Living on the Edge

You know those things you see other people do that look so cute, and you find yourself thinking.... "Well she can do it, but IIIIII could never pull that look off."  I find myself thinking it a lot. It may have to do with the fact I am fairly conservative, OR that I tend to have a difficult time with change.... or both. :)  Regardless, I have been breaking the mold and stepping outside of my comfort zone lately.

Example 1)

A middle part.

I had a fairly traumatic experience with the middle part when I was a performing service Missionary in Nauvoo.  We were forced to dress like pioneers and wear our hair in a tight bun with a middle part.  Made me pretty self conscious..... and made me never want to even think about trying a middle part again.... until last week when I was feeling crazy.

        I was waiting to get a facial done (thank you Groupon) and while seated in the lobby I was reading a fashion magazine, and female after female continued to sport a "middle part" as shown here

and here

and here.

Accordingly I thought to myself, "Self, if all of these women can pull it off, surely you can be brave enough to try it at least once, because it's not like you are cutting all of your hair off (which I would NEVER do).... you can always GASP and then change the part back to the other side."  I parted it, and I did GASP right away... but that was mostly because of the cowlick, which thankfully was mostly fixed with a staightener.  I was brave enough to wear it that way ALL day, and oddly enough by the end of the day, I was actually starting to like it.  My bangs are so long and always fall in my face these days, so this part is complementary to them.  Do you know what else I did?  Wore my hair in a middle part 2 more days this week!  I know, I know... living on the wild side.

Example 2)

Red Lipstick in Public.

I have only worn red lipstick one time for pictures last November, and though they turned out great, it was scary. haha.  The red lipstick has sat on my shelf ever since.  Two days after I tried the middle part I decided I was going to then try wearing red lipstick to church!  One of my friends from highschool has become this makeup and hair guru (Cara), and she posted a blog about wearing a bold lip here. I knew that a bold lip would complement my outfit so well that I was brave enough to try, especially since I knew church would only a few hours so I could just wash it off if I hated it..... but Again.....SO SCARED.

I discovered that the face of an unsuspecting victim works well for the blotting of lips if you are nervous to go "too bold."  I wanted to be brave so I wore it to church like this:

Blotted with the help of this gentleman

And wore it like this the rest of the day

I feel like it turned out nicely and really complemented my green eyes, although I have not been bold enough to wear the red lipstick again.... yet.

        It has only been a week, though.....so maybe this time it will only take me a few weeks or even months to build the courage to bring out the red again.  I figure so long as it is less than 10months, seeing as how that is about how long it took last time, it would be an improvement on the fashion courage scale.

....... And Did I mention we just added a new member to our family?  She's a little bundle of joy who loves to cuddle, currently weighs about 1 1/2 pounds, and unfortunately likes the carpet more than the back patio for relieving herself.... but we're working on that.  More pictures and information to come.