Meet Oliver

This is Oliver.... a custom 14-15" boy doll with espresso hair and eyes, tan skin, and rosy cheeks! His hair is made of a cotton/linen blend yarn. He is on his way to his new home and I miss him already!

DIY: Housekeeping week 2

Last week was pretty good. I got the majority of my daily stuff done but let a few minor things slide since the kids were sick. This week I'm fighting the laziness bug and winning so far... we'll see how I've done by the time Friday comes!

Here is this week's checklist. M indicates "finished on Monday", T = "finished on Tuesday", etc.
M T W T F S S
Daily Tasks: Morning:
Get dressed, including glasses, shoes, hair and make-up M T W T F S S
Make bed M T W T F S S
Clean bathroom sink, surfaces, toilet, dust and spot-clean M T W T F S S
Get girls dressed M T W T F S S
Do girls' hair M W T F S S
Make girls’ beds M T W T F S S
Start a load of laundry M T W T F S
Breakfast for girls and myself M W T F S S
Put away dishes M T W T F S S
Wash breakfast dishes M T W T F S S
Check dinner plan and defrost or crock pot if necessary M T W T F S

Afternoon:
Wash lunch dishes M T W T F S S
Start dinner prep at 4:00, 1:30 if defrosting bread M T W T F S
Start dishes during dinner prep M T W T F S
Fold and put away laundry M T W T F S

After Dinner:
Put kids to bed M T W T F S
Finish dinner dishes M T W T F S
Wipe down kitchen M T W T F S
Sweep kitchen floor T F
Pick up house M T W T F S
Put glasses and keys in purse M T W T F S S
Charge phone if needed F
Put together diaper bag if outing is planned S

Bedtime:
Bedroom floor picked up M T W T F S S
Drawers shut and surfaces clutter-free M T W T F S

This week's tasks:

Monday:
Empty trash cans M
Dust M
Clean mirrors M
Vacuum
Purge mail M
Finish Oliver clothes M

Tuesday:
Change sheets T
Deep clean this week’s house zone for 15 minutes T
Work for mom T
Doll photo session and ship T

Wednesday:
Meal plan W
Make grocery list W
Henry's Market for produce W
Work on Tiana doll

Thursday:
Stater's grocery shopping T
Asian market shopping
Work on Tiana doll

Friday:
Clean out purse
Declutter car T
Wash car if needed
Work on Ginny's dress

Saturday:
Work on G's dress
Family over for G's birthday S

DIY: Housekeeping!!

Confession: While I am 100% a Suzy Homemaker, I am messy. No, I don't mean I leave the dishes unwashed for three days straight or forget to vacuum every week, I mean I leave my dishes unwashed for a week and a half and my kids' spaghetti stays stuck to the floor until it dries, sits there for a week, and gets carried off by an army of ants. My house gets GROSS. For the time being, we are living with my parents, so my level of grossness needs to be contained for their sanity. All the same, our bedroom constantly overflows with half-unwashed, half-washed-but-not-folded laundry piles that evade each other's territory, receipts, fliers, books, DVDs, boxes that need to be stored, bags that need to be sorted, etc, etc, etc. The kids' rooms aren't much better, just less centralized.

In March, just before we left on our Ohio trip, I did a complete overhauling of our rooms. The laundry was finished, folded and put away. The papers were sorted and filed or tossed. Boxes and bags went to storage, even more went to the trash, Goodwill got their share of the pile, and I got reacquainted with the sight of our bedroom floor. Then I vacuumed, dusted, and we took off for Ohio. We stayed with dear friends of ours, a couple with three children around our kids' ages. During our ten days there, I took note of the housekeeping practices of my friend. I was amazed that with an extra child (with the energy of three kids combined in a single body for that matter), a bigger house, and more obligations, she kept a relatively neat house. If it had been spotless, I wouldn't have noticed, but the floors regularly had crumbs, toys weren't immediately put away, and they went to bed with a few dishes in the sink most nights. What was she doing to keep the crumbs, dishes and toys from turning into an entire house that internally explodes within 24 hours of being cleaned??? Whatever it was, I wanted it. I hate my messy tendencies and hate that I have to be ashamed of my house or my bedroom.

I don't know how it came about, because I didn't come home with a plan or a thought to change, but I shortly after arriving home to my freshly cleaned living space, I discovered www.flylady.net. I thought "this is PERFECT! It's just the sort of system I could actually get behind and USE!" The great part is, you don't start big... just do one "baby step" the first day, add something else in addition the next day, and so on until you've slowly developed a series of routines that maintain your house and keep it from exploding on itself.

Since I don't have a whole house to myself, I've changed things up. I don't shine my kitchen sink like she lists as baby step #1... I started by making my bed everyday instead. I cannot believe the difference in two months! I spend about 20 minutes each morning doing maintenance and getting ready, I have a few designated tasks throughout the week, and I make dinners off of a flexible meal plan. Suddenly it's all clicking!

For my own benefit (and yours if you wish!) I will be posting my progress on here every week, the good and the bad. I promise to post fun crafty stuff too! I called this "DIY: Housekeeping" because I have the same attitude toward housekeeping that people often have with the DIY mentality. It's easier not to do it, even if it is a healthier, cheaper, and something to be proud of. I know I'm not the only one in this boat, so check out www.flylady.net if you need somewhere to start! Of course it's not perfect, and some of my issues are as follows: 1. her website and some of her emails are very corny and out-of-date, 2. if you receive her emails you will get a constant stream of testimonials about how amazing her cleaning products are (pure unadulterated self-advertising) when she says she believes in using what you already have, 3. she wants you to spend a portion of your day perusing her website almost from the get-go when internet use is probably the #1 time-waster of homemakers in the US. I personally avoid internet like the plague until my morning routine is done, or I'll never get started. But cut out the parts that don't work for you and give it a shot! You might be as surprised as I am!



Here is this week's checklist. M indicates "finished on Monday", T = "finished on Tuesday", etc.

Daily Tasks: Morning:
Get dressed, including glasses, shoes, hair and make-up M T W T F
Make bed M T W T F
Clean bathroom sink, surfaces, toilet, dust and spot-clean M T W T F
Get girls dressed including hair M T W F
Make girls’ beds M T W T F
Start a load of laundry M T W T F
Breakfast for girls and myself M T W T F
Put away dishes M T W T F
Wash breakfast dishes M T W T F
Check dinner plan and defrost or crock pot if necessary M T W T F

Afternoon:
Wash lunch dishes M T W T F
Start dinner prep at 4:00, 1:30 if defrosting bread M T W F
Start dishes during dinner prep M T W F
Fold and put away laundry M T W T F

After Dinner:
Put kids to bed M T W T F
Finish dinner dishes M T W T F
Wipe down kitchen M T W T F
Sweep kitchen floor M T F
Pick up house M T W T F
Put glasses and keys in purse M T W T F
Charge phone if needed T
Put together diaper bag if outing is planned

Bedtime:
Bedroom floor picked up M T W T F
Drawers shut and surfaces clutter-free M T W T F

This week's tasks:

Monday:
Empty trash cans M
Dust M
Clean mirrors M
Vacuum M
Purge mail M

Tuesday:
Change sheets T
Deep clean this week’s house zone for 15 minutes T
Work on Oliver doll T

Wednesday:
Work on Oliver doll
Look for Nepal photos W

Thursday:
Work for mom
Work on Oliver doll T
Quick grocery store trip W

Friday:
Clean out purse F
Declutter car F
Wash car if needed
Finish Oliver doll

Easy and awesome cake for the amateur cake maker!

One last post on my daughter's birthday and I'll move one... I promise! I know it was already two months ago! To be honest, I just haven't taken pictures of my other projects lately and the birthday pictures are easily accessible. Haha! I'm just that lazy.


OK! So my daughter wanted a Cinderella castle cake. This might seem like a simple undertaking for a creative cake-maker, but cake-making seems a little out-of-reach for me. I mean, I know I could make it taste good, but food presentation, especially with decorative frosting, is not my thing. I am a self-labeled imperfectionist and perfect swirls of frosting are not going to come out of my frosting tube, I guarantee it. So with that in mind, I set out to make a simple cake in a castle shape... at least convincing enough for a four-year-old.


I started by making an ice cream cake. I lined a 9x13" pan with parchment paper and mixed up some confetti cake from a box. Once baked and cooled, I lifted it from the pan and cut it in half. I took a box of strawberry ice cream and cut it in half so I had two slabs, each piece about the size of one half of the cake. I sandwiched this between the two cake halves and cut the cake sides with a bread knife to the edge of the ice cream slab. Next, I cut away the four corners and placed two ice cream cones (cake style) in each corner, first an upside-down one on the base, then a right-side up one on top of it. I used a little ice cream to stick them to the cake and between the cones to stick them together. Once it was covered in plastic wrap, I stuck it in the freezer overnight. The frozen ice cream stuck the cones in place like glue and made the cake very simple to frost!


The next morning, I used a simple buttercream frosting (colored blue of course!) and covered the entire thing... cake and cones. I thought I would have to work quickly to keep the cake from melting, but it turned out that the frozen cake hardened the frosting as I went and made the frosting much easier! I finished with a few sprinkles, but with any imagination and time this castle could be decorated quite elaborately! All in all, this was one of the easiest frosted cakes I have ever made!

Holly, the princess fairy costume doll!

It has been six weeks since my older daughter's birthday, but we've been living in hectic chaos since then... traveling out of state, having family in from England, my brother and sister-in-law's wedding reception in the backyard, birthday parties, events, you name it. Sadly, my little crafty blog took a back seat for a few weeks, but here is the long-awaited post about Holly and her princess dresses!




Holly is a 17.5 inch tall waldorf doll with light skin tone, big blue eyes, and shoulder-length light brown hair. To encourage bonding to her princess-and-fairy-loving mama, I included five outfits for playtime: Snow White, Cinderella, Tinkerbell, Belle, and Ariel.



Snow white:



This dress was made almost entirely from leftover scraps. The skirt was remnants left over from the Belle costume I made this winter. I am planning on listing it on my Etsy site in the fall. The trim on the bodice front was leftover from the Aurora costume in my girls' dress-up stash, and the sleeves are extra material from my older daughter's birthday/Easter dress.





Cinderella:


This dress was also made from the birthday/Easter dress remnants. The underskirt for both this and the other full-skirted dresses is a simple tulle tutu with long pieces of tulle tied around an elastic loop. It fills out these full skirts very nicely. The sleeves and peplum are made of bubble organza from Joann's... I have never tried it before but it was on sale. I was very pleased with the effect, although I would not have left the edges unfinished at the sleeves if I realized it would fray, but it has been very minor.




Tinkerbell:


I had to experiment with her wings to come up with this effect. I used bubble organza in lavender and sewed a simple butterfly wing shape. I then used thick decorative aluminum wire from the floral section to make the wing frame and stitched the organza closed around it. I then attached the wings to an elastic loop that goes around Holly's waist. The dress snaps in the back around the wings.




Belle:


This dress was a last-minute add-on. After finishing the rest, I still had quite a bit of yellow material left over, but it turns out it was just barely enough! Each of the skirt swags is made of two very slim crescent shapes sewn together, and this was the last part I cut out of the fabric. After the last of the 16 crescents was cut, I literally had no fabric scrap large enough to make a 17th if it had been necessary! Talk about making good use of my yardage!




Ariel:


This was a fun little creation! I had been wanting to make mermaid costumes for waldorf dolls for a long time, so I had time to think on how this would be done. There are some adorable waldorf mermaid dolls, but I had not seen anyone make a costume to turn a normal waldorf doll into a mermaid. This was my solution and it turned out great! The top is basically the same as Bell's underdress, but with ribbons as a halter instead of tank straps. Instead of a dress skirt, it is tapered up a bit in the center and finished. The bottom is a stretchy costume material with sequin-dots, and stitched onto the bottom, which extends just past Holly's feet, are strips of green tulle, lavender bubble organza, and the green costume dot material. She is also wearing some Mardi Gras beads here, but even without them, so is a very convincing mermaid!




Of course, being the fiercely independent sewer that I am, I took much poetic license sewing these to make them fit the project in my head, but I started with Simplicity 5705 for general pattern pieces of all princesses except Ariel. Thankfully with a 17.5 inch doll to work with, it was easy to find an American Girl pattern with all the princesses I needed rolled into one pattern!

How to get your hair to look like a shampoo ad.... without the shampoo!

First off, I want you to picture a shampoo hair model. Think of the last Pantene commercial you saw... the lady with the thick shiny hair magically waving in slow motion in the air as she struts down the street, every strand shining like gold or copper in the sun while a bunch of guys in suits stop and stare. Or think of the hair celebrities flaunt as you're trying to check out at the grocery store. OK, now imagine someone told you that model or actress stopped using shampoo a year ago. "WHAT??? Ewww!"... is it? I second ago that was the most fabulous hair you could imagine! Sounds impossible, but it's not. Over the last couple of weeks I have been experimenting with the Curly Girl method, also affectionately known as the No-'Poo method.

Now, WHY would I even consider such a thing? I'm really not naive enough to think I could stop washing my hair and no one would notice. I'm a fan of personal hygiene. I don't want to stink. The truth is, I fell into the no 'poo method without meaning to. As most of you know, I try to do things the "natural way" as much as possible, so when I ended up with an extreme case of dandruff this fall, I was hesitant to use medicated shampoos. A bottle of Suave was the beginning of my dandruff misery, so I first switched to an all-natural organic shampoo. This made an incredible difference in my hair texture, but my scalp was still in ruins. Before I headed out to by some T-Gel, I searched online for natural remedies. I found several that I could try from ingredients in my kitchen, so I started testing.

1. Olive oil. At my next shower, I took about 1/4 cup of olive oil and a comb and massaged my scalp and combed for about 15 minutes. Conclusion: REALLY hard to wash out, messy, and didn't seem to make any difference. I have since learned it should have been hot oil, but I was ready to try something else.

2. Baking soda. I made a paste from about 1/4 cup baking soda and 1/4 cup warm water from the shower. Mix it up and apply it to the scalp, massaging vigorously particularly in heavy dandruff areas. Baking soda is highly alkaline, so especially in hard water conditions it must be paired with an acid or your hair will end up feeling gunky and unwashed. So, after this wash I used....

3. Apple cider vinegar. I mixed about 1/4 cup ACV and 1/4 cup warm water and poured it over my scalp and massaged it in gently and let it sit for about 5-10 minutes. Both the baking soda and apple cider vinegar methods were recommendations for dandruff, and needed to be paired together to work properly. The soda exfoliates and removes dirt and excess oil and the vinegar balances pH, soothes the scalp, and works as a natural conditioner.

4. Herbal tea. This same shower I decided to go for the gusto and try another ingredient: peppermint tea brewed just like I was going to drink a hot cup, but instead left to cool a bit, poured over the scalp, and left to sit for 5 mins. I read that herbal teas were excellent for hair, adding nutrients and repairing damage. Finally, I washed with my organic shampoo and called it a day.

My conclusion after this shower.... meh, it worked a bit, but wasn't terribly impressive. I decided to try it again after noticing a few less flakes, and my scalp was again a bit clearer. Each shower seemed to heal my scalp a little more. But then two things happened: my husband decided to try my scalp experiment instead of buying T-Gel, and my daughter squirted the rest of my organic shampoo down the drain.

I casually mentioned to my husband as he headed to the shower with his vinegar, baking soda and tea, that I read this weird method where they skip shampooing entirely. I think it appealed to his scientific nature and he came out a while later announcing he had gone without shampoo. I felt his hair.... perfectly normal, actually. Smell... just a tiny trace of vinegar if you stuck your nose right in it. Interesting. A week into this method and he still looked good... and smelled good too since he took to finishing with peppermint tea!

I, on the other hand, was onto new hair woes. My organic shampoo was down the drain thanks to a four-year-old who was playing "clean the shower" with it. Months ago I had used and loved Giovanni's Triple Tea Tree Treat or whatever it's called, so I had a bottle under the sink to use when my current shampoo ran out. It's all-natural, but not organic. Alas, my love for it died that first shower when my skin started itching everywhere it touched, likely a reaction to the essential oils which I tend to be sensitive to. So the next shower I took the plunge and skipped shampoo for the first time. I did my scalp routine: baking soda deep massage, rinse well (because you don't want to become a human volcano experiment when mixed with the next ingredient), vinegar soak, rinse, tea soak, and rinse. My reaction? Wow. My hair felt AMAZING!

It has only gotten better since!!! I haven't "washed" my hair in a day and a half and it looks and feels softer and cleaner than it normally does straight from the shower! My scalp is nearly cleared up and no longer itches. I looked in the mirror this morning and thought... whoa, is my hair shiny??? It has amazing body, a nice natural sheen, and apparently can go for days without feeling dirty. Why did I not know about this before?

How does it work? Or more importantly, why do you not end up a stinky grease-head after a few days? It turns out that it's the shampoo that causes your hair to become oily after a day or so. Shampoos, like most soaps and detergents, are particularly good at removing oils. In this case, it strips all the natural oil from your hair and your scalp produces extra oil to make up for it. Left alone, your scalp will balance out, providing just enough oil to keep your hair healthy and beautiful. This means most people have a "detox" phase for a few days before the gorgeous hair kicks in. Also, many shampoos have silicone in them which gives an artificial shine but coats each strand of hair and causes build-up over time. The no 'poo method allows the silicone to sluff off and lets your hair shine on its own.

It seems to me that the use of baking soda and vinegar is more often called "no 'poo" while using conditioner to clean hair called "curly girl" but they seem somewhat interchangeable. Anyhow, another way of doing this (which I haven't tried) is buying a nice, silicone-free, preferably natural conditioner and using this as your shampoo. This method works mainly on friction, so working the conditioner into your scalp in a circular motion and working it into the hair for a period of time is essential. The moisturizing properties of conditioner don't have to fight shampoo, so it leaves your hair feeling very soft. This method might take longer for your hair to adjust to, but again, I haven't tried it.

I gave you the amounts of baking soda and apple cider vinegar I use for scalp recovery, but from what I've read, most people use considerably less of each for day-to-day use, even down to a tablespoon. That's my favorite thing about the no 'poo method... it's SO cheap and it's all stuff I already had in my cupboards... you can't get more DIY-happy than that!

Give it a try! You know you want to.

The last couple of weeks

I have been a bit distracted from my blog upkeep for the last couple of weeks. For one, I had my 4-year-old's birthday gift and party to plan and work on. For another, we decided it was time to visit family out-of-state, so we have been busy planning for that. Also, I've been trying to finish up a few of the many projects I have been working on. It has been largely a success!

Hannah's birthday gift (to be showcased on here soon) was finished the evening of her birthday, so she was able to open it after dinner. This is the tradition gift-opening time in our family, so I wasn't running that late. Her birthday party went over well. The festivities included craft time (of course!), homemade pizza for lunch, and lastly, a fairy hunt where each girl followed a long twisty, tangled trail of yarn to her very own waldorf fairy styled to look like the little girl who found her! Oh, and how could I forget the fairytale castle ice cream cake?

Our travel plans would normally be straight-forward since we have made this trip many times, but this particular time I had to come up with winter wear for the girls which included trips to thrift stores, Children's Place winter clearance ($1 for a pair of knit, fleece-lined mittens in toddler sizes!), and unearthing stuff in our own stores that haven't been touched in months. I also had to labor over which disposable diapers to bring since we can't check luggage this time and therefore don't have room for a huge cloth diaper stash. This is a quite confusing task for a cloth-diapering mom, actually. Do I really have to spend $15 for a week's worth of diapers? How do I know they'll work? Do I get the expensive ones in case the cheap ones leak, or is that a silly waste of money? And most importantly, how am I supposed to keep her pants on with no cloth to hold it up? ...This is a legitimate concern. My children have no butts but are heavy wetters, so at this age, the waist bands are let out to accommodate for huge diapers. Without that, their pants fall to their ankles. But, without too much grief, I have purchased diapers for the first few days of the trip. Next, how to pack for a lengthy trip when we can't check any luggage? Thankfully we'll be staying with our friends who have three kids around my girls' age, but it is a daunting task nonetheless. Then came the biggest problem by far... my husband found out he needed to be home during one of the trip days! We managed to shuffle meetings and flights and now I am taking one daughter and my husband is following a day later with the other. Phew. Nothing insurmountable, but still time consuming.

In the rest of my time, I have been trying to finish up some of my mostly-completed projects. Just tonight I finished the slippers that I posted about a couple of weeks ago, I am a mere ten rows + decreases from finishing my cabled hat, and this morning I stitched the wig onto my little cowgirl waldorf doll, Tiana. I will try to get pictures posted of my projects as they finish.

But here's something to get started with: a picture of the birthday party after the little fairies were found!