Tag Archives: sustainability

I’ve Got My Moogly On!

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Have you got your Moogly on?

If not, you are surely missing out on something special. More precise, someone special.

Tamara Kelly is the woman behind the needles, hooks and yarns and she is a genius. Seriously.

 

She can take your ideas and work them into reality like a crafty, yarn sorcerous.

I recently commissioned Tamara to make a couple quart sized mason jar cozies for me. I had bought a pair of cuppow lids and needed to insulate my warm beverages and catch the condensation from my cold beverages.

What’s a cuppow? They are brilliant! They turn a wide mouth mason jar into a hot or cold reusable travel mug. BPA free and 100 recyclable with minimum recycled packaging and made in Massachusetts.

I decided on a wooly Union Jack in vintage colors of wool and one in happy colors of cotton. After a few back and forth messages to pick my yarn colors here’s what arrived in my post box.

How gorgeous are they?!? They are complete with bottoms so that I don’t have to worry about coasters and the cotton one absorbs the condensation so no slippery slope to be had or drips down my shirts.

These pics are taken on the tray table beside the chair I do most of my work in. And yes, that is a cupcake wrapper. What?!?! Do you not eat cupcakes for breakfast? Lovely, homemade, chocolate, buttermilk cupcakes with light, frothy frosting?

You don’t? Poor you…

Milo Murphy ~ America's Next Top Model

 

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Secretary Desk to Vanity Project

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In planning for the move to NYC I have been researching how to downsize and live comfortably with much less glut.

I have always been a fan of pieces that do double duty but am now looking at everything to see if there are pieces we already have that can reveal a hidden double duty.

 

For instance; our beautiful, king sleigh bed. I first thought it would have to go. After all, a king size bed will be a tight fit in most NYC one bedrooms as it is, and this bed frame, even more so.

Adult Cradle…

Then it hit me. If we added some bun feet to the existing legs of the frame, lifting it another three inches, we had the square footage of a double size closet under there. And the alcove that the headboard creates behind it is the equivalent of an additional small closet. Result!

As I looked around the house, another piece that was on it’s way out revealed a usefulness that hadn’t occurred to me. The small secretary desk that had served as my bill paying station could become a vanity.

 

We will be living with one bathroom and a vanity that houses not only my make up but also my jewelry (allowing me to sell my jewelry cabinet) would free up storage space in the bathroom as well as free up the time I would spend in the bathroom putting on my make up.

Here’s what the desk looked like before.

And here it is primed and ready for it’s new paint, hardware and new duties.

I’m excited. I haven’t had a vanity since I was a little girl and had a pink & white plastic one. And no, this one will not be pink & white. It will be, I hope, just girly enough while also being slightly sophisticated.

And just wait until you see what I have planned for the wall above it and the stool I am making!

 

 

 

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DIY Solid Lotion Bars

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DIY Deodorant

Why all this DIY beauty supply stuff?

Because your skin is the biggest organ your body has. It’s out there, literally, all day, every day. Being assaulted by everything we put on it. Because it absorbs it all and eventually, even though you don’t slather stuff on your liver or kidneys, it gets there.

I’m not trying to scare you. Educate you? Maybe. Inspire you? Most definitely!

Go to EWG’s Skin Deep & do a search on some of your products. Any moisturizer, body lotion, antiperspirant or makeup product you use and then read about the ingredients.

Yucky, scary stuff!

Right, so what is a lotion bar anyway? Well, instead of a body butter, this is solid and you rub it on your skin. The heat of your body melts it as you massage it onto your body. Especially lovely after a day of physical activity for your tired muscles!

The most basic recipe and proportions are equal parts; Shea Butter, Coco Butter and Beeswax.

Melted, blended with a few drops of any essential oils of choice and then poured into small, palm sized molds and then popped into the fridge to set up.

Molds can be as simple as standard cupcake tins or they have all types of fancy shaped silicone muffin pans. If you want to give out your extras for gifts and trust me, your friends and family will love these, the fancy shapes are great.

I actually had some very finely ground gold mica on hand and added that into my bars as well. I get a very subtle glow on my skin when I use them and I especially like that on my legs when baring them as well as my shoulders.

In the colder months, adding in a bit of jojoba oil or coconut oil in place of some of the beeswax will give you a bar that yields more readily into your skin.

I keep one in my travel bag, bathroom and one in the kitchen. The beeswax is especially great for extra protection on your hands again all the hand washing and dish washing abuse they take and let’s not forget, gardening season is almost upon us!

 

You can source your ingredients from your local health food store or co-op, Mountain Rose Herbs, Amazon and if you can get your beeswax from someone local, please support them as well.

Next up: DIY Deodorant

 

 

 

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