My year of no shampoo...

Yip that's right! Except I didn't not wash it, I'm not that hardhealthcore just yet... but I didn't use shampoo. In pursuit of living a more chemical free life I stumbled across the hair care option known as, 'no poo'. Basically you use that mind blowingly versatile ingredient that is always the tops of the pops when it comes to those '34 things you didn't know you can do with...' click bait types. Know what I'm talking about? It's bicarb. Straight up plain Bicarbonate of Soda, in fact you probably have some lurking in your kitchen right this moment.

Ok enough of that, here's the story and the what to do (because you should do this).

So as is turns out using regular shampoo paves the ways for a vicious cycle of rather ironic behaviour from your hair. The chemicals used to clean your hair are so harsh that they strip your hair of all its good and nourishing oils. In an attempt to renourish itself the hair over compensates and becomes an unsightly oily mess and because you then wash it again those good oils never make their way down to tips of your hair to moisturise it and so it dries out and you are required to then use more chemicals and spend more money to do the job your own body was trying to do in the first place. Enter bicarb. The bicarb is incredibly gentle on your hair and doesn't strip it the way normal shampoos do, because it's not a detergent. It cleans the hair of dirt and unhelpful oil but just lets it be. It does not however moisturise your hair and this is where another unsung pantry hero comes out to play. Say hello to Apple Cider Vinegar. Hi. Your hair is naturally acidic and what the bicarb clean off, the vinegar puts back in and somehow is the most effective detangler I have ever used.

As I said, it's been a year now since I threw away my last bit of shampoo and I haven't looked back since. I recently had my hair cut and my hairdresser was more than happy with the health (and cleanliness!) of my hair. So below is the what to do!

For the wash, pour 1-3 Tablespoons of bicarb in your bottle. The amount will depend of the length and thickness of your hair, I use about 2 Tbs. 

Add 1 cup of water and 5 or so drops of tea tree oil, this is optional but is really good for scalp health. Shake it up but don't let it dissolve, the water is really just there to help you distribute the bicarb evenly. On a side note, I once used a bicarb that felt more like icing sugar and less like granulated sugar and I didn’t have much success with it. You need to feel the granules in your hair and massage them well into your scalp and through your hair. Use the whole bottle! When you rinse it out your hair should feel squeaky clean :)

Next is the rinse. Add 1 Tablespoon of the Apple Cider Vinegar.

And 1 cup of water. Rinse it through your hair and give it a few minutes to do its work. The smell is quite strong at this point so if you'd like you can add some nice essential oils of your choice but it washes out well and you won't smell of vinegar when you are done :) Give it a good rinse and you’re good to go!

So there you have it. Quick recap:

Wash: 1-3 Tbs bicarb

1 cup water

5 or so drops Tea Tree oil (optional)

Use it all!

Rinse: 1 Tbs Apple Cider Vinegar

1 Cup water

a few drops of an essential oil if you'd like

Use it all!

Have you tried this or other options? Would love to know! 

 My year of no shampoo...and my (here unseen) son taking me out from my waist shortly after taking that photo :)

A little bit of a repurposing project...

So a while back a friend gave us this fantastic piece of wood he found at a steel foundry. He had plans for it but just wasn’t getting round to them, and when I spied it in his garage my mind exploded a little with the possibility this piece heldJ. So we loaded it up and took it home. I must say it was really Joe who made this thing go from what it was to what it is. I applied a little bit of varnish at the end and supplied refreshments along the way, but the rest was him, even the process photos J

 

The biggest task was to get that top piece of wood off, it was quite a pain but it meant Joe needed to buy a new tool so he was happy :)

Then we had a few of these guys to deal with...

But finally it came off and its potential was looking evermore promising :)

I really liked the wood detail on the inside so wanted to make sure we would still be able to see it.

 

A quick coat of white varnish...

 

Add a few feet and a piece of glass and there you have it!

 

 

Hello lovely coffee table :)

 

I think this we spent more on this project than we have on our other diys, which was mostly just making sure we got strong glass but it's been well worth it :)

 

Before, After and the Three Months in-between.

A few months ago we spotted this old lounger in the 'throw away' section of our complex. I couldn't believe someone would want to throw it away, but then upon closer inspection I could see why they thought it probably wasn't worth trying to sell. Anyway, we saw it and thought, "Challenge accepted!" (And who doesn't love a free thing, right? Well we do, that's for sure.) So we picked it up and took it back to our flat - albeit a little sheepishly - it's always awkward scratching in the rubbish.

 

We sat on it a few times and realised that the seat wasn't going to hold out much longer, so we thought we'd just take it off.  Overly ambitious idea number 1.  It was back-breaking work, tedious messy and only mildy satisfying. Anyway, after much hacking and picking, we got it all off with just a few fingertip casualties.

 

At this point it did look interesting in a rather poetic kind of way, but now we had a large, obstructive metal frame that we could no longer sit on.

 

And so began the next phase, overly ambitious idea number 2. I thought I would just cut up strips of fabric and and punch them together with studs, to form the new seat cover. Cutting the fabric turned out to be a rather painful experience: I gave up trying to cut it straight or get the pieces totally even, and just decided it would have a bit of a rustic look - a stretegy never far from my mind when I take on new things - one thing I did get right though was to use fake leather, so I didn't have to worry about hemming the edges after I cut it. The stud idea also backfired a bit as I had never worked with studs before and hadn't realised how expensive they become when you need over 100...

 

So we settled on these things (in the picture below) - we needed so many I literally bought all the ones they had in the shop which meant they weren't all the same - but by this time I was whole-heartedly convinced that this was the look I was going for so it was ok. But this step turned out to be overly ambitious task number 3, as we needed to use a monkey wrench to clamp them together after forcing them through the tough fabric. I say "we", but actually it was Joe because I didn't have the strength for such a task.

 

 

Eventually we got it to this point, but the whole process had been such an ordeal that we stopped, for some time. And so for about three months we had this sitting in our lounge - which is not that big, it's worth noting. It kind of reminded me of a horse, so for a short bit I smiled at it and thought of it as our white stallion. But that lasted about a day, and then I hated it for a lot longer after that. And then it just sat there and stared at us for ages, after which I just stopped looking at it.

Then one fine day I woke up and decided we were going to tackle and finish this project, motivated by frustration more than any kind of creative inspiration. In fact, I think it was even a little angry as I cut the final strips.  I may have let out some sort of weak war cry when we finally finished it. At last it was done.

 

And now I must admit, I do think it's kind of beautiful. But even though the project was now complete we had one more problem, we realised we didn't have anywhere to put it. Overly ambitious idea number 4 - thinking we have space for a lounger in our flat.

 

And that is the story of this chair, and how sometimes ideas can be problematic and awkward. And that a few photos on a blog often don't reveal the frustrating inbetween aspects of re-working objects. So from now on, if we see anything that sparks ideas of reviving, we have to make sure we have a very clear plan of where that thing will go and why we think it will be a good addition ot our life.

 

Before and After, and that little white gap in-between that makes life look so simple.

Our life in chalk.

A little while ago I came across this gem of an idea from JenlovesKev. I have seen many a wall and cupboard painted with blackboard paint and I have always liked the idea, so when I saw this interpretation of the trend my first thoughts were, 'That, we must do!' and so we did.

Unfortunately we don't have smooth walls, so we couldn't paint straight onto the wall, and it was quite tricky trying to find the right piece of wood, but apart from all that we're really happy with how it turned out.

 Here's the photo story of how it happened...

 

If you look carefully you will see that we used two different widthed (is that a word?it is now...) rolls of masking tape. Getting all the boxes the right sizes was quite technical, but fortunately Joe is good at thinks quite technical :)

 

I feel it's been a great aesthetic, not to mention useful, addition to our kitchen :)

 

Africa this way

I just love African designs, fabric and bead work in particular, but I never seem to be able to make the colours work like others can. So when our bar stools needed new covers, I decided to take it into my owns hands and make this African look work for me. Inspired by hessian, African bead work, and the happy colours of summer this year, this is what I came up with.