Kites

As I was reading another blog post from a friend, It made me think about my childhood. Jack over on the ShipLog Blog wrote a post about homemade kites and how as a child he would fly kites made out of brown paper his dad would bring home from the dry cleaners. You can enjoy his post HERE.

This made me think about how I used to love it when momma would make us homemade kites. She would tell us to go find two straight sticks. This would get us out of her hair for a little while. We would run out into the woods and pick the perfect ones. Then we would bring the sticks into momma and she would make us a kite out of the daily news paper. If I can recall, she would use ribbon and bows for the tail. 

Sometimes they would fly and sometimes they wouldn’t but I would find an open area without any power lines or trees and take off running. The kite would often be bouncing on the ground behind me until a good wind would grab it and take it into the air. The open area I found was often just the dirt road in front of the house. Trees were all over but to an eight  year old, the space above my head was forever clear. 

The homemade kites never made it past a couple hours as either they would tear up from dragging the ground, fought over it with my sister and brothers or stuck in a tree. 

Now days I still like kites. I have a real store bought one at the beach that I keep in the camper just incase I want to fly it. It’s nothing fancy and its small but It’s fun to fly on the beach were It will reach sun. 

Handmade Hair Pins

I’m at it again. Playing with sticks. Whittling and carving. 

I have been intruiged with hair pins lately. Until a few months ago, I had no idea how women held their hair up with a hair pin. I mean, how is it possible that a single stick will hold a whole head of hair in a twisted updo? Well, obviously, easy. I was amazed when I gave it a try. I have been in favor of this type of hair pin ever since. 

Since Covid took half of my hair, I have had to be careful at how I put my hair up. I do not want to use anything that can be damaging. I stopped using stretchy bands and now only use hair pins or claw clips to keep from damaging the little bit of hair I have left. In case you missed it, you can read about my Covid hair loss HERE. 

After 3 months and losing 50% of my hair, It finally stopped falling out. Now it is in the regrowth phase. I use special shampoo and oil to help with the process. 

I got this fancy idea to make my own hair pins so I had my husband gather me a few sticks during his morning walk. He didn’t ask, He just knows when I gather little pieces of nature, I have a craft idea. 

I picked through them and found some that would be perfect. So the carving and sanding began.

Being a minimalist, I like to keep things simple. I do not like a lot color and I love things that come natural. Nature is full of things we can use in everyday life. I think I could seriously live in a tee pee, and eat berries for a living. Haha. 

After I carved the sticks to the size and shape I needed, I continued peeling away the bark to reveal the raw wood. Then I sanded them smooth and gave them a thin spray of clear coat. 

I gave one a burnt design with my wood burner. One has a silver painted tip and one I left alone because I thought it was just so darn cute with the “Y” shape at the top. Each one comes out different and has its own unique shape and color. 

  

I had to try them out and love how fun they are. (Girls, these can be used in self defense also) . They are approximately 6 inches long and made of Wonder wood (Wonder what kind it is). Haha. Seriously though, I think they are from an oak or maple tree. 

I plan to make some more and maybe even try to sell them. I’m just not sure this old fashion technique will ever be popular again. But who knows, there could be someone out there that would love to have a piece of nature to wear in their hair. 

What do you think?

Do you wear your hair up with hair pins?