Jenny's Hair Tutorial

So, this was completely un posed (except for the pic of her holding the applesauce). This is how she did her hair. And yes, she tries to rub yogurt, applesauce, tomato sauce, etc into her hair at every chance she gets. I don't know why. I even found bits of omelet in it once....

It looked so much like a tutorial I had to make it into one...so without further ado,

I present

Jenny's first ever hair tutorial

The Look. Style with a barette and some necklaces

STEP 1:

Style your hair the night before with applesauce. I like this brand, as its the only one my mom ever gets. Sometimes I use yogurt, or spaghetti sauce, or lentils, or jam, depending on what's available. Omelet doesn't hold the volume very well....

STEP 2:

Get a hold of a brush. I got mine that my mom left airing out in the back yard. And a spray bottle.  

STEP 3: 

Spray the brush with the spray bottle. 

 

STEP 5:

Brush your hair 

 STEP 5:

Repeat as needed.

STEP 6:

Give it a nice air dry by running around the back yard, preferably with a toy car you just liberated from your brother. Being chased around increases the air drying process.                                 

Enjoy your chic hairstyle, perfect for riding firetrucks and just running about the back yard in.

And here it is in a all in one page, for handy future reference.

A moving music video

Sex and the Single Woman

I've had some thoughts on emotional fulfillment and marriage (here and here) but this woman takes it from a single woman's perspective, and the suffering of singleness.

http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/sex-and-the-single-woman

"....It doesn’t feel good, but it is a gift that I can share with others. Sitting across from a wife as she explains why it’s time to leave her husband because he is not meeting her emotional needs—needs that are real and valid and designed to be met—I have experienced that gift. I have been able to look her in the eyes and say that it is normal and natural and good to be hungry for the things she needs. I get to minister to her by looking her in the eyes and sharing how that hunger can be a gift; how suffering the loss of valid dreams is an opportunity to gain Christ. " (italics mine)

Valid dreams....to be loved, to be understood, to have children, to be happy, so many expectations we have out of this life. But, we won't be satisfied in this life.

Because, we were made for more than this. We were made for God.

Dwarven Pouch Inspiration: Cool Links on Deviant Art

My new Dwarven Pouch inspiration by a reenactor VendelRus on deviantart here

Sooo, I hate blogger right now. I spent 2 precious hours wasting time on the internet a few months ago, and had collected a whole bunch of links to deviant art of cool dwarven inspiration, plus some bonus eye-candy of guys in really impressive Knight Templar recreations.
It's been sitting in my drafts folder for a month.

And I thought, since I've been mostly doing carpet beetle stuff lately, I may as well edit it with a few comments and post it....And then when I had the tab open, I accidentally hit a button, and BAM it was deleted. completely. and I can't get it back, because blogger autosaved it while I stared helplessly at the computer trying to figure out what to do. Blogger, I am so totally switching to wordpress next year. I hate this.

You are a hand of google on its self stated creepy mission to get "an information monopoly", you get me to give you loads of info for free webmail and bloghosts that you sell to marketers take over the world and perhaps my own dear NSA, you "accidentally" release Palin's password to her gmail during the elections, you blocked "climategate" from your search engines for 2 weeks before the story broke, you collaborated with the Chinese government to catch dissidents, you creepily stalked the nation and had your little google map streetview car collecting people's info on secured networks that took 38 or some state attorney generals to sue you over for you to at least feign shame about it, and now you delete my Dwarven and Templar links.

That is going to far. Deep Breath. Ok. So.

I was able to re search some of them, but now I'll never know if I have them all. And I still can't find the Templar links.

OK, so, Inspiration #1 VendelRus on Deviantart. The pouches and knife scabbards and belt contraptions are EXACTLY what I had in mind for dwarves.
Hah, and I thought I was inventing it with a little historical flavor.
It appears the Vikings invented these things ages ago...(And historical reenactors reinventing them now)

My ideas (blogged about here)

 And now look at Vendelrus's Viking Woman Image....
 

From VendelRus HERE.

This totally encapsulates what I think of as Dwarven Women's Clothing. Just imagine lots of feet of braids wrapped around her head, and either a baby or a pick axe strapped to her back. Or both.
And shorter.


More images from VendelRus's Gallery (just click through the numbers on the bottom to see all the pages)

Anglo Saxon Sheath by VendelRus.

This is totally something dwarves would do, decorating their functional things. Practical and Beautiful. That's the dwarves. The elves would make something beautiful just because. The dwarves like purposes to things.

Bag Bling by Vendelrus

 I love this pouch soo much. I totally would wear something like this every day. I never could get into the whole purses thing, I hated always having to remember where it was with a vague sense of worry, but this just clips onto your belt. And besides, purses matching shoes has got nothing on THIS AWESOMENESS.

And just because I can't get over this awesome configuration, I will post it again. "Hanging Pouches" is what I thought the dwarves would have. THIS IS TOTALLY IT. Knife, check. Pouch, check. More pouch, check. Awesome belt, check. Awesome hanging configuration, check.
All it needs is a horn.

Viking Bling by VendelRus

And besides, this VendelRus has got the cutest little Viking/Dwarven baby I ever saw....

"Superior Stick Handling" by VendelRus on deviantart

 More Inspiration, from DarkSunTattoo on deviantart, (his viking handcrafts gallery here, his reenactors being vikings here)

By DarkSunTattoo on Deviantart

By DarkSunTattoo on Deviantart

By DarkSunTattoo

More awesomeness....

Viking Drinking Horn by DarksunTattoo

And a bag with a rigid carved top, I could make something like this...

Viking Bag by DarkSunTattoo

AND THIS, which is SO TOTALLY WHAT I WAS IMAGINING FOR DWARVEN WOMEN!!!!

hannah ideas

Viking Women's Outfit by DarkSunTattoo on Deviantart

Viking Women by DarkSunTattoo

Just imagine her with lots of braids, and a belt (I don't know why its missing in this picture) with the pouches above, and ofcourse, shorter.

More medieval/viking woman awesomeness from reenactors on deviantart

This one (Aspova on deviantart) just look so right to be somehow. I love her head kercheif and her expression, it seems so Dwarven/Germanic to me, smiling but cautious, reserved, strong.

Viking-Age Woman by Aspova on Deviantart

 While I imagine Tolkien's dwarves clothed like Vikings, I imagine their culture to be much more Germanic. With all the emotion and pride of the Celts/Vikings, but tempered with restraint and sense and dignity and long memory, like the Germans. (I know I am painting with a very broad brush here) Prone to hold grudges, but also to remember generations-old debt, and lay down their lives for it.

Another Viking Reenactor, 'weavedmagic' on deviantart. Love the tablet woven detail, especially on the neck of her dress.

Viking Woman by weavedmagic on deviantart

Okay, so another image by weavedmagic, not really dwarven at all but it was too beautiful not to share. Looking toward the light, the window composition, how the light catches her hair....this is high art.

Blue Dress by weavedmagic on deviantart

 ALL IS FORGIVEN!!!! I found my Templar Links!!! (and some Hussars and more...)
http://chavi-dragon.deviantart.com/art/Templier-Knight-167417835
http://darksuntattoo.deviantart.com/art/Slavic-Battle-192754184
http://speculumhistoriae.deviantart.com/art/Behind-the-Horizon-192935558
http://nivelis.deviantart.com/art/Crucial-Moment-172556009
http://nivelis.deviantart.com/art/Battle-at-the-sunset-292803101
http://nivelis.deviantart.com/art/Pushing-forward-177578543
http://nivelis.deviantart.com/art/Red-Knight-on-Horseback-152180053
http://nivelis.deviantart.com/art/Bloody-Sunset-173994867
http://gummybearxyxy.deviantart.com/art/Templier-321765567

AND MORE
http://chavi-dragon.deviantart.com/art/Templier-Knight-5-167529426
http://chavi-dragon.deviantart.com/art/Templier-Knight-3-167529150
http://chavi-dragon.deviantart.com/art/Templier-and-Teutonic-Knight-167417717
http://chavi-dragon.deviantart.com/art/Groupement-Knight-3-167417267
http://marqoni.deviantart.com/art/Polish-hussars-171406231

SO. MUCH. AWESOMENESS
http://mopasrep.deviantart.com/art/Polish-XVIIc-Husars-308901819

for Mali...

 The Bumbo is evidently "a helmet," even I who have written of his love for helmets, never dreamed of this one....

 Jenny had to keep up with the Joneses

Jenny all dressed up for church, always carrying her little purse with a spare diaper in it.

Store Up Not for Thyself....

 Lay not up for yourselves...

 treasures upon this earth....

where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal....

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, 

where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Day 4 of battling the carpet beetle infestation, laundry, moving furniture, laundry, vacuuming, poisoning, carpet cleaning, laundry.... 

It's exhausting, and not just for me, but my poor mother in law is working and working on this. And the worst part is, its mostly my fault (and a little bit the 8 cats fault, for shedding fur, mostly long haired, which makes the dust here delicious). 

My fault, because of my stash of fabric and things made out of fabric that I was "going to refashion." Like those 2 beautiful deep red wine colored wool winter coats I got from the thrift store for the amazing deal of 15 bucks total, that were going to turn into a splendid medieval winter coat with silvery buttons....
Or the piles of sheets and re-purposed clothes, all awaiting their transformation into medieval-inspired gowns and nostalgic children's clothes. 
Or the 15 belts and worn out shoes & boots that I had stuffed in bottom of my closet with dreams of glory, of scabbards and medieval boot making skills....

For some reason they really like fabric stored under beds, and in closets. I don't know why they are on the cotton as they can't eat cellulose, but I suppose a thin layer of cat hair is all they need. And evidently the leather & keratin-muncing pupae (hatch in 5-35 days, are pupae 2 months to 2 years) live quite a while, eating and eating in the dark to prepare for their brief 2 weeks of adult life in the light.

When I found the first signs, and told Josh, he said "Store up not for thyself..."
When I threw the wine-colored coats in the trash, and said it to myself. I think God is trying to get my attention.

Resolutions:

1. Vacuum the floor and closets 2x a week. (and wipe down dusty baseboards) Mondays and Thursdays. Make one of those times moving furniture that can be moved.

2. Do a deep cleaning 2x a month. (moving mattresses, vacuuming under beds, dusting bookshelf tops and trying to vacuum as much as I can behind dressers, dusting baseboards) First and Third Mondays of a month.

3. Do Fall and Spring Cleaning, moving all the furniture, shampooing the carpet (especially closets) and washing the walls and baseboards.

4. Don't store stuff under beds, or on carpet level. Put it in tubs and stack them to high heaven.

5. If I'm not planning to make it into something in the next 7 years, DO NOT BUY IT, nomatter what a great deal it is. While I might be saving money on a deal by buying it now, say I get it for 4 bucks now instead of 24 bucks ten years down the road, I am saving 20 bucks but hauling a chunk of stuff around with me FOR 10 YEARS. That's 10 YEARS of space used up in my home, 10 YEARS of mental stress about my stuff not getting moth and rust and all that. It comes out to 2 BUCKS A YEAR for hauling it around. So if I realistically am not sewing something for the next 7 years, don't buy it.

6. If it takes me more than 20 seconds to figure out what I'm going to do with a scrap, then throw it away. (and that use had better be within the next 7 years) I love making silk purses from a sow's ear. I love taking somthing that would have been thrown away, and turning it into something precious. Like a medieval hat from an empty diaper genie refill container (literally). Or elven leaves applique from T-shirt scraps, or fabric flowers from old shirt collars....
I hate to think of a 10" x8" piece of a white sheet rotting in a landfill just because I was too lazy to come up with a use for it.
I hate wasting fabric, even cheap fabric. To the point that I find cutting out patterns mentally exhausting, as I reposition my pattern pieces for half an hour, trying to get the least wasteful method of cutting them out from a polyester mockup sheet. I want to have a scrap bin, waste turned into endless possibilities, that I will transform into amazing things. 
But the truth is, my scrap bin is paralyzing. I feel I must justify the existence of each scrap, like the animate things in a Hans Christian Anderson story, and give them purpose. And if I throw them away, its like I've failed. It's emotionally exhausting to dig through the scraps and try to think of uses for little odd shaped trapezoids of fabric. I cart around little 2" wedges of fleece that I might turn into fleece flowers, etc, because I can't bear to see them sitting in a landfill till Jesus comes back.
But  all I'm doing is turning my house into that landfill. 

And it is paralyzing my creativity (Its so much easier to make flowers from a 75 cent piece of felt, than spend an hour piecing together fleece bits from my scrap bin), and time is a resource too. A very precious limited resource with the kids and all. 


And something else I've realized. Trying to make cool stuff when you are unemployed or trying to support 3 kids off a grad school stipend, made me value money. If I could decorate, sew, and make beauty for cheaper, than it was possible. I wanted to prove that you didn't need money to make things. That you could get a medieval gown with thrifted table-clothes, a medieval hauberk with a stained leather jacket at a thrift store. That with grit and ingenuity, I could make all those things that other people spent thousands on, with grit and pocket change.

But there's something else, much much more precious and limited than money. Time. 

I only have one life on this earth.

And yes, in my lifetime, even with very limited funds, I might be able to sew and make every cool craft and dress and medieval weapon that was in my inspiration folder. With lots of creativity and a little money, making dresses and boots and swords and satchels...

But I only have one life on this earth.

And while I could do it, it would use up all my time.

And there are other things I want to do more. Read the Hebrew and Greek, read the Church Fathers and Midrash, write children's books with beauty & symbolism, help re-write StarCraft, make movies that touch people's souls and reveal the deep symbolism that God wrote into the universe, go camping with Josh & the kids on a frequent basis, teach the kids survival skills and archery and history....

And there's the things I should do more, because I know when I'm 70 I'll look back and wish I did them more, read the kids more books, eat more popsicles with them, cheerfully change diapers, make Josh tasty lunches, listen with Isaiah says "Mommy!" at the crazy little babble he has to say....

So.

"Fix your eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfector of our Faith....so that you may run..."   

                            ~ (Hebrews 12 from the slightly mashed Bible in Hannah's head...)

I haven't been fixing my eyes on Jesus. I've been fixing them on my wishlist, on supplies I need to get from craft stores, on the pretty things I want to make. And I haven't been running. I've been sorta slowly trailing, like a kid on a leash not wanting to leave the park, who had calculated the most amount of resistance he can do before the frustrated parent turns around and reprimands him....I've treated God like the frustrated parent, who is trying to take away my happiness, when really, he's trying to get me to the brink of battle, to the wind from the break in the sky and the morning star...