More Sea Salt Scrub

A while back I made some Sea Salt Scrub, which I promptly gave away as birthday gifts, and used the rest.  My hubby thought it would be a great idea to give away as Christmas gifts to the office staff at his work, so I made some more.  This time around, I picked up some neat jars and wooden spoons I found at World Market.  Then I found some cute labels at Target to put on top of the jars.  I think they turned out great!

Christmas Lights

This week we are working on getting our outdoor Christmas lights up.  Tonight I worked on the net lights while my hubby worked on the lights that go around the perimeter of the yard.  The net lights are relatively easy to put up, but I learned very quickly that you have got to watch the thorns on the bushes.

We are getting there!  I will post more pictures when they are complete.

Sea Salt Scrub

When we were on vacation, we saw some salt scrubs, and thought they would make a great gift-until we saw the price tag.  We figured we could make it much cheaper, and have more choice in the scents we wanted to create.  So when we got home, I picked up the necessary ingredients:  grape seed oil, fine sea salt, fragrance oils, and some canning jars.

I mixed together about equal parts salt and oil, and a capful for fragrance oil, and poured it into the jar.  So simple-I am glad we thought of this gift idea!

Fruit Boil

Today the plan was to decorate for Christmas.  As soon as I got home from work, I wanted the house to be ready for decorating-so I turned on Christmas music, and then I put a fruit boil on the stove-an apple, a clementine, some cloves, and cinnamon sticks in some water.  As soon as it came to a boil, I turned it down to a low simmer.  And then I successfully forgot about it.  We actually left to go to Lowe's to check out the Christmas lights they had in stock.  When we got home, the very first thing I noticed as I entered the house was the smell of my fruit boil scalding in the pan.  Nice!  I wonder if the pan will ever be the same?

Lei Gift

Today was one of those rare Saturday's I had to work.  We had a meeting to prepare for any upcoming changes, and discuss events for 2013 for girl's ministries.  The ladies in this meeting always seem to have a surprise up their sleeves, and this year was no different-they made a lei out of cupcake papers and dollar bills to give to the director.  What a neat idea!  No doubt I could find something like this on Pinterest!

Candle Dish

It seems like lots of people from work are changing jobs right now. Another friend is leaving, so I went to the store and picked up a few things to put this together for her-a decorative glass dish, some glass rocks, and a vanilla scented candle.  It went together really quickly and easily-right up my alley!

A Little More...

About a month ago, I finally got the pictures hung in our living room.  And then earlier this week I bought some wall hangings, and made a "beach in a jar" to add to the decor.  I never hung up the wall hangings because I couldn't find any nails.  Today I picked up some nails, and finally got them hung.  I am really happy with how they turned out!


Here is the wall a month ago.

And here it is today.  (The big picture is still to the left of these-I just didn't photograph it this time.)

Canning the Beach

A month ago, I finally got our pictures hung in the living room.  Ever since then, I have been thinking about what else to add to the decor to complete the beach look.  Last night, we went to the store to browse, and I came across a few things.  I ended up buying 2 pieces to hang on the wall.  More on those later-after I get them hung-I can't seem to find any nails at the moment.


While looking through the beach-themed decorations, I saw a few that looked simple enough to make myself, so I took a picture of each of them to remind me what to do later.  The first was the wine bottle with seashells and twine.  I brought home seashells from Galveston, so I have a ton of those.  We have 2 wine bottles at the house that currently have wine in them, and since we don't drink-just cook with wine-it will be a while before I have one ready.  I'll need to pick up some twine, too.

The second idea looked really simple-a canning jar with sand, seashells, and twine.  For this project all I needed was sand and twine.

Tonight while we were walking around World Market, we saw their beach decorations, and they just happened to have a small bag of sand which was tied shut with twine.  I promptly bought it, and came home and made my own jar.  You can't see it in the picture, but there is also a small piece of driftwood that I added to the jar.  It was a simple, neat project!

Pictures Now Hung

We moved into our house in February of 2011-which translates to nearly 18 months ago.  And up until today, the only pictures in our living room were the family pictures on and around our fireplace.  Decorating is not my thing, and it doesn't really bother me too much to not have anything on the walls.  But today as we were doing some (late) spring cleaning, I noticed that our pictures were still hiding beneath the love seat, waiting ever so patiently for me to do something with them.  Yes, today was the day.  We finally have some pictures on the wall.  I realize they are probably not fung schway, but I like them, and that's all that matters, right?

Old Photos

After church, we went to visit my in-laws since it is Mother's Day.  My mother-in-law has been organizing all her old photos, and she had them out.  We found all sorts of neat photos-including one of my father-in-law when he was a kid with his dad after they had gone fishing. It will be neat to see what she does with the pictures to get them organized!

Going Away Gifts

My job is relocating in just 2 weeks-which is a great thing for me because it will turn my nearly 1 hour commute into a 15 minute drive.  But, not everyone is moving with us as the drive is not worth it to them.  We are having a Going Away Luncheon for the 3 that have said they are not moving next week, and I wanted to get them a little something.  The 2 ladies were easy to shop for:  I got them loofahs and bath soap and placed them in little baskets.  Shopping for a guy is always a little more difficult for me. And then I found a neat popcorn tub, and added a bag of popcorn to it.  I hope they enjoy their gifts. I will miss them all!

New Nail Color

I saw this shade of brown nail polish on pinterest some time ago, and decided I wanted to try it. I finally got around to buying the nail polish today, and I love the color! 

My Phone's Camera

As I am sure you can tell from the pictures I post on this blog, I am not a photographer.  The pictures I use are just simple snapshots I take from my phone.  They are good enough for me and for my usage.  Today at work I am at the front desk for a couple hours, which means I answer the phones and welcome people into the office.  There is a lot of down time, though, so I decided to play with the features my phone has to offer in terms of the camera.  I decided to try out each and every feature of a flower on the desk here.  Here is what I took:
First-with no special effects:

Distortion:

Vignette:

Depth of Field:

Vintage:

Vintage Warm:

Vintage Cold:

Grayscale:

Sepia:

Negative:

Solarize:

Posterize:

Aqua:

It's hard to believe I have had this phone since October and had never used these feaatures before.  Some of my favorites (at least while taking a picture of these flowers), are posterize, sepia, depth of field, and vignette.  Maybe I will start to use these features more often if I think about it!

Scarf Session

A few months back, I wore one of my t-shirt scarves that I had made to work.  One of the ladies I work with, Shirley, plans ministry events for girls fairly frequently, and when she saw my scarf, she asked if I would be interested in teaching a group of teenagers how to make scarves for the craft session at one of the events she had planned.  Being excited about scarves at the time, I said yes.  When I said yes, I wasn't really thinking about the fact that I am not really used to speaking in front of crowds.


Fast forward a while, and reality set in.  To say the least, I was freaking out a little-wondering what I was thinking saying yes!  There would be around 170-180 girls and their sponsors attending this event.  Yikes!  But, once I commit to something, I don't back out-I knew I had to do this.  I tried not to think about it too much.  I planned for the event only thinking about the scarves, and not the crowd, as much as possible.  I decided to go with a different scarf-one that had simpler steps, and that I liked a little better for this session.


Yesterday I went to the thrift store and picked up 10 t-shirts for $1 each to practice on.

I had one of our college students come over to teach her how to make a scarf-that way I could have a helper with me to help me ease my mind.  Hers turned out pretty neat-it was made from a tie-dyed t-shirt.

I prepared a couple hand-outs-one that had the tutorial printed (directly from the blog), and another that showed examples of how to wear the scarves, which was actually a compilation of pictures I found around the web:

The event turned out great!  To say the least, I was incredibly nervous before the event started, but as time went on, I got a little more comfortable.  It kept my mind at ease to have a little help there, and the students were great-receptive to learn how to make the scarves.  I was a little surprised-in each of the sessions (it was divided into 3 separate sessions), I asked how many had made a scarf out of a t-shirt before, and only about 5 in the entire group had.  I guess I had a misconception that people knew how to do this.

All in all, it was a great day-it took me out of my comfort zone for sure-but that is a good thing every once in a while!

Jewelry Fix

Do you see that?  What it is, is a necklace (well, it is actually 2 necklaces-but I am referring to the one on the bottom with all the flowers) that I fixed!  A while back I had gotten interested in some crafty, jewelry things-I am pretty sure that has passed, though-LOL-and I bought some tools for working with jewelry.  I bought the cheap-o tools because I didn't know how long my interest would last-which turned out to be a pretty good call since it's been 2 or 3 months since I've done anything with jewelry.

Anyhow, one of the wire loops between 2 of the flowers had worked it's way open.  I really like the necklace, though, and didn't want to just get rid of it.  That's when I remembered my tools-I got them out and was able to re-mold the wire to get it to clasp properly, and allow me to keep wearing the necklace!  Yippee for free fixes!

A Day of Creative Failures

Sometimes I try things out, and, well, they just don't work out.  Today I tried two different things-making another type of scarf out of a t-shirt, and a cilantro lime chicken.  Neither turned out.  Bummer!  Don't worry-I don't feel too bad-they were not creations of my own, but rather, things I saw online and wanted to try.


My first bout of creativity was the fringe scarf.  I found this tutorial on a blog I follow.  I like the scarf in the picture online.  I also have a co-worker who I have seen wearing one that I like.  I don't know why I don't like it.  Perhaps it's because I opted for a shirt with a design rather than a solid color.  Or it might be because the type of t-shirt it was has two seams going up the sides.  Or maybe the t-shirt itself was too small.  Or perhaps, it was just a combination of all three.  Regardless, I have no plans to wear this one.  I'm sure it will be in the trash soon enough.

The next thing I tried that was not-so-great was dinner.  I figured I should see what was in the freezer that needed to be used up, and I found 2 cornish game hens.  I was looking for a crockpot recipe for the game hens that I liked, but couldn't really find any, but I did find a recipe for Cilantro Lime Chicken that looked good-and we just happened to have fresh limes and cilantro that needed to be used.  I combined the 2 recipes (cornish hen recipe for the cooking method and chicken recipe for the ingredients), but was not pleased with the results.  The lime was over-powering.  It was edible, and we ate it, but I won't cook it again.  My hubby sprinkled some fajita seasoning on his to help with the taste factor.


Maybe next time I will have better luck!

Another Scarf

Sitting around the house with nothing to do is not good for me.  I have often said that I work, not for money, but for my sanity.  I decided this afternoon that I should go ahead and make the 3rd scarf I had been wanting to make because I needed something to do.  So I checked out a tutorial, and got started.  Most of my old tees are gray or black, but I wanted one with some color, so I chose this blue one.

I cut off the bottom half of the shirt, just below logo, but importantly, just below the arms.

Next, I cut off the hem at the bottom of the tee.

I cut strips (about 1 inch or a little less) all the way to the top, stopping about an inch from the top.

Then I stretched the strips out...

...and gathered the material at the end, and then it was ready!

Here it is with one of the cords wrapped around it to keep it together.  (Yes, I know my shirt doesn't match-lol)

Here it is, wrapped around twice.

And here it is again, clipped together with a flower.