DIY:Lavender Sugar Cubes

My oldest daughter was my inspiration for making these sugar cubes. She is a tea reader and I was trying to come up with things to make with all this dried lavender I have. So, this was the perfect solution, and what a fun way to make her tea readings a bit more relaxing.

Supplies Needed:

1/2 cup of lavender infused sugar
1/2 to 1 tablespoon water
food coloring
molds or ice cube trays (that is what I used)
mine made 13 cubes

Directions:

pour sugar into a glass bowl
measure out your tablespoon of water add a drop of food coloring
add to sugar half a tablespoon at a time and mix until it looks like sand. I used the whole tablespoon. I almost forgot to take a picture of this step, but this is how it should look. Don't get it too wet or they won't harden.

Now press them into your molds, I filled these ice cube trays about half -full, and my daughter said it was the perfect amount of sugar for a cup of tea. Clean off all the excess sugar on the the mold ,then let set for 24 hours. Pop them out of the trays/molds and store in an air tight container.

Happy crafting!

Craft Corner: Windchimes

These wind chimes where easy to make and made some very lovely noise in the wind. 

The metal circles where purchased from a local metal business. They have some fun stuff in there too, but my boyfriend thought I might enjoy these circles.

I painted them all first with a bunch of different fun colors and then hung them from fishing line off of a smaller metal circle for the base. The project took just a couple of hours and over all wasn't very expensive to make. 

Happy Crafting!!

Craft Corner: Rescued Chairs

I thought I would share this craft project that my boyfriend and I did together.My boyfriend found these chair frames in a friends' yard, tossed in the trash piled. He also found the fabrics in a throw away pile. Making it true that one mans trash is another's treasure!! So here is what we did with them!

We began by sanding down the chairs and then we each painted a chair. It was his choice to paint his the opposite of mine and I love it! I did all the funky dots on both chairs. Since the chairs were just frames without  seats or backs they had to be made. I am really glad that not only can Russ do upholstery but he can make all kinds of other stuff, so he was able to make the backs and seats and of course did the upholstery work on them!

Happy Crafting!

Gardening

Things are looking good in the garden this year!  Today's harvest is this beautiful bunch of garlic. I know it is not the biggest bunch and the heads aren't as big as I hoped, but it's my first try. I am going to plant more this fall and see if I can get them bigger!
Garlic really is easy to grow. I planted them last November, in a raisedbed, covered therm with leaves and left them. I didn't have to water them through the winter at all. It would probably been a good idea to feed them in the spring. I have been trying to not use any fertilizers,  but they do help. I found a couple diy recipes on the Internet that I have been trying out on just a few plants. I am always worried I will kill the plants, so I am cautious with the stuff I make. Better to be safe than sad!

Happy gardening!

DIY: BODY BUTTER

Chocolate and Peppermint Body Butter

Since I have been trying to stop exposing my body to so many toxic chemicals I decided lotions were next to go. I don't want to be putting chemicals all over my skin. If you look at the list of ingredients it's mind boggling to think it takes all that just to make our skin soft and smelling good? So I started looking for something else that would get rid of my dry skin without adding unnecessary chemicals and stuff. 

I found out that if you whip up coconut oil straight out of the jar, it makes wonderful lotion. It is light and creamy,and soaks into the skin fast. It does go greasy ,but doesn't that way for long. It only takes a few ingredients to make and is fairly cheap once you have all the oils.

Body Butter

1 jar of coconut oil

2 vitamin e capsules 

10 drops of peppermint essential oil

7 drops of cocoa essential oil

Mixer (I used my Kitchen aid mixer with the paddle attachment)

To make this just scoop the coconut oil out of the container (do not melt it or warm it up first) and into the mixer. Mix it for about 5 min or until is is light and fluffy! Then squeeze the contents out of the vitamin e capsules, put in essential oils mix it up for another minute until everything is well incorporated. Store in a sealed glass container.

DIY: Planters

These fun little planters where made by my boyfriend. He is just as passionate about re-purposing old things into new, as I am. He made the bottoms out of wood and attached them with some glue and screws. The bottom one comes up threw the center of the top one and makes it a double planter.

I planted some four o"clocks in each of the heads! I will post more pictures when the plants take off and start climbing up the hangers.

DIY: Meal in a Jar

Beans in a Jar

Beans...you either love them or you don't! In this house most of us like beans,my granddaughter calls them jelly beans! The store that we shop at has lots of bags of beans to choose from but, they are all just one type of bean. I love the flavor of 7 bean (or more) soup and all the different bean textures.I want a flavorful pot of beans cooking! The first two jars pictured I used a total of 3 cups of beans. I just layered them in there because it looks nice. The last jar I used 2 cups of beans and added in some dried noodles. Now I won't have to climb up into the top of the cupboard and haul down all the bags of beans I can just grab a jar of pre-mixed beans for chili,soup or just a pot of beans.

DIY: Wind Chime

This project was a lot of fun and only took a few hours to put together. I love wind chimes and the sounds they make. They can be kind of expensive (at least more than I want to pay), so I made my own.

This one is made from an old pulley wheel and some metal tools. I wanted to make it  more colorful, so I added some wire wrapped stones for the hangers and then attached the tools with fishing line.

DIY :Beaded Lamp Shade

This fun DIY Lamp Shade was so much fun and went together fast and I like that!! The lamp has an aged based that I like, but the shade needed to be given new life! I have always wanted to do it in beads but lets face it, that could be time consuming to string beads for the shade. Lucky for me I had two beaded hanging curtains tucked away in a corner of the closet. I have thought about getting rid of them a few times, but couldn't do it! 

This was the lampshade before hand. It was just a paper one that I painted and put lace over. Then decided that I didn't like it turned out! So it was time for a make-over! I stripped the paper from the frame to discover that it was two floating circles held together by the paper, so I just used the top ring of the old lamp shade. I used a glue gun to make this project go by super quick but discovered that while the glue does stick to the metal it didn't want to stick on until it was dry and that was going to take to long.So, I glued white bias tape around it first and then glued the beads to that. It actually looks more finished that way!

The left over beads will go into the craft box for later projects and I ended up cutting two beaded curtains  to have enough to give full coverage, so I now have two cute beaded valances left instead of the full beaded curtains!

Happy Crafting!!!

DIY: Jean Skirt

This was a super fun project and only took about an hour.I was inspired by a longer one I saw on Pinterest. Here is how I did mine.

I took an old pair of shorty shorts and cut the crotch off.Then I cut a rectangle out of some scrap fabric. To figure out the length I put the shorts on and measured it that way. For the width I measured my waste line and then just added on a few extra inches for gathering. Once I had the length where I wanted it, I put the bottom hem in. Next I ran three lines of stitches (loosely by hand) to gather the top part of the fabric where it will connect with the skirt. I loosely gathered the fabric before I started pinning it to the shorts. Once I was happy with how it looked I sewed on with the sewing machine.
Happy Crafting!

Up-cycling: Shirts Into Skirts

I have really gotten on board with recycling and reusing items in creative ways. My daughter and I are always looking for ways to re-use clothing before passing it on. Giving new life to old clothes can be really fun and a money saver. I mean who can really afford to buy a new wardrobe every season!
Instead I took a look at some tops I had from the last two summers and some hand-me-downs and made a few really cute butt covers to go over leggings.

Here is a look at the first set of butt covers I made. Both of these are just tank tops that I cut the top portion off of. I added a small casing and elastic, so they stay in place.

The white butt cover is actually and old shirt that had stains on the top portion. The fabric was nice and stretchy and gives a perfect snug fit. The pink lace is actually a cheap camisole that I had bought at a Dollar Store. I just made casings for the waste band on these, they fit perfect without elastic.

The top burgundy butt cover I made out of a piece of fabric my boyfriend found at a second hand store and the bottom shades of green on is actually some of my youngest sons shirts (size 5 toddler) that I cut into strips to make this cute little maxi skirt. I just used the hem of the bottom part of one of the shirts so I didn't need to hem it and I left the waste alone.

Hope these inspire you to up-cycle some of your own clothes!

Happy crafting!!!

DIY!: Lemon grass All Purpose Healing Salve

This is a great salve for eczema, diaper rash and itchy skin! When I first posted this I said it was great for dry winter skin but, it actually dried out my hands a bit. Not such a good thing for me when I wash my hands a lot.
It is great on all kinds of rashes and bug bites!
It does go on greasy but, doesn't stay that way for long.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup lemon balm infused olive oil
1/2 cup lavender infused coconut oil
4 vitamin e capsules
4 tablespoons beeswax
lemon grass essential oil
tea tree essential oil

2 four ounce jars to put finished product in.

Directions:

Combine oils and beeswax in a double boiler melt over medium heat until all the beeswax melts in nice and smooth. Remove from heat and pour into containers.
To each container add 10 drops of lemon grass essential oil, 6 drops of tea tree oil,and the vitamin e oil.I take and poke a small hole in the end of the vitamin e capsules and then just squeeze out the insides.
I always set the lids on the jars while they cool to keep all the essential oil vapors in while it cools and then tighten them when cool.

DIY:Soft Cinnamon Raisin bagels (Bread Machine)

Having a bread machine has really been a blessing. Not only am I making all our bread but I am  also making all our bread products. I loved the way these bagels turned out,so I thought I would share the recipe.

Soft Cinnamon Raisin Bagels

Ingredients:
2 1/2 tsp rapid rise yeast or bread machine yeast
2 1/2 cups white flour
1/2 cup wheat flour
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups lukewarm water
1/2 cup pre-soaked raisins  ( I just soak them in hot water for 10 min, then drain)

Egg wash
1 egg
1 tablespoon water

Directions:
Place ingredients into bread machine in the order that is recommended by your bread machine. Select the dough setting. Add raisins in before end of last kneading cycle (my machine beeps when ts time). When done remove dough from machine and place on a floured surface.
Divide into 8 equal balls, then use your thumb to make the center of bagel and stretch into a bagel shape. This batch doesn't have holes in the center, because my boyfriend doesn't like to lose butter in the hole!

Let rise on a baking sheet sprinkled with corn meal so they don't stick. It takes about an hour or so for mine to rise up big and fluffy.

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees
Make up egg wash and brush the bagels with it or you can use a little vegetable spray.
Let bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes or until golden brown.

For What Ails You: Ear Ache Oil

For the last few weeks we have had illnesses running rampant in this house.It started with the stomach flu hitting the kiddos followed by days of high fevers, body aches and now an ear ache for me! I always reach for the essential oils first and they have always been very effective. So, I thought I would share a recipe for  ear ache oil.

Ear Ache Oil

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon lavender infused oil

5 drops tea tree essential oil

Directions:

Add 5 drops of  tea tree essential oil to one tablespoon of lavender infused oil and mix.

Apply oil behind ear and down the side of the neck. Place a drop of it in your ear and put a cotton ball in your ear, being careful not to put it in there too far. I  put mine just inside my ear to keep in the vapors. 

If you don't have infused lavender oil you can use 1 tablespoon of a carrier oil and 5 drops of lavender essential oil.

This is by no means medical advice, it is just a good natural remedy. Always do your research on essential oils before using them and consult a doctor to make sure this method is right for you!