Big Crazy hair Tutorial: Nature Mama version

Alright, when a friend invites me to an impromptu-all-craziness-welcomed-yay-gays-function I feel the need to tart it up a bit. So many folks asked me how I did this look that I decided to do a tutorial.

!!Please take note!! the following photos are a little wonky because:

1. Most of these pictures were taken after nearly 4 hours of dancing.

2. They were all taken with a video camera because I dropped my real camera :(

3. The after pictures were also taken without my contacts in so I couldn't see the display very well to double check the images. (hence the hairpin stuck in my bra strap that I didn't notice until all the photos were taken)

Here is the finished look:

Excited yet? Good.

Thinking you'll never be able to have fantastikal big hair like this yourself? Think again! It is dead easy folks.

I worked with what I had on hand because I wanted a totally free costume- but you could come by all these parts for not too much, especially if you're willing to wait and hunt around a bit.

Said parts consisted of:

1. Quite a few artificial flowers and leaves leftover from another big hair endeavor.

2. a few yards of some interesting tasseled trim

3. brown nylon cord/rope

4. a vast supply of false eyelashes

5. various makeup supplies in mostly green tones

I knew I wanted big hair, and I knew I wanted to include my flowers for a Nature/Planty look.

In addition to all the flora I wanted to stick into my hair I also wanted to make some falls for volume. These may not even technically be able to be termed falls, because they are so low-key, but that's what I'm going with. All I did was cut lengths of the brown cord (about 8 inches or so) and then tie a bunch of various lengths of the trim and the cord to those pieces. The trim is fat enough that you just tie it roughly in the middle (different lengths are better) once and it will stay. You want to tie your knots basically in the middle of each piece so you don't end up with weird sprongy bits that are too short- make that trim work for you twice! The cord I felt needed two knots, but that's it folks, no glue, no sewing, nada, easy as pie. Actually, much, much easier than pie. Get creative- you can make falls out of so many things- yarn, ribbons, tulle, tubular crin, leather, felt, foam, paper, lace, scarves, the possibilities are nearly endless. I think it's nearly always good to include at least two different textures/colors in your falls for more visual interest, so think about fun combos! Bonus!: with my method you don't necessarily have to destroy whatever it is, so you may be able to still re-purpose your supplies. I like to keep my falls-but you do what you like.

As you can see from the photos (hopefully) instead of taking the ends of the 8" length and tying them around my ponytails, I decided to tie them together making a loop at the end of the fall for fastening into my hair.

I made two of these roughly identical to each other- you can tie them around ponytails, but they slip around a lot and it can be difficult, I'm liking my new method better.

I have no natural texture to my hair- it is straight as can be and although it is reasonably thick, is pretty fine and blousy. So I used hot rollers and hair spray and a bit of teasing to get texture into it to make it easier to work with. It was all curly and fun when I put this look together, this is what it looked like once I'd taken it all down, but you get the idea.

Also I have three pairs of eyelashes on- some sort of spidery ones on the bottom, then some with long black feathers at the corner on the top, with another longer pair of spidery ones over that. I was very happy with the effect and will definitely be repeating this combo.

Next I made a twist of the front part of my hair (which has long layers) and poofed it into a pretty front and clipped it in place:

Then I made two ponytails behind that clip and two more as close as I could. You can do this with fewer ponytails, but more adds stability and may help keep your scalp from getting quite so sore. My ponytails are a bit sad here after all they've been through, you want yours as close to the top of your head as you can get them. Also, if you don't want any of your natural hair blending in with the falls like I did you could make little buns on top instead of ponytails.

Then I took bobby pins, two big ones for each fall, and pinned the loops that I tied close to the ponytails, you should try to get your bobby pins into the ponytails as sturdily as you can. There's one:

There's two:

I didn't want a ponytail aesthetic so I started to experiment and ended up taking wads from each fall, (including my real hair peeking through) tying them together loosely on top of my head and sticking more bobby pins in for stability. I did about two knots I think, I wanted hangey downs. I also ended up making a wad and just tying a string of leather around it because I needed bigness where I had none. You could also use a ponytail holder if you end up doing this, again, bobby pins are your friend.

After I got it shaped into my desired silhouette I started to cram flowers and leaves in. I also tied a few knots in my longer bits of trim to make them look more like moss. Now most of my flowers happen to be outfitted with hairpins, (which isn't hard to do) but you could make do without that if you just have more bobby pins. Just stick the flower in firmly and then find the stem with your fingers and secure a bobby pin around it. This will work well with most artificial flowers. Arrange your accessories to your liking and then you're done! I had my dear husband hold a mirror up for me so that I could get the back of my head arranged as well.

I also "made" my shoes which I was pretty excited about. I ripped the uppers off some old Franken-goth boots from Hot Topic that never fit right so I could have the giant foam soles and then I discovered that my simple black Croc sandals fit perfectly atop them.

(Heating and A/C technician Husband arrives home....

Excited Me: "Hey, do you have any industrial strength glue in your truck that will work with rubbery surfaces and dry really fast?"

Him: "Yeah, is permanent okay?"

IS IT?!?!? :D

Color me delighted! They worked really well for an impromptu shoe- I danced and bounced and shimmied and did little quicksteps and they held together. I was very impressed.

So, I guess that's it, please, please, please ask questions if I haven't been clear about something- I'm more than delighted to answer them.

Fairy Plant-Mother!

My new friend Dana (check her and her admirable costuming skills {among other things} out at only-zuul.com if you like) was unable to come to my housewarming back in October? and she was going to give me some babies from her plants, so she harbored them all these months so they would survive the winter and just recently was able to bring them to their new home with me!

It was a glorious day made even more glorious by finally getting to meet this wonderful lady that I had bonded with for months and months online. She and her lovely little family dropped by my home with a bounty of planty wonder.

I knew that she had some succulents to give me and when she came out of the car (looking exactly like her lovely photos by the way) carrying this amazing bowl of splendour I was as pleased as I thought I could be that day.

But lo, I was in store for even more delights as she brought pot after pot out of her car with the help of her nice husband. Here, Max checks out our new airplane plant and a lamb's ear succulent (I'd never heard of these before, they apparently sprout new little planties all along the ridged edges of their leaves- neat!)

Also, a super fat aloe which we promptly split and repotted:

Here's a shrimp plant which I was vaguely aware of before now. I'm trying to figure out where best to plant it.....

Dana called this a Giant Monkey Plant and it does indeed look like a giant version of the monkey grass my sister and I gleefully yanked out of the ground as fast as my mother could plant it when we were wee. I've since moved this pot out by my mailbox, testing the sun there before I plant it.

This is an Arrowhead fern, looks a lot like an elephant ear (astutely pointed out by Dana's cool daughter) and it has this airy light green freshness to it that I am loving right now. I don't know whether to plant it or leave it potted though...

Dana thought this was a Japanese or Oriental primrose? It looks to me like what I have always called yellow jasmine and it gets big and tall and bushy with yellow flowers all over it. It is trying out the sun on the side of our house where I hope it will add a bit of style to a fairly nondescript un-used area.

Max was having a great time checking out all the new plant friends and being outdoors

Plus I finally got a chance to bust out some of these plant stands that have been hanging around virtually useless for a while! I am loving the way my front porch looks right now. It's a huge improvement and I just have to sincerely thank Dana- these plants have brought so much more enjoyment into my home and yard for me- more than I would have guessed. It was an overwhelming and wonderful gift and a real treat to finally get to hug this super lady.

St. Patrick's Day 2010

This was the best St. Patty's ever! I really enjoyed having a plan that didn't just focus primarily on booze and we had lots of fun and learned some new things. It was a great family day- though smaller than we had hoped because my sister and her family couldn't be there because of a feverish baby girl (who is better now- yay!). It was still good green fun! Plus it gave me a wonderful reason to bust out with my green flower hair toys again, I was delighted to discover that they included bells of Ireland! Woo-hoo!

I actually had clover or false clover (I'm not certain which) growing in my yard quite beautifully this day so I wanted to get some photos of Maximus in it- I was pretty pleased with my results, though Max was a little grumpy as this was directly after his nap.

He perked up some and I got sunshiney green pictures which were just what I was hoping for!

He was really exceptionally well-behaved about my fascinators- I think he's finally learning to be gentle- which is awesome.

I had fun finding a bunch of stuff around the house the decorate the mantle with- I actually intended to put up a wooden snake that we have, but I didn't get around to it. If you can see it, there's a photo right above those beads of my sister, best friend and her husband at a St. Patty's day parade where they were very festive and very much in their cups. I wish I could have been there but it happened right before my wedding so I was too busy.

The rest of our celebration involved our version of an "authentic" Irish feast- I did some internet research and this seemed pretty accurate- plus I'd always wanted to make a colcannon. What's a colcannon? you might ask. Well- here you go. You peel, cut, boil and mash some potatoes. Meanwhile in another pan you need to cook a mixture of shredded cabbage, diced leeks, milk, butter, salt, pepper and a little nutmeg.

Once that's soft but not browned you blend it with the potatoes and then you make a well and fill it with butter, stick it in the broiler until it's slightly browned on top. Then you're supposed to eat it from the outside in, dipping your bites in the butter well as you go. It was fun, and tasty, quite mild, I never would have guessed how much cabbage and leeks were in this.

This was just our side dish though- and that drink is a shandy- which can be any kind of non-stout Irishy brew- (I guess lagers mostly) mixed with anything from ginger ale to lemonade. There's apparently a lot of wiggle room with this drink and it was tasty, just like a lighter, sweeter more refreshing beer. ( I went with ginger ale as it seemed more accurate than lots of recipes that called for sprite). Our main dish was salmon with leeks which was super easy and quite tasty. All three bears enjoyed it. You just bake some covered leeks, dill and lemons in a pan, then once they're soft, add some salmon and scoop the stuff over it and put it back in to finish cooking. It was nice- I enjoyed the leeks combined with the fish quite a bit.

Jack made sure to bring me home something green for dessert- pistachio gelato with some green sprinkles for fun. Thanks Jack!

Once Max went to sleep Jack and I watched our Netflix movie: Darby O' Gill and the Little People- which I believe is Sean Connery's very first role. Lord is he cute in this flick- it's almost too much to handle. Plus, he sings! I was really pretty impressed with the small vs. big effects for such an old movie- they were really quite believable except for a few really obviously constructed big hands and the like. I think this would be a fun movie for kids to watch, I know I would have liked it when I was little.
And now I leave you with another cute pic of my boy. I made these little sticky appliques for his outfit and I'm still working out some kinks, but they sure made my pictures turn out better- I'm so glad I did this- I think it's the beginning of yet another "little hobby" for me. We'll see if it turns out to be any more fruitful than the myriad of other things I like to do. :)

Red Barn Nursery

I'd been seeing this charming nursery off the highway close to our home for a while now and had been meaning to go. We finally got around to it and were totally delighted! Firstly it is HUGE!!!! This picture is maybe a fourth of the whole space? All the plants were happy and healthy and the selection was great. What a pretty place to even just go and take a walk with your family- plus you can give a good home to some gorgeous little planties too if you like.

I had fun putting Max up on the big tables to check out the fleurs- he was pretty gentle actually- so that was nice.

There was this gorgeous hanging wandering jew- this has got to be one of my all time favorite plants- there are so many lovely varieties.

Max had grand fun when we got to the shrub area- he kept grabbing the pots and trying to run off with them. This first one that he's holding is a type of Nandina, (I don't know how to pronounce that i) but I'm glad to know the name because I want some of these for our front yard. They are evergreen, fine in sun or shade and they have every color of fall foliage in one bush all at the same time! They are just amazing.

He was also pretty jazzed about this hose on the ground.

Still in productive-sunshiney-day-happy-plant-mode I saw this lovely tree on our way home and had Jack stop so I could get a quick picture. I've heard many names for trees like this one and I just adore them. SO pretty!

We got home with our new little plant friends and set to work getting them into some larger containers - Max was very excited about playing with our collected rainwater.

We got a purple variety of sage, some sweet basil (yum!), catnip and a sweet 100 tomato plant. Very excited about all of these. There were so many different kinds of herbs there. I'm particularly interested in the lemon basil and the CINNAMON basil!!! Both smelled divine. They have some really nice mint variations as well. I have never had an herb garden and have always wanted one. I'm really hoping that it does well. Advice welcome!

A new leaf!

I totally adore group shots of my eggs. I know it's shamelessly self-promoting, but what else are blogs anyway? Here are a bunch of new ones with some older ones too.

Up until this point this blog has been primarily for the purpose of sharing new-mom news with whomever it may concern. Now that I have my "mom-legs" and things have settled a bit with everything else I'm trying to pick up the pace with my Etsy shop. SO, for all you readers out there, now there will be the occasional post of what creative stuff I'm up to and maybe how I'm trying to jazz up the shop.

This is, of course, with the given knowledge that I am pretty lazy and also still learning all the stuff that I should be doing- so it's only tiny little changes so far, but I'll get there-please be patient. :) I've already changed my shop banner, though I'm not totally set on the background color, and I've been tweaking my listings here and there too.

I have been able to steal moments here and there and make some new eggy-weggs which has been so fantastic. It makes me feel much better to be creating pretty little things that I'm pleased with. I didn't realize how much I missed it until I started again- now it's on my brain all the time.

I feel like I have a pretty decent photography formula and I'm trying to come up with interesting names for everything because imitation is the sincerest form of flattery (*you know who you are Miss Indie Proprietress Extraordinaire!) ;D* It's a little challenging but I'm enjoying it so far.

My dear dear husband, who is unfortunately betwixt jobs at the moment built me most of a shelf for my dye jars that sits like a hutch on the little IKEA desk that I make eggs at. It is the realization of a vision MANY years in the making to have all my labelled jars in sight and at arm's reach all at once. This coupled with my now complete set of electric kistka (the styluses I use to draw wax onto the eggshells) makes my set-up the absolute best it has ever been. Super happy about that- oh, I forgot to mention my egg organization!

I've had this set of drawers forever, and never really used it to it's fullest until now! I cleared all the crap out of it (most of which I will deal with later) and categorized all my eggs in the drawers. Awe-some!! So pleased with it and how much easier it makes it to find what I need/know what I have. Yippee!

My paper sculpture work area is another story......

One Year already

Max's first birthday has come and gone- we had two parties to divide up the crowd a bit and both went well I think.

It's amazing how much has happened this year and how much Max has changed. It's so hard to imagine life without him now that he's here. All the cliches are true.

We made a "ball pit" with the aid of the Douglases inflatable pool and it is still in the office as Max

enjoys it greatly.

I could not believe how much snow fell this year! Max got more snow in a few months than I ever remember seeing in 31 years of living in Texas. His first Christmas up in Dallas was white and even though he was decked out with awesome jolly roger galoshes he was very uncertain about snow, but now that he's seen it THREE TIMES he seems to enjoy it. He smiles when it's falling and he was quick to tromp around in it in his Aunt Selah's front yard. He likes to taste it too. :)

This post is not particularly well-organized, so you'll have to bear with me. For Max's first birthday party Jack and I made 116 meatballs, balled fruit salad and a ball shaped cake along with some olives, pearl mozzarella and grape tomatoes for the spread. A cheeseball and crackers were also generously donated by the Douglases even though a pink-eye quarantine kept them from attending. The crowd was smaller than we expected but the event was good times nonetheless. It was nice to see the Wallaces with JJ, the three of them are very sweet together.

In other now-that-my-son-is-a-year-old-news, we've started him on a toothbrush. We got this Abby Cadabby one because it came with it's own toothpaste and was much cheaper. The toothpaste says it's okay to swallow and flouride free so I guess it's okay for little ones, I'm going to check with the doc on Monday just to be safe. Before I thought about it though we let him try it a few times and he LOVES that toothpaste- he will essentially brush his teeth all by himself just by chewing on the brush forever.

Here's the first cake that I made- both were pretty tasty, but had their own issues. I'm learning the quirks of dimensional cakes. This first one was the prettiest though, even though the top half was largely hollow because it ended up with a giant bubble crater in it during baking somehow. I filled it with one of the mini cupcakes I made.

My look for party was a bit slap dash as well, but everything still worked out good. Jack and I had been sick for a couple of days leading up to this party so neither one of us was as fully prepared as we had intended to be- it's probably best that the crowd was smaller than expected.

I like that Max and I have almost the same expression in this photo.

Max mostly just ate frosting. Honestly I should have probably just put frosting on one of his little beach balls and saved myself a couple of hours.

There are so many great pictures of him, and this one's a little blurry but it might be my favorite just because of his sweet little glee-face. Plus he's holding my hand and that's always wonderful.

His Grand Bears got him a Dallas Cowboys "Next Draft Pick" t-shirt and a matching do-rag. We laughed and laughed......

His second cake ended up much sturdier but I didn't bother with multiple frosting colors so it wasn't as magical looking. Max of course didn't care one bit and enjoyed the frosting just as much if not more than the first go around. This picture is totally Baby American Psycho to me. I love it.

He is learning all the time, we're working on a first word, I will be so amazed when I can start truly understanding what he wants/means. It's an exciting prospect. I'm trying to throw in a little sign language, I feel a little guilty about not having done any before now, but whatevs- moving on. He drinks through a straw like a champ now, I think I have Plum Tots to thank for that, their fruit purees in little bags with nozzles on them got him into the sucking action and then it was just the transition to a smaller tube. I should probably buy more straws, he's much more efficient with them than drinking from a cup. We're still practicing that though. Next on the horizon are St. Patty's and Easter- I'm looking forward to both and hopefully will get some posts up about what we end up doing.

Cheers.