Birthday Wishes

I’m turning 22 in October. Now that I have a job, I can treat myself to some things (treat yo. self!)–like new paint and furniture and bedding for my room and $100 worth of food and drinks from the Asian market–but gifts are never as special when they’re gifts to yourself. And I need to start saving for Disneyland!!

People don’t usually ask a soon-to-be-22 year old what she wants for her birthday. Mostly because I just demand gifts. I think I’m supposed to be at an age where I accept a lunch date or free Starbucks as a birthday gift. Which I do, and is lovely, and I’m always very happy for those things! But I have other thiiiings I would like this year if it’s at all possible for friends and family to procure for me. Material, fun things I can’t justify adding to my budget.

1. Felicity Gowns and Accessories – Unfortunately, I was a complete pauper when the Felicity things were still in circulation so the doll was all I had, and now that I’m grown and have money I can’t justify spending hundreds of dollars on all the things I’d love to keep and collect for my future daughter, who, when she exists, MUST know the wonders of this Colonial American Girl and the pretty things that go with her. A lot of these things are sold on Ebay for exorbitant amounts of money. I would love to have Felicity’s Christmas gown, her undergarments/shift, the pink birthday gown, and riding habit. To name a few.

2. Korean Drama Things – I want to own You’re Beautiful and Boys Over Flowers. If it’s a Korean Drama and I’ve seen it, I would like to own the soundtrack. But they are not cheap. I have a pig rabbit charm for my cell phone, but I would not mind having the plush pig rabbit, or the hairclip, or hoodies, or any of the charms from the dramas I’ve seen. Just not the necklaces. They’re too special, and I don’t want to cheapen the love story behind each one by owning a replica “one of a kind” necklace. It would feel wrong.

FTIsland is my favourite band of all time ever. And I’ve never had a favourite band before!

Also–and this is Japanese, not Korean–I have not finished watching Emma: A Victorian Romance because they took it down off YouTube which is very distressing to me and it was a great little anime as far as I could tell, so I must own it to finish watching!!

3. Something from Anthropologie – If everyone I know pitched in a five dollar gift card for Anthropologie, I still wouldn’t be able to afford a dress from there. But it would help.

For example, this dress is very pretty.

It’s like a grown-up, sophisticated creamsicle dress!

4. Anything from the Victorian Trading Company – Like the birds nest ring or lark earrings or this poison ring!! They also have furniture I want, but cannot afford, nor fit in my bed chamber, and ever so many gowns and cloaks and such that getting on this site is very dangerous and I should stop.

5. My pixie cut!! - I made a decision. I don’t want to wait until I’m 25 to get my hair cut. Now is the optimum time because it can be growing out until I’m 25, and if the stylist botches it for some reason, I don’t want to be hideous around the same time I get desperate for a husband. So 22nd birthday shall be when I get a radical new hair cut, and 25 is the year I sign up for an online dating service or have my dad arrange my marriage (like he is seriously offering to do) if nothing happens before then.

For the bangs and side wispies, this is my favourite.

And for the back layers and general girly nature, I love this one most.

And here is my entire Pinterest board of pixie cuts I’m looking at for inspiration.

Project Hair Grow – 1yr 1mo

I’m not sure when I’ll stop the hair posts, but since I don’t really do fashion posts I guess this can be my thing.

So I dyed my hair red, but it’s kind of hard to tell unless the sunlight glares directly upon it.

Here is before.

And a bit after.

For a two-night birthday extravaganza, my best friend and I made a video to an odd (but strangely infectious) song and I got some still shots out of it.

I know this doesn’t really help judge the length of my hair, but it makes it look pretty!

I think of Woman in White. Except that my hair and makeup are completely wrong for the period.

This I could not resist! I think we’re a dashing couple!

Costume explanation (like why Sara was dressed as a 19th century gentleman photographer) can be viewed here:

We made this between two days of endless Criminal Minds episodes.

And I was very heavy in her arms, she says. My weight apologizes.

Project Hair Grow – 1 Year

Where I started.

A middle stage.

Current length.

What I’ve learned about my hair through this process:

-I can’t trust a professional to cut my bangs. They never go short enough, even after I ask them to.

-My hair is not the kind of curly that should prevent the stylist from giving me shorter layers, although they’ll still warn me about them every. single. time.

-When my hair is shorter I like sweeping side bangs. When longer, I love my short bangs. There’s probably something about proportion and balance to explain that, but whatever.

-My favourite length so far is just above the shoulder. About where I was in the first picture of the Project Hair post and the top picture in this one. Although I’m really growing fond of my lengthier tresses again. Just as long as I can keep my bangs short.

-Having a nice haircut doesn’t matter at work. Even the bangs hide under my hat.

-Curly hair is a blessing for ponytail days.

-It’s my face, not my hair that makes people think I’m a baby.

Project Hair Grow – Month 11

Come September I’ll have reached the year mark for when I started these hair posts. Okay, so technically I started posting in October, but the picture was from September, so that’s where I’m counting from.

Can you believe it’s almost been a year!? I can’t! I can’t even believe I’ve been blogging here for that long!

I know, I have lazy eyes. It’s not the only lazy thing about me. (Look how late this post is.)

This is just to show how uncomfortably hot it was.

My bangs grow so fast. They went from the above shortness to being so long I could curl them back to be indistinguishable from the rest of my layers–in a month.

See what I mean? You can’t even tell I had bangs! But no worries. I have them again now. I know my hair looks fairly tolerable in those pictures, but they’d got to the point where they sproinged wrongfully at the sides of my head and wouldn’t be tamed by a flat iron or hairspray. It was time. They’re much more manageable now.

Hopefully next month I won’t be so late. Hopefully you can see my hair as it currently is. And since it will be the one year mark, I’ll have some refresher pictures and “this is what I want my hair to be” photos. Yay!

Project Hair Grow – Month 10

Okay, I took different pictures in various times during the month of June for my hair. But none of them were quite… well, I guess I try too hard sometimes. I just need a decent picture of my hair! That’s all!

So in an effort to be more… me… without the added pressure, I dug up a June picture of me (with my hair down) after a day of work. No makeup, either. You’ve been warned.

Oh yeah. Deer in the headlights look.

And I did finally get my bangs trimmed! Beauty school. That’s the secret. I can afford to pay those girls who are just starting out. And they do a great job! It takes a little longer because they want to be really careful, but I paid $7 for a full shampoo/cut/style. Pretty snazzy!

There. My bangs.

My camera is going through a phase right now where it takes really bad, glowy pictures.

Also, this should actually be June’s post. Because I kept putting this off. Because I’m lame like that.