Sewing and skiing

I have made a pair of leggings for myself. First I printed the grey fabric in a flower pattern. I used one of the stencils from Alabamachanin. I used a pair of old leggings as sewing pattern. One thing I learned from the sewing book I bought from Alabamachanin studio is that jersey knits works fine without hem stitching. So my leggings are without hem.

Here I sit by my new office table that is height adjustable :). No more aching back, yay!

From the scraps of the fabric i cut strips and knotted them together to make a bracelet thingy. Looks a bit weird but matches my leggings.

 I finally got energy and time to do some cross country skiing. Last week my youngest boy was home with the flu and I stayed indoors all the time taking care of the poor one. But on saturday we tried some skiing but his energy ran out quickly. 

On the sunday I went of to the forest myself to ski 6 km, and today I got home earlier from work to take the same track again. It's so fun, I didn't knew I missed this since I haven't skiing cross country since I was a kid.  The slopes are very scary though, theres nothing to hold on to exept the tracks when you go down. Apart from downhill skiing when you have the steel lining to get a grip.

The countess heart

I buy far to few items from etsy, and I buy far too few items from fellow bloggers/ladies in black. But I'm trying to change that. Good artists need to be promoted and helped along. It might be a great part of their income. 

I have longing for one of Countess Audronashas lovely work for a long time. Last time I checked her etsy store I couldnt resist this lovely heart brooch called Hanged by love.

It has lots of lovely details and is so well made. I put it on my coat beside a black flower brooch I made. It's perfect :). As a little extra treasure she sent this little key pendant along with the parcel. I love things like that, that little extra surprise. I will use it in one of my crafts project later (jewellery, asseccory or scrapbooking)

Countess Audronasha has a wonderful blog with lots of DIY posts and Gothic lolita style, very inspirational.

Talking about inspiration, I got severe lack of it lately. Work has drained me on energy and other private matters. It's strange how two more hours at work can get so exhausting. But I have to thank the yoga and my better food habits for coping.

New shoes...Again!!

I know, I know I'm obsessed and addicted to shoes, hopeless. But I couldn't resist these Irregular choice heels when they were on sale at brandos.se. I have been drooling over their shoes a long time but never felt I had the money. The sale price were 45€ so it was a bargain.

I can alter these by changing the ribbons or wearing them with spats. They should look great in my Dark Mori kei outfits.

The shoes came in a very nice box as well.

Surrounded by water the carrier of energy

 The following pictures are taken during my lunch walk about a week ago. The snow and ice has started to melt. The days are brighter and it's almost light when I quit work for the day.

I've been thinking a lot about the properties of water lately. Water running under ground can be a carrier of electromagnetic energy and such places can cause things that are not so good for humans. It is also said that hauntings are more frequent at such places.

Under our house, there is lots of running water. We have a 2 meter deep digged well in the cellar were we pump the groundwater up and heat our house with a heat exchanger. There is so much water that it seldom runs out. No wonder our house is haunted.

But parapsychological scientists explain that the electromagnetical fields have a low frequency that can cause a feel of uneasiness, sickness and even hallucinogenes for people. That hauntings could be explained by these low frequencies. Theese facts have made me start my own investigation.

Yesterday I bent two iron wires to a pair of pointers (I really don't know what to call them). With the pointers you can see were the curry lines are and were you have running water. This information is important  for you because you'll know were you should avoid sleeping or planting a fruit tree. 

Thankfully the lines are along the walls in the house, as they can be in very old houses (not sure about this house). But were my youngest sleeps the pointers points the negative way and when Johan measured the elektromagnetic field it was very low. I have to investigate this further, if it's bad or if it's good.....Update; since he has moaning about headache in the mornings we decided to move around the furnitures in his room. I haven't told him about my test so I don't scare him <3 nbsp="">

So what about the hauntings. Well we had it quite calm lately, but...But last week I was home alone and sewing in my studio in the basement. I was there for hours and felt a flow in my work. As I stood by my table with my back to the room were the stairwell and the heat exchanger is, a loud chuckling snort was heard in that room. My first millisecond of thought was that Johan was home. The next was "Johan is NOT home". I was so scared that I felt the taste of metal in my mouth. I turned the lights of and went upstairs very fast. When I came upstairs I got a little angry. I don't like to be disturbed and definitely not by someone I cannot see.

How to grow long and healthy hair

I have tried to grow my hair as long as possible. I started 3 years ago with the normal long hair, down to the shoulder blades. It's reaching to my waist now. I'll try to see how long it can grow. I'm sure you younger readers have a more fast growing hair than mine so you won't have to wait that long time for it to grow. During this time I have come to some conclusions I will share with you.

 1. Don’t cut it! Yes you heard it right. There is a big myth circling around that you have to go to the hairdresser every sixth week to cut of the frayed ends to get a long and healthy hair. Every time I go to a hairdresser and beg them to cut off as little as possible they cut of at least 1½ inch of it (if you are lucky and they are listening to you), that is 4 months of growing hair. Growing long hair takes time. I read a post at a hairdresser’s site that she told her customers that a split straw can’t grow any longer. She is right in one point, it can split further up if it’s not cut off but the growth is not in the end, we know that by now, don’t we? I don't want the hairdresser to loose their jobs this tip is only for those who want their hair to grow.

 2.So how do you do when you have frayed ends? Well you cut the straws with frayed ends not the other. A perfect thing to do when you sit in your sofa watching a boring movie or are bored in any other way. Take a strand of your hair and look at it closely. Frayed ends tend to curl in the end and peak out. Cut just under the frayed end. 

If you bend the hair over your finger you see the shorter straws cut of the ones with split ends.

Your hair can look horrible if you just have  a tenth of frayed ends in your hair , but if you cut off the frayed ends you get a little thinner hair but not shorter. If it looks too thin then cut off the length AFTER you have cut the frayed ends. In that way you’ll probably cut less than you should have otherwise.

 A picture of one of my straws with a split 60mm from the end, not all looked bad like this.

3. Instead of putting money on visits to the hairdresser, buy good products for your hair. Or follow the No Poo movement (haven't come so far yet). 

4. Don’t spray and tease it. For a lift, use dusting powder instead. Dust and rub and there you get the volume needed, simple as that.

This is what I use to get a little volume in my hair. A tiny dust over you hair makes wonder, just rub a little and the hair lifts. It wont get greasy but a little difficult to comb. 

Well I use hairspray but not every day.

 5. Comb your hair carefully. Throw the hairbrush away. If you have tangled hair, use a baby hairbrush and your fingers to ease it out. My son tends to get dreads in his hair while sleeping; the baby hairbrush is the only working tool and my fingers to detangle his hair. Don’t ever pull the comb/brush violently to detangle! Prefer natural material in combs and brushes. Don’t comb or brush wet hair. And keep your tools clean for god sake. There is nothing more disgusting than a brush filled with old hair, dust and remnants of products; it’s literally a bacterial bomb.

6. Avoid stress as long as you can. Learn to say NO to things you can’t join fully. I started to loose lots of hair, even got bald spots because of stress. That is one of the reasons I shaved half my head. Take care of yourself, stay happy. Things/people you can’t change, accept them and avoid them. It is more important than you could guess.

 7. Eat healthy (B and E vitamins)and do your regular exercise. If you lacking nutrients, it's easier to get sick and a high fever can also cause a hair loss. 

8. Avoid washing your hair too often. Use conditioner or oil treatments. I saw a very good tip. Rub in coconut oils in your hair tips in the evening before bedtime, that's better than any other leave in treatment.

 9. Never use elastics with metal connections on or hairclips of metal.

 10. Braid your long hair for the night or put it up in a sock bun. Here's an excellent tutorial. If you lie on your hair you wear it out. 

This is how my bun looks after a good nights sleep and only one hairpin used.

The sock bun gives you lovely Hollywood curls without uncomfortable rolls or heat.

Ha ha, please excuse my tired and unmaked face, it's the curls that are important here. I just rolled the sock out of my hair and pulled my fingers through it, if you roll with a little moist hair the curls will stay bouncy the whole day.

Tired saturday morning right after a quiet breakfast,  yaawn. The other side of the head is shaved. 

11.  Instead of dreads you can buy or make loose dreads to braid in your hair.

I made these of sheep wool, very easy to do and dyed with hair dye. Look more real than syntetic ones. Sigh, I need to make more of these (and more time to do them).

Extra tip: If you have used these for a couple of days the hair can be a mess to sort out. Here comes the little baby brush at help :)

You have probably heard most of them, but I hope I can be a little helpful though. There are lots of more tips to take care of your hair but those are so common that everyone already know them...not rubbing towels, combing wet hair, blow dryers etc etc....

Right now I'm very on and off if I should grow out my side shave or not. I'm not sure I will have the lenght back at that side anymore. It was like it couldn't grow longer than an inch and it was just soft and thin, that spot growed bigger and bigger and every hairwash there was a small wig in the drain. That mass amount of hairloss has stopped thank god and my nails doesn't flake anymore so I think I'm healthier than a few months ago. :)

Please send me a comment if you have any other tips to share for me and other readers!

A lovely gift from a land far away

My dear friend Lynne sent me a parcel long ago. The postal service has really made to it's nickname "snailmail". It was sent in the beginning of december and arrived last week. I think this late birthday gift was the best one this year, whoops I mean last year. :) when I unfolded the black silk paper the cutest christmas ornament appeared. Now I have 8 owls for my christmas tree next year. It's lovely!

Next parcel contained the most lovely carved owl in wood. It is amazing. I showed it to the budgies and they stared at it. I haven't decided yet if it's going to be painted or just as it is. Maybe you, dear readers, could give me a suggestion here 

Then it was the most amazing fabric, a yard of printed cotton with my favourite animals on. Owls an bats and full moons. First I thought cusions, then I thought why not use it for a skirt, time to start looking for the perfect pattern maybe a A-line skirt with a black frill, something like that. Suggestions again, please

When I was home and sick Lynne said she would send me a knitting pattern so I had something useful to do when I was sad. Aren't these armwarmers beautiful? I love the colours of them. Maybe I can poke around in my hidings to see if I can gather some yarn scraps for the roses.

Lynne is such a generous person and I truly see her as my friend even though we have never met. When I was sad she sent me a mail to cheer me up and told me she was going to send me the pattern. I'm so grateful for these gifts. If you doesn't know who I'm talking about, pleas visit her beautiful blog and her amazing Gothic Mansion. She also have a web shop were you can buy different furnitures and decorations for the perfect Gothic home.