Handmade soap

So this year for Christmas, we're all about homemade. We're trying to get back to what the reason for the season really is: Christ. As a family, we made some gifts for our family and friends that we thought would be useful and fun, and we enjoyed making them :) One of our gifts is homemade soap. I made a new friend that has an old trick- soap making! Once hearing our goal of a total DIY Christmas, she offered to teach me her ways

I fear that I couldn't do it again if my life depended on it! My crazy kids couldn't leave me alone or not need to go potty or behave with each other long enough for me to do anything! I watched some of the process, stirred, and got to wear some pretty cool looking safety gear. The outcome? Lovely Cocoa-Peppermint soap. Smells SOOOOOO good!!

Ugly sweater time!

It's that time of year again... time to go in public in the most hideous, gaudy, most disgustingly ugly sweater that you can possibly buy (or in this case, make). Ahhh, Christmas. With it's many perks, lovelies, decor, and traditions. We made ugly sweaters a few years ago, however due to mold issues in our home (gotta love the Pacific Northwest!!) they were burnt earlier this year. Once the invitation arrived for our church's ugly sweater contest/Christmas party, I made a trip to the thrift store! Now I prefer the hole-in-the-wall shops over the Goodwill. Most of them have lower prices and support a local cause. Sometimes you can even barter with them! Since I consider myself the queen of frugality, cheaper is better! Step 1- Purchase sweater. I opted for a cardigan style, just a plain green thing.

Step 2- Gather your decorations. I bought two bags of misc. Christmas stuff at the thrift store. My bags had everything from tinsel to stockings, stockings to candle holders, bows to bulbs. A "plethora" of decorations, if you will (wanna play name that movie? "If you do not know what a plethora means, then why do you say I have a plethora of gifts?")

Step 3- Start hot glueing anything (and everything) on. Last time we decorated sweaters, I sewed most of it on. I busted both sweaters out in two evenings. Love the convenience of a glue gun! Note: With using hot glue on a sweater, might want to place something in between the layers of material (I used a cut up cereal box) to prevent glueing the front to the back

Step 4- Glue more on. There's always room for more.

Step 5- Add more decorations. Elbow pads, shoulder pads, trim, collar.... what else could we add?

The finished product, front ^ and back v.

The start of hubby's sweater (just the sweater is seriously so ugly. It reminds me of Fozzy bear)

Made a tree out of the leaves from the poinsettias on my sweater. Wreath on one shoulder, dove on the other. Hubby needs a birdy on his shoulder, like a Christmas pirate!

Decorate the tree!

Hubby's finished sweater from the back

Hubby's finished sweater from the front. Yes, that's tinsel chest and armpit hair. I know. Super gross (but totally hilarious!!)

Our finished products. Yes, I'm wearing a tree skirt. It seemed fitting. Yes,we won the ugly sweater contest. Yes, one of my daughters also made one. Yes, my little boys are both in Christmas sweaters (not quite ugly though), and one of them has a thing for Power Rangers currently). And yes, my oldest daughter is too cool to play along.

Thanks for visiting! If you make ugly Christmas sweaters, I'd love for you to share them with me!

Lip & body balm

Yay for homemade products!

I got the idea/recipe from: http://teacupsandpearls.wordpress.com/2013/11/15/frankincense-and-cinnamon-winter-balm/

In her recipe she didn't specify amounts... I used 1/4 cup of cocoa butter, 1/4 cup beeswax,  1/2 cup of coconut oil, and 7 drops of EO.

Excited to hear the reviews on them! 

Birthday calendar

Because my husbands family is HUGE and I can't keep anything straight. Every time I turn around, I've missed a birthday. The solution? This bad boy! Once again, I got this off pinterest. Took a left-over cedar plank from one of hubbies jobs and spray painted it. Decorated it with cut out paper, flowers, and stickers. I hot glued ribbon to the back of it (12 strands equally spaced) and used my SU punch to cut out lots and lots of little squares. I did blue & green for the boys, and pink, orange, red for the girls, just so I could see at a glance the gender of the birthday person (there's so many kids, it helps just to glance at it a month early and know that I need 4 boy gifts and 2 girl gifts for the next month). I used first names and the date of birth per square then attached them to the ribbon in order of date. Since completing this, I have had several family members let me know that what they want for their next birthday is one of these. Guess I better get busy, I have SEVERAL to make!

Dinner menu board

jennifer.teitzel
Jennifer Teitzel
.............

%

Got this idea off of pinterest for our mommy group (MOPS) at church. We started with a foam board and cut it to the size we wanted. -Used mod podge to cover it with scrapbook paper. -Hot glued clothes pins (painted or covered in paper) to the side -Used my SU label punches to do the abbreviations of the days of the week onto the clothes pins -Made a little pocket out of coordinating paper to hold more paint chips (dinner cards) -Hot glued a push pin into the foam to hang a paper clip keeping index cards for shopping lists/notes -Hot glued some wide ribbon to the back to hang where-ever in the kitchen Some ladies altered this and turned it into a chore board for the kiddos or a to-do list for the hubby. I love the idea and simplicity of it. The fact that it can be made to match your kitchen? Bonus.

Office Accessories

I took an old pair of shutters and did a rough job spray painting them white. Spray painted some wooden clothes pins green to match my other project (the "corkboard") and, VIOLA!! A message center!

I found this great rectangle frame at the thrift store. After taking out the glass, I roughly spray painted it then stapled this great fabric onto the back of it. I bought a roll of cork from Wal*Mart (cheaper there than Michael's, PLUS I got more if the cork!) so I stapled that behind the fabric. Woot Woot I made a cute corkboard!

Old Door Headboard

So this is how my room looks now with the latest addition of the old headboard from an old door. I absolutely LOVE the outcome!

My handsome little booger is the main attraction in this! He kept trying to get in the action of picture taking so I decided to just take his picture :)

You can't see them, but the door actually sits on legs that I stapled to the back of the door. I didn't want to hang such a heavy door on the wall. I took two 1"x4" cedar planks per side(excess from our business, see our business FaceBook page HERE), spray painted them white, then measured for height and width before stapling to back of door.
ACTUALLY- I only had one leg per side at first. Got the door inside (by myself, had to show hubby that I didn't need his help), got it positioned behind the bed, and CRAAAAACK the door fell forward towards the bed, splinters shattering everywhere. Rockashawna to me. Since my room was already covered in splinters and wood pieces, and the door was laying on my bed, I decided to finish up the project in my room. Went out and spray painted new legs (two per side this time), brought them to the sliding glass door on the patio outside my bedroom (thank GOODNESS for a sliding glass door in my room! Especially one that is only feet from the back garage door!) along with all the tools I'd need, and with a confused baby watching and wanting so bad to use the staple gun, I finished my project ON my bed.

After cleaning the door, I spray painted the interior of the rectangle a chocolate brown. It's a really rough paint job as my 13 year old was "helping" me.
I took a lace tablecloth and laid it over the door centering the design that I wanted to highlight and used unwanted planks to go around the edges of where I didn't want paint to go. After I had the edges blocked off, I spray painted the lace onto the door with a pale yellow. I peeled off the lace after about a minute (didn't want it to dry in place) and set aside (it'll be a great table cloth for our picnic table. Crusty from the paint so it won't fly away, the edges are still lacey for that delicate look).

A close-up of the design

I took pictures step by step to post, then my phone broke. I lost over 1,400 pictures. Talk about heartbreak.

We have 2 other doors that we are working on, one for each of our girls. Will post pics when they are completed.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!