Donating Hair for Wigs

One of my nieces is a vibrant young woman in her 20s, who wants to make a difference in the world.  She intentionally grew her hair to her waist – a process that took years – so that she could donate it.

In her own words:

“I donated my hair to make wigs for people with medical hair loss.

On the day of my hairdresser appointment, I was excited about getting a short new haircut. Afterwards though, I did have some pangs, especially when people lamented the loss of my long hair. I really didn’t expect it as they knew I’d donated my hair for a worthy cause. My way of coping with that was to point out that women don’t need long hair to be beautiful.

It gives me great satisfaction to know that my donation helped someone in need.”

How To Donate Your Hair

My niece found a hairdresser through the Sustainable Salons website. Once she typed in her postcode, the site directed her to a nearby hairdresser.

Sustainable Salons is a social enterprise that works with organisations like the Australian Alopecia Areata Foundation or the Cancer Council to make real hair wigs,  as well as fundraise for people who’ve lost their hair.

Preparing Hair for Donation

After the hairdresser had washed and dried her hair without using any styling products, she then:

• Divided hair into small ponytails around the head and tied them with elastic hair ties. The ties were approximately 2cm down from where the hair was to be cut.
• Plaited the full length of the ponytail and secured it with another elastic tie at the bottom.
• Measured the ponytail between the two elastic ties and made sure it was at least 20cm long.
• Cut the hair 2cm above the elastic, then kept the plait flat and dry.
• Sealed it into a snap lock bag and posted it to:

Sustainable Salons – Ponytails
GPO Box 322
Sydney NSW 2001

You don’t have to see a hairdresser to donate your hair. If you’d prefer, you can prepare your hair and mail it yourself. Detailed instructions on how to do it are available on the Sustainable Salons website.

What Happens Next?

Once they’re received, ponytails are sorted and graded by hand, according to the colour, hair type and length.

Then, they’re sent to wigmakers and charitable organisations like Australia Alopecia Areata Foundation (AAAF) where they’re turned into charitable wigs for children or to fund life-changing programs.

How is Hair Made into Wigs?

The ponytails are brushed carefully to remove any knots. The hair is then separated into small strands, and a collection of strands is sewn onto a super-thin cloth strip known as a weft. These wefts are sewn onto the sides and back of a wig cap.

It takes at least 10 to 12 ponytails to make one wig. Donations need to be 20cm or longer as length is lost when the hair is sewn into the wig cap.

The difference a wig can make to someone in need can’t be underestimated. As my lovely niece said: “Donating my hair was a small gesture really. I wanted to do more than just send a financial donation. I wanted to give a piece of myself.”

This post was kindly written by Janet Camilleri. Based in Brisbane, Janet submitted her first article to a magazine at the tender age of twelve (no, it wasn’t published). Since then however her work has appeared in dozens of print and digital publications. If you enjoyed this article, check out her blog Janetti Spaghetti!

How to plan your own foodie tour on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland

Looking for a foodie tour on the Sunshine Coast? Create your own. Here’s how.

Having been a visitor to the Sunshine Coast, Queensland for over 50 years, I’ve never really been one for doing the touristy thing on every visit. We love nothing more than just hanging out at the beach.

My grandparents retired on the Sunshine Coast in 1969 so every other weekend we would visit from Brisbane and go to the beach for a swim. The only tourist attractions to really see were The Big Pineapple, The Big Cow (which used to be at Yandina), The Ginger Factory (in Buderim in the early days) and the Sunshine Castle in Bli Bli.

Now you’re spoiled for choice when it comes to the Sunshine Coast, especially as far as food and alcohol goes. Here’s a way you can plan your own foodie tour on the Sunshine Coast and make the most of what’s on offer, in your own time.

Why plan your own tour?

We visit the Sunshine Coast often. It’s our second home. Having been there so much over the years, it’s our favourite place to visit. I have noticed that it has really come of age as being a foodie destination in South East Queensland so wanted to make the most of my next visit.

When I started researching the foodie tours already available (why reinvent the wheel right?), I noticed most of them included wine, beer or other alcohol destinations and we’re talking a couple of hundred dollars.

I don’t drink alcohol anymore so it really wouldn’t be worth it for me. There were also parts of some tours I liked and parts of others I didn’t. So that’s why I decided to start researching the places I wanted to visit the most and found this amazing website that does all the hard work for you.

How to plan your own foodie tour

South East Queensland Food Trails is a website that allows you to plan and create your own foodie tour on the Sunshine Coast and anywhere else in South East Queensland.

There already pre-planned routes you can take that make the most of the region, for example bicycle tours, walking tours or what’s happening right now. They also include some hidden gems you may not have even existed, in your own backyard!

There are also links to that particular region’s tourist websites for even more information. Really a one stop shop to find out all the information you can about the area you’re visiting.

How it works

You simply choose which region you’d like to visit. Either check out the information already available or click on “Create My Trail”.

Choose which region you are visiting from either the List or the Map, then click which Sub Region. You can select all or on an individual region in that area.

Enter the address from which you’ll be starting at. This could be your home address, if you live in South East Queensland, or your accommodation address.

This is, of course, a self-drive tour and if you wanted to visit places that serve alcohol, choose a designated driver. If there are a lot of you, look at the cost of hiring an Uber driver for the day. It might work out a lot cheaper than an organised tour.

After you’ve entered your starting point address, choose your “Interests”. This could be “All”, dining, markets, cooking schools or other attractions in that region.

Your places of interest are then displayed and then it’s a matter of selecting which places you’d like to visit. Click on each one you’d like to include on your tour.

A map is then created with all of the places you’ve chosen with the distance, time and location of each place.

You can then save the link to return to when you’re out on the road and follow the Google map driving instructions to find your way around.

Conclusion

I’m going to be using this tool more for my own area. There’s really so much to see and do in your own backyard, if you really look hard enough. It will save you money, it will be tailor made for your tastes and you can take your time. The South East Queensland Food Trails website has made the job of planning your DIY foodie tour even easier.

Review: "Sizzle & Drizzle" by Nancy Birtwhistle

I’m a bit of a cookbook fan but I had to put the breaks on buying them because I was accumulating them just for the sake of it without ever actually cooking anything from them. That was until I found out my favourite winner from the Great British Bake Off, Nancy Birtwhistle brought out her own cookbook “Sizzle & Drizzle”.

I had a huge cull of cookbooks and decided to only keep those that were classics, made a nice book to read (besides the recipes) or were the books that had my most used recipes.

Great British Bake Off Winner

I’ve been watching the Great British Bake Off since it started, albeit seeing it on Australian television many months after it aired on UK television but enjoyed it nonetheless.

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It epitomises everything I love about baking. Every day people from all walks of life who have a love of creating food from basic ingredients. (Great British Bake Off is a very close second to my absolute favourite cooking show, Masterchef UK.)

There was something about Nancy when she appeared in the 5th series of Bake Off that I immediately warmed to. She is very down to earth and even though she may not have heard of baklava before, she got stuck in and did it and it came out beautifully. She has the basic skills across all forms of baking which allows her to create anything. And she is so neat, so neat.

She has a great sense of humour and the banter between her and judge, Paul Hollywood during the show, was very entertaining and good for a laugh.

I often think about what happens to the contestants after they appear on Bake Off and try to find them on social media to follow what they’re up to. When I found Nancy on Instagram, it was when I saw her in her every day life, tending her garden, cooking from scratch, preserving food, sharing handy home hints and being her true self, that I warmed to her even more.

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She’s very much a woman after my own heart. I see a lot of myself in her with the way I dance around the kitchen and do very similar with my cooking. The only difference is I don’t have a fruit and vegetable garden but one day Nancy. One day.

Review of “Sizzle & Drizzle”

When Nancy announced the release of her new cookbook/homemaking guide “Sizzle & Drizzle”, I grabbed a copy. I also had the opportunity to have a handwritten inscription by Nancy so of course I had her write “To my biggest Bakeoff fan in Australia”, which of course is true.

The book is hard backed with a dust cover. It contains 100 recipes within approximately 400 pages. Each recipe has a colour photograph (taken by Nancy) of the finished dish as well as a link to the video using a QR reader on your phone. You can also wipe clean the pages if you spill anything on them.

I watch re-runs of Great British Bake Off daily when I’m having my lunch and I just love it. I will never tire of it.

Where to get your copy

If you’d like to check out Nancy’s book “Sizzle & Drizzle” you can grab a copy here. If I was to write a cookbook and homemaking guide, it would be exactly like this. So many easy, straight forward recipes and fantastic home hints for the modern homemaker but with an old fashioned twist. A lot like me.

I’d also like to add that Nancy has self published this book. She had so many knock backs from publishers and decided to do it anyway. She took her own photos, drew a lot of illustrations herself and packed and shipped the books herself. She’s an amazing woman and I wish her every success!

Gastronome European Deli, Capalaba

I always love when there’s a new cafe in town and I was eager to try out the new offering Gastronome European Deli at the Capalaba Central Shopping Centre.

It’s been a long time coming as it has been ‘under construction’ for a while. I love a good deli and love discovering new and favourite foods from all over the world that aren’t readily available in the supermarkets. I’ve always felt we’re in a ‘foodie wilderness’ here in the Redlands with not many deli style foods available.

I was raised with European parents and this kind of food was on the table all the time. At the time I thought some of the foods my Latvian dad ate were a little weird but now I love them but they have always been hard to find.

About Gastronome

Gastronome is a European delicatessen and cafe offering a variety of smallgoods, European grocery items, hot and cold drinks, cakes and small meals.

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From what I found out from one of the staff, the owners moved to the Redlands from the south of Paris. I believe most of the staff are either from the Ukraine or Russia.

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On the Menu

The menu consists of small eastern European lunch snacks and traditional foods, a beautiful selection of cakes and hot or cold drinks.

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The day I went with my girlfriends, I decided to have a ‘sandwich of the day’, a Chai Latte and a piece of the delicious Honey Cake. Something that I grew up with having a Latvian father who bought it for us all the time.

There were only 3 sandwiches to choose from and I would’ve liked the opportunity to select some of the beautiful meats and cheeses on offer to make my own custom sandwich. When I asked I was told by the waitress she’d find out but never got back to me.

The pastrami, sauerkraut, mustard and arugula on rye would’ve been nicer with a European style cheese instead of the cheddar I got but it was still really nice. My friends also enjoyed their choices which was great for one friend who is gluten and lactose intolerant so a lot of choices for all dietary requirements.

Service was a little slow but that’s always to be expected when a new place is trying to find it’s rhythm especially since it’s only been opened for a week.

Grocery items

There is a wide selection of eastern European grocery items and if you don’t know what you’re looking at, you wouldn’t know what the goods were because of the writing on the packaging.

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Lucky I did (not that I understand Russian but knew what was inside the packet) and I’m glad to see some old favourites I grew up with.

When I heard of a new deli opening up I was excited at the thought of a wider variety of grocery items from all over the world and maybe that might still happen. What they do have covers a wide variety of Eastern European tastes.

Plenty of great confectionery items which makes a change from the usual supermarket offerings so great gift ideas for the hard to find.

In the meantime, I’ll enjoy a piece of reasonably priced Honey Cake and a coffee in the beautiful atmosphere and enjoy the smells of dill, smoked meats and enjoy the memories of my childhood.

Gastronome European Deli
Shop 7, Capalaba Central Shopping Centre
Moreton Bay Road
Capalaba
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How to never lose socks again

Before children, I thought I was pretty much an expert at keeping my socks together. That is, taking off a pair of socks, washing them, hanging them on the line and folding those same two socks together and putting them back in my drawer. Along comes kids and the sock monster also moved in and all our socks started going missing. Where do they go? Do you want to know how to never lose socks again? Read on.

 

It’s a mystery!

It’s one of those mysteries of the world. The other is where do all the plastic container lids go? Probably to the same place. There’s no rhyme nor reason as to why they should go missing but with kids the trouble is they don’t put them in the laundry basket as soon as they remove them from their feet.

The socks could end up under the bed, out with the trash, used as a doll’s dress (true story with my crafty daughter) and whatever other reason possible for a sock to go missing.

But there is a solution and it’s a pretty nifty one.

The Solution

I stumbled across the solution.

 

WIZZ PEGS!

What’s a Wizz Peg you ask?

An Australian invention, the Wizz Peg will solve your lost sock problem forever!

 

From the moment you take off your socks, you clip them together with a Wizz Peg. They go straight into the wash together, into the clothes drier or onto the clothes line then straight back into your sock drawer.

They are easy to use.  Just clip on the socks and lock them together. The special sockadile teeth on the Wizz Peg tightly grip the pair of socks so that they never get lost in the washing machine again.

Choose from blue, green, orange, yellow, pink or white.  Colour coded for each member of the family, to make sorting washing easy.  The pegs are also UV resistant so will last a long time from use in the sun. This will save heaps of time when it comes to sorting your laundry.

Wizz Pegs come in a handy Starter Pack of 20 right up to the Wizz Family & Friends pack of 300. Share them with your friends and family or give the gift of sock organisation by popping a packet into your friend’s Christmas stocking or a present for Mum on Mother’s Day.

 

 

Disclaimer: I was gifted a pack of Wizz Pegs to try. All photos and opinions are mine. 

 

High Tea at the Wolston Farmhouse

I’ve become a bit of a high tea ‘junkie’ lately. There’s something about a substantial morning tea that carries you into lunch and I always feel a little bit special when enjoying high tea. A recent high tea at the Wolston Farmhouse with my girlfriend was just what I needed for a special day out.

The Tea Terrace Cafe is the recently appointed cafe situated at the rear of the Wolston Farmhouse property, with the National Trust of Australia since 1963. The 19th century farmhouse is the only remaining farmhouse in the area and has lovingly been restored to it’s former glory for an insight into how families lived back in those olden days.

Included in the price of our high tea was a National Trust magazine plus a self guided tour through the farmhouse which felt like I was walking back in time into my Nanna’s house. Constructed in 1852 by Dr Stephen Simpson, it was taken over by Matthew Goggs in 1860 who raised his family of 9 children there. The house doesn’t have all of those bedrooms still standing but it gives an accurate picture of what life was like at the time.

High tea isn’t as traditional as it’s meant to be anymore. It can be had in the morning or afternoon and usually consists of a scone with jam and cream, mini cakes and sweet treats, sandwiches with various fillings and/or savoury pastries of some description. We weren’t disappointed with the offering at Wolston Farmhouse. There was a real old fashioned feel about the presentation and ambience with embroidered tablecloths, mismatched china crockery and the traditional high tea tower with everything presented so beautifully.

Everything is made in-house by the resident chef and you could tell is was homemade by the taste and not mass produced. Included in our high tea were finger sandwiches of various cold meats, salad greens and spread with homemade bush tomato and beetroot relishes. The sweet treats on offer were the “Grindle” Orange Cake (a miniature homemade orange cupcake), a vanilla slice, chocolate mudcake and custard filled profiterole. A homemade country style sausage roll was also served as well as a traditional plain scone with homemade strawberry jam and clotted cream.

You have a wide range of potted teas to choose from plus bottomless filtered coffee as well as a cold option of old fashioned Crows Nest Cola which is served in a jug with ice and glasses with paper straws. A real treat. There are other menu options which, from what we saw, looked just as delicious as the high tea.

While sitting on the wide veranda on what turned out to be the most glorious Spring day, you can’t help but think of the great memories the children would’ve had climbing the large trees on the property, running through the property but probably working hard on the farm and doing their chores.

The formal living room.

Piano for family entertainment in the main living room.

When the sewing machine in the living room was an attractive piece of furniture.

Homemade crafts adorned the home not cheap imports cluttering every space.

The less formal sitting room.

The main bedroom.

Family photos and functional pieces feature on top of the chest of drawers.

Baby’s cot in the main bedroom.

Wash stand in the main bedroom. No ensuites back in those days.

Glorious sideboard in the formal dining room.

Table set for a formal Sunday lunch.

Fireplace in the formal dining room.

Baby’s high chair in the kitchen.

Not sure if that gun on the wall in the kitchen was for cattle rustlers or kids with hungry bellies.

My girlfriend and I were swooning at the amazing old vintage finds in the working kitchen. We’re not sure if the ‘lady’ of the house would’ve been cooking for her large family or if they would’ve had ‘help’ but when you compare it to the mod cons we have in our homes now, you can only imagine that everything prepared would’ve been simple, delicious and plenty of it. Just like the memories I have my grandmother and her extended family.

The laundry looks like it would’ve got a good work out too. The old boiler, washboards, wringer and heavy irons gave us an insight into how hard washing days must’ve been but I’m sure the whites would’ve been whiter than white. (I can remember Mum having an old copper which she had when they first bought their house. She used an electric wringer machine for many years before upgrading to a twin tub which she used up until the day she died and my sister still uses it.)

The Wolston Farmhouse is situated in Wacol, southwest of Brisbane. They have programs for school children and are looking at improving their information centre for visitors and the volunteers who do so well to keep the property in pristine condition.

DETAILS

ADDRESS:

223 Grindle Road
Wacol 4076 QLD

OPEN:

Wednesday to Sunday 10am to 4pm.
Lunch 10am to 2pm
High Tea 10am to 1:30pm (bookings essential)
Closed on Public Holidays

PHONE: 07 3088 8133

EMAIL:  wolston.house@nationaltrustqld.org

ENTRY FEES:

National Trust members – Free
Adult – $10.00
Concession – $7.00
Children – $5.50
For Groups of 10+ please contact