I've Got Pansy Coloured Hair

I'm calling my new hair shade Pansy as it has hints of blue, lilac and purple and reminds me of pansy flowers which we had a lot of in our back garden when I was growing up.

Here's the birds eye view...I love the early stages of freshly dyed hair, no roots to deal with.

And here's the the sides...

The back is blue and it also reveals the drasticness of my new cut, it's the shortest I've ever had it.
 
I've now had my do for a week and I'm still shocked whenever I look in the mirror.
On the plus side my new hair has sparked many conversations with strangers, mainly people at shop tills commenting how nice it is.

But the bizarrest one was that I was outside Selfridges in Oxford Street looking at my mobile when a guy came up to me and told me it was really apt I was standing where I was. 
I turned around and saw I was camouflaged so I asked him to take a photo of me!

My new look marks an all round feeling of newness, I feel refreshed and life seems different. Having cropped hair exposes your actual face, there's nothing to hide behind, it's scary at first but very liberating.

Thank you Fabritz & Jason from Toni & Guy Academy for doing such a top job on my hair again! And all for FREE! 

How to make: Easy Peasy Tree Decorations

Christmas tree decorations are one of my favourite things about December. I love the really lavish ones you get in department stores like Harrods and Selfridges and for more affordable ones, the rows of colourful, sparkling ornaments in Paperchase. Monsoon also have some utterly cute characters and crafty, felty designs. Yet while I like to treat myself to a couple of new ones a year, I have everything I need to make my own at home. And when it takes just five minutes to make each one, it’s much quicker than heading to the shops and spending your afternoon standing in a slow-moving queue.

I discovered this most fabulous of glittery fabric via Hatastic! designer Chloe Hayward, which is ideal for Christmas tree decorations. Chloe made some Halloween horns for my up and coming glitter book, using a sheet of red. It’s a densely covered woven backed fabric that’s hard-wearing enough to be used for footwear, fashion and furnishings. I treated myself to a batch recently. They are sold in Josy Rose, for £2.45 per A4 sheet and the colour chart is  impressive. The sheets can be cut with ordinary scissors and either glued down with a glue gun or carefully stitched through with a very sharp needle. Like felt, they don’t fray, making them not just gorgeous, but versatile too! Hooray!

They can be cut up into any shape you want, or to make it really simple Josy Rose sell die-cut, pre-cut shapes made from the same fabric. If you’re cutting inside them (like the buttons on this ethnic snowman), then use a craft knife and mat.

To make them, cut two equal sizes of felt and take a small piece of ribbon. Stitch your glitter motif onto one side and at the top end, stitch the ribbon in, folded over to create a loop. Use an embroidery stitch of your choice to join both sides together. Running and whip stitch work well.

Keep them minimalist, or bling them up with sequins, gems and glitter glue tubes. Add them to your tree, perhaps against some other homemade decorations, like the hand written wishes currently featured at The Geffrye Museum, or like me, dangle them on your fairy lights.