DIY: Jasmine's Space

Jasmine has been sharing the large bedroom with the boys for several months now. While it could be worse, she really needed her space away from boys and boy things. I decided that the landing at the top of the stairs was just the right amount of space for a young girl . . . with a catch.

One of the agreements I made with my parents was that I would help them get the house we are renting from them ready for other renters. That means helping update the house and clean out mom and dad's things. I knew that I was committing to a lot of work but sometimes I wonder if I'm slightly insane or something.

So, the first order of business was to empty out the space for Jasmine to use. This meant two days of organizing, packing, moving and cleaning.

I took the first picture after packing and cleaning a day. The second picture is halfway through day two and I had dug out enough to work on the closet area.

I repeated over and over to myself that it would be worth it. Jasmine would have her own space and everyone would sleep better and argue less.

Packing, packing and more packing . . . moving, sweeping, cleaning.




You can see my big helpers here cleaning the floor.

Finally, we hit a point where we had basically everything out from upstairs, everything off the walls, the closet swept and mopped and the walls ready for prepping.



In case you have never prepped walls for painting, part of that is filling in holes. It's not hard really. Grab a putty knife, slab on the wall patch and scrape off the excess.

The walls were covered with holes so this step actually took quite a long time. *sigh*



The next step I did was to paint the bottom of Jasmine's walls. Jasmine loves Tinkerbell, fairies, princesses, butterflies and any thing that is cuddly or pretty. She has a comforter that is a sky over grass with flowers so I loosely imitated the blanket. Here's the first coat of the bottom green.

The top we did in a light blue. For the paints, when Menards had the free after rebate gallons of white paint, we bought as many as we were allowed. When it came time to paint Jasmine's room, I found the colors I wanted then I picked the color at the bottom of the sample card and bought a sample of that color. When I got home, I mixed a gallon of the free-after-rebate paint with each color sample. Two gallons of paint ended up costing $5.00 after tax.

I bought a Tinkerbell boarder and it divides the room really well! The fairy stickers Jasmine enjoys tremendously and is a nice touch to finish the wall. They aren't organized like I would prefer to have them, but they are Jasmine's so I let her arrange them.

One addition the space desperately needed was a fan. In the summer, it gets stuffy in this area because of poor insulation and the lack of a duct vent.

I didn't take any pictures of the process but I cut a hole in the ceiling, ran wiring to the wall, encountered many problems in the wall getting the wire to a power source but eventually, I had the wiring ready and I hung the fan. It is the perfect size for the room and adds light where Jazzy needs it.



There are a few more details I am working on like adding a rod so Jasmine can hang clothes and finishing the painting in a couple areas but you can see by Jasmine's smile that she's a happy camper in her own space!

I'll update with more pictures once I have all the details in her room sorted out.

Mendards Deals

Menards has several free-after-rebate items this week. There are limits on how many you can buy and receive a rebate so make sure to read the fine print at the store.

Lifetime Ultra Caulk: $3.50 -free after rebate
Bayco Extension Cord Lock: $0.79 -free after rebate
Spot Chomp Stain Remover 13.2 oz. : $4.00 -free after rebate
Mini Storage Bin 4" x 3.25" x 5": $0.50 -free after rebate
14" Plastic Mud Pan: $4.50 -free after rebate
Broadloom Mat 18" x 24": $1.50 -free after rebate
Moldex Deep Stain Remover 32 oz.: 10.00 -Free after rebate
Utility Mat 23" x 35": $5.00 -Free after rebate
Empire Poly Rafter Square: $2.50 -Free after rebate

There are many other great deals like 100 count sanitary hand wipes that are Buy One Get One Free for $3.28 and 300 count matches for $0.99.

I'm a little excited about the 14" Mud Pan. I'm going to go see what the quality of the item is. If the plastic is thick enough I might pick a couple up to use as planters next spring. :)

Did you find any great deals this week? Please share!

Lotion Bar Tutorial

What is a lotion bar? It is simply lotion made as a solid.

I love lotion bars. They are nice because they do not require preservatives because there is no water. They are made with beeswax which leaves a protective layer on your skin which means you do not have to re-apply lotion every single time you wash your hands. This is a bonus to me as a mom who cooks a lot. I feel like I am always washing my hands.

This lotion bar recipe is an experiment for me. I have had requests for a lotion bar with no scent or colorant for extra sensitive skin. After more research, I learned olive oil's PH is the closest oil to our natural skin's PH. Because of that, I integrated olive oil in with this batch.

Notice the scale? When working with a range of solids and liquids, it is simpler to weigh everything instead of try to measure. My measurements listed are in pounds and weight ounces. So here's my recipe.

1 lb beeswax
3.5 oz (weighed, 4oz volume)
3.5 oz (weighed, 4oz volume)
5 oz Shea butter
5 oz Cocoa butter
5 oz Mango Butter

You do not have to have several types of butters. Using only shea or mango butter will both make a nice lotion bar. You do need to have a lotion butter in the recipe. You also do not need to use jojoba oil. I simply like it though I might replace it with a different oil for budgetary reasons. Vitamin E Oil, Almond Oil or using all Olive oil will give you nice results.

I drove to Lincoln and visited Valhalla Bees at 47th and Hartley. (They are west of the Dolly Madison store and east of the indoor shooting range.) They had processed some wax and I picked up 3 lbs. I chose pound bricks because it's lower cost per pound and I make big batches at a time. If you want to make a single lotion bar, you can buy the beeswax in ounces if you want.

I also swung by Herbs and More and picked up 4 oz of Jojoba Oil. They charged $9.99 for 4 oz! This is an extremely high price so if anyone finds jojoba oil for less, please let me know where!

I do not have a dedicated sauce pan big enough for a pound of beeswax so I decided to use the microwave method. When making lotions, do not use your regular cookware. It is really hard to get it completely clean! I recommend grabbing a cheap sauce pan from Walmart or go to a donation store like Goodwill or Salvation Army to get a sauce pan dedicated to making lotions. Or, get a cheep, microwave-safe plastic bowl and dedicate it to making lotions.

I put the pound of wax, oils and butters in the bowl and microwaved for 2 minutes. Then I pulled out and stirred briefly and put the bowl back in the microwave. The picture to the right is after 2 minutes. I set the microwave for another 2 minutes then pulled the bowl out and stirred again. I did this over and over again. Please note, the bowl will get really hot in the bottom. Always tap the bowl lightly where you are going to grab and ensure it is safe to touch or wear protective oven mitts.

When the wax is almost completely melted, you can pull the bowl out and stir until the rest of the beeswax disappears.

At this point, the mixture is extremely hot. Make sure to put the bowl on a trivet or hot pad, not your counter. Also, do not touch the mixture as it can cause severe burns.







I have my dedicated mixing spoon and measuring cup in the bowl. I stirred for approximately one minute to make sure all the ingredients are combined. Notice the beautiful amber color. There is no trace of the separate ingredients. If you used bleached wax the color would be almost transparent.

If you wanted to add scent or color, this is the stage to add those. Be sure to use oil soluble colorant with this recipe. You can add regular food color to creme lotions because they contain water. Food color simply pools or makes little balls in oil. (Yes, I found out the hard way!)

I use regular muffin tins for my molds. There are many molds in a broad variety of shapes and sizes available for you to purchase if you are so inclined. Again, these need to be dedicated to your lotion/craft making. You do not want to use these to make food as it is extremely difficult to get these completely clean and the oils will contaminate your food.

I placed my muffin tin on my scale since I sell my lotion bars. If you notice, there is some wax spillage in between the cups. As the mixture cools, you can scrape the spots off easily and put the pieces back in your still warm mixture.

As the lotion bars cool, they will change to a lighter color. These lotion bars still have a slightly darker center which means they are solid on the outside and still partially liquid in the center. If you touch the tops, they are only warm, no longer hot.

If you want, you can leave the lotion bars out for several hours and let them cool. There isn't a set way to cool them as long as you allow several hours for complete cooling.

Personally, I like to get them out of the muffin tins and wrapped as soon as possible. I let them cool for approximately 30 minutes on the counter then I put them in the freezer. After about 15 minutes in the freezer, I can turn the pan upside down and drop it onto my table and the lotion bars pop out. It sometimes takes a few drops before all of them come out so don't worry if the first drop doesn't work. Getting the bars out is also why I do not fill the muffin tins to the top. The space helps protect the lotion bars from being marred during my "scientific" extraction process.

If you make a large batch like I did, you might have wax left over after filling your molds. As it cools, it will turn hard as well. Do not fear! You can simply put the bowl back in the microwave in 2 minute segments again and fill your molds again once you have emptied them.

The recipe above that I used made 20 lotion bars. I sell my lotion bars for $4.00 each and they last for months. To apply, pick up and rub on your dry skin as if you were using a bar of soap. If your bar is cold, you will need to hold the bar in your hands for a few seconds to warm the mixture enough to melt the beeswax. If the bar is hot, it is really easy to apply too much!

For happy feet, use a salt scrub (also easy to make) to buff off any dirt or dry skin. Then use the lotion bar to seal in the wonderfulness!

Happy lotion making and let me know how your bars turn out!

Menards Deals

In retrospect, I should have written this post sooner. Menards has some amazing deals for the DIYer and this week they have had a deal where you can buy up to five gallons of paint for $11.00 then fill out a rebate card for $11.00. In other words, free after rebate.

No, you can't have Menards tint the paint. It's part of the "special" HOWEVER, you can buy a pint of paint and tint the gallon -or possibly tint several gallons depending on the color you want for a low price. Personally, I have a quart of paint that I received for free as part of a marketing campain held by a paint company. It is a deep wine red that I can use to tint one of the gallons. We have plans to remodel my parents' downstairs bathroom and the red will look amazing with the woodwork.

Menards also had a rebate for free caulk! I'm a bit of a caulk nut. It solves so many problems like air leaks, water leaks and gaps where creepy-crawlys like to enter. Telling me I can have more caulk for free (even if it's after a rebate) is like telling a choco-holic they get a year's supply of Hershy bars!

These deals are only good until tomorrow. On Monday I'll post any other amazing deals I see.

Make Your Own Liquid Soap

I just discovered this post on Savvy Housekeeping.

"How To Turn A Bar of Soap Into Liquid Hand Soap

Ingredients:

1 c soap flakes
10 c water
1 Tbs glycerin

Equipment:

Cheese grater
A large pot
Measuring cup and spoons
A spatula for stirring
A soap container with a hand pump
A container to hold excess soap
Funnel

Directions:

First, grate the soap. Get out your cheese grater, grab the soap, and get grating. I found this to be surprisingly easy, although the soap particles tend to float in the air as you grate. You can wear a mask to avoid breathing it in. When you’re done, the soap flakes look like grated Parmesan:

One bar of soap yielded a little over 1.5 cups of flakes. The recipe only uses one cup of soap flakes, so I put the remaining soap in a jar for later use.

In a large pot, combine 1 cup soap flakes, 10 cups water, and 1 Tbs glycerin. Turn on medium-low heat and stir until the soap dissolves. This happens fast, about a minute or two.

Let the soap cool completely, then pour into the containers using the funnel. That’s all there is to it!"

From Sabrina: I am going to try this possibly tommorrow. Wednesdays are the farmer's market so it will depend on whether I get everything ready in a reasonable amount of time or not. I have some glycerin soap base that I haven't done anything with so I'll melt it down and try making it liquid which we use a lot more than bar soap.

If you have the urge to be adventurous and try this check out the comments on the Savvy Housekeeping blog before you try just to have a heads up of some issues others have experienced. Remember, every bar of soap will have different ingredients. The type you choose will affect the amount of water and glycerin you should use. If your batch doesn't come out perfect the first time, keep trying. If it is too thick, add a cup of water. If it is too runny, boil off a little bit of the water. I recommend letting it boil for 10 minutes then sit overnight to congeal. If that's not enough, boil for 10 more minutes.

Yard Project

I have been working hard in my parents' yard and I am finally starting to see some progress. Out of curiosity, I decided to measure the garden by the road to see how far I needed to go. This garden is 150 feet! No wonder I am so tired today!

My mother decided she didn't want the regular bricks along the sidewalk so she bought scalloped bricks to line the sidewalk. I think it adds a nice touch.

Yesterday, everyone chipped in and pulled weeds, tilled, leveled the soil, carted the extra soil to the strawberry bed, laid landscaping material and mulch.

The problem we are running into is all the tree stumps. Because the garden grew without maintenance for so long, several volunteer trees were able to take root. We have dug up or pulled out (using a truck) 9 trees so far.



To add a little bit of fancy to the garden, my mom had this old log from a tree cut down years ago. We grabbed it and put it on the mulch then added the large rocks to add a little extra to it. It fills the space nicely and gives the eye a break when viewing the garden.

The strawberry bed turned out very nice as well. We laid regular rectangle bricks for the base and for leveling then arranged landscaping bricks on the top. We did the bricks a few weeks ago but yesterday we finally moved enough soil to fill the garden to the top. By the way, the white metal behind the stump is an old headboard. We officially have a "bed" of strawberries. Hee hee hee.

I have spent an hour or more working in every weekday for the last three weeks. My parents have spent 2-3 hours each Saturday working on it as well. If we had paid someone to do all this work, we would have spent at least $500.00 on labor already. Yes, I'm tired. Yes, it is hot, hard labor but we get the satisfaction of looking at the garden and knowing we accomplished something. We also save the hundreds of dollars to spend on food, a trip or something else that comes up. (Not to mention I'm losing my extra weight!)

Yard Work a.k.a. Blister Heaven

We worked really hard today. Since I am home and have the time, I've been trying to tame the wilderness that is my parents' yard. They live in a half-acre in Dwight but they both work in Lincoln. They are gone from 7AM to 6PM. They just don't have the time to maintain all the wonderful plants they have. Because of that, everything gets rather over grown.

To make the lawn easier to maintain, I have been working on pulling out weeds, trimming the over-grown bushes, tilling up roots, leveling the soil, laying down landscaping material and putting mulch on top. In the long run this should make it much easier for my parents to maintain each year. I hope I'm right!

Today the kiddos and I went after a big section with severely overgrown plants and lots of weeds. (That's the first three pictures here.) There are several volunteer trees in this section, bushes that should be about 2 feet high overgrown to 4 feet high and tangle weed. Ugh, ugh, ugh!

The kids and I pulled, tugged, clipped, snipped, shoveled and hoed the 15 foot (approximately) section all morning. We were interrupted about 10:30 by the rain but it stopped about 11AM so we went back out. I took 8 wheelbarrows full back to the brush pile. When I say full, I mean piled up as high as will stay on and stuffed down to fit even more. Let's just say we moved a lot of sticks, branches and decomposing leaves from last fall.

The section still looks pretty sorry. The big purple tree on the left butchered. I need to cut the big sticks but they were too big for hand shears. I ran out of steam so I didn't chain saw them down. The tree did a major offshoot behind itself and we'll have to pull out the root stump with the truck.

In the upper right hand quarter of the picture you can see the big volunteer tree with 2 main stems. That puppy isn't going to be fun to remove. I think it should go (sigh) simply because this section of yard really isn't big enough to support a full grown tree. It's roots will damage the sidewalk and the retaining wall in the back if we let it mature.

Under the big tree are what is left of the big bushes with light purple flowers you can see in the second picture. There were actually 6 seperate bushes in the overgrown jungle. I am going to try to talk my mom into moving a few to make laying the landscaping material easier. I also think it will look nicer if they are strategically placed in a row instead of randomly bunched together.

By my count, there are 5 tree stumps that need to be removed. Do you think I can convince the guys to get out the straps and truck to pull them out tonight? I sure hope so. I would like to till, lay the landscaping material and mulch tomorrow. I don't want to give the weeds time to gain a foothold again!

P.S. Yes, I have a big blister on my left hand that popped. Owie!