Winter Smell?

Does your house ever get that stuffy-shut-up-too-long-to-keep-out-the-cold smell? Mine definitely does. To combat it I came up with a solution.

Baking soda absorbs smells, right? And it is harmless to carpets and other things, right? And essential oils smell good and are good for lots of things, right? So I mixed up some of my own carpet deodorizer.

1 16 oz box baking soda

30-40 drops essential oil (and since it is not used on the skin it is a great way to use up your cheap oils)

Mix well. Sprinkle on carpet. Let sit a while (20-40 minutes or so). Then vacuum up.

The options are endless, but here are a few ideas.

Combat Winter Blues

10 drops lemon oil

20 drops orange oil

10 drops grapefruit oil

Smells Good

10 drops lemon oil

20 drops lavender oil

10 drops tea tree oil

Christmas Delight

15 drops Clove oil

15 drops Cinnamon oil

5 drops Orange oil

Remember mix really well. If you don't, the oils could stain your carpet. But don't worry, it is really easy to mix.

Window Paintings

Last week when I went to Robert's (the local craft store), there was a girl painting the window. She asked the girls to draw a snowflake on the window. They (and I) had so much fun with it, I decided to buy some too.

Cooking with the kids

My kids LOVE to help, especially with the cooking. So this year for Thanksgiving, they helped with everything. They smashed the yams, mixed the pie, and stirred the jello salad. It was so much more fun for me, if not cleaner. The kitchen got way messier, but it was so worth it.

The Best Cough Medicine

O.K. so my kids seem to get coughs a lot. So I have tried almost every cough syrup out there. I have tried Delsym and robutussim from the supermarket, and Chestal honey, Eldertussin Elderberry syrup, sambucol, and few others from the health food store. I have also tried to make a few myself.

Anyway here is what I have found that works for my family (my kids especially).

-You can rub Mullein oil and/or Dr. Christopher's Anti-spasmodic on their chest.

-Original Ricola (you know the square ones) are the best cough drops.

or

-Make your own cough medicine. It is amazing that in about 30 minutes and for about $2.50, I made 1 quart of cough syrup. Which is, by the way, too much. So I will give you the halved recipe.

Dr. Shook's Cough Medicine

1 oz. marshmallow root

1 oz thyme

2 cups distilled water (I used filtered water)

1 lb brown sugar (honey can be substituted)

Slowly simmer marshmallow root, thyme, and water until reduced by 1/2. Strain, press, and return to pan. Add sugar, simmer 5 more minutes. Skim foam as it rises. Store in glass jar in the fridge. Makes 2 cups. For children use 1 tsp. for cough.

So there you have it. I hope this helps someone out there like it has helped me and my family.

More Hats

I am not sure why, but I LOVE making hats. A while back, I crocheted a bunch. Then I got into sewing hats. Well, it must have something to do with the colder weather. I have sewed some new ones and crocheted a few more.

Here are some pics

Homemade "Make-up"

We made make-up. they girls had a ball, but it looks like she ate playdough.

Homemade Make-up

1 T shortening

2 T cornstarch

food coloring

Mix together with a fork. Divide into 3-4 containers and add food coloring to each container.

ORANGE 1 drop RED 2 drops YELLOW

PURPLE 3 drops RED 1 drop BLUE

DARK GREEN 1 drop RED 4 drops BLUE 1 drop YELLOW

LIME GREEN 3 drops YELLOW 1 drop GREEN

AQUA 4 drops BLUE 2 drops GREEN

ORCHID 5 drops RED 1 drop BLUE

Brown 2 drops green 4 drops yellow 3 drops red

Black blue red orange yellow

Writing With Glue

learned about the number 23. they loved writing with glue.

$.38

1- 4 oz. container of elmer's glue (clear or white)

+

1 t Borax

+

1 1/2 cups water

=

Hours of enjoyment with slime for the kids and me

Mix 1 cup water with borax until dissolved.

In a separate bowl mix 1/2 cup water with glue and food coloring.

Mix them together with a spoon for about 30 seconds until solids begin to form.

Then gather solids, and knead over the bowl until it stays together

and begins to get dry.

Store in an airtight container indefinitely.

Variation-

Add 1 packet kool-aid for smell and color instead of food coloring.

Add 2 t Borax to water and dissolve.

I love making cheap art/science projects.

We had so much fun with the first batch,

we actually made 3 different colors, blue, yellow, and pink.

Chicks are 2 weeks

Every time I take pics of the chicks I am so amazed at how fast they grow and change. I am so glad that the kids don't grow this fast!!!

1 week old

I find it very amazing how fast the chicks are growing.

They are clearly larger and are growing their first feathers.

By the second day you could start to see the starts of feathers on the wings.

P.S. We have 5 chicks, but I only liked these pics.

Popsicles

I have always wanted a great popsicle mold, and the other day I found one at Bed Bath and Beyond. The kids and I had fun making our own flavor. This one was root beer. It was yummy, but VERY messy! All the girls had to change afterward. I just stripped Lexi down before I gave it to her.

Root Beer Popsicles

1 cup sugar

3 cups hot water

1 tablespoon McCormick® Root Beer Concentrate

1 teaspoon McCormick® Pure Vanilla Extract

1 teaspoon lemon juice

I put all of the ingredients in the blender for a few seconds. Not sure why but they turned out with the best almost creamy texture. YUMMY!!!!

Chicks First Portraits

I only took pics of the first 4, but you get the idea.

They are really cute!!!

And really small!!!

Hatching Chicks

Last Wednesday is when most of the chicks hatched, but I am just getting to the pics.

It was quite easy and not too time consuming to do.

It was really fascinating to watch them all hatch.

I love letting the kids see where chicks come from.

I would recommend this to anyone.

1st Project Runway challenge finished

My sister's and I LOVE the show Project Runway on Thursday nights on Lifetime. We look forward to it all week, then call each other to talk about it the next day. So since we all love to sew too, we decided to do our own version of it. We all wanted to learn to make patterns and to just be better. Originally my mom and my sister Jen were going to do it with us, but they opted out.

O.K. so the challenge was to design and make something unique for a child.

And the finalists (ok the contestants) are

Jeanette's amazing use of fabric design. She made this skirt and shirt for my niece Amy, who is 12.

I love Jeanette's use of texture.

Julie's incredible first attempt at a flat felled zipper (which she executed perfectly). She made this skirt, shirt, and belt for her daughter Kaisa, who is 10.

This T is so cute, and I love that she made up the pattern completely.

My fun use of cotton scraps that I have at the house. I made this dress for my daughter Ellie, who is 3.

This is a bad pic, but Ellie still looks cute in this dress.

As you can see, we have different styles, but we all learned a lot and had fun with this challenge. Tune in a couple weeks for the reveal of the next challenge.

Summer Dress

If anyone wants me to do a tutorial on this one I can. Leave a comment if you are interested. Click on the photo to view it larger.

Cops and Robbers

Today when I went outside to pull weeds, the girls saw the neighbors over the fence. They went to ask if they wanted to play, and didn't come back for a few minutes.
When I went looking for them, Abby talked them into playing cops and robbers. Which turned into everyone playing together. Everyone had a blast!

The girls love pretending!