Braided Inside-out Bun

Lots of people have asked me how I did this inside out braided bun and I am finally getting around to putting up the tutorial! Enjoy!
                    1)

1) All you need is a hair tie, three clear hair ties, and approximately six bobby pins.
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2) Put your hair into a ponytail in the middle of your head.
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3) Make a hole in your ponytail above your hair tie
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4) And flip the ponytail through the hole.
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5) That way you have a flipped ponytail.
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6) Split the ponytail into three equal parts.
                   7)

7) Begin braiding each of the three parts and secure with a clear hair tie at the end.
                  8)

8) Now you should have your three sections braided into three braids.
                 9)  

9) Now take the first braid and tuck the end into the top of the ponytail and secure with a bobby pin.
               10)

10) Do this for the second and third braids as well.
                11)

11) Secure any extra fly-aways and random ends sticking out with your remaining bobby pins
                 12)

12) Spray with hairspray and your done!

DIY Lace Headband

My newest obsession has been lace headbands but, whenever I see them at the store they are usually pretty expensive. Which nobody likes! Next thing you know I was taking matters into my own hands. There was no way I was going to spend $20 dollars for something that I knew I could probably do myself. Here's what I did. 

All you need is a shirt or tank top with the lace on the bottom. Most people have them on hand already. I got mine last year at a second hand store for like $2. I never wore it though. Also my shirt was green with cream lace but, you can do any color. 

You will also need a hot glue gun and scissors. 

To start out cut the seam on one side all the way to the armpit. Next carefully cut the lace off of the bottom. After that cut a four inch wide piece off of the tank or shirt. You should now have a long piece of lace and a long four inch wide piece of the shirt. 

Take your shirt piece and put it around your head to measure it to fit your head. If it is stretchy material cut it two inches shorter than the width of your head so that when you wear your headband it doesn't fall off. If it is not as stretchy just take one inch off. 

Now you should have you shirt cut perfectly for your head. Now this is where you get to play with it. I didn't want my headband to be four inches wide so I put the lace closer together and than cut the extra fabric away. But like I said have fun with this part. I first taped my shirt piece down to the table measured my lace to match the length of the shirt and cut it. Next I hot glued the lace to the top edge of the headband. I than took the second piece of lace I had and hot glued it right under the previous piece. Trimmed off the all the extra fabric so that everything was neat and than just got glued the two ends together. TADA! 

Boldly and Courageously Speaking. The Truth (Part 3)

As human beings we love love love acceptance. We tend search out other people to gain acceptance or shut down if we are not getting the acceptance that we need. A few years back we had a foster baby in our home. Her name was Destiny Rose. At only six months old she had a detachment disorder. This meant that she hated being held and she would rather be alone than around all of us. Six months into her life and she already doesn't feel accepted and thinks she never will be accepted. Thankfully when a baby has this disorder you can "cure" them. But it is a difficult thing to do. I will never forget the long evenings listening to Destiny scream and flail as my mom spent hours just holding and rocking her. This is one way people react to being unaccepted. Hiding.

Another way, which I believe is a little more common, is when people chase after acceptance. Sometime we call these people desperate or needy. They are easily hurt and offended but, tend to go after every little piece of attention they can get.  These people preform, change, accept, and hide themselves for "acceptance" and "love." It's what they live for. Normally this isn't 100% their fault. They most likely have acceptance problems from when they have been denied or hurt by someone they care(d) about.

Both of these ways lead to destruction in the end and in many different forms but, the one I am going to camp on is when we break and blow up at a person. Not just any person though. The person (or people) we go to, to fulfill our acceptance needs. When we step foot into these relationships there is an idea that this person is perfect. Or that they have reached a high enough score on your checklist that they are somebody who you can rely on wholly and completely. Sadly enough every time we do this to a person it's not fair to us or them. Why? We are all imperfect! We are all going to make mistake. We are all going to mess up. We are all going to sin.

If you have an idea of how you think the person you are being accepted by should act and than all of a sudden they slip up and do something that hurts you, what do you do? This is where courageously speaking needs and should come into play. But we are in this relationship for the acceptance right? So lets just let it slide just this once. I mean we all make mistakes right?! Second chance for that person. No need to say anything. Wrong!

I have watched this time and time again. People get hurt by somebody, don't say anything, and guess what happens? The person they have been hurt by usually does it again and again and again. This can go on for years. Until finally you snap. You tell that person what a terrible horrible person they are. You finally tell them that they have hurt you a million times over. You blow up. After the major blow up there may be a quick, let's try and fix this. It hardly ever works though because, after years of simmering you have all that hurt and pain. Years of hurt, takes years to fix. Most people aren't that patient. So they move right along to the next person.

Do you see this vicious cycle? Eventually you will end up being a bitter and angry person. You may simply just close yourself off, just like Destiny. Let's back up a few years though. The person you are gaining your acceptance from hurts you. The first thing that many people have to realize is that they can't gain 100% acceptance from a person. You just can't. People are going to hurt you and you are going to hurt others. Simple fact. The second most important thing is, instead of letting that nick fester into a full on wound, put on a band-aid. Confront. Tell the person straight up. What you did hurt(s) me. Two things could happen here. One that person hates you and leaves the relationship. At least you now know that the person didn't truly care about you. Number two (and this one tends to happen more often.) That person is thankful and repentant because, you told them. They will want to know what they can do to change so that you guys can be in a healthy relationship once again.

If we don't speak up right away when somebody hurts us, we are in the wrong as well. Think about it. If you wait years and years and than all of a sudden blow up. The person that you are angry at probably doesn't even know they were hurting you in the first place. It's honestly not fair to them at all. You are lying to them. If we don't speak up and we just bury how we feel when things like that happen we are simply lying to them by not telling them whats really going on. And of course we are also lying to ourselves. Telling ourselves lies about how things will get better with time.

So if you don't want to end up being a bitter person that just holes up inside and never believes that their is acceptance and love. Go right ahead. But if you do that you will never find peace. There is healing. We were going to adopt Destiny up until the tragic court hearing when they told us that she would go back to live with her nineteen year old mother. The last night we had Destiny I can never erase from my mind. I remember my mom, tears streaming down her face as she held her little baby in her arms and rocked her to sleep in 30 minutes or less. There was no screaming, no kicking, no fighting, just peace as she drifted off to sleep knowing that she was loved and accepted.


"It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. And yet for this reason I found mercy, in order that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience, as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life." 1 Timothy 1:15-16