Attempt #1 at the Happy Pompadour

A Closer Look at the Happy Pompadour

Weekends are made for trying out new hairstyles!  Since I knew I'd be spending Saturday with friends I decided to try a very 40's hairstyle...my genius mind knew I would get honest feedback on how well I did and if I could "pull it off".  So Friday night I casually flipped through my favorite hairstyling book, Vintage Hairstyling, to find just the right "do".  I decided to go with the book's cover look...the happy pompadour, it looks so fun and sassy I just had to try it!  This is such a fabulous book and I really want to support the author so I'm not going to walk through how I did the hairstyle, but I will tell you about the experience and how it turned out! :D  (I've also included an amazon link to the book if you're interested)

It's my "Shoooot" Facial Expression!

So I set my hair and covered it with a hair net...yes I know it's very cafeteria chic, but I can't sleep without wearing one.  I must fight zombies, or disco dance, or spin plates while I sleep because I wake with at least 2 or 3 rollers nearly unrolled...so the hair net has been a hair saver!  The next morning, in true Jennifer fashion, I woke up late so I did not have as much time to spend styling the look as I'd like but I think it worked out OK for my first stab at it.  I'll tell what really bugged this morning is that the hair in back didn't dry all the way (arguh...I think I didn't wait long enough after washing), you can tell by the lack of curls at the ends.

I Just Like This Picture :D

The steps in the book were really clear to follow, the most difficult part was getting the bangs just right.  You can see from the picture that I didn't quite master that yet, but I think it works.  btw...the picture is from much later in the day so I'm happy that the look was able to stand up to my daily activities and Chicago's wind.  The only other thing I'd like to work on with the look is the very top.  You can see the little white flowers on the top of my head...those are used to cover up the rubber band that's up there and I'm not in love with that look.  I think I'm going to try playing with either wrapping some hair around the band or doing a criss-cross with a small section of hair on top.  

One thing that I did play with was throwing in a cute little side pony tail and an extra flower...gotta have fun with it!  I definitely like the look and will try it out again...I think I'll even work it at work!

Not Sure why I Keep Making the Odd Faces?!

What are your weekends made for?  Leave your thoughts and feedback in the comments section below.  

You can also find me at  Veggie Girl Eats Out:  http://veggiegirleatsout.blogspot.com/

WebMD Needs to be Banned from my Reality!

I am a chronic googler, I freely admit this, in fact I'm proud of my quest for knowledge and thrilled that I can gain it with a few keystrokes.  There are times though that too much information is NOT a good thing, at least when it comes to me and googling a medical condition.  It starts off all innocent, "oh, I'm just curious on what exactly is the reason behind eye twitching", and ends up with me on WebMD convinced that my eye is going to fall out any second or that the constant twitching is going to short out my neural synapses leaving me drooling over a bowl of Captain Crunch, or something equally ridiculous and far removed from my actual issue.  Luckily this overblown panic is reserved to my own mind and voiced to a few good friends with excellent rational minds.  Today though...you almost got me WebMD...almost!  In fact...you almost gave me a heart attack by making me think I was having a heart attack!  


Today after lunch I had numbness and tingling in my left arm along with some other symptoms so I went googling to find some information on why and what I could do to alleviate the issue.  Well of course I ended up on that infernal, son of the devil WebMD and this is what they returned to me (my responses are in purple)...

Symptoms of a Heart Attack (Myocardial Infarction or MI)

Symptoms of a heart attack can include:

• Discomfort, pressure, heaviness, or pain in the chest, arm, or below the breastbone
• Yes...yes I did have a slight pressure on my chest and I am finding my response to this discomforting
• Discomfort radiating to the back, jaw, throat, or arm
• Ummm...see above...why are you telling me again.  Why do you keep using discomfort, call it what it is PAIN!!!
• Fullness, indigestion, or choking feeling (may feel like heartburn)
• Yes...I am feeling too full (my logical side later realized that I just finished lunch)
• Sweating, nausea, vomiting, or dizziness
• "Gulp, Erp"...yes, I'm going to vomit right now!  (logical self:  you ate something last night that your stomach doesn't like...you expected to feel slightly off today)
• Extreme weakness, anxiety, or shortness of breath
• Well..yes, I have anxiety now since so many boxes have been ticked!
• Rapid or irregular heartbeats
• Yes WebMD you have now elevated my heartbeats from calm to rapid with your checklist of doom!

After about 20 minutes of panic I did realize that I wasn't having a heart attack, but rather I most likely slept on my arm wrong the night before, my IBS is kicking up again, and I'm tired from staying up late the night before.  It really had me convinced for a while that I was facing imminent death...it almost gave me a heart attack.  Now I do believe sites like this have a purpose and have helped people prepare for Doctor's appointments, and educated them on their diagnosed disease, but for those out there like me...it's a booby trap.  So...as of today I am imposing on myself a lifetime ban from WebMD and sites of that nature.  If I absolutely must know why my bellybutton feels like it's being stabbed with an icepick I will allow one of my sane friends to do the googling for me.  Friends...you have been warned!  :)

Tell me your WebMD horror story?  Leave your thoughts and feedback in the comments section below.  

You can also find me at  Veggie Girl Eats Out:  http://veggiegirleatsout.blogspot.com/

Have you met my Chicago? A Photographic Journey

My love affair with Chicago began when I was about 8 years old when my Mother and her best friend took me on the first of many trips into the city.  I was enamored immediately; from the enormous buildings I craned my head back to see, the women walking to work in their business suits and tennis shoes, the smell of dirt, sweat, and heat, and the speed at which everything took place.  I remember that I always came home with a headache because I spent the entire time trying to see, touch, and smell everything there was.  I want to give you a little sense of what I love about Chicago so myself and Caroline went out today armed with our cameras to try and capture it.

Under the "El" Tracks

An Alley is Never Just an Alley!

A Mystery...I'm Intrigued.

Even Bikes Need a Rest

They don't make Signs like this Anymore.

Trying to Disguise our Empty Lots

Love the Textures

Saved the Best for Last! 

Showing Flower Love: Making your own Floral Hair Accessory!

Makes me long for warm and sunny days!

I'm ready for Spring to be in the air, for nature to wake up, and flowers to bloom!  I adore flowers and nothing perks up a great vintage hairstyle better than a great flower.  There are a lot of great places to buy floral hair accessories from, but sometimes they don't have exactly what I'm looking for, plus often times it's more fun to make it yourself!  It's such a fun little project I wanted to share it with you guys, so I've created a step-by-step with some great pictures (ok some are great...some are a little fuzzy, but you all will be happy to know I found my missing tripod so the picture process should be getting easier soon).

What you Need.

Duck Billed Clips

• Shop around for some great silk flowers from your local hobby/craft store (there's some great deals out there, Joanne has most of theirs on sale for 50% off)
• Wire cutter (you don't want to cut the steams off with scissors since it will dull them pretty quickly)
• Scissors
• Duck billed clips (not sure what exactly these are called so I included a picture, plus I like the way the shot turned out)
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks (I used all-purpose glue sticks)
• Felt (works well as it doesn't absorb glue like a lot of other fabrics do)

Let's get Crafting!

Step 1:  Clip the steam off, as close to the flower as you can

Step 2:  If there is a plastic cap on the back of the flower you'll want to remove that by gently peeling it off, it will glue on better without the plastic and snip off any steam nub that remains.

Steps 1 (plastic cap visible here)

Step 3:  Cut out a piece of felt approximately the same size as the top of your duck billed clip 

Step 4:  Place glue along the lengthwise edges of the felt and place on top of clip, hold in place while glue cools - careful this can be hot (also open up the clip so that you don't accidentally glue it together)

Step 4 - Completed

Step 5 (Optional):  The flowers might look really cute with leaves as an added touch!  The leaves will come with plastic on the backside, which you will want to remove by peeling off.  Once that's done you'll just need to glue the leaves to the back of the flower, be sure to hold in place while the glue dries.

Step 5 - Removing the plastic

Step 6:  Spread glue on the felt on the duck billed clip then place the clip on the back of the flower, try to avoid placing it directly on the lump as it will not anchor as well, and hold in place to dry.

 Step 7:  Ta-da!!!  Your first custom made flower hair accessory.  Now go plan the perfect hairstyle to best show off your new creation.

This blog is now going to be updated 4 times per week instead of daily, it's so much fun but some other projects are falling behind...if only that full-time job wasn't so, well, full-time!  Next post will probably be Saturday or Sunday, but until then feel free to leave a comment! We love comments!

What craft projects are you most proud of?  If you make your own let me know how it went!  

You can also find me at  Veggie Girl Eats Out:  http://veggiegirleatsout.blogspot.com/

Exercise Disguised as Sweet, Sweet Dance Moves!

My biggest problem with exercise isn't the moving, the sweating, or even the bouncing.  It's the time!  By the time I've worked a full day, juggled family needs, ran errands, and done general housekeeping there are not many hours left in the day for the things I enjoy doing; like sewing, or writing, or even *gasp* relaxing by watching TV or gaming.  So the idea of using what little is left of my time to bounce around on a stair master is, well, quite frankly...not going to happen, which incidentally is probably why I am not shaped like a lollipop!  Part of my problem is that I can easily be distracted by things I think really need to be done immediately, such as:

• Examining the nuances of David Tennant's hair, honestly every girls day should contain a little Tennant gazing
• Going to every drink vendor in World of Warcraft and getting drunk on their beverages  
• Snake my drains, this would be after googling how exactly one goes about this
• Reorganizing my walk-in pantry (hummm...that actually really needs to be done)
• Quizzing myself with random trivia questions (hey, cash cab is now in Chicago...I have to be prepared) 

So as you can see I really need a way to almost trick myself into exercising.  So I sat and pondered the situation for a while...

...humm....

how about, no...

..........this is a tough one...

It was then I remembered a Wii game a co-worker told me about, Just Dance 2! I thought, "I could do that, I've been know to bust a move, I've done the electric slide...I've even conga'd a time or two!"  The basics are this:  you select from 3 main modes: Just Dance (select your dance and start shaking your groove thing), Dance Battle (play against others or alone in 6 different championship categories), or Just Sweat (select your level of sweat and start moving...I refuse to call it a workout).


Once you've selected your mode you get the fun task of choosing your song and dance.  What's nice is it shows you the level of dance move difficulty and level of sweat so you know exactly what you're getting yourself into.  My favorites so far are Monster Mash (easy), Proud Mary (medium) and Bollywood (hard).  I have yet to convince anyone to do the Bollywood duet with me...arguh!  Here's a link to a youtube video on this very duet, just so you can see how fun it would be http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13OX6lRyZ1k.  After watching that...who's ready to duet it!  


What makes this so easy is that 1.  you don't need a ton of space, 2. you don't need any special gym clothes, 3. no expensive special shoes needed, 4. no dance coordination necessary and 5. you'll be burning calories left and right...what with all the dancing and laughing!  Well I'm off to walk like an Egyptian...or is that dance like an Egyptian! ;-)  


Have a terrific day.


Can't wait until tomorrow for more?  Then check out my Weekly Blog:  Veggie Girl Eats Out for my review of Jameson's Charhouse and find out if vegetarians should ever eat there.  Click here to view:  http://veggiegirleatsout.blogspot.com/

Have you played Just Dance?  What's your favorite "this is really a workout?" workout?  Leave your thoughts in the comment section below!

Jumpin' Jehosaphat I'm on YouTube!

I'm a written word girl...I like pen and paper, I love the texture of books, and darn it if I don't like sending letters through the post, but today I found myself  filming and posting my very first YouTube video.  I decided today that it would be easiest to demonstrate the Back-Finger-Twist method for victory rolls by posting a video rather than a series of photos.  I didn't realize how ambitious this plan would be until I remembered I didn't have any video editing software and would have to run it all in one take...gulp!  Since I've done corporate trainings for years I figured it was do-able.  What follows is a brief description of what went on behind the scenes, the hilarity that ensued, and the world premiere of my first video!

To set the scene for you:  I hauled in my big bendy lamp for "studio lighting" and since I have no idea where my tripod scuttled off to I used a combination of a overly large ladder, jewelry box, and digital camera...all used to prop up my droid phone.  Yes, you heard that correctly...I did not use my camera (with video capabilities) to record the video, I used it to prop up...my...phone (in my defense the phone takes better video).  All set-up I was ready to start recording...

Take one:  talking, talking...wait where's my brush.  Walk into the other room with camera running all the while asking myself..."who leaves a brush in the kitchen, that was...mumble, mumble".

Take two:  wow, this is going good...wait, why am I suddenly talking in a Southern accent?

Take three:  hey, this one is really good...I think this is it.  REALLY!!!...I recorded myself sideways...who DOES THAT!

Take four:  I trip over the ladder after turning the recording on

Take five:  did I really just record the whole thing with my head cut off

Take 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11....

Take 20:  By George I think I've done it!!!!  

And here it is, the world premiere of Victory Roll Rollfection!

Have a splendid day!

Can't wait until tomorrow for more?  Then check out my Weekly Blog:  Veggie Girl Eats Out for my review of Jameson's Charhouse and find out if vegetarians should ever eat there.  Click here to view:  http://veggiegirleatsout.blogspot.com/

Have you made a YouTube video?  Should I include more videos in my blogs?  Leave your thoughts in the comment section below!

Tip for Creating Great Quick Victory Rolls

Since I've started wearing retro hairstyles the one look I could not get perfect was the victory roll, I got really close but there was always something a little off about it.  I couldn't give up on my search for rollfection (yeah that's right, I just mashed up roll and perfection and made my own word) especially since this was a 1940s look I have adored for so long now.  Look at the gorgeousness of Miss. Betty Grable and her luxurious locks with those perfect victory rolls, rollfection!  So I did what any smart, at the end of her rope, girl would do...I enlisted the help of a friend!

I sat my friend Caroline down in front of a youtube video and said "Please watch this and tell me what the he*l I'm doing wrong".  Her being fabulous and all she did just that.  Once done she turned to me and said "It needs to be more..." and made a swooping gesture with her fingers.  To which I replied, "Oh, you mean this...", making my own erratic finger motions.  Then for a minute or so more we continued to talk in half sentences and hand movements before "Eureka!" I had it!  (Note to readers:  have you ever noticed that with certain people you have a bizarre language that is unique to the two of you, but must sound and look crazy to outsiders)  Let me share with you my discovery which led to me being able to create rollfection with my victory rolls.  (If you're not sure how to even start a victory roll I suggest the following youtube video by the fabulous Lisa Freemont Street:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfZwxAfbTYI )

1. Back:  when you have hold of the section you are going to "roll" pull it towards the back of your head with a slight upward angle and roll towards your face
2. Finger:  when the roll reaches your scalp place your pointer finger inside the roll, finger pointing to the ceiling
3. Twist:  with your finger still inside the roll twist your finger so it's pointing to your forehead with a slight upward angle, and pin in place
4. Just remember Back-Finger-Twist and you'll achieve rollfection as well!

(I'll post pictures of the process in the near future for those of you that are more visual...update, posted the above video instead)

Here's a couple pictures of my finished product, please be kind I took these with my camera phone at work (during a break since I would never do something so personal on work time...giggle).  You can see I've had my own fun with the victory roll and added a bit of a pin curl on my forehead.  That's what I love about the vintage styles, you can really play with them and make them your own.

Have a stupendous Sunday!

Coming Monday:  Undecided at this time, maybe a make-up review since I bought some great pencil liner (for that great retro winged eye look) and some red lipstick; or perhaps I'll answer the unasked question of "Why is your blog named Thin Invisible Steel?  It's a mystery folks, but one I'll solve for you tomorrow!


Can't wait until Monday for more?  Then check out my Weekly Blog:  Veggie Girl Eats Out for reviews on restaurants and how vegetarian friendly they are.  Click here to access that blog:  http://veggiegirleatsout.blogspot.com/

What's been your experience with Victory Rolls?  Have an opinion on what tomorrow's blog should be about?  Leave your thoughts in the comments section below!