A Little Bee Lovey

For the new baby I would like to decorate her room with brown and yellow bees.  When I decorate I don't go crazy.  I usually use the same curtains and rug and the color brown and add a painting, some wall hangings, a peg board with a name on it, and a pillow or two.  The crib remains neutral except for some loveys to go with the theme.

We've had a safari theme, a monkey theme, a lamb theme, and now we will have a bee theme.

So I have been looking online for brown and yellow bees.  I usually make most of what goes into the theme's decor, but I've never made a lovey before.  I couldn't find one I liked, so I decided to make one.

I wish this could be a great tutorial, but the truth is I didn't know what I was doing the whole time.  I pretty much just went with it and eventually came up with a cute little amateur product.  Perhaps I will try this again in the future, but at another time.

I started by taking another lovey and getting an idea of how to go about things from examining this little monkey (which interestingly was not actually a part of the aforementioned monkey theme).

Then I started cutting and sewing.  I sewed most of it with the machine, but the face I embroidered by hand, and I also embroidered the edges of the antennae.  

I sewed the head on by hand, and I would like to research more next time because I am sure there is an easier way.  

I used bias tape for the white and thinner brown stripes.  Amazingly I already had all of the supplies I needed for this.  This was a free project!

And here is the final product.  

So now the search for a little brown and yellow bee lovey is over.  I hope she loves it!  

Have you made a lovey like this?  I would love to see how you did it.  Please share in the comments or contact me directly.

Homemade Christmas: Hard Lotion Bars and Lip Balms

So Homemade Christmas was a success throughout our gift list, thankfully.  In fact, I'm going to do it again this year (Thankfully I wrote down what I gave to each person, so I don't repeat).

Repeating might not be a bad idea with these though.  I made several batches of homemade hard lotion bars.  They are called hard because they are actually solid instead of gooey.  The lotion melts on as you massage the bar onto your skin.  It's delightful.

I originally found out about these through MadeOn: Skin Care Products.  There you will find recipes for several homemade goodies and even videos included to help with the process!   Go here to check out her video on YouTube (embedding was disabled, so you have to click on the link).

I also made lip balms with the same recipe!  This lip balm is my new favorite.  It works so well, and I made it myself for very little money.

Taking equal parts of coconut oil *, beeswax *, and Shea butter * (although you can add a little more Shea butter or a little more beeswax to get your desired consistency - like if you live in a more hot and humid climate adding more of these will help them not melt a little).  I started by using just 1/2 cup each to see how much it would make based on the muffin tins I was using to mold them.

I melted them using my homemade double boiler method (maybe one day I will actually buy some double boiler pots).

I removed the pot carefully from the stove (without getting water into it), and dropped in about 20 drops of essential oils.  I use the oils from Young Living +, and I made batches with peppermint, PanAway, Thieves, lavender, and frankincense.  Then I gently stirred the oils into the mixture to distribute evenly.

I poured the liquid into the molds and used a dropper to get them into the lip balm tubes * (the video really helps with tips on that).

I used regular muffin tins and mini muffin tins.  You can use any container really, as long as it can stand the hot liquid going in.

Then I waited for them to cool and firm up, put them into the freezer (while still in tins) for about an hour.  When they came out of the freezer they were really easy to pop out of the tins.  After that I placed them into the containers I would gift them in.  For the little ones, I used clean baby food jars and decorated the lids.  For the larger ones, I put them in plastic wrap and into a cloth bag or a Christmas gift box.

Before this project I had no idea about the benefits of all of the ingredients.  We use coconut oil a lot, so I knew how beneficial that is for the body, and I know the oils are wonderful for health and wellness, but the Shea butter and the beeswax were wonderful to learn about.

In fact, I made some for our family, and I have really loved it for my face, neck, hands, and lips.  My skin looks so balanced, and there are even fewer wrinkles.  I kid you not.  This stuff is great.  Not to mention the lip balm has helped prevent chapped lips like nobody's business.

I have a feeling these will become a staple at our house, and a regular gifting item.  I want to look at more recipes for other products to try from MadeOn, too!  And by the way, Renee from MadeOn has many recipes, ebooks, and kits available, too.

This is a fun way to give a helpful and practical gift to others.  Enjoy!


* I have included affiliate links to Amazon for these products.  I found the best prices there for these items.
+ I have a good friend who is a distributor for Young Living, and I can give you the contact information if you are interested.  I highly recommend their essential oils and essential oil blends.

The Lion of Judah

I finally did it.  That big, blank canvas in our dining room that I mentioned a while ago has now been painted!  It took me so long to decide what I wanted to do on it.  I toyed with so many ideas, but one day I thought of a regal, kingly lion, and that seemed right.

So here it is!

I had originally envisioned the lion to be much more regal and less cheerful, but this is what came out of me.  The more I look at that cheerfulness the more I like it.

I looked at a lot of photos and drawings and paintings of lions, and then I sketched it out on the canvas.  For me that was the easier part.  I was most nervous about actually painting it, but I had fun doing it.

Feels good to get a project done.  I'm thankful for this lion.

What projects have you been wanting to complete lately?

Homemade Christmas: Ojo de Dios

This year in our homeschooling we went through Level 1 of La Clase Divertida.  We loved it and are looking forward to Level 2 once we get back to school in January.

One of the crafts we did together during Level 1 was the Ojo de Dios, or Eye of God.  This is a traditional Mexican craft that is also a part of the cultures of other Latin American countries.  One of my children had the great idea to incorporate this craft into our homemade Christmas plans.  As a result, she and I made about 40 of these!  It was fun, and we gave them to family and friends and also to our neighbors with the description and history of the Ojo de Dios and this verse:

" I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go.  I will counsel you with My eye upon you." (Psalm 32:8 ESV)

We also decided to give one of my nephews a kit to make his own Ojo de Dios with a completed one for him to have and a link to this video I made to show him how to do it.

By the way, it was pretty awesome how we got the supplies together for this craft.  We had a whole bag of these cake pop/popsicle sticks already, and the yarn was given to me by a friend recently after I had been looking for multi-colored yarn at a few craft stores nearby.  Thanks, God!  It came together quite nicely.

Enjoy making you Ojo de Dios, and don't forget to share them with others.

Homemade Christmas: Reclaimed Music Sheet Art

I am a wanna be musician.  I am learning how to play the ukelele and the violin, but I can't learn fast enough!  It is something I wish I would have started when I was much younger, but nonetheless I'm still going for it now.

I love music, and I love notes on a page (which by the way I also want to learn to read those notes, so I'm working on that also).  I started noticing that I had some friends with old sheet music they really didn't want.  Instead of throwing it away they gave it to me!  Now I had some new material for new creations.

This is actually my second creative session with these sheets of music.  I made some necklaces with some of it, too, which you can see here.  Some of them already sold, but more will be coming soon.  These necklaces are some of my absolute favorite items at Golden Apples Designs, so I will be making more in the near future.

Here are the materials with which I started.  They were accumulated through clearance sales, gift card purchases, or broken things I thought might work out into something cool one day.  That small brown frame with no back, for example, was the top of a small music box that broke.

And so I began.

I used glue, just plain old craft glue, and carefully attached the pieces of sheet music to a couple of the frames and used the sheet music to cut out pictures for other frames.  I also had the ocean picture printed along with the picture that has Victor Hugo's quote about music.  After only a couple of hours total (some was drying time), here is the result:

So here are five more gifts ready for Christmas, and it only cost me a couple of hours and about $7 total that I spent over the last eight months or so on the frames.

I'll be doing some more of this soon and listing some similar music sheet creations at Golden Apples Designs.

Join me in my Homemade Christmas Project and begin making gifts each month for Christmas.  I would love to see what you have created, so feel free to email me or post pictures on our Facebook page!

Skirt/Dress from Panamanian Fabric

During our trip to Panama, we took several opportunities to support local artisans and buy handmade items for gifts and also some goodies for ourselves.  I was looking to buy a skirt or something fun to wear when I stumbled upon a fabric store!

Even better!

I had a great time with the ladies who worked there as I tried to speak Spanish and pick out two lovely prints.  One of them is a traditional print that is used to make the large and beautiful skirts they use for traditional Panamanian dancing.  So I bought two yards of each (although now I wish I would have bought more!) and starting thinking about what I would do with them.

It wasn't until I was packing for a trip to California for a wedding that I realized exactly what I wanted to do with the traditional print fabric.  I would make a dress to wear to the wedding!

And so it began.

I also thought it would be fun and cute to make a little skirt for my youngest who is coming with me, as well.  Here is the fabric cut out and ready.  I used skirts we already had as a pattern, and I cut out the long pieces to become the ruffle at the bottom.

I have a lot to learn when it comes to proper tailoring techniques, but I like to jump in and learn as I go sometimes.  Occasionally that results in some trouble shooting, which happened on this day, but eventually the final product comes out great in the end.  I like to experiment on things that will be for us anyway.

I worked on the little one's first thinking that would be a good way to practice for the big one.  I love making little skirts.  They don't require much fabric or experience or skill really, and they are so cute!  Here is what I cam up with for her.

I had to redo the seams a bit because I actually made it too small at first.  However once it was done, I was very pleased with the outcome.  So cute!

So then it was my turn.  I had a couple of different ideas for it, and I tried to get a few of them going, but then I realized it would be great to have a dress that could also be worn as a long skirt, and a skirt that can also be worn as a dress.  I did put some elastic in the waistband/top band which happens to work for my size.  This allows it to be more secure either way I am wearing it.  The ruffle at the bottom was made by using twice the length of the bottom of the skirt/dress.

 

I love versatility, so I love that I can also dress it done and wear it as a fun maxi skirt.  And all of this for just $2 a yard!  I love the brilliant blue and the little red and yellow pops in the flowers.  They had this fabric in yellow and orange, too, and in the markets I saw skirts made with it out of teal and red with the same pattern. 

Maybe next time I will get enough to actually make one of their native skirts for traditional dancing!  It is so much fun with tons of flowing fabric.  We had the chance to see some of this dancing at a rehearsal we found out about, and they were gracious enough to let us come in a watch!  It was beautiful just like the country of Panama and their people.  

And now I have a wedding to get to where there will be lots of latin dancing and rejoicing because of the Lord bringing together two wonderful people to unite in a covenant of marriage.  

I should have added some pockets for tissues!  

Summer Goals

I really love summer.  My husband is in education, so he gets a significant and well deserved break during the summer.  This means more family time and more time for me to get some extra special projects done.

In addition to some exciting travel and missions opportunities we have planned for the summer and some household projects I'll have more time for I have some arts and crafts goals, as well.

1. Homemade Christmas 

Continue with my Homemade Christmas plans to make more items to be given away at Christmastime.  I am working on making these items every month, so that I won't be overwhelmed with how many people are on my Christmas list come November.

2. Begin to Learn to Crochet

I don't expect masterpiece skill level by September, but I would like to get the ball rolling in that direction.  I have always wanted to learn to crochet, and I happen to have some really cute yarn waiting for me to bring it to life.  I have a curriculum style program I picked up at a homeschool conference that I will be using for this.  It's called "Sew Teach Me."

3. Make Some Maxi Skirts

I have a hefty supply of fabric that I have acquired over the last few years or more.  One thing I would love to make with it are some cute, trendy, and feminine maxi skirts.  I love a good long skirt, so I have been collecting ideas, tutorials, and technique tips to do this.

4. Paint Big Blank Canvas in Dining Room

I got a great deal on a huge canvas about a month ago, and I put it up on the wall where I want it in our dining room.  I have some ideas, but haven't taken the plunge yet on completing it.  I really want this to be a great piece that represents our family, so I look forward to this project!

5. Paint Party!

I have recently noticed that there are several ladies at my church who paint and are great artists!  I would love to organize a fun get-together for us to paint and inspire each other while being refreshed and encouraged.  Wouldn't that be so fun?

What are your summer arts and crafts goals?  Check out our boards on Pinterest for some great inspiration!