Every cloud waters a flower

I've been feeling down this week.
Really down.
Just sort of tired and moody and blue. I don't really want to do anything except moon around the house.
So I thought I needed a little cheering up...and maybe something to look forward to.
So I got flower seeds! :)

I am pretty broke...but these were pretty cheap at the dollar store and so I decided to give them a shot. A flower is a flower in my world. Right now, just looking at the little packets makes me smile. Unfortunately I only have one free flower pot right now, so I had to choose. It was tough! In the end, the snapdragons won out. Let's face it, any flower that you can make bite you is pretty awesome. :)

I planted them in the little pot, now I just have to wait until I start seeing some life!

Just a little burn

So, yesterday the pot I use to boil water for tea in decided it hated me. So, since it lacks the verbal capacity to communicate its dislike, it just decided to heat up its handle to scalding temperatures, wounding my unwary flesh when I went to grab it.

Dramatic retelling aside, I burnt my hand yesterday. And--for some unknown reason--I do not own an aloe plant or even a bottle of aloe gel. So, with the advice of my cupcake-obsessed friend Julie and some internet scouring, I came up with this:

1 tablespoon honey
1/2 teaspoon (or therabouts) of vitamin e oil
A few drops of peppermint essential oil

I know! Sounds sticky.
After cooling my hand in water for some time, I put my concoction on the burnt parts and wrapped my hand up in a rag. I left it all day, and reapplied at night before bed. Today my hand feels great, even though there are still very obvious marks from the burn.
While I don't reccommend this for an all-over sunburn (since slathering oneself in honey sounds like some silly college prank), it worked really nicely for a small contact burn.
Hopefully this will come in handy for someone else someday :)

The little things

I just got finished the academic part of my teacher's college career and have a little bit of time on my hands for a change! It's also spring time, and the melting snow and daffodils I have in my window are making me feel a little bit brighter than I have in a while. Lately I have just been appreciating the little things in my world...the bright colours, delightful smells, appealing textures that surround me and make me get that warm glowy feeling.
Probably from this I finally decided to tackle the task of making cushion covers for my plushy but somewhat atrocious couch cushions. This is only the second time I have attempted to do anything quilted, and I think that I did pretty well...overall, the look of my cushions just makes me smile now :)

I made one for the second cushion after I realized how much I adored the first one...Now I love them both. The back is overlapped material like a pillow sham with buttons to close...

I think they just look glorious, sitting on the couch together like that...and of course they just look marvelous with the crocheted throw Julie made me!

Another thing that made me smile lately was the success of my ginger snap cookies--the first time I have ever made them!

Don't they just look marvelous?! And the whole house smelled wonderful when they were baking. They even tasted great! It was definitely the best success I have ever had with baking. I think even Martha would be jealous of my amazing cookies. The recipe was from here, if you're interested in making some of your own!

Today I also made sugar cookies. These didn't turn out near as well...they're sort of odd looking, but they taste great and that's really all that matters. I was impressed with how my royal icing turned out, though!

Hopefully I'll have some more adventures in making things before I have to go back to being busy all the time...

Bags, bath bombs, hats...oh fun!

Over the holidays, I got down and dirty with the crafting stuff. I even made myself a whole new batch of deodorant and shared it with my family (although my mom insisted she didn't need deodorant because she doesn't normally wear it...I think she's just suspicious of my natural stuff).
The first thing I did, actually before the holidays, was crochet my first hat! It's not the best hat in the whole world, but I am pretty pleased with it. I'm currently in the process of making one for my mom now, although I am playing with a different texture.

Once I was all done my placement (which went well!) I set to work finally sewing together the tote bag I have been prepping to make slowly. I don't have an actual school bag and thought that making one would mean I get everything I want, for a fraction of the cost. All of my fabrics were on special, so the bag probably cost less than $10 total to make (including EVERYTHING). I was pretty pleased with the final product.

That said, I will NEVER make a bag like this again. Perhaps similar in appearance, but I would never go through the same process to make it that I did this time. It caused a lot of complications and made things more difficult than they needed to be.

 Gathering supplies for the bag and cutting out parts...

Measuring for the pocket that I didn't make big enough anyway.

This is the inside of the bag.The pink patch is actually a large pocket for smaller books.

There's also a pen-holder pocket (the blue patch under the pink)

This is the front of the bag. There's the large purple pocket and the small blue.

A view of the pocket flap. It now has a snap to keep it shut.

Ready for the finished product?!

You can see my crocheted hat in the last picture...the yellow blob with the purple flower. It looks huge, but it actually fits over my monstrous hair. The bag is also larger than it seems to look in the pictures. It'll be a good schoolbag, and when I am all done school, it will make the most wonderful yarn bag!

I also made some delicious smelling bath bombs! I think they smell like orange creamsicle, but others thought they smelled a little different. The general concensus was it was a good stench, not a displeasing one.

To mold them, I just used a silicon ice cube tray that I got from the Goodwill for $0.50. I also used a silicone mini-cupcake pan and mini-cupcake wrappers, but they didn't turn out as pretty as the hearts did.

The recipe was really easy:

1 C baking soda

1/2 C Citric Acid

1/2 C Cornstarch

2 1/2 tbsp sweet almond oil

3/4 tbsp water

1/4- 1 tsp of essential oil

molds

squirt bottle with water (or witch hazel if desired)

Mix the dry ingredients together first, making sure they are well mixed. In a seperate bowl or container (a clean jar with lid is best), blend the wet ingredients (if in a jar, you can shake it!). Combine the two carefully, mixing with your hands. The citric acid will fizz a little bit. If it is too dry to shape, spritz lightly with water until it is damp enough. Don't pour water directly in or it with trigger the fizzing reaction with the citric acid and your bombs won't go "boom" in the tub. Pack into the molds of choice. Once packed, leave for a couple hours. Once they have dried out a bit, remove from the molds and wrap in an old clean towel or tissue and store for about a week to make sure they are completely dried out. After that, spread the love!

The recipe actually makes a LOT of small bath bombs. If you need help finding citric acid, let me know.

I haven't tried these out yet, but I am hoping to soon!

I would love to source my recipe, but I can't seem to find the link anymore! I adapted it a little bit, but there are similar recipes on Cut Out & Keep if you want to check them out (see the link at the right hand side of the page). I will post the site as soon as I can track it down again.

Happy making stuff!

Getting some crafty urges

So right now I really ought to be doing some work. I am on teaching practicum and really...I should be prepping for my lesson tomorrow and planning the rest of my lessons for next week. I just can't be bothered with it all right now, though, and every good procrastinator knows that you should never do now what you can put off until later.

So instead of doing what I ought, I am excitedly browsing the genius over at http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/ for amazing crafty/eco/just plain awesome ideas. The problem with this is, of course, that now I want to run out and do something crafty--which I have neither time nor money for right now!

Recently I made lip balm from scratch. I played with the recipe located here, but I tried using extracts instead of oils. I don't recommend this to anyone--the extract doesn't mix with the wax and oil and instead sits in a big fat bubble in one part of the balm. That said, other than my little indescreptancy, the balm worked out pretty well! I used almond oil for this one, but you could easily supplement another oil in its place.

One of the beeswax lipbalms I made. I just put it in an old, cleaned out container. My sister loves it.

A lot of the recipes I have found for lip balms have called for petroleum jelly. I realize what vaseline is and all, but does it not bother anyone else that you are putting something with the word "petroleum" in it right on your LIPS? I find that a little disturbing, myself. I stick to beeswax right now, although I am looking into some soy wax also.

In other news, I finally turned on heat in my room (I know, central Ontario, nearing the end of November, I know). I have been trying to avoid turning it on because I have only old baseboard heating in my apartment and I just know it is going to skyrocket my hydro bill once I turn it on. I also wanted to cover all my drafty old windows before I gave in to the cold. BUT, I came across a small oil-filled heater on sale at Canadian Tire and decided it might be worth the investment. Was it ever! I couldn't beleive how warm my room was, even for such a small heater, and it is supposed to be much more energy efficient (efficient in general) than the baseboard heating.

My little heater in my room! Isn't it cute?

Yes, the rest of my apartment is still unheated. (BUT I am the upstairs apartment, and we all know heat travels up. This probably explains why I don't have hypothermia yet.)

For All the "Smelly Hippies" Out There

I know I have one posted already, but I tried out a deodorant recipe that I thought sounded good. It ended up being FANTASTIC. It works as well as commercial brands so far (for me--and remember it's deodorant not antiperspirant) and it smells wonderful. (By the way, the "smelly hippie" thing isn't me being mean, I saw it on another blog and thought it was funny. Stereotypes of people who want to go eco amuse me sometimes. Just a little self-humour).

So here it is!
DIY All-Natural Deodorant
1. Mix together ¼ cup of cornstarch with ¼ cup of baking soda
2. Optional: add your choice of essential oils if you’d like your deodorant scented
3. Add 2 tbsp. of coconut oil and a few drops of skin-softening, vitamin E
4. Blend everything together until it form a silky mass
5. Pack the mix into an old deodorant stick casing
6. Get creative and create your own clever label to stick on the front of your homemade odor-eater
(found at http://planetgreen.discovery.com/food-health/diy-deodorant.html)

Yeah, you do need an old deodorant stick casing, so save a few. The batch I made probably could have filled four, but I only had two so I just put the rest in a little container to save. I also played around with it a little bit--I added a little bit more oil and corn starch, I believe...Just work with it until it hits a texture you like.
I used lime oil and the combination of the virgin coconut oil and the lime oil made a really nice smell, like lime-coconut pie or something!

TIP: DON'T store the deodorant on its side. Coconut oil grows soft very easily and the deodorant will sort of settle to one side if it is laying on its side. Unless you don't mind smooshing it back into place! The top also dries a little bit between uses--if you don't like the slighly rough feeling (it isn't that bad, honestly) then just scrape a teeny layer off before applying.

Hope you like, but if you do--go give some props to the person who came up with it :D

Toodles!

Back to school, back online

After weeks in internet hiatus (someone dropped the ball and the internet disappeared), I am so happy to be back online! Just in time for back to school...

Yep, it's that glorious time of year. The time of year you get to drive yourself thousands of dollars into debt for the pursuit of knowledge, nevermind the extra hundreds for the texts required. (It sounds like I am complaining, but I really do love school, hence the reason I am still in school after eons).

It's also the time of year that the subtle changes in the daylight become glaringly obvious, and the temperature returns to a state of relative normality, neither too cold nor too warm.

The dip in temperature made the crochet bug bite again--I am again enthralled with all the arm warmer patterns I discovered months ago.
The return to school also meant moving back to the city I just left a year ago, and I have been discovering all sorts of changes that have occurred in the past year or so. Including--to my excitement--an eco-dedicated store on the main street. It specializes in all sorts of things eco, from cleaning products to toys for children and stainless steel water bottles. And that was when it wasn't even fully stocked!! The grand opening is this Friday, the 18th. I am so excited!

In other news, my favourite person here in blogland has just announced she's having a baby! If you know Attic24, go give her some 'grats.

A few weeks ago there was the FanExpo here in Ontario, in Toronto. It was pretty awesome, but that'll be for another time (with pictures, let's hope!