Let's Knit!

I got the cutest pattern for some dish clothes from Lily-Sugar N Cream. I tried to pin it to my Pinterest knitting board but the picture wouldn't show so I'm circumventing the board and putting in my blog which is also on Pinterest. Sneaky...I know. lol. Can't wait to knit a few of these. They look adorable.

Happy knitting!

What a Hairy situation

I'd like preface this by saying that I LOVE my hair (vain to say, I know, but it's the truth). It has always been soft and silky. I can remember my grandmother couldn't french braid my hair because it was "alive" as she said. It would just crawl out of the braids. But after much dyeing of my hair, after all if I didn't I'd be white headed, I've irritated my scalp horribly. I decided to start looking for a more natural way to wash my hair so it would ease the irritation.

My friend suggested the baking soda "no poo" shampoo. It's quite simple: 1 tablespoon of baking soda to a cup of water. That's it. You shampoo with it about 2-3 times a week to clean your scalp. The best method I found is to spray my hair with the solution and massage it into my scalp. I followed it up with her first suggestion of Apple Cider Vinegar conditioner: 1 tablespoon of ACV and a cup of water. Well my hair was a dried, crazy mess!

I decided to google some recipes online and found this website with a gob of information on natural hair care (even dying w/out chemicals..yipppeee).

So I made up the conditioner that called for 1/4 cup of olive oil, 1/4 cup of vegetable oil, 1/2 cup water and 2 tbs of honey. I didn't like the thought of putting vegetable oil in my hair so I used all olive oil. Man, was my hair greasy and disgusting feeling! I went and bought some Dr. Bonner's Lavendar castile soap to wash my hair. I washed my hair with the castile soap and with the baking soda "shampoo" and I retried the conditioner by using my friend's recipe (2 oz honey, 12 oz boiling water, mix, then add 2 oz olive oil, in her case she used sunflower oil w/added vitamin E). My hair wasn't as greasy, but it still was too greasy for me. The next day it was horrible, but I managed to get through it.

So today I created yet another conditioner..this time NO oil. I mixed 2 tbls of honey with 2 cups of boiling water. I washed my hair with castile soap and used the new conditioner. My hair is much better...not as near as greasy as the last few days. The next time I will use the castile soap and baking soda "shampoo" with the no-oil conditioner to see if my hair will be soft and silky like it was when I was using the chemical filled shampoos and conditioners. As you can see from the above picture...it's got some fly-aways but thank goodness it's not greasy looking/feeling. I'm also sure it will take my hair a few days to weeks to adjust.

I can't wait to try the no chemical hair dyes. I'm just waiting on my herbs to get here to do that. I also need to order some henna and indigo. If I can't find a natural way to dye my hair, I'm afraid I'm Paula Deen bound.