The Story Behind Yesterday's Makeover

A few weeks ago, my friend Angie had a great idea. (One of MANY!) :) She sells Mary Kay and she has worked with Castaways and another one of our friends, Kellie Felmey, who owns a salon called The Bird's Nest on occasion doing Ladies Nights Out at the shop. These events have been so successful for us, that Angie wondered what would happen if the three of us put our resources together to do a makeover for someone in the community who needed a little pick-me-up. And that very day a BRILLIANT idea was put into action.

We immediately created an email address and got articles posted in newspaper, ads up on Facebook, and even did a spot on television promoting our makeover contest. Chevie Ruder, Director of the Washington Chamber of Commerce, graciously agreed to take on the extremely difficult task of deciding which nomination was going to be the winner.

Here is the email that she finally decided on:

"Kendra Mueller is a local single mom of two whose house burned last month.  Her family has been displaced for 4-6 months while her home is repaired.   Throughout the loss of their house and possessions, Kendra remained strong and positive. Within a week of the house fire, her kids' paternal grandma passed away.  I think she deserves to be pampered.  She works at LGS as an aide.  please consider her for your pampering.  Thanks."

Once that decision was made, we contacted Amy Blankenship, the nominator, and arranged through her to meet with Kendra.  The ONLY problem with Kendra was that she was already SO cute!  Check out her BEFORE PICTURE:

So cute, right? Well, at least we knew it would be super easy to make her look amazing!  We got her sizes and some ideas of what she would feel comfortable with for her transformation and made arrangements for Saturday!

Kendra's first stop on Saturday morning was The Bird's Nest, owned by Kellie Felmey to get a cut and style. 

She really wanted angled bangs, and Kellie also trimmed and styled her thick, pretty hair~

Next up? Makeup!!!

Angie Kisch was at the ready to help Kendra choose colors from her Mary Kay selection and to offer guidance on how to apply it. She also graciously gifted Kendra with some amazing product!  They had a blast!

Doesn't she look AWESOME? Now that her hair and makeup were complete, it was up to us at Castaways to choose her outfit! Fortunately, that is what we do best, and employee Haley Herrmann is exceptionally good at it! She chose the perfect outfit for Kendra, and we headed over to the GORGEOUS setting at our neighbors', All In Bloom, to take Kendra's AFTER PICTURE:

Stunning, no?

So pretty!

Her pretty, kind, and funny friend Amy Blankenship, who nominated her for the contest, also showed up to enjoy the fun!

The gorgeous flower arrangement was provided for Kendra by All In Bloom! Did we all pamper her properly, or what???

The whole crew L-R: Angie Kisch of Mary Kay, Cindy Keller of Castaways, Kendra Mueller, and Kellie Felmey of the Bird's Nest!

We had so much fun doing Kendra's makeover! She was super easygoing and genuinely a delight to be around! The whole experience was fantastic and all day long, people kept making suggestions that the three of us should band together to do this kind of thing more often. We decided that we definitely will! What do you think? We'd love to hear what YOU would like us to do next, we like nothing better than a great idea!!!

Cindy