The Manic-Henna Project

So I was bored and remembered that I had a stash of henna powder left in my freezer from the last time I dyed my hair. I really love the color that the henna makes my hair as well as the way it makes it feel. My hair has never been so shiny and frizz free. OK...I'm beginning to sound like an advertisement.

On to the point. Even though the henna gives me a beautiful auburn color, I reallllllllly miss my Vampire Red. I feel so ordinary with average hair. I need a color to brighten my mood everytime I look in the mirror. If the Vampire Red wasn't so hard to keep up, I would do my whole head that shade. Guess what? I happen to also have a bottle of my go-to exotic red. :)

I have read a good bit on the subject and I've found that Manic Panic is really the only hair dye that you can actually mix into your henna safely. This is experimental, but I'm thinking that the lawsone in the henna will help to bind the pigments from the Manic Panic into the shaft of my hair. Thus attaining a much longer lasting, not so dull red hair. You have to love my kitchen chemistry antics.

Normally I would put my henna mixture on my hair, apply heat, then sleep on it for about sixish hours. I'm not that patient tonight. I think I'll let it sit for a couple of hours, maybe longer if I find something to occupy my time. I hope I don't end up with only red roots. That would make for a very sad Crystal. Update later on whether this works or not.

Bacon Cinnamon Rolls with Brown Sugar Glaze

Today was a do nothing kind of day around here. We all stayed up kind of late and didn't sleep very well because of the storm that was beating the siding off of our house. None of us were feeling very bright and sunny today, so we decided to remedy that tonight by making some warm delicious goodness. We used left over yeast dough from last night to make cinnamon rolls. Of course, being who we are (Mo and I), we could not just make cinnamon rolls. They had to be cinnamon rolls with a "twiste".  We decided to add some bacon in the mix, and as is common knowledge, bacon makes everything exponentially more taste-gasmic. Here is my recipe for the most awesome breakfast food known to man, along with a bit of picture overload.

We used dough left over from my beignet experiment last night... which was a fail. It's just the basic beignet recipe but I didn't have any evaporated milk, so I substituted coconut milk. It worked just fine. Here is a link to the recipe that I used. It's rather long, so I'm not going to post it.

French Quarter Beignet Recipe

Here is what mine looked like:

I was worried that it would be a little dry, but it needed back together just fine. Many thanks to Mo kneading the ever loving heck out of it. After kneading, roll into a rectangle.

Brush with some melted butter/margarine.

Then we mixed a goodly amount of cinnamon and mixed it with enough brown sugar to blanket the rectangle.

 Tater was the master of the cinnamon sugar sprinkling stage. Hey... little man likes to cook too.

Lay bacon lengthwise on the rectangle over the brown sugar/cinnamon mixture.

Roll into a jellyroll type shape.

Slice, lay in lightly greased pan, and place into a 425 degree oven for about 30ish minutes. I would check it at about 20, because my oven seems to cook slow even though it's pretty new.

This is what they will look like after they are done:

After they look like this, you will want to make a glaze for your rolls. I chose to make a brown sugar glaze, but you can really do anything you like. To make the one that I used mix about 3/4 stick of butter with 1 cup of brown sugar, 1/2 cup of powdered sugar, and 1 Tsp of vanilla extract. Heat it up until everything is all melty and smooth-ish. There will be some brown sugar granules left. That's ok...they are awesome.

Drizzle your glaze on top of your still warm cinnamon rolls. Let cool for about 15 minutes and then enjoy.

WARNING: This dessert is not for the faint of heart, or the high of blood pressure. :)

Crafting

All of my posts thus far have been about working from home in the sense of intellectual work. There is another way to make money from home, although it is one that I have not yet mastered. I'm a crafty kinda lady. I really like to make things, but I have not gotten the knack of selling them yet. I have an Etsy account, but not the know how to use it. Sad isn't it? If you've been on any of the multitude of parenting sites/forums you'll find moms that make bows and tutus and make a decent amount of money doing so. Obviously it is possibly to make extra income by being creative. I'm going to be trying to sell some of the things I'm making now. Some of which are really original, at least in the way that they are made. So far some of the things that I'm making that I want to sell are:

- Hair Flowers for that sexy vintage pin up look.

   These are the first two that I made. I really like the way they look. My sister is wearing one in her profile pic on FB. I'm planning on making a wide variety for different times of the year.

-  Magazine Wallets - I don't have a picture of these. They are pretty cute. I weave magazine pages together and make them into an ID carry case/wallet. 

-  Jewelry-  This is still experimental, but I've made some really pretty stuff. 

                - Bangle bracelets made from plastic cut from old containers, wrapped with recycled t-shirt material, and then decoupaged with magazine. These are really cute. 

               -  Bangle bracelets made from recycled soda cans, folded and hammered so they are strong and flexible. Then covered with pretty fabric. Mine is covered in baby pink t-shirt material with black lace overlay. It also has a black lace bow closure. 

              -   Flatware Jewelry- Made from stainless steel flatware. I make the pretty parts of spoons/forks into pendants. I'm still trying to figure out how to do bracelets and rings. I never realized how hard it is to bend stainless steel. I pinched my finger pretty bad while making one for my mother in law. 

That's my list so far. I'll post pics here of the jewelry and such that I make. I'm not trying to sell anything yet, just making it for fun. Let me know any ideas or suggestions that you have. 

This would be a good money making venture for a person that is both crafty and business savvy.  I hope that my creativity will pay off eventually but for now, it'll be saving me money on Christmas and birthday presents. :)

Happy Crafting!