Project 365 2015 #35

It has been such a lovely week taking the children to Norfolk and finishing off with a day at The Big Feastival. Now the holidays are over and it's back to the routine of school and work next week - not looking forward to any of that at all!

Project 365 #35

Day 235
We had an amazing day at Wells-next-the-Sea today with a picnic and sandcastle session on the beach, a lovely walk almost out to Holkham and back through the Pinewoods before walking back along the wall to town. Then fish and chips - perfect!
Day 236
Off to see my Mum today, which is always interesting. The children cleared the front lawn of windfall apples to keep them busy. I just sat and bit my lip whilst she asked me what was going on with my hair.
Day 237
Back to the beach at Winterton today. We made a sand fort around the beach tent, dug for an almost lost in the sand jelly shoe, ate jam sandwiches and walked through the sand dunes.
Day 238
A soggy one today which saw us climbing up Horsey Windpump to escape the rain.
Day 239
Back home today. Mixed emotions about that but when we got in there was some happy mail awaiting me in the form of my Sole Sisters RMR medal for last week's Virtual 10k Run.
Day 240
A day of chores today including last minute school uniform and shoes shopping, haircuts for the children and food prepping for the freezer ready for the onslaught of work and school next week. Ugh. I wandered down the garden and found these beautiful Cosmos growing amongst the overgrown beds.
Day 241
A final bit of fun for the summer holiday, we headed up to The Big Feastival today. We first went two years ago and this year I won day tickets so we headed up to Oxfordshire again. This time it was harder to occupy the children - they seem to have hit that tricky age. We, the adults, also commented that there wasn't much for them and for the grown ups hitting the bars and eateries would be a great way to spend a summer Saturday but that wasn't possible today. The children climbed on the old tractor - until told that the farmer that owned it didn't want anyone on it!!? But the best bit we all agreed was the dodgems!

x x x

Project 365 2015 #34

Week 34 of project 365 2015 has passed by in a bit of a blur and it is only the pictures on my phone that has jolted my memory of what we actually did this week!

Project 365 #34

Day 228
A quiet day locally; we went for a walk/scoot around the block and ended up in the big swing at the park. This is always a pleasant spot to chill whilst the kiddos give me a push.
Day 229
We took a walk into town today to return library books and pick up a few things from the shops. We stopped off in the town park where the kiddos were happy the zip slide had been mended. On return through the underpass we noticed the graffiti that needs a bit of a touch up.
Day 230
My lovely polaroid images arrived from Square Snaps - if you fancy entering my competition take a look here!
Day 231
A bit of a lazy one again today; we made playdough, the children played with it for ages and I washed my hair with egg. It's all part of my 'no poo' regime.
Day 232
We got out today and met up with friends at Westonbirt Arboretum. We dodged the rain doing some ink art and went on a lovely long walk through Silk Wood where we discovered this beautiful sculpture.
Day 233
I ran this morning. I had to get my virtual 10k done before the end of August and this was the only window I had. It was difficult but I got a sub 60 minute time so happy with that. When I got back the postman had been leaving me my latest Simple Things magazine and Camp Bestival camping mug that I ordered weeks ago!
Day 234
Back home to Norfolk today with the kiddos. We drove five hours and headed straight to the beach at Winterton on Sea to get our sea air and sand between our toes fix before heading to my brother's house. We're now looking forward to some beach action for the next few days!

x x x

Glastonbury & Wells {Country Kids}

Last week I took the kiddos to Greenacres Camping in Somerset for four peaceful nights under 'canvas'. The location of the site, from which you can see the famous Glastonbury Tor, is clearly well placed for exploring Glastonbury. We did this two years ago but loved it so much wanted to do it again.

Last time we ventured in to Glastonbury I took the children to the tor via the town's bus service - this year though, with legs two years older, we decided to walk from the town centre. We parked up at St Dunstan's pay and display on Magdalene St - £4 for 4 hours - and retraced the A361 back out of town following the clear pedestrian signs for the tor. We took the turning up Wellhouse Lane, where we walked past the most beautifully decorated cottage, then across a field to pick up the footpath to the top of the tor. It took us just 30 minutes and I'm not sure why we bothered with the bus two years ago!

The weather was glorious with clear blue skies and sunshine and the views from the top, where the 15th century tower of St. Michael's sits imposingly, were fantastic. We tried in vain to find Greenacres and the pyramid stage at Worthy Farm, the latter of which I have been assured you can spot. The spot is very calming with many taking the time to sit, or stand,  and meditate. If I were alone I would have joined them and switched of completely but this was impossible to even attempt with a seven year old boy asking for food every 30 seconds. It does look like I caught a few seconds of peaceful time though!

We picnicked and relaxed for an hour and a half then made the descent back down the tor and retraced our steps back to the town. We passed a row of characterful cottages with quirky additions to the pavement outside and since our last visit there has been some fantastic graffiti additions to the walls around the town.

Back home I was on Facebook when a similar image to the last one above randomly popped up on my feed; it turns out it is a famous piece of graffiti by Stik. There are many more around Hackney and Shoreditch so will definitely go and find them next time we go and stay with the brother in law. Anyway, back to Glastonbury town.

Glastonbury has a lovely collection of shops to browse and I found one full of lovely yoga gear which I regretfully left empty handed. I did however purchase incense sticks from a beautifully stocked shop, whose name now alludes me, and we fell in love with the three floors of wonderful light shades, figurines, furniture, rugs, cushions and door handles.

By the time we had finished with the shops the car park ticket was nearing its end so we headed on back to the car. Rather than going back to the campsite we drove up the road to Wells, England's smallest city, where we parked up for free in the Tesco car park - we popped in at the end for sausages and marshmallows! - and wandered through town past quirky shops to grab a chai latte, spend my Waterstone's voucher and eat an ice cream in front of the magnificent cathedral. This was a flying visit today but Wells has a lot to offer families with pleasant walks around the Bishop's Palace, lots of cafes and eateries and a huge green space in front of the cathedral. The cathedral is open to look inside via a voluntary donation.

Once drinks had been drunk and ice creams consumed it was back to the car, picking up sausages and marshmallows on the way, then off to the campsite for our last night BBQ and campfire.

 

x x x

Vintage Polaroid Style Snaps from Square Snaps {Review & Giveaway}

The lovely people over at Square Snaps kindly gave me the opportunity to review their latest addition to their printing service; Vintage Polaroid Style Snaps. With every order you get a mix of 6 pastel coloured frames and I decided these would suit my images from Camp Bestival perfectly.

I went through my photo albums and noted down the picture numbers checking that they were not above 5gb an image. Then it was a simple process of uploading to the website, editing any shots that I wanted to rotate or crop differently then hitting the order button! The photos were quickly printed and distributed arriving securely in the post in a well packaged jiffy bag. The set of photos were sandwiched between two thick pieces of card and paper wrapped in place.

When I opened up the package I was not disappointed! The pastel frames worked really well and although they are randomly chosen the colours matched the content of each image perfectly.

I played around with how to display these and really wanted to put them on the wall in a rectangle - however my walls are so wonky that each time I put them up nothing looked straight! Therefore, I strung them up on parcel string with mini pegs and washi tape.

 

If you would like to try and win a set of 27 Vintage Polaroid Style Snaps please enter using the Rafflecopter form below.

Closing date for the competition is August 29th 2015.

I also have a 15% off code valid until 4th September 2015 - just enter 76Sunflowers15 in the discount codes section when ordering.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

x x x

 

Disclaimer: Square Snaps sent me a set of Vintage Polaroid Style Snaps to review and have provided me with a set to giveaway. As always, views and opinions are honest and are my own.

Going no poo

Thirteen days ago I took the decision to go full on 'no poo'; a process which means I have eliminated all shampoo and styling products from my hair washing and coiffing routines. Essentially I am avoiding anything containing sulphates, parabens and other added chemicals that are apparently completely unnecessary in cleaning hair. Let's face it, back in the days of pre-shampoo hair essentially cleaned itself and that is what I'm aiming to do.

I am going 'no poo' for a number of reasons.

Firstly, I have battled my hair for nearly 40 years now and have never found the definitive routine, shampoo and conditioner or styling product. I have spent a small fortune on shop brands, salon brands, 'eliminate the frizz' brands, you name it and I've probably given it a go. My hair is naturally wavy/curly/frizzy and it has never quite known what it wants to do. I have attempted to straighten it to battle the frizz, have grown it long and had short pixie cuts. For now it is chin length.
To see the amount of stuff I was putting onto my hair just over two weeks ago here is just a selection of the products currently cluttering my dressing table and bathroom:

Secondly, I am starting to think a bit more about the world around me; the world I will be leaving my children in one day, the world they will hopefully bring me grand children into one day. That world is going a little bit crazy and yes 'no poo' isn't going to stop war and conflict, solve world hunger or provide desperate people a home. It is, however, reducing the number of chemicals and crap going onto me, down the water pipes and out to sea. Yes, I know it's only a teeny tiny percentage but it is something. I recently sat and heard a very lovely lady say, "If I can't eat it I won't put it on my body." I have a way to go to be able to say that truthfully myself but I am starting from the top, of my body, down.

Thirdly, I have been inspired. That lovely lady I just mentioned? That's Lucy AitkenRead and she writes an awesome blog, Lulastic and the Hippy Shake, and she has published a book, Happy Hair ~ The definitive guide to giving up shampoo. This has basically become my hair bible and is safely stored on my phone and iPad so I can dip in and out of it for some great advice. I have had the pleasure of meeting Lucy a couple of times over the past two years and earlier this month she spoke at Camp Bestival about her 'no poo' experiences and she was, for want of a better word, inspiring. Check out Kate and her luscious 'recently gone no poo' locks too! I left Lucy thinking, 'Right, I can do this.' Then, whilst reading Lucy's book I will admit to a little fist pump occurrence when I read this quote;
 "...curly hair takes to it very well!...the most satisfying thing is loving my hair in its natural state, without needing products to change or 'improve' it."  - Amy

So, upon my return from the festival I washed my hair.
With Head & Shoulders.
And conditioned it with Aussie products.
Slapped on my curling jelly.
Diffused it.
And styled it with my Wella oil.
And this is how it generally looked pre 'no poo'.

The curls would hold well for a day but would be unmanageable the next morning requiring more products and the cycle would start again.

So, I went for it and wrote it all down.

Day 1
I washed with Head & Shoulders. This was needed in order to wash out the parabens and sulphates from the aforementioned products. I conditioned with a paraben free Naked conditioner and I was good to go. Once dry my hair went into its 'I have no styling products on me so I am going to frizz and fluff and drive you mad'. And it did drive me mad. I wasn't that well planned. I had no Argan oil, no coconut oil, nothing to help me. I did have olive oil though and how different can that be?! Through sheer desperation I applied a minimal amount to my hair to kill the frizz and fluff. It kind of worked. I had no plans to leave the house and my friend who popped round didn't think I was that weird.
Day 2
The first glance in the mirror told me maybe olive oil wasn't the best look but the product remained in my hair so I twisted my curls and was good to go.
I went to Sainsbury's pronto to buy a tub of coconut oil and ordered some Argan oil online.

Day 3
I was off camping today so I washed my hair using the paraben free Naked conditioner then smoothed just less than half a teaspoon of coconut oil through the ends of my damp hair. I twisted the curls and dried with the diffuser and it didn't look too dissimilar to when I would pile on the curling jelly - just less 'crunchy'.

Day 4
My hair looked a little bit greasy through the front this morning - this is a rarity to me. Camping meant I had no products to hand so just twisted the curls through with my fingers and got on with the day.
Day 5
Very similar to yesterday!
Day 6
Ditto days 4 and 5 but today we climbed to the top of the Glastonbury Tor where the wind blew my hair through quite vigorously. This not only felt good but seemed to help that greasy feeling!

Day 7
One thing I am noticing is that I have no itchiness and there are no flaky bits of product in my hair. Today we went home from camp and this is how my hair was looking following nearly 5 days of no washing - a record for me!

A bit fuzzy round the back but generally, for me anyway, not too bad. I did feel in need of a wash though so attempted something new.

Lesson learnt; pouring a beaten egg over your head from a wide mouthed mug will result in most of it hitting the bath floor before your head! Post wash though and my hair was looking its usual self - but without the usual pile of products. Please note that these pictures were snapped not long after drying and my hair is never dried fully so the hair still looks wetter for a while.
Day 8
I just twisted the curls and was good to go - this regime is getting simple!
Day 9
Ditto day 8.
Day 10
I wanted a hair wash but just used water before the coconut oil. I am wary as I live in a hard water area and a friend found this to be awful on her hair and gave up 'no poo' as a result.

The hair was twisted again before diffusing almost dry.
Day 11
Usual twist and go!
Day 12
Ditto day 11. Tonight though I gave my scalp a massage as it just felt it needed a bit of a rub. This made my hair go completely messy and it was starting to feel 'heavy' at the roots so I planned an egg wash in the morning.
Day 13

I was better planned today and put my egg into a narrow bottle which enabled me to pour it a bit at a time over my scalp and rub it in and leave it for five minutes before conditioning with the coconut oil.

Once it was diffused today it looked 'softer' and less oily. Whether this was due to the better use of egg or just the progression of time I don't know.

Now what?
I will continue with this routine and monitor the condition of my hair and scalp. It seems to be going a little too well and I fear that something major is just around the corner - probably just as I go back to work! Maybe the curls are counteracting the lank feel many straight haired 'no pooers' encounter and I have yet to have an issue with any 'smells' - I do have a bottle of essential oils at the ready should that be an issue!

Have you gone no poo?
Would you be tempted to?!

x x x