Life is Busy ... But God is Good

I've been meaning to do a new post for about a week now, but, you know, life gets busy and some things fall by the way side. But I'm back now.

I'm in the process of completing some projects and starting new ones. I always have something crafty going. I can't live any other way. Normally, though, I have more than one crafty project in progress.

Most recently I finished a pair of knitted baby leg warmers. I found the pattern on Ravelry (love this knitting/crocheting network - I'll send you an invite if you want one) and I just LOVE how they turned out! No, I am not pregnant, so these won't get used for what they were created for for some time. But, I have discovered they make just great arm warmers. See:

I'm almost done making a pair of absolutely wonderful fingerless gloves for myself. I had made a pair of these for my good friend, Emily, and fell in love with them. I just must have a pair for myself. I'm hoping to finish these in the next couple of days. This pattern is from Pinterest.

I just received some yarn in the mail from Knit Picks that I ordered for a new project. A friend of mine was wearing this beautiful cotton sweater vest a few weeks ago at church. I took one look at it and thought, "I can make that." I've found the perfect yarn and I'm trying to do just that. We'll see how it turns out.

I just finished or should I say almost finished a toilet paper roll art project. The paint job needs a little touching up and then I shall share pictures. I'm really happy with it so far and at the recommendation of my 10 year old brother, I think it shall be hung over my kitchen/living room archway on the kitchen side. I've painted it red and I think I have finally decided that the colors of my kitchen will be dark brown (the cabinets) with accents of red and maybe a bright yellow. I haven't fully decided about the yellow. Thoughts, anyone?

And yesterday I made these moist with a hint of sweet, sweet potato biscuits.

So life is busy and I don't get on here near as much as I want to. However God is SO GOOD! Tomorrow is Valentine's Day and for the first time in my life, it is more than just February 14th. For the first time in my life, I have a special someone to celebrate. One year ago, I was still clueless to the adventure I was walking into: in six months time, I started dating, was proposed to, and married my husband. And now I've been married to him for just over five wonderful months. It's been the best year of my life; the busiest for sure, but the best!

Stars & Hearts

I saw these cute stars on pinterest a little before Christmas and I thought these would be just lovely as Christmas ornaments. And I thought "I can make those myself." So I did, but they weren't done by Christmas time. No, I just finished them last weekend, but I'm just tickled with how they turned out and can't wait to use them next year!

I then found hearts done in a similar manner and decided to make some of these as well. I now have a few of these decorating my living room just in time for Valentines' Day, the first Valentines' Day I've really ever celebrated. I can't wait!

The orange and cream one is my personal favorite. I just LOVE this fabric. Now what to make next?
... I think it shall be a knitting project next or maybe I will finally make a decoration with toilet paper tubes since I have saved an overflow of them. I'll be taking inspiration from this, this, and this. All found on pinterest.  Yes, I am addicted, just ask my hubby.   :)

What I do with my day off ...

It's my day off work and my goal was to make my own liquid hand soap. I've had this on my to-do list for a few weeks now after seeing the idea on pinterest:

www.familyoffarmers.blogspot.com/2011/11/liquid-hand-soap-diy.html

So I gathered my supplies:

Liquid glycerin (finally found this at Wal-Mart)
3 3oz bars of Ivory soap (you can use any soap, you just want 8-9 oz)
A gallon of water

a large kettle (to hold the gallon of water)
my Kitchen Aid w/ shredder attachment (you can use a regular cheese grater, but I didn't want an arm workout today)

This is so simple to make. Shred/grate the cheese into the large kettle

add 1 gallon (16 cups water if you have 8 oz of soap, 18 cups if you have 9 oz like I did), and add 2 Tbls liquid glycerin (I used a little extra since I had 9 oz of soap). Place on stove on medium heat. Heat and stir until soap melts. It'll look something like this:

Now let that sit for 10-12 hours and I'm told it should become gel-like in texture and ready to be poured into containers. 

While I was making soap, I decided to mix up some laundry detergent as well. I have yet to try this but I've had good success with my own dishwasher detergent, so I decided to try this as well.

I mixed together 25 oz of borax, 25 oz of Arm & Hammer baking soda, 18 oz Arm & Hammer washing soda, and 1 bar of Fels-Naptha soap, shredded, same as I shredded the Ivory soap. Mix it all together, store, and use 1 Tbls per load or so I'm told. I got this recipe also from pinterest, here 

www.beingcreativetokeepmysanity.blogspot.com/2010/11/homemade-laundry-soap.html 

The dishwasher detergent I'm using is from here in case you're interested in that too: www.frugallygreen.blogspot.com/2008/06/how-to-make-your-own-dishwasher.html

I'll share with you one other recent item I've done, much more in the crafty realm than soaps. I've been wanting an earring holder for a while, a pretty one to be exact. So after seeing many different ideas on pinterest, I came up with my own with things I already had.

I removed the glass and back from a frame and used hot glue to glue in a piece of lace. I'm just thrilled with how it turned out and love this little piece of prettiness now hanging in our bedroom. I can't wait to choose a pair of earrings off of it every morning.

So that's how I've spent my day off - well some of it anyway. I also had a delightful lunch with my Dad, the first since I got married in September and got my car inspected (check that off the to do list).