Bohemian Braids Hair Tutorial

Happy Holidays! Here is a great hair tutorial for medium, long, or extra long hair. I did this with my hair wet, but you can use dry hair just as well. =)

1) First part your hair down the middle. We are going to do three small braids on each side of your head. Secure off one side with a clip and take a small section of hair from your forehead.

 2) Braid about half way down. You don't want to go all the way to the bottom, because we are going to braid the bottom section--doing this will make the top braids look like they "meld" with the bottom braids.

3) I used hair pins to secure the bottoms of these small braids because we won't be leaving any pins or bands in. Take another small piece of hair right next to the braid you just made and make another braid about half way down. Then do this a third time, until you have three small braids that start at the top of your head and go halfway the length of your hair.

3. Now, secure your hair with your favorite color of hair band. I used black, because it matched my outfit. Remove the bobby pins, and part this ponytail into two sections.

4) You want to braid each section of hair, and secure with small bands.

 Thats it! Enjoy your bohemian braids! Wear them everywhere =) Love them, rock them, and above all else share them with others =)

Quick edit--the next day when I shook my boho braids loose after sleeping on them, my hair was super super curly!

Update for Fall

Innvogue update =)

The End of Fall

Some pictures from the end of fall.

Of course I had to include a shoe shot. I love these shoes! 2.50 at my local thrift store =)

Vintage Shopping

Maria loves vintage. She and Dan go consignment shopping every night after dinner, where Maria buys fax pearls and evening gowns lined with lace and satin, to wear to next week's outing with her fur-lined pumps and midnight-black cloche. After dinner at the diner this afternoon, Maria spotted these lovelies, and could not resist snatching them up. She wore them at her wedding, and that night Dan removed them from her ears as he passionately kissed her for the first time. He called them her dinner-earrings, for when she wore them he would sweep her away to that little diner once again, for a night of vintage shopping and bayside eating. He loved to watch her scour the shelves, her fingers hovering, poised like the arc of a conductors wand, moving to and fro, her long slender form weaving in and around the overstuffed boutique isles.

When she died Dan passed these earrings onto their youngest daughter Paula, who loved them for a while. She wore them to school plays and pinned them on her dolls and bears. She traipsed around in them by the bay, where Dan used to take her when she was a little girl. She hung them on her bedroom mirror when she was all grown up, a silent reminder of the women who fingers were everywhere in the house--who had left all these discard pieces of other peoples lives, picked up like notes out of various songs, and forced together into some kind of symphony; a sound that might have been pleasant, if it hadn't remained always in a state of unfinish.

Thus it came as no surprise to Dan that the day Paula moved to Chicago with her boyfriend Mauv that the earrings stayed fixed to her bedroom mirror, immoveable and dangling like the end of some forgotten crescendo. He left them there, until he was old and frail and ready.

Early the next morning, he took one last walk, down to the pier. He had eggs and toast with tea at the diner. He drifted awhile, ending up in the little consignment shop, wandering the isles, looking for glimpses of Maria. There was none, she was gone. Here he saw only things, discarded and old and used up, wrinkled and alone.

He left the earrings there, beside a seaside shell, under the little table lamp that he remembered Maria pausing at for countless moments.

And there they sit, waiting for someone to love them again.

-----------------
These small fable stories were written by me, inspired by pieces I curated from a vintage online shop I used to run. You can read more here.

Haircut

I cut my hair this past week.  I decided to cut it because it was giving me terrible headaches! But I couldn't decide what at ALL to do with it. So, I e-mailed Rubi from She Lets Her Hair Down about what I should do with my long locks. She is the one that suggested this cut, and I love it. I also have to thank Zen Salon in downtown lynchburg, because they are the ones that actually cut my hair.

Before:

 After:

This is exactly what the hairdresser did:
(These are the instructions Rubi emailed to me that I relayed to my hairdresser with a picture)

Cut 4 inches off the bottom, then cut long layers with weight removal - don't let your hairdresser use thinning shears, they should do the weight removal with scissors. I would also cut long bangs, they should fall at about your lip area, that way as they curl up they'll hit your cheekbones and if you ever straighten your hair they will hit your lips. That would be very flattering with your face shape. 

If you get that haircut then you should be able to style it so much easier, you'll also be able to just let it air dry and have it look good too. I think your hair is great long but it needs some shape to it, I can tell you've been trying to change it up a bit and this cut will make is so much easier for you to play with different styles. 

So, what do you guys think? Like the before, or the after? =) I like them both--but my hair no longer gives me headaches and is much more manageable! I can also do all sorts of new hairstyles because my hair is not 5ft long! =P

Key to the Forest Necklace

Legend tells of the lost forests of Adún. The trees once covered the hills of Oudundúr, running deep into the Spineland, and beyond into the Great Sea. My favorite part of the forest (for our own little homestead bordered it, in part) was not the towering trees of elven lore or their green sisters, the moss--but the delicate white flowers that grew in the recesses of the oaks, beneath the hidden valleys and shadowed places of Adún.

When the silence came, they wilted first. I remember, because I had just been betrothed to Ador, the Miller's son, and I had wanted a bouquet of the white blossoms for my wedding garnish.

They were nowhere to be found.

I searched and searched far and wide over our lands for many years. One year, after the birth of our second daughter, I saw these growing under the eve of the lean-to where Ador stored his tools. They had just bloomed, and the fresh scent like honey and lavender sent me back to days of languor, when I used to recline perched in a tree and reading a book. Oh, the taste of those green apples stolen from Gweeny's farm that I used to munch on...

I plucked them gingery. The petals were soft in my upturned palm, warm with spring. I practically ran from the loch to our pantry, where I took the blossoms and covered them in honey, firing them in the kiln where I baked pottery. I will pass it onto my daughter when she is old enough. Or, maybe my son, if he has a dream of adventuring, and not one of farming, or fields.

Perhaps then, something can be done about the forests and the flowers of my home. Maybe, someday, this curse will be lifted.

These small fable stories were written by me, inspired by pieces I curated from a vintage online shop I used to run. You can read more here.

Innvogue Update

More things for Innvogue. I love photographing jewelry.

It is so much fun to amble though other peoples treasures and find stories, ideas, and beautiful trinkets.  They inspire me so much! I'll post a story tomorrow that the little amber necklace dreamed up...

The Brine Child

forlorn I meander through the flowers and the fields
feasting on the willows when the air is dim with night

towards the moon, the path makes its weary way
and I with legs of dew and frost
amble with the shadows, playing in the dark

elbows in the thicket, tangled in the brier
my hair weaves the starlight, glimmers of tomorrow

the sea is at my feet,
and to my left, the sand
I am counting time
making measures in my hands

with magic thick
and foamy waves
I sing oceans into madness
spin the brine from in the wind

with a voice like mellow winter
a hint breath beneath my lips
I mutter to the starlight

"You are my forever
You are my End.
please take me away
to never ever ever land"

but my voice shatters
and ice crashes to the ground
the sand is only glass
a lonely child in the rain
unfound among the ashes
of this dying place.

----
I want to write the Brine Child's book.
She sounds sad.

Picture credit here.
Poem by me.

Room update

I did some more stress relieving wall art!

This time with paint =)

What do you think?

Its the first thing I see when I go to sleep, and also when I wake.

Helps remind me of why I am really here and who I owe my life to.

The Orient Dress

I modeled and shot the pictures for this Innvogue dress the other day.

I love the empire waist buttons and sweeping hem.

 Happy vintage hunting!

Scrappy Flower Tutorial!

This is the scrappy flower tutorial! =) Great way to use scraps and other small pieces in your fabric stash.

Okay, so here is all I do to create these:

1) Cut out a circle

2) Pinch fabric scraps of about the same size around the circle! Just keep adding as you sew, and watch your fingers!

3) Sew another circle on top of the scraps

4) Add a few more plaid pieces and a button!

5) These can go on anything. I put mine on this bag for my friend Beth=)