I promised myself that for the sake of my kids, this year I would NOT forget to water my plants. In fact, I have ordered my Non-GMO organic seeds, to start growing some things, if anything for the sake of my daughter-in the name of teaching her a bit about science.
These are seed starters! Cool, right? Thanks to the blog, 365 of DIY, you can make your own seed starters using paper pulp! So start saving all your junk mail.
What can I say about Vicks. I feel like I shouuld write a love letter. You know, if there’s one thing that defines being latina in the tri state area, it’s Vicks when you’re sick.
I remember many a night, being slathered with Vicks Vapo Rub. As a matter of fact, growing up, I always thought the correct pronunciation of the name was “Vic Vahpo Roob”. This is of course because my mother would pronounce the name in spanish.
And now, I digress. Pinterest has led me to one a many fun finds. One of which, is this very awesome recipe for making your own Vicks Vabo Rub. AWESOME!
So, thanks to CrunchyBetty, you can discover how to make your own vicks, without having to buy any, and therefore wasting the container that you can’t do anything else with because it reeks of menthol (unless you save it to store your homemade vicks).
So click here to get the recipe.
And that’s all for now. One curious thing I found is that my little newborn seems to be less fussy when I replaced the milk in my cereal with Almond Milk. And meat, of course. I had gone vegetarian, then during the pregnancy I had a bit of anemia, so I went back to my evil meat eating ways. But I’ve been going back to my vegetarian ways. I’ve always told people it’s easy for me to be a vegetarian since I don’t like fish or the smell of bacon. Weird, I know. Most vegetarians I know tell me they love the smell. Personally, I can’t stand it. It smells awful and gets in your clothing.
The only meat I don’t mind eating is poultry and frankly even that is grossing me out now. So, I won’t eat it. As much. I don’t believe in putting rules and regulations on yourself (being the true sagitarius that I am).
Anyway, ta for now.
If there’s one thing about me, it’s that I am a sucker for a good journal. I really am. I love literary journals (where I write my thoughts and poems) and art journals, where I can sketch and draw and such.
Since I just had the baby, and it’s been quite frigid lately, it has left me home, with no way to get to the art supply store, to buy a new moleskin notebook. And I like to start the new year with a new journal. It’s just a thing about me, I guess.
Anyhow, while browsing Pinterest, I found a very cool art journal that a woman made from grocery paper bags. Now, the problem I encountered is that my supermarket does not give out paper bags, and I usually bring my own bags (or I take the plastic ones, because I recycle them for other things).
So in my DIRE need for a new journal, I decided to make one. Here’s what I came up with, since I don’t have blank paper to bind it with.
Inside, the pages are from a vintage children’s music book. It’s an educational book that was used in schools and such. I figured, I can just gesso the pages (or rather, use the poor man’s gesso, which is just white paint. Or, if you’re REALLY broke, use that left over white house paint).
The over has a little collage of magazine clippings, which my daughter made me. I love it so much, I put it on the cover! Oh, and for the cover, I used a Ritz Cracker box in place of chipboard, which I cannot find. I could in theory, since I do know where it is, but eh. With two children, I do not feel like spending the little time that they nap, on locating my chipboard. So I recycled, instead.
Then, I used some pretty paper by Crate Paper, and tissue tape by Tim Holtz.
What do you think, you like it? You can totally make this. It’s EASY! Just learn to do a good and simple book binding. You can learn on Booklyn’s website. Then, save your cereal box, or cracker box, or any sort of packaging that is made of chipboard.
It’s easy! Find some cool paper to bind. Maybe some newspaper? Or maybe you’re lucky enough to have paper grocery bags? Whatever, man. Bind it with whatever.
I’m a mom of two kids-a newborn and a four year old. This of course, means a lot of broken crayons. Now, when I was a kid, I actually liked broken crayons. In my toddler brain, I thought that breaking them made more of them. Silly really, but such is the mind of a child.
Anyway, my daughter Dakota does NOT like broken crayons. Once they are broken, she is just totally not interested at all. That of course, leaves me with a LOT of broken crayon pieces.
Now, thanks to Sew Totally Smitten, I have been inspired to make my own crayons with Dakota’s broken crayon pieces!
Being a mom often means having a refrigerator full of artwork that doesn’t make much sense to you, but does to your tiny little person. With that, it also means crayons, playdough and markers.
Markers, much to my four year old’s dismay, do dry up. The one thing I hate is throwing markers away. Mostly I hate it, because I know I will HAVE to buy more, and throw away more, which I hate. I really detest wastefulness.
Fortunately, the writer of the blog, “Finding my Marbles” has found a very cool way to combat this!
CLICK HERE to find out how she re-fills her markers!
So being pregnant, while wonderfully fabulous, does do a number on your body. With my daughter Dakota, I had HORRIBLE acne.
This time, I have no acne issues. What I do get, is a bit of flakiness on my face. It’s really annoying. So I made a scrub, to exfoliate, and get the blood flowing, and such.
Granted, it doesn’t look that appetizing. But it works, I tell you.
For this, I just mixed a bit of used coffee grinds, with some sugar & oatmeal, and that was that. If you want to, you can add a bit of witch hazel. But I just added a drop or two of coffee. I like to recycle, so I used a recycled jar to put my grinds in.
How much, you ask?
Hmmmm. I normally eye-ball it, since that’s also how I cook. I’d say equal parts of all three, until you get the consistency you like. Sugar softens skin, oatmeal helps clarify, and coffee takes out the toxins. So that’s how I came up with this mixture. You can add a scent if you like. I didn’t tho.
There are a LOT of things you can do with things you have at home, to make scrubs and such things.
For example if you’ve got some acne, and don’t want to buy expensive acne medicine, just dab some honey on the problem area. Toothpaste doesn’t work. It never did for me, anyway. A few days of honey will dry up that acne nicely tho.
Another good thing is avocado & olive oil for the hair. That works nicely. Just blend some avocado with a bit of olive oil, and apply to the hair. Put on a shower cap, and take a nice hot shower, then rinse it out of your hair with cooler water.
Another natural exfoliant is Pineapple. It’s so delicious, but it’s also a good exfoliant. Honestly, just slice off a small piece, and scrub it on your skin when taking a shower or whatever.
My experience with holistic skin care is garbage in, garbage out. So eat healthy, stay away from too much sugar, and drink lots of water, and you’ve got no worries. Your skin will look better. So also, try to adapt a healthier lifestyle. This of course, may be difficult for you, but at least try to keep the sweets to a minimum.
That’s my opinion, anyway.
Recently, I took some hand bound books I made, and decided that they needed a little kick. So I remembered that I had bought some vintage children’s books on ebay. I saved them, because I honestly feel bad about ripping books apart, but these books were kinda falling apart anyway, so I here’s what I ended up with:
Notice what I did? I went over it with the Dazzler’s glitter by Art Institute Glitter. I think it gives it a nice kick.
I’m keeping this short today. Lots to do.
I am knitting up a storm, because it’s very relaxing. I am hoping that the income tax return fairy is very generous to me this year, so that I’ll be able to purchase a spinning wheel. Oh my goodness, I have wanted one for YEARS.
I want that, a bread machine, and a pasta maker. Yes, I really do. I want to make my own bread, and I do, but it does take a bit of time. At least with a bread machine, I can always make my own sandwich bread quickly. And a pasta maker, because I LOVE fresh pasta. I love pasta, just in general.
I have a friend on FB that I met through ravelry, years ago, and even then I wanted a spinning wheel. YEARS, I tell you! I deserve it, don’t you think?
My birthday is coming up! And Xmas! In the same month! I asked my husband for yarn for my birthday. It’s actually come to that. Wow. I asked for that, and a date. Simple.
Not sure what I want for Xmas, though. Got any gadgets you recommend?
Anyway, that’s that.
Recently I had shown you a set of journals that I had made. Well, today, I decided to play around with them a bit more, and get a little more crafty with them. So I remade one of them. I hope you like it.
Well, so there it is. Do you like it? The flowers are crocheted, of course. I used Fantasy film and Fantasy fiber, by Art Institute Glitter, and some little cabochons in the middle there, of the flowers.
I LOVE that fantasy film! It’s so cool! This time, I crinkled it up, and THEN I ironed it (in between two pieces of parchment paper).
And of course, the fantasy fiber. I used a forest green shade of film, and glued it over some pink paper, and actually it looks really cool. Then, I added fantasy fiber, that was in a clear(ish) blue shade.
Then, I added that tissue tape, by Tim Holtz and the crocheted flowers by me. And the Cabochons. Now, this journal is ready to be used!
I just finished making this set of two handbound recycled journals.
Inside the book, I alternated blank recycled paper, and pages from a vintage french dictionary.
I used my bind it all machine to make holes, and then used a japanese stab binding, with that fancy twine, that’s used in bakeries and such.
You like it? It’s a fun Halloween theme, don’t you think? I mean, the skulls and all that. Oh, and I used a cereal box for the front and back covers. Cool, eh?
So….not much to say today. It’s monday. Gimme time to think of something first.
So, I’m in a swap. This one should be fun. It’s an art journal swap. I love art journaling. I took a plain sketchbook, and altered the cover. Here’s what I came up with:
You like it?
Here’s a close up.
Anyway, the fiber there is of course, by Art Institute Glitter.
The images are by Alpha stamps. I went on a rampage a while back and ordered a whole bunch, these are the last few.
What else?
I don’t celebrate Columbus day, in case you wanted to know.
I’m going to buy yarn this week, oh joy I am so excited. Smiley’s is having a HUGE sale, and their sales are usually AMAzing. $10 a bag, usually!
I don’t have too much to say today, except that I started my new job, as a teaching artist for an afterschool program (for middle school and high school students). I really like it a lot.
It’s so different working with teenagers, than working with adults. For one thing, children are so much less grumpy! The other thing is…I dunno, I guess I really enjoy working with teens. It’s fun. Admittedly, we both are shy, but art and creativity has a way of opening people up, from across cultures.
I love it. It’s so much fun, coming up with projects every week, and thinking of new fun things to teach these kids.
