pixie cut--one month update

so, it's been a month since i cut my hair.

now the big question: do i grow it or trim it?

to nobody's surprise, i have decided to grow it out.  (come on...did you really think i'd be able to commit to one thing for any length of time?)

i did/do love my haircut.  and it is SO. MUCH. easier to style.  however, i like change.  and growing it out will allow me to experiment with a lot of different hairstyles along the way.  i also miss long(er) hair a little...i feel pretty boyish sometimes, even though i know i still look like a girl.

i might end up keeping it shortish.  right now i'm aiming for a medium-length bob...i can't wait until i can do tiny pigtails.  i really like my hair wavy and short, so i might keep the bob for a while if i like it.

anyway...here's what my hair looks like after a month!  (it hasn't really grown much, but i can tell it's fuller.)


here's what it looked like a month ago, a few days after it was cut:

ah, the days when i could just comb it and let it air dry.  she layered it a lot and thinned it out a TON when she cut it.  now it's starting to...fluff up.

and here's a poor-quality, floating-head picture...but it looks a bit longer here.  it gives me hope that maybe it is growing a bit.

[i was trying to figure out why this picture looked so weird to me...i think it's the "senior portrait smile" i've got going on.]

and from today...an attempted faux half up-half down!  (bobby pins used: only 4!)

and there you have it.  one month later.


[if you were bored to tears, i apologize...this post was more for my own documentation purposes.  i always wish i'd taken more pictures of my hair at different lengths so i could remember what it was like.  so now i'm trying to.]

playing grown up

i'm not much of a makeup person.

i really want to be.  i admire women who know how to transform their look--who can go from day to evening with a sweep of smoky shadow or bold lipstick.  there's a certain power in knowing how to flaunt your femininity.  i want that power.

my "evening look" is very similar to my "day look"...just a little more smudged.  what i thought was a "fresh face" in the morning light usually turns into the "i just rolled out of bed after sleeping in my makeup" look--my mascara has traveled down to create a dark ring under my eyes and my eyeliner, if i'm wearing any, has mysteriously disappeared.

i have a few tubes of lipstick that i picked up on a whim.  once or twice a year, i break them out and pretend i'm going somewhere fancy.  (a.k.a. i just wear them around the house.)

two weeks ago i wore heels to church.  i own exactly one pair of heels and that three hours was the most wear they've gotten in the last, oh....four years or so.

i want to have plans tonight.  i want a reason to look pretty and wear my heels and a gorgeous little dress  (note to self: buy a gorgeous little dress).  even though i've pretty much come to terms with my jeans-and-tee personality, sometimes i still want to live the glam life a little.

we tend to keep it pretty low-key around here, though.  most of us don't even bathe daily.

and that's okay, too.  i can just pretend to be glamorous.

maybe i'll start teaching the boys the fine art of dress-up....

a post about nothing

i have, once again, taken an unintended absence.  i wish i had some big, exciting news to break the silence.  but alas, i do not.

i've suddenly decided i want to reminisce a bit.  please do indulge me.

2012 was a transformative year for me.  and probably (in the end), one of my best.

funnily enough though, nothing "big" happened.

i didn't get pregnant or have a baby, i didn't start school or graduate.  i didn't fall in love or get married or travel to an exotic land.  (i did read 78 books though.)

it started out being one of the worst years i've experienced*.  i was so lost, and i felt hopeless and beaten down.  i didn't see how things could possibly improve.  i began making contingency plans.

but somehow, miraculously, things did get better.  not overnight.  not in a month or even two.  but gradually, very gradually.  it wasn't until the very end of the year that i could say with any certainty, "hey.  we made it."  (and not only did we survive, but we're happy!)

i changed in 2012.  i began to discover who i really was.  as cheesy and stupid as that sounds, it is the truest thing i've said all day.  i've spent most of my life as a chameleon--one of the things i like about myself is that i can adapt quickly and with relative ease to my friends and their interests.

and one of the things i don't like about myself is that i can adapt quickly and with relative ease to my friends and their interests.

i've spent a lot of time being other people, so when the cumulative events of last year struck (allow me to invoke a wee bit of melodrama and say it was a bit of a crisis year), i was forced to figure myself out.

and it was one of the best things that's ever happened to me.

i'm hoping to continue that trend this year--one of my resolutions is to "be heather" (thank you, gretchen rubin).

happy 2013, my internet friends.  (17 days late, yes.)



*i know it's highly annoying when people talk about their lives in vague, cryptic terms.  my apologies.  i'll try to fill in more details later if i deem it appropriate.