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 :)

Corseted Crown and more Andlucia Love

Something for everyone today :) Lets start with sewing and move on to hair :) So to start with the second of my Andalucia sets - this time another Bowznstuff Petal Top and Applique Jeans set -the theme - Birdie Tea Party. You can see more here.

And a new do - I know I'm over achieving - two new things in one day - what can I say...I'm on a roll. This is a pretty fancy do - special occasion for sure - it would be darling for a Flower Girl but equally lovely for something a bit less formal.

So let me see. Start with a centre part. Working down each side of the head section off the hair and make mini ponies BUT on the last pull through leave a little loop - I made mine quite a big loop but you could easily make it smaller and change the look a bit. So here we are with one pony


And here we are with a whole row.


And from the other side you can see the little loops.


Now repeat on the other side so that when you are done it looks like this.



Now you take a piece of ribbon and here is where the corset part comes in. You could use a large needle with your ribbon threaded through which would be especially useful if you do smaller loops. But seeing as mine were big and I was just playing I just threaded the ribbon through. When you get to the end you pull the bottom two loops together and tie a bow.



You can curl the cascading crown or leave it straight - I think curls work pretty well for this one. The end result is a gorgeous crown with cascading ringlets.

The curl chronicals - the last word in curling hair!

Our school terms are all different down here - we have 4 10 week terms with 2 weeks in between each and a longer break over Christmas/summer. Each time it comes up to one of these 2 week breaks, I think vaguely to myself, I must get myself organized and yet every time I fail spectacularly and I end up trying to juggle spending time with my kids with sewing and all the other "stuff" I usually jam into a day. I often think my life is a see saw or teeter totter - everytime there is a little change or something new comes into my life a whole bunch of other stuff (like blogging) slides off the end and it takes me a while to pick everything up and get back into balance again.
However, day 6 and I am just about there!
So my little plan for these holidays and the blog is da da da duummmmmm

Obviously Hettie has naturally curly hair - almost 5 years on and I still can't believe my luck and better still, Loughie does too though his ringlets have dropped out alot now but it is still curly. Myself, I had curly hair up until about the age of 4 and then in dropped out. As a result I spent a good deal of the 80's and a small portion of the 90's trying to recreate that curl and yes I did have the blonde spiral perm thank-you! My other efforts were for temporary curl and so I thought I'd did out my old equipment and do some litte experiments. I plan to try a bunch of different methods of one piece of Hettie's hair so we can examine the results and maybe give you guys some ideas and techniques. It is a bit different from curling super straight hair as her hair will hold the curl well but I have used all of these techniques on my own hair over the years so I know they work. So here you go, the last word in how to curl hair, curling hair, how to make curls, how to get curly hair!!!!

So the first day of my campaign is......

Rag Curls

For Rag curls you need as the name suggests, a bunch of rags - though I have no confirmation of this, this may well be the oldest method of curling hair.
So start with a bunch of strips of material - around 1" to 1 1/2" wide - it really doesnt' matter, but if you are cutting them, go for around that size. Make them a bit over twice the length the hair will be when curled up. Mine was extra long and that really doesn't matter at all.
The secret to all good curl is damp hair, left to dry overnight in the curled position - this will give you the longest lasting, tightest curl.

Take one section of hair - you can experiement with how big this section is. Place the rag against the scalp with half the rag above the hair and half the rag below. Then tightly wind the hair around the rag.

Now take the part of the rag you have above the hair and wrap it around your curl - when you get to the bottom tie the two ends of the rags in a bow - and there you have it...functional and pretty.

Now lets check it out the next morning - yep still in place.

Unwrap the outer layer and you have one curl, completely protected from all that tossing and turning in the night - this is a big advantage of the rag curl - built in protection.

Once the rag is removed from the hair - wowzers - just look at that curl!

And if you separate it - geepers!


The wrap up.

In Favour of the rag curl -
cheap - all you need is rags!
curl - excellent quality curl - very similar to Hettie's natural curl, held all day, during an energetic day.
sleeping - comfortable to sleep in and the hair is protected so you don't get it all mushed up.

Against - I find getting the rag out a bit difficult and the rags fray over time and the hair and the fraying get all knotty. To avoid this you could actually sew rags together so that there were no raw edges - or use maybe a stretch knit or even a fleece which wouldn't have the same fraying issues.

And the style - to complete the style I divided the hair at the front into two and did two thick worms - achieved by doing twists and then keeping on twisting until the hair twists in on itself and pinning into place with bobby pins and some swarovski clippies I made.

Galinda, Bambi and some hair

Diese Woche habe ich eigentlich nur genäht und genäht und genäht! Und endlich kann ich euch was zeigen. Zuerst eine Bambi Kombi - mehr davon kann man hier und hier sehen Ich versuche ab und zu mal, was einfacheres zu nähen. Also keine Ruschen, keine Verzierung und so weiter und sofort. und dann heute gibt es eine neue Kostume. Die wurde eingetlich von Wicked inspiriert aber die Henrietta meinte sie sei Aschenputtel - macht nichts - das Kleid finde ich SUPER!So sorry to have been missing - I've been busy busy busy, sewing sewing sewing! (Except Wednesday when I was most indulgent and went out for lunch - what a treat! Finally today I have something new to show you. A Bambi collection to start with - a swing top and leggings and then a shirred top and applique denim skirt - something for everyone. And then today a new costume too for the Clovergirls Wicked launch. Mine is an interpretation of Galinda's bubble dress - I wanted something inspired by the dress but not the actual dress. Miss Hettie was convinced she was Cinderella - and there you have it - the perfect Bowznstuff dress - inspiring creative play, letting them be whoever or whatever they like - love it! For Hettie's updo for the photos I did
Twists into piggies and then tied the piggies together with an elastic. Then I just pinned randomly to create a cool messy updo. Easy and cool - without natural curls - you could do the twists and piggies and pull them together and then use your curling iron to create the curls. Speaking of curls - I was somewhat obsessed with curls growing up - I had them when I was little but lost them and then tried all sorts of ways of recreating them - sounds like some good blog fodder!

Updos and owls!

Sorry for the lack of posting - we've all been sick and I think I'm coming down with it now so I may disappear again! So this is a rather cool do with lots of possibilities! To start with you need three sections, a small one at the front, a bigger one in the middle and then a smaller section at the back. Start by putting the front section in a side pony and then doing a nice high pony with the middle section. Then take the back of the hair and twist it round. You can either pin this in place near the pony or add it in with an elastic which is what I did this time. So it looks a bit like a French roll.

Then take the hair from the middle pony and wrap it round as if you are doing a bun but leave the end unsecured so that it is a messy bun. Go round the bit of hair that is sticking up from the twist. Use pins to secure it, making sure to poke the pin in in one direction and then pushing it fully in parrallel to the head. Hettie's hair has lots of curls on the ends but I'm sure it would look fab with straight hair or you could curl it. Once you have this part arranged nicely - take the little pony at the front and twist it around it the same way, again leaving the end free to give a nice messy updo look.

And voila!

This hairdo is very versatile. You can skip the bun part and just have it as a pony which was a great do for gymastics today. Or on Saturday, i popped a bun net over the bun and secured all the ends to make a great ballet do - I didn't snap any pictures but I will try to next week!

Also today - one of the most popular pieces of Bowznstuff ever! THE Owl set - you can see more of that here.

Tut mir leid, daß ich seit Tagen nicht mehr hier bin. Die Kinder sind krank und ich meine ich werde auch erkältet aber jetzt bin ich hier! Heute eine neue Frisur UND eine neue Kombi. Mehr kann man hier sehen.

Bowzntuff Kingdom Wear Tink outfit plus hairstyle up dos.

Heute gibt es eine neue Kombi von mir. Der Bowznstuff Tink Blüttenblätter Rock mit Flügel!!!!!! Mehr kann man hier sehen.Und heute auch eine neue Frisur! Drei kleine Ponyschwänze...sieht schön aus oder?





A new outfit from me today - the Bownzstuff Petal Skirt Tink style - so sparkly and glittery - perfect for Disney wear! Just check out the wings! You can see more here. And today for you hair fanatics - a new style - one of my all time FAV's coz it so simple yet so effective! I used to wear my hair like this often and it is so perfect for Hettie's hair with all its curls! So simple just three ponies one underneath the other. And the bonus is it makes the hair look so long as you don't loose any length when you put put it up in a pony. Try it out you will LOVE it!