A Simple Braid: Used 10 Different Ways

So, I was trying out different hairstyles and discovered that there are so many styles you can do using a simple braid, a few elastics, and creativity! 

Check out the few styles I discovered:

#1- The Basic Braid.
 You take a section of your hair and braid it, then just let hang with the rest of your hair.
(This is the same basic braid that I used to do the rest of the hairstyles. See? So simple.)


#2-Side braid.
Simply pull the braid to the side and bobby pin it.
(The best hold is to make an X with the pins)

#3-Little ponytail with braid. 
Just pull your hair back as you normally would for a little pony tail.
(Note: To make it easier, I flip the braid in front of my face while I pull back the rest of my hair, then when the hair is smoothed down I bring the braid over the top of my hair.)

Back view

#4-Ponytail with a braid. 
(Use the same flipping trick as with the little ponytail)

#5-Pigtails with braid. 
Simply do pigtails as you normally would, just bring the braid into it.
(Again, you can use the flipping trick)

Side View

#6-Side ponytail with braid. 

#7-Twisted pigtails. 
This is where it gets really fun! Twist both sides of your hair into the pigtails.
Just twist as you would when doing a normal twist; now you just have a braid twisted into it that gives a different look! 

Side View (Cool, huh?)

#8-Twisted into side ponytail.
This is a similar idea to the pigtails, but you twist all the way around to the other side of your head. 

Be sure to keep the twist really tight or you will have to use bobby pins to keep it tight; like I had to do here. You can also figure out how to twist it just right to hide the elastic. 

Twisted side ponytail

#9-French Braid.
Simply use the braided strand as one of the strands in the french braid.
(This one may be my favorite)

#10-Braided tie back.
Simply braid another braid on the other side of your head, bring the 2 braids in the back and secure them together
 (I used an elastic)

Back View

See how much fun a simple braid can be? Play with the braid some more and see what new styles you can create! 

Owl Pretzels

My roommate and I wanted to make something one night and we found this idea on Pinterest. 

This was the original idea from Pinterest. 

So we made them and we changed a few things. I like the way ours turned out better. Sorry, Pinterest. Ours have so much more personality. 

Aren't they cute?

What we used:

• Medium sized pretzels
• White chocolate
• Oreo's
• Chocolate chips
• Chocolate covered pomegranates cut in half (for nose)
• Chocolate licorice (which doesn't taste great, but tastes better with all the chocolate on the owl than black licorice would)
• A 5 part sprinkle container (this was great because we didn't have to buy two separate things for the toes and the fur. We used the long skinny sprinkles for the toes and the tiny sprinkles for the fur)

How we made them:

1. Dip the pretzels in white chocolate (p.s.-it is much more difficult to melt white chocolate than milk or dark chocolate. If the white chocolate gets to stiff, add oil until it's a good consistency.)
2. Split the Oreo's in half and place them on the pretzel as shown in the picture. 
3. Add the nose and toes as shown in picture. 
4. Put some white chocolate in a baggie, clip a corner, and squeeze a medium sized dab in the center of the Oreo's and add  chocolate chip eyes and licorice eyebrows.
•  This is the fun part because you can place the eyes and eyebrows in different directions to get different personalities. 
5. Let them dry and you are good to go! They taste delicious! (P.S.-In case you couldn't figure it out already, these are not healthy at all!)

These guys were my favorite. 

 These are so fun to make because you can make them have so much personality. 

Fall Leaf Picture

I went hiking up in Logan Canyon and found some tye-dye looking leaves. I couldn't just 'leaf' them there, so I took them home figuring there was something I could do with them. 

I thought it was cool that I found various sizes of the tye-dye leaves. So, I brainstormed what I could do with them and this is what I came up with! 

First, I preserved the leaves by ironing them with wax paper. 

Then, I found a frame at the thrift store and painted the frame black. 

After that, I just designed the background experimenting with different colors of paper. 

I thought the frame looked a little plain, so I used a sponge to add some color. 

Then, I glued letters from an old scrabble game onto the outside of the frame. 

I think it turned out very well! 

I also found this leaf while hiking. I thought it was so cute because I has a heart on it. So, I preserved it using wax paper and found the perfect frame at a thrift store to display it. 

2013...yes it's been a while.....

So, I realize I haven't been keeping up with my blog for a LONG time. Like a year.....

I kinda lost interest since I was so busy with school and everything. Now that I am just about done with student teaching (only 5 days left) I have more time to do things, like keep up with a blog. 

I will try to catch you up on what has happened in the year of 2013. 

P.S-this might be a really long post....

Let's start with the end of February:

I had two ewes (Sprinkles and Crumbles) expecting to have a baby. Crumbles had her babies (that's right, it was twins!) on Feb. 26. 

The first one she had in the wood pile.

 Crumbles went to have her second baby and forgot about the first one, and because it was February and still so cold, mom brought him inside to warm up. 

Ric Rac the cat was curious about having a lamb in the house. 

We brought the boy lamb back outside to his mom when he got warmed up, but Crumbles wouldn't let him nurse. The only way we could get Crumbles to nurse him was if the girl was nursing too, otherwise she wouldn't stand still long enough. We separated the lambs from Crumbles so that the babies would have to nurse at the same time. We had to go out there once every 3 hours to hold Crumbles still while the babies nursed. 

Crumbles and her twins. 

 Crumbles didn't really like the boy, we don't know why, but at least she didn't try to kill him by head butting him into the fence. Not letting him nurse was pretty mild compared to what some ewes do to their babies. 

The next morning Sprinkles had twins! 

Sprinkles is a very good mother. She is very protective of them and she has never disowned of of her lambs. 

Sprinkles and her 4th set of twins. 

This all happened when I was up in Logan at school, so sadly I didn't get to watch them have their lambs as I have in previous years.  But mom sent me pictures to keep me updated. 

When I came home for spring break, I was very excited to see these new lambs. 

A family that lives nearby does 4-H and was interested in buying some of my lambs for the stock show at the fair. They often came over to see the lambs and to help hold Crumbles. 

Now onto May:

School ended the first week in May and I started my 4-H internship (3rd year) the week after. I took a couple days off to work on my cousin Christy's wedding cake. She was getting married on May 19 and she asked me to make her wedding cake! 

She wanted carrot cake and white cake for 150 people. 

We went to the 4-H office to bake them because they have 2 ovens. It took 5 hours to bake all of them!!!

Supplies: 4 dozen eggs, 16 cake mixes, 1 bottle of oil

We had to make room in the freezer for all of them! 

And I had to make tons of chocolate trees! Good thing they were easy to make!

When we got to Colorado we had to make 15 batches of frosting! 

Half of it was buttercream frosting and the other half was cream cheese frosting. 

Making the frosting in Jeremy and Amanda's kitchen

 Then came time to put it together! 

Putting the cake together at Derrek's house. 

 This is the finished product! 

It didn't turn out as good as I pictured in my mind, but it got done. I was nervous because the reception center was pretty warm and it would be a while before they would cut the cake. Luckily, the frosting and chocolate didn't melt too bad. The cake was also pretty soft and the bottom layer of cake did crack a little because it couldn't take the weight. 

It may not have looked like my best cake decorating work, but at least I got compliments on the moistness and good flavor of all the cakes! 

Here are some of the highlights from the wedding: 

Christy's bridal shower

John Michael was the ring bearer

My favorite part of the night was dancing with John Michael! His mommy and daddy wanted to dance, so I got to babysit. It was so fun to dance with my nephew! 

Congrats to Christy and Michael Rose!

While in Colorado, we also visited the Great Sand Dunes in southern Colorado. It was so neat! It was the first I ever did barefoot (and with socks when the sand became too hot). 

We also attended Derrek's graduation from UCCS with a master's degree in business. 

 

Now on to June:
The end of June found my family and I at the VanHorssen family reunion.

 

The reunion was lots of fun: 

We had a pie making contest. 

We raced on some Co-op-o-walks

We played some yard size Bananagrams (it was a good workout)

We did some Klompen dancing

We had a 5-K race
(the oldest and the youngest coming through the finish line)

We had a visitor.....

....that did some line dancing with us

We visited a sheep herder

And ate LOTS of food, including these birthday cupcakes.

It was a great reunion full of food, family, fun, and lots and lots of laughter! 

I can't wait for the next reunion!  

After the reunion, Derrek and I climbed to the top of Desert Peak! 

Then we went camping at Smith and Morehouse with Joan and Kathleen.

July:
Mom, Pedro (68years old), the Sheffields, and I went backpacking to Blanche Lake. 

At Blanche Lake

  

I got to try out my new UV water purifier.
It's SO easy to use!

Mom and I at the base of Sunset Peak

In August I went backpacking again, this time with my friend Katherine

At Lake Mary

We went backpacking up by Brighton to Catherine Lake. 

On top of Mount Wolverine

Katherine overlooking Lake Catherine

Then I went camping in Wyoming with mom, dad, Derrek, Fred and Rose. 

We ate some lunch by a big tree  root, 

did some boating, 

caught some fish, 

and found some natural water beads. 

While we were camping we got a call from Jeremy that Hannah Grace Long had been born! 

Hannah Grace Long

Congrats Jeremy, Amanda, and big brother John Michael! 

End of August-October:

This summer I went to a water park for the first time ever. My mom, Pedro, and I went to Seven Peaks and Pedro and I did the tallest slides! They were SO scary, but fun at the same time. 

While I was packing to move up to Odgen with Ang, Ric Rac climbed in my box I was packing because she wanted to come with me. Too bad she couldn't :(

 I can't believe I am already on my 5th year of college! It has gone by so fast, but I am glad for all the experiences I have had and great friends I have had while attending college. 

Now I am doing my student teaching at Discovery Elementary in Brigham City. 

I did half of my student teaching in kindergarten and the other half in 5th grade. I was nervous about teaching 5th graders, but I turned out liking them more than I thought I would. 

 

This is what my kindergartners gave me on my last day. 

While I've been living in Odgen, I have met some neat people. It's a different dynamic here than what I have been used to being around college students in Logan. These people have unique jobs, have moved to Utah from different areas of the country, and are at a different stage of life than my college friends. But, I am blessed to have met them and made friends with them. 

Hiking in Ogden 

I took this photo while visiting Logan and submitted it to the Tooele Transcript and it won the photo of the month contest! 

Well, now you are pretty much caught up on basically what has happened in 2013. Lots of fun, excitement, and changes.