The New Year and Some Pretty Embroidery

Ahh it has been soooo long. To cut a long story short I got caught up in a new job- I am now teaching English as a foreign language at uni. I did not stop being creative, but I did stop blogging about it. I posted a bit on instagram and FB but really got quite irritated that I did not write here. For 2016 I am going to try to be better. I have set myself some creative objectives and I am going to try to stick to them...!

Someone I have recently discovered is Dottie Angel, I know I am mega behind...! I remember spotting a feature on her in Mollie Makes a few years back but I was very distracted by uni and it zapped all my creative spirit. Having then rediscovered her, I was hugely inspired by her "woolley tattoos" and just had to have a go. 

Dottie Angel Mittens

I was so smittened with Dottie's smittened mittens that I decided I must too embroider prettiness upon knitted things. But when I did mine I had not read this blog post (linked above) just stared at various instagram pics and sorta just made it up.

Both are found on her instagram.

So I just had to have a go. And I did. I just made it up.

First I needed a junper, two days after I decided this I walked into a street market and found an unwanted French Connection, vaguely fair isle cardi. I had three euros in my pocket so I offered the French old lady my 3e in exchange for the rather to big cardi (so she thought) and took him home.

From my instagram

Now, I have a confession. I can't knit, and at the time of starting this I could not crochet either (I can kinda crochet now, albeit totally askew). So I shared my woolley plans avec ma mere and persuaded her perfect knitting paws to knit me two pockets for me to then attempt to flower. 

I had no practice, no plan, no technique. I just went for it. Look what happened....!

In a rather daft and scatty manner, I stitched the pockets to the cardi before prettying them up, but as I wore it in between attacks with wool, it worked out for the best. 

Dungarees and a good comfy knit.

S

Pocket close up

Then one morning on my way to work I grabbed a perfectly fitting dark grey woolly cardi off my housemate's reject pile, it wasn't until a few hours later I realized it was riddled with nibbles. *Sniff* So over xmas I resolved to give him a new lease of life. It is an on-going WIP as I keep finding more holes. The battle against the winged ones is still on... But he is looking good so far I think.

Very nibbled arrm. 

Two flowers and two buds and a lone bee.

Itty bitty bee

So far I have only stitched where there are holes, and I have not yet covered them all up, but I am slowly winning this woolly war. I might have to do some evening out too??? Not sure....

I think maybe I would have had more success reading about what Dottie did first but then maybe I would not have had so much fun. Mine was zero stress, lets see what happens, oh dear it looks a bit weird, lets add some leaves instead. I think the secret it layering, and just add another colour or layer to the flower.... Or sit back and go make a cup of tea then look at it again. Or ask another human bean, "does this look totally nuts and weird or ok" to which hopefully you will get the answer "it looks like something you would wear". Maybe a bit nuts then.

Naturally Revitalizing Your (Real or Fake) Ginger Hair

Ever since I was a kid and saw Practical Magic I have lusted after Nicole Kidman's red hair (incidentally I think I sort of also wanted to be a witch but hey...!). I mean seriously her hair is gorgeous...

And of course dancing with midnight margaritas is always a plus (though as a kid the crazy dancing sufficed).

Weirdly even my mother wanted a red-headed daughter, but what with her and my father having almost black hair this seemed a somewhat fanciful wish to say the least. To cut a long story short, and a lot of attempts using chemical auburn dyes in my early uni years I kinda gave up on the "dream" but then I discovered henna. All I can say is my love affair started and many people now can't imagine me any other way. In fact often people are shocked when they realize I am a fake...! Including an authentic ginger friend of mine (apparently I have betrayed him with my faux gingerness).

Henna is really THE best dam way to get natural looking ginger hair, I have been faithfully using henna for I think three years now, I am kinda hazy as to when I started.... However I hate dealing with roots, and the fading. Though hennaed hair doesn't root anything like chemical dyes and it kinda blends in when it grows out, I still hate it. It gives me away! IF people are observant. And it is always a much better colour in the sun, inside when the light is dull my hair is equally dull and I am always battling against this. I feel like my hair is reflective of my personality, or at least it should be and therefore it can't be dull...! 

Sunned ginger locks.

So I was inspired by this post and decided to make my own doctored version. Not only did I feel a little like a Nicole Kidman witch, it really worked after one treatment and was far less messy than a henna root job. I THOROUGHLY recommend. It brightened my hair, lightened it a bit, and made my roots disappear. 

Winter dulled ginger (and this is a good day). It just ain't bright enough pour moi.

Natural Henna Hair Mask

Ingredients

This can be played with depending on what you have in your home.

Chamomile tea
Olive oil
Honey
Henna (I use Lush's Caco Rouge because I know I can trust it not to have any funky copper deposits or whatever).
A natural conditioner, in France we have a brand called Nectar of Nature that seems to be less offensive then usual brands)
Aragon oil (optional)

A JAR OF SOME SORT (my conditioner came in a tub not a bottle so I am recycling that as there is not a lot of it left anyway).

First take a square or so of henna and cut it up as fine as poss (the hot water never dissolves it totally).

Then pour half a cup of boiling water over the tea. I used two because I think packaged tea is a bit weak. If I wasn't so broke I would have bought a packet of actual chamomile flowers from the natural store (Bio C Bon) and brewed that up, but that was 5euro and this box of tea was 1.50, I figure there will deff be a difference in quality but I am broke so hey ho....

Give the gloop a good mix. 

Then add the extras. A good squirt or two of honey. A glug of oil. A few drops of aragon oil. And then mix in the conditioner until it hits the desired consistency. I ran out of conditioner as all I had left it what is you can see in the tiny mug.

It ended up looking like this:

(I apologize profusely over the picture quality, I am having camera issues right now).

On a casual sunday afternoon whilst I was drawing, I dunked my head under the shower head, towel dried it, then coated it in this mixture and then covered it in cling film and let it sit for about 30min before washing it out. 

Deff was a good quick perk up! I think I might put some more conditioner in though when I get around to buying more. Or I might just use this, as its impossible to OD on henna in my eyes.

I ended up transferring it to a prettier container too. I am gonna coat the label in modge podge so it holds up better,

I am hoping that this mixture will give me "in the sun" ginger hair all year round. And with its hair lightening ingredients (chamomile, honey, olive oil) it should gradually build up to achieve just this. But if I get bored of waiting I might just coat my head in honey and do it that way! 

Seeing as this is generally stuff I have sitting around (I bulk buy my henna in the UK because the taxes here on that stuff is insane) it was basically free at the moment I decided to make it. If you are a henna head too, just keep a square back next time so that you can mix up a batch of this to keep you going until you henna again (I never use more than three squares at a time now anyway).

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