Dry Skin in The Desert Sun!

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Here in the high desert of Nevada, the winters can be dry and brutal but the summers are worse! Our temperatures are not bad like Vegas, but with days averaging just above 100 degrees constantly, the skin stays dry.  You can put moisturizer on 10x a day and still have dry flaky skin! 

 

My saving grace this summer has been the discovery of this

 

 

Not only is it great to cook with, I have been making a homemade body butter that is absolutely amazing!  And oh so simple!!!

 

1 c.  of coconut oil

 

Place it in your mixer with the wisk attachment on high for 10 minutes.

Once it is all light and fluffy, in the last few seconds add a few drops of your favorite essential oil (mine is lavender) and continue until well distributed.  This will comfortably fill a pint size mason jar, but you can adjust the amount for your container. 

 

 

 

 

That is it!  Told you it was simple.  Some things to keep in mind though is the melting point of coconut oil is 76 degrees.  So you want to store it somewhere it will stay cool and without direct sunlight.  Also, when it hits your 98.6 degree body it will immediately liquify so go sparingly the first few times until you get it down. 

 

Coconut Oil has a million other uses that can be found around the internet or on a quick search of Pinterest but here are some more uses for your body:

 

1.  Make Up Remover - in the liquid form, apply a small dab and wipe away.  One of the great

                                       benefits is that coconut oil is anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial

 

2.  Deep Conditioning Hair Treatment - Leave on for about five minutes than shampoo as usual

 

3.  Use it in place of olive oil in your favorite sugar scrub recipe

 

For more homemade body products check out my board on Pinterest! 

 

And here is another great site I have found!

 



                                      

 

St.  Bontanica has 8 amazing Coconut oil uses for radiant skin!

 

 

This chart is floating around Pinterest it has some great info on it, too.  

 

 

 

 

What are some of your favorite uses for Coconut Oil?  

Pinterest, Picasa and Cricut Saved the Day!!!

My Son dragged his tushie as usual...I don't have ANY idea where he gets his procrastination from (roll eyes, heehee) No, he comes by it honestly.  But anyway, we were down to the last minute trying to throw together a project that is due at 8 am today!  So, after finally finding a store that had the boards in stock, we finally got home to get started at about 2. 

So we took the Cricut that is so easy to use that even a ten year old could handle, punching in the letters and the blurb (or whatever those little thingies are called). 

We glued all that down and went through my entire scrapbook paper stash.  It wasn't much because I do not scrapbook, yet!  I didn't feel like running out to the store again, so Pinterest to the rescue.

Aren' the little swirlies cute???

 

Between my Cool Printables and Fonts and Papercraft boards, I had all the free printable paper I needed. 

I needed to write the little caption below the photos, and didn't feel like printing in Word and then cutting and pasting again, so I tried Picasa.  I had heard alot about it around blogland.  This is the first time I tried it and oh wow, I found another new love!!!

 

 

Hope this post inspires you to tie your crafting in with your helping your family with their projects!!

Laundry Tips and Hints Tuesday

Today, I thought I would share some Tips and Hints for the Laundry Room.  Lets face it, laundry is a necessary evil.  Anything we can do to make it easier, all the better. 

So where do we start, Pretreating... A lot of spots will not come out if not pretreated.  Some stains you can use straight White Vinegar on and they do great.  This will work particularly well on perspiration stains and condiment spills, like ketchup and mustard. 

                         For other stains, you can try this mixture
                         1/2 c White Vinegar
                         1/2 c Ammonia
                         1//2 c Wisk
                         1/2 c Water
                         Mix all together and put into a spray bottle.

Or on my Pinterest Board  for DIY Shout, Carole at My Kitchen Escapades shares her version of this laundry pretreater which is made with just water, dawn ammonia and baking soda...

It is time to wash, I am once again going to go to my Blogging Sister, Karen @ Homemade Glamour

For an extra power boost, you can add some homemade Oxyclean
                                                                                       1 c water
                                                                                       1/2 c hydrogen peroxide
                                                                                       1/2  c baking soda


There are billions of ways to deal with the fabric softener.  If you use store bought fabric softener, you can make your own sheets, but soaking a quartered sponge in the fabric softener and water, 1 part softener to 4 parts water.  When time to start the dryer, gently squeeze one piece out and toss it in.  When the load is done, just toss it back into the fabric softener.  You can also use torn up towels, washcloths and scrap rags...

If you don't want to buy your fabric softener, you can just crumple up two squares of aluminum foil and toss it in. 

Hope these tips will in some way make your laundry day a little lighter. 

Tooth fairy please come see me...

I hate to be a cry baby, but, I am in pain....

Thursday night, I noticed a small chip in one of my molars.  Went to work Friday, it was just a small chip... Well Friday night, a huge chunk of the tooth broke off.  Fast forward about 5 hours and I wake up choking on pieces of that tooth...OH MY it hurts, why don't dentists work on weekends!!!

BUT the good news is that making me feel like dookie is probably the only thing that keeps me home.  And when I am home, not feeling well, I CRAFT!!! 

So Valentine's has been calling to me.  I had picked up a few little craft starters here and there.  I got a new Cricut Mini for Christmas that has been sitting in my craft room feeling neglected and unloved.  We finally got acquainted and boy, have I had fun!

So today, I am going to share the first project to come out of the craft room this weekend.  I have started so many, I may forego the regular posts this week to get them all out in time for V-Day.

Foam Heart Valentine Wreath

So, I started with this plain foam heart wreath that I bought for $1 at Target in the Dollar Spot

I cut these cute hearts out with the Cricut, I only have the George and Basic Shapes Cartridge that came with it, so I am limited in fonts and shapes.  I wanted to add some dimension to the flat wreath, so I put a crease in the middle of each heart.  I added a bead of hot glue down the back and attached one to each of the hearts in the wreath.

I, then, added a little red glitter spray paint to give it a little oomph!

 



Back to the Cricut to give this little $1 wreath a little more love...

I took some red vinyl and white cardstock...Cut out a 3inch heart out of each, a 2.5 in heart out of the white cardstock and then the I Love You out of red vinyl at 1.5 inches.  I attched the 3 in vinyl heart to the 3 in white cardstock heart.  Then glued the 2.5 inch white heart on top.  Applied the I Love You vinyl and gave it a little glitter love also.




Can you tell I am trying to follow Michaels' advice







Ready for the Finale?!?  

I finished it off by attaching a paperclip to the back of both the heart and wreath.  Took some pink crochet string and hung the heart so it could swing free...Why 2 paperclips, I love paperclips for hanging light stuff, they give you a hook at the top and in this case it gives me a loop at the bottom to hang this string from.

Come back tomorrow to see what else I got into today...or better yet, Follow me and we'll have lots of fun together!

Kids Missing from My Kitchen

Help! My four yo and kitchen helper has run away...to Memas! She hasn't been around much this week because
Mema has more time to cook and bake with her...

So I had to sneak over and take some pics of them together in the kitchen .

What were they making that day? Chicken and dumplings with coconut pie for dessert. The pie Bethany says she made ALL by herself Not bad for four, huh?

I have to share how she makes her chicken and dumplings because it is rather unique!

First you mix a Large carton of Chicken Stock, with a can of cream of chicken soup and a can of cream of celery soup, then put on the stove to boil.  Add 3 chicken breasts, bones, skin and all...

Remove the chicken when fully cooked and set aside to let cool.  Now it is time for the dumplings...

She takes two packages of canned biscuits and thins/stretches them out, dips them in flour and set aside.  Once all are prepared she adds them to the pot to boil approximately 10 minutes.  While they are boiling, debone and skin the cooked chicken.  Break the breasts into large chunks and add to the pot once the biscuits are done...Dinner is served! 

Poster Board LOL Its not what you Think

True to my behind the 8 ball status, I am still finishing up planned Christmas presents….

I even had an extra month to finish this one, because my daughter travelled back to North Carolina to visit her sister and grandmother over winter break.

Well, better late than never has always been my theory.  Early in the fall I found a whole bunch of cool posters on clearance at Michael's  and since I was planning on giving her some motivational gifts, I thought, this is perfect!!!

I had purchased some boards from Home Depot and with no cutting whatsoever one just happened to line up perfectly.  ( For more about my love of Home Depots cut board bin, check this out) 

I about had a heart attack when I saw the price of Modge Podge, but then I remembered Pinterest.  I am not even going to try to say who was the original poster of this, because soooo many people claim that it is their idea.  But, I will say, it is not mine and if you would like more detailed instructions, a quick search on Pinterest  will give it to you.  So I purchased some cool duct like tape in Pink Glitter (at 40% off of course, see more on this coupon tomorrow) and some glue  then  headed home. 

I quickly washed the board.  I took an old clean spaghetti sauce jar and emptied the glue into it.  I then refilled the glue bottle with water and dumped that in also.  A thorough shake and there you go Homemade Modge Podge.  Another quick search on Pinterest  will give you lots of tips on a more professional appearance with your modge podge products. 

I painted a layer of modge podge on the front of the board.  Then carefully laid the poster down, trying not to get any air bubbles, didn’t happen.  So I went and got my squeegee out of the shower ( yeah, I know, but it’s the only thing I had to use) and smoothed it out.  All perfect except for one small imperfection. 

I then painted the whole board and poster and set aside to dry over night.

In the morning it was all dry and pretty, as a side note, I understand that you can also add Glycerin to your mixture if you want it glossy. 

I cut the glitter tape to size and applied.  Voila… a beautiful new decoration!

Now with this being made out of a board, it would be rather difficult to hang, although not impossible.  I designed this as sturdy enough to stand in the corner of her room at the sorority without needing to hang. 

Check out the Places I’m Partying page to see where I am linking up this week!

How to make multiple unique meals out of one ham

One of the biggest time savers that I have learned over the years, ( not an original idea, just what works best for me) is planned leftovers.  Other sites will call this cook once, eat twice  or other forms of this.  Basically what it means for me is to cook a large meal on the weekends when I have more time and then have enough leftover meat to create at least one more original meal. 

For example on New Year’s Day, I made a large ham dinner for the whole family.  With the leftovers, I was able to create two more unique family dinners.  Follow along for step by step:

The day of the first dinner, after dinner I took the largest portion of ham and diced  it into roughly 2 cup bags.  In this case, because of the numbers of people here for New Years, I only was able to bag one.  Right into the freezer it went. 

With the bone and whatever ham was still hanging on, I created Ham Stock. 

Ham Stock

Ham bone with leftover pieces of meat

1 onion, peeled and quartered

2 stalks of Celery, rough chopped

1 Bay Leaf

Amount to your liking:

Salt

Pepper

Garlic

Sage- no more than ½ tsp

Add all ingredients to the crock pot and fill the rest of the way with water or white wine or both.  Cook on high for 6-8 hours or until the bone comes out “naked”  with no little pieces of meat still hanging on.  Turn off to let cool for at least 30 minutes.  Then set a colander on top of a large stock pot and empty crock-pot into colander.  Allow all liquid to drain into the stockpot.  Remove the colander and separate out all the ham.  Place this in a container, discard the rest of the items in the colander.  Store the liquid stock in the 2-4 c containers in the freezer.  Now go ahead and rest you have earned the break, you have a good head start on two new meals.

The first one I created was Ham and Bean Stoup (to steal a term from Rachel Ray, it is a thick soup, somewhere between a soup and stew).

½ bag of small white beans (of your choice, prepared as directed)

Leftover ham that came out of the colander (off the bone is more tender and stoup like)

1 onion, chopped

2 stalks of celery, chopped

2 carrots grated

Salt, pepper and garlic to taste

Ham stock

Place all ingredients in the crock pot and fill with ham stock.  Cook on low for 6-8 hours.  In the last hour, remove about 1 cup each of beans and stock and puree in the blender.  Add back to pot, stir and finish cooking as directed.  I love to serve this with a good, crusty bread and crisp, fresh salad.

The second planned leftover ham meal is Ham and Pea Casserole 

Boil ½ box of seashell pasta (or any pasta of your choice) al dente.  Making sure to salt the water for flavor.  Strain when done.

Take the diced ham from the freezer and add with ½ bag of frozen peas in a bowl with the pasta.  In a saucepan or skillet combine 8 oz cream cheese (softened) and 1 10 oz can of cream of anything condensed soup.  Once blended, season with salt, pepper and garlic to taste.  Heat on low while stirring until thoroughly combined.  Pour over the other three ingredients and toss to cover.  Pour mixture into a prepared (spray with cooking spray) 13x9 glass baking dish.  Take one sleeve of Ritz Crackers and pulverize in a food chopper or crush by hand, sprinkle over the casserole.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes.

What are some of favorite meals that you like to make with leftover ham?

Check out my Where I’m partying page for where I am linking up to this week!

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Tips and Hints Tuesday- Dry Skin Treatment

I love the snow this time of year, my skin hates it!  It gets dry, cracks and even bleeds.  Working in a hospital, my hands are getting washed hundreds of times a day.  The knuckles crack, and my heels crack, some days my skin gets so bad it just hurts.  Since I had to attempt some repair work recently, I figured that I would share some of what I do, plus some of the pins that I have on my Homemade Body Products board on Pinterest. 

In the interest of hurrying because my feet were hurting sooooo bad I filled the bottom 4 inches of the bathtub with as hot as I could stand.  I soaked my feet for about 15 minutes and then used my ped-egg and  a foot scrub...lather rinse and repeat.  Once I was satisfied with the results, I liberally rubbed vaseline on my clean dry feet and put socks on and slept in them until the morning.  Baby soft when I woke up the next day.  For the hands, I just apply the vaseline and cotton gloves and sleep until morning!

Some of my favorites on Pinterest are:

Home remedies for you shares lots of good ideas including a little knowledge behind the causes of the cracking. 

Viva Full House shares a hydrating facial mask

And my Blogger sister, Karen, shares the Best Homemade Lotion Ever

While your over at Karen's site, check out the cutest Three tiered cupcake plates ever

and if you are scratching your head and going, what the heck  a blogging sister is, just head on over to Sara's site and sign up to get your own blogger sister.

   

Winter Weather Tips

As I sit here writing this, we are finally getting our first snowfall of the seaon.  Yes, we had some in October but that doesn't count.  In ski country, the season generally starts Thanksgiving with the temperatures cold enough for the slopes to maintain and build a base so they can open by Christmas. Our poor ski areas are suffering this year, so YEA!!!! the snow is finally coming.  We are expecting heavy storms by the end of the week which means the mountains should get lots.

That said, snow and ice are on my mind so I decided that this first week of Tips and Hints Tuesday will be centered around them.

If you are not lucky enough to have a garage or covered parking, fighting with the snow/ice each morning can be a royal pain.  One way to prevent or at least minimize the headaches is to put something over your windshield the night before and anticipated problems.  You could use a blanket, beach towel ( not using those now anyway), a sheet of cardboard or even your car floor mats.  The important thing to remember is to get it to stay in place.

1.  Make sure you tuck whatever you use under your windshield wipers to secure.

2.  If at all possible, tuck it into the front doors or windows also.

3.  You could also do this with the back window and tuck into the back doors if you have a 4 dr sedan.

Keep a handy spray bottle filled with one of two mixtures in it:

3:1 parts white vinegar and water

OR

2:1 parts rubbing alcohol and water

Either of these can be sprayed on all the car windows the night before to prevent the ice from building up.

The rubbing alcohol mixture can also be wiped onto the inside of windows to prevent them from fogging up.

Already have ice on your car?  The alcohol mixture also workers as a de-icer when sprayed on.  If left for a few seconds, it will melt the ice away.

While you have the rubbing alcohol out making your mixture, go ahead and add about 1/8 a  cup into your windshield washer fluid container in the car.  This will help to keep your lines from freezing and if you are driving in a storm and the ice is building up on your windshield and wipers a few sprays will help it melt away and get you home safely.

Three more things to put in your winter tool box (besides your scraper, or if you are like me and can never find the scraper, an old credit card  because it will work in a pinch)

1. Salt- sprinkle some on ice that can't be loosened.  It will melt if you shake some on it and let it sit for a

            minutes.

2.  Hand Sanitizer- it works great at defrosting frozen locks.  A little squirt will melt the ice.

3.  Cat Litter- Even the dollar tree sells small bags for a dollar, if you were to get stuck and have your

            wheels spinning, a little sprinkle in front of the tires and voila you are on your way.

I hope thesese tips will help you to go out and enjoy the beauty and wonder of winter without the headaches it can cause!  And just remember, it only lasts a little while, take a deep breath and before you know it, you will be back on the beaches!