It's been a long time!

I always fall so behind once the school year starts on any of my side projects ;_;. There's so many things I want to do, but no time to do it, le sigh. I've been very neglectful of my blog and my etsy, which really was the main motivation in the first place for regularly updating my blog.

My schedule is a bit all over the place right now, but I'm going to promise myself I will get at least one creative project done by the end of this week. Probably I'll do another hand painted canvass bag, like this one

http://www.etsy.com/listing/49809748/ooak-hand-painted-butterfly-girl-canvass

Which didn't really get a whole lot of views or hearts, but I did have fun making it. Hm, now I just need to decide what to paint.

I fail at making lotion

I've made soap before, but never really did lotion because I didn't want to deal with buying and labeling bottles and such. But, my boyfriend has sensitive skin and can't use most commercial lotions so I thought I'd try my hand at trying to make him some, since he usually just uses up all my aloe vera gel.

I tried this recipe:

4 oz grapeseed oil
2 oz beeswax
2 oz rose water
10 drops vitamin e

And at first I thought everything was turning out well, things were looking smooth and creamy, it didn't smell like roses (which is what I wanted from the rose water) but it smelled like honey from the beeswax, so that was cool too. I used a pretty unrefined beeswax because that's what they had at the health food store near us, I didn't know it would smell quite so strong.

But after an hour or so of sterilizing all my stuff then melting down and mixing, everything came out all grainy! I guess I didn't quite get everything melted well, and it was a little thick for my taste. So I tried to remelt and add water, but all the extra water separated. I tried a second batch with my leftovers with less beeswax and that never melted in the first place. Ugh.

I've never worked with oil and water and wax emulsions before, needless to say, and it seems there is very little room for adjustment in the ratios. I tried to calculate based off of the basic lotion percentages I found online for my second batch, but perhaps because the percentages I read were for emulsifying wax and not beeswax I was off? Or maybe its just because I was using a fork because I don't have a blender. But anyway, I just mixed my sort of grainy really thick lotion with a bunch of aloe gel and gave it to my boyfriend anyway, and I'm sure he doesn't really care about any differences in lotion anyway. Anyone have any suggestions as to a better fix?

On the bright side, after I gave up I did make myself a nice little pot of beeswax lip balm, which I've sorely been in need of since I always lose my chapstick. I'm going to experiment with a few different recipes for that and maybe list some in my shop, since that seems to be a lot easier than lotions.

Vintage!

So I didn't intend to sell vintage in the shop originally, partially because my knowledge of vintage doesn't go back very far and also partially because I just enjoy making things more than shopping and reselling. But I recently just got some awesome vintage clothes at a garage sale for super cheap, and some of them are vintage and handmade so I'm pretty sure they're one of a kind, yay! I happened to keep most of it, but there is one dress that is really cute but just isn't really my style that I decided to sell


Listing here

I've listed it as likely being from the 70's, which I hope is accurate, but I did a bunch of looking around before I made any claims. Anyone have any other opinions to the era?

New treasury feature!

The wonderful Soggybottomflats has included some of my new soaps in her treasury, please stop by and show some love!

Organic, natural, fun, frilly, and feminine treasury

Tuturial: Cucumber Mint Face Mask and Toner

I've always been into making everything myself, but I don't do masks as often because my blender is crap. But I have so many things from my garden lately I can't eat them all, so I figured why not make some beauty products? This mask is really easy and quick and leaves your skin feeling nice and refreshed.

Ingredients:

1/2 Cucumber
4-5 large mint leaves
Juice from 1/4 of a lime
1 Egg white (can substitute with yogurt or honey for a vegan mask)


Instructions:

Chop the cucumber and the mint leaves into small pieces. Probably you don't have to make them super small if your blender actually works well, but mind doesn't. Blend with lime juice until smooth.

Pour from blender into a very fine strainer or a cheesecloth and squeeze out excess liquid. SAVE as a toner, keeps in the fridge for up to one week. Apply the toner with a cotton ball and rinse off with water. This probably leeches some of the good stuff from the mask, but cucumber has a lot of water and I've found the mask to be way to liquidy without straining it.

Take the left overs from the straining and mix with one egg white.

Apply directly onto face until it dries, which will leave a tightening feeling on your face. Rinse off with water. Left overs can be put in a clean jar and kept in the fridge for 1-2 days, but works best when applied immediately.

Cucumber, mint, and lime all have mild astringent qualities which helps clear your complexion, and also have plenty of healthy vitamins for your skin. Cucumber also is rich in silica, which helps skin maintain firmness. I've actually read egg white doesn't have all that many lasting benefits, but I used it to help hold the mask together because I had nothing else in the house.

This can easily be made vegan by replacing the egg with another base such as yogurt or honey. I actually prefer yogurt but I didn't have any in the house the day I made this, so I thought I'd stay accurate to the picture.

Its really fun and easy to experiment with home made face masks, so give it a shot!

Ugh, tuition

What the crap, I just paid my tuition for my second semester of my teaching credential program, and it went up by $150 since the last announcement of raised prices which was up by about another $200, last semester.

I know some other schools are even worse, I graduated from UC Davis just in time to avoid a 30% fee increase, but this is ridiculous. I decided on a state mainly to save money and the way its going, soon it's going to cost the same as my tuition at Davis used to cost, except Davis will probably increase even more and still be more expensive. I budgeted my schedule of how much to save every month to be able to afford school by the time I have to pay for my last tuition bill based on the original amount I thought tuition would be, but now I'm behind again. ARGLDFLJKEROIFNCIEOI#EIJ.

Ugh, ok. Venting done.

On the bright side, I have been conditionally accepted for a scholarship for $1,500, after the scholarship people review my records with the financial aid office. I'm really really hoping that that doesn't mean it's going away after they see how much my parents make. But since they don't pay my tuition...I guess we'll see. Wish me luck!

I made a sale!

Hooray! Sale #5! I know that's not super great, I've only got about 1 sale a month on average, but hey whatever. Now time to go buy something on etsy.