Home at Last

Well we have been home for several days and it feels like yesterday. I really can't believe how time flies. If you check out my ART blog you will see some of my fun old book finds and what I plan to do with them.

One of the first things I did when I got home was make some more body cream. The last cream I made was a face cream but this time I wanted to add some Coconut oil (shouldn't use that on your face) to see how it would work. So I played around with my recipe and got to work. This one is really moisturizing but too thick. I think I'll try it again using less if no Stearic Acid.

It has a nice light scent of coconut but it doesn't linger after you put it on. If you want the recipe, leave a comment with your e-mail and I'll send it to you.

I had someone ask me about all my supplies... well they do tend to grow like any hobby that you start to get into. The little purple bag holds most of my essential oils. Here are the essentials that you need to make your own lotions and creams.

• Scale
• Whisk or stick blender
• Pyrex measuring cups (I use a 4 cup and a 1 cup)
• Containers
• Spring water or distilled water
• Oils (various...could be grape seed, olive, caster, sweet almond, jojoba, coconut, sunflower, cocoa butter or more exotic like mango butter or Shea oil.
• Emulsifying Wax (this is to help your water and oil blend together and not separate)
• Preservative (I use a paraben free one that you can get at www.thesage.com)

I'm sure that most of you have some of these ingredients already. If you don't want a preservative in your lotion then you will need to either keep it refrigerated or use it within 2 to 3 months. The Sage blog has all kinds of recipes and shows steps in making your own lotion so check it out.

I did play with making some charms this week. I had to finish up a set for the Springtime in Paris swap (forgot to take pictures) and now I'm working on Nest charms for another group. These are fun but I have to make a total of 18 of them - only 9 more to go.

Next up is a button swap hosted by Cindy Wimmer over at Sweet Bead Studio (see button on the right top). I have a growing collection of buttons and thought it might be fun to do a little blog hop swap. I also found some really cool old metal buttons while at the antique store shopping yesterday. I'll be sure to post my finished creation here at well as on my ART blog since I'm not sure if it will be art or jewelry... maybe a little of both?

Have a great Sunday.

New Design Opportunity

Had to post this exciting opportunity. Suburban Girl Studio's is looking for 4 more design team members, so I threw my name in the hat. Sometimes I need a jump start to designing and this would definitely push me to do more design work and not just hoard play with all my beads... lol. The first challenge would be to make something one of these wonderful flower pendants. I'm thinking an orange-turquoise mix with bronze chain or findings.

If you would like to throw you name in the hat, so to speak, jaunt on over to Suburban Girl Studio's blog and leave your witty comment. She will pick on Wednesday the 22nd.

Today I ventured out to the mall. Now if you know me, you know I don't just go to the mall to shop that often and especially not on a Friday. So I did have lunch with a friend today at Panera Bread and since I was there thought I would stroll around. Okay now I remember why I don't go to the mall on a Friday. Really does anyone work on Friday anymore? There were more people there then I have seen in a long time... not including Christmas season. I decided I needed to replace my mixer and have been stumped as to what type of mixer to buy or to get one of those immersion blenders. I can not believe the cr@p I saw for mixers. Cheap, cheap, cheap plastic and if it wasn't the cheap plastic 3 speed then it was the overpriced 7 speed. Really $70 for a hand mixer.

I've been using my hand mixer for blending my lotion blends and the last batch I found some of the metal plating chipped off in the lotion. I was able to pick it out but what if that had been in a cake mix or something... yuk. I'm thinking the immersion blender would be better for mixing the lotion but not for making mashed potatoes or cake mixes but have you seen those? Okay, same reaction to these as the hand mixers. I did find one that had all these handy dandy attachments but I don't think so for $99.

So, I'm in a quandary. What should I do, get a cheap version of both, or a more expensive mixer or immersion blender? What do you use and do you love it?

Lazy Sunday

Sunday's always tend to be lazy around our house... okay that is most days but especially true on the weekends as we don't like to get out and go shopping on Saturday or Sunday due to the traffic and amount of people in the stores. Don't get me wrong, I'm not phobic about crowds but it does get tiresome when you are trying to shop and there are long lines and impatient people. We just go during the week and it is much calmer. We will go to my mother's today (first time for DH to be out around people since surgery) for snacks and football, so that should be a welcome change for a little while. I'm sure most the country will be watching the game, now who is it that is playing again.... lol, can you tell I don't watch football... I just watch it for the commercials.

One of the projects I mentioned last post was my little bags for the kids in the oncology department at the local children's hospital. Well here is a picture of the first batch ready to be delivered.

They could be drawstring or snap close but not buttons as they were afraid the buttons would come off, so I did a mix of both. My kid theme fabric was sorely lacking but I think this is a good start. If you would like to donate little bags (mine are 4 x 5 and smaller) or material, please contact me. You would get a donation receipt for tax purposes. You can contact me via the e-mail me button on the left hand column or leave me a comment with your e-mail address and I'll contact you for specifics.

In getting back in the swing of things, I volunteered to host an art charm swap. This one has a Zentangle theme. Oh, what fun will these be. I have only done Zentangles on paper but wanted to try to do some on pieces of wood that I could make into a charm so I found these small "Z's". I'll drill a small hole at the top and insert an eye pin so that they can hang. I think I'll have to get more of these as they were really fun.

This is the front.

The back.

As you can tell I did the front and back as well as three of them around the edges. If you like Zentangles and want to find out more about them or how to make them, then visit www.zentangle.com. There are also a ton of books available that are a great inspiration.

I love making things, as if you couldn't tell that already, and for the holidays I made homemade hand lotion and cream. Well now I'm developing my own recipe (I used someone else's before). The first batch didn't turn out quite the way I wanted and felt a little gritty in the liquid state but was fine after you rubbed it in but I still didn't like that feeling. The second batch turned out much better with just a few modifications and additions. I did try to fix the first batch this morning, hopefully the gritty feeling will be gone once it cools.

Second batch, cooled lotion.

I also made some cuticle cream and have a recipe that I love. I added a touch of lemon and lavender essential oils and it smells really good. It would also be good on rough scaly heels and feet.

All of the lotions I'm making have a paraben free preservative, so I feel much better about using them and giving them as gifts. DH asked me last night if I was doing this as a hobby or if I intended on selling them and I'm still asking myself that question but my first answer is that I want this as a hobby to use the products for myself and give as gifts. If those friends and family start coming back to me for more between gift giving then I might consider taking money to help offset the cost of materials, but right now I'm having too much fun playing.