Belated April Showers

For the April Showers theme, I decided to make soap. I've been making my own for a few years now and it is really not that complicated.

I used the Chocolate Soap recipe from Majestic Mountain Sage. I melted the fats on the stove in a regular cooking pot, since they were ordinary cooking ingredients.
Next, I added the cocoa & chocolate.I added the lye to the water next. I used two cut-out plastic pop bottles & stabilized them in cut out milk cartons. The plastic did, in fact, warp from the heat & the cartons kept them from spilling over & creating a toxic mess.
I poured the hot oils & hot lye mixture into the mixing tub (used only for craft purposes) and blended with an immersion blender to trace.
I poured the mixture into more half-cut milk cartons to solidify. A few days later, I peeled them away, cut the soap into bars, and wrapped them in wax paper to cure. In a few more weeks (after the bars cure) I'll smell like candy as I get clean!

wanted to share

I know this doesnt have anything to do with this month's challenge, but i wanted to share! lol I hope you dont mind! So i have been on a kick in the kitchen. Last week I wanted to make almond milk  because for one, we had almonds and NO ONE was eating them! Plus I really do like the taste of alternative milks. So i made that and it came out great! I loved it! I made shakes with it and it made them think and gave it a bit different of a taste (in a good way of course! lol) Well this week, I said I want to try coconut milk! so my hubby got me some coconuts and I made coconut milk! I got 5 cups of milk and 2 cups of flour out of one coconut! I am right now making coconut flour cookies and the kids are enjoying the milk! lol I have one more coconut so when i make that one up i'll take some pics this time! Thank you for letting me share! be blessed!

MAYbe you need a little light!

May’s project is all about bringing light in or working with light in some way. It can be something with natural light like a window hanging or widow treatment. Or using electricity like creating a new lampshade, reading area or awesome summer space outside with Christmas lights, one of my all time favorite accents! It’s all about brightening up your little world!

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).