Scrub-a-dub-dub

I have been rationing a jar of sugar scrub for about 3 years now. I used it about 4 times a year. I know that I brought the scrub with me to the hotel room where I got ready before my wedding this year. I ration this scrub so much, that I didn't even use it all when getting ready for my wedding. That is pretty sad, especially considering I have another container of the exact same scrub in the bathroom cabinet. 

ANYWAY...

Given my obsession, I decided to make some of my own so that I can use it guilt free!

I started off with these ingredients:

 (Granulated sugar, dark brown sugar, a whisk, spoon, medium sized mixing bowl, extra virgin olive oil, grapeseed oil, vanilla extract, a class container with a top, and various measuring cups.)

 (Put 1/2c each granulated sugar and dark brown sugar in the bowl. Whisk together.)

 (Place sugar combo in the glass jar)

 (Add 1/4 cup each grapeseed oil and extra virgin olive oil on top of the sugar combo)

 (Add 1 tsp of vanilla extract to and combine)

 (Voila! Man it shrinks down quite a bit!)

(Put the cap on and there you go!)

As soon as I finished making this combo I tested it out in the shower and IT IS as good as the one I have been rationing. The only difference in that the granulated sugar is a little finer. On my next batch I might try using some coarse sugar, maybe sugar in the raw? 

You can also add whatever extracts you like to the mix. When I was using the scrub, it smelled like someone was baking a cake somewhere in the bathroom. I might try using lavender or mint extracts.

Try it out though! It took less than 5 minutes to make and it felt luxurious in the shower. 

xoxo

A Collection from High School

My mom came for a visit a bit ago and brought along with her all the pottery I made in high school. I brought a few pieces to work so that I can add some personal touches to my office, but the rest sits at home and each piece assumes a spot somewhere. 

I realized that I should have taken pictures of each piece and how it is being used in our home, but I didn't.

Here are a few more photos of some of my favorites:

 (I kind of want to make this into some sort of lazy susan for our future kitchen table with it.)

 (I don't know why, but I used this bowl for cereal almost every day in high school after I made it. It turns out that I wrote the name of the glaze I used on the bottom of each piece, and this one was "sassy orange")

 (A little pitcher. It is so sad because I completely forgot to glaze the inside of the pitcher, which means we can never use it. Maybe I can find a local shop and throw some clear glaze on it and re-fire it)

 (I think that this glaze was called "firebird")

 (This is a little wonky, but oh well! Anyone that has ever made a coil pot knows that it is not the easiest thing ever)

 (A tiny little bud vase)

These two pieces are my absolute favorite. I am probably more attracted to them because I made them when I got a little better and they are more even than the other pieces of pottery. See for yourself.

 

 (This was made with "Plum Jelly" and is my favorite glaze of them all. I love the colors. Yet again, I never glazed the inside, and therefore it can never be used.)

(I also really love this one. This is for sure the most perfect of anything I have ever made on the wheel. The glaze on this perfect little piece is called "Snapdragon")

 

xoxo

Crocheted Littles

I am not sure if this was "cool" in anyone else's high school years, but in my high school crocheted earrings had their moment in the sun.

While fishing through old boxes, I found a couple different patterns that we designed in Home-Ec class. 

A few years ago I made some accoutrement rolls for my knitting needs and crochet hooks... 

I have significantly more knitting needles than I do crochet hooks, but that is expected because I am pretty new to crocheting:
 

I found this Robin's Egg or Martha Blue colored crochet thread at a flea market a few years ago and decided to pull it out for this project. It has no label so I actually have no idea what it is made of or it's thickness, so I decided to use it for practicing:

I decided to use a size 8 steel hook for this project, just to practice with gauge and what-not:
 

I forgot to take a picture of the pattern, but this is the cute little earring I ended up with. One major thing I forgot to do was actually start the project around an earring like you're supposed to. Woops. I guess I was really just practicing anyway:
 

We are heading to the in-laws for the weekend in CT, so maybe I can bust out a few pairs and perk up my spring/summer casual jewelry collection.

xoxo

Self-diagnosis

I am now positive that I have some form of A.D.D. 100% positive. 

I think that I might have mentioned this a few posts ago, but Hubbs and I started looking at houses last month. We haven't even put in an offer on a house or taken a second look at a house yet, but we have sat down and discussed almost every aspect of every single home from furniture placement to what and how we would remodel. We've gone to furniture stores, lowes, home depot and looked at lighting, flooring, cabinetry, appliances, and even toilets. We've researched the cost of putting a privacy fence or arborvitaes around a corner lot, building a greenhouse addition, adding spiral staircases to a finished attic, finishing an attic, replacing radiator heat, building patios and decks, replacing garage windows, and remodeling an entire kitchen. It has taken about 3 weeks to realize that we are being ridiculous.

I think that I am one of those people who thinks of something briefly and then I NEED TO KNOW everything about it. I know every fact about each home that is for sale in our target town. 

As exciting as it may seem, this is seriously getting in the way of my life. It has got to stop. We've ordered Martha Stewart furniture catalogs, Pella window pamphlets, signed up for magazine subscriptions, and lots of other unnecessary things.

Anyway. I am going to slow down a bit and start crafting again. I think that I am making myself dizzy.

xoxo

Garden Party Quilt Top

I have completely fallen in love with this quilt. I am sure that no one could really understand what I was trying to explain in my last email about it, but this is my modern take on a traditional log cabin quilt with larger scale prints.


The center block is 15 x15 and therefore each piece is 15 inches wide x some increment of 15. Overall, the top is 60x60inches. I think that this will be a great lap quilt. Just looking at this picture right now I realized I messed up the placement of 2 strips. Bahhhh! Definitely NOT taking that apart.

Some action shots for you...
 

Finished with the top! Do you love it as much as I do???

Does anyone have any quilting suggestions? I am not really sure what I should do. Maybe I should stipple the eggplant with purple-ish thread. Then, maybe do some type of straight-line quilting for the patterned pieces. Hmmm......
 

xoxo

Our Indoor Garden

My husband is quite the gardener and he is rubbing off on me. We live in an apartment right now, so we have a cute little indoor garden. 

These are our microgreens. Chris (husband) loves microgreens. In this pot there are mustard microgreens. We've already had them on a few salads, they are super flavorful and extremely healthy for you. We bought all of our microgreen seeds from this great group of people called the Sprout People.
 

We've had an aerogarden for a while now. We've grown herbs, hot peppers, and lettuces. Right now we are just started a variety of cherry tomatoes:
 

Here is our first attempt at microgreens. These are called Cress. We definitely didn't plant the batch thick enough. They were SUPER tasty, but we've already devoured them:
 

Chris got me this great cactus garden for my birthday this year (in January) and I just haven't had the chance to bring it in to work:
 

That's what we grow indoors. Stay tuned to see what we are planting in our balcony garden!

xoxo

Garden Party Log Cabin Quilt

I was able to squeeze in some time this weekend to work on this quilt that I have been dreaming up for a while now.

 I already had the fabric collection picked out (in my last post) and I was just waiting on some gorgeous gem-toned Kona Cotton solids.  The colors below are (from top to bottom) Berry, Eggplant, Pomegranate, Hibiscus, Cerise, and Dark Violet. Aren't they gorgeous?!?!?

I only used Berry, Pomegranate, Hibiscus, and Cerise (and eggplant to be seen later) for this quilt. From those first 4 colors I cut 4 5.5 x 15.5 inch strips:
 

From the Garden Party and Good Folks fabrics, I selected 5 fat quarters to work from. I cut 4 5.5 x 15.5 in strips: 
 

I put all of the patterned and solids in a stack in a random order. I just sewed the strips that I knew I needed for the log cabin pattern to work:
 

Then I got busy busy ironing:
 

 ... and ... voila! I just love this picture and looking at all of the strips put together. Isn't it gorgeous???
 

I have to take some time to cut out the big strips of solid fabric for the other portion of the log cabin pattern. Maybe tomorrow? 

I asked my hubby what he thought of the quilt and his response was "it's colorful?". Bahhh.

xoxo

Workings of a large scale Log Cabin quilt

I took a look through some traditional quilt books and came up with an interesting and MUCH larger scale version of a log cabin pattern. By MUCH larger I mean that the center starting block is the lovely Anna Maria Horner's print from her Garden Party collection and it will be a finished 15x15in block. Which means that the other strips will be BIG. The white strips with "solid" written on them will be just that, huge strips of solid fabric. I know that I am definitely not doing white. I have been digging on deep purple lately, so that could make an appearance. I haven't decided if I want it to be one solid color, or each different strip be different solids.I think I might stick with each strip being a different solid. The OTHER strips that are all squiggly are going to be a mix of gorgeous prints from my Anna Maria Horner Garden Party and Good Folks stash and a mix of bold colored solids. I haven't mapped out all of the dimensions yet, that is part where my brain explodes.

The Garden Party print for my center block, don't you love it? I've only been staring at it for 2 years now....

I have picked through my Garden Party and Good Folks stash for these lovelies. After taking another glance, I already think that I am taking the brown print out. I don't really like the color brown, at all. It's got to go.:

 

Something I love about Anna Maria Horner's fabrics is that they all compliment each other so well. These are a mix from two completely unrelated collections and you can't even tell which are which (I even think that the two Good Folks prints I slipped in there go better than the Garden Party prints): 

Getting ready to be pressed:

Now I just need to get my solids, map out all the measurements, double-check the measurements and get going. Hopefully I will have everything mapped out by the weekend. 


Yay.


xoxo