Socks From Old Sweater Sleeves!

Wow, it has been a while!

Since it is warming up, you can go ahead and add this to your project list for next year! Bad me, waiting until Spring is almost here to post a tutorial about how to make warm socks! :)

You might remember my very original post about how to make mittens from an old sweater. Well, I hated wasting the rest of the lovely sweater I kept since I was 18 (and could still fit in it), and it was such a beautiful color, so I decided to make warm, cozy socks to wear around the house out of the sleeves.

I started with cutting the sleeves off.

Then, I turned the sleeves inside-out and sewed down the wrist cuffs. I also turned down the raw edges, pinned them, and sewed them down. 

I left a little spot for elastic, snaked it into the hole I left, and sewed it shut. 

Clyde really wanted to help. :) 

BAM. Warm socks. 

Santa's bringing homemade sugar and salt scrubs this year!

This year, M and I have been totally stumped thinking of Christmas gifts for our families. Our parents already have everything they want, and our siblings pretty much do too. Because of that, we decided to do a lot of little things for our family members, and to try and go handmade as much as possible. Who doesn't love something handmade that they can use? I hope our families will love these homemade sugar and salt scrubs. 

First, I made a Pumpkin Pie Scrub, and found the recipe here. I added just a little more pumpkin pie spice than the recipe called for and it came out perfectly! 

Next, I used the recipes I found on that page to make a tangerine vanilla face scrub (which can be used pretty much anywhere, not just your face). To make that one, I added 1/2 cup of sugar and almond oil, 1 tsp. vitamin E oil, 1 tsp. vanilla extract, and 9 drops of tangerine essential oil. 

Then I found this recipe, and made both a lemon and thyme salt scrub and a lemon and lavender sugar scrub using it. 

Here is what I used... (sugar not pictured). We even grew the thyme ourselves during the summer! 

I love lemon zest!

I doubled the recipe... so here are my two teaspoons. Smells amazing already!

The final product! Pictured here: lemon thyme sea salt scrub, lemon lavender sugar scrub, brown sugar pumpkin pie scrub, and tangerine vanilla sugar scrub.

The only thing left to do is to cut out some pretty pieces of fabric to wrap around the top of the little jars and make cute little labels to tie on with festive ribbons. 

I used some of the pumpkin pie scrub in the shower yesterday, and it is AMAZING. I smelled like a cookie and it made my skin so soft! 

Are you doing handmade gifts this year? What are you making? I would love to hear about it. :) 

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!).