Landlocked Mermaid

In case you missed it, I love my hair. It is a mad curly mane, but it is my mad curly mane. Since ditching the traditional shampoo and conditioner bottles, I have been working out a haircare routine that is both good for my hair and my environment. For the most part, coconut oil and shampoo bars have been working for me. But sometimes it just needs that extra bit of TLC.   Relatively tame, post-shower mane.   When my hair was longer, I genuinely took twenty minutes to brush it. I'd get the knots out of the bottom but brush more into it when I tackled the top. To combat this, I invested in some leave-in conditioner spray. But my bottle ran out quite some time ago. I have been looking for one I can make myself, but a lot of recipes on google use gylcerin. I have no idea where to buy that from. So I took to my new favourite website. You guessed it, Pinterest. I found plenty of recipes which did not involve gylcerin, and more coconut based products. I decided to...

Over the last nine or so months, I have been slowly making changes in my life so that I depend less and less on single-use plastics. It's not been as hard as I feared; it was all very daunting at the beginning with so much to change. But it's amazing to see how much I've already done and what ideas I have to further it all.  Jay cloths --> Microfibre cloths I have actually had a load of microfibre cloths for ages. My Nan gave me a packet when I moved into my flat. I used to use them as tea towels, with varying success, so when I moved in with my partner they just got chucked in with the rest of the towels and largely over looked for the ones which actually dried stuff. But when I was considering jay cloth replacements my brain finally kicked into gear and remembered what they are actually good for! They are great for cleaning down the counter, soaking up spills, and don't scratch the hob. And I have enough that I can rotate them every few days and not...

Hello everyone! I hope we have all had a happy and healthy Christmas! We just have the weird not-quite-Christmas-not-quite-New-Year week to get through, then it is 2019! I am looking to re-jig some things, get my blog schedule under control again (can you tell I have been winging it, these last few weeks?), and hopefully try some new stuff for 2019.  As you are well aware, I got crafty for Christmas this year and now that everyone has had their presents I can finally share what I got up to! This is going to be in three parts, because I have three recipes to share. One is sort of a recipe, I don't know what else to call it. In any case, the odd one out is the one I'm sharing today. This was my first year making stuff, so I wanted to keep it simple. Between amateur craftiness and busy work schedule, I didn't want to over load my poor tiny brain. I wanted to make a couple things: one edible and one smelly. For some reason, growing up we always called bath sets "s...

According to my schedule, today is supposed to be a Merfolk post. And this is the first Merfolk post where I've had the person picked more than two days before! But my mental health has been suffering recently and the idea of doing a research heavy post and typing it out in hours I don't have with energy I don't have was leaving me anxious. So another day, maybe this month, maybe next: we shall see. You have to go where the brain tells you, and mine wasn't crying Merfolk. But that did leave me with a gaping hole for content. What do I do? Well, by random chance I was talking to a customer about bad sleep today. I have a bad shoulder at the moment and have taken to sleeping with a hot water bottle awkwardly lying against it. I should add, I had a lovely water bottle cover: it was cosy, soft, and kept the heat in until the following morning. But since moving in with my partner and having a house with central heating, I haven't had much need for it. So when t...

Happy Hallowe'en!! Today's blog is going to be short, sweet and full of pictures - I have worn myself out with all my Hallowe'en prep. I've had some great fun today, including an interlude at my mum's house to decorate spooky gingerbreadmen with my favourite shark experts. I've been melting chocolate, making spooky chocs with jelly surprises, sewing my plastic pollution outfit, pumpkin carving... all things Hallowe'eny! It's been almost plastic free, the chocolate came wrapped in plastic and the sweets had some plastic packaging. But all things considered, that is still drastically less than if I'd have just bought some Haribo mini bags. And mine is now in spooky shapes. I have definitely learned from my experience and plan to use it next year. It's mostly don't leave it all until the day before , as I ran out of time to do the gingerbread house - but hey! Christmas is coming. Anyway, I am done rambling. Here is a photo journey of ...

The Ideas I love this time of year. Hallowe'en is my favourite holiday. I am one of those people who will actively deny that Christmas is a thing until at least November 1st. And more than one year I have left my Hallowe'en decs up until December. It just reaches a point where there's no point taking them down without replacing them! Now, this holiday is a minefield for avoiding plastic pollution. The decorations are plastic. The pre-made costumes are plastic. The sweets are bite-sized and wrapped and wrapped and wrapped in plastic! It is a daunting amount of plastic which goes into Hallowe'en and I am glad I have a few months of experience with reduced plastic living, because otherwise this would be a headache. I don't have to worry about hosting a party this year, my sister has claimed that one. But I would like to do plastic free trick or treating, I will definitely be dressing up, and I want to deck the house in bats and ghouls! At this stage I ...

Over the last couple weeks I have been scrolling deep into Pinterest for recipes. Not for food, I google those, but for beauty and cleaning products. I have been compiling a board, you can check it out here ! I've been toying with the idea of making my own products since I couldn't find a conditioner bar which suited me. And I've finally had an afternoon free where I can make a mess and have some fun! All the ingredients. I decided to start with three, mostly because I was limited by ingredients. But I figured that was a good thing because if I am terrible at this or they don't work then I haven't spent much on it. But if they do work, then I can venture onto bigger things! The three I have gone for are: Hand Scrub Deep Hair Conditioner Facial Sugar Scrub Ingredients aside, I went for these three because I have a greater need for these. My job is hard on my hands - so much cracked skin! - so I need to pamper them more often. ...