Personalised Roblox T-shirts, Smix Starts a Trend!

I've always thought Minecraft missed a trick by not making available merchandise such as toys, t-shirts, duvet covers, pencil cases, quick enough on the market to take advantage of its huge popularity.

I remember having to order Minecraft things people had made themselves on Redbubble for Christmas presents, because the big shops had very little on offer. 

Had Minecraft had been quicker & more savvy, they could have flooded the market with merch and made a fortune. I wanted to give them my money but there was nothing to buy!

As it is now there is the Lego, some wildly priced tiny figures, and a couple of shops with the liscence to sell t-shirts or hoodies. But now the kids have moved on and Roblox is the game of choice. 

For us adults, I'll explain. Roblox has lots of mini-games created by other users. Some games have thousands of players in their virtual world, some are smaller.  

My son plays & enjoys these high quality games, but he also loves the feature in Roblox where you can put together your own landscape, with houses, trees, cars etc. & then he invites his friends to enter his games & play there. 

So it's a little like Minecraft, but a step on, so it's perfect for anyone over the age of 8 (you must be that at least to play). 

Roblox seem to be more on the ball than Minecraft, and they've already released a range of toys. There are characters from the most popular games, and a line of 'blind bag'   figures with 40 to collect.

But as yet I haven't spotted any Roblox clothing in the shops. Again there are sellers on Redbubble who take images from the game & will print those on a tee for you, but we came up with a more personalised idea, which is cooler than just having the Roblox logo on your shirt. 

We were visiting Portrush this week, where there are shops who will print any image on a tee for you. You just bring along your image you want, and they can print it off their computer onto transfer paper which then goes on the colour of t-shirt or hoodie you pick. 

Smix originally wanted an image from searching on Google that said, 'Eat, Sleep, Roblox', but the guy in the store said it wasn't good enough quality to work.

So we puzzled over what image would work & Smix came up with a good idea. He brought up his Roblox character profile and there in the 'about' section is a great quality pic of his avatar.  

So not only was he getting a Roblox t-shirt but it was mega personalised as it was his character in the clothing it wears when he plays. 

An Instagram friend loved it, and the next day they took a trip up and he got one printed too. 

So if your child would love one of these too, you can have T-shirt World print your character too, as they offer an online service. On their site you will find their email address. They will need your child's age for sizing, whether you want a tee or hoodie, or any of the other personalise items they offer, the colour to use, and the image of your Roblox character.

To get that all you have to do is Google 'Roblox' plus their username they play as. The first result should be their profile page which will have the good quality picture of their character. If you are confused by that, you could always just send him your child's Roblox username and he will know how to get the character image from that info.

Other local printers from your town could also make these, but we like T-Shirt World because the clothing is great quality, the hoodies don't bobble and the colours are so vivid. Plus Alan from the store will know exactly what you're talking about when you request a Roblox user print. So visit T-shirt World online and order your child's personalised Roblox tee today!

Who would have thought Smix could start a fashion trend!

My friend's son's version

A 1970s' Easter, According to Childcraft

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! 

How To Wash Out Blue or Green Hair Dye In One Wash- AKA HairDye Kryptonite

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.

1. In a bowl put enough Head & Shoulders to cover the whole hair like a conditioning hair mask would.
2. Add a 50p piece squirt of washing up liquid (dish soap)
3. Add a heaped tablespoon of baking soda (make sure it's definitely baking SODA not powder, we aren't making a cake here)
4. Gently mix together into a thick hair mask, then put all over the hair, scrubbing a little to bubble it slightly.
5. Leave on for fifteen minutes
6. Wash out in the shower using Head and Shoulders shampoo. The bubbles and water should now run clear, not blue.
7. Condition.

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.

How To Get DanTDM Hair- L'Oreal Colorista WashOut Vivids Turquoise on Brunette Hair- It's a Fail.

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.

Retro Gaming Wallpaper & Other Affordable, Fun Wall Murals

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. 

Make Frozen Drinks at Home With No Ice Or Mess- ChillFactor Frozen Brain Slushy Maker

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.

It's Wrestlemania! Have You Got Your Cake Ready?

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!  

Treat Your 'Mammy' To a Northern Irish Afternoon Tea This Mother's Day With Local Treats From Tesco.

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.