I'm so blessed.

Something a little different today.

 

I just wanted to write a quick entry to say how wonderfully blessed I feel.

 

Some of you might know that I suffer from a severe form of CFIDS which is an invisible illness, but really incredibly debilitating. Infuriatingly medicine is still in the early stages of truly investigating this disorder and I'm involved in two research studies right now.

 

Despite all of that, I was very fortunate to be born into a very loving and supportive family who always make me feel loved and keep encouraging me when my health gets me down. Also I have married the most wonderful man who loves me fiercely despite my limitations. On top of that, my husband has the kindest, most understanding parents too, who never make me feel like I am not enough. Plus my fur babies!

 

And then, I've got a small group of incredible friends from all across the world who I enjoy chatting with through email and on various forums. Now I can reach most of you right here. You all make my life so joyful. You really do. I can forget if I am in pain, and any random feelings of loneliness or isolation just melt away.

 

So here's a lolcat for you bunch:

 

 

 

It really did.

 

Cardi.

Mooreartstudio

While I do wear Elymwold hair sticks or forks or 60thstreet hair forks more often than not, there are a few other makers who make particular items that I like very, very much.

One of my other favourite items are my Mooreartstudio spiral hairsticks.

I'm pretty choosey about what I really like, so for something to be one of my favourite things it has to be hair friendly and well finished, beautiful and comfortable to wear. Mooreartstudio spirals are all of these things.

Here's some photos to keep you guys going:

These spirals are all about 6 inches long in total. They are all finished very smoothly and have a natural semi-matte appearance. I occasionally buff them with coconut oil or a scented wood balm to give more shine and chatoyance, which reminds me, next time I'm at bunnings warehouse I want to get some wood balm.

*Makes mental note*

I put these hairsticks into my hair using a screwing action which locks them firmly into place. They do not move. Ever! They're amazing! Also I love that these particular hairsticks just let the wood do the talking. They are not waterproof, so I wouldn't even risk wearing them in damp hair or on a hot day as I would be very sad if they were spoiled.

I occasionally have trouble with some top heavy hairsticks drooping or falling out, so most of my favourite things are not top heavy. The best holding hairsticks seem to either have either a spiral shape like these or a gorgeous gentle wave like shape, like my Elymwolds or Timberstone Turnings.

One last photo to show the different woods:

From top to bottom, Holly, Flame Box Elder, Pink Ivory and Ebony.

 

 

One thing I must say about these hairsticks is that the pink ivory wood did appear darker to me in person than it was in the original listing, but I am ok with that. It's a really rich deep cool reddish pink, and I like that. I have a few lighter pink ivory items that started out a pale salmon pink but have become redder with age, so this is probably to be expected. Of them all, I find the gabon ebony to be the most classic looking, and the flame box elder to be the most stunning in person.

 

I definitely recommend giving one of these a try. I purchased one at first, but then found them so useful that I added some more. Four will be enough for me, I think, and I'll be hanging on to these as long as I can put my hair up.

 

Last of all, here's a photo of me wearing my holly and ebony spirals:

 

 

 

Catch ya all later,

 

Cardi.

 



Whoops! So I enabled myself.

My last blog was about how excited I was to see the sale at Mary Grace Jewellery at Etsy. I wonder how many of my friends who read that blog also fell victim to temptation?

I totally managed to tempt myself. No surprises there! I'm very excited to look forward to my new earrings arriving. I might need to nip down to the hardware store to grab another tackle box to store them in safely. I think the boxes I use are close to air-tight, so they will help prevent the metal from oxidizing or tarnishing. For your reference here is a listing on ebay, showing a similar product. I wish I'd had something like that when I was younger to keep all my earrings together, safe and tidy. I lost far too many favourite earrings as a teenager in drawers and through sneaky holes in handbag pockets.

I'm not sure what else I'd like to talk about for now. I have earrings on the brain, so here are a couple photos of the earrings I've purchased at the 60% off sale.

Dark Brown Wooden Earrings, Red Magnesite Gemstones.

Purple Feather Wooden Earrings

 

 

 

 

My husband chose the pretty purple feathers for me. I promise to wear some of my new earrings in future hair-toy action shots when they arrive. Send me word if you bought anything too, and we can be excited together.

 

It's cold and windy here today. It's so funny to think most of my friends overseas are still in Summer. More stuff on hairtoys soon.

 

 

Cardi.

Mary Grace Jewellery is having a sale!

Something different for a change. No hair toys, but of course, there's still something wooden.

A couple years ago I discovered a lovely little jewelry store on etsy which makes not particularly expensive, but very, very nice earrings that I adore and wear quite often. MaryGraceJewellery on Etsy.

And, they currently have a 60% off sale while she prepares to overhaul her stock, so of course, now is the perfect time to share how much I like her things.

Here are two of my most favourite earrings which were purchased from this store:

My favourite wood leaf earrings.

 

 

 

 

Iridis, Glass Jewel Earrings

 

 

The wooden leaf earrings are just so light and comfortable to wear, and I think they are fun and not over the top. The rainbow glass jewel earrings... WOW! I fell in love with them when I first saw them in July 2011 and they are still a firm favourite.

 

 

Maybe some of you might find something you like, during the sale, but if not I'd keep an eye on her store anyway to see what new things she stocks after this clear out. I really adore earrings since I wear my hair up so often, but she does make other pretty things too.

 

Happy Monday from Australia,

 

Cardi.

 



 



 



Can't seem to stop blogging today.

I'm finding the adjustment from forum to blog a little bumpy and I just can't seem to stop wanting to tell my online friends about the things that I like the most.

Hopefully this will be it for a little while, but I couldn't resist writing one more entry to say how much I adore my Elymwold mini fork pairs.

That's these guys here which I have shown photographs of before:

 

 

I just love them!

 

I've been suffering a bit from a sore patch on the crown of my head because I repeatedly do the same updo. Mostly because my hair isn't long enough for the the proper buns I know yet. Using these little beauties allows me to keep my hair up securely, but to keep any pressure spread out across the back of my head. I don't even have all that much hair compared with many people I know, so I can imagine what a boon it might be to them to be able to spread the weight of their hair more evenly across the crown of their heads.

 

These little forks are shorter than 5 inches and they each have a head curve which makes them comfortable for me to use. They hold much better for me than all of my plain metal hair pins which tend to slip out. I might end up re-homing my metal hair pins since I don't think they will get much use anymore.

 

And here's a photo to show how I use two at a time:

 





I hope I'll be able to buy one or two more pairs like these one day. I still can't believe how comfortable and light they are.

Here are some links to similar hair pins for reference. The figured Tasmanian blackwood pair looks incredibly divine.

Well, it's almost Monday and I'll try to take a couple days off of blogging to give any readers time to catch up with my posts.

Bye for now,

Cardi.

An afterthought.

Someone once asked on a hair forum:

"So what's the deal with these hair forks? I mean, they're just boring wood, right?"

My response is, if you own one and don't understand then please send them to me.

I can see what is special about them. It starts with the tree and ends with the love poured into each creation. Same answer for any of my other beloved hair things.

60th Street Productions

Most people who know me know that I absolutely adore the hair forks made by 60th Street Productions. These have been an obsession of mine for almost four years now, I think.

You can find 60th Street Productions on Etsy if you are lucky enough to catch an unsold listing. They have their very own well constructed website where they sometimes have sales on a particular style or shape of wood. I find it best to keep an eye on this website weekly at a minimum, just in case.

Pink ivory jeni, Gabon ebony amie, Bloodwood daisey, Tasmanian Blackwood Bev, Osage Orange lynne.

These are the same forks again to show the beautiful flash in some of these woods.

This small family business, where all of the hair forks are created by one man, Jim, is to thank for originally triggering my passion for beautiful wood. The photos above are forks which have all been created from natural woods, finished in a way to enhance their natural grain. I would never have discovered the beauty of flawlessly finished timber if it were not for these forks, so all of my subsequent discoveries are in some way thanks to these people. For that I am incredibly grateful.

In the spirit of honesty I must also credit Jan and Jim from 60thstreet for reaffirming my faith in the innate good of people at a time in my life when something truly awful had just happened. The kind communications from complete strangers when I was grieving the terrible loss of my first niece, who was still an infant, just went above and beyond anything I had experienced before outside of my family. Many beautiful souls have revealed themselves to me since, but I will never forget this moment in my life. So I must point out that although I am slightly biased because I know how good-hearted the people behind this business are, regardless I believe that everything I say about the hair forks is entirely true.

As you can see, they do incredible work with natural wood. The forks are flawless, with a gentle head curve for comfort and fine tapering prongs, but they are much stronger than they appear and can hold huge amounts of hair effectively.

Jim also works with brightly coloured dymondwood, which is a compound created by impregnating birch with coloured resins. It is compressed and becomes extremely strong when set and is water resistant. 60thstreet polish this to a high gloss, with a hair friendly, glass-like, shiny appearance. These are one of only a few other hairtoys with a comparable finish to that my beautiful Elymwold hairsticks and forks. The only other seller with a glass-like finish that I have tried is Timberstone Turnings, which I hope to blog about when I have a few of their creations one day.


Here are some photographs of beautiful dymondwood creations from 60thstreet which are currently for sale.

There is a selection of multicoloured dymondwoods available

 

Also colours with a more solid appearance.

The forks are made in a variety of different styles, prong number and spacing and topper shapes. If you visit their website and look through the fork styles and available woods or browse through the sold items on Etsy it will give a better idea of the huge variation between individual fork styles, but one thing always remains the same, their perfect workmanship and their simple and elegant shaping. I like to choose forks with a shape that will flatter the particular wood the most.

These forks have become increasingly difficult to get a hold of due to their increasing popularity. People from all over the world are mad about them. Jan and Jim have their priorities absolutely right and put their family life first, whilst maintaining their business with professionalism and putting quality ahead of quantity. I respect their decision, but I wouldn't mind adding another few natural four prong forks to my collection one day if I can catch them on Etsy.

Hope you're having a great weekend,

Cardi.