Monday, June 30, 2008

Pin cushion jar

Yep, another pin cushion :)

Here are the things I got out to start with.

Cut out the batting, I cut it out in a circle so it would be smooth on top and found that I wanted it 'fluffy' so I added several layers, I found that the fabric piece I had out was too small, so this is a larger scrap.

I glued it to the lid, and then put it in the ring, gluing the edges down and then I cut a circle out to make it neater.

Here it is all finished, with the lid on. I did take it off so it will dry completely and not get stuck on the jar.











Monday, June 23, 2008

Homemade Marshmallows


Oh this was so fun, my daughter and I made our own marshmallows! We saw Alton Brown make them on Good Eats and just thought hey lets try. They taste good too! Here's the recipe.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Homemade Foot Scrub

Along the lines of making things at home, I thought I'd try making my own foot scrub. I looked up many on the web most of them have sugar or salt, something for the scrub part like corn meal, ground nuts, coffee grounds. Then an oil like olive or almond or many others oils.

The first one I made I wont share pictures because by the time I made it up it looked like mud. Coffee grounds, sugar and olive oil. It worked fine but I found it stained my white washcloths so I had to come up with something else.

This one is corn meal 1/4 cup, 1 tablespoon raw sugar and then enough almond oil(the body oil type from the health food store) to pull it together I would say about 2 teaspoons.




Here is what it looks like but wow does it smell yummy :) It's really nice, I like this one a lot.







Let me know if you try this and what you think?

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Patriotic Apron

This is an apron I made for the upcoming 4th of July.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Applique apron



Here is an apron made with my embroidery machine, Husqvarna Designer 1. I used a design from Embroidery library. I did watch the how to video they have on their site, it was very helpful.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Homemade hand soap

I'm sure that everyone has noticed the rising; gas, milk, egg prices etc....
So I have been thinking, where I can save some money?
I am going to price this out to compare:
a 12 pack of Ivory soap $2.47
glycerin 6oz $2.84
water

I only used 1 bar of soap 0.20
1 teaspoon(1/3 of an ounce) of glycerin 0.16
total cost 0.36 cents
for six cups of liquid hand soap.

I did not price hand soap a the store so here it is from the web

Soft soap refill 40oz $7.79 @ drugstore.com
$ 7.79 divide by 40oz is 0.19 cents an ounce

Our homemade soap made 6 cups so that is 6 times 8oz = 48 ozs
So 0.36 cents for 48oz divided by 48oz = 0.0075 per ounce so less that 1 cent an ounce
Not too bad.

Ok so here is where I got my recipe

You see my purchases.
I just used my kitchen grater, and then washed in the dishwasher and it was very clean :)
then I put one cup boiling water and the grated soap bar in my blender, blended then let rest... after 20minutes added the glycerin, then added water to fill up to the six cup mark.
I just poured it in a container for now. I did refill some of our soap pumps with it and it's working great, I will see how the family likes it over time.
Very simple and makes me feel good about saving some money around here.
Let me know if you try it out and what you think?

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day!!!

I wish all the Dad's out there Happy Father's Day today. My own father has gone on to be with his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and I miss his very much. My Dad was a wonderful man, and a great Dad.
Today I wish my wonderful husband Happy Father's Day! God has blessed me with a committed partner, a good Daddy to our children and I love him very much! We are blessed to have been married 24 years, it will be 25 this August!

Listen, my sons, to a father's instruction;
pay attention and gain understanding.
Proverbs 4:1

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Yeah!


Yes, I know I am funny. But I saw this insulated tumbler at Starbuck's about two weeks ago and really wanted it but thought ok do I really NEED this. So I came home and thought about it and decided I did NEED it :) A few days later went to buy it and it was sold out, I could not find one anywhere I looked, I even checked Starbucks online and no luck. Oh sure there was one on ebay but I am not going to pay $30.00 + 8.00 shipping for it. So I was whining and stuff, and my daughter was able to locate one for me YEAH! So here it is :) I know silly but cool cup huh?

Friday, June 13, 2008

I need pin cushions!!

So, all my pins end up on this pin cushion, that I picked up at JoAnn's. I think since it's always by my sewing machine and within easy reach is why it's the most used. What happens is I take out all the pins as I sew and then when I need to do my pinning I have none to pin with and this one has the little bag for scraps so I don't take it to the table to cut out fabric.... so I do need more pin cushions.

Here we go, just take an old tea cup.
I used the saucer to cut out my circle
Then take some batting and roll it up.
I gathered up the edge and pulled the thread to make a ball.
Glue the cup to the saucer and glue the fabric ball to the cup, oh and I did put more batting in the bottom of the cup to raise it up a bit. Ta-da!
I'm sure there are tutorials out there but thought it would be fun.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Furoshiki Father's Day gift

Wrapping my honey's Fathers Day gift, I decide to use Furoshiki wrapping with fabric.


I picked out a 'fishing' fabric.
Simply wrapped it around and folded up the sides to be tied on top and I tried to show how I tucked in the sides.
Here is it finished, I can't share what is in it because he might read this blog and it would be spoiled. :)
here are two links the first has a video which is helpful this second has several ways to wrap up gifts.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Vintage machine embroidery







This weekend I did some machine embroidery on flour sacks. Yes, I know I did not iron them, and coming from me that is a bigger deal than you know if you talk to my children :) When I was working, years ago on a job evaluation my boss wrote that I was always neat and my lab coat was always pressed. So if you talk to my children they will say that I believe ironing your clothes can make all the difference from a job interview to making your clothes fit better :) anyway... I chose not to iron them because they are kitchen towels and I will use them for cleaning up messes and I won't iron them when I get the out of the dryer.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Random thoughts....

This weekend has been so far; about getting things in order for me. I spent yesterday cleaning out, throwing out and reorganizing things here at my house. Oh, I am thankful I have a great hubby that helped a lot! But it really makes me thinking all this "stuff" we needed (ha) a the time and now it is just in the way.... and that made me think about the economy which everyone is thinking and talking about right now, rising prices in gas of course and really all goods that we buy.
So what am I doing to help with costs here? Making my own laundry soap for one, it is actually fun. Grouping all my trips to the store and that means I spend a lot more full days at home.
What are you doing at this time? how are you saving? cutting back?

Today I am going to plant some flowers out front, there is a flower box right out side my sewing window and it will really be cheerful I think!

Thursday, June 5, 2008

RicRak apron


I has a small remnant of this colorful pink and brown fabric and wanted to use it in an apron so this is what I came up with.
also an apron challenge is responsible for getting me started on ric rack!!