Henna

Though it’s been a long time since I posted about it, I finally henna’d my hair. And I love it :-). I used Logona Henna and would really recommend it to anyone wanting to give it a go. I had let my grey hair grow out for the last 4 or so months.

So I thought I would give those that are interested a blow-by-blow account of what I did.

They say you should have clean hair and it should be SLS shampoo free. So you can either buy product to strip out the yucks or give it a few days of bicarb action. Not a problem here, I’ve been no poo for ages but I’m an avid believer in colouring dirty hair. An old hairdresser friend told me colour takes better to dirty hair (and if you’ve ever had your hair dyed at a hairdresser you’ll know they don’t wash your hair before colouring it).

But I digress, I then mixed the henna with steeped black tea (which really draws out the colour).

Hair before (very grey)

Forewarning: using henna feels quite literally like putting mud all over your hair. There’s no other description for it. It’s a messy gloopy process (though I think once you’ve done it a few times it gets easier – a handy helper is also good – thanks Granny B). I used Moo Goo scalp cream around the edges of my face and ears to stop the henna staining / dyeing my skin.

I then put on the shower cap that comes with it and wrapped my hair up in a warm towel. I then left the henna in for 2 very long hours (well it felt really long to me LOL).

Now washing it out can only be described as “fun”. It looks like dirt all over the bottom of your shower. My hair (which is shoulder length) felt matted and dread like as I was washing it out. Luckily I was forewarned so I was ready with my trusty Moo Goo conditioner once it felt more or less washed out. I then ran conditioner through it and finger combed the rest of the henna out.

One final condition and my hair felt clean and great. I then air-dried it and it came out really glossy.

NB: I was turning the shower on and off during this process. I’m also told having a bath and soaking your hair in it is another way of doing it. But with a 3 year old and being time poor this isn’t an option for me.

The end result!!

The result has been great. My grey hairs have gone a goldey brown and look like highlights. My hair is really rich and glossy and feels great. In the pics you can see my hair inside and outside (but outside the flash makes the grey hair look much more yellow than it is plus it wasnt quite dry yet).

Would I do it again? You betcha – this is the only way I’m going to be colouring my hair from now on. I’d rather have grey hair than put anything toxic on my body or my hair anymore.

Easter

Pic courtesy of http://www.catalogs.com/blog/images/easter.jpg

Easter is nearly upon us and it is our 2^nd Easter that Little B is aware of the event. We have already had a taste of it with the last day of preschool. There was an Easter egg hunt, easter baskets, hot cross buns and an easter hat parade. We solved this by making and providing Easter eggs for Little B to find and making and providing allergy friendly hot cross buns.

We aim for easter to be less chocolate-centric here at the House of B (for obvious reasons). For Easter, Little B gets one chocolate egg (home-made), a knitted beanie for winter and a book about Easter. From one set of grandparents, he gets a small wooden toy and the other have chosen a series of books, whereby he gets one to add to his collection each year.

We also spend Easter doing other things – lots of family and outdoors time, Little B and Granny B blow and paint real or paper mache eggs and we like to reinforce the change of seasons by working with him in our veggie garden.

Last year I melted and made chocolate Easter eggs using dairy, egg, soy and nut free chocolate. This year I made Chocolate Crackle Easter eggs (again dairy, soy, egg and nut free) and bought coloured foil to wrap them in. Very tasty and look great. Bonus is they are very easy to make.

Chocolate Crackle Easter Eggs

200g dark chocolate (we use 70% dark Cocolo chocolate)

100g dairy free butter, softened (we use Nuttelex)

5 tbsp golden syrup

100g crisp rice cereal (we use puffed brown rice)

1. Place the chocolate and butter in a medium bowl over a pan of simmering water, and stir until melted.
2. Remove tin from the heat and stir in cereal and golden syrup
3. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture in Easter egg or shape moulds.
4. Leave in the fridge for at least 1 hour to set.

Lazy Sundays

Artwork by Art Harrison

Planted

- broad beans & carrots (the never-ending battle between me and the slugs)

Cooked

- Mung bean spaghetti with veggies and butter, leek and basil sauce

- Hot cross buns that are safe for Little B to eat

Last one left out of 12 -  a bit too popular at our house J

Reading

- The low GI family cookbook by Foster-Powell, Manning, Brand-Miller & Sandall

Project

- Attending the Apple Tasting Festival at Petty’s Organic Orchard. David Holmgren gave a great talk and Little B loved Peter Combe.

Earth Hour Update

So how did we go with “24 hours without power”? Quite well I thought J

We hit a small hiccup first thing in the morning with Little B’s porridge. I had pre-soaked the oats overnight and wasn’t sure whether he would eat it that way. But surprisingly he was happy enough to eat it, though not shy in telling me it didn’t taste nice LOL.

Then we spent a gorgeous day with Granny B, hanging out in the garden and playing with Little B. We cooked dinner out on the BBQ (something we don’t do enough of) – veggie shasliks, mock meatballs, lentil salad and baked potatoes.

Finally we wiled away the evening chatting to each other (and friends via phone) knitting (me anyway) and reading.

All in all, we had a really lovely day and night.

Jam making escapades

I’m proud to say that I have embarked on jam making.

My first attempt has been organic pear jam. I have been using pureed pears as a “jam” for Little B on his toast so thought this should be our first port of call (NB: Little B can only eat bananas and pears).

Organic Pear Jam

1kg fresh organic pears (for 500g fruit)

1 ½ cups organic raw sugar

1 tbsp organic lemon juice

2 tbsps water

3 tbsp Jam Setta

·      Peel and quarter pears and add to pot

** Now I cheated and used our breadmaker for my first attempt as it has a jam making function. I have electric induction hot plates so cant make jam the traditional way as I cannot get the heat consistent **

Sterilising Jars

·      “Wash the jars and lids in hot soapy water, rinse and drain upside down on a clean cloth

·      Place on a tray in a cold oven

·      Turn oven to 110 degrees. When the oven reaches this temperature, turn off the heat and leave jars for 10 minutes

·      When cooled to warm, they are ready to pour in jam

·      Simmer lids in boiling water for 2 minutes, drain and use dry”

(Excerpt from A Year in a Bottle by Sally Wise)

The final product!!

I have to say the jam is delicious and I’m a complete convert now to this easy way of making jam. Little B loves it too. Next up is Mr B’s choice of jam contingent on what fruit I can get from our organic f & v shop. But Granny B and I will be able to make marmalade from our orange tree this year :-)

A really great book on preserving is A Year in a Bottle by Sally Wise.

Earth Hour 2010

I'm joining Meagan at EcoMILF in "24 hours without using power" to celebrate Earth Hour on Saturday, 27th March 2010.


Our earth hour resolutions are:
* we will keep all appliances off (bar the fridge for 24 hours) - this includes laptops, television, fans, washing machine.
* we will avoid using the car (unless an emergency should occur)
* all lights off for 24 hours (bring on the candles and hand wound lamps)
* no showers for this house either :-). Little B will be in grotty little boy heaven!! Actually Mr B will be in grotty big boy heaven LOL.
* I'm not as ambitious as Meagan (and its all a bit too complicated with Little B's allergies) but we will easily go vegetarian for the day.


I cant wait to spend the family time together and I'm always first on board to tune out from the buzzy buzz of hectic mainstream life (I so wish we were off the grid). Little B still goes to sleep before the sun goes down but I love reading by candlelight, and am looking forward to spending time with Mr B.

Garden Update

Disaster – a whole bunch of my seedlings where upended and destroyed by Granny B’s cat :-( Just means I have to start all over again with a few. But I’m so glad that we had already planted the majority of our current batch into the veggie patch.

As you can see from the pics we have the full compliment of seedlings in at the moment – peas, broad beans, beetroot, last of the spring onions and beans, leeks, pak choy, brussel sprouts– yum. I’d like to add some parsnips and garlic as well. I’m also not having much luck with the carrots. All the bare spaces are where our carrots “should” be. I’ll just keep soldiering on until we get some :-)

Did anyone see Costa’s Garden Odyssey this week? I’m very intrigued by using edible plants in my mainstream garden beds. I really like their use of thyme and gold marjoram as borders. We still haven’t come up with a replacement for the grasses out the front of our house. So along with the new passionfruit, I might make use of some of these ideas.

PS As a funny side note, you know you’re raising a green child when they net their Lego trees to stop the birds eating their fruit LOL.