The Three Oil Soap

It's too hot to garden, I can only clean the house so much, and my sewing machine is broken!  In a fit of boredom, I busted out my soap making bin and searched for the perfect soap recipe, and I think I've found it.

I call it my "Three Oil Soap."

It's a lovely, old fashioned soap.

You know, like Granny used to make out by the "cement pond" and Ellie Mae used it and she had the most beautiful skin in all of Beverly Hills!

It's makes the most creamy bars and the ingredients are very moisturizing and nourishing to the skin.

Three simple oils:

Tallow

Castor Oil

Coconut Oil

Unscented, no preservatives, organic.

I'm not sure I can wait the six weeks 

for them to cure!

 

These will be available in my online store in August and I can't wait for you to try them, too!

Sewing With a Purpose

A friend of mine approached me at work about a special project she was coordinating at our hospital.  Ms. Donna is a lactation consultant and she is spear-heading a special project during Breastfeeding Awareness Week.  

She asked if I could sew and gave me supplies for a dozen burp cloths and breast pads.

A dozen of each seemed like pretty easy work.

And then I asked how many she needed.

"Oh, just a few hundred!" she said with a smile.

Luckily she enlisted the help of many talented women

 and is well on her way to having her quota!

I figured there should be an easy way to sew this project,

'cause I'm all about sewing on the 'quick and dirty.'

So I came up with a template to make things simple.

I traced around the breast pads to make a cardboard template.

The breast pads are very easy to sew.

Just trace the template onto the wrong side of your fabric, 

cut out, and sew onto the breast pads using a zig-zag stitch.

My burp cloth center was 17"X 4" and I cut 

a cardboard template out to that size.

Place the template on the wrong side of the fabric and cut 

about 3/4" around the template.  

It does NOT have to be perfect!  

Just make sure you have enough fabric to fold over 

onto the cardboard.  

Fold the fabric over your cardboard template 

and press with a hot steam iron.

Remove the template and pin onto the cloth diaper.

Sew around the edges of the fabric and you're done!

I've got supplies for two dozen more to tackle this week,

and when I'm done fulfilling Ms.Donna's need,

I think I'll start on my own stash for baby gifts!

A Creamer Christmas ~ Simmering Spices

The last little bit of our Creamer Homemade Christmas 

are these wonderful simmering spices!

Dried oranges from our trees

A bit of dried rosemary from the garden

Cloves, Bay leaves, Cinnamon Sticks, 

and a dash of Gingerbread Spice,

This is the perfect project for little hands 

who want to contribute to Christmas gift giving.

And while she's occupied, gives this mama a little time 

to wrap last minute presents!

Close your cellophane bag with 

a simple sticker with instructions...

And they're all ready for this little elf to deliver!

May God bless you with the merriest of days!

A Creamer Christmas ~ Homemade Apple Butter

I'm not going to lie about it, I'M CHEAP!

Maybe I should say...frugal, instead.

Truth is, with five kids, the holidays are a huge financial crunch time for us.  I try to lighten the load by making homemade/handmade gifts for our friends and family.  One of the gifts I'm making this year is apple butter.

I ate tons of this stuff as a kid and I always loved it!  

It truly couldn't be easier to make. 

 You start by peeling, coring, and chopping 12 pounds of apples.  

I used a variety of Gala, Fuji, and Granny Smith apples.

This is a great activity for the kids to help out with.  

The older boys have good knife skills 

and little Mary Grace helped with the spices:

1 cup of brown sugar

1 cup of white sugar

2 tablespoons of cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

2 teaspoons allspice

Just a splash of apple cider vinegar

Mix ingredients well into a large crock pot and cook on high for 8-10 hours.  Blend until smooth with immersion blender, or by hand if you like a chunky apple butter.  Fill sterile jars and process.

Your house is going to smell AMAZING!

This recipe makes 12 half pints, 

which is the perfect size for gift giving.

From left to right:  Apple Butter, Candied Jalapenos and Orange Jelly from our garden.

Sure, at first thought, homemade gifts are a great way to save money and avoid the stress of the mall.
But I hope our friends and family know that they are truly made with LOVE!
So act like you like it when you open it,
and a little squealing wouldn't hurt either!

A Creamer Christmas ~ Soap Making

I have always been obsessed with homemade soaps.  

For years, I have only dabbled in the 'melt and pour' types because I was afraid of working with lye. 

 LYE! 

So after much research, I decided to dive right in and start making our own cold process soaps.

Cold process soap is not hard to make 

but it does require some equipment.

Lye will not kill you, but you do have to take precautions.

Different oils have different soap making properties 

and it's so fun experimenting and being creative!

This particular recipe I used takes six weeks to cure, 

so one weekend in early November, I had a soap making weekend to get ready for Christmas gift giving.

And while waiting overnight to un-mold the soaps, I made these big, chunky crochet washcloths to pair them with.

There is a bit of a learning curve to making soaps, 

they don't always turn out how you think they will.  

That dark chocolate beauty above is a vanilla bean soap 

made with palm, coconut, and olive oils.  

It was pure white when I poured it into the mold!  

Over time it has turned into this luscious brown...and it smells good enough to eat. 

Having only made half a dozen or so batches, I won't give any soap making advice here.  But I will tell you that it's highly addictive and I've had so much fun making, sharing, and using my soaps.

I just hope those that receive a big bar of soap and washcloth from us don't get offended and think they smell bad!

"Recovering" and Crafting

Usually, on Mondays, I recover from my work weekends. 

And when I say "recover" I mean catch up on laundry, clean the house that the kids wrecked, and stock the empty fridge.

But THIS past Monday we packed up our beach chairs and snacks and headed down to Matagorda Beach for the day.

I did nothing but sip iced tea and dig my toes into the sand.

The kids played in the freezing water, painted seascapes, 

collected shells...

and dug three feet deep holes in the sand!

There wasn't a soul around for miles.

Just us and the sound of the waves crashing.

Now that's what I call "recovery!"

We came home with lots of treasures that day.

I have a shell wind chime that Doug bought me in Galveston last year.  I absolutely love it and thought that I could create my own version. 

 It couldn't be more simple!

All you need are your shells, driftwood, a drill with a small bit, 

and some fishing line.

Just drill holes in your shells, thread and knot them along the fishing line, and tie your strands off on a large piece of drift wood.

I added glass beads for a bit of color and sparkle.

And when the wind blows, the sound takes me right back 

to our spot on the beach!
I'm thinking "Matagorda Mondays"
might just become a thing, y'all!

Let it BURN!

Every year for Christmas, the kids make handmade presents 

for our family and friends.

This year the boys have discovered wood burning.

I handed them a few pieces of scrap wood

(to kind of get the hang of it before burning our actual gifts!)

And as you can see from their "doodling,"

they got the hang of things pretty quick!

I purchased some pretty bamboo cutting boards and wooden spoons and let Mary Grace draw on them.  

She's currently into drawing gigantic heads with hands and feet coming out of them.

Cute, huh?

Then one of the boys traces her drawing 

with the wood burning tool.

What is left behind is a permanent etching of her artwork,

and a functional piece of kitchen ware.

The boards and spoons are already sealed

so there is nothing else to do except wrap them up.

The cutting boards will get a big summer sausage, package of crackers, and wedge of cheese wrapped up with a pretty ribbon for gift giving.

But this work-in-progress by Kyle 

(our family tree!)

 is going to get scooped up by 

THIS MAMA

before anyone else can get their hands on it!

Happy Elving!!!

DIY headbands

 Lately I have become a little obsessed with headbands.

So much so that I spent an entire rainy day afternoon 

making dozens of them:

I had tons of scrap ribbon in my sewing stash so I measured around Mary Grace's head until the ends of the ribbon almost touched. 

 I folded the ends over an elastic hair band (about an inch), and sewed it securely, back stitching a time or two.

Adorable, not too tight, super girly,

and best of all...

It didn't cost me a cent!

The Coiled Rope Bowl

The ladies at Maya Made and Soulemama have been making these wonderful rope bowls for weeks now.  

I finally took the plunge and made up one myself.  

I have a feeling there will be many more in the works!

These wonderful bowls are so simple to make!  

All it takes is some cotton braid clothesline, a spool of thread, 

and your sewing machine.  

I found this clothes line at Walmart for just under two bucks.

Begin your bowl by coiling the rope around itself and begin stitching using the zig-zag stitch on your machine.  Just keep coiling and stitching, lining up the rope edges in the center of your presser foot to make sure your stitch catches both edges of the rope.

When the bottom of the bowl is as big as you like, start tilting your work up a bit.  The angle of your tilt will shape the bowl.

Just keep sewing until the bowl is your desired shape and size.

You can add handles, a loop for hanging, 

change thread colors, even dye the rope.

There are truly endless possibilities in crafting these beauties! 

I will not stop until I have a basket for EVERYTHING!