Why the Princess Leia Crown Hairdo is Awesome

So of course we all know what today is:

Yes, May the Fourth or Star Wars Day. A day to fangirl or fanboy about Star Wars as much as you want.

A day to watch the films,

And just enjoy anything Star Wars.

You know that every year I wear as much Star Wars stuff as I can and do all kinds of Star Wars stuff throughout the day. In fact today, I made up a Star Wars book display at the library for May the 4th and to honor the release of a A Star Wars Episode IV: New Hope (May 25th).

And one thing I always do is rock the Princess Leia Crown Hairdo.

I know they aren’t as iconic as the Princess Leia Hair Buns, but trust me the Princess Leia Crown Hairdo is amazing, easy, fit for any occasion, and everyone can pull them off.

So this hairdo is worn in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.

It is really easy to do.

1. Part hair in the middle.
2. Braid hair into two braids on either side of your head, pigtail style.
3. Take one braid and wound up your head, pinning it in place with bobby pins.
4. Take the other braid and wound it up your head as well, meeting with the first braid.

For those who are visual, click here. Amazing, simple, and so easy! I don’t know about you, but this is how most of my mornings go:

But this is something that even I, the hairstyling challenged can do, is something that once you do your hair actually stays that way all day. It is fantastic if you are just hanging out, going to a fancy event, hiking, needing to stay cool in summer, going on a roller coaster, etc.

Wow!

And above all- you look and feel like a princess.

Regal, strong, confident, and powerful,

Well I hope you all enjoyed Star Wars day whatever you did or wore. And always:

For more on Star Wars, go to Black is Best

For more on May the 4th, go to This Day in History

For more on Princess Leia, go to Don’t Let My Size Fool You

For more on hair styling, go to Hair Do? Or Hair Don’t?

A New Hope

40 years ago a film came out in May that changed the culture and the history of movie making. It had amazing characters and figures, and as I honored Star Trek last year, I decided this year will be all about that film. And what film?

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

Yes I am a humongous fan and I could not let the year go by without talking about it.

As we have also lost Carrie Fisher last year, I also want to honor her in this post. Her performance as Princess Leia impacted me in so many ways as I just wanted to be her.

So this is a time to reflect on what the past year held for us, the big posts, what’s new, and what you all seemed to like the most.

This post will only cover a few things, you really should check out the year for yourself. To start at the beginning go here.

The Views

This year I had over 52,000 views!

The most viewed day of the year was October 24th, in which I posted We’ve Seen Dracula, the Wolf Man, and Frankenstein’s Monster: Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948).

The Top Five Posts

Here are the top five most viewed posts of the year, although strangely non were posted this year.

I mean you like what you like. I’m just happy people are reading my blog.

5) A Monster Race: Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf (1988) part of Horrorfest’s 31 Days of Horror films (2012)

4) Being Friends is Good Enough: Catching Fire (2013) from Romance is in the Air: Part II‘s 14 days of my favorite romantic moments (2014)

3) A Real Man, quotable post on what it means to be a real man (2014)

2) I Saw Goody Osburn With the Devil: The Crucible (1996), part of Horrorfest II’s 31 Days of Horror films (2013)

1) Fulfilling the List: A Walk to Remember (2002), from Romance is in the Air‘s 14 days of my favorite romantic moments (2013)

The Followers!

So this community has really grown in numbers and I can not describe how pleased I am about that. We have gone from 14 followers in 2012 to 42 followers in 2013, 169 followers in 2014, to 439 in 2015, and now 616

So enough about the statistics and numbers! Let’s move on to what was covered this year and what changes I have made to the blog

1) Star Trek

So as Star Trek turned fifty last year I tried to have it influence the posts. I didn’t do as much as I did the year before with Back to the Future, but I tried.

For Star Trek we have my taste in fashion, A Fashion Statement; my Saint Patrick’s Day post, Wearing of the Green: 17 More Irish Heroes; my Horrorfest V post, “Charlie X” from Star Trek (1966); and ending with my Christmas post Trek the Halls with Bones and Scotty

2) Story of My Life

So every year I like to incorporate posts on just scenes or experiences from my everyday life. This year I shared how I hated traffic court in Runaround Suesanville; how I almost killed myself with my alarm clock in Death By an Alarming Rate; when I heard a strange bumping noise while being home alone in A Bump in the Night; my totally awesome ’80s party in Back to the ’80s; fleeing the stress of finals by my Escape to Alcatraz; dying my hands green in My Favorite Martian; running into the ex in When You Least Expect It, my trip to Nerd Con in Revenge of the Nerds, my bad eye-perience at the eye doctor in Eye Guess I Won’t Be Seeing You

3) Honoring Special People

So every year I try to honor special people who have made an impact in my life, passed away, or are celebrating a birthday. I never get to do everyone I care about, but here are the ones I did: David Bowie with Changes, Turn and Face the Strange; Alan Rickman with A Man of Great Worth and Respectability; Michael Ende and his novel The Neverending Story in A Book Only a Reader Could Write; Roald Dahl’s 100th birthday in Come With Me and You’ll Be in a World of Pure Imagination;

4) You Can’t Keep a Fangirl Down

So these fangirl posts just keep coming. I’m trying to finish them, but we still have a few more things I’m obsessed with to finish.

Last year I reviewed the ABBA, Alias, Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons, Gossip Girl, Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, Ned and Stacey, One Tree Hill, The Patridge Family, Queen, Ringer, The Rocky Series, Sarah Dessen, Saved by the Bell, Scooby-Doo, 7th Heaven, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Sherlock, Sherlock Holmes, Sleeping Beauty, Spider-man, Star Wars, Star Trek, Step by Step, Sweet Valley High, Supernatural, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Thorn Birds, Touched by an Angel, Twin Peaks, Xena: Warrior Princess

To read, go to Fan-do or Fan-don’t. There is No Fan-try, The Fan, The Girl, The FANtom Menance, A Study in Fandoms, To Kill a Fangirl, Return of the Fandom, The Strange Case of a Fangirl and Her Fandoms, We Will Fandom You

5) My Marvelous Music

I reviewed less this year than the previous ones, but still took some time out to about some tunes I love. We had: Back in Black by AC/DC; Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen; Crocodile Rock by Elton John; December, 1963 (Oh What A Night) by Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons; Hail to the King by Avenged Sevenfold; Old Time Rock & Roll by Bob Seger; Summertime by My Chemical Romance;  T.N.T by AC/DC; You Shook Me All Night Long by AC/DC

6) Jane, Jane, Jane, Janey, Janey, Janey, Janey, Janey Book Reviews

I love Jane Austen, after all its is in the name! This year I reviewed a number of books that were related to or a retelling of her books.

I reviewed a collection of essays in The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen compiled by editors Edward Copeland and Juliet McMaster; then the baby versions of Emma, Pride & Prejudice, and Sense and Sensibility by Jennifer Adams

I then went over the following retellings: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies #1) by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith, The Butterfly and the Violin by Kristy Cambron, Captain Wentworth’s Diary (Jane Austen’s Heroes #3) by Amanda Grange; Austenland and Midnight in Austenland (Austenland #2) by Shannon Hale, Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James; The Dashwood Sisters Tell All: A Modern Day Novel of Jane Austen by Beth Pattillo, Amanda (The Austen Series) by Debra White Smith Daring Chloe (Getaway Girls #1) by Laura Jensen Walker,

I also reviewed the Emma film starring Kate Beckinsale in Emma (1996) AKA the Kate Beckinsale Version, “Episode One” from Death Comes to Pemberley (2013), and Love at the Thanksgiving Day Parade (2012)

And of course continuing to talk about the book Emma; in When You Shockingly Relate to Mr. Woodhouse

And my Jane Austen mashup in Candy Girls

7) Now Gimme That Good Good Lovin’

So we brought back Romance is in the Air, the fourth countdown to Valentine’s Day I’ve done on this blog. Every day I posted a different romantic moment.

The moments I choose this year came from the films: Psycho (1960), How to Steal a Million (1966), Grease (1978), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Casual Sex (1988), Pocahontas (1995), Sense and Sensibility (1995), Borrowed Hearts (1997), and War Room (2015).

I also added in TV show romantic moments this year with “Episode Four” from North & South (2004), “A Trip to the Dentist” from Veronica Mars (2005), “Fateful” from Awkward (2011), “The Bikini in the Soup” from Bones (2011), and “Playing Heart to Get” from Barbie Life in the Dreamhouse (2013).

8) May the Calendar Keep Bringing Happy Holidays to You

So I like holidays…I really, really do. But I can’t always do huge countdowns to honor them, sometimes I have to do one day posts. So here we go.

This year I celebrated Superbowl 50 with a mashup of what teams Jane Austen’s characters would be a fan of. To read, go to Clear Eyes. Full Hearts. Can’t Lose: Superbowl 50.

I also celebrated the Chinese New Year’s Year of the Monkey by listing off nine of my favorite primates or primate moments from The Jungle Book, to Aladdin, to Jumanji, The Wizard of Oz, and more. To read, go to A Little Monkey Business: Chinese New Year.

Feb

In honor of Saint Patrick’s Day I listed off 17 more Irish heroes in The Wearing of the Green

For Easter I reviewed the following art featuring Jesus and his path to the cross; Entry into Jerusalem by Duccio di Buoninsegna or Duccio, The Last Supper by Freddy Fabris, The Betrayal of Jesus by Albrecht Dürer, and Pietá by Michelangelo.

Honoring Star Wars on May the Fourth with This Day in History

9) Happy Anniversary to You!

This year I celebrated many anniversaries of films or books. This year my blog turned four in Here’s to Another Year; Star Trek turned 50 in Live Long and Prosper; the Grinch turned 60 in Maybe Christmas, He Thought, Doesn’t Come from a Store. Maybe Christmas…Perhaps…Means a Little Bit More: How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and The Ten Commandments turned 60 in Oh, Moses, Moses; 

10) It’s Always Tea Time

I love tea, I really, really, really do. I’ve talked about it in the past, but really focused on the topic this year. First my mistake in being extra-caffeinated tea in The Dark, Dark, Dark Side; how I can’t stop drinking in My Teaddiction (Tea Addiction); how tea always makes me feel better in Better Than Asprin, where I became a loose-leaf tea drinker in My Trip to Teavana; my tea trip around the world in A World of Teas; and my tea party decorations in It’s Always Tea Time.

11) Way to a Person’s Heart is Through their Stomach

We all like to eat right? Well this year I partnered with my sister blog MysteriousEats.wordpress.com and shared some tea time treats, or ones best paired with Jane Austen’s work.

I included the recipe for Crasins Scones, Harlem Tea Room Baking Powder Scones, Harlem Tea Room Cheddar-Thyme Scones, Harvest Pumpkin Scones, and Lemon Scones.

12) Horrors of Horrors, Monsters and Ghouls

This year’s Horrorfest covered movies, TV shows, and more.

I reviewed Blackmail (1929), White Zombie (1932), Night on Bald Mountain (1940), Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), Backfire (1950), Dial 1119 (1950), House on Haunted Hill (1959), Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter (1966), When a Stranger Calls (1979), Thriller (1983), Ghostbusters (1984), Clue (1985), Once Bitten (1985), Teen Wolf (1985), Cat’s Eye (1987), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze (1991); Let Me Call You Sweetheart (1997), Sleepy Hollow (1999), Dracula 2000 (2000), Jeepers Creepers (2001), Corpse Bride (2005), TMNT (2007), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014), The Cheerleader Murders (2016), The Girl On the Train (2016)

And the TV episodes: “Charlie X” from Star Trek (1966); “A Matter of Loaf and Death” from Wallace and Gromit (2008); “The Death of the Queen Bee” from Bones (2010); “Episode One” from Death Comes to Pemberley (2013)

I also did 31 tips on how to survive a horror film.

13) 30 Day Challenge: Literature Loves

So let’s just get it out there, I failed.

I didn’t finish the 30 day challenge. I only did 21 posts.

Aw, man.

But I’m going to keep going until I do finish it. And until it is finished, I won’t be posting anything else on this blog.

But so far, I have reviewed the following books: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies #1) by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, O Pioneers! (Great Plains Trilogy #1) by Willa Cather, The Secret of Chimneys (Superindendent Battle#1) by Agatha Christie, The Overnight Socialite by Bridie Clark, Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen, A Christmas Carol: Being a Ghost Story of Christmas by Charles Dickens, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Five Were Missing by Lois Duncan, Beastly (Kendra Chronicles #1) by Alex Flinn, Book of a Thousand Days and Midnight in Austenland (Austenland #2) by Shannon Hale, Real Murders (Aurora Teagarden Mysteries #1) by Charlaine Harris, Faking Grace by Tamara Leigh, Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine, Moby-Dick by Herman Melville, Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, Anne of Green Gables (Anne of Green Gables #1)  by L. M. Montgomery, Princess Nevermore by Dian Curtis Regan, How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss, Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne

So what will this year hold? I don’t know. I guess you will have to join follow me to find out.

And remember:

For 2015 in review, go to To Boldy Go Where No Man Has Gone Before

For 2014 in review, go to Where We’re Going, We Don’t Need Roads

For 2013 in review, go to Looking at the Past, Focusing on the Future

For 2012 in review, go to Looking Back, Moving Forward

For more on Star Wars, go to Black is Best

The FANtom Menance

 

So it has been a while since I last did a fangirl post. All I can say is sorry! Unfortunately life cannot always be structured the way I wish.

Oh well

So here we go with a few more of my favorite things.

Star Wars

Words cannot describe how much I adore Star Wars, although I have tried pretty hard in the past to explain it. While Episodes 1-3 & 7 had a few good moments, nothing will beat the original. Episodes 4-6: A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, & Return of the Jedi will always be number one to me.

I can’t remember exactly when I first watched the series, I know I was young because when the Phantom Menace came out in 1999 I was only seven and a diehard Star Wars fan.

Episode 4: A New Hope is one of my all-time favorites. I just love the characters and the dialogue. Everything about it was just so perfect. I mean you have the adorable Luke who you can connect with his dreams and hopes. The hunky Han Solo, a rascal but has a heart of gold:

Wanted in my life

Darth Vader who was one of the best villians ever! Powerful, charismatic, scary, and has the best theme music and voice of all time.

I mean we don’t know anything about him. but we do know he is not a man to be messed with.

And then there was of course, the one woman I aspired to be like and who’s traits I tried to fold into my own personality: Princess Leia.

I mean she was just SOOOO cool! Here was a Princess that was intelligent, powerful, strong, political, beautiful, a problem solver, rebel leader, could hold her own against torture, willing to fight and die for what she believed in, could handle a variety of weapons, a quick thinker, witty, rescues herself (with a little bit of help) etc. She was just altogether AWESOME!!! I couldn’t think of a better role model to any young girl. Thank you George Lucas and Carrie Fisher.

The Empire Strikes Back was just an amazing film as well. The action, the great continuation, yet giving it its own flavor; and that reveal. I mean you all know what I’m talking about (that have seen the film) but I won’t say just in case for those who haven’t watched it. Although that’s just crazy talk. I mean join us Star Wars fans already!

Or should I say Star Wars side?

And then we have Return of the Jedi. In here we see the final progression of Luke’s character. First we have an idealistic young man, turned pilot, turned rebel, turned Jedi padawan, to Jedi Knight. He has been able to conquer the force in a short amount of time and ready to continue on. But first he must face one person and defeat the dark side.

Return of the Jedi has some of the best moments in it. Like when Luke saves his father by believing that his father still is a good man, and willing to fight for him; even dying if necessary to reawaken the human side the the dark side ate long ago. Completely refusing to give in to the dark, this causes his father to receive the redemption and return to him, even if it was for a moment. Sometimes saving and helping others isn’t going in and beating people up, sometimes it is making sacrifices and risking yourself for others.

I of course am such a fan that I have a huge collection of Star Wars items. If it is something that has to do with the original series, I’m all over it like butter on toast. And I mean anything!

These three films are fantastic. Anyone who tells you different is a liar and unenlightened.

I mean even Jane knows what’s up!

Yes:

For more on Star Wars, go to Anger Management

Trekkie

There are those who say that it is impossible to love Star Trek and Star Wars and here is what I say:

Majorly

You can love both and I most definitely do.

In fact I am not just  fan of the Original Series, although it is my favorite, I have watched every single reincarnation of this show. It is a lot to cover so I will try and hit the highlights.

Of course the original is the best (and BTW Thursday marks the 50th anniversary). I loved Captain James T. “Jim” Kirk as I thought he was just amazing! Strong, powerful, intellectual, eloquent, charismatic, a problem solver, and what a hunk! He would think through every decision making sure that he chose the best for his crew. But if he had to, he would get his hands dirty.

Then we have Spock. Logical, efficient, unable to understand sarcasm, etc. I also liked that he was biracial too, there are not enough characters out there that are for those of us who also are to connect to. And even with that Vulcan personality and his looks are not what you would categorize as a dreamboat but he definitely is one.

Then we have Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy. The best thing about Bones is his wit and sarcastic nature. I love all his sayings, I mean every word that drops from his mouth is just so sassy and fun. He is so hilarious and part of the dream team that made Star Trek a hit.

Then we have Star Trek: The Next Generation. And let’s all face it, as much as I thought Captain Picard was the best; for me it is all about Data. What an awesome character and just downright hilarious.

I also had such a thing for Riker. I think it was that beard.

Although he was quite the hunk without the beard as well.

Deep Space Nine was okay, but not a fav so let’s keep going. Voyager was alright, my favorite character being Neelix, the cook. He was just the sweetest thing.

 

Enterprise was also okay, but not nearly as good as TOS.

The new movies that came out were done very well, much better than the revamped Star Wars. The only thing I don’t like is that they made the new Kirk a little more brawn and less brain. Oh well, you can never repeat the original.

While Star Trek may go through numerous changes, I’ll always love it.

For more on Star Trek, go to After These Messages, We’ll Be Right Back

Xena: Warrior Princess

As I mentioned in a previous post that I was a huge fan of Hercules: The Legendary Journey, it was only natural that I would watch its counterpart.

I thought Xena was pretty cool and one awesome warrior, although I did think she needed a more covering outfit to fight in. I mean seriously, they always put women in these outfits that are not the best for crime fighting.

Growing up I never saw a lesbian relationship, I always thought of the two as BFFS, going out and fighting to help others. I still don’t think of them that way, but I guess to each fan their own view?

Anyways, I still remember it being a big part of my childhood.

So I’m sure some of you are thinking what a loser.

And it’s awesome.

For the previous post, go to Return of the Fandom

And Stay tuned for part 26