Another Proud Karate Ka moment

OK, so the little guy did his third belt grading.  

His grading was on a normal class day.

 The big boy helped out,

 He passed and is now an orange belt (orange? really)

 His grader giving him a wee pep talk.

 So...a couple of days later, they had another grading and all my black belts helped out.

We were sent a text message a couple of weeks before saying that Quinn was going to get a special award after the grading.
  He actually got two, first was an award of appreciation for all his help over the last 3 years with the junior class.

 He also got promoted to the rank of Sempai, teacher.  Part of his first Dan is a new uniform, he now wears a black gi with a red collar.  When he gets his second dan, the gi will also have red sleeves.

To denote his teaching level, this gi has a red stripe on the trousers.  This is a pretty huge deal for a kid of 14.

 Kyoshi giving him his gi.

 

 

Ceremonial donning of the top.

The certificate.

There was one other person promoted in his grade (a young girl, not this guy but he was promoted too)

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At the end of the ceremony, one of the mother of a young boy approached us and congratulated us  on raring such a fine boy.  We are very proud of him.  Sorry for the crappy photos..had to use the phone on some of them.

Mother Henna

OK...so we finally got around to using henna on our hair.  I wanted black so I also used indigo.  Both natural herbs and very good hair dyes.  My hair is long but very fine, the girls is short/mid length and again fairly fine.

We used just over 300g of henna powder mixed with lemon juice and left to sit overnight.

Here it is going onto my hair..

Afterwards we wrapped it up in cling wrap.

We left it for about 4 hrs, but apparently we could have left it for a shorter time.

My results were pretty impressive since my hair only had a little regrowth.  You could certainly still tell it had been henna'd.

The girls was vibrant!!!

 It will settle down and darken over the next couple of days..I'll take another pic then.

 So here is the indigo going on, I used 200g mixed with water.  There was a little left over..

it stayed on for an hour..

 and the results..

 Top veiw...I think she could have put a bit more paste down the part line..you can still see a bit of red..

Over all, fairly happy with the results.  Worth the extra planning and time.  It's like putting mud on your hair so if you are squeemish, you probably won't enjoy it much.  And I did find that my hair needed alot of conditioning after the indigo.  It feels a bit dry so I might look at putting an oil treatment on it in the next week. 

The biggest plus is that it's all natural and I'll keep on doing it.  I was using commercial dyed every 4 or so weeks and was a bit concerned about the exposure.

Now to do some dying of wool with the indigo.........

I'm a proud mother hen!!

I now have 3 black belts in the family.  Four of the kids do Bob Jones Zen Do Kai Karate and this weekend two of the girls graded to black belt and the boy graded to his 1st dan.  He had to write an essay of 250words + on how karate has helped him.  I took a couple of photos at the beginning then decided to video the rest of the essay.  He had the option of the Kyoshi to read it but did it himself.  He has never done any public speaking so I am very proud of him.

This boy is very conscientious when it comes to his karate.  I love this pic, it's him practicing one of his kata's.

Needless to say, he passed.

Now to my little girls and their black belts.  Here are some pics.

Our baby sitter was at work doing Mc Happy Day so we had to take the little ones along to the grading....

they were suitably unimpressed...

And then it was over...and they had the ceremonial donning of the new belts.

And of course...the final pics with their certificates and belts on..

And one with a very proud Teacher.

Here's his full essay if you are of a mind to read it.

Q’s 1st Dan Essay

I have been here for a long time and I have learnt the art of Zen Do Kai.

The techniques and skills, I also learnt discipline, respect and self control. Before I started I couldn’t control my anger and got provoked very easily. After two years of training here I had complete control of my anger and it was difficult to provoke me. I had mastery of myself with all I learnt. I know the next level of my training will be hard but I have complete confidence that the great teachers will help me reach my full potential.

With all my time here I gained skills which if I had not started; my life would be very different. The belt I have worked for all my time here, my black belt, is the sign that I did the time, I did the training and I learned it. It can be described as a great experience and I will never forget. As I grow older I will keep on coming week after week, learning more, just one step at a time. So this essay may be one little piece but all of the pieces makes all the difference.

And my siblings will learn that the smallest detail can add up to the full technique and all the techniques add up to the full knowledge of this form of self defence. I can’t wait to know all of the techniques. I do not do so many things that don’t give me something I can have forever. But this is the thing that I want to do for the rest of my life, till the day I die. And if I get sick or injured, I will come back as soon as I can and won’t stop coming so long as I live.

Over all I will do my best to master this art and help others to learn and train to their natural limit. And if they don’t put in much effort I will ask them, ‘do you want to do this?’ and their answer might be no, or yes but no matter what, I will teach them the techniques and make them awesome.

This is my goal.

Henna Tattoos.....(Not everyone is artistic)

I found a local seller of henna for hair dye and asked if it was any good for tattoos.  She didn't know and offered to send me a sample to give it ago.  Lisa was wonderful for doing this and her online shop is Supernaturals,  I got all my info on doing henna tattoos from Henna Tribe

I mixed my paste and left it for about 8 hours. I think 12 would have been better as it wasn’t too warm on that day. I think heat would have some effect on it. I just used lemon juice but some ppl add essential oils, sugar or honey as well. I thought the paint brushes would be ok but ended up making a piping bag out of grease proof paper. Some kind of squeezy bottle with a fine nozzle would be better or someone suggested a snaplock bag with a small hole in the corner.

So I applied the paste.

and frankly, I suck at it...

Then you leave it to dry.

It darkens as it dries.

The girls I have talked to say to wrap it at this stage and keep it on for a good 12 hrs but I just ended up picking it off when it was completely dry and cracked.

If I had wrapped it it would have been darker.

It has darkened a bit over the last couple of days..

So in summary, unless you are really arty, you'll need to practice.

And you need a really fine nozzle of some sort to make a really good job of it.

I, personally, will use it for hair dye...and maybe keep practicing..what else are kids good for?



Time Flies When You Are Having Fun.......Trois

And along came the 91st Grand Annual Sunbury Show on the 8th of October.  Our spinning group has a demo at it most years and a table to sell a few things.  I entered the shawls I haven't given away.

AND............cleaned up if I may say so myself...

Hearts, First Place, Baby blanket, shawl, pram cover.

1st, 2nd, 3rd

Mommes Lysedug, 3rd, Baby blanket, shawl, pram cover.

Stor Lysedug, 1st price, Novice entry.

Camping, 3rd prize, handspun knitting article.

and some other photos...

  Wedding cakes.

and our wee display/stall