiping motion. By doing that, it will prevent the paint from leaking underneath the stencil. At first I did a really light coat and went back over it a second time with the stencil still in place. To save some time, I did a thicker coat of paint. This allowed me to only paint one coat of the sea foam color. 

 Some of the edges were a bit tricky since the stencil was square and the cork board was rectangle. Make sure you always line the stencil up with the pattern that is already painted and then press it down on the edges to finish the pattern. I had to press down the stencil with my fingers while I painted small sections in order to get the pattern to go to the edge. 

TUTORIAL: HAIRCUT

Disclaimer: I have never been to cosmetology school. My mother was a hairdresser once upon a time and taught me a thing or two. 

Since I grew up with my mother cutting, dying, and highlighting my hair, I have always had a hard time paying anyone else to do my hair. So naturally when I got married, I didn't like the idea of paying for my husband to get his hair cut every month. He had gone to the same hairdresser ever since he was a little boy, so he didn't let me cut his hair for a few years. His hairdresser that he grew up visiting is one of the only other woman who has ever cut or colored my hair besides my mom. She does a great job, but because she is so fantastic it costs a pretty penny compared to what I am used to $FREE. Alright, enough with the tangent about how protective I am of my locks and onto how you can save a bit of cash each month.

The tools you will need: 

Hair cutting scissors
A comb
Hair clippers with attachments in different sizes (the attachments have sizes on them. I used a #2 and #3)
A cape (not pictured) 

How to begin

Start with wet hair. It can either be towel dried after a shower or sprayed with a spray bottle, it doesn't matter either way. 

Notice how the clippers have a grey attachment on them. It is a size 2. The larger the attachment is, the longer the hair will stay. If you would like the hair longer, use a larger attachment. 

I usually stop about an inch above the ear.

By guard, I mean attachment. For this step, you will turn the clippers away from the hair and shave the hair on the neck, moving the clippers downward. As you shave the neck hair, you want to make straight lines that go along the roots of the hair. You will do this along the base of hair as well as on the sides going up to the ears. My husband doesn't have very thick hair, nor does he have very much hair on his neck. I don't have to shape his neckline very much, I just make sure his neck is smooth. The point here is to cut around the hair next to where the roots of he hair start. You do not want to shave too far into the hair line.

You can do this step with the clippers or the scissors, it does not matter. From experience the clippers are faster and you will be less likely to clip his ear which I have personally done with scissors before (it will not make your man very happy). To do this, fold his ear down with your left hand and slowly trim off the little hairs along the hair line to form a curve above his ear.

If your husband is anything like mine, he will be a little bit self conscious of his receding hairline. To make sure I do not trim it too short up front, i comb it all forward and just trim off a little bit. I will blend it all in so it doesn't look funny.

As you can see, I am not cutting very much off here.

I like to cut his hair on top of his head with scissors so that I don't cut off too much. You can hold you fingers directly against his scalp or you can slide them away from the scalp if you want the hair to stay a little bit longer. You will use the scissors to cut the hair directly above your fingers.

Make all of the hair left on top of the head the same length by repeating this step. Move around the top of the head to make sure you are cutting all areas. You cant also turn your hand perpendicular to the way my hand is pictured above and cut in that direction to make sure you don't miss any hair.

Sometimes there will be some hair that is not blended in. This happens because the clippers with the #2 attachment cut the hair quite a bit shorter than the hair was cut with your fingers and the scissors. You will use the #3 attachment on the clippers to even it out.

Make sure that you are only cutting a little bit of hair here. You do not want to go too far up with the clippers.

Since you cut a straight line, it may need some blending. Use the point of the scissors to cut out tiny chunks. Your goal here is to make the straight line more of a jagged edge.

You can now pick up the hair and do the same thing you did in the step above. Cut out tiny chunks to make it more of a jagged edge rather than a straight line.

Now admire your hard work on your hunk of a husband!