oval

If you have an oval face shape, LUCKY you! The oval shape has no dominant areas. It looks very balanced and because of that, oval faces can pull off any hairstyle. Even though oval faces can pull off anything I think shorter hair suits ovals the best. Whenever I see a celebrity with an oval face that has had long hair forever and goes to a chin length bob or a pixie cut I get all giddy. It's the best seeing that. When ovals bring the length of their hair up higher it shows off that beautiful shape and brings out their features. 

Elizabeth Olsen is gorgeous and my favorite out of the Olsen sisters. Those twins are old news! She has the perfect oval shape and photo above really shows it off. She's one of those gals that I would kill to see go shorter, as simple as a chin length bob. Sassy yet classy. 

Charlize Theron is another example. She's done it all! Charlize has a pure oval face. This girl really takes advantage of it and changes her hairstyles often (love her for it!). Most people, all shapes and sizes even other oval faces have a hard time pulling off a short haircut like the photo above yet Charlize does it with no difficulty what so ever! 

Kaley Cuoco Sweeting from the Big Bang Theory recently went shorter and boy does she look hot! 

There are so many graceful oval faces out in the world. As hairstylist we strive to help other face shapes transform into an oval shape. Although I've showed different examples of celebrities that have gone from long to short it's not for everyone. Of course a lot of us are uncomfortable with going shorter. Some feel like their hair is what makes them a women or makes them feel feminine. And it should! There are plenty of ovals that stay long, like Jennifer Aniston! The point is that ovals have the luxury to be able to basically do whatever their hearts desire. 

In case you are wondering I consider myself oval/heart shaped! Do you have an oval face shape and if so, do you have fun with different hairstyles??

to do this fall

Fall is HERE! My favorite time of the year. Its exciting being able to experience Fall in Seattle again. I love the dreary days that make you want to pour a hot cup of tea and cuddle on the couch with a movie on. Another reason I love Fall is because all the baking I get to do! It's the time of year I bake the most. All the fun pumpkin and apple recipes out there have me all giddy to try them all. The air here during this season is so crisp and fresh. The sound of the rain in the evenings soothes me. The way all the leaves materialize into all the beautiful reds, oranges and yellows. Being able to wear layers and fun sweaters and scarves is another favorite of mine. 

Around this time of year I like to create a list of things I'd like to do this Fall even with my busy schedule I believe it's important to take time to do things I love. 

// Bake fun recipes. Try something new and out of my comfort zone. And utilize my crock pot more this season, which will help with my busy schedule. Here are some recipes that I'm itching to try out 1/2/3/4/5 

// Apple picking. Washington is known for apples and I hope to hike over to Snohomish (my hometown) and do some apple picking, pumpkin patch hopping and corn maze exploring. 

// Crafts. I want to do some creative Halloween crafts with Sebastian. And crochet a new scarf for me. 

// Hike. I would like to visit Discovery Park in Seattle with Sebastian to take a nice hike to see all the fall colors and enjoy the outdoors. 

// Bring my family together for Thanksgiving. My family is always so busy with work and were never really able to celebrate Thanksgiving like most. Also because my family is Hungarian it was a holiday that sort of sat on the back shelf. I want to make this holiday one that I host! I love cooking and baking and my dream is to host Thanksgiving at my home every year for my family and friends. 

What are some things you want to do this Fall?

beauty school vibes

We do hair. I love beauty school. I knew I would from the beginning. Everyone is here to do one thing and that’s hair. We all have that common. The same dream of becoming hair stylist yet we head down different paths. Hair stylist are their own breed. Our eyes for detail, shape and color are more defined than most. We love to make people feel good and look good. It never gets boring, you can always make it different and new if you have the passion too. It’s an art form. 

Since attending Toni & Guy, I’ve become so close to all of my fellow classmates and it’s going to be fun seeing where everyone ends up at once we’re all out.  I like to capture moments. Moments like these, where beautiful things are happening by beautiful people. I call these photos beauty school vibes. 

your face & body shape

Did you know that your facial shape is extremely important when determining what sort of haircut or hairstyle you should go with? Well it is! As a hairstylist it's part of our job to make sure we analyze your face shape when cutting your hair. We even go a step further and are mindful with your head shape as well. Today I wanted to introduce some information on face & body shape and educate. Next time you go and get your haircut you can be all smart or even quiz your hairstylist on what they think your face shape is and see if you two agree! I love being asked and always have fun explaining why I think a certain way. It makes me look good and it also allows my clients to get really comfortable with who is cutting their hair. 
Look at me, telling all of you all my secrets! 

Their are seven main face shapes. Now, it's important to understand I totally believe that people can be a few different shapes. We are all unique and I believe it's easy to fall between two different shapes. Knowing your face shape will help you when it comes time to start looking up photos for a new hairstyle. 

Oval 
Round 
Square 
Oblong 
Pear 
Diamond
Heart 

I will be breaking down each face shape as the week goes on with examples to help you understand each individually. 

Not only does face shape play a role in the whole process but body shape as well. Trust me when I tell you there are certain hairstyles that certain people really should not be wearing due to their body shape. It's true. Sometimes it's unflattering. There are really three different body shapes that we all can fit into. 

Tall and Lean// If you fall in to this category then you' re tall. Simple as that! Your hips or shoulders do not dominate your body. You have long legs and arms and usually a long neck. Approximately for women, your height would be 5'10" or taller and for men about 6'1" or taller. Typically when you're tall you want to add volume to your hair or length. Women who are tall are complemented with fuller styles. 

Average// A lot of us fall into this category. If you are average both your hips and shoulders are dominant but your body has good proportions. Women usually are 5'5" to 5'9" and men are between 5'7" to 6'1". Who knew being average can be a good thing! Having an average body shape allows us to be able to wear all sorts of hairstyles and well. You name it we can wear it, however you also need to keep in mind that certain hairstyles will still do different things. For example, if you have a hairstyle that is short but is fuller at the top of your crown it will make you appear taller. If you wear your hair longer it will typically drag you down making you appear shorter especially if you have fullness at the bottom. 

Short & Stout// This category like Tall & Lean is pretty much self-explanatory  You are short and usually have a heavy or hearty bone structure. It's not uncommon to have wide shoulders and hips where as your arms and legs are short. Women at 5'4" or shorter and men at 5'7" or shorter. This body type is in need of styles with height or volume on the top in order to give them that feel of being taller. 


You can be one or many of these shapes. That's okay! But it's best to understand those shapes and being able to hone in on what you fall under. I feel like every person should be educated on this simply to feel more confident about ourselves. Knowing our shapes will connect us more to our body and in turn allow us to do things like getting a hair cut with confidence. So many of us are so insecure about changing our hair! It's hard, I know it can be. It can be challenging because most of us just don't know if it will look good or if it's the right decision. Learning about things like face and body shape can aid us to make those kinds of choices that ultimately can make a world of difference to our image, our morale and our happiness in this life!

If you have any questions or if you would like for me to consult your face or body shape go ahead and send me a selfie over to my email and I would be happy to help you with that! And stick around this week because I'll be posting lots more about each individual face shape. 

IFBC day two

Day two was a blast! The day started right back up in the Westin Hotel around 8am where we were greeted with a lovely assortment of muffins with coffee in the lobby of the floor where all the main events were held. We found our way in and grab seats at a table where Julee and I met a group of ladies. One in particular from All Recipes!! How cool is that! Not to forget we had some awesome containers of Noosa yogurt, flavors like coconut & pumpkin with different parfait toppings to help ourselves to. It was delicious! Being that I never have tried Noosa it was nice to get a taste. We loved it but both agree that it's more like a dessert than a healthy yogurt.

After a quick light breakfast we sat in on some amazingly inspiring speakers. First up was Karen and Andrew, authors of many food related books however the newest one due to come out in October is The Vegetarian Bible. They both had great stuff to say about how they got to where they are and it was interesting how they made a name for themselves with their own books where as we have the world wide web and other resources to really begin a platform and start branding. Yay for us! 

Next speakers was probably my favorite of the whole day and that was Todd Coleman a photographer along with many other things. He mainly photographs food or at least that seems to be his passion and spoke about it with us. Of course, I was most excited about all he had to say and he inspired me in a great way. Photography has been something I haven't been able to really devote too much time to and he spoke to my soul and really seem encouraging to all of us who aren't feeling like we are crappy photographers. 

After that we had fun meeting Chef Thierry Rautureau AKA Chef in the Hat, owner of LUC Bistro and Loulay Kitchen in Seattle. Coolest dude ever! Very entertaining and gave us so many useful tips on cooking and canning. It was very impressive the way he combined unique things together to create such a simple yet elegant dish. I hope to one day enjoy dinner at one of his restaurants. 

We were spoiled once again with a very impressive buffet style lunch with a few desserts to top it off. While we ate, Ninja introduced their new blender that they just put out on the market. Lunch consisted of crisp grilled vegetables with a side salad. For main courses there was some sort of Parmesan chicken or a vegetable lasagna with another penne pasta dish as well. A few other things that I didn't have the pleasure of trying because it seemed I over did it on the other foods and room on my plate was zero to none. Oh well. I did however save room to devour dessert which was a mini tiramisu. Yum-o. 

Did you know that Krusteaz is based in Seattle? I had no idea! They had a seminar that we sat in on and learned a little about their products along different ways to use them. Their new flatbread seems interesting and we were introduced to a few different ways to use the flatbread. They come in a few flavors and I was lucky enough to snag a sample box the other night, Italian Herb . Can't wait to try it! 

After Krusteaz, we ended the day with a Brand Management class. It was the least hands on out of all  of the events and more informative. Lots of fantastic info about branding blogs and more in depth about things to keep in mind when trying to grow a blog. 

All in all, our second day at IFBC was an eventful one and one hell of an experience. I would love to attended every year after this one and I'm happy that I got the opportunity to go. Big thanks and a huge hug to Julee for that! Although both of us gals won't be attending Sunday we still believe we got the most out of the conference as a whole. I met a lot of inspiring people that I look forward to connect with! IFBC + Foodista and all vendors ROCK. 

IFBC day one

Day one of IFBC was inside of the beautiful Westin Hotel. It was quite an adventure getting to the hotel. Thanks to my little sister for pointing me to the right bus and directions on how to walk around downtown to get to the right place. Thanks SISSY!

Boy was tonight a big surprise. We were SPOILED! I would of never thought that we were going to be treated so well! We were greeted with name tags with lot of women and quite a few men as well floating around. So many fun tables set up with all kinds of goodies to snack on. Our favorite was walking around and filling our totes with lots of free samples of foods, desserts, snack and a few kitchen utensils!

We didn't do much mingling but that was mostly because we were too busy stuffing our faces with delicious foods. Tomorrow the itinerary is full of classes and seminars full of knowledge along with some networking. Oh and lots of FOOD!!

ifbc & foodista

All work and no play? Nah! I'm not about that. I try my hardest to have something planned each month so that I can get out and have a little fun. It's important especially right now with my crazy busy schedule. Hobbies are very meaningful to me, like my blog, I love to keep up with learning and practicing photography and being inspiring to others around me. It's funny because my blog helps me do all of those things all at once! 

It was perfect timing for this change here at my blog because I’m happy to tell you all that I’ll be attending the International Food Bloggers Conference in Seattle this Friday into Saturday! It will be held inside the Westin Hotel in Westlake and put on by the folks at Foodista. I’ll be there with the beautiful Julee Cunningham who is the owner of blog My Happy Life By The Bay and who is also an amazing author. She has two Christmas children chapter books out and about to release the third to her whimsical adventure. Sorry, I had to brag on her! 

I’m eager to see how it all is put together. I’ve never been to a food bloggers conference so it should be interesting. Although I don’t consider myself strictly a food blogger, I do blog a lot about food. What can I say, I love to cook & bake. Most of all I’m just super giddy about it being in Seattle! I hope to network and meet other bloggers from Seattle. How fun would it be to become a part of a little blogger community. 

Anyone else going? 

Be ready to be spammed with photos and mush about my time there!! 

changes and who I am

She believed she could, so she did. 

Welcome to so she did!

Why the new name change? It’s been a long time coming. I’m not the same person I was when I started Calico Tales and now that I’m so very close to starting a new chapter in my life I thought it was also time to do some changes here. I have about three months left of cosmetology school and then I’ll be diving head first into the career of my dreams . The hair industry is forever evolving and so I like to think that Calico Tales is just evolving into something greater. 

Blogging is so very dear to me and I just can't bring myself to say goodbye to this place and because I've felt like life has taken a hold of me I hope with a new identity I will be more inspired to be around more.  

I have a new vision for so she did. And it’s pretty exciting for me. I hope to brand so she did into something that can become part of my career. I still plan to post recipes and bits + pieces of my daily life with my fellas (how could I not!) however I hope to incorporate more about fashion and hair with tutorials and how to’s. Yay!

Since I’m here let me tell you a little of who I am at the moment…

// did I already say that I only have three months of school left! Ahhhh! So overwhelming to think about yet so very thrilling. It’s been an amazing journey and I’m so happy to be getting close to the end. I’m finally about to get out into the real world. It’s easy to be intimated by the end of beauty school and getting out on your own but for me it’s what keeps me going and pushing on. I have plans baby! and I’m ready to get my name out there! 

//living in Poulsbo has been great and I'm so happy to be living with and being around my father. He’s pretty awesome but I am looking forward to getting back to the other side. I miss all of our friends and even though our move back was a triumphant one, I still feel out of the loop. 

//Sebastian is a first grader! What the what! He’s a handful of sass lately however charming he is. He’s started PeeWee Tackle Football and is doing better than I thought he was. He enjoys going to practices and I’m proud of him for all the hard work he does. He’s a good kid. I think I’ll keep him. 

//hubby is forever working. And hard. He’s been a stay at home father and while working from home all to make me going to school easier for us. He’s pretty great and I appreciate all he does. He’s been playing around with the idea of starting a new business venture. He’s smart so I know he can do it! 

// can’t believe that with my graduation from cosmetology school in December it will also be the anniversary of our first year of living in Seattle. Crazy to think that we will have already been here a year. Time has really gone by in a flash, which, I’m not complain about. Sometimes that can be nice too! 

//all in all life has been a roller coaster ride. It’s a chore having to juggle a full time schedule of school with the traveling time, being a mother, a wife and doing all these little things in-between. It’s hard and I’ll be the first to admit it. Boy has it been a learning experience. I no longer take too much on at once. That used to be a really big burden on me. But now, if the laundry sits in the basket folded for a week then it does or if Sebastian’s football’s team moms ask for volunteers to make tacos for a taco night dinner I don’t volunteer because it’s simply impossible for me to do with everything else on my plate. And the best part is I don’t feel guilty about it. Amen. 

//I'm happy to experience a Seattle autumn. I can't wait to start up on making my pumpkin baked goods, seeing all the leaves change and finally being able to wear sweaters and scarves! 

Thanks for coming by!