Hey daydreamers! As some of you may or may not know, I’ve been at cheer camp this week and it was super fun (and insanely exhausting)! Since we aren’t allowed to do stunts and stuff like that because of coronavirus, they basically shoved four halftime dances, the fight song, a million chants, a bunch of cheers, technique, and a bunch more into our brains, plus a ton of conditioning and stretching within five days. It was a lot, but also super fun and I got to see my friends who are also on the team!
At my school, it’s K-12, so there’s one cheer team for junior high (the team I’m on) and one team for varsity/high school. Our JH team is super small this year, so we’ll only have one stunt group, and my best friend and I are going to switch out as flyers and I’m so excited!
I’ve done a What’s In My Backpack and a few other dance bag/volleyball bag posts, and all of them have done super well and I had fun making them, so I decided to do a post showing you guys my cheer bag for camp! Without further introduction, let’s get started!
Hey daydreamers! Y’all seemed to like my stage makeup tutorial from last week, and I’ve been really into trying out new hairstyles lately, so I decided to show you guys some bun styles for ballet class!
There’s not really a right or wrong way to do a bun – it just takes a lot of practice, but it’s pretty simple once you master it! There’s a lot of different techniques and styles that you can do, so here’s a few of my favorites (and the first two only took me less than 10 minutes, and the last just a little over that)!
#1: The Classic Ballerina Bun
I JUST REALIZED I’M WEARING THE EXACT SAME SHIRT AS LAST WEEK! AND I’M IN THE SAME SPOT….HOW WEIRD IS THAT!
First, start by brushing your hair up into a high ponytail. Make sure to smooth out any bumps and get it at the crown of your head. Secure with a hair elastic.
Now, separate the ponytail into two equal sections and twist one of the sections until it’s almost like a rope.
Take that rope of hair and pin it all the way around the other section until you’ve made a little donut around the remaining half of the ponytail.
Next, twist the remaining part of the ponytail into another little rope.
Take that rope and pin it all the way around the donut until you have a cinnamon roll! Don’t worry if it looks messy at this point – we’ll fix that in a minute. Try to pin down as many flyaway hairs as you can.
Twist a hair net (you can find them at literally any grocery store, drugstore, dollar store or anywhere that sells beauty products) around the bun — and voila! It magically turns that mess into a neat, clean ballerina bun. Hair nets are my secret weapon when it comes to dance hairstyles!
Finally, spritz some water around your head to smooth out any flyaways. Use a barrette or hairlip to pin up any hair that’s hanging out on your neck into the bun.
If you would like, add a cute scrunchie to finish off the style and cover up the hairlip and any loose hairs, and you’re done! Lastly, spray with hairspray. And that’s how you do a simple ballerina bun!
Start by, again, pulling your hair up into a medium-length or high ponytail, and make sure to get rid of any bumps. Make the ponytail nice and tight. (Mine’s pretty loose in that picture, but I fix that in a bit.)
Now, place the donut around the ponytail – like how you would wear a scrunchie or hair tie. Make sure the donut matches your hair color!
Spread your hair all over the bun, like a fountain. Then secure with a hair elastic. You should have some hair left over.
Next, separate the leftover hair into three equal sections and braid each section. Make sure to tie off the braids with a clear hair band.
Go around the bun, pinning each braid with bobby pins.
Pin them all the way around each other, and then spread the hair on the donut equally around it and pin in place.
Add a hairnet and – magic! – your bun is smooth and clean-looking! (Haha I sound like a commercial for hairnets)
Finally, pin up any excess hairs with a barrette, and smooth everything with water. Lastly, spray with hairspray, and add a cute scrunchie. Aaaand….you’re done!
First, separate your hair into two equal sections.
Start at the top and french braid both sections all the way to the bottom – don’t worry if it looks a little messy!
Now, twist the two braids together to make a long, thick rope.
Wrap them in a circle around each other and pin all the way around in a circle, making a big braided donut.
Make sure to secure with a hair elastic and add extra bobby pins to stop wispies!
Finally, clean it up by adding a hairnet, smoothing with water, pinning down braids so they stay flat, and spraying with hairspray!
And you’re done!
And that’s it for this post! I hope you learned something new and maybe you tried out some of these hairstyles, whether for ballet class, a special occasion, or just around the house. Thanks for reading, and have an awesome day!
How do you do your hair for dance? Your favorite style out of the three? Can you french/dutch braid? What’s your go-to bun method?
P.S. – If you share this post by reblogging, pinning on Pinterest, sharing on social media, or sending the link to a friend, you’ll get three FREE desktop wallpapers sent straight to your inbox! Just leave a comment telling me how you shared this post!
Hey daydreamers! You guys really seemed to like my morning routine post, so I decided to do something sort of similar to that today.
In this post, I’m basically going to be showing you how I do my makeup for shows and ballet performances, and this is pretty much how I did my makeup for Nutcracker a few weeks ago! (I miss Nutcracker so much!!! *cries*)
First off, I am in no way a professional makeup artist or anything, I have no idea what I’m doing and this is basically what I’ve figured out by experimenting and trying out products and stuff. And also, this isn’t sponsored or anything (haha as if, I wish this was sponsored lol)!
Without futher ado…my attempt at a makeup tutorial! 😂
This is just my face pre-makeup. 😂 Onstage, it’s really important to wear heavy makeup because the huge stage lights completely wash your face out, and you have to make sure the back row of the audience can see your facial expressions. You mainly just have to focus on brows, eyes, lips, and cheekbones.
Lol, I should know…once I was in a play and I didn’t wear ANY makeup at all, and it looks like I don’t even have a face in this picture! *Cringes*
The first thing I do is just pull my hair back into a simple ponytail, just to keep my hair out of my face.
First, I’m using a beauty blender and a Neutrogena product (I think it’s supposed to be cover up, but I sort of use it like foundation.)
Next, I apply the cover up on my chin, forehead, cheeks, and under my eyes. Then I blend everything in with the beauty blender by sort of bouncing the blender on my face and smoothing everything out with my fingers.
Next, I put some highlighter around the corners of my eyes to brighten them up a little.
Sorry this is out of focus! I’m using the light to medium matte bronzer, matte rose blush, and gold highlighter from this palate from the Nuetrogena makeup case I got for Christmas.
My face in this picture, lol! First, I take the matte bronzer and lightly dust it over my cheekbones, and blend with a beauty blender.
Next, I apply some blush to my cheekbones – a little more than I would usually do, because it needs to show up onstage. Once again, blend!
Lastly, I dust a touch of shimmery gold highlighter slightly above my cheekbones. And I – you guessed it! – blend it all in.
Onto brows! I’m using the light brown brow cream from the same case thing.
Using a brow brush, I brush on a thick line at the top of my brows, which looks really funny and strange at first, lol!
After that, I blend it together by rubbing my fingers over my brows, and then I fill in any sparse spots with the brow brush.
Next, I apply some glowy nude eyeshadow base with an eyeshadow brush. I really like using this because it smooths everything out and gives your eyes a bit of a natural glow!
Moving onto my favorite part – eyeshadow! I’m using the Candelight, Amour, Midnight, and Sparks colors from this palate, and a crease brush from a brush kit I got.
First, I dust the Candelight shade all over my lids. Then I go over that with the Amour color. After that, I brush the darker Midnight color from the bottom of my eyelids to my crease, and then go over everything with the light shimmery Sparks color.
Ta-da! Eyeshadow done, now onto lashes and eyeliner.
Doing my own eyeliner is really hard for me, so I usually have my mom do it…but I tried, and kinda failed, haha! For shows I always, always, always do winged eyeliner! I attempted a wing here and it’s kinda uneven…oh well?
Second-to-last, I apply mascara! I use this really big, thick one for onstage. I don’t know why, but mascara is really fun to put on for some reason. 😂
Normally, when I’m in a group dance, we all have one lipstick color that we all share so we look the same, so I usually put it on there. It kinda depends on the role: sometimes it’s pink, and sometimes it’s red.
Finally, fill in your lip liner with a bright red or dark pink shade, and you’re done!
I’m pretty happy about how this turned out! The eyeliner is only a little bit messy, and the eyeshadow turned out pretty well! I probably would’ve done everything a bit more exaggerated for a real show, but I didn’t want to put a TON on because it’s hard to take it off, especially thick eyeliner. 😂
And that’s it for this post! I hope you guys found this interesting, and maybe you can use it to try out some stage makeup of your own. Let me know what you think in the comments!
Have you ever done stage makeup? Do you like makeup everyday, or only for shows and special occasions? Pink or red lipstick? Are you bad at eyeliner like me?
P.S. – If you share this post by reblogging, pinning on Pinterest, sharing on social media, or sending the link to a friend, you’ll get three FREE desktop wallpapers sent straight to your inbox! Just leave a comment telling me how you shared this post!
Hey daydreamers! Random question: how early is to early to listen to Christmas music? Usually I strictly ban it until after Thanksgiving, but the Jonas Brothers just came out with a new Christmas song and okay, I admit I’ve listened to it about 15 times since it came out…
Anyway, I know I just did a “what’s in my dance bag” in like August, but my dance bag has changed a LOT since then. First of all, volleyball season ended, I got pointe shoes, new leotards, I’m now at the dance studio 24/7…and oh, yeah, I got a new bag. So yeah, I think that justifies a new tour! If you want to check out the first one, click here.
Let’s just dive headfirst into the post, since I can’t wait to get started!
First, we have the actual bag! I got it for my birthday, and it’s this really cute duffel bag from Rebok. I love the blush pink color! (Pretty much everything I got for my birthday is blush pink…) There’s a mesh pocket on the side, another side pocket with a zipper, and a front pocket with velcro. There’s one main strap that goes over your shoulder, and two smaller straps that velcro together to hold stuff on top of the bag – I use it to hold my pointe shoe bag in place!
In the mesh side pocket, I keep my ballet shoes! I normally just stuff them there after class. That way they can air out after getting all sweaty from dancing (ew). My ballet shoes are leather split-soles from SoDanca, but I’ve been thinking about switching to canvas ballet shoes so I can point my foot more easily.
And next, my pointe shoe bag! I keep my shoes in a blue mesh bag that I stick in the outside pocket. Like my ballet shoes, that gives them a chance to air out after getting sweaty, so they won’t break down as easily!
In my pointe bag, I have my toe pads, toe tape, and of course, pointe shoes! I wear Pillows For Pointe Gellows toe pads, and I love them because they’re reversible! I really like the gel side on my toes – for the first few releves, it’s actually comfortable because the gel feels really soothing. (After that, well…not so comfortable.) I also use Gaynor Minden Microfoam toe tape, which I don’t use super often since I haven’t gotten any blisters yet (thankfully!).
Then, of course, my pointe shoes! Like I said in my pointe fitting vlog, I wear Bloch European Balance, size 4, No X. Translation for non dancers: the number of “X” you have determines the width of your shoe – so if you had XXXX, you’d have really wide feet, and No X means your feet are so narrow that they’re not even wide enough to have one X. Like me. 😂
Here are some gorgeous pictures of my feet. 😂 These involved me tying them, standing on top of my desk, bending down and desperately grabbing the wall while I tried to balance on one foot in the left picture. You’re welcome. 😜
The side pocket contains a very dirty-looking Ziploc bag that contains a travel hairbrush and used to have bobby pins and hair ties in it, but I don’t know where those ended up…and also my red Theraband, which looks really cool in front of my desk lamp, lol!
Finally, let’s look INSIDE the bag!
First, I have another mesh bag containing all my shoes that aren’t actually ballet-related. I’ve had this in my closet since like fourth grade, and I just decided to use it to keep all my shoes together. It’s really cheap and flimsy, but it works!
Inside my purple mesh bag, (how many times have I said the word “mesh” in this post??) I have my jazz and contemporary shoes! When Payless had this huge closing sale I got these tan jazz shoes for only $4 or $5. I think I got the contemporary/lyrical shoes off of Amazon?
Some more slightly weird looking pictures of my feet that also involved standing on top of my desk! In the right one, you can see how the contemporary/lyrical shoes fit over your foot. I actually don’t use these very much; I’d rather go barefoot. The other day in contemporary class, I tried to wear them, and I actually got annoyed that they were slipping off my feet and took them off! I just keep them in my bag anyway.
Then I have my pink leg warmers I got from Target in my birthday shopping haul post that I love! I wear them all the time, especially in my early-morning weekend classes to help me warm up.
Then I also keep this warm grey sweatshirt in my backpack to wear in between rehearsals and on the way to class! It’s really cozy and now that the weather is FINALLY cooling down here in southeast Texas (😂), I wear it all the time.
I love how the filter made my dirty desk look like a clean white background, lol! I also keep these black Spandex shorts that I wore under my uniform during volleyball season in my bag, but now that volleyball is over, I always wear them over my leotard and tights during class! I also keep blackish-navy biker shorts in there too in case I don’t have my Spandex for some reason.
My level color is royal blue, so I have two leotards in that color! The first leotard has spaghetti straps, a lower neck, and V-cut back. The only problem is the straps are a little loose, but otherwise it’s really pretty and comfortable!
My other one is like the opposite of the first leotard: it has a very high neck, thick straps, and back that’s higher than the top. Both are really cute and comfy, though! I also have a black leotard, but when I was taking the pictures for this post I was actually wearing it since I had just gotten back from class. 😂
And, of course, I have tights. I always wear convertible tights, because it’s so much easier to put on toe pads and go barefoot for contemporary class! Once again, I have another pair, but I was wearing them at the time…
I also have a random hairbrush and spray bottle that I use to do my hair for class and rehearsal on the go. There’s not actually thickening spray in the misting bottle – it’s actually just a totally random bottle that I’ve had since the beginning of time, and it’s full of water.
I also, quite randomly, have a pinkish-red fox Squishmallow in my dance bag! Isn’t it cute? For pre-pointe class, we would do releve exercises in parallel, and we’d have to keep a small stuffed animal in between our heels without dropping it. We’d also have to do bourres with them in between our thighs to keep your legs together! Now that I’m on pointe we don’t really use this that much, but I still keep it in my bag in case we do.
(Okay, but the picture on the right actually looks really pretty?) I also keep Spenco 2nd Skin™ Squares in my bag. They’re like little jelly squares with blue backings on them. You stick the square on your blister and peel off the blue backing, and finally attach it with toe tape, and it completely covers up your blisters and keeps them from rubbing! Once again, I haven’t had to use these a lot because I haven’t gotten a blister yet (YAY).
Finally, I have a bag with all of my pointe sewing stuff in it! (Not sure why there’s an empty band-aid box?) The bag is actually the baggie my pointe shoes came in! Inside is scissors, some ribbon and elastic scraps, stretch ribbon that I don’t use but came with my Bloch stitch kit that has some thread and a seam ripper plus some ribbed elastic, a Bunheads stitch kit that has thread and needles, and some measuring tape.
And that’s it! Wow, that ended up being way longer than I expected, and I even left out some stuff. Applause if you made it to the end! 😂
Also, don’t forget: There’s still time to ask questions for the Q&A next week! All you have to do is simply comment down below, and I’m going to be answering all of your questions this Saturday!
I hope you enjoyed looking at what’s in my dance bag, and happy Saturday! *waves*
How early is too early for Christmas music? Do you dance? What’s in your dance or sports bag? How do you organize everything? Any questions for the Q&A?
P.S. – If you share this post by reblogging, pinning on Pinterest, sharing on social media, or sending the link to a friend, you’ll get three FREE desktop wallpapers sent straight to your inbox! Just leave a comment telling me how you shared this post!
I’ll never forget the day I found out I was getting my first pair of pointe shoes. It had been a long, crazy, horrible day, and I was feeling so stressed and frazzled when I walked into the studio, I couldn’t remember where to put my bag. I was pretty suspicious, though – there was supposed to be a parent meeting that day. And that could only mean one thing!!
My mom and I walked into the studio to find my class huddled in a circle around my teacher. She handed us each a packet that read-
Dear Emmie*,
The image of dancing on pointe as effortless is a mere illusion. Much energy and skill is required to assimilate hundreds of muscles, tendons, ligaments, and bones to rise up and dance on pointe. Many dancers have impatiently waited for their first pair of pointe shoes only to be shocked at how difficult dancing on their toes can be. the results of such misunderstanding can lead to frustration, disappointment, and in some cases, injury.
As you begin your pointe study, please be aware that it is a privilege that is accompanied by significant responsibility.
1. Your attendance to each class is imperative.
2. You will be required to dance in the summer to maintain your sill and strength. If you don’t dance at least 4 weeks in the summer, you will not be able to return to pointe study at the beginning of the next fall term.
3. Don’t work at home in your pointe shoes on your own, as you may develop improper habits. Be patient and endure!
*Not what the letter actually said, obviously, it said my real name lol.
As soon as I saw the packet, I knew – it was real. It was actually happening. I was going to get my pointe shoes! And after 3 weeks of waiting, the day of my first pointe shoe fitting had finally come.
Hey guys! Today I’m doing something a little different – I decided to make a vlog about my first ever pointe shoe fitting! I filmed the entire day, from waking up, heading there, the actual fitting (sort of), and when I got back! I’m so excited about how this video turned out and I really hope you guys will like it!
I really hope you guys enjoyed! I’m so sorry this video is SUPER late, but that’s because this took so long to edit and upload, plus I’ve been busy with dance and school so I haven’t had time to actually type this post up.
Do you have pointe shoes? Opinion on microwave mac-and-cheese? Have you ever danced before? How far can you go on your splits? Who’s your favorite YouTuber?
P.S. – If you share this post by reblogging, pinning on Pinterest, sharing on social media, or sending the link to a friend, you’ll get three FREE desktop wallpapers sent straight to your inbox! Just leave a comment telling me how you shared this post!
Hey daydreamers! (Sorry this post is a day late. I started this one really long post yesterday, and it was really dry and boring, so I decided to scrap it but didn’t have time to start a new one.) You guys seemed to really like my What’s In My Backpack? post, so I decided to do a sort of sequel to it and show you guys what’s in my dance/volleyball bag!
Photo by Nihal Demirci on Unsplash
GASP?! Emmie, you’re a DANCER?!! It’s not like you have dancer graphics plastered ALL OVER your blog and talk about dancing ALL THE TIME!!!!
Yes, I’m a dancer. (Could you tell? 😉) I’ve been dancing longer than I can remember, but I started at my current studio when I was about five years old. Since then, I’ve moved up the levels at my studio and this year, I’m hopefully going to be getting my pointe shoes soon! *is totally not freaking out with excitement and fear* Over the years I’ve totally improved as a ballerina, and also have tried out styles like Contemporary and Jazz that I love, too!
Photo by Vince Flemming on Unsplash.Com
Wait, you play volleyball? *Actual realistic reaction unlike the one above*
Since like two weeks ago, yes! 😂 🏐 A ton of my friends have been playing volleyball since second grade, and they FINALLY convinced me to try it out! I joined my school’s Junior High/Sixth Grade volleyball team, and I like volleyball at lot so far! Even though I’m on the C team, lol. At least I actually get playing time, and I’m not the worst person on my team (but not the best either). I play Defensive Specialist (back row) right now and I’m hoping to be picked as libero for my team! Our first game is this week, and I’m also definitely not freaking out right now. 😂
Okay, that was a pretty long intro! You’re probably just DYING to dig through my sweaty gym clothes and ballet shoes with me, so let’s get started!
(Do ya like my setup thingy?) Alright, let’s get started with the stuff that doesn’t actually fit inside the bag! 😂 Those puffy boot thingies on the left are my dance booties, which I can pull over my ballet shoes (and eventually pointe shoes) while I’m walking to and from the parking lot and the dance studio so my shoes never touch the concrete (they’d get ruined within seconds)! Then, of course, I have my volleyball! (Which I don’t actually take to practice but looks cool in this picture so here ya go.) I have regular ball somewhere in the garage, but pictured is my Tachiara Volley Lite, which is great for beginners and is much lighter than a regular volleyball.
Now, for the actual bag! It’s pretty much just a duffel bag with a broken zipper and a watercolor galaxy pattern, with a mandala on the front. My basketball team gave it to me a year and a half ago when I got back from the hospital when I was diagnosed with Type One Diabetes, which was super special! There’s not a zillion pockets like in my backpack, so everything’s just kind of stuffed in there.
Okay, we’ll actually take a look inside now!
First, the essentials for any young athlete: a half-empty water bottle and a Maddie Ziegler book. 😂 Just kidding, but HYDRATION IS IMPORTANT PEOPLE so I always, always, ALWAYS keep a water bottle with me. I also HAVE to bring a book, (like The Audition, shown here) because I’m always waiting around for practice to start or driving to class, and I like to have something to do while I’m waiting!
Second, we have my Nike slides and volleyball court shoes! I got my black-and-rose gold Nike athletic slides from Academy for I think $30 dollars. Like dance booties, volleyball players have to wear them to and from the court since you also can’t wear volleyball shoes outside. They’re really nice since I can wear them over my socks and kick them off whenever! I probably never would’ve gotten volleyball court shoes, since they’re like $75, $80 dollars, except one of my friends offered to sell us her old ones for $25! So that was pretty cool! They’re kind of big, but they work. 😉
Next, here’s some of my dance shoes! On the left, I have tan jazz shoes I got from Payless when they had this huge closing sale, so they were only like $5 dollars or something crazy like that. Those tan thingies on the right are lyrical/contemporary shoes (the brand calls them Toe Undeez) that fit over the ball of your foot and keep you from slipping when you’re dancing barefoot. I don’t actually use these very much (normally I just wear my jazz shoes or go barefoot) but they’re nice to have if I need them!
I also have my ballet shoes (of course)! They’re pink leather, and have split soles so I can do pre-pointe in them. They also have crossed elastics, and they don’t have those annoying drawstring thingies (yes)! I actually got these at the beginning of summer for summer classes, and of course by the time I’m back to dance after a 3/4-week break, they’re getting too small. 🤦♀️
Next I have my kneepads and socks for volleyball! If you’re not familiar with the sport, in volleyball you have to dive for the ball sometimes so most players wear kneepads. Mine are Mizuno brand from Academy – and my mom washed them, so now they have lint all over them… And the socks are, well, white socks. Not much to say about socks.
Also, I have my Spandex shorts and a pump belt! As part of our practice uniform, I have to wear these really short Spandex/compression shorts under my practice shorts. (They’re actually surprisingly comfy!) Also, I have black pump belt, which is basically this fabric band I wear around my waist, under my shirt, and it has a little pocket for me to put my insulin pump in.
In my bag, there’s also my practice uniform, which includes my Athletics shirt and these really huge, annoying Adidas shorts that we have to wear! They’re so long and baggy, and so big I have to pull the drawstring as tight as possible! They look like basketball shorts! 😑
Then, I have my ballet outfit! At my level, I have to wear a royal blue leotard, so I always make sure to keep that in my bag so I can get dressed for dance without digging through my drawer. I also have a pink cover-up skirt to wear in-between classes, plus black shorts for jazz/contemporary. I also have light pink ballet tights, along with tan footless tights if I have a jazz or contemporary performance.
And lastly, I have a red and a yellow stretch band! The one on the right is tied up in knots that I can wrap around my feet, hands, legs, etc. in order to stretch. The red one is just regular, with no knots or anything. I actually don’t use these stretching bands that much, but for some reason they’re buried in the bottom of my bag. You can find them for pretty cheap by searching “TheraBand” on Amazon. (Lol that sounds like this post is sponsored, it’s not 😂)
And it looks like that’s it for this post! I really hope you enjoy it – and if you did, don’t forget to share this post and get free desktop wallpapers! Have you ever danced or played volleyball? If not, what other sports have you played? What’s in YOUR athletics bag? Would you want to see a post with a daily stretching routine or a Top Ten Dance Moves post?
P.S. – If you share this post by reblogging, pinning on Pinterest, sharing on social media, or sending the link to a friend, you’ll get three FREE desktop wallpapers sent straight to your inbox! Just leave a comment telling me how you shared this post!
Diary of a Daydreamer 