Candlewicks.

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Supplies needed for making candlewicks:

• Cotton thread
• Borax
• Water
• Salt
• Wax and something to safely melt it in.
• Wax paper
• Small bowl of cold water.

Cut your cotton thread the length you want your candles plus 2’’. I decided to dip both ends of the rope at once to make more candles at once so I cut my thread to 18’’. Each candle wick will need 3 pieces of thread so if you want to make 5 candles times that by 3 and cut 15 pieces of thread all measuring the same length.

Mix 1 TBS salt, 2 TBS boric acid and 1 cup.all of the borax may not dissolve so don’t sweat it.  Add in your thread and stir gently a few times, try not to tangle your thread.

Now walk away from it and let it sit for 12 hours.

When time is up, have something ready to hang your candlewicks up to dry on. I used a coat hanger so I could move the wicks somewhere out of the way once they stopped dripping.

Gently remove them and hang them up immediately, try not to disturb all the crystals on them as you move them around.

Let them dry for 4-5 hours, the longer the better.

Then take 3 strands and braid them, tightly, together just like you would someone’s hair.

Here’s a few of mine all braided up.

Almost finished. Time to prime the wicks. Melt some wax, soy or beeswax, whatever you’re going to make candles out of really, over a double boiler.

Lay out some wax paper, and grab a few sheets of paper towel as well a small bowl of cold water.

Dunk one wick into the hot wax at a time, wait for bubbles to release (I had a few wicks that released bubbles almost as soon as they hit the wax and a few others that took a little longer) See some bubbles below?

You can use a paper clip on one end of the wick to save your fingers from getting burned accidentally or if you’re making double  candles like I am just pinch the middle of the strand and dunk carefully.


When bubbles start to pop this means the wick is saturated with the wax and you can remove it and immediately dunk it in the cold water.

Dunk for just a second or two, take both ends of the wick and stretch the strand out tight before laying on the wax paper. (I didn’t have wax paper, so please ignore the aluminum foil under my wicks)

Blot any excess moisture off the wicks with the paper towel and move on to the next wick.

Once finished with all the wicks you can repeat the wax and water dunk a few more times if you feel like the first dunk didn’t cover enough or if you want a stiffer wick. Give the wicks enough time to dry in between dunks or else you just end up melting the wax already on the thread.

Now you’re ready to turn the wicks into taper candles or use them in jar candles as well.

I started on taper candles but ran out of time and had to put it aside for another day.

~Jess

Hot Goods!

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What do you do when your dad brings you something that one of his friends stole from a restaurant  25 years ago in Maryland?

I wanted a rain barrel, was signed up to take a class last summer on how to make your own rain barrel and ended up not being able to go. So I asked my dad to see if he could ask some of his buddies to keep an eye out for an old wine barrel or the equivalent so I could convert it.

A week or so later my dad shows up with this.

An ugly red, plastic barrel of some sort without the lid.
Me to my dad: “What is that?”
“I thought you could use it for a rain barrel.”
Me excited to my dad, “Oh that’s awesome, where in the world did you find it?”
Dad somewhat sheepishly to me, “Price was getting rid of it, said you should consider it an early Christmas gift.”

(Price is one of my dad’s longest friends, he’s not known for his love of the law or authority, which makes me wonder why he and my dad are friends.)
“Where did Price get it?”
Dad started laughing, “Oh about 25 years ago he and one of his buddies were in Maryland and they stole it from the back of some restaurant. He said he thought they kept pickles in it”

So there you have it. The story of my ugly rain barrel. For anyone that may be out there missing this pickle barrel? I apologize on behalf of Price and his friend for stealing it and I hope the statue of limitations has already run out.

I couldn’t leave this barrel ugly so I picked up 2 cans of stone spray paint.

I should have primed it first but I couldn’t take it anymore. I wanted it covered and I wanted it covered now!
Ahhhhh much better!

Now all that’s left to do is shorten the down spout and get Boy Toy to make me some kind of lid/cover for the top to keep the bugs away.


I have to admit I’m looking forward to washing my hair in rain water, more than I’m excited about conserving rain water for our garden later.
~Jess

Make your own Vinegar.

Remember all the canning of apples I did a month or so back? There were so many apple peels and cores I wasn't sure what to do. I set some aside and decided to make homemade apple cider vinegar.

My main use for vinegar is in place of shampoo.

Anyway, save a good amount of apple peels and cores and place them in a medium size bowl.

Use distilled water and cover the peels and cores until things start to float or you can clearly see everything is covered by water.

Place a lid or cheesecloth over your bowl. If you're using a lid make sure it's not sealed, you need air in order to make vinegar.

Now, in about 2-3 weeks your apple peels and cores will start to look like this mess below. Though it shows up white in this horrible picture it's really an ugly gray color. This is known as the mother. You can use this to start another batch of vinegar if you want to keep it going.



The longer you let this sit, the stronger your vinegar will be, though it's not strong enough to can with you can still use it for recipes and a hair wash if you're like me. Just strain it a few times with cheese cloth into a pot and just barely bring it to a boil. This kills the bacteria and stops the vinegar from fermenting any longer.

I store mine in a canning jar. Simple right?

Soap Rebatched.

I've wanted to make my own soap for awhile now, and have asked some of my soap making friends about their adventures. I've yet to order any lye, though I hear that Lowes' carries 100% Lye under a different name, I'll find out for sure tomorrow if this is true or rumor. Until then I've been rebatching soap.

Why rebatch? Ever been given soap as a gift? Or picked up a bar in a store that you thought would smell great only to find it smells like something grotesque when applied to your skin? You can rebatch to make different scents or to combine smaller pieces of soap back into a bigger size to use up.

I rebatch to ADD in a scent that I like but have yet to find in any store anywhere....Strawberries and Champagne. Oh heaven, I use this scents in my candles as well. I've never gotten sick of it and visitors to my humble house are always asking what fragrance is that???

Rebatching soap is simply and only 4 steps from start to finish. Here we go!

STEP 1: If you're going to rebatch soap for a scent you like then start with two bars of Ivory soap. (If you're going to use soap you've already got that already has a scent to it skip to step 2.

STEP 2: Unwrap you bars of soap, and grate them with a cheese grater. You want about 3 cups of grated soap.

STEP 3: Bring 1/2 cup of water to a boil.

STEP 4: Pour 1/2 cup of boiling water over the grated soap and stir gently. Now is the time to add in any fragrance you like or want to experiment with. Just a few drops to start with and if it's not strong enough add one or two more at a time.

Kinda looks like cottage cheese doesn't it? Let this sit for 20 minutes.

STEP 5: Roll into balls any size you like. Place on wax paper and let dry for 2-3 days. (I forgot to let my batch sit for 20 minutes once I added in the boiling water so they rolled out a little rougher than usual. If you pull an oops like I did you can simply grate these down once they are dry and start the process over again, but only add in 1/4 cup of boiling water)

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Fabric Softner Sachet

I love fabric softener. I love the feel of clothes when they are fresh from the dryer and they are so soft you can smell the softness. I don't like buying fabric softener however, it's too expensive and I often wonder if you really have to use as much as they tell you to in order to get the same effect.

Fabric softener is important for your clothes though. It helps keep the fibers soft so clothing is less likely to tear or stretch improperly. You'll get a lot more wear out of your clothing and towels for that matter if you use softener too.

Anyone who reads this blog or knows me in real life, knows I'm a big fan of going green and getting the most bang for my buck. So when I can across a recipe for Fabric Softener Sachet's I had to make them.

I used some scrap material I had to cute a 3 by 4 inch rectangle. I sewed up the sides, leaving an opening to pour the 'fabric softener' into it.

 

The white fabric I used was very thin. I wanted something a little thicker to get the most out of this sachet. So I used some really thick fabric to make an outer cover for the sachet. I sewed 3 sides with right sides together. Turn the pouch right side out then slipped the 'fabric softener' filled white sachet inside.

The one seam you leave open just simple fold in the raw edge and then sew straight across to close the sachet. You can even use Velcro to close this pouch for when you need to refill the 'fabric softner'.

How cute and quick is that?  Say hi to my rock turtle in the background of the picture. He loves watching me sew even though you can't tell it by the disgruntled look on his face. :)

I made up several of these pouches in a short amount of time. Each of these pouches last a week in the dryer for my household of 4. If you do more laundry or have more kids then maybe you'll get 3-4 days out of each pound instead of 7 days like I do.

The most important part of these sachets are of course the ingredients. Cornstarch or rice flour (which I just found here locally, so my next batch will have rice flour in it), baking soda, and arrowroot powder and whatever essential oil smell you like best. I used orange for some of these sachets and lavender for others.

Dreaming of Hair.

My husband and I met online, no, not at a dating site or chat room. A writing forum type thing. I had just been made staff and shortly after blasting one of his written pieces, he was staff, and then he was emailing me asking what my problem with his piece was. :) 

One of the first things I bought him for his birthday when we were offically together, was a book of poetry, Rose, by one of my favorite authors,  Li Young Lee. There's a poem in the book about hair. I'm not sure why he and I were talking about hair at the time, but we spent a lot of time on the phone talking about anything that popped into our mind. One topic happened to be hair, and in particular, my husband was talking about an old fling of his that apparently had hair like a goddess. "No one I have ever met has had hair like this girl did."

 I got the opportunity to meet Amazing Hair Woman a year or so ago, (and after truly hurting her and lashing out at her because of my own insanity,...that's another story, one where I'm actually the bad girl and should be quartered and shot for my behavior), everything my husband told me about her hair...well it was all true. Her hair is amazing. Curly, full, thick, an entity all it's own, a controlled chaos of silken beauty. Seriously, it was that astounding.  I don't know of any one woman, especially those that have curly hair and like their curly hair, that wouldn't want to have her hair as their own.

Before I met Amazing Hair Woman I was on a mission to not only go green where the family and I could, but to try and accept the fact that as much as I hated it, I had curly hair and needed to get a handle on it, embrace it, cultivate it even. :) So I researched hair and the many different ways one can control it. 

The first thing I did was I stopped combing/brushing my hair. It's been 18 months since a comb has touched my hair. It did wonders for my curls. It's stronger, fuller and I can go longer between hair cuts if I so choose. 

Then I happened upon the 'No Poo' method of washing your hair.  The main ingredients: Baking Soda, Vinegar and Water.

 Washing your hair is not only horrible for your hair but the chemicals in shampoo and conditioners are just as bad. Sure you may wash it everday but that's way to much. You're pulling the natural oil out of your hair so your scalp starts producing more oil to make up for it, which means you have to wash your hair more often than not. You're throwing your bodies natural ability to maintain your hair off.  1tsp of baking soda in 1 cup of water to 'wash' your hair in. Rinse it completely. Then 1tsp of vinegar in 1 cup of water to rinse your hair. Do this everyday for 4 or 5 days, then start skipping a day in between and see how your hair fairs. Then you can put in a day or two instead of every other day and see how you hair holds up.

My routine worked like this. I would wash with the baking soda 3 times a week and only use the vinegar rinse ONCE a week. One the days I don't wash my hair, you'd never know it, and no, your hair doesn't smell like vinegar, not at all.

Here's a picture of my curly locks after the soda and vinegar rinse and NO combing...none. I don't even own a comb or brush anymore. Honestly.

I was trying to get a picture of my hair close up, after styled from the baking soda and vinegar. Of course, Evan Grace had to get in the picture, whenever the camera is out, so is she. :) I'll have to eventually pass down these tips to Evan Grace, my only child with curls.  I recently switched back to shampoo for convience, I've regretted it since. I've had to start the routine all over, but it's worth it. My hair is softer, manages better and even feels cleaner.

For now I'll leave you with the first stanza of "Dreaming of Hair", by Li Young Lee. Click the title if you want to read the complete poem.


Ivy ties the cellar door
in autumn, in summer morning glory
wraps the ribs of a mouse.
Love binds me to the one
whose hair I've found in my mouth,
whose sleeping head I kiss,
wondering is it death?
beauty? this dark
star spreading in every direction from the crown of her head.

New Goodies in the Kitchen.

I like to bake. It's no surprise to those that know me and when I come across a recipe that I get excited about cooking then there's little anyone can do to stop me.

I present to you Peanut Butter Pillows. Odd name yes, but wonderful taste and guess what, they are completely Vegan. I have to admit, the idea of being a Vegan really appeals to me, not because I'm against killing animals or anything, but just how healthy it seems to be and how the food choices seem to be better fuel for ones body. Anyway, the kids ate these cookies up like crazy and so did I. They are super rich and aside from a syrup after taste (which I didn't like because I don't like syrup) these were wonderful and will be made again

The next thing I had on my list to bake up was Pumpkin Bread. I cleaned up my kitchen after the Peanut Butter Pillows and went to work on the bread. I must have cleaned the kitchen better than I realized because I cleaned up the bag of sugar and totally left the sugar OUT of the mix. Sadly, I didn't even realize my oversight until I bite into a nice, warm piece of salty pumpkin bread. Ehhh...it's not so good without the sugar.

A pumpkin factory, the one that apparently supplies my local grocery stores, burnt down. Honestly, there was a can pumpkin shortage everywhere. Ever store I stopped had no pumpkin, whatsoever. I really wanted to make this bread for Christmas and my dad was kind enough to stop at a not so frequented market and found an enormous can of pumpkin. I remembered the sugar this time and wow this bread is amazing. So moist and rich. It's almost like a slice of pumpkin pie especially if you dollop a little cool whip on the top of it. The 2nd day of this bread is even better than the first, it seemed as if the bread pulled in more moisture goodness overnight. I'm going to make up another batch of these 5 mini-loaves and give them to family along with their Christmas present.

All the while I was baking my wonderful goodies I was using a new kitchen gadget that I picked up at TJ Maxx. Love that place!!! It's called a Misto. It allows you to use your own oil for spraying pans, pots and the such instead of using the expensive store bought kind. Plus, I put in Extra Light Olive Oil which makes it healthier than the spray kind as well. The only difference in this Misto than Pam is that you have to pump it 10 times before you spray. But once it's been pumped it sprays well for 15 -18 seconds. I'm all for saving money and going green. I think this pump is both so it's perfect for this family.

After all the baking I grilled up a cheddar, feta, turkey sandwich on homemade sour dough bread with an oh so thin slice of tomato. Oh yummm. If you like feta you must must add it to a grilled cheese one day, the subtly tang it gives to the sandwich is divine. :)

Owie Bags

I had some great scraps of fabric left over from some sewing I've been doing. I hate to chuck fabric, no matter how small the piece but I was stumped as to what to make with them. Then a light bulb started to flicker and gradually brightened before blinding me with a great idea. With all the scrapes (or frapes as Ev calls them) and hurts we've had around the house lately why not make up a few owie bags. They are cheaper than band aids. :)

So I made a few different sizes, played around with some of the stitches on my new sewing machine, filled the bags with rice, stitched them closed and tossed them in the freezer.

Here's the funny and slightly weird part; I stitched these up on Tuesday and we used ALL 4 of them Thursday for all 3 of the kids. :) Isaac and Mackenzie ended up with back of the head owies and Evan Grace had a knee frape.

No, they don't' stay cold for very long but it's better than a Ziploc full of ice cubes that melts, drips and ends up heaven knows where.

I'll be making more of these as I finish up some projects over the weekend and gather more scraps. Just wanted to share.