Why my bathroom smells like a kitchen

My inner hippy loves to use all natural ingredients.  Natural products are cheap, plentiful and give amazing, unexpected results.  The other day I made some new tasty (well, probably not really) body scrubs that my skin is just eating up.

all natural, yummy smelling  home-made scrub

Coffee scrub
Coffee is said to be a great stimulant for your skin and apparently does good things for circulation... did you know most cellulite creams have caffeine in them?!  Plus that smell is great to kick start the day!

1/2 cup ground coffee
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sweet almond oil

Vanilla scrub

I pretty much want to eat anything that smells like vanilla.  Candles, lotions, creams... if it's vanilla I'll be sitting there smelling it all day!  Vanilla scents are also great for relaxing.

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup sweet almond oil
2-3 drops vanilla essence

Lemony citrus scrub

Lemon smells are so refreshing and invigorating.  The vitamin C is great and lemon's another one that it's known for being a good circulation stimulant.

1 cup sea salt

1/2 cup olive oil

3-4 tsp lemon zest

1 tsp orange zest






The best thing is that it's so easy to make these with supplies you already have in your pantry and they smell and feel amazing on your body!  They're so easy and versatile... you can use sugar or salt for the scrub, most oils and experiment with all kinds of flavours and scents.  It's so much fun to come up with your own formulas or add a cute label to give as a pretty homemade gift.

Before & After: Nautical Lamp

First DIY for our guest room redo: A New Lamp.

(and by guest room, I obviously mean the cat's room... have fun trying to kick him out of your bed, future guests)

Initially, I wanted a really country feel to the guest room, so naturally I get a nagging idea in my head for a nautical lamp that I really want to make.  Now just to decide whether the lamp is staying and the room is changing or vice versa...

I did have a really ugly cheap lamp in the room, but I kept seeing this simple little white one every time I visited Spotlight that just fit what I wanted to do.

before shot: plain boring old lamp

Starting with recovering the shade, adding the fabric as diagonal stripes to contrast with the rope base. 

Using the shade as a template, cut, wrap and pin to get the fit right.  Then folding a seam inside the shade, finishing with hot glue to secure it.

To add the rope base, I started with hot glue on the rope on the bottom for the whole circumference, then every 3 turns of the rope, I added a bit of hot glue to secure at the back.

It was such a quick and easy project and now we have a cute new lamp!

I wanted to title this post "I love lamp" but then I thought maybe no-one else would giggle at it but me and I'd just sound all lame, loving my lamp and all.  Ah, I always amuse myself with movie quotes.  No one else, usually, just myself.

What do you think?  Should I change my guest room or should another space be getting the nautical treatment??  I can hear the anchors motifs calling me...

Weekend cooking adventures: the big purple Fail.

I've been wanting to try this yummy blueberry cream cheese frosting recipe on some vanilla cupcakes for a while. Now, I'm not a big cupcake maker because we're not really sweet-tooth's at my place.  So this was adventurous for me even though it sounded easy enough...

Week of Menus - Blueberry cupcakes

They look SO good!

But OOPS! ... Mine are a sad, smooshy pink mess!

Make me feel better... tell me, what's your worst cooking disaster?

Meanwhile... whipped up some yummy homemade lemonade!  Doesn't really warm the winter chill but all that vitamin C is good for the immune system.

Haven't made lemonade before?  So easy to do!

Boil a cup of sugar and a cup of water in a saucepan til all dissolved.  Squeeze your lemons into a pitcher (about a half dozen for a litre).  Let the sugar-water cool and add, topping the jug with ice cold water and give it a good stir.  Pop in some slices of fresh lemon and ice cubes.

Sew cute baby gift

My gorgeous wonderful BFF chicky babe is coming to town, which will be the first time I get to see her with her lil baby-belly and I am soooooper excited!

I've had a baby gift sewing project on my to-do list for ages now:

from: Petite Lemon

And now I have my spanking new sewing machine (yay!) it was time to get right on sewing!  (thanks to my darling for the early birthday gift!)

It is an easy peasy project ... Provided kitty isn't in a playful mood.  The nights he is, he stalks under the table and I play kitty-intervention every 10 minutes as he has tried to eat or attack...

1. Thread

2. Plastic

3. Ribbons

4. Cloths

5. Scissors

6. Me!

A lot of my seams are a bit off from him trying to attack my feet when the foot pedal gets going.  Apparently, it sounds like fun.

I'm not precious when it comes to sewing.  I take a few shortcuts.  Okay, yeh... I'm a bit impatient!

I bought a big pack of large square nappies so they're lovely and big and pinned a wide strip of scrap fabric down through the middle.

The first two I made, I added the ribbon on after I'd done a seam over the edges..  I think they look lovely and chic without the ribbon too.

On the last few I added the ribbon and then seamed it over the edges of the nappy.  This was a bit of a neater option for the seam.

Unfortunately, I then totally forgot to get a picture of them all finished and stacked neatly... Whoops!  They're now on the other side of the country!

Oh, and we both got asked what we meant by "burp cloth"... There's some books you can read, lads...

Yay! A new find...

I bought this art-deco looking sideboard from ebay for $10.  TEN buckaroonies!  When we went to pick it up, it was sitting giant warehouse and were told it had been there gathering dust for 10 years.

I tell you, this place was like thrifty heaven.  Rows and rows of old furniture, lumped on top of each other.  Yes, lumped, I tell you!  ;)  Oh my!  The things....  Old hutches, bookcases, a preserving kit, lamps, cabinets, mattresses, seats, sofas, mirrors.... eeeeek!

If I had a bigger car I have a feeling we would've left with more than the sideboard!

The ideas are flowing...

Painty, mouldy, dusty...

... rotting, rusting hardware...

... green carpet?!

It's just dying for some TLC.

A long project started and I already can't wait to see how it scrubs up!