Sweet and Rough, Part 2: Battenburg Lace, Braids, and Balance!

I'm keeping going with this week's sweet and rough (or girly and tough, whichever way you want to put it):

Battenburg lace top, Ann Taylor Loft

Belt, thrifted

Skirt, Marshall's

Studded strappy sandals, John Fluevog "Choice Hi" (style unknown), remixed

Butterfly necklace, estate sale, remixed 

Labradorite and bronze earrings, self-made

Yes, I am in the process of climbing on my deck railing. Fabulous Husband has iffy knees and sometimes isn't too comfortable hunkering down to get pictures of my shoes, so I figured I'd bring them closer to his eye level...

...or maybe it was just the heat. I get a little silly when the mercury climbs.

I am unutterably gleeful that my hair's finally (sort of) long enough to go into braids again, especially on a scorcher like today.

I used to have Seriously Long Hair (as in, I could almost sit on it). Braiding was a necessity: if it wasn't confined, it was uncontrollable, prone to tangling, and got caught in things... like car doors. Ouch! I'd wake up in the morning, braid it in any one of a dozen different styles, and in the evening, it would get braided into a looser plait before bedtime.

I cut it when I woke up in the morning with the braid wrapped around my neck. There were other influencing factors (my conditioner bill was unbelievable), but anything that tries to strangle me in my sleep has to go!

For a few years, I was happy with hair far too short to braid. I was glad to be free of long hair, of the daylong wait for it to dry, of the weird ache in my arms from holding them up long enough to braid it into a coronet. Braiding was a necessary burden I was all too free to be rid of.

Recently, though, I've been seeing other bloggers, like S. from academichic and Meg from good morning midnight craft their hair into fabulous, stylish braids, and I've been incredibly envious. I miss my braids! This double French braid isn't nearly as voluminous as some of my old coronets, but it's a step in the right direction. It's keeping all my hair off my neck, which is a blessing in this weather, and it's held up pretty well - we took these photos at the end of the day, after running errands with the car windows rolled down so we wouldn't suffocate.

Also, for (I believe) the first time, you can really see my little tattoo. It's over a decade old, and has held up pretty well for comparatively fine line work. It helps that it's in a place that's hard to show off, especially for someone as bra-dependent as I, so it's been pretty sheltered from the sun. The stylized eclipse is the symbol I use to sign my sketches and other artwork. My messy signature is for checks!