New crafts...a certain way to make me happy!

I made soap! I had been curious to try it for a while...so I got some melt and pour soap, some colourants and some scents and away I went. It was slightly expensive because obviously these kind of things are heavy and therefore more costly to ship...and for some reason the VAT on them was killer as well. I think I'll stick to good old eBay for my melt and pour bars next time. 

This is strawberry cheesecake soap - and believe me, it really DOES smell like one! I melted down the chunks of melt and pour soap in the microwave in 30 second blasts until it was completely liquid. After that I halved the mix. In the first one I added just a few drops colouring and in the second one I added considerably more so it would be a much darker red.

I poured the lighter red/almost pink half into a soap mould (but you can use any ordinary baking tin if its a silicone one...probably metal too, but for some reason the idea of liquid and metal makes my hair stand on end!) and then waited a few minutes until there was a skin on both batches of soap. With the darker one I turned it out of the plastic tub it was in and started to roughly chop it up with a knife into cubes. I then added these into the batch of lighter soap, pushing them down gently so they sank into the liquid. 

You have to remember at this point to spray the soap with rubbing alcohol. I didn't have this in a spray form but only a gel form so I used some vodka in a spray bottle which worked just fine as well. Due to the alcohol content of vodka it's pretty much almost the same as vodka. Yep, think about that when you next drink your glass of vodka - you're basically drinking what they use to wash their hands in hospitals! 

A sprinkle of strawberry seeds on top of the soap and all that was left to do was wait a few hours for it to set. I guess it took about 4 hours or so before mine was set and it turned out with no problems at all. Adding those cubes of colour gave a nice effect and once it was chopped up into blocks the effect was really fantastic! For a first attempt I was really, really proud of this and I can't wait to make some more soap. 

Painting birthday cards

Today I spent the day making a birthday card for my moms upcoming birthday. Don't worry, the chances are very unlikely that she'll see this post! And if she does - HAPPY BIIIIRTHDAAAY! 

She really likes elephants so I just watercolour painted this picture I found on google for her onto some card. Its not amazing, but for a hour or so job by someone who doesn't claim to be a painter I'd say it's pretty good. I hope she'll like it as well!

Changes

Since last summer I had quite light blonde hair. My natural hair colour is dark blonde but I went through a phase of being really obsessed with getting lighter hair! I finally did it last summer and I loved it! I got a full head of highlights which appeared to cause relatively little to no damage at all to my past the shoulders long hair, but I bet this was almost mostly due to the fact that my hair is so thick and in such great condition anyway. It also helps that I got it done by a really talented and lovely hairdresser over at GBH hair design .

The good thing about highlights also is that if you have a light coloured natural hair regrowth anyway, the regrowth once the highlights start to grow out is pretty natural looking and all blends in. This means that I didn't have to recolour my hair for almost half a year! Isn't that crazy?

I recently got some more highlights around a month ago to top up and brighten things up, but I felt as if this didn't go as well. The hairdresser was obviously a lot less talented than the previous one and I feel like I was over processed a little, because my hair felt very coarse and sticky for days afterwards and I also found it was a bit too bright than I wanted.

So while having blonde hair has been great I've been feeling for a while now like stepping up to something a little darker again. I'm not talking any chocolate browns or blacks, but rather just a natural looking dark blonde/light brown that is based more around my natural colour. I'm going to the hairdresser next week and I've got the following pictures along as inspiration. And yep, it's just a pure coincidence that all of these girls are 'big nosed girls' like myself ;)

Actress and singer, Charlotte Gainsbourg. I like her almost there but not that in your face kind of bangs/fringe, and her hair colour.

Norwegian Idol star , Linnea Dale. I like the length of her hair and her parting on the side. Also that she has such a natural look but looks so cute!

Film maker, Sofia Coppola. Love the hair colour! It's really the light brown colour I'm looking for.

I'll make sure to blog about whatever change I make next week. You know...if I don't chicken out or anything  !

Pinterest

I'm not sure how you guys feel about the website Pinterest, but I for one love it! It's like one giant moodboard and makes it so much easier to keep track of things that you love instead of having to save a billion bookmarks onto your internet browser.

You can make as many different boards that you want. Then all you have to do is install the 'Pin It' button onto your internet browser and it's as simple as that. Browse any website you want and when you see something that inspires you or that you might want to own in the future for example, just press the pin it button and it goes directly to your board.

My favourite board is my 'for the home' board. It's full of stuff from Modcloth and Lakeland! You can view it here!