Kids silk flower project

Living in Northern New England, we have our fair share of the cold winter season. There comes a point, particularly when it's been a very cold, snowy, wet, or all of the above winter, when we are all dreaming of colors and flowers and spring. On a particularly snowy snow day I had to stop at our local Dollar Store for some items. While I was in there I saw those foam squares used for floral arrangements, and the silk flower isle. Inspiration struck and I bought about six different flowers and a package of the foam.

My girls are all about crafts so I was greeted with much enthusiasm when I arrived home. Both girls wanted to make flower arrangements for their teachers.

I used my wire cutters to cut their chiice of flowers to their specified lengths, and let them do their thing! After they had poked their flowers into the foam  just how they wanted, I took my glue gun and put a drop on the flower stems to help them stay down.

We choose to use some wide strips of tulle to wrap around and hide the foam. I used the glue gun to attach it. But I think it would be really fun to precut the foam to fit inside a small flower pot before making the arrangements. Then you could tie a pretty ribbon or tulle bow around the pots. We will certainly try this craft again soon. The teachers were so happy to have a little color in the classrooms that day and the girls both felt very crafty indeed

What else do I use castile soap for

I know I've mentioned castile soap, and how I've only used it to make my laundry soap so far. But I have been very interested in using it more. So this isn't the most exciting DIY project, but I'm really happy about this hand soap. I work in a healthcare setting, and if I didn't wash my hands like a crazy person before I came here, I certainly do now! You know what that means for your hands, right? You know...dry, cracked, painful. No matter what soap I buy, its not pretty. There isn't enough hand creams in the world to combat the dryness that comes with all that soap. But now, I don't need them!

I saved a foaming hand soap dispenser for my first experiment with using castille soap as hand wash. But I did end up buying another so that I could have a bottle with me at work as well. You can find lots of them on Amazon, or at walmart.com.

I poured a quarter cup of Dr. Bronner's all-in-one castile soap (I used Lavender for the one at home, Peppermint for the one at work.) and filled the rest of the bottle with distilled water. (its really important not to use tap water, bacteria will grow in there before you can say "I love this hand soap!") I shook the mixture up really well and that was it.

The castile soap, I found out, has natural glycerin in it, which is a great product for helping lock in moisture. After using this at home and at work for a week I can promise you that your hands will not fill like sandpaper anymore from too much washing! You might even save money on hand creams since you won't be drowning your hands in them every half hour.

I'd love to know what you all think of castile soap and how you use it in your life. Does anyone wash their hair with it? I'm dying to try that. What do you think?

DIY Poo - Pourri Spray

Have you heard about this poo-pourri spray? It's really quite amazing and has been around for quite a long time. I personally never bought itbecause I thought, "is it really worth the money for some fancy essential oil spray?"

Well, there are three things you need to know about these sprays:

1 - They really work like miracles. No joke. You spray it before you go (and that is the trick, you have to know how to use it, its not an air freshener) and NO ONE will know.

2 - I do not know what the ingredients are in the commercial  ones you can buy, but I do understand the principle behind them and how they do their magic.

3 - Knowing how they work, I was able to make my own and you can too. Its so easy and a fraction of the cost of buying the fancy ones. Lets make some!

How It Works: It creates a barrier (a layer of scented oils) on top of the water in the toilet. The barrier itself smells great (you mix up your favorite essential oils or just use your favorite already blended ones) and once something (eh, hem) passes through the barrier, it seals back up and no smells can get through it. Genius, right?

How I made mine: So you can't just put essential oils in a spray bottle and use them straight. For one, that's like flushing money down the toilet (literally) and two, not all essential oils are very thick, and some are probably too thick. So the second ingredient needs to be water.

Then we need something to thicken it a little, but more so to give it a spreadable consistency once it lands on top of the water. So I used glycerin. Glycerin is in a lot of products in order to give them consistency, glide, or thickening. You could use pure glycerin (its in the face product section) or vegetable glycerin (a more natural choice derived purely from, you guessed it, vegetables.)

I took a small glass spray bottle I had saved from a facial toner. I think it was about 2 - 2.5 ounce capacity. I put in a teaspoon of glycerin, then a total of about 20-25 drops of essential oils. I blended some of my favorites like citrus bliss blend, clary sage and grapefruit, but you can use any you would like. Then I topped the bottle off with water and shook it up like crazy. I would recommend using distilled water to keep the oils and everything from getting gross.

We gave this stuff a couple tests and everyone was happy to report "it works, it really really works!"

So go forth and make your own! You'll probably need some directions to put with it if you are hoping anyone else will use it. The sticker I put on mine says "If you gotta go, spray this first and no one will know!"

Please give it a try and let me know what you think.

Long draw... Learning curve

The long draw method of drafting creates a Woolen yarn that is area fluffier and warmer then a worsted draft method like short forward. When I watched people doing the long drive before I had my wheel it looked a little intimidating. It looked like it would require a lot of rhythm and controlling the speed of not only your feet but both of your hands independent of each other.

Since I've tried it out I realized all that is true! But it's not something to be intimidated by, it's actually super fun, and you just feel it, and you adjust what your doing, and you keep going and eventually you've spun up eight ounces of wool and you are totally hooked! Lol

Remember when I told you about craftsy? There are a few classes on spinning that helped me so much! You should consider trying out the unlimited subscription or simply purchasing a class a la cart. You won't be disappointed!