"Everyone can create. You don't need power, position, or influence in order to create something of substance or beauty...try to see how many smiles you can create...As you take the normal opportunities of your daily life and create something of beauty and helpfulness, you improve not only the world around you, but also the world within you." -Deiter Uchtdorf
I'm positive this can't be original, but this was the first time I have done it, so it's original to me. :)
All you need is a ponytail, a topsy-tail, and a couple bobby pins.
1. Start with a simple ponytail, then use the topsy tail and pull it through the top. (So the loop is at the bottom, and the point is going up through the hair.) This picture is pulled through once.
2. Repeat! Just pull it through again, leaving this cute little bump. I just pinned the ends in a few places, and it was good to go. It looked great throughout the day, and took maybe 3 minutes total. I think it would have looked much cuter with a bow or something covering the "part" of the hair right above the ponytail, but Em's against bows at the moment. :)
I've wanted to do a video of the ballerina bun for quite a while. I've waited for a nice quiet time when I could do it, but unfortunately, it hasn't happened. So, instead, I thought I would give you a real-life look into a morning of fixing Emma's hair.
Before you watch, I'd like to point out a few things...
1. Michael's exceptional eating manners. It's not until I watched the video that I realized that he is totally chewing like a cow- mouth open, stuffing food in, even getting out of breath in one section! He makes a mother proud. :)
2. The riddle that Emma answers is "What kind of suit does a duck wear." Yeah, it's one of those cheesy homework assignments.
3. Michael is the king of syrup. He'd eat it on spaghetti like Buddy the Elf if I'd let him. He also likes to share this love of syrup with the little girls.
4. It's pajama day tomorrow. Michael's excited if you can't tell.
5. Maia and Ruby pretending to burp halfway through. That's my girl! :) (I actually hate burping...)
6. My kitchen counter is all sorts of messy because I had to wake up early to make rolls. 5 dozen of them.
7. I usually do talk to my kids during breakfast, but being the only one that knew the camera was rolling, I didn't want to. :)
So, basic idea of this bun, start with a ponytail, then pull small sections, roll forward (I roll twice, but it depends on the length of the hair) and then pin with bobby pins on both sides of the rolls.
The little jingle bell hair tie was from Claire's. I told Emma that her teacher could take it out if it was too distracting. I can only imagine how many times little jingles would sound when Emma was working...
This one is a little embarrassing to post, but I thought it might be useful to someone out there in blogland who may be like me- rushing out of the house to get a kid to school only to realize that you totally forgot to fix your own hair. It happens often to me, and luckily I'm almost always going back home, but today I had a few errands so I had to do something with my bedhead.
So here's where it started- yesterday I just had a simple front bump/bun do. Nothing fancy at all, but after sleeping on it, it looks that much better. :)
Start with a twist braid in the front (similar to a french braid, but you're twisting together 2 sections instead of braiding 3- you still add hair to each piece as you go.)
One on the other side (Hi, Ruby!)
So here's what I had in my hair to work with- one hair tie and two bobbypins.
I hold the two sections in my mouth while I pull the rest of the hair in a ponytail- then add the two twists.
I usually would add a tie here and then twist with another tie, but I only had one, so I just started twising everything together, making sure to keep the twists nice and tight.
Then twist it up in a little bun, and here ya go. Super easy and fast (10 minutes in the 7-11 parking lot while returning Redbox movies.) :)
So many of you gave me your opinion about the paint color for my dining room. In true Rachel form, I obsessed about the color for a long time, then went to the store to buy the 3 gallons I needed, and bought a completely new (untested) color! I went with one by Martha Stewart called Slipstream. It was still in the gray family, but had a lot more blue in it than any of the other choices that I had picked up. Here's the before and after of the painting. Thanks so much to all of you who gave me your opinion on the color- I was heading over to get the Porpoise, which I think was the majority winner. :)
Now back to the hair. This is one that I did for Emma really fast last week. Just simple braided twists (similar to a french braid, but you're just twisting the two sections instead of braiding three.) back into low twisted buns. I've heard these called worm twists- where you take smaller sections and twist them up until they twist up on themselves...Whatever they're called, they're cute, and perfect for wet hair days. :)
(There's actually twist braids on both sides of her head, I just didn't get a picture of the other side.)
It's been a LONG summer. I'm a little happy to be back to a normal schedule tomorrow. (I'll say that now, but give me a few weeks and I'll be wishing for the long lost days of summer.) :)
Anyway, here are the dos that we did today for church. We didn't have much time, as usual, so they are pretty simple.
Ruby:
One front braid holds that front part of her hair back- if I just do piggies, that front section falls out pretty easily.
CHEESE! (She's learning how to say that when she takes pictures.) :)
Maia:
I started out trying to do two french braids with her hair, but it was still too short (and she's still too wiggly) This is a good alternative that looks like two french braids.
Emma:
With Emma starting 2nd grade, she asked if we could cut her hair short. I thought that was a little drastic for now, so I suggested bangs. At first she was a little worried, but she was brave and I cut them. It makes her look so different!
And her hair today was a simple bun. I'll have to do a little tutorial video on this one, because I didn't know what it would turn out like when I started, and it was super cute. It looks way more complicated than it is. I'm sure someone out there has figured out this bun before me...
This was a super simple one on Emma for church yesterday. I just sectioned off the front portion of the hair, pulling back the rest into a ponytail. Then I split it again, doing twists on each section. (Similar to a french braid, just twisting two sections instead of braiding three.) Pull those back into the ponytail and add a little messy bun! This one takes me about 15 minutes because of Emma's little wiggly head, and my bit of OCD about nice looking twistys. :)
So, what do you do when you wake up late, your daughter's hair is a mess, and you have about 5 minutes to get her ready? Answer a challenge, of course!
The princess (and her mom) gave this challenge to do a somewhat fancy hairstyle from wet hair in 5 minutes. Most are amazing with cool braids and twists, but I thought I'd do a very simple one, so here it is: (plus, personally, it would take me a good 30+ minutes for those braids. I'm a crappy braider for sure. I've got major braid envy for some of those hair doers.)
A simple ponytail tied back and pinned in a flower bun. I am hoping to do a tutorial on different buns here in a bit, but it was a true challenge this morning to get this finished and take a photo. :)
One tip for fixing wet hair, I sometimes will use setting lotion to help the hairstyle stay neat when the hair dries. Especially if there's curls involved. Super cheap ($3 at Sally's for a huge bottle) so it's worth a try if you've never used it.
It is Abby's 5th birthday today. On Friday we had her over before her school, and I got to do her hair. I tend to do more curly fancy dos for special occasions, but the night before Abby used some baby oil gel in her bath so that her hair would be more shiny. :) So, instead we went with lots of fun braids and little twisted buns. (Her hair wouldn't hold a curl at all, or I would have at least left pigtails) Anyway, super cute and fun.
I also couldn't find any cute hair accessories that would work with the outfit she was wearing that day (pink and black) so I grabbed my fabrics and made a few fabric flowers really fast. It took maybe about 5 minutes for both.
So Emma's been on quite the hair strike lately. So yesterday I told her that she got to design her very own hairstyle. Lucky for me, she did something not too crazy, and it actually was very cute and simple. So, if you're little girl is on a strike, give her the option of designing her own hair. :) (Or, for more fun, send me their ideas, and Emma and I will fix her hair like that!)
(I love the swirl as the bun...I started doing a twisted bun, but she said she wanted a big bun, so I changed...)
I was just trying to get Emma's hair pulled up for the day since it is actually raining pretty good today in Las Vegas. I did a simple braid, then started on the opposite side and did a twist around her head to the side. put it all in a little bun and she's good to go.
After all of the work of putting it up, and this is what she does before leaving for school. :)
This one turned out way cuter than I expected. I started with wet hair, one center braid wrapped into a bun, and then I placed the different pieces as shown with bobby pins. Once everything was in place I curled up the little ends with the flat iron. Super cute if I do say so myself. :)
