Living Room Science

I can't believe I forgot to blog about this. I was looking back at pictures from the Summer and I ran into these!

During the summer months we have these creepy looking black and red caterpillars all over our front yard. Miss O is always so excited about them, and has to point everyone she sees out to me. I have always discouraged her from picking them up and disturbing them. Well, one day we had a bucket on our front porch, and Miss O was really into the caterpillars that day. I had to get on to her a couple of times for messing with them. When I would tell her to leave them alone and not touch them, she would say "I'm not, I'm just touching them with this stick" Well, I later walked by the bucket and noticed that there was a caterpillar in the bucket, and assumed Miss O had put him in there to observe him. We watched him for a couple of days and noticed that he was not moving, then he turned into his cocoon. We brought it inside the house and placed it on the bookshelf. I then found a little cage to put him in. However, we were in for a big surprise, because when we went to put him in the cage, we noticed that the cocoon was empty!!! We found the new butterfly hanging out on a basket full of puzzles and flash cards! Miss O 's friend TJ was over at the house, so he got to see and hold the butterfly as well.

This gave us the perfect opportunity for a teachable moment. After DJ and the kids released the butterfly outside, he pulled up some videos on-line about caterpillars turning into butterflies.



Lemons

I recently got a box of lemons from Bountiful Baskets. Now, I have a weakness for the add-on's that are offered with Bountiful baskets and I sometimes buy things without knowing what I am going to do with them. This 25 pound box of lemons is a perfect example of this. The box sat in my kitchen floor for two weeks or so before I finally decided to do something with them.

I juiced a bunch of those pretty yellow lemons. Thank goodness for my Kitchen Aid mixer attachment!! Then, I decided to preserve some. This was a fun project. I sliced the lemons to open like flowers in my hand, and put some sea salt in the center of each before layering and squishing them into a jar. Now they have to ferment for 8 weeks. I am so excited to try these.

Then after all that sticky work of  juicing and slicing, Miss O and I decided to sit back and enjoy a fizzy water with Lemon slices

Vanilla Mint Lotion

 

So DJ and I did something very exciting the other day that I can't wait to share with you. We made lotion for the first time ever! This is a project we have been meaning to try for a long time now. We have been talking more and more about making many of the products we use instead of buying them.  We are interested in simplify our lives and our budget by relying less on stores for the things we use.We decided to use this project as an experiment to see if we are really ready for that kind of change in our lives.  We already make our own cleaning supplies, so we had some essential oils already on hand.

This recipe came from The Rhythm of Family, by Amanda Blake Soule. We decided on this recipe because we already had all the ingredients.

15oz. distilled water

2.5oz beeswax

6oz. coconut oil

12oz olive oil

2T fresh mint

40 drops of vanilla essential oil

I was so surprise to find out how easy it was to make my own lotion! Of course I had to try it out that day. It is super thick so it only requires you to use less, and it smells so good. This recipe makes so much that we were able to have one for use now and one for the closet for later.

We have decided that as we run out of our chemical filled store bought products, we will definitely be replacing them with our own products! How exciting! I have already been thumbing through my books and Pinterest to find recipes to try.

Gearing Up For Fall!

 

Yep, it is my favorite time of year! The kiddos and I have been gearing up for this fun season.

Miss O and I have been baking pumpkin muffins (one of her new favorite activities), and making  Halloween spiders!

I have also started a Halloween cross stitch project, which in no way will be finished by Halloween. Oh well, it will be around for next year.

This is only the start of our fall excitement. I have some super craft projects that I have been working on that I will be sharing with you soon.

Thrifting Haul

So, I realized that I have not done a thrifting post in a long time. This does not mean that I have not been thrifting, I just have not been blogging about it. Yesterday I went with my friend Lissa. We dropped our oldest off at Preschool, and headed out to see what goodies we could find.

So, here it goes, my latest thrift store finds. Miss O is being a great model for me in the photo above. I found that dress for her and fell in love. I paid a little more for it than I would for kid clothes at a second hand store, but it was worth it.

 

My first stop at the thrift store is usually the linens section. I love to find sheets in fun prints.  I get so much fabric for such a cheap price. My local Salvation Army has a wonderful linen section, and I can never get out of there with out an arm full. I already have plans for some of these. I want to make pants for Short Round using the green and white stripes and the plaid.  He is such a chunky fella, and stripes look so cute on him.

These are cases for throw pillows. the orange one on the left is gong to be turned into a pumpkin for Halloween.

I love purses! I am always switching out my bags, and I am always in the market for a new one. This purse is not really like any I have had before. The style is very different for my. However, that crossbody strap was just too irresistible.

Here is another outfit for Miss O. She is so tall and skinny that pants don't really fit her that well, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that these fit great! There is also a pack of business card paper that was $1!!! The original price on the box was $24.99!

 

This here is what I am the most excited about. An entire bag full of knitting needles of all shapes and sizes!

Anybody else have any sweet thrifting finds lately?

Some Things Just Don't Change

When I was a little girl, I loved embroidery floss. I made friendship bracelets and sold them to my family and kids at school. I had a tackle box that I used to store and organize all of those bobbins of beautiful colors. I have so many memories of staying up late into the night during my summer vacations, and making bracelet after bracelet. I took my string box with me everywhere.

When I started high school, the string box started to get neglected, and then eventually just flat out forgotten about. However, my love of embroidery floss never went away. Every time I went into a craft store, I would always walk down the isle looking at all those beautiful colors, and wondering what I could make with it. Well, once I became a stay at home mom, I got into embroidery and cross stitch! It was so exciting to be able to buy that floss again. I would find it at the thrift store, or on sale at the craft store, and before you know it, I had the mess that is pictured above. It became a challenge to find what I was looking for, and to keep it untangled. I also started working on embroidery projects while at the farmers market, and this was just not that portable. I had to make a change.

I started looking around town at all the craft stores, and any store that sold tackle boxes. When I had no luck there, I turned to the internet and found what I was looking for on Amazon. The day that it came I was waiting at the mailbox jumping up and down in excitement. This box is perfect. It has lots of compartments, and it large enough to fit all of my embroidery floss. The handle makes it easy to pack this baby around with me.

I also ordered a package of 1,000 plastic floss bobbins on Amazon. I know this seems excessive, but it was way cheaper to buy them this way. I was able to get all of my floss wrapped while binge watching Dexter.

Of course I have proudly shown off my wonderful storage solution to everyone I know. When I showed my parents, the just laughed at me and said "Some things just don't change."

 

By the way, I am totally aware of how crazy I look caring a tackle box full of string around with me.