Book 'em Danno...Hawaii Wig-O

Friday night we were headed to a luau--which we had to dress up for.
That day I decided I wanted a wig.


So, I now present the oddest tutorial you will {probably} ever see on googiemomma:

How to make a Hawaiian Wig

{in 20 minutes and for only $3}

On a whim I ran into Sally's Beauty Supply and bought three of these:

(link)

It's the cheapest "hair" they sell. It's synthetic {not real hair}-- it feels more like a Dollar Store Barbie's hair :0) But it's 99 cents a pack. I bought 3 packs.


The other supplies:



A glue gun, lots of glue sticks, a pair of scissors, a pair of your infant daughter's tights (preferably in a color to match your "hair") and one of your other daughters to act as a model for you {not pictured hehehe}

***Also, you're about to see some really awful pictures. I did this an hour before the party, in between making sweet potatoes to take. I had no idea how this would turn out (I was making it up as I went and hadn't even really thought it through!) and started taking pictures as an afterthought!


First I took the tights and tied knots in each of the legs as close as I could get to the top.





I pulled these knots as tight as I could and then cut off the rest of the leg. Ta-da! You have just made a stocking cap for yourself:





(I put the leg knots inside against my head. They weren't really bothersome because they were pretty small)


Next the hair. Because it's such cheap hair it's just a bunch wrapped with a rubber band in the middle:






The rubber band is your anchor. Put a nice big glob of glue towards the front of your stocking cap (AFTER YOU TAKE IT OFF YOUR HEAD!!!) and stick the hair/rubber band right to it--facing towards the front (if you put it on right now you'd look like Cousin Itt) This way when you put it on you flip the hair back and the rubber band is mostly covered.







Move back about two inches, and glue down the second batch of hair. Repeat with the third (back 2" and glue on) This concentrates the hair on the top and front of your head.


Now's the time you need your assistant. Put your wig on them so you can see the shape you need to create with the hair.







To pull the hair in the right direction and cover your "bald" spots, take the wig off again and put some hot glue on the tights. Then pull the hair over the top and press it down.



(I live dangerously, so I just tried to keep my fingers out of the glue. You could cover your hand with an old towel or something to protect yourself from burns)


Basically it's a matter of just messing with it, glueing it down enough that you don't have any major bald spots. But don't go crazy with the glue, because you need the stocking cap to s-t-r-e-t-c-h over your head.


I cut some bangs in the front and put a little line of glue under them to keep them straight. Then I had one of my "models" try it on so I could trim the back (it's pretty long and raggedy--I kept it fairly long but trimmed it straight) And I also glued some flowers right to the side.


End result?



How Hawaiian am I???


Hot tip: if you're a natural redhead, you can use your black eyeliner to give yourself black eyebrows to match your new head of luxurious jet black hair. :0)


And your own mother won't recognize you (seriously)


They make the hair in other colors, so this could easily translate to princess wigs or anything else you need a cheap and easy wig for!

Linking up here!

Wordless Wednesday~Shoot From the Hip

One of my biggest photography issues is my hesitation to pull the trigger, so to speak. I'll follow and follow the action, waiting for the "perfect" shot to form in my viewfinder.

To try and overcome this tendancy, I followed my kids around, camera in hand~~literally. I kept my camera at my waist and just shot away.

Not all of them were great...in fact, lots of them were junk.

But some were like this...











I even laid down flat on my back and shot some...






It was lots of fun and very liberating! Probably not something I'd try before digital photography.... :0)

Why don't you give it a shot?

For more Wordless Wednesday, try 5 Minutes for Mom, Extraordinary Mothers, jollymom, and of course, good old Wordless Wednesday.

witty "pillow"-related title here

Without a doubt one of the quickest, easiest and cheapest ways to get a new look in any room is with throw pillows.

So I wish I had the foresight to take pictures of the veritable time capsule that my living room pillows were. When I started recovering them this time I cut off the old covers.


Underneath were older covers.


Underneath that were older covers.


Underneath that were the original pillows that came with the sofa.


I think they were about 2 inches smaller than what I started with. :0)


Anyway, I decided to bring some blue and white into my brown walled living room.


The addition of white I posted about here and here.


The blue I brought in with my rooster lamp, and the new pillows!





Believe it or not this was really the only fabric I could find at Joanne's that had the blue color I was looking for. And honestly I wasn't really sure about it at first.


But I'm an "instant gratification" kinda gal, so I wasn't about to go ordering something online.


And it turned out fine~~because once I started doing the pillows, I really love the fabric.


I used the blue/white patterned fabric, some brown cotton duck, and the white fabric I used for my bedroom pillows.





I love this family pillow. I got the idea from SOMEWHERE and for the life of me I can NOT find the link!!! I'm so sorry if this is yours! I used iron on t-shirt transfers and played with the font, sizing and placement until I got what I liked, and ironed it onto the white fabric. Then I attached the white piece to the brown cotton with 2 rows of brown stitching and pulled threads to fray the edges.




It's right on the sofa that faces the front door, so it's one of the first things you see when you walk in the door. And I love that.


Then I did a simple white pillow, but put brown bias welt around the edges. I'm fortunate enough to have a commercial machine with a foot designed to make welt, so I can sew yards and yards of this nonsense fairly quickly. And it's soooo worth it. It makes a huge difference in the end result of your products and how professional (or not) they look! If you don't have a welt foot for your machine, you can do it with a zipper foot. It won't be as tight and not as easy, but it's worth a shot!


For the Eiffel Tower pillow I freehanded a simple graphic design, cut it out and traced it onto Wonder Under and the blue fabric, and zigzagged around the edges. I love this pillow. The only problem is it was one of the last I did and I was running out of the brown cotton. It could have been a little bigger. So now it pulls a bit, and sometimes looks a little like an "A".


But I still love it.





I did two of the big pillows~they're just the blue patterned fabric on one side, white on the other, and the brown welt.





The brown pillow I call my "pleats" pillow. I did a band of the white fabric down the center and just stitched rows until I thought it looked good.


The last pillow I did may be my favorite. I just made a simple white cover, and then sewed rows of ruffles across it and frayed the edges:





Now I play musical chairs with all my new pillows...moving them around...which ones together???




I still have more to do in the living room before I do a final reveal of the whole thing. The most glaring issue?

This:



It was this:



A $3 grocery store clearance picture of red flowers. It was pretty, but didn't go in the new blue scheme. So when I was painting the hallway I rolled over it with white primer. And now I'm stuck.

So there it hangs, waiting for inspiration.



I tried saying it was a commentary on the overuse and gluttony of the throwaway society in which we live...a symbolic representation of an attempt to declutter a life drowning in materialism and consumerism and recreate a symbiotic oneness with nature, purity, and a simple life.

I don't think anyone's buying.

Linking up here:


    





and I Heart Naptime's Sunday Scoop