Ready for May!

On the last day of April, I finished my project for the month - starting seeds and digging a flower bed!

We moved over the winter, and I had to leave all my plantings behind.  The previous owner of this house did not like yard work, and had zero landscaping.  Not a plant, flower, tree or shrub, not a vine or a dandelion popping up in the yard.  Time for that to change!

I've never started plants inside before, so it's just one seed starter tray from Burpee plus the seeds for a few things I know we like.  We have 2 kinds of cukes, tomatoes, bell peppers, basil, zinnias and marigolds.   About half of the seeds have germinated...

(when you run out of row markers you can totally use plastic forks.  I suppose I could have whittled more or something, but whatevs :D) 

I bought some more "direct sow" seeds, and will collect some perennial plants as the season goes on.

And the front yard went from this:

To this:

Yes, shocking difference.  But that was 3 hours of work!  I laid out the hose into the shape I wanted, and Bob (husband) cut the shape with a shovel.  Then we (he) dug out the sod and rototilled.  The soil actually looks great, so with the addition of some peat moss and manure I think we're in business!

Superb Herbs

It was a busy month so I kinda slacked a bit...I needed to redo a little corner garden but our pool. It is hard to grow things in this hot climate. I have tried planting things in the soil which is sand but it is super important to water everyday day and I can hardly remember to feed my dog!

So I have just a few herbs and an old tomato plant that just wont die! There is basil, thyme, rosemary, parsley, garlic chives and hardy cilantro. I do love cooking with fresh herbs! I showed Vivy (my almost 2 yr old) how to pick, smell and eat the basil and she has eaten quite a bit so far... Got to be good for her...right?

The "Squishy Chick" Easter Centerpiece

I totally lamed out this month and will be posting a toddler-hand-crafted candy centerpiece for Easter. I guess you could really use it all spring/summer if you wanted, though...

This was actually a pretty fun craft--I thought about making the Peeps wreath, but that's a little too much (Peeps gross me out). This was just right! The boys painted the dowels green and I hot glued the dowel into the embroidery hoop. Then "we" hot glued the Peeps (Elliott calls them "squishy chicks") around the hoop. I think I might use the extra Peeps on the backside of the hoop so that you can't actually see the hoop in the back. We ran out of glue last night... Stuck the dowel in some flower foam that was glued (Elmer's this time) into the Dollar Spot ceramic pot and stuck some easter grass around the edges to keep it from shifting. Then we added some more glue and easter grass and viola!

We're going to bring the pink one to my sister's for Easter and see if her uptight husband will put such a creation on his table. Should be entertaining! :)

Homemade Sugar Scrub

One item I love to use to pamper my skin (especially in the winter months) is an exfoliating, moisturizing sugar scrub. I recently stumbled upon a recipe to make your own and was intrigued. There are a lot of different tutorials out there, and I searched around until I found one that I would be able to make with items currently found in my pantry.

So here's the list of ingredients I used:

1. Brown Sugar (1/2 cup)
   
2. Extra Virgin Olive Oil (1/4 cup)
   
3. Vanilla Extract (1 tsp) - this is optional and was added solely for the scent
   

That's it. The store-bought scrub that I had been using had a list of over 25 ingredients - most of them I can't spell or even pronounce.

Once I had the recipe set my next challenge was finding the right container to store it all in. I didn't want to use anything glass because I could easily see myself dropping it in the shower. I found a jar of chicken bouillon cubes in the cupboard and thought that would be perfect. It was the right size, plastic, screw on lid, and best of all - free. In fact the only problem was it smelled like chicken. I filled it with a bleach mixture and left it over night, I ran it through the dishwasher twice, I put baking soda in it with crumpled up newspaper and let it sit for a few days. Nothing I tried worked, the lingering chicken aroma would not be defeated. So I gave up. I know when I'm beat.

Once two suitable non-poultry scented containers were located we were ready to go (my sister was visiting and wanted to try it as well). We used a fork to mix everything together right in the containers - quick and easy.

(the jar on the left originally held gum)

And here's a peek on the inside.

It might not be the prettiest thing, but it smelled amazing. I did end up draining the oil off of the top a couple of times as more of it rose to the surface.

I used it today for the first time and immediately after getting out of the shower I wasn't sure about it - my skin felt a little too waxy. However 15 minutes later I changed my mind. My skin is really soft and smooth - even now several hours after. I honestly think I like it better than the store-bought scrub (my sister also gave it her stamp of approval).

The next time I make this I'll use half brown sugar and half white. The brown sugar worked well, but I personally think I would like it a little bit coarser - which is where the white sugar would come in to play.

And as far as the oil is concerned, I'd recommend starting out with two tablespoons and then adding more if needed. I did end up draining quite a bit out of mine. Oh, and just a warning, it will probably make your shower slippery - so be careful!

So that's it - quick, easy, and yummy smelling. It took way longer for me to type this up than to actually make it (I talk a lot though, and type like I talk, so it's totally my own fault).

Citrus Soap for the Shower (say that 3 times fast!)

I would love to say I thought of this on my own, but I found the idea on my Martha Stewart craft-of-the-day emails. I thought this soap looked so cute, so I read her instructions, and it seemed way too easy. I had to try it. So Martha said all that you have to do is grind up citrus rinds or fruit and add it to clear glycerin. Let it set, and then you have soap. Off to Michael's craft store I went. They had a lot of soap bases to choose from. I saw a clear glycerin, which is what Martha used, but that package was kind of yucky. There was an olive oil one, an avocado soap (sounded neat), a few others, and then a shea butter one. A woman at the market gave me some shea butter for my feet and my heels have never been happier, so I chose that one. It wasn't clear like the glycerin, it was white and milky, so I knew that the color of my soap wouldn't be quite as attractive as Martha's-but who can ever do anything as attractive as Martha? The soaps were $9.99 for a pretty big container. Always use a 40% off coupon if you can. If you don't know get the Michael's emails every week with a coupon, you NEED to sign up. When you sign up in the store, you instantly get 40% off of your most expensive item (that is not already on sale). AND-if you forget a coupon, just sign up again-they don't check into it. I'll admit I have about 5 email addresses that subscribe to the Michael's newsletter right now.

Anyway, all I did was grind up the citrus rinds in a blender. This part did confuse me a little, because in her directions, she said to blend them into a puree...she didn't mention anything about adding juice to it. I have a Vita Mix and that thing didn't make puree for me. It was more of a paste-like zest. I just went with it. Hey, it was my first try. The little bottle in the picture is some lemongrass-scented essential oil that I had left over from a trip to the spa-that was my back-up plan in case the zests didn't work out. Michael's has tons of frangrances to choose from, too.

After melting the soap in a glass measuring cup, I poured them into some silicone molds that I had. You don't have to use these. You can use an old yogurt cup or a juice container or something too. Or you can just use a large pan and cut the soap into bars once it sets. You don't have to spray the silicone molds with vegetable spray, but be sure to give any other mold a good coat of it. I started out with just using the zest, but the smell of the shea butter took over and you couldn't smell citrus. So I added a bunch more. Bad choice. The zest clumped together and created weak spots in the soap. I scrapped the first few and went to the back up plan. I added a bit of essential oil (you don't need a lot of that stuff, it is super concentrated) and then just a small sprinkling of zest for color. It only took about 20 minutes for the soaps to set up. I put them in the freezer for a little while to help loosen them from the tins. If you want to be fancy, you can spray rubbing alcohol over them once you pour them in to eliminate any bubbles. If I make them again, I will probably do that step.

And here they are! The picture shows about 1/2 of the total amount of soap that was made from one package of shea butter soap. They would make cute gifts, or maybe wedding or baby shower favors. I don't really have any of those events coming up though, so I'm stuck with all of this soap. I did have fun making it though! I love random projects. We will have enough soap for every "April shower"!

Late to the Green Party

Hello fabulous Project Craftastic contributors,

Sorry I'm late to the March Green party.

It's been a crazy spring here in Sunset Bay. There were two ice jam floods that evacuated the community, and many people had flood damage and lost a lot of property. One family, the Martins, lost their home to a fire during the first flood. It was a tragedy for them.

I had no way to help them other than financially, so I wrote a coffee table book, with the proceeds going to benefit the Martins as they rebuild their lives after the fire. It's available for purchase. Feel free to take a look here. http://www.blurb.com/books/2081211

Hope to raise lots of "green" for the Martins!

April Challenge - April Showers

We're taking April showers seriously here in upstate NY today!  Hopefully by the end of the month we will have had some of the warmer days and gentle showers that bring May flowers.

Until then, let's do some April crafts!

An "April showers" themed project could be anything from sewing a new shower curtain to starting flowers to planning a bridal or baby shower to spring-cleaning your works in progress.

Use the medium of your choice and post your creations here.  Happy crafting!