Alaska Plaits & Ponytails....

I would never think of plaiting my hair....it always feels a little Laura Ingalls to me.... 

(not that there's anything wrong with Laura Ingalls of course, I read & re-read those books when I was younger) 

but I keep seeing images everywhere of fabulously stylish plaits & ponytails & I absolutely love them.

I don't have super long hair, it's shoulder length right now - long enough for a ponytail, not sure it would work for a plait though.

It would seem the key is to have a slightly messy plait, it needs to stay intact but still look as though you've slept in it. Effortless chic....as always.

As for the ponytail....again, it needs to look as though you've created it & almost forgotten about it, more this-took-me-twenty-seconds-and-not-a-second-longer as opposed to this-took-me-hours-and-even-then-i-needed-a-friend-to-assist.

It seems the "high pony" is often the style of choice...and with the right style, you can apparently wear this at any age, it's not just for the under-12s.

My daughter wants to try out both a French plait or a fishtail plait - neither of which I can do - so I took a look around for a good hair tutorial....it would appear the internet is full of them!

Joanna over at A Cup of Jo has some great hair ideas/tutorials and Nikki who writes the fabulous beauty blog Bella Mumma has lots of super-helpful hair style posts....

love this beautifully chic & easy half-up-half-down style

Blake Lively's tri-ponytail 

mastering the "messy" ponytail

the two-second-hair trick

and finally, a very straightforward tutorial from a lovely young lady who made me want to be young, cute with super long hair again....isn't she gorgeous?

Would you wear any of these?  

all images via Pinterest

Slipped down a couple of stairs at school today, managing to narrowly avoid splitting the knees of my brand new jeans & squashing a couple of small children and & still hold on to the box of cupcakes that I was delivering to school!!

Could I have claimed it as a "work injury" or even a vaguely work related one as I had made them on behalf of the class rep ;) 

Crisis narrowly averted....last day of term, how terrible would that have been?!!