Hairs

Lately I've been playing with my hair a lot, trying out different styles in the hope that it will keep me entertained enough that I won't chop it all off :)

So far it's worked and I've even found a couple of EASY styles that I really like, which is great because I like to keep my routine low maintenance.

Below is what I've tried so far (names thanks to my boyfriend's first impression of each style). What's your favorite simple style to make long hair fun instead of frustrating?

>>>The Olga
1. Separate hair into 4 pieces (two on top, two on bottom)
2. Make 4 braids from separated hair sections.
3. Put on headband of choice, adjusting so that the band is at the base of your head and over the top of your hair
4. Starting with two "bottom" braids, wrap braids over the top of the band at the base of your head, until braids are completely wrapped around band. Tuck in ends.
5. Repeat step 4 with two "top" braids. BOOM, done.

>>>Gypsy Princess
This style uses the same principle as The Olga but it's even easier because there is no braiding and you only have to wrap the hair around the headband once for each strand. SO:
1. Put on headband over top of hair, again adjusting to base of head
2. Separate hair into 2-4 strands. Really you could do more, it's just personal preference and a matter of patience. I have no patience so I only did 2 :)
3. Take strand and loop over band, pulling through hair beneath until end comes out as shown. (Kind of like a slip knot but with hair). Repeat as needed with additional strands.

>>>Cinderella's Off Day
Not much to this one really, just a messy bun with a bow stuck in there somewhere. I'm terrible at buns so I twist my hair to keep it tight, then use special spiral pins to hold it in as a bun.

For some the world is teetering on the edge: frozen in the moment right before the fall, weightless and helpless. Their lives in suspended animation, not yet willing to give up the fragments of what they had lived and accept the New Order but incapable of doing anything about it. Mostly they are too traumatized to fight back, or too deeply in denial to see the danger, but those too complacent are the first to succomb to the Machines. Convinced that someone or something would come to their rescue, or that this was just a temporary scare that would blow over, they go on about their daily lives. Until they start disappearing. Not physically, but mentally, their brains reset by The Machines. Whispers in the compound say someone in the Resistance has figured out how they are doing it and has harnessed the technology to create new memories to replace those lost. Some say it's an abomination to implant the artificial memories into those poor souless bastards, letting them believe they know themselves. But who's to say we aren't the abomination? After having witnessed some of the things I've seen down here, I can't help but think somtimes that the shells of people walking around out there are the lucky ones... But things aren't all bad. At least there is plenty to keep busy. You'd be surprised at how much there is to do to maintain the semblance of an infrastructure that we all so feebly cling onto. So many people have had to be replaced that the training is constant. In my new position, I have to communicate to the ones who have made it outside compound and track their progress on missions. It's risky business since the Machines can detect our signals and there's no encryption known to man that can stand up against their decryption algorithyms. Numbers and signals are their world now, not ours. In between the training, I somehow find a little time for things outside of the realm of just surviving. I've started painting again, of all things. The paints aren't real paints of course, true pigments are too hard to come by these days. I use left over "coffee" and "tea" in lieu of watercolor, maybe a berry or two if I can spare them. I'm making a painting of a koi for my mother, if she's still alive. Tomorrow is her birthday.

Bowl for $6 Bucks

I decided it was time to stop looking at all the crafting projects on Pinterest and actually do one. I adapted this one to something a little more my style. It was actually pretty easy (and cheap) to do. All you need is

• a bowl to model after (free if you have one!)
• some glue (~$3)
• tin foil ($? who doesn't have some in the kitchen)
• and some sisal or other kind of durable rope ($5.99 - 40% off coupon @ Hobby Lobby)

All in all, I spent about $6 and a couple hours (drying time wasn't super fast). But you can do it while you watch a movie :)

1. Cover bowl you are modeling it from in tin foil. This will keep it from getting glue on it. I used a mixing bowl from the kitchen and wanted to make sure it didn't get anything on it.
2. Starting at the top of the bowl, lay the sisal around the perimeter. You can glue it to the tin foil and simply peel it off later.
3. Continue gluing and rapping the sisal around the bowl, making sure the the glue is going mostly on the piece of rope below it. This way the rope is sticking to the rope above and below it, not just the tin foil rapped bowl.
4. Once entire bowl is rapped in the sisal, let dry overnight.
5. When dry, unwrap the tin foil from the model bowl, then peel the tin foil from the sisal and - viola! You have a rope bowl

Tip: If little pieces of tin foil stick to the sisal, use tweezers to remove. For best results, peel the tin foil away carefully to keep it in large pieces. Also, make sure the glue is completely dry before removing!

So it's been a long time since I've posted anything on here, but it's a new year. Here's to new beginnings:

Here's my final piece from my watercolor class: "Oh, Deer..."

For one of my graphic design pieces, we had to make a robot using Adobe Illustrator. It was supposed to reflect ourselves in some way. This is what I came up with. The ironic thing is that out of all the robots everyone made...mine was the shortest.

I had a typography poster project to do for class so I made this one for my boyfriend, who loves Green Lantern (especially John Stewart). I love that my boyfriend is as geeky as I am ^_^