fahion – Aishat's blog

“The moss is a reindeer moss and it can stay soft up to 15 years without any maintenance.”: said Mr Alex

By Aishat Olabimpe Ibrahim

picture by me showing the entrance to the RDS fair

The contemporary craft and design fair took place today [ 6^TH December, 2019]at the RDS main Hall, Ballsbridge, where lots of designers, craftsmen and retailers had their product displayed on the stall ready to sell.

The event started at 10 am, where lots of people came into the trade fair to see different craft. Present at the stalls are fashion wears, arts, food, snacks, carvings, fabrics, jewelleries, etc. There were lots of interesting and wonderful products and art work at the fair.

At the trade fair there were green and organic products. Nicola Brown is a lady who makes all her clothing deigns from leaves and honey. Another is Mr Alex who uses moss as a product to make beautiful home decorations.

Image of Mr Alex who makes moss designs and his arts. photo by: Aishat Ibrahim

Mr Alex from Transylvania in Romania is a Moss Design artist. He has been in Ireland for the past 10years. He makes all his art work from moss. The idea from the moss came from the fact that he had a room infected with mould and wanted to get rid of it, so he put some moss in his room to extract the moisture from the room. During the interviews he spoke of the importance of the moss.

“The moss is a reindeer moss and it can stay soft up to 15 years without any maintenance.” Said Mr Alex

Mr Alex explains that the moss can absorb up to 40 percent of the moisture in room and since they remove mold from rooms they are good for asthma patient. He also said the moss can only grow in northern countries like Finland, Norway and Poland.

To treat them he uses glycerine and water. He also adds food dye and colour to make them beautiful and attractive and paints them into different colours. All he uses is organic nothing toxic and it doesn’t need to be trimmed as it doesn’t grow anymore. “The moss is a reindeer moss and it can stay soft up to 15 years without any maintenance.” Said Mr Alex

“To maintain the moss freshness, it shouldn’t be put near the heater as that can make it dry. It can be fixed once it has been taken away from the heat and put in a moist room.”

Figure 3 Image of Ms Anouk O’Connell and Ms Frederique van Buurenwho makes product from merino wool. photo by: Aishat Ibrahim

Ms Anouk O’Connell and Ms Frederique van Buuren are the owners of Olannmor and they have only been in business for only two years. Olannmor is a company who makes chunky knit, home decoration and fashion accessories using unspun merino pure wool from merino sheep. Ms O’Connell said the sheep are not present in Ireland. “The merino sheep are warmer climate sheep and are available in countries such as New Zealand, south America and the wool is incredibly soft” said Ms O’Connell.

Ms Buuren said the company have work shops regularly where they teach people how to knit regularly. The workshop consist of more than 20 people where they get together and she and her partner teaches people how to make blanket from start to finish and everyone goes home with a finished product.

The atmosphere around the event was a calm, bright and beautiful as lots of people came with their work/ craft to have them sold. All the products at the job fair are handmade and lots of stores came to sell their product at the same time showcase their craft. Some product go as high as €450.

Coconut oil DIYS

*flickr by* Utkarsha Singhroul image of coconut oil

Coconut oil are given little to no credit for what they do. They are made from coconut. The oil in coconut is extracted to make the oil. There are lots of benefits of using coconut oil, they are… coconut oil has various use they can be eaten, used as moisturizer, used as makeup removal, used to make facial scrub and lip scrub and hair mask.

This article shows you tricks to using coconut oil as a DIY(Do It Yourself)

Homemade Mayonnaise

If you want to make homemade mayonnaise, and don’t want to buy from the stores here are the ingredient. Make sure before you start that all the ingredients listed below are at room temperature.

Raw eggs (yolk) 4-5
Powdered mustard 1/2tbsp
Salt. A pinch
Apple cider vinegar (mother) 2tbsp
Coconut oil 3tbsp
Herbs(optional) 1tbsp

Preparation

Separate the egg yolk and white in a bowl
Pour the egg yolk into the blender or food processor with the powdered mustard and salt.
Add any choice of herb or spice that you will like to try.
Add the apple cider vinegar
Blend the ingredients together and add the coconut oil in very little quantity at a time so that the oil can mix properly with the egg.
Scoop out from the blender and store in closely tight container and store in the fridge and consume within 2 weeks.

Coconut oil as moisturizer

If you have dry skin and your body lotion is not moisturizing your dry skin properly we got you covered.

You can easily use coconut oil as your body cream. You can rub coconut oil on your sink immediately after having your bath in order to restore and give instant shine to the skin. Or get a container and put in coconut oil then add your favorite lotion and mix thoroughly to make a smooth paste. Rub this on your body and see your skin come to live and moisturized all day long.

Coconut oil as a makeup remover

Gather here makeup lovers, do u have a hard time removing eye makeup and matte lipsticks? What if I told you coconut oil can easily take that down for you. All you have to do is put coconut oil on a cotton wool, an use it to clean off eye makeup and stubborn lipsticks. This can also be used to remove foundation and any form of makeup. It dissolves makeup fast and effectively leaving skin clean and moisturized.

*flickr by* sathish mrb image shoeing coconut oil.

Coconut oil as hair mask or protein treatment

Coconut oil is one of the best oil to use for the hair because it protects the hair from damage. It can be used as hair cream, hair mask and for protein treatment.

For hair mask, mix honey and coconut together in a container and apply on the root and strands of hair and cover with a shower cap or plastic bag for 30 minutes and rinse off with warm water.

To use coconut oil as protein treatment for hair, you need one egg,(you can use two or more based on hair volume and length) two table spoon of honey, coconut oil, and any other type of oil you like. Mix all this together in a bowl and apply from root to strands of hair and cover with a plastic bag and leave on for 60 minutes and rinse off with look warm water to avoid cooking the egg in your hair.

Coconut oil can also be used for chapped lips. You can always keep coconut oil handy to use whenever your lips are dry.

Coconut oil can be used as face and lip exfoliator. If you have white heads and black heads on your face and chapped lips coconut oil should be your friend.

To use coconut oil as a face exfoliator, all you need is baking soda. Add baking soda to a bowl containing 1tbsp of coconut oil and mix in properly to make a paste then apply to the paste to the face and scrub in to exfoliate the skin. Rinse the face properly with warm water after 5mins.

To use coconut oil for chapped lip all you need is sugar. Add sugar to 1tbsp of coconut and mix properly to form a thick paste. Apply and rub this into the lips for 3-5mins to remove dead cells from the lips.

Magazine Production

Below are images of magazine pages that I created using indesign.

for pdf of the magzine click here

High Heel Shoes Does More Danger Than Good – Feature story

In a report by “the list” 72% of women in their lifetime would wear high heels. Some wear them daily – 49% of 18-24-year-olds, 42% of 20-49-year-old women, and 34% of 50-year-old women.

The perfect high heel shoes can make any outfit and make a woman feel beautiful and perfect, but this fashion trend comes with suffering. High heels have the reputation that they are bad for health and comfort, but this hardly prevents women from wearing them sometimes and often every day.

Phybean a master’s student in Ireland said that wearing high heel shoes makes her feel sexy, taller, confidence and smart. Most times when she wears heels, she feels pain majorly in her toes and legs. “I feel instantly relived if I put it off” she explains. The only moment or time she has felt pressured to wear heels is when she is going for job interviews beause most companies want to employ smart people. She would always wear heels to boost her level of confidence.

Susan said she also loves to wear heels as it makes her feel sexy and taller. The times she feels compelled to wear heels is when she must go on a date or go clubbing with friends. She also continued to say that the pain she feels from wearing heels is excruciating. She said all her leg muscle and heels hurts badly. She even said that if she wears them for too long her back and leg hurts for days.

Stephany said she likes wearing heels because it makes her feel empowered. Stephany said she likes wearing heels but not so often because she is tall. Wearing heels makes her feel nice, attractive and empowered.

Stephany continued to say that wearing heels for her doesn’t hurts at all. Even when she wears the 20 cm ones which she says have platform reaching almost 2cm. she also wears them to work but it was never compulsory for her to wear them.

A General Practitioner, Dr. Chidiebere Paul Onyebuchi explained the effect of wearing high heel shoes on the body. He grouped them and called them “the Heel Syndrome”, he started by talking about Metatarsalgia (pain in the bones of the feet) saying high heels keep the feet to a point where the toes are downwards which can put lots of stress on the ball of the feet. Generally, the higher the heels the higher the stress it puts on the heels and the metatarsal (i.e. the bone of the feet) thereby causing the pain in the bone of the feet.

Dr. Onyebuchi continues by saying, ladies can develop “stress fractures” due to the impounding stress on the metatarsal bones. Ladies can also develop “heel pain” due to the long-term wear of high heel. Heel pain can develop from the shortening of the calf muscles which can develop when the muscle becomes tight when wearing heels. When the high heels are removed, the calf muscle can stretch out which causes a painful pulling at the heels when walking without them.

He also named “toe nail deformity” and “sprain and fracture” as one of the effects associated with wearing high heels. Sprain and fractures are associated with poor balancing as some ladies haven’t mastered the skills of wearing heels thereby tripping in the process and spraining or fracturing their ankle.

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“According to the looking at the sociology and anatomy view of the human body there is no direct effect high heels have on infertility and pregnancy. Some women do wear high heels during their nine-month pregnancy. But we as doctors strictly advise against it.”

Dr. Onyebuchi

Knee and back pain are one of the major effects associated with wearing high heel shoes. This occurs when the alignment of the body has been altered by the heels going up and the toe facing down. In the process of maintaining balance ladies arch the back to keep balance thereby straining the back in the process and causing back pain. The higher the heels the more the knee pain says Dr. Onyebuchi.

“There is more of discomfort when wearing high heels during pregnancy. During pregnancy there is pressure put on the lower part of the body. Although the lower extremity of the woman is built perfectly to accommodate the weight of the foetus, when heels are worn it aggravates the pain in the calf muscles.

Back pain is associated with pregnancy as that is one of the things women complain about during pregnancy. Imagine wearing high heels with the pain a pregnant woman already has, that will be excruciating. The main problem with wearing heels is not getting balance, imagine a pregnant woman who has extra weight from her foetus wearing heels. She can easily trip and fall hurting herself and her baby in the process which can lead to ‘threatened miscarriage’.”

Dr Paul advised women not to wear heels too often and to be careful when wearing then as they can cause lots of health issues.