Irish Dance How-To: Wig Up a Pixie Hair Cut

I haven't done a how-to video in quite some time!  It was nice to get behind the camera for the first time in what seems like forever to bring you the following tutorial.

I was apprehensive when I first chopped off all my hair last September because of the whole wig issue.  Being a team dancer as well as a soloist, I knew I couldn't get away with not putting a wig in my hair.  I wouldn't call myself a professional in putting a wig in short hair, but I have had a lot of practice with it in the last few weeks (more on that in my next post).

I hope you find this video helpful if you're looking for a solution to put a both a bun wig and a full wig in a pixie haircut.  I am silly at some points, so I hope it's not too distracting.  Enjoy!



Goals: Have a better treble jig at the feis this Sunday
Days till Os: 199

Irish Dance How-To: Feis Makeup

Find out how I do my feis make up: a neutral smoky eye and bold red lip!

Make up used:

• Maybelline 24-hour Super Stay foundation
• e.l.f. eye primer
• MAC eye shadow in Nylon
• ULTA palate
• Maybelline eyeliner in onyx
• Maybelline Define-a-lash mascara length and volume
• Maybelline Mineral Power bronzer
• Covergirl Outlast lipstain
• N.Y.C lipstick in Retro Red

Tips:

• You don't have to buy high-end make up to achieve a feis-worthy look!  Nearly all my look can be found at Target!
• Buy your foundation a shade darker than normal.  This will either help blend better with your tan, or give you better stage appearance if you don't tan.  Be sure to blend well!
• Prime your eyelids.  Your eye shadow really will last longer.
• You can alter the eye shadow to complement your dress.  Use white as a base color, then build on it with a medium shade, and a dark shade.
• If you go with red lips, wait to apply it right before you go onstage.  This will minimize risk of it getting smudged!

Goals: Keep healing

Days till Os: 119

Irish Dance How-to: Recycled magazine clutch

Perfect for carrying around at summer feiseanna, this clutch can be made using old Irish dance magazines!




Tips:

• Find the most colorful pages in your magazines.  This may mean that you only get a couple pages from each magazine.  Ideally, there should be no white space and little printed text.
• Take your time with the weaving to really make your clutch look neat.  The closer the better!
• If you don't want a clutch bag, feel free to attach straps to the inside of the bag using tape and more folded paper strips (four or so taped together)
• Remember: this is a bag made out of paper and tape.  Be kind.

Goals: Stamina workouts
Days till Os: 143

Irish Dance How-to: Poodle Sock Monkey

Turn one pair of socks into a plush monkey pet that will be the guardian of your dance bag!  This is the third of three, and the most advanced tutorial in the poodle sock upcycle series featuring this monkey, a vase, and a heat/ice pack.  





Tips:

• A link to the tutorial can be found right here.
• Knee-length socks will make for longer limbs on your monkey, and various sizes (small, medium, large) will make different sized bodies. (I used large knee-length socks and this monkey is 19 inches long!)
• Try your hand at tie-dying your old socks so your monkey can be fun colors!
• Be patient when sewing your socks, especially the bubbled part.  That section is particularly stretchy and will try to move around when you're sewing.  Extra pins are awesome.
• Be gentle when you turn your monkey body and legs back to right-side out.  The crotch area is very stretchy and if stretched out during turning and stuffing, the sewing back up process will be more difficult.  Take your time.
• A pencil (use the eraser end) or chopstick is useful for not only helping to turn the body parts right-side out, but also for getting the stuffing down into the feet/hands of your monkey.

Stay tuned tomorrow for special Traveling Feis Monkey information!

Goals: Hardshoe stamina

Days till Os: 156

Irish Dance How-to: Poodle sock hot/ice pack

This month's first Irish dance how-to is still going along the theme of upcyclying old poodle socks.  This tutorial is a little harder than April's, and the tutorial being released at the end of the month is the hardest of the three poodle sock tutorials.

Tips:

• Use older and slightly stretched out poodle socks.  Your hot/ice pack will be bigger.
• Don't start sewing in the corner like I did.  It makes it harder to sew up after you flip the hot/ice pack right-side out.  It is easier if you start in the middle of one of the longer sides
• Leave more room than you think open so you don't have to struggle to flip the hot/ice pack right-side out after machine sewing!
• A funnel would be helpful for putting the rice into your hot/ice pack
• For a cold pack: leave it in the freezer overnight
• For a heat pack: microwave in 30 second intervals until warm

Stay tuned for the last of the poodle sock upcycles, being released June 27th!

Mini update

Injury recovery

• May 16th was a big day for me.  After 98 days of injury recovery, I went to dance class, put on my hard shoes, and danced.  I can only do hard shoe dances at the moment due to not being able to jump/land on my bad foot without it hurting, but at least I can dance!
• I am still going to physical therapy, and am halfway through my second round of six weeks.  I will go back to the podiatrist at the end of June and hopefully he will graduate me from PT!

CCE Feis

• I kicked off the summer feising season by going to cheer on and watch my fellow 18&O champ dancers.  Congrats to them, and good luck as they continue preparing for nationals!
• In honor of being able to dance again, I also purchased some killer red ghillies to match my dress for award ceremonies and other fun things.

Old Dominion Feis

• This is my dance school's feis, so you can guarantee I will be there helping in one way or another.  (When I know what I'll be doing, I'll post it here so you can come say hi!)
• Old Dominion Feis also marks the start of my fifth year of feising!

Irish Dance How-tos:

• I did not do one for May.  I confess, my schedule is uber busy teaching full time.  Do not despair because there will be two in the month of June!  I am planning to have the first up on my blog and ready for you on June 6th.

Other things

• Curious as to what is my dance bag? (Come on, I know you secretly are.)  Check out Moira's blog, On My Toes to see a little collaboration post I did there!  Also, check out her latest post on joining the 'Mad Abs June' challenge!
• I'm going to go see Riverdance at Wolftrap on June 17th!
• If you're a regular reader, you may have noticed I changed the banner at the top of my blog just for fun.  What do you think?
• My school year is done June 15th.  Bear with me for minimal posts two more weeks as I finish teaching.  I'm already getting geared up with blog post ideas for this summer!
• On May 18th, I attended my own graduation ceremony since my college doesn't hold one in December.  Despite receiving my diploma in the mail in February, my graduation is officially official now!

Goals: PT exercises and stamina
Days till Os: 181

Giveaway winners!

After using a random number generator, here are the results of the contest:

4- kellymeagher7
7- irishdancing1

Congrats to both of you; there should be an email waiting in your inbox.  Thank you to everyone who entered the contest or viewed my tutorial.  If you missed this giveaway, I am already thinking of another one to do in the future, so keep your eyes peeled!

Goals: PT exercises every day

Days till Os: 230

Irish Dance How-to: Poodle Sock Vase & Giveaway

Want to win one of these? Read below!

Do you have a poodle sock without a mate?  Retired from dancing and don't know what to do with 25 pairs of socks?  Watch this video to learn an easy way to upcycle your old socks into an adorable vase just in time for spring! 



A few tips:

• Bleach or tie-dye your old socks to get rid of that weird shade of grey.  Unless of course, you are going for that look!
• Older socks will be more stretched out.  To keep the project no-sew, use a wider vase.
• Always see what you have around your house before you buy supplies!  The point is for this project to be as cheap as possible.
• Email me pictures of your finished vase (RinceGoBraghBlog@gmail.com)!  I am excited to see what other people do, and if I get enough, I can feature some in a post later this month.

To enter the giveaway:

1. Comment below and answer the question: What is your favorite spring Irish dance memory?
2. Leave your email in this format so I can notify winners: name at website dot com.
3. Comments after 23:59 on April 13, 2012 will not be included in the random drawing.

The two giveaway winners will be announced on this blog on April 14, 2012!  May the odds be ever in your favor.

Irish Dance How-To: Ab workout

Ignore the dodgy video in the middle.  I have no idea why my camera did that, and I didn't feel like re-shooting that part of the video with my foot and all.

Goals: Keep healing!

Irish Dance How-To: Stretching

Enjoy my stretching routine!  I had more of a script for the speaking parts of the video so it flows better than the first one.

Goals: Work on slip jig because all you've been doing is hard shoe you silly girl.
Days till NANs: 147

Irish Dance How-To: Aerobic warm up

Welcome to my first Irish dance How-to video tutorial! This is the first of a 12-part Irish dance how-to series I will be featuring on my blog this year, AND it's the first of a three-part warm up sequence. Stay tuned for stretching (February) and ab workouts (March)!

Also, ignore the bad editing (Windows Live Movie Maker), and the stuttering. Speaking without a script is apparently difficult for me, and I did the best I can!

Goals: Smooth out transitions between steps

Days till NANs: 161

The 2012 breakdown

Happy new year to all! After a month's hiatus from both dance and blogging, I'm ready to get back into it! I have big plans for this year, including finding a real job now that I'm a college graduate, and also a few new things for the blog!

Goals for the year:

Most people are coming up with new dance goals for the year, however, mine stay the same this time! Those goals are...

1. Improve turnout
2. Place at least once in opens
3. Place higher at nationals (60th in 2010)
4. Qualify for worlds

I ended 2011 with only accomplishing two of my goals: improving turn out and placing once in opens. I would like to continue to improve my turn out this year, especially in my hard shoe dances. As for placements, I would like to improve from placing last to some where near placing, if not placing. Doing this, I know I need to turn out more and just find that championship sharpness every time I go out to compete. The biggest goal for the year is to qualify for worlds. I have spent the last two years now on the cusp of being a WQ, just one place shy. I was lucky in 2011; there was an adjudicating conflict. Not so much this year. I would like to say I have qualified for worlds at the Oireachtas, and compete in worlds on American soil before I retire.

Feiseanna to attend:

1. Four Provinces or CCE (if held)
2. Old Dominion
3. Nationals
4. Rhythm of Ireland
5. Feis Culkin
6. SRO

Blog happenings:

• My biggest announcement is that this year, I plan to make 12 Irish Dance How-To videos/written tutorials. I will release one each month, and the subjects vary from warming up, to ab workouts, to crafting tutorials! I am really excited to get this under way and you should be too (because. . . )
• . . . Craft tutorials = giveaways!
• Shut the Feis Up (STFU): I will continue to pester my boyfriend to write about Irish dance this year, starting with his reaction of the Oireachtas.
• Of course, I will also continue to keep you updated on what's happening in the dance world from my perspective!

Goals: Nail down the first 8 bars of Kilkenny Races set

Days till NANs: 181