I collect Childcraft books that I find in charity shops. I love their illustrations and each book is packed with examples of popular drawing styles of the time.
I happen to have the holidays & customs edition, so let's see what it has for Easter.
I don't have a taxidermy bunny, but I do have a Jackalope, who surely must be some distant cousin of the Easter Bunny.
Have a great Easter break!
I blogged a few days ago about our DanTDM Hair Fail using L'Oreal Colorista Vivids Turquoise Washout over dark brown hair. My son loved the result, but in sunlight there was a weird green tinge, so we agreed to try to reset to his natural hair and wait until the summer when he can lighten his hair before colouring it.
Now L'Oreal Colorista do a Fader Shampoo, which should help wash out the dye quicker than using regular shampoo and waiting the 7-15 washes stated on the box. As Smix only washes his hair twice a week, and with school starting back in a week and a half, I had considered buying the Fader shampoo to do the job. However looking at reviews online people were saying it didn't do much more than a regular shampoo.
So with a little online research, my own experience with hair dye gone wrong, and a check in with the hair master, Clare from Vintage Rocks, I put together a concoction that in ONE WASH removed all blue and green tinges from his hair. This stuff is hairdye kryptonite, folks.
Before I used that we tried simply using Head and Shoulders last night, to see if that would pull out enough dye. Regular Head & Shoulders (we used Tesco own brand £1) is a nightmare for coloured hair, due to the chemicals used to prevent dandruff. So if you've just coloured your hair a beautiful plum, red or even turquoise, if you use an anti-dandruff shampoo you will lose a huge amount of colour with each wash. If you are trying to maintain a colour, especially a semi-permanent, never ever use Head & Shoulders. The best shampoo for keeping colour strong is Baby Shampoo, so says Clare from Vintage Rocks and she is the expert! So we tried just a shower with using Head & Shoulders in place of his regular shampoo and a lot of blue did come out. In fact last night we thought we had got the colour out, but this morning in daylight the green tinge remained.
The concoction had to go ahead. Here is the recipe for maximum colour washout.
We then dried and styled his hair as normal. There is still a tiny amount of colour- you can tell it's been messed with, but there's no horrid green tinge to it.
If that doesn't work for you, you can always try adding crushed vitamin C to the mix. I could have done that if I hadn't not thought things through and bought my vitamin C in the form of those effervescent tablets you dissolve in water and drink. I realised my folly when I put the crushed up Vitamin C in the Head & Shoulders and it started to foam madly! But thankfully my recipe worked without the vitamin C part.
So we are back to his normal hair, and all this this week has made me decide I'm going to just go to Clare and let her professionally do his hair in the summer. We will share those results with you too- DanTDM hair Part Three!
P.S. If your kid wants Dan TDM blue hair there is a wash out spray also from L'Oreal Colorista that worked really well- read about our experience with that here.
Last half-term we blogged about L'Oreal Colorista One Day Spray in Turquoise, which was used to achieve pretty cool Instant DanTDM hair . It had great coverage and colour, but was messy if you left it in overnight. We concluded it was perfect for kids, but really needed shampooed out before bedtime to avoid morning mess.
Smix loved the Colorista spray, but for Easter he pleaded could he try a longer lasting colour change, so we returned to the L'Oreal range and one step up, the Washout, Vivid 2 Week Turquoise.
It promised to last 7-15 shampoos, and to be 'visible on all hair types'. I've said before I coloured my hair every shade of the rainbow in my twenties, and having dark brown hair like Smix, I couldn't help but be skeptical. I knew applying light or medium blue hair dye on our dark locks was basically a pointless endeavour, that pre-lightening was always needed, but Smix was resorting to begging in the aisle of Boots, so I gave in. The product was £6.99 and I thought it couldn't do any harm to try; hair colouring techniques will surely have changed in the ten years or so since I last went blue after bleaching my own hair.
We followed the Colorista Washout instructions and shampooed and dried his hair in preparation. Never apply conditioner before you next plan to dye your hair at home, it blocks the dyes, especially semipermanent ones.
Colorista Washout comes with two sets of gloves, which is very much appreciated- many times with bright unusual dyes you need to reapply and top up after the initial dye application, and I've had to fashion plastic bag and cling film gloves over the years!
The product is pleasant and very easy to apply, no scent, certainly no overpowering dye smell, and wipes off skin blissfully easily. Using blue or purple dyes in my youth used to be such a messy business, I would have green or grey necks for weeks at a time- this isn't like that. The shower and bath doesn't get dyed either- my Mum used to dread me coming home with a crazy colour back in the day!
We left the dye on the maximum 30 minutes, simply because with his dark hair I thought that might help. The hair with the product on wet looked dark blue, so we were both pretty confident we would get a nice result.
You wash the dye off, don't shampoo or condition, then dry and style. Unlike Colorista Spray, the hair doesn't feel stiff or unnatural, your hair just feels like your normal hair.
The hair in natural light
Unfortunately we were pretty disappointed with the colour result. In indoor lighting his hair just looks darker. Outside in the light there is a slight green/blue tint. It's disappointing because the packaging states, "visible on all hair types" and although it's sort of visible, it isn't a nice colour. It says, "vivid colour for brunette hair" and, "brunette? Instantly visible results!". There's also a little photo of how it should look, like a very dark denim, but Smix definitely has a weird green tinge.
So our second experiment with L'Oreal Colorista hasn't gone well. I do think with prelightening we can get a good result and eventually the look Smix wants, just like DanTDM's hair colour. You will have to wait until the end of June for that one, but it will be happening.
slight blue green tinge. Isn't great :-S
In the meantime, we will have to go buy the L'Oreal Colorista Fader Shampoo. Yes, they make a special shampoo to help wash their temporary colours out quicker! Lucky for us because I've a feeling the colour will only get weirder and grosser green as it fades. Oh well! We had to try!
CONCLUSION- L'Oreal Colorista Washout Vivid Turquoise whilst recommended for brunettes, won't give a good result on very dark hair without some prelightening. The other vivid colours or pastels would be good on lighter hair however, and the process of dying is quick, easy and very mess free compared to other dyes. Very little staining and minimal clean up operation needed. A 9/10 product, but just not suitable for very dark hair like Smix's. If you've used it and had a good result, gimme a shout on Twitter @rudedoodle and I will post your pictures here.
How cool is this retro gaming design wallpaper?
It comes in a variety of colours to suit many different room colour schemes. It's £25 per sq m which isn't half bad for wallpaper.
The whole mural wallpaper site will give you home makeover inspiration, with a dozen categories of high quality, modern prints. There are large scale art murals of famous works, plus maps, photographic images, and a service to custom make huge scale wall art.
I have always wanted a 1960s' style mural wall of a mountain scene, hopefully one day my dream will come true!
Here are some of the children's room designs I liked- remember there are literally hundreds more on the site.
Kids love slushies. I don't know why, but they are drawn to them like a moth to a flame. I remember as an 80s child coveting the Slush Puppies in Woolworths in Main Street, and more often than not being told no, it's a waste of money to pay that for frozen juice. I don't know what price they were in 1987, but a Slush drink for your kids now can cost anything between £1 and £5 if we are talking about them taking an arm & a leg at the cinema.
So there's a range from Character Toys that can save us parents a small fortune, even in one summer season.
For £12.99 you can purchase a spangly new Chill Factor Slush Maker. Character sent us the new release 'Frozen Brain' cup, but you can get all colours and designs of cups that operate in the same manner. Slush Puppies are the number one cause of painful brain freeze, so it's a clever name, and also a design that appeals to those who love gory & gruesome monsters.
The tag line reads, 'slushies in less than a minute', which is half true, but some prep is needed. When you first get your Chill Factor, you need to dissemble the cup (very easy to do) and find the very inner, sectioned padded cup. This will need to be put in your freezer to harden for six hours or more. It's the magic that makes any drink into a slushie.
When your inner padded part has frozen, take it out of the freezer and reassemble the cup. You are now ready to make your drink. Take any drink, it can even be room temperature, and pour it into your Chill Factor cup. From experience I know that sugarfree drinks are really hard to get to Slush. You can use a dilute juice, Coke, fruit juice, anything with sugar content.
Now you simply 'smoosh', crush and squish the outside of the cup for a couple of minutes. The padding is so cold that it starts to instantly freeze the drink inside. Because you are moving it around it becomes a slushie.
Then simply drink with your straw or spoon.
When you are finished, rinse the cup, dissemble and refreeze the inner padded part, and use again and again.
It really is that clean and easy. No hauling out a blender to try to crush ice- no actual ice even needed. So for £12.99 you could have a slushie every day this summer without breaking the bank, or them spending all their pocket money.
Check out stockists- I'm pretty sure Smyth have them.
Tonight is Wrestlemania! I haven't watched in decades, but I've found myself drawn back into the kayfabe of it all since finding out about Broken Matt Hardy.
You can watch WWE via an app that does a month's free access trial period- so I think I'll be doing that and praying Matt & Jeff show up.
They get on like a pair of eejits on their YouTube channel, and Matt doesn't break character on podcasts or public appearances.
It reminds me of the glory days when I loved WWF. That led me to begin listening to Mick Foley's audio book. His first biography is available to listen to for free, read by him.
Then I though, I wonder has anyone ever made a Mick Foley cake. Behold.
This one looks like it just got slammed through the roof of a steel cage by The Undertaker.
So Merry Wrestlemania to you!
Ahhh the Northern Irish Mummy and her quirks. Aside from making sure you take your coat off in the house so you get the benefit of it later, a preoccupation with whether the immersion is off or on, and telling you to wear clean underwear in case you get in a car accident, the Northern Irish 'mammy' loves to feed you. Father Ted's Mrs Doyle is a great character study of the Irish mammies we know and love, "will you have a cup of tea? Awk go on, y'will".
So this Mother's Day how about switching the tables and putting on a fine spread of local treats from Tesco, and feeding up Mum for a change?
Tesco stock dozens of local brands suitable for the job of afternoon tea, such as Genesis Crafty scones and Howell's delicious biscuits. You can put on a glorious spread with Graham's millionaire bites and Scott's miniature tea cakes.
You can also pick up gifts for Mother's Day in store like prosecco, beautiful bouquets and beauty treats. You can't go wrong with a lovely bunch of tulips.
Also worth noting that Tesco launch their new site Taste NI this Monday. It will serve as an online hub for all things tasty and Northern Irish. They will explore local foodie traditions, celebrate the wealth of quality local produce available from the province, and share recipes and tips from well-known chefs who are inspired by Northern Ireland's products.
A quick gift guide for Mother's Day next weekend, and Asda has you covered for all the cutest Mum Gifts going. They are your one stop shop for the usual- gorgeous, lush bouquets, scented candles and beauty items, delicious chocolates, plus sparkling wine to toast the matriarch of the family.
What immediately caught my eye, and went straight on my wish list, was the £12 birdie bell jar. It would look so twee on a side table, or even a bedroom dresser. Beside a pastel flower arrangement, it has vintage appeal in the long standing popular shabby chic genre.
Asda kindly sent me some items from their small but perfect gift collection. They are the better place to buy your Mum Baylis & Harding gift sets, if she loves them. They are always a good couple of pounds cheaper than the same sets in chemists.
As I mentioned there is a wide range of floral bouquets, but maybe your Mummy is a green fingers and would love to grow her own pink oriental lilies. It's a more thoughtful present if you have little ones because you can make the planting an event together, then watch the flowers grow as your child grows up also.
Kitty in a basket is another trinket that I'm going to have to buy myself if Smix doesn't come through with the goods. The ironic ceramic plate is just so me. There is also a bunny plate that could work for an Easter gift too.
What about a bunny teapot? So cute.
You can never got wrong with some sweeties and a lippie. There is an exclusive L'Oreal range in the Mother's Day department in your Asda store, with limited edition fun prints.
Finally, you are only just a mum to be for one Mother's Day, and it every woman sees a Mother's Day being pregnant. So if you're a man reading this and your other half is pregnant with your first child right now and you are wondering should you buy a Mum-to-be gift for next Sunday.... the answer is YES! Mummies of all kinds deserve a special day to thank them for the thankless work all year round. That's why whilst you're in Asda you could phone Mum and ask would she like you to make the Sunday dinner next weekend too. I love you, Mum.
As heard on BBC Radio 6's Lauren Laverne Show.
