Thursday, August 23, 2012

This is Dangerous.

This is it, folks.

I think I'm addicted to sewing.

I just finished a project of FIVE bridesmaid dresses - each containing close to 30 pieces. They took me several months to complete. I thought I would be dying to stop sewing for awhile, after they were done.

Two days after I passed the last one on to the waiting bridesmaid, the urge to sew was overwhelming.

But I held off. "You're crazy," I told myself.

Self didn't listen.

I gave the last bridesmaid dress away on the 13th. Ten days ago.

For the last three nights, I've stayed up until or near midnight, out at our kitchen table - machine clattering softly, scissors snipping. The first night, the urge to make a new skirt hit me at 8:30 pm. I've never started a sewing project at 9:00 at night....but there's a first for everything!

I liked the experience so much, I've repeated it twice now.

Actually...correction: I didn't really care for the experience. I'm dead tired from 10:15 onward. My eyes get dry and my neck hurts. The next morning, I sleep in too late, (I like to be an early riser), and my whole morning is thrown off.

Yet still I continue. Driven by some unseen force - some wild, crazy urge to sew.

And sew I do.


Monday, August 20, 2012

How to Wear Curlers in Public

I keep thinking of posts I would publish if I had my camera situation solved.

It's a two-fold problem.

#1 - My laptop does not download pictures easily. I can't pop the SD card into a slot and transfer. It's a big hassle with cords and files...etc. Takes awhile.

#2 - My camera.....is not my camera. It belongs to my Daddy. He's just so good-natured that he lets me adopt it for weeks at a time. It stays in my bedroom, handily available for mirror shots of outfits or hair-do shots. But lately the camera has been reclaimed by its rightful owner, and I have no idea where it is right now. Probably sitting forlornly on some strange shelf in the distant living room.

But I have been thinking. I've been thinking about certain items in my closet - do I really need them? Does it really please Jesus when I wear them?

Who am I trying to please with my life? Who am I trying to please with my dress? When I know I look lovely, graceful, and feminine, does it please me because I want to draw attention to myself? Or does it please me because I feel that Christ is pleased with me?  There's a big difference. I'm afraid I'm quite self-centered.

I also wanted to share several new tips/ideas with you. One I'm trying today for the first time, and I LOVE it! So wish I had a picture of this one.

How To Go Out In Public Wearing Curlers: 

Okay, so not really wearing curlers. But I'm curling my hair in public, nonetheless.

First, tell me if you have the same problem I do; on the mornings that I wash my hair, I don't know what to do with it.

I want to air-dry it, but also want to curl it. My hair is naturally curly, but I must contain and control it in some way as it drys, or it will be a frizzy mess. I can't just let my damp hair soak the back of my shirt all day. Until today, my solution was to claw-clip it in a big, messy, damp twist at the top of my head for the day. It took about 8 hours for the ends to dry (my hair is VERY thick), but what could I do? At night when I took the twist down, the part that had been twisted tightly would still be damp, but would dry most of the way during the night. By the middle of the next morning my hair would be thoroughly dry.

Needless to say, I do not wash my hair everyday. (Besides the fact that I would constantly have a wet head, that would be a little extreme for my hair. My hair is much healthier when I wash it every 3-4 days.)

This wet, messy twist worked okay around the house, but if I went out in public like this I knew I looked like I had just gotten out of the shower, and I hated that.

Many girls prefer to air-dry their hair rather than using heat to dry it quickly. And I agree that it's good for your hair - in the years since I've stopped heat-drying mine every time I wash it, my hair has never been dry or brittle, and the frizz is better than it was. But, as I've said, my hair is very thick, and it's below my shoulders in length, so it's hard to know what to do with it during that drying time. If I leave it down, it will dry in 4-6 hours or so, but the top layers will be a puffy cloud of brown frizz, while the under layers are still damp, and lay like wet noodles against my neck.

But I think I may have found a solution.

Today, I worked hard cleaning the kitchen most of the morning, and took a shower at about 11:00. I washed my hair. After exiting the shower, I finger-combed my hair - just briefly - and twisted it in a very short twist near the middle of the back of my head. I didn't want to twist much - I wanted a lot of ends hanging out. My idea was to get a ponytail without the "ponytail mark" you get if you use a band in wet hair. Claw clips work great for holding wet hair without leaving "bands."

So I had a bunch of wet curls hanging in the back of my head. I took small sections - about the amount I would use in a curler - and twisted them around my finger, just as if my finger was the curler. Then I slipped my finger out, and had a hollow "roll" of hair. I bobby-pinned it to my head.

It ended up looking something like this: (without the veil, of course. But I did add a flower!)



 I felt special and dressed up, even though it was a normal day. So fun!

It is now 9:30 at night (approx. 10 hours since I put my hair up) and the insides of my "rolls" are almost dry. I know that when I take my hair down, it will be in ringlets. Whether or not they will stay smooth and curly - since I will have to sleep with slightly damp hair - remains to be seen.

But whatever the case may be, at least I could go shopping today, with "shower-do" hair, and feel like nobody knew my hair was in curlers!


Do you think this idea would work with your hair? Do you air-dry your hair, or heat-dry it?