Baby its NOT cold outside... My DIY fail.

So let me begin by saying that I cannot believe how fast time is flying! So much has happened, as I have previously written about. Now, my adoring husband M is here in the DC area (we were living apart for a while due to our desire to both remain employed through the transition for me from student life to working and our relocation to the expensive DC area from Georgia), and it is his turn to go to school while I work. I hardly ever have time to post anymore, but I am trying to get better about it!

Anyway, one of the items on my 14 Before 2014 list (that I completely failed at, by the way) was a DIY Cooling Spray. I wanted to make this mostly for my mother, as she is having some trouble with hot flashes and I hate to see her uncomfortable!

Now that it is actually hot outside, I thought I would make some extra.

I found a recipe for DIY cooling spray here, but decided to change it up just a little bit. I did not have cranberry juice, so instead I used more water and more witch hazel. I did not want the aloe and the glycerin to make it more gel-like than it should have been, so I had to make sure the consistency was the same. I also did not have ginger essential oil, but instead used peppermint. I like a minty finish to things like this, so I thought my mom would like it too.

Here are all of my ingredients:

This recipe only makes enough for one of these little spray bottles, so I

The verdict after using it? A very disappointing sticky feeling. My mom definitely won't like this!

Wahhh. I hate wasting my time on DIY fails! Have you ever had a DIY fail? I would love to hear about it (misery loves company, haha!). 

Upcycled Manly Trinket Box

As you may know, M and I just moved into a new place in a new city! That move led to us getting some nice new furniture also. One thing we really like to have is some sort of storage for tiny things in our dressers (*sigh*, yes, we both have so much clothing that we have to have separate dressers), so I decided to repurpose a nice, sturdy little box that my work phone came in for my husband. I wanted to make him a manly little box to keep cufflinks, tie bars and other small things in.

So I started with this:

And then I simply cut scrapbooking paper to cover all of the panels, and glued a little wood-paper tie on the front... you know, to make it manly. :)

Cute, right? Now M has something to keep his trinkets in. What a nice, quick project for a Sunday afternoon!