Green Mermaid Cottage

For the first twelve years of my life I had beautiful, long hair. Strangers in the street often randomly   complimented me on my healthy-looking hair and I was told that I had 'the most beautiful hair in the school' by the mother of one of my classmates. But from the age of 13 everything changed. I went within a few months from Rapunzel to G.I. Jane. My hair was thinning quickly and alarmingly and strands of white hair appeared in my light chestnut hair. My eyebrows also grew thinner and thinner. My hair sings the blues I had to cut my hair short to try to disguise some of the loss, even though every trip to the hairdresser was traumatic as they invariably commented on my thinning locks. The family GP did not offer much help and simply suggested I look into using 'a good hair colour product'. A dermatologist  had a look at my scalp but also seemed puzzled. Stress and genetics were mentioned as possible causes and I was dismissed with the general advice...

Picture this. You are in a train travelling to an office which is 2.5 hour away. You have been worrying about the journey for days, it even affected your sleep. Your stomach starts to cramp.   You are getting agitated. You pray that no one will seat next to you because you know you will flinch every time they will come too close to your personal space. You mutter to yourself and you realise you are making jerky movements with your shoulders. You have chosen to travel outside the 'rush hour' but you are getting nervous because there is a noisy child nearby  and someone's music can be heard even with their headphones on. The noise is like fingernails digging inside your brain. The cramping is so bad that you know you will have to run to the nearest loo as soon as soon as you get out of the train. You worry there might be a queue. By the time you get to the office you are already exhausted. You try to mask how you really feel. If someone talks to you, you force your mouth in...

 Making your own potpourri is a natural way to add lovely fragrances to a room.  A potpourri ( a French word which translates as ‘rotten pot’, but don’t worry the result is more appealing than it sounds! ) is a mixture of ingredient such as dried petals, spices, cinnamon sticks, pine cones and citrus peels placed into a bowl to perfume a room.  I am lucky to have roses, rosemary and lavender growing in my garden, so I decided to use them as the main ingredients for my potpourri.  I gathered rose petals and rosemary and lavender stems and I let them air dry for a few days in my kitchen.  The best way to dry herbs like lavender and rosemary is to tie the stems together in little bunches with an elastic and hang them upside down with a bit of thread.  To add to this, I cut out some orange and lemon peels when I was making my morning orange juice and lemon tea and I also left them dry out for a few days in my kitchen.  When all my ingredi...

I made a lot of mistakes when I bought my house.  I think it was a combination of being a naive first-time house buyer, doing it on my own and the fact that I was so tired of dealing with estate agents and every weekend spending my time viewing one unsuitable property after another. So when I saw my current house after a year of searching I thought ‘that will do’ and with insight I could have been more careful and saved myself a lot of money and heartache.   This is what I had learned from the process of buying a home in England. Mortgage brokers are really useful  One thing I at least got right was using a mortgage broker. I had started a new job recently and I was still in my probation period (which some mortgage lenders do not like) and I also had some additional income from freelancing which made things a bit more complicated. Using a broker meant that they could approach the best lender for someone in my situation and use their contacts and knowledge to make the p...

When I packed my bags to move into my new home I was amazed at how many cleaning products and air fresheners I was taking with me.  Bathroom cleaner, kitchen cleaner, floor cleaner, window cleaner, bleach, drain cleaner... This would also create a lot of empty plastic bottles to dispose of once used. I was concerned as well that using air fresheners were really good for my health or the environment.  Manufacturers' clever marketing has convinced us that unless with buy multiple products for each room and purpose we must be slobs with unsanitary houses... Thankfully I learned that there are recipes I can use to make my own products with simple ingredients and that many of these products can be used all over the house.  GENERAL CLEANERS I have have several recipes for all purpose cleaners: 1- Castile soap-based cleaner : Ingredients: Castile soap, essential oil (I use tea tree or lemon) and water.  - Mix two cups of water with 2 tbsp or Castile soap and 10 drops o...

When I started on my DIY journey I was lucky to acquire bags of lovely fabrics for free on r ecycling app Freegle   and I wanted to use them as much as possible in my home decoration DIY projects.  So, when I found a couple of ceiling shades in a charity shop that were the right size for what I needed but looked drab and tired,I decided to use some of the fabrics I had to give them a new lease of life.      (Pic: Discoloured, stained original shade on the left and up-cycled version with a new fabric on the right) You will need: - Fabric of your choice - Lamp or ceiling shade  - Fabric glue and a brush to apply the glue ( a cheap paint brush is fine) - Fabric scissors   - A pencil and a ruler - A sheet of paper to make your pattern - Sewing pins to attach the pattern to your fabric - Optional: pegs to help you keep the fabric in place as the glue is drying. The process: - Lay your lampshade on its side and on top of your paper (towards the right ed...

 This body recipe works well for my dry and sensitive skin.  INGREDIENTS - Castile soap  - Pure organic honey - Organic sweet almond oil (you can also use jojoba oil, avocado oil or olive oil - Essential oil (I chose Lavender oil).  MAKING THE PRODUCT Mix in a bowl: - 1/3 cup of Castile soap - 1/3 cup of honey  - 1/3 cup of almond oil  - 30 drops of your chosen essential oil. Once mixed pour the content of your bowl into a pump bottle.  That's it! your DIY body wash is ready to enjoy.  Remember to always do a test for any product you create on a small area of your skin to make sure that it won't cause you any irritation/allergy. 

I have had some issues with dry and sensitive skin, so one of the product I was really keen to make myself was a body butter that would help soothe and moisturise my skin.  This is the simple recipe I use: INGREDIENTS - 500g Organic coconut oil - 500g Organic shea butter  - Essential oil (I chose Lavender oil) - 350ml Organic almond oil.  MAKING THE PRODUCT - Mix the shea butter, coconut oil and almond oil together in a bowl - Heat the mixture using a Bain Marie technique: this means placing the bowl in a saucepan of  warm water, which surrounds its content with gentle heat - Once the mixture has melted remove the bowl from the heat and add 30 drops of your chosen essential oil  - Allow the mixture to cool down and to start to solidify. To speed the solidifying process I usually put the bowl into the fridge and regularly check its consistence. You don't want it to get too hard as it will make it difficult to whip in the next step of this...

Now that I finally had my own garden I wanted to make it as welcoming as possible to wildlife, including insects and birds.  PROVIDING FOOD AND WATER FOR BIRDS  I installed a bird bath, bird feeder and a bird house as soon as I could and the previous owner had left a little ‘insect hotel’ which I kept and put on the fence.  SUSTAINABLE GARDENING I never use synthetic pesticides or peat-based compost. Instead I bought organic compost to start with and then made my own using a compost bin.  To try to deal with slugs and snails that targeted my vegetable raised bed, I used slug nematodes with some success.  Slug nematodes are microscopic worms used as an organic, natural pest control. They are safe for pets and wildlife. My longterm plan though is for my pond to attract frogs and toads to contain their numbers. I planted a wide variety of flowers, plants and shrubs to encourage bees and butterflies to visit my garden. Bees and other pollinators will thrive ...