New hairstyle and some school holiday fun

So we are down to one more day of school holidays. A three and a half week mid-year winter break. As with all school holidays at first they seemed to stretch out before us in the most glorious manner. I LOVE school holidays - well I don't love the juggling my Bowznstuff duties with being all entertaining director of fun BUT I love just hanging out, having fun, NO LUNCHBOXES....BLISS! So what have we been up to the past few days.

Well first up, a new do! A nice little headband/low side Spanish pony. The first part of the hairstyle is a fun and easy way to keep the hair off the face and works just as well if you leave the back of the hair down as if you pop it up. So to start with you divide the front section of the hair off and then divide that small section into three. Pop the middle section into a pony.


Then take the side section and twist it upwards and towards the front of the head securing it with an elastic to your little pony.


Repeat on the other side


and there you go, a quick and cute headband.


Because we were hanging out and wanted to keep the hair from getting dipped into paint and whatever else the day had in store we then swept it back into my current FAV do. I losely gathered the hair into a low side pony.

You know I have a penchant for side pony tails but up until now I haven't used the low pony that much - I like it for its Spanish feel. So you simply gather the hair into a low side messy pony - meaning that on the last pull through you don't pull the hair all the way through but rather leave it half way through.

I added a rose to compliment the Spanishy feel and we were good to go!


In other news in my capacity as director of fun activities I pulled out a box of my old toys. Imagine our joy when we discovered my carefully preserved eraser collection. Check out that eraser incarnation of the early electronic games - move over Nintendo DS, the Nintendo Game and Watch is BACK!

Also in the box was my old Matilda furniture. I don't know if you guys had or remember Matilda dolls but I treasured mine. I have since found the dolls so I'll have to post a snap of them too.



Hettie was also kept busy this past weekend with some paper maiche projects with daddy, who is suprisingly or unsurprisingly depending on how well you know me much better at this kind of craft than me! Here is their unpainted castle- the painted version is coming!
Back soon with some new Bowznstuff :)

Ballet Hair and Villains!

What's new at Bownstuff? Well quite a bit as it happens - in order new set and new hair. The latest from the Bowznstuff machine room (ha ha) is the very Villainous Set! You can see more here.


And time as well for some ballet hair. You know when I first started doing ballet hair, I thought to myself, how long can this last? How many ballet styles are there?? Well me of little faith there are MANY! To start this one, I divided the hair roughly in two with the majority of the hair in the top pony and about 1/4 hanging free at the back. I did this roughly as people with curly haired children will KNOW that a part if very seldom a straightforward affair. I often watch in wonderment as straight hair is parted with a swift yet deft flick of the comb - curly hair just 'usually' isn't this way - it sticks together in its curls - it doesn't want to be parted. Some days I am up to the challenge of forming the perfect straight part, others I am not - for this one I was not BUT the great thing about curly hair is it is VERY forgiving so oftentimes, even if you don't have a straight part - you can't tell. So to get back to business, a 3/4 to a 1/4 part with the 3/4 being on top of the head. You take the majority of your hair and tie in in a top pony, right up there on top of the head..ONLY you dont' pull the last round through. The last time you pull the hair through the elastic, you leave a little bunch on top. I am fond of leaving these little bunches and I do them LOTS. For a start Hettie's hair is getting longer and lots of times you will want shorter than the actual length showing, so these bunches are a great way to do that. Also they give height and a well.....cool sort of look. It's sort of like a messy piggie but not messy.


Next you take the part of the hair at the back and twist it up towards the pony on top. Twist a bit bast the bunch and then secure the whole thing with a second elastic.
Doesn't that look nice?

Later in the day when we moved from jazz and tap to ballet, I simply toook the hair that was hanging down and twisted it around the bunch - a GREAT way to do an easy ballet bun. I secured it with pins and a net and we were all set with a fancy shamancy ballet do
But before that I added a barrette of flowers and we were good to go for jazz and tap.




This would look equally fab with straight hair, or you might want to add some curls. A versatile do that works as an up and a down do and adds a touch of fancy to the everyday!

Ballet Hair, Rag Doll Dresses and Unicorns.

So here I am, as promised back with lots of news and photos and even a hairstyle! Go me! So lets start with hair. As I mentioned, having survived the shock of Back to School, a little over um 3 months ago I have actually managed to revive my morning hair routine. I've become particualarly partial to rows of knots. I like the knot. I am not so fond of a single knot, but a row of knots, now that is something. First up it is quick and easy - who can't tie a simple knot? Secondly it looks interesting and in a row if you aren't a hair guru you sort of look at it and think...mmmm how did she do THAT - looks complicated! Meanwhile you can chuckle away to yourself knowing all the while that it is just a knot! I like to combine my knots with other little decorative simple styles. My combo style of perference at the moment has been twists. There are so many variations on the knot twist combo that it could keep you busy for weeks! So to start us off, a quick recap on what a knot is.
So you take your section of hair, divide it in half and tie a knot, like so.

Knots are particularly good in damp hair. This is just one knot, to do a row, just keep knotting till you get as far along as you like.

So on Saturday I used the knot twist combo for ballet hair. Usually when I do ballet twists, like most people I do a t-part and do a twist either side leading back into the bun, but really why limit yourself when there is so much more fun to be had. So for this week's style, I sectioned off the back of the hair for a pony tail and then divided the front part into three sections like so.


After putting the back part into a nice tight pony I started with one of the side pieces. You simply twist inwards until you get near the pony and then secure with an elastic.

Repeat on the other side so you have a real Princess line twist going.


And now with the centre piece we are going to knot. Just keep knotting till you get to the pony and secure it with elastics - by this time you will have 4 elastics round your pony. This is perfect for a dance style - nice a secure.

Don't those knots look cool!

So now all is left to do is pop in a ballet bun - you can find instructions here and a bow and voila!

As I said there are so many variations on this style - during the week I had a row of knots on one side and three mini twists on the other like so. You see the possibilities..endless.



Speaking of endless, I have been spending what seems like endless hours at my sewing machine in a bid to clear my custom list. The Bowznstuff List is temporarily closed so at the moment the only way you can get your Bowznstuff is to bid! Two new sets up at the moment...the first is a vintage meets cute Raggedy Ann set - I've been saving that piece of Raggedy Ann fabric used for the knickers forever, I am so pleased to finally reveal it. You can see more here.


And just listed today a Bowznstuff Collaboration between Lula*Bee*Boutique who you can find here and myself. Lula*Bee does among other things the sweetest patchwork skirts and dresses - I love to look at them!
You can find my set here and the matching sister set here.

New Do, New Listing, hopefully no new directions

First up I was very heartened to read on my fellow hair bloggers sites about the new laws and how they will affect us all - I have been very focussed on the effect on the boutique custom world, but the potential is so much greater than that. Check out Hair Today and Girly Do's and Rockin Shorty for some more detailed explanations and the appropriate links where you can do something to help.

A new do for today - something simple and based on, you guessed it LOL the side pony! Start with a diagonal part on just the front section of the head. Pin this hair to keep it out of the way and sweep the rest up into a side pony.



Then take the diagonal parted hair and do a single twist and secure it into the side pony.


I finished with a home made flower comb - pretty cute hey!


Also making hay whilst the sun still shines - I've listed a very popular Bowznstuff collection - you can see more here, here and here.

New Hairstyle, new Bowznstuff

Well Bowznstuff officially closed for the holidays today - how exciting is that!? Well for me at least. So that means time for some holiday preparations, a few lunches with friends and some more blogging :) Tee hee - today I put the last finishing touch on the last outfit and it is all going out tomorrow! Yipppeeeee! We even had to squeeze in a last minute dance costume but it is all finished now! So to start with...new hair. Something nice and simple, pigtailsl with tiara.
Start with a centre part and then T-part the front.

Place the back part into pigtails. Then take one side of the front of the hair and twist it toward the head. Keep twisting until you are underneath the pigtail. I secured it tempororaily with an alligator clip. Repeat with the other side and then secure the two together with an elastic - isn't that pretty? I like that it looks like a tiara -its fun, simple and easy to wear for everyday - doesn't take much more time that normal piggies.





And in sewing news I had just enough time for one last Bowznstuff one of a kind. The fabulous Feliz dress by Nancy Langdon - with just a little bit of applique! You can see more
here and the bows at a .99 cent start here. The Baker's hat is a free download from here

Fairy Twinkletoes - the party!

What a day!!! Hettie's party has come and been and what fabulous time we had! I love to decorate, I love all the planning but I get a bit nervous about parties and the actual event - how to entertain the kids etc etc. Hettie has said for almost a year that for her party - which is the first she has had - she wanted a fairy to come to her house. And so it came that Fairy Twinkletoes arrived today in a dress that even made me gasp! It has been quite the build up, with Fairy Twinkletoes sending a personlized note to Hettie some weeks before the party and even speaking to her on the phone a few days ago. It really was the most perfect party I could have imagined - Fairy Twinkletoes had the kids shrieking with delight - absolute pure joy! But the best part, Hettie really believed that a real live fairy who could do real magic had come to visit her and that she (Hettie) did some magic too. It really was priceless! For all you Melbournite Aussies, if are are looking for the ultimate Fairy - Twinkletoes is the one! The whole party was enchanting.
Here is the birthday girl
The Fairy Circle was a BIG hit!
I asked some of Loughie's friends to help me out - they fitted the little fairies out with tiara's, dangle earings, marabou scarves, sparkle nailpolish and sparkle hairspray - I don't know who enjoyed it more...the little girls or the big ones!
Here is Hettie receiving her winds, wand and tiara - Hettie was enchanted.

The captivated audience
Hettie helping out with some magic
The happy customers!
And of course I'm sure you are all dying to see a close up of the party do! I knew Hettie woudl be receiving her tiara from Twinkletoes so I wanted something that would work well with that.
So we went with the criss cross corkscrews from the other day and some extra criss cross twists at the back.
Start with 6 piggies - two small ones at the front, two small ones at the nape of the neck, and bigger ones in the middle. Do you corkscrews at the front and attach them into the big middle piggies with elastics. Then take the tiny piggies at the back and twist one and cross it over to the opposite big piggie and repeat - you end up with a nice diamond in the middle of the head. Alternatively you could do the two little piggies at the back as corkscrews. Finish with messy piggies and you have a hairdo fit for a fairy!