Wonderful hand and foot cream

Ok, I saw this on Pinterest and knew I had to give it a try!

Winter skin is upon us, so I wanted to see how this cream rates compared to the expensive brands.  It only has three ingredients—Baby lotion (Johnsons for me!), vitamin E cream, and Vaseline.

I used the tutorial in the link above, the recipe made 4 1/2 cups of cream (total cost $11), and it smells wonderful (but then I love Johnson’s baby lotion!).  I did have trouble finding the vitamin E cream, so I used a vitamin E ointment.  I stored it in some plastic freezer containers which I had on hand. This would make a great gift in a nice mason jar with a cute lid too!

It works great and gives a faint scent of baby lotion.  I definitely will be making this again!

Linking to these great parties!

Aimless Saturday

I am trying to wrap up a few projects…just want to get some things done around here!  I am working on this chair…

and just bought this to finish up.  More about this later!

I have been knitting like crazy and just finished this project…

I want to just be lazy like Mama Kitty….

I got this in the mail today…Rachel from Lines across my face had a Shabby Apple giveaway for this sweet necklace and I won!

It’s very pretty and I love the packaging!

This past week I made these…

And they were soooo good, OK, maybe not as good as my mom’s but close!  And I used the crockpot!

I fried chicken and it was not as good as mom’s but it was OK!  I cooked it too long, so it was a bit tough, but it was very nicely browned.  While I cooked it I was thinking about Minnie in The Help, Miss Minnie don’t burn no chicken!

I watched the sun come up Saturday over new snow….

Rachel loves the snow…

but running around in it wears this pooch out.  Her birthday is this month…she is now 12 years!  Usually we have a birthday party for her.  She loves cupcakes!

I am linking to some of these great parties!

Christmas 2011

I had a wonderful Christmas…got to see the great nieces, my mom stayed with me a month, most of December and a week in January. I don’t have a bunch of great pics, but these pics are from Christmas with my nieces and nephews and my brother and sister in law.

Sam and I had extra presents to gift for my mom, she had to have a stocking and of course things to put in the stocking!  I even did some last minute knitting to give her a special gift!  So that was fun…

I got great gifts as always…I had dropped the hint about the heart pin I had been drooling over since I first saw it on etsy.  The shop is Woolly Fabulous (sorry that shop is on vacation at the current time) and boy, there are some great pins there, made out of wool and zippers. Very professionally made and so cute—owls, hearts, birds, snowmen, holly.  And then there’s the Lands End peacock sweater that my mom got me after she heard me oohing and aahing over it for weeks before Christmas.  And the Big Ass Book of Crafts—I got one and two!  And the Santa canvas is soooo cute!  Love it!  My son got me The Help DVD…mom and I watched it at least 3 times, maybe 4!  And I got the newest book by the Yarn Harlot Stephanie Pearl McPhee, All Wound Up!  It is most entertaining as are all her books!

So I am blessed by being able to be with family…plus this year was the first year ever that I was off both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and that was truly a treat.  I changed jobs a year ago this month, so I am now off all holidays and I work in a great place! 

DIY Pony Tail Holders {{by Sarah}}

Hi everyone! It’s Sarah back for another guest post. Ellen keeps telling me that I should start my own blog. My creativity mode has its own manic-depressive personality, so there may be periods of time that I don’t accomplish a thing. I know I would get a “blog fog block” occasionally (also known as BFB, because if you try to say “blog fog block” a few times, it turns into a tongue twister). For now, as long as my creativity is in the manic mode, and Ellen allows me to guest post once in a while, all is well. :c)

Today I wanted to share some tie dye ponytail holders. Here is a great tutorial on how to make them.  I kind of took the easy way out and bought some dye in premixed spray bottles at Hobby Lobby.

I used 5/8 inch wide white fold-over elastic and started randomly spraying the elastic.

Let dry. This type of dye requires to either heat press with an iron or heat set in the dryer. I chose the latter.  Cut into desired length. I cut mine in 12 inch pieces. Knot ends together. I like to leave some short tails. I cut the ends at an angle and applied Fray Check to prevent raveling.

I also made a few with colored elastic, so no dyeing was needed. See the brown one below with a few of the sprayed ones.

Thanks again, Ellen! Love ya!

Linking to these great parties!

Crazy about Cloches (aka Bell Jars)

I just love cloches…when my mom was at my home over Christmas, she got tired of me talking about cloches…she calls them bell jars.  I was so excited when I made my first cloche.

I found all these cloches in one antique mall today here in Columbia. 

Lots of different shapes and sizes!  I now have five cloches, Sarah gave me this one…I paired it with a white ironstone footed dessert plate. 

It has been fun to create little vignettes to go under the cloches.

I crocheted a tiny birds nest to go with some sea shells…

This cloche without a knob on top was $3 at the Goodwill store.  It came over an atrocious wind up plastic clock, but the cloche is glass.  I re-donated the clock! :)

This little guy is a votive holder upside down.  I glued on an interesting pinkish glass knob from Hobby Lobby ($1 on sale and some more off because it was broken--there was no screw to attach it to a drawer). 

So, this is what I have done today…played with cloches!

I even have a Pinterest board that is full of cloches!

This little dude is now sitting on my kitchen window sill…love it there. 

I am linking to these wonderful parties!

Cardboard Rose Wreath

I got a new couch this weekend…

It’s very pretty, I love it!  The guys wouldn’t come down the driveway with the truck so one of them carried the couch all BY HIMSELF!!  I was so afraid he would fall and get hurt or drop the couch!

Well, the couch and the delivery guy are both safe…

They were actually going to throw away this corrugated cardboard padding that was wrapped around the couch!

I must have been drooling a bit because one of the guys asked me if I wanted it to help start fires in my wood stove!  Haha! 

I have been looking at that paper for 24 hours when it hit me…this would make great rolled flowers!

I made a bunch of the flowers like this first.  Then I found this straw wreath (you could also use a foam wreath too) and wrapped it with some left over muslin binding.

Glued on some leaf shaped cut outs and then the cardboard roses…

I am so loving it!  Thinking that might just look good above the couch!

Just to add some bling, I put some hot glue in the middle of each rose and poured some vintage glass beads (which I bought with those buttons from last weekend) on top of the glue.

I tied another length of muslin around the top of the wreath for a hanger and stuck another flower on top of that.

Looking good, huh?

I decided to see what it looks like hanging above the couch…I may rearrange those pictures and add one more thing, but I am pretty sure that wreath is staying!

Total cost for this project:  $3 for the wreath form (after using a 40% off coupon at Michaels), had everything else, left over from other projects!

I am linking to these great parties!