Ex-squeeze me? Baking soda?

While reading the highly educational site buzzfeed.com, I came across a page with 27 DIY, 2 ingredient beauty supplies.  Most of them I don't ever want to try (lipgloss made with crayons?, yuck).  But a few of these caught my eyes and I have decided to experiment.

The first one I tried is the baking soda deodorant.  I maybe use deodorant two to three times a week, I seem to sweat the same amount if I'm wearing it or not so I don't really like using it that much as it ruins my clothes.  Years ago when I gave up the couch for regular exercise, I noticed that I would sweat more when active (not so much when inactive) but it was a cleaner sweat if that makes sense.  I also had my pits lasered quite a few years ago due to a never ending case of ingrown hairs and some armpit acne from waxing them.  There is much less smell now as I don't have hairs grabbing onto bacteria and holding it in (have you ever noticed a stronger smell when you forgot to shave for a few days?).

The obvious reasons for change is chemicals, a lot of chemicals that I don't know much about and don't want  them on my body.  There are the natural alternatives at stores but when I tried them it seemed like I sweated even more.  Plus, they are expensive for more trial and error.

My first batch is with lavender essential oil (partly because I had a lot of lavender, I'm really excited to try lemon) for the past week.  Applying seems a bit tricky, some of course falls on the floor, but since it's just baking soda it's not that big of a deal, it'll be good to get some on the feet.  I shower at night and apply it then and then once again when I wake up.  The lavender smell doesn't seem to transfer to my skin or clothes and it feels really fresh right away.  I'm still sweating a similar amount, but my pits feel cleaner, fresher.  They don't feel clogged like how deodorant can sometimes do that. 

I'm enjoying this alternative, cheap and healthy version (because even the health stores have ingredients that I can't understand on them).  If after more time this disagrees with me, I'll let you know.  After this week , I'm sold on it.

Update, I recently found this article, 101 uses for coconut oil.  Coconut oil is a product I have thought about introducing into our kitchen for a while.  Now seeing that it is a great binding agent for the baking soda, I will finally purchase some for our home.  I expect the application to be even easier.  PS, I'll let you know if it sucks.

Bridesmaid dress done!

I've finished altering my bridesmaid dress!  I just have to finish up the inside stuff that no one will see, a few loose threads, etc. I have to send out a thank you to Suzannah from Adventures in Dressmaking.  Her posts have taught me how to get back on the sewing machine and to just fix the clothes you already have.  Here is the original post and here is the dress in it's original form :

While working on it, I couldn't see the changes that I made, but now looking back at the pictures it was like a tent on my body!  And here it is now.  I got my friend to take a quick picture before we ran off for more accessories, sorry for the bad lighting:

I shortened the dress by 2.5 inches and I brought in the 3 seams that it has.  It also has a side slit that will be lengthened a tiny bit more, time to show off the gams!  And here is one last shot that was sent to the bride and the other bridesmaids - my strike a pose.  I wasn't planning on posting it here but it has better lighting and really shows how cute the dress turned out! (mind the loose threads)

The wedding is less than a month away, no traditional (Canadian) Thanksgiving for me this year, but it's so exciting now that it's all coming together. 

Tonight is back to school for me, it's been a couple of years since I've taken a course and it's time to upgrade.  In 3 months I'll be ready to work administration in dental offices.  No more ordinary administration jobs for me, and no more competing with thousands of other girls with the same skills.  The next 3 months will have very few crafts, oh so sad, but I'll still have the rest of the winter months to get my fill of knitting and sewing!  So I'll be around, just not as much, as I also have to find a bit of time for a handsome guy I've been dating - who will also be super busy with his 3 month intense course.  He's lucky he's handsome, considerate and polite, or I'd be a goner ;-)

Air Fresheners

I love essential oils and I usually put them in those special candle holders with water. It's great, but the intense smell does go away. I've been scouring the thrift shops lately for the perfect oil burner and after going through a few (thankfully they are only $3 when used as apposed to $18 brand new) you end up realising how poor the designs are. I'm currently cleaning up oily water that has splattered on my desk *grumble*. While reading through Free People's site I saw that they had a DIY air freshener and I decided to give it a try! This way I get the long and softer, lingering effect of the oils without the constant watch over the candle, water level and little bits of splattered oil.

I grabbed my essential oils, some glass jars from the dollar store, baking soda and a glue stick. I used Lavender for under my bed to help me relax during my sleep and peppermint for my closet.

The jars are a bit smaller so I pretty much filled them up with baking soda and poured 10-12 drops of oil on top. I just shook the baking soda around a tiny bit to cover the oil and made sure that most of the oil stayed on the top. This way, when the oils lose their power I will just remove the top part of the baking soda and dispose of it, stir the remaining powder to freshen it up and then add more drops. I kept the safety seal that was included with the jars and punched holes in it with the pencil.  I then glued the safety seal to the top of  the jars.

And there are my air fresheners!  I didn't bother making them too fancy and cute as they won't really be seen.  I made these last week and wanted to test them before posting about them and while looking for something in my closet last night I did get a light lingering peppermint smell, SUCCESS!  I ended up realising that the glue to hold the seals down did nothing and that the holes were much too small, so I cut them larger to be the size of a pencil and I just used an elastic to keep the seal on (for the time being).  I live in an older, wood home that has it's old, wood home smell and I've been trying to figure out how to help keep it fresh during the winter months and I'm sure this will help. 

DIY Bride(smaid)

Countdown is on, October 6th is when I need to be ready for my best friends wedding. I'm having to do a lot of adjustments and diy for my outfit so I thought I'd share the progress. We are all to be in black cocktail dress, lbd, and she wants us to pop with colour. For us to look like a group she suggested blue shoes as the colour will match the groomsmens colours. The major problem is that there aren't a lot of blue shoes out there, the ones that are filling the stores are more of a lighter, turquoise blue and she wants a darker, closer to royal shade (we have paint chips to match the colour). Most of the shoes available in that colour have a gross fake velvet texture, are 6 inches high and strappy and just GROSS. I came across a pair of white shoes while I was shopping with my mom and they fit my thin feet in an incredible way. I have a very hard time finding heels and I end up with a lot of maryjane styles (I still remember my shoe flying across the church when I was a little girl during a song I performed that had a few small dance moves involved). I knew these white shoes were the one but how to make the man made material blue and make it stick. SPRAY PAINT. We ran back across the street to the hardware store and picked out a colour and the results are PERFECT.

As you can see there are some mistakes, I should have put more painters tape on the inside toe and the side seems need to be touched up with a small paint brush. After I had taped the parts of the shoe that I did not want blue (it was a lot of tape to be safe - and TAPE THE INSIDE OF THE SHOE TOO) I did a thin coat on one half of the shoe, let it dry for an hour and a half and did the other side. After it had dried for 3 hours I did another thin coat all over the shoe. Note: while doing the first coat there seemed to be some spots, almost like little bubbles that took no paint. Rest assured, they were completely covered with the 2nd coat. Don't try and completely cover the surface during the first coat as you'll end up with blobs in some spot and it won't be even. I'm very happy with the results and I'm excited to do this for costumes in the future. Although I packed my suitcase well, the paint did chip off a tiny bit in a few corners on my flight home. Don't think of this as a permanent colour change, it's more of a temporary as the paint will crack in a few spots over time.

Next step is the dress. My beautiful friend in Seattle gave me a dress to wear and she is also a childhood friend of the bride. Although her and I are very close in size, her bosom is a little more generous than mine. I've slowly taken in the side and now need to finish the fine details. I'm also going to shorten the dress by a couple of inches. Here is the before and I'm hoping to have the after in a week!

And yes, my head is turned because I'd been up in the bush with the dogs, working in the backyard with my parents and it just didn't match the dress :-)

Shoes from paylesshttp://www.payless.com/store/