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. 

Chia Seeds!

I first tried Chia in the Holy Crap cereal.  I didn't notice a huge difference in my energy but after following Styleactivist on Instagram and seeing picture after picture of her preaching its amazing benefits, I decided to give it a full try.  It's amazing.  I'm a low energy, low metabolism type of gal, and even though I work out 4 days a week, bike commute to work and eat a very healthy diet, I get the yawns and need my down time (it's genetics, both of my parents don't have a lot of energy). 

They aren't that big at all, if anything they remind me of super teeny tiny pearls in bubble tea (they remind me of dinosaur eggs too).  They have no flavour but come with a bit of a crunch.  They only take a minute to soften and form a gel around them and you just drink 'em down.  I prefer them in my smoothie as it's already a thick drink.  It's been 3 weeks, I hardly yawn, don't need coffee (although I still drink it because it's awesome tasting), and my workouts are better than ever.  These little seeds are full of omegas and protein, all you need is a tablespoon a day, and hey, it's VEGAN!

Here is Style Activist's blog :-)

Death by Chocolate

Do you like chocolate, and coffee.  Then stay away from this:

It is the most AMAZING combination of chocolate and coffee that I've ever tasted.  Seriously robust.  I was secretly hoping that it would taste way too strong, like 3 cups of concentrated espresso. 

I don't know if I'm disappointed at how amazing it tastes, therefore I'll eat as much as I can get my hands on, or if I'm super happy at how amazing it tastes.  Self control will be very difficult over the next while.

Is this goodbye?

My parents are trying to sell their house and move from the Kootenays to the Okanagan.  There are so many positive points but the only negative is that I'll lose pretty much all ties to the area that I grew up in.  This may have been my last visit to that area with it's small towns, beautiful mountains, high altitude, clean air and few jobs ;-)  It was very sad to leave, felt like I wouldn't see my parents or dogs again which is so silly because I see them every 4 months.  So here are some memories of the town I'll never live in.

My mom and I went to the farmers market conveniently located a block from their house.  It was less than a block long and most of the product hasn't changed in the past decade but it was comforting to see, such as the old man in his Wrangler jeans selling the salad spoons and forks that he carves out of wood, I could have sworn I took a picture of him.  These cupcakes (whose company name is something I never even thought of getting) were amazing.  There were traditional cupcakes, some were gluten free and I picked up a pack of the sugar free chocolate and the vegan coconut lime.  And I LOVE the litte egg cartons to pack them.  Made it easy to transport them and they were really cute for serving.

Of course the puppies and I went on many walks in the bush.  It has been great spending quality time with them over the years, building a trust and respect with animals is such an amazing feeling.  Tasha, the smaller dog with the tanned face, and I grew even closer on this trip.  Poor puppy was abused before she came into our home and it's taken her years to trust people.  I'm so proud to have helped her accomplish so much and because of this I am her favorite person, she never leaves my side.  I've taught her to no longer start fights with unknown dogs and she even lets the odd person pet her on the trails.  I don't know if I'll ever connect with another dog the way I connect with her, there is so much loyalty, trust and love.  And now to find new trails to explore outside of a new city when my parents finally move!

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/

Odds and Ends

The last thing I wanted to work on during the summer months were these slippers, but Vancouver gets cold in the evenings and I knew come September I would be regretting the wait. A girlfriend gave me these wool and sheepskin slippers a few years back when she accidentally shrunk them in the wash. They are the best slippers ever, but I haven't been the nicest to them. The bottoms were just black from dirt and I knew it was time to replace them. I found basic sheepskin slipper bottoms at Michaels and removed the old ones. It was a lot of work, but I did it. I strung a bright colour of wool through the stitches that would be attached to the new bottoms. This would stop the tops from fraying and it would be a good eye marker for myself. I matched up where it looked like the half marks would be and then counted to make sure I was correct and then I started stitching the two together.

In this situation you need to pull each stitch as tight as you can each time, there is no chance to go back and pull them. Both the wool and sheepskin are just too thick to deal with.

I did my start and finish at the end so that the closure would be easy to deal with. I also kept the coloured yarn in just in case something happens and I have to go back in and fix it. These puppies should last me another 3-5 years, I just need to be a little more gentle with them so they don't look so worn out.

And there we go, new slippers! They look a little funny at the moment but once I get walking around in them the wool and sheepskin will stretch out together.

Also, here is another picture (a much better representation) of the quilted coasters from last week.

Hehee, I need to stop being lazy by taking pictures with my iphone, the quality shows!

Crafty Crafties

Just finished a belated house warming gift for a friend, coasters. Yay, now I just have to get them to her.