4th of July - Braids, Ribbons, and Tails, Oh My!

So I figured since my hair is also somewhat creative I can put that up here too! :-P (I am just looking for anything to do with my time lately) I wont be as cool as some hairstyling blogs because I refuse to do videos. But I will try my best at step by step photos.

I didn't think of this until after I had done my hair this morning so no photos of the process but here is the final product.

Yes, I know my ribbon pattern isn't that good but for threading it in the mirror myself, I think it's pretty decent.

So the instructions for this are pretty simple. I parted my hair on my left side.

Then I parted the hair on the right side straight around my head and clipped the rest back. I braided that section and pinned it temporarily. I made another part a little farther back and then braided that section and repeated it one last time for the last section so that I ended up with three braids going around my head.

You can kind of see the three braids in the first picture. And in this picture ^ you can see the front two.

To finish the hair part I just gathered all of my hair to the side and put an elastic in.

For the ribbons I pinned one into each braid and then just wove them each through where ever there was room. ( I tried to make it go red, white, then blue but I didn't always have the right spacing and my ribbons were out of order.)

To finish the ribbons I tucked them through the elastic for the red and white and for the blue (which was much longer) I wrapped it around the elastic twice before putting it through. Looking back I should have brought them to the front of the ponytail so there would be more color on the front but oh well, you live and learn. :-)

Animated

Ryan stared at the piece of paper in front of him. The blank piece of paper. He was supposed to be practicing. His art teacher, Mr. Chambers, told him the only way to really improve his art was to practice. But practice wasn’t as easy as it seemed. Ryan had been staring at his paper for the past 10 minutes waiting for an idea to come to him. At this point the had resulted to the most basic doodling, stars swirls and smiley faces.

“You are going to leave me like this?” Ryan startled and looked around his room. “Down here you dummy!” Ryan looked down at his paper where one of his smiley faces was now frowning. “Close your mouth you big oaf. You look like a giant fly catcher.” Ryan closed his mouth and glanced around the room again before leaning back in his chair.

“I’m going insane!” He whispered.

“Well duh, your pathetic drawing is talking to you. I would say that classifies as insane.”

“I didn’t ask you to start talking did I?”

“No one asks to be insane. But I had to start talking. You were planning on leaving me as a few dots and a curve! Would you want to live like that?”

“You aren’t actually living.” Ryan said smartly.

“That’s what I said. This is no life for a drawing, especially one coming from an artist like you. If you left me like this I would be the laughingstock of all your drawings.”

“That’s not actually-”

“Like these eyes, dots, seriously? I need eyelids and eyebrows and an iris and all those things. Maybe even some lashes, I don’t even know what gender I am.”

“Ok, ok, I’ll draw you some real eyes.” Ryan caved and leaned back forward and went to work-erasing the smiley’s eyes and put in more realistic eyes. “Do you want to chose your eye color?” Ryan asked grabbing his colored pencils.

“You’re the artist.” Ryan picked up purple and filled in the blanks. “Oh! So I am a girl!.” The drawing batted her eyelashes.

“Sure why not.”

“Now, how about doing something about this mouth. A line? Really? If I’m a girl, I need real lips.” Ryan nodded and picked up his eraser. "That seems about right." The face smacked it's lips, how about adding some nice red to them?"

"Well aren't you bossy." Ryan muttered and the smiley rolled her eyes. "I'm assuming you want something done about your nose too?"

"No I wan't to stick with the dot that has absolutely no use whatsoever." Ryan noted her sarcasm.

"Your nose wont be useful anyway since you are actually a drawing."

"Hey, don't get snippy with me, I am helping you finish a neglected piece of art. Now, are you going to give me a real head or just let me live as a floating collage of facial features?" Ryan started outlining the face when she spoke up again. "And while you're at it, why not keep going for the rest of my body?" Ryan worked in relative silence for a while. The drawing kept giving him tips and suggestions whether or not they were welcome. "Whoa whoa! What's this?" She looked straight down where her chest was taking shape.

"What?" Ryan couldn't tell anything wrong?

"That!" She pointed at her chest but Ryan still didn't know what she was talking about. "If I am supposed to be a girl make me a girl! I am not going to stand being a flat-chested ambiguity!"

"That doesn't really make sense you know."

"I don't care! Give me boobs!" She stomped her foot.

"But-" Ryan turned a pale shade of pink.

"Oh, stop being such a pansy, unless all of your drawings are going to be gay, you need to learn to draw a girl some boobs." She looked up expectantly. Ryan raised his pencil, still blushing and got to work. When he was done, his drawing surveyed the damage. "I suppose they will do. You definitely need more practice though."

"Well thanks for the encouragement." Ryan returned some of the sarcasm he had been dealt.

"How about a name?"

"Obnoxious sounds about right." Ryan said looking at the clock. He had been at this drawing for an hour now and he had to admit it did look pretty darn good, but he was ready for a break.

"Ha ha ha, now, how about a real name and then you can stuff me in a sketchbook and forget about me. Ryan leaned on his elbows.

"Um, Patricia?" She just laughed. "Lacey." She shook her head.

"Do I look like a ribbons and Lace type of girl?"

"Lexi?"

"Too common." Ryan groaned and put his head on the desk. Suddenly he popped up.

"What about Lee?" The drawing thought for a second.

"Hmm, slightly ambiguous, strong, I actually kind of like it." Ryan grinned and picked up his purple pencil again. He drew a spiky 'Lee' over the girl. She smiled proudly as she watched. "Spectacular!" She said as he finished.

"Ryan!" A voice from downstairs called. "Dinner time!" Ryan put his pencil down and made for the door. When his hand touched the knob he turned back.

"Thanks Lee." He expected Lee to make a sarcastic remark but she was frozen on the paper, like a real drawing. Ryan sighed and began thinking of his next drawing. He would make it a little nicer if he could.

Wild

Wild. That is what the forest around her tower had grown to be. Anis had been living in the tower since she was young. It was tradition. Her great great grandmother had been imprisoned in the tower as a youth and now the women in her family used it as a way to find their perfect mate.

"The world is a dangerous place for women." Her mother used to say. "Men prowl like animals looking for the weakest prey." Anis used to wonder why, then, did the women of the Lanae family pen themselves up like sheep for slaughter.

She had matured a lot since she had last thought that. Now she understood. Lenae women were not bound to the interior of the tower. They were free to come and go which becomes a necessarily when you have no man around to help you survive. Lenae women learned to cook and clean, or else live in their own filth, and sew and weave, or else freeze in the winter, but that wasn't all they learned. They learned to work the ground in order to eat, and to use weapons to hunt as well as protect themselves. The tower was a rather ingenious solution to the hunt for a mate. A man must be brave enough to come looking and have the perseverance to last through the rigorous questions and tests a Lanae women might impose on him.

Yes, Anis liked living in the tower, except for one small detail - Ryanthia.

Ryanthia was Anis' cousin. All Lanae women have a right to living in the tower whenever they want for however long they choose and it just so happened that Ryanthia decided to come not too long after Anis had settled herself in.

"I'm tired!" Ryanthia whined as she plopped onto the ground of the garden.

"Would you like to eat tonight?"

"Duh."

"Then you better get picking because I am not sharing any of mine." Ryanthia harrumphed and stuck her tongue out at Anis. The pitiful part of this exchange was that both girls had been alive the same amount of time, 19 years, and yet Ryanthia threw a temper tantrum like a toddler.

"Hallo!" Anis sighed. Though the point of the tower was to find a mate, right now she was not in the mood to deal with a man who's first impression is a shouted 'Hallo!' from across the small clearing. Ryanthia, though, had a different opinion.

"Why hello there!" She called back, batting her eyes. The man, if that's what you could call that string bean of a male, blushed slightly as he approached and bowed low to the two ladies. "And what, pray tell, brings you here on this fine day, stranger?" Ryanthia let out an obnoxious giggle, still batting her eyelashes so fast Anis was surprised the man didn't blow away.

"I heared rumors about two young women living in a tower in these woods alone and I thought to myself: I should pop in for a visit and make sure the girls have proper supervision. I wouldn't want to have ignored this information and have been responsible for the demise of said beautiful ladies." Ryanthia giggled again. Anis just stared.

"Well, as you can see we are quite responsible for ourselves and have no need of supervision. As such, you should be on your way soon, it will be dark in a few hours and it takes more than that to get to the nearest town." Anis gathered the plants she had collected and turned to go inside.

"Why don't you stay here the night mister . . ." Anis froze in her place.

"Karle, just Karle." Another giggle.

"What do you say, Anis? Couldn't Karle stay the night? You said yourself that he wouldn't make it to town by dark." Anis sighed, she had admittedly dug her own grave.

"Very well, but being the honorable gentleman I am sure you are, you will sleep outside." Ryanthia giggled and took Karle's arm.

"I don't believe I caught your name, lady." Ryanthia led Karle to a small bench set up away from the tower. Anis went inside to prepare supper, though Ryanthia had been basically no help Anis was still kind enough to prepare her meal as well as one for Karle.

When supper was nearly finished Ryanthia rushed in.

"You will never guess what has happened!" Anis barely spared a glance at her gushing cousin. "Karle has brought a friend." Anis wiped her hands and put them on her hips.

"Well either he brought his own food or he's going without supper because i have none for him."

"I brought my own." A man stood in the doorway. "I wanted to apologize for the sudden arrival. Karle and I had been planning to leave town in the afternoon but he disappeared before lunch."

"Oh."

"I am sorry again, I have not introduced myself. I am Gentry." He bowed.

"Oh, I am Anis, and this is my cousin Ryanthia, if she hasn't already introduced herself." Gentry nodded to Ryanthia.

"I will take my leave then, I wouldn't want to be underfoot." Anis nodded as Gentry bowed out.

"I know that look." Ryanthia grinned pointing at Anis' face. she laughed and clapped her hands like a child on Christmas. "You think Gentry is attractive!" Anis scoffed.

"And?" She turned back to the food. "I have the right to think that people are attractive."

"Mm hmm." Ryanthia hummed knowingly as she slinked out the door giggling. Anis shook her head. Yes, she thought Gentry was attractive but that didn't mean that she was going to fawn over him as Ryanthia was doing with Karle. She shook her head again and gathered up supper and dishes.

Gentry took the dishes from her when she walked outside as Ryanthia and Karle ignored her while they giggled and blushed at each other.

"Thank you." Anis set down the food.

"Of course, I would never turn down a damsel in distress." Gentry grinned.

"If you want your food warm you had better eat it now." Ryanthia patted around next to her without taking her eyes off Karle.

"What would she do if you put a rat under her hand?" Anis laughed at the suggestion.

"Scream and run for the hills most likely. Pity I don't have any on hand." Gentry chuckled and took a bite of some dried meat.

"Did you want something else?" Anis motioned to the food she had prepared.

"I thought you had no food for me." Anis blushed a little.

"I was not in a good mood, and, with the lovebirds over there, I think there will be plenty extra."

Suddenly Ryanthia shreiked.

"Yes!!" She jumped up from the ground. "Oh Anis, did you hear? Karle asked me to go back with him! Oh, dear Karle, I would love to!" Ryanthia pulled a blushing Karle from the ground and dragged him for a walk around the clearing.

"A 'thanks' is apparently in order. " Gentry threw a questioning look at Anis.

"Your friend is about to take away the thing that is making my stay here miserable." Anis waved her hand toward the couple.

"You and your cousin don't get along?"

"Oh, we do. As long as she is talking and I am working." Gentry chuckled.

"In that case, I should also be thanking you." Anis returned the confused glanced Gentry had given her moments before. "Karle is my Ryanthia."

"Ah." Anis smiled. "I suppose you will be leaving with them tomorrow?"

"I suppose. Though, if you would allow me, I would like to come back to visit you. I might even bring an entire meal with me." Anis averted her eyes.

"I wouldn't be entirely opposed to that." Gentry nodded and they both finished their meal in silence as they watched Ryanthia and Karle strut around the clearing.

"Oh Anis, I will miss you so much!" Ryanthia hugged Anis tightly. "Will you miss me?"

"Very much." Was Anis' flat reply. Gentry stifled a chuckle on top of his horse.

"Well my dear, we must be off if we are to make out schedule." Karle called from his mount. Ryanthia nodded and took a hold of his arm so he could hoist her up.

"Farewell dear cousin." Karle turned his horse and trotted off.

"Until we meet again, Lady Anis." He threw her a casual salute before following his friend. Anis watched as he disappeared into the trees.

Fairytale

Fairytale

I was playing with shadows and I thought the way the flowers ended up across my head looked like a crown of flowers straight out of a fairytale.

(Life itself is the most wonderful fairy tale ~ Hans Christian Anderson)

Calm Before The Storm

Calm Before the Storm

I took this picture this morning on the way to class and it was just the start of a not so good day. Not that a lot of stuff bad happened, just not enough good...

(Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going too fast - you also miss the sense of where you are going and why ~Eddie Cantor)

A Change In The View

A Change in the View

I see this every Mon-Fri and I have always thought it looked plain and kinda strange but this morning it looked kind of pretty. It's amazing what a tilt of the head, a change in the view can do.

(I never think of the Future, it comes soon enough. ~Albert Einstein)

Forward Motion

Forward Motion

This is just the hymnals in the pews at my church.
This speaks to me because of the quote mostly.
I've been having a hard time lately and going to church and really listening is my step.

(What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step. It is always the same step, but you have to take it. ~Antoine de

Saint-Exupery.)

Growing Up

Growing Up

The title is for two reasons, I was looking around my back yard trying to find something to photograph and with the wind blowing and the swings moving I was reminded of when I was little and I used to swing on them. They look different now since they are attached to the tree and not that old playset but then that got me thinking about how that tree hasn't even been there that long really.
I'm growing up and so is my environment. And although the current view isn't always as green or bright as I wish it was, it's still beautiful.

(You know that children are growing up when they start asking questions that have answers. ~John J. Plomp)

Lazy Days

Lazy Days

My dog was just laying around all day and looked especially cute.

(Part of being a hero is knowing when you don't need to be one anymore ~Alan Moore)

365 Project

I'm starting the 365 project, taking a picture every day for a year. Some of them I'll post cause some of them have quotes with them. The rest will go up on the 365 website. You can look at them here: http://365project.org/wild8child/365

Christmas Cake

So this is a story I wrote FOREVER ago when I was really into Harry Potter fanfics. Don't laugh at how stupid it is, you're the one reading it.

“We’ve been married how many years and I still don’t understand you?” Draco asked as his wife retrieved ingredients from the delivery owl. “I can get you any cake you want from any baker magical or muggle and you still insist on making and icing one yourself.” He said wrapping his arms around her waist as she started to mix the ingredients for the chocolate cake.

“Draco not now, I need to start on this cake I only have six hours to make it.” Hermione answered him.

“Love, maybe you should take a rest the party isn’t until six and it’s only nine.”

“Well I need extra time just in case and I have to make myself look pretty.” She grinned up at him.

“You never look pretty.” He answered making her grin disappear. “You always look beautiful.” She smiled again and turned around to kiss him.

“Thank you, now go to work I have a lot to do.” She turned back to the bowl.

“Well I feel wanted.” Draco pouted feigning sadness.

“You can feel wanted tonight; right now I need to work.”

“Tonight?” He grinned.

“At the party.” Hermione specified. “Now, for Merlin’s sake go!” She said pushing him out of the kitchen. Hearing the loud crack that told her he had left for work, she went back to her cake. While the Christmas tree cake was baking, she made the icing and then started hanging decorations with magic. She was not always primitive, as her husband had once called her because of her muggle habits. When the cake was done, she took it out to cool while she continued to decorate.

Once it was ready, she started icing. Green went on first, then some gold, then silver, red, blue, purple, pink, orange, white, and black. Four icing ornaments decorated the tree, one was a red and gold lion, and another was a silver and green serpent. The last two were a bronze and blue eagle and a yellow and black badger. Each of the ornaments represented one of the four houses in Hogwarts. The tree was for the biannual Christmas party Hermione hosted for their class. As she was putting the finishing touches on the cake there was one spot that the icing would not stick to. Hermione furrowed her eyebrows trying to cover up the bare cake. She growled at it. After playing with it for ten minutes, she brought out her wand to try to cover it up.

“I thought you weren’t going to use magic?” A voice asked from the door. Hermione jumped dropping her wand.

“Draco! You scared me.” She said picking up her wand. “And I wasn’t going to use magic I was going to use my wand to beat the icing onto this stupid spot.” She frowned crossing her arms. Draco just laughed at her.

“Whatever, it’s your cake.” He shrugged.

“Wait, what are you doing home?” She asked silently charming icing onto the bald spot.

“I got done early and decided to come home and help you set up.” He walked over to her and planted a kiss on her forehead.

“Thank you I could use a little help with the sitting room.” The two walked into the other room and finished putting up decorations. When they were done, Hermione commented that they had two hours until the caterers go there so they should go get dressed. After an hour in the bathroom and countless whines from Draco complaining that she took way too long, Hermione stepped out and Draco immediately silenced. His wife stood in front of him in a red knee length cocktail dress. Her curls were piled on her head.

“I was right you are always beautiful.” Draco smiled and Hermione blushed.

“Why aren’t you changed?” She asked examining him.

“I’ll put it on later. I only need five minutes to get the thing on.” Hermione frowned but didn’t argue. Over the next half hour, Hermione ran around the house fixing all of the decorations that Draco put up. This meant moving them one way and then putting them back and saying it then looked perfect.

“Why did you want me to help with the decorations if you were just going to say they weren’t right?” Draco asked as he watched the spectacle from the door.

“Because I thought you would be able to do it right.” She said stepping back to survey her handiwork. Draco decided it would be better if he didn’t point out the fact that she was looking over his shoulder the entire time and correcting him when he put things in the wrong place or arranged them off center or in the wrong order.

The half hour before the caterers were supposed to be there Hermione paced in the foyer complaining that she should have gotten a different company because this one had a tendency to be late. To Draco relief the caterers arrived ten minutes before five and tried to apologize if it was inconvenient for them to be there early but they were a few hands short. They had all of the food unpacked in thirty minutes then started setting up. Before they were finished, Hermione ordered Draco to go change.

“How much food did you order?” Draco asked as he walked into the room dressed in black pants and a red silk shirt. “I would almost think you invited the entire school from every year we were there.” He paused when she didn’t answer. “You didn’t invite the entire school did you?” He and Hermione watched the men and women set the food up in intricate designs.

“No, only our class. However, that includes twenty guys. I would rather have extra than not enough.” They moved out of the way of a caterer carrying a huge tray of food. “Besides I have boxes so if anyone wants the extras they can take it home.”

“You think of everything don’t you?” He put his arms around her waist and kissed her.

“Oh! I forgot the cake. Excuse me! Can you leave this space open?” She asked the caterers. The people around her nodded and she ran up to the office. She came back down with red tape. “Draco, come help me.” She commanded. Draco wandered over and Hermione slapped the end of the tape on his hand.

“What am I supposed to do with this?” He asked.

“Just stay there for a sec.” She answered pulling the tape. When it got to the length she wanted, she cut it off and secured it to the floor. She walked over the tape to stick it to the floor. When she got to Draco, he put his end on the floor and then she put the new end on his hand. They did this three more times to make a box about four feet by four feet. By the time she was finished the caterers had finished and left.

“You think that little cake needs that much space?” He asked.

“You’ll see.” She answered with a smile going into the kitchen to retrieve the cake. She put the cake in the center of the square of tape. Just then, the doorbell rang. “Could you get that honey?” Draco sighed and left the room.

“Draco!” Blaise Zabini called out clearly drunk as he shook Draco’s hand. Hermione came into the foyer to see who it was and immediately regretted it. “Hermione! I haven’t seen you in two years.” He almost fell on her as he hugged her. “This is my friend Cherry.” He pointed to the woman he brought. She giggled.

“Nice to meet you.” Hermione held out her hand. The girl giggled as she shook Hermione’s hand. “Draco, why don’t you show Blaise and um, Cherry to the sitting room?” Draco nodded and motioned for the two to follow him. Hermione went into the kitchen again out of nervous habit and the fact she didn’t want to spend too much time around Blaise. Every time they saw him, he had a new girlfriend just as giggly as the last. The doorbell rang again and Hermione ran to answer it.

“Hermione!” Her two best friends exclaimed as they enveloped her in a giant hug.

“Harry, Ron. I’m so glad you could come.” She grinned. “Ginny, Zoe. How are you?” She asked the spouses of her friends as she embraced them.

“Hi Hermione. Guess what!” Zoe, Ron’s American girlfriend said grinning.

“What?” Hermione smiled.

“We’re engaged!” She held her hand up to show the gigantic ring on it. She and Ron were doing very well now with Ron being the owner of a branch of Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes and Zoe being an accomplished artist. Hermione squealed and hugged the girl.

“That’s so exciting!” She said hugging Ron as well.

“What’s all the squealing about?” Draco asked coming into the foyer.

“Ron and Zoe are engaged.” Hermione said.

“Well congrats.” He shook Ron’s hand then Harry’s to say hello. He gave each of the girls a kiss on the cheek.

“Come on you have to see the cake I made!” Hermione said leading Ginny and Zoe into the other room. Over the next hour more and more people arrived. Hermione and Draco were separated for a good part of the party entertaining their friends. When they finally caught up with each other, they savored the moment looking at the semi-eaten tree cake.

“Now I really don’t understand why you had to make the cake yourself if you were just going to use magic to make it into a six foot display.” He said watching a couple try to take a piece off without making it fall over.

“Personal satisfaction among other things.” Hermione answered.

“What other things?” Draco asked.

“Hermione, did you really ice that whole thing?” Lavender Brown asked pulling Hermione away.

“Mm Hm.” Hermione answered. “And it only took two hours.”

“Are you sure you didn’t use magic?” Their voices faded into the crowd and Draco grinned at his wife’s half-truth.