~Window Cleaner~

As I'm working towards making more of my own cleaners and personal care products, I have had both success and failure. Today I want to share a success!

Window cleaner
1 part white vinegar
1 part water

Put mixture in a spray bottle and use to clean glass surfaces.

Easy-peasy! :-) At the workshop I went to last month they mentioned that you could put a drop or two of lemon essential oil in the window cleaner and it would add shine and scent. An added bonus is that when the sun hits the clean windows it will release the lemon scent into the air. Since I do not have the lemon essential oil, I haven't tried this yet, so I can't vouch for that.

But I can vouch for the cleaner! It works really well. Something I read somewhere quite a while ago (so I have no idea of the source!) is that the window cleaner you buy from the store has wax in it. So the first few times that you clean your windows with the vinegar/water, it will be a little harder to clean, but after you get rid of the wax build-up it should be easier.

A little story: about two years ago Kevin wrote on the bathroom mirror with a bar of soap. It said, "I ♥ U". Very sweet, yes? After I washed off the soap, I noticed that whenever the mirror got fogged up, I could still see his message because it didn't get fogged up where he had written. After two years, and many cleanings later, that message still showed up every time the mirror got foggy. My vinegar solution cleaned that residue right off! So I don't know whether to be glad or sad...the mirror is now "clean" (though you couldn't see the residue if the mirror wasn't fogged up) but can I no longer see his sweet message!

~Oatmeal and Brown Sugar~

I just love oatmeal with brown sugar.


This sock I'm making reminds me of oatmeal with brown sugar.


More info on Ravelry.

I had a little helper during my photo shoot:

~A time to plant~

Ecclesiastes 3:1, 2b: To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven...a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted.

It's finally planting season! It felt like it would never get here!

This afternoon I worked in my front flower beds and planted petunias and alyssum. The alyssum seeds look like this:


and was in a seed packet packed for 2007. I'm hoping they grow! We'll see! I've had them, well, since 2007, and they got tucked away and I forgot about them. I had enough to put along both front beds.

One side, all planted:


The petunias are two colors - a deep purple and a mixed purple. The lighter purple petunias are in the center row. I hope it looks nice that way!



I also planted geraniums (in a pot) with a spike in the center and vinca vines around the edge.


I still have more work to do, but I accomplished a lot today!

~Doll Blanket~

Every dolly needs a blanket! I made a doll blanket for my daughter's baby. Very simple - just 3.5 inch squares sewn together, and backed with white flannel.


My favorite square in the quilt:


I made a dress out of this fabric, when I was around 21 or so, and I wore it to shreds. The fabric had wind-blown sheet music on it, and what made it special was that they were all hymns. I saved every single tiny scrap of this fabric, and I was very happy that I could include it in this dolly quilt!

For our daughter's first birthday we looked high and low for a doll. I didn't want a doll that did anything. Especially not one with a motion sensor in it! Those dolls give me the creeps in the store. We went to many stores before we found this nice baby doll:


There hasn't been much interest in the doll until recently so I thought it was high time the poor dolly had a blankie. :-) I cut out enough squares for another doll blanket and once it is finished, I plan on putting it in my Etsy shop.

~Name Crochet~

This is what I have been working on:


It is a wedding gift. I am planning on having it framed, which is where the cost of this project is involved. I've had the pattern forever, and the thread was less than $3. Of course, it involved a little time, but it was so much fun to watch the letters grow and it gave me something to do in the evenings!

I have been happy with Hobby Lobby's framing service for two other things I've done, so I'll probably stick with them. Now I just have to decide on a background mat color. It needs to be dark, and I want it to be a color that won't look "dated" in a few years. Any thoughts?

Now I'd like to do one of these for myself, but in looking around my living room and dining room, we really don't have a good spot to hang it. So I'm thinking of doing one that says "L-O-V-E" and putting in in the bedroom. Maybe. Or maybe I'm done with filet crochet for a little while. LOL

~Sneak peek~

I have a crocheted project that I'm blocking...

...I'll be back tomorrow to share the finished results!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
What else...
...rainy, cold weather
...a rose bush and a blueberry bush waiting to be planted
...lots of tea while I wait for the weather to warm!
...laundry. Lots of it!

Have a great day!

~A sweet and sticky, oily, soapy mess!~

In my effort to be using healthier products, I'm trying to make more of my own products. I've already shared two cleaner recipes with you. Those were (are) a success.

So I decided to branch out.

Hairspray:
I looked online and found some recipes. Most of them included lemon and having to remake it every few weeks. That would be ok, except that brunettes and lemon juice don't really mix. I don't want to lighten my hair. So I searched for an alternate recipe. Sugar syrup. I enthusiastically set out to make it. Very simple, really! Boil 1/2 cup water, and add 2 teaspoons sugar. Let it cool, and put into a spray bottle. Voila! Hairspray. I even had an empty hairspray bottle so I thought I was all set. Why did I think spraying my hair with sugar water was a good idea??? It's sticky. HELLO! It's sugar water! What was I expecting? Besides, I wash my hair in the morning. Do I really want to go to sleep with sugary hair? Isn't that pretty much an invitation for bugs in my bed? I have one more recipe to try, so we'll see how that goes! It doesn't involve sugar or lemons!

Baby Wipes:
It's simple! Cut a roll of paper towels in half, and soak it in a mixture of water, baby shampoo and olive oil. As we know, oil and water do not mix. So when I plunked my paper towels into the mix, the top layer "grabbed" the oil. Great. I just wasted a half roll of paper towels. I didn't follow the directions completely though, because I didn't have a round container that I could stand the paper towels up in. So this may be my fault, though I really don't see how standing them up will alter the problem. Do I try again? Has anyone made their own baby wipes with success? (Since I do not use cloth diapers, I don't want to use cloth wipes.)

~Simplicity 8720~

Twice a month, a young girl from my church comes over and watches my little one while I run around like a crazy woman and clean as fast as I possibly can. Yesterday she was coming over so I decided to sew as fast as I possibly could while she was here. All was going well, and then the lights flickered and the electricity went out. I got in a grand total of 15 minutes of sewing time!

Harumph. I decided to clean instead.

When you're used to something like electricity, you forget just how much you rely on it! I went to switch on lights, tried to use the garbage disposer, and had to call my husband so he could tell me where to find the key for the garage, and how to open the garage door!

So anyhow. Yesterday didn't really work for sewing. But today did!

I finished this apron, for my sister's wedding shower. Well, her wedding shower(s) have already passed, but I still wanted to give her a gift.


Ten years ago when I was preparing to set up house, I made this same apron for myself. Ten years was long enough to make me forget how painful a process it was to encase seams and ric rac in 1/4" double fold bias tape! But I'm glad I forgot because I wouldn't have made this pattern again, and I really love how it turned out.