Hey Macrame`

Hello Pretties!!!

I hope you have all been well and not on the verge of melting like we have been!! We had a crazy hot weekend with Saturday getting to 43c, Phew not good!
I feel super sorry for Loki on days like that, the poor boy was practically a puddle of dog goo on the tiles the whole weekend. A hairy puddle of dog goo, less than ideal.
It is our plan to move house in February and on the top of our search list is a house with a pool and air-con. Please housing gods help up find a place with those special much appreciated perks ;)

To try and distract myself from the heat I decided to dive face first into some creative antics. I sewed up a storm (I will touch base with you on that next time). Baked some seriously good cookies which I will link the recipe in a jiffy, and I tied knots to make pretty lanterns until I went cross eyed.

I have been in love with macrame` since the dawn of time, and I always get excited when I see pretty pot hangers in second hand stores but am always so sad at how much they charge for something so simple! Don't get me wrong I am no macrame` wizard, in fact this has been my first attempt but it was such a fun and simple project EVERYBODY is capable! Even little Loki bared witness to ensure I was doing it right ;)

I did lots of googling (is that a word? If not it should be), Plenty of YouTube searches and general hunting and a little birdy provided me with the simplest option over on "A little birdy blog" (see what I did there ha hah!) Seriously go check out her blog though! Its quite simply adorable I have blog envy but hey I will get there!


This is what I ended up making- am boy am I in love with it!

Eeeeek! So cute!

So if you would like to learn how to make one of these jump aboard the craft train and here we go!


Things you will need are:

• String (I used crochet cotton for this one but also made another out of cotton twine which also turned out a treat!)
• A 30cm ruler
• Scissors
• A jar (mine was just a old simmer sauce jar cleaned with labels removed)
• Patience

To start you will need to wrap your cotton around your ruler 30 times like so:

Cut the string once you have wrapped it 30 times and slide off and set aside, do this three more times so you have 4 lots of string like this:

Now what you will need to do is get both of the ends together (this is where the patience comes in as the string is VERY easily tangled so go slowly).  Once you have the two ends together you will fold it in half again and then once more so you have folded it three times, the string should now be about a meter long. Do this for each of the lengths of string, you will now have 4 lots of meter long string bunches, gather the string at the fold like so:

 And make a large knot, this will become your "hook"

Now you will divide the string into four:

We moved into the lounge to be under the fans :P (please excuse the state of my floor! argh you can't win with a inside/outside dog)

Loki keeping a watchful eye to make sure its done right.

Now you will begin the "braiding" like so:

Bring the right hand section of string over the middle two and bring the left had section over the right hand section.

 Tuck the left hand section underneath the middle sections and in through the "loop" on the right hand side.

 You will have a twist like such, and pull the two ends up to form a knot like so:

Repeat this process all the way down until you have made a pretty "rope". Now you will group the sections together again and about 10cm down form another big knot:

 Again you will divide the string into 4 sections:

 And tie knots about 5cm down on each sections:

 Now divide the four sections into 8 like so:

 Now you will tie two of the sections to each other until they have been connect like this:

 You should have a "fishnet" looking pattern going on, now connect the last two sections together  so it is all connected. Put your jar in to ensure it is going to fit, if it looks nice and snug you can now add another row of "fishnet"

Tie a big knot at the end and trim off any access string and you are done! And now have a beautiful lantern!

I am planning to make several of these and stringing them all the way along the curtain rail for Christmas, they would look pretty outside strung up either in trees or around your patio for a gorgeous alternative of outdoor lighting!

These are the yummy cookies I baked. They are ginger cookies that are perfectly soft and chewy. They smell like Christmas and general happiness! I got the recipe here the only change I made was swapping out the molasses for brown sugar! Honestly try them you won't be disappointed!

I have one more thing to add before I go and that is how talented my Mum is! I had my 21st just recently and Mum sent me over my present. I promise you she has more talent in her thumbnail than what I have in my entire body.
Mum quilts for a living and she is bloody good at it too!
Here is the quilt she made me for for my birthday and I am utterly in love with it! I had found a picture of a quilt that I really like on Pinterest and sent it off to Mum and so she decided to give it a go and put her own spin on it. Here is the quilt I found on Pinterest:

And here is Mums version which I personally think it turned out much prettier!:

Such a special gift I will savor for years to come, thank you so much Mum!
If you want to see more of what my darling Mumma bear is capable of please don't hesitate to go and check out her blog: http://quiltmekiwi.blogspot.com.au/

Well that's all I have for you today folks!
Thank you for taking the time to swing by, Until next time you stay classy ;)

Serena
x

Happy Hair

Hi there bloggy pals!!!

I am so super sorry!! It has been WEEKS since my last post!! How slack!! But I can tell you it has been a crazy few weeks!
But I am here and back and will have yet another post for you on the weekend involving some crafty goodness so for the mean time this will have to tide you over ;)

So as per the title today's blog is all about hair!! Woohooo! As of a few months ago I started to cut out chemicals from our home which also included chemical hair dyes..... Now I have to tell you this was a scary thing to do because true fact I am 21 and going gray.. Seriously genetics why???!
So the thought of being in my twenties and being completely grey didn't really appeal to me but I also didn't like what chemical dyes were doing to my hair which I am desperately trying to grow out!

I started googling like crazy to find natural alternatives and I found a whole bunch of information on the most magical plant in the world; Henna!!
Henna is seriously the work of wizards, its incredible stuff. Created from the dried leaves of the henna plant, it is a natural dye which works in an entire different way to that of chemical dyes. Henna actually bonds with the inside of your hair and colours from the inside out mending your hair as it goes. Henna comes in one colour only and that is RED! It also can not lighten hair as it fuses with your natural colour and enhances it. For example; my natural hair colour is a mid brown, so henna gave me a lovely auburn colour which is different shades of red in different light. If you have really light hair you will get more copper/orange hues, and if your hair is black your hair will still be black but with red highlights in the sun.
So if you don't like red then henna is not for you, but there is an alternative called indigo which will have you with gorgeous raven locks :)
I would also be a bit of a research freak and be 100% certain that henna is for you because it is very permanent as in you have to wait for it to grow out as colouring over top of henna'd hair can do some serious damage to your hair, so always do a strand test first and be sure to check out this Henna website for all the information you need :)

Let us begin on my third application of henna :)

So to start be aware henna is a whole lot messier that box chemical dyes! So when you get to the actual dying process be sure to wear old clothes and put down some news paper, and also scrub away any drops left in the sink or workspace as henna will stain everything!

You will need:

• Henna (body quality works best as it is the most "pure". I get mine from the local Indian grocery)
• A plastic container you don't mind staining, I use an ice cream container :)
• A spoon
• Something acidic such as lemon juice or lime
• plastic cling wrap
• GLOVES!!! (This is super important if you don't want fluorescent orange hands for the next week). 
• 3-4hours to spare.

So to begin you will need your henna. I use one packet which is plenty for my shoulder length hair, but if you have long hair you will need two packets. Here is the henna i got this time:

As you can see it is also so much cheaper then box dye or going to the salon at only$2.95 a pack what a steal!

 Henna powder to me smells like cut grass, It is a refreshing change to the pass out smell of normal dye.

 Add lemon juice, or in this case lime juice to the powder and mix in as much as you need until you reach a nice thick paste with a sort of Greek yogurt texture as pictured below:

 Once you have the desired texture you will need to cover your container and store it over night to allow the dye to release ( The acid from the lime juice releases the colours from the powder and leaving it over night will give you a nice vibrant colour)

So this is my hair colour pre-henna. As you can see there is still a nice red hue to it but I have a decent bit of regrowth going (Loki is always so photogenic while I am slumming it in my PJs haha)
After your henna has been sitting overnight it is all ready to be slathered over your pretty little head.
I always brush my hair to make sure there is no knots and then section up my hair to ensure even application. Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of the process as my little helper was at work :(  and its all a bit messy to be taking the gloves on and off to snap some very unflattering pictures hehe. It is a good idea to apply some sort of barrier cream to your skin around your hairline such as Vaseline, I personally like coconut oil.
I found the best way to apply the paste is the same way that I would usually colour my hair just working with sections until the entirety has been covered generously, and if you have a bit left over just slap that on too and you will have a seriously sexy look a bit like this:

 Looks a bit like cow poo but that is ok! I use a bit of coconut oil on a cotton pad to tidy up any bits of henna on your skin. Now you will need to put cling wrap over your head to keep all the goodness in an develop a rich colour.

Extra for the conehead sequel.

Leave the henna in for 3-4 hours. I used the time to clean the house and get a bit of reading done.
Rinse out the worst of the henna over the bath or sink to avoid getting it on your skin. Once the bulk of it has been rinsed out jump into the shower and wash your hair as per usual with shampoo and conditioner (my personal favourite is Sukin it is 100% vegan with no animal testing or nasty chemicals, you can buy it online here). When you get out of the shower do not freak out! Your hair will be very orange at the roots! but as your hair dries the colour will settle:

Mega orange roots!

Colour in bathroom overhead light

Colour in sunlight.

So there you have it a nice pretty chemical free colour :)
Let me know in the comments below if you have ever tried henna or you are wanting too!

Until next time!
Stay crafty you little foxes!
Serena
xxx