Dread Diaries // Day 5-10

Day 5:
on day 5 I gave in! I went and bought some dread locking gel. to my defense, it was christmas eve and I wanted to look nice for christmas day pictures! haha. I purchased Tropical Roots Locking Gel (and it smells terrific). On christmas eve I dampened my hair, palm rolled the gel in, and let it dry. 

Day 6: (christmas!)

on christmas my dreads were looking tidy for all the activities but I couldn't help but thinking about how some of them looked so loose still. so, I started researching again and ended up downloading a dread app on my phone which freaked me out because everyone is so crazy with their dread opinions! I haven't found one thing that everyone agrees about so, I freaked out a little bit and after all the christmas festivities I redid... a ton of them. so many of them were just too loose, without the rubber bands they wouldn't have been knotted at all so I redid about 2/3 of them and new ones have black rubber bands now. (I didn't say this would be a perfect journey to dreads).

nice and tidy for christmas

good and knotted and sticking out everywhere like proper baby dreads haha

Day 7:

on day seven there wasn't much change, just kept researching methods to dread and calling people who had dreads for their advice. also, on this day I forgot to take a picture ;)

Day 8:

this day I palm rolled my dreads all day, tried some 100% murrays beeswax, and put more locking gel in but could not figure out why my dreads were being so out of control. they were frizzy and messy and I'm embarrassed to show you the picture haha.

Day 9:

a breakthrough! after such a bad day before, I turned to my supportive bearded boyfriend who suggested I pick one method and stick with it. stop searching through dread forums and researching all the bad things that could happened and trust my gut. this advice is what I'll give if anyone ever asks me because it's the best! so, here's my method: dreads get salt baths every few days, palm rolled through out the day with clean hands, and locking gel in the morning (it just smells so good okay?)

I almost forgot to take a picture but remembered right before bed, looking pretty tidy right?

Day 10:

finally! they are starting to feel like dreads when I palm roll them and they stay tidy pretty much all day! I'm finally feeling like the dread battle is going up hill (wait, down hill... which ever one means good). I am really happy they are getting better instead of worse and I even went out without a hat or bandana covering them up!

also, check out this great dream catcher I got for christmas! 

Resolutions in 2013

1. Write More Letters.

New Years! I love resolutions. I know a lot of people are against them or think they are silly but I think they are fun and great so, here I go! My first is to write more letters. I love getting mail and sending mail! however, I'm super bad about it. I'll start writing a letter and then I'll think "I'll write more tomorrow" and then I lose it or forget about it but this year! it's going to be different! I'd like to send a full book of stamps a month :) I got a head start on january by mailing a few of my nephews and niece down in florida which brings me to a few other goals for 2013!

goal// Be a Better Aunt

I LOVE being an Aunt! my siblings have a million babies! and I became an Aunt my freshman year of high school and though I've been involved and love them all, I haven't been able to be the fun aunt that sends stickers in the mail and calls them after school like I'd like to. so be ready for letters little babes!

goal// Dreads!

I've committed, I'm gonna give dreads a shot in 2013! by the end I'll either have amazing dreads or a shaved head and I'm ready for either ;) - BUT rooting for dreads PLEASE!

goal// Read the Whole Bible

I've tried to do this so many times but always get stuck half way through. I'm at leviticus now and on my way!

goal// Befriend the Color Orange

My least favorite color used to be yellow, then I decided to be friends with it. now my least favorite color is orange and it's time to stop fighting.

goal// Become a Coffee Genius

oh my gosh, I love coffee. in 2013, I'm going to go coffee crazy. I've picked out a bunch of amazing coffee brewing devices (post to come) and I'm going to save up for them and drink coffee so fancy.

also workout and loose weight and eat organic and stuff...

Other huge things happening in 2013:

-MY FIRST ART SHOW!

-GRADUATING COLLEGE!

-MOVING TO NASHVILLE!

-MY BEST FRIEND WILL HAVE HER BABY!

-MY SISTER IN LAW WILL HAVE HER BABY!

it's going to be so great.

Dread Diaries // Day 1-4

you read that right... DREADS! I've embarked on the long and tedious journey of dreadlocks and I'm going to document it here for others who are considering it or just curious about it. I've finished up four days with them and it's already been a little bumpy. So, here's my very honest beginning to dreadlocks.

(I'd like to say, I'm not an expert, I am just learning every day and sharing what I learn :) I'd love any tips!)

DAY 0:

this is the day I woke up and said "I want to get dreadlocks"

now, obviously that's not what happened... OH WAIT! YES IT IS! every one will tell you people don't just decide these kind of things in a day but, I did. Do I suggest this? not really, but do I regret it? not yet :) here's my Day 0 before picture. Should I have taken better before photos? probably but I was too excited about what was coming next! (ps, sadly after a few months almost all my pink hair is gone!)

DAY 1: (December 20th, 2012)

dread day, six hours in a chair while three friends (Camille, Jessica, & Abbi) who are too nice to me backcombed and backcombed and crocheted my hair until it looked like this. Now, this hurt a bit but it was fun and exciting! At this point, I basically know nothing about dreads but my friend Camille had dreads before so I knew I was in good hands :)

DAY 2:

by day two everything was still looking pretty good, I slept with a hat on and kept crocheting the daylights out of my little dreads and I was determined to make these naturally without products (as in, I didn't want to spend money on product haha) but it seemed they were getting pretty loose and I was getting a little worried.

DAY 3:

sigh... day three... this day was emotional. why? because I woke up and my dreads were crazy! they had come loose and unraveled and I was so sad! I started searching the web (something I should have done more of before) for reasons why my dreads were so deflated and found a few things: 1// no product, of course. but I found a few techniques which suggested rubber banding the dreads (loose at the top, tight at the folded up bottoms). 2// the crocheting I had been obsessively doing is mostly only suggested for people with really curly hair and a few sites said it would mess up straight hair dreads! what! 3// I hadn't been palm rolling my dreads, which seems to be the most important part! I had only been crocheting them and kind of squeezing them together haha. 

So, I rubber banded them and palm rolled them as much as I could (and also took out the cute rings and beads, I told myself I wasn't allowed to have those until my dreads were in order haha). Now, after getting the dreads a little more tidy, I wanted to wash them. Most sites suggested washing every 3 to 4 days for the first month so I chose 3 and scrubbed the shampoo in the top (non-dreaded) section of my hair and let it fall over the dreads and rinsed- quickly. then I squeezed them dry and patted them with a towel. I figure since they are so little and new, I don't have to worry about dread-rot so I just let them air dry this time.

DAY 4:

when I woke up on day four my dreads were a little wavy from drying naturally but they were still in place! I palm rolled them all day and am much happier with them. I still have this fear that they won't take, but I'm a lot happier with their progress. I just keep having to tell myself that this takes a long time, dreads don't happen in a week or even two, they will just keep getting better (hopefully haha)

so there you have it, the birth story of 22 little dread babies.

by the way, merry christmas eve!

DIY: Christmas Wrapping

as you know, it's christmas time! I love picking out presents for people, I've always been really competitive (not the christmas spirit, haha) about getting people the best presents! well, as a college student I've been making a lot of those presents to keep my budget down. The good news is I'm finished with presents! I've already mailed off half of them :) Here's the problem: wrapping. It's really expensive and honestly, most are pretty tacky. So this year I decided to make my own, it was super cheap and a special touch to the christmas presents. I picked up a $1 plastic table covering to do the job, but you could you any large piece of paper or plastic. The reason I chose it was it's size, 40 square feet- the size of two average wrapping papers.

you'll need:

• paper plates
• apple
• knife
• table cover
• paint

Step 1) cut the apple in half. I decided to cut a little off center because I wanted the seeds to show through on one of the sides, if you'd like cleaner stamps, right down the middle is a better option.

Step 2) set the halves out to dry for about an hour. During this time I made a mix cd for a friend and an iced coffee for myself, feel free to do whatever you'd like :)

Step 3) once your halves are dry, stencil a little design with sharpie, I chose a christmas tree.

Step 4) now on to carving, I made two opposite stamps, one where the design (heart) is cut out of the apple and one design (tree) where the apple is cut away from the design.

Step 5) now, spread out your table covering and pour the paint on your plates. next take your stamps and dip them in the paint. you may need to use your fingers or a paint brush to make sure the paint is evening spread on the apple- and stamp away!

 Step 6) wrap your presents as you would normally, except with just a little more pride.

Happy Wrapping!

Guess What?

you guessed it! the first semester of my senior year is over! which is great news for my sanity and my blog! I've been so busy writing my senior thesis paper that I could barely write my name much less a blog. I am so happy to say that it is done! it is LONG! (26 pages/45 with photos) and I am much more relaxed and ready to start up fun hobbies again like blogging and sleeping :)

oh and did I mention I made an A?

Grizzly Bear

Hello friends! Guess what? Last weekend Marcus won us free tickets to Grizzly Bear's first concert for their US tour! here are a few photos of their AMAZING light sculptures! The show was so good, they are super talented artists.

By the way... I'm off to Canada in the morning for a wedding/family reunion! I'm so excited!

outfit highlight/nails

hello everyone! the past few weeks have been flying by with lots of art getting finished up and lots of adventures and concerts! I'll post some pictures from all of that soon but today I wanted to share an outfit I wore recently that was so fun (and comfy!)

this was the perfect outfit for drawing and taking walks by the river!

details:

shirt: american apparel

vest: f21

shorts: yard sale

shoes: thrifted

nails: pinks (nars) mint (sally hansen)

have a great day!

her nails

oh hello! it's wednesday! so, the past few months I've been really getting into doing my nails (so much that I already have TWO nail posts ready!) but today I wanted to post my roommate's nails that I painted for her the other day :) she's got longer nails so it's a nice canvas, haha.

details:

sinful colors, cinderella 

sally hansen insta-dri, lively lilac

sinful colors, nirvana

have a great day!

the willful child

hello! hope you're having a great tuesday! my college is on a one-class-at-a-time block schedule which means yesterday was my midterm! I turned in my latest painting titled "the willful child" which is based on the story by those Grimm bros :] the project was to pick a fairy tale that isn't very well known and illustrate a scene from it. If you're not familiar with the willful child, here's how it goes:

Once upon a time there was a child who was willful and would not do what her mother wished. For this reason, God had no pleasure in her, and let her become ill. No doctor could do her any good, and in a short time the child lay on her deathbed. When she had been lowered into her grave, and the earth was spread over her, all at once her little arm came out again and reached upward. And when they had pushed it back in the ground and spread fresh earth over it, it was all to no purpose, for the arm always came out again. Then the mother herself was obliged to go to the grave and strike the arm with a rod. When she had done that, the arm was drawn in, and at last the child had rest beneath the ground.

prrrreeetty crazy, right? I thought it was just sad enough to paint, haha. we used a new medium which I've never worked with! egg tempura on watercolor paper! first we had to soak & stretch the paper with artist's tape. then create "glair" using egg whites and an egg beater and paint with it + pigment powders! it was totally new for me since I usually paint with thick oils. here's how mine went, from start to finish:

and the final product...

ps- don't mock me! I know my 'S's look like 'T's! haha, have a good day!

the best puddle ever known

a rainy day, a giant puddle, some best friends and a mud ball war. enjoy!

details:
pam
shirt: f21
shorts: old navy
rain boots: walmart
rain hat: thrifted
taylor
shirt: american eagle
jean jacket: american eagle
shorts: second hand
rain boots: target
denim hat: grandpa's
chad
accessories: mud

by the way, anyone catch breaking bad last night? 'cause it was uhhhhhh-mazing.