Barbecue? Okay, Let's Live Dangerously.

Leah, mom and I will be heading to the Twins Days Festival next weekend! We are so excited about the festival! Especially this year: Leah and I are actually dressing up with the theme! We have never worn a costume to the festival before, but this year we decided we might as well try something new. The theme this year is "Fairy Tales/Characters from Books" and everything that encompasses. I'm sure we'll see lots of princesses and princes, villains, heroes, and other creative costumes. But, instead of Disney princesses, Leah and I are dressing up as Daenerys Targaryen from the book/TV show Game of Thrones!

Daenerys is a major female character in the books and show. She's strong and brave. She overcomes every obstacle that is thrown at her. And she is determined to win the Iron Throne and claim her birthright. She's pretty awesome. In the book she is very, very young - like 14 or so. She has a pretty rough beginning - her brother is super mean and she's married off to some king or "Kahl" of a "barbaric" race. But, she ends up falling in love with her husband and getting pregnant. Just when you think things are working out for her, her Kahl dies and so does her baby. She's left alone in the desert with only a few loyal servants - and with her dragons! After this, she takes control and gets whatever she wants. Her dragons grow bigger and she is determined she will get the Iron Throne.

Daenerys is on the right.

Now, I have to admit, I have only read the first book all the way through. I started the second and got stuck half-way. These books are hard to read. They're very descriptive and there are a ton of characters to keep track of. The show, on the other hand, is super is easy to watch. You quickly fall in love with the good characters and hate the evil ones. Unfortunately, nothing happens the way you expect it. The good guys don't always win and sometimes they even die! The author, George R.R. Martin, likes to keep you surprised and interested. There are seven books in the series, I believe - crazy! Season 3 just ended on HBO.

In Season 3, Daenerys wears the same outfit through most of the season - a blue tunic/dress with black or gray tights and high boots. Her super blonde hair is down and wavy with a few braids in the back. This is the outfit we are trying to recreate. This whole summer I have been working on getting my hair from dark brown to light blonde. I have not been completely successful. It's very hard to go from dark to light on your own! But, I have managed to get my hair light enough where people can notice the difference, and it is finally pretty much the same color (other than very light roots). My co-worker was willing to help us make the outfit. We found a pattern and bought the fabric and she recreated the dress all on her own! And it looks awesome! We bought some black leggings and boots. My dad made a claw necklace out of wood and we bought some (super cute) dragons to carry around. Leah is the expert hair and makeup artist. And we finally have our costume!

Last night, Leah and I dyed our hair and then Leah braided it all over our heads. We slept in the braids and didn't take them out until around eleven this morning. Super cute curls! Then Leah put our hair in braids to look like Daenerys'. We then dressed up in our whole costume and took some pictures.

With a little bit of editing, the pictures turned out great! We are so excited to dress up as our favorite character next weekend.

We did buy another (super cute) outfit to wear when our costume gets too hot. We are going to walk the parade and enter a costume contest (hopefully a morning one) and then change into our other outfit. Next weekend can't get here quick enough!