Solutions: Tangle-free Hair and Original Thank You Notes

This is not a paid review. This isn’t actually a specific product review at all. This is just one formerly-frustrated Diva Handler sharing an awesome tip on how to battle tangled hair. Claire has really fine hair. She has a lot of it, and it’s very fine. She inherited this awesome trait from me. Every morning, it was a fight to get a comb through the back of her hair. It was painful and frustrating for both of us. Switching to a “real” shampoo (from the Johnson & Johnson baby stuff) seemed to help a tiny bit, but not really. A week or so ago, my husband had a fabulous idea. I wish I could take credit for it, but he thought of it all on his own. When I was little, I struggled with horrible tangles, too. One of my aunts suggested using a satin pillowcase, and it worked! I’ve never looked back since. I passed along this tidbit of info to my hubby way back when, and for years, we’ve done the same. That being said, it didn’t even occur to me to do that same for Claire. Why didn’t I think to do this for Claire? Well, this is when parenting as a tag-team sport comes in so handy. Daddy to the rescue! It really was his idea, and I’m amazed at the results. By Day Three of sleeping on the satin pillowcase, the knots were gone! The days of a horribly tangled mess are gone! I’m amazed. Sounds too good to be true? Well, it worked for us! It may work for you. So, I just thought I’d share. The pillowcase is a bit pricey, depending on where you go, but I think we got these most current ones at Target on sale. On sale or not…it’s worth every single penny.

h2.Cute Thank You Cards

I’ve gotten such a great response from the Thank You Cards that Claire sent for her birthday presents that I just have to share! This is a super-easy idea and I’ll be doing this (or a version of it) from now on. During the party, I wanted to get a good group shot of the kids. (I mentioned the Party People on a Couch in this post.) I wanted to use that group photo in a Thank You Photo Card. The funniest part was trying to find the best shot to use! In three of our five shots, at least one person was trying to escape. In four different shots, at least two people weren’t smiling. In most of them, at least one person was being a goofball. I narrowed it down to this one. I think every person looks good enough… and when you’re dealing with kids of this age-range “good enough” is as good as it’s going to get! :) So, after the party on Sunday (Claire’s birthday), during Claire’s nap, I sorted through the digital photos and found the one I wanted to use. I then went online to the Target Photo place and found a Thank You Card I liked (I think the one I chose was actually a “blank” version. I can’t remember. I looked at roughly 53 different cards. Ha!). I wrote all of the kids’ names in order on the card and sent it to print. The only option I had, other than mail-delivery (which I didn’t want to do), was the one-hour option. Thinking that was just a generic message, I chose it. I’d go pick them up when they were done, on Monday, during Claire’s Young Preschooler Class. Imagine my surprise when 30 minutes later I received an email telling me they were done! Already! I couldn’t believe it! I grabbed my purse, ran downstairs and told my hubby that I’d be back in a few minutes. Claire was still napping when I returned with the finished Thank You Cards. On the back of each one, we (oh, who am I kidding… Claire is too little to really write out her Thank Yous yet, and her cursive is just not up to par!) wrote a personal message on a sticky note and attached it to the back of each photo card. I addressed the envelopes and they went out with the Holiday Cards on December 1st. And, on Claire’s copy of the Thank You Photo Card, I wrote everyone’s full names on the back (for posterity’s sake), and we have a nice easily-made memento of the party and nice reminder of who helped her celebrate her birthday. For the record, I did NOT expect to have the Thank Yous done and sealed the afternoon of the party, but I’m not one to poke around in the mouth of a gift horse, so I ran with it! Now, my friends think I’m extremely organized and also a touch insane. I am organized, but not that organized. It was purely luck. For real. Honestly, please stop looking at me that way; it makes me uncomfortable. ;)

JoAnn writes at The Casual Perfectionist. She is a self-proclaimed perfectionist, but doesn’t consider herself to be the stuffy, up-tight kind. She’s more of a casual perfectionist, hence the name of her website. As the mother of a preschooler, she tries her hardest to focus on the positive, learn from the negative, and laugh at both. In fact, she is a firm believer in the notion that if you haven’t laughed today, you weren’t really paying attention.