and my birthday

The day after thanksgiving was my birthday. I love being a thanksgiving baby, it feeds my pumpkin persona. 

This year was a big one too, 25. Well, bigish, it is my quarter-century mark.

Since Ashley was going to be in Texas, she made me a pre-birthday brunch before she left. Of course it was awesome in every way.

Knowing that it would be such, I did a fancy braid: one over the top and the rest pulled to the side and braided down.

Chloe was excited to be a part of this ladies brunch, can't you tell?

Ashley made pumpkin cinnamon rolls!!! I mean really people. 

On my actual birthday Jonathan and I spent a lovely day relaxing.  We took Chloe for a long walk, played ticket to ride (a birthday addition), and ate at poole's diner, which was delicious.  The drinks were fancy, the food was tasty, and the dessert was flipping amazing. 

Also, the boy got me a lovely california apron, absolutely perfect.

It was a lovely ringing-in to my next year.

xoxo

an end to the brackets.

Ok. So I'm sure y'all saw the big news, 

that cornbread lost to beignets in the finals!!! So ridiculous, I know. 

Oh wait. The basketball bracket. 

Oh yes, that ended too. With UK winning, and I'm so happy they did. 

Why? Oh because it meant I finished in 3rd of our bracket group. boom diggity.

But also, we had a party to watch some of the great basketball since UNC and NC State were playing on the same night. It was a great time with lots of booze and food and fun. 

 Ashley did her hair all fancy with two braids in the back:

Casey sculpted a wolf in sheep's clothing (a wolf out of sheep's milk cheese) to represent his inner turmoil of being an NC State grad working at UNC...adorable.

 

And then everyone else brought snacks, 

the real reason we come together to watch other people run around. 

  

There were many more that I missed. 

A solid time team,

xoxo

NYE Fun...

Means - ladies, wine, champagne, snacks, and chocolate...

and braids?

What the cool kids did:

xoxo

oh yeah, this one too

For Lyle's party we went out to parlour room. I like it there, so I had to have a good braid.

I went with a three way:

I started with taking one half of a front chunk and did a simple small braid and clipped it off, this would end up being pulled behind.

Then I took the opposite side front chunk and did a frenchie and tied it off. 

Finally, I grabbed all of it and did a fishtail on the side with the french braid, having the simple braid in the back.

 

Pretty fancypants in the end. And I liked it.

xoxo.

on the eve

For Christmas eve, only a fishtail braid seemed appropriate:

(I used the clip to pull back the shorter layers and keep them in place in the braid)

and sparkly shoes of course

xoxo

tails

the fishy kinds. the braid kind really. 

A fishtail braid is one of current favorites at the moment. Partially because it's so pretty but really because it's fairly straight forward and I can do it myself.

See here for clear instructions, I promise you can do it.

Also, Lisa finally came back, so Ashley had to take advantage of her perfect braid hair and test out some good ones.  Ashley can do this like barrel fishtail with very thin chunks, it's awesome. But I have no idea how she does it.

 

  

xoxo

So many braids

The summer obsession with braids is still thriving.  If you couldn't tell from the last braidtastic post, I have a lot of hair, thick hair, which can make braiding, and hairstyling a challenge.  That being said some good things are happening.

Braid + Bun = Balla. I saw this on cupcakes and cashmere and thought it was adorable and easy enough.  It was.  Just a braid on one side of the head followed by a bun. prec.

For fourth of July, I got a little crazy and decided that I needed to rock three braids.  I had two front side braids that led down into one full ponytail braid. ridiculous.

 Finally, I saw this on pinterest (duh) and that it was different and cute. So I gave it a try. One problem: remember all that hair of mine? Yeah, turns out it's not so easy to tie it into knots.  I only got one knot out of it; I thought it looked cute enough, until it fell out shortly after...

 More braiding to come later.

Braid-Bonanza

So it may not be a proper craft, but hair braiding has become a very hot topic in my circle and I’m mildly obsessed. Recently Megan found a treasure from our childhood.  You remember those klutz books that are filled with all those super fun activities...remember the braid one? Oh yeah, amazing. 

 

After rereading this balla book, and reliving the classic fashion of the early 90’s, action had to be taken. 

Ashbash came over for a crafting evening but we got distracted and instead had a drink (a spiked arnold palmer), and she braided my hair.

She tried to start with the french braid, but struggled.  Turns out she is an expert at the inside-out french braid and I love it!

Next up was something that I don't know the name of...but it involved two braids becoming one, amazing.  

 

Ashbash then went to town and accomplished something truly incredible: the fishtail. This is a braid for the real experts team, don't try this unless you have patience, time and a steady hand.

A break was needed so up next she went with the rope braid.  We still aren't quite sure how it doesn't fall out, but it doesn't...

We had time for one more braid before we had to pick up ms. lisa from the airport.  So Ashbash got a little creative and braided three braids, and then braided them! We tied it off with the scrunchie I made while she was braiding my hair (remember the book is called braids and bows...):

 

Obvi this was an amazing night.  And one you should definitely try out if you want to feel like you are back in summer camp listening to the spice girls and reading the babysitters club... 

Unfortunately, Braids and Bows is now out of print, you can still find some copies floating around the interwebs, or we could check out what I believe is the updated version...Headbands & Hairstyles. Expect an update.