Favorite Things

Occasionally I'd like to share some of my favorite things.  Sometimes when you find something good, you just need to sing it's praises. I'm certain that many or most of you are familiar with these products. So let's get started. 

*Just a little side note, usually if something is cheap, works good, and has more than one use, it becomes a favorite of mine.  All of these fit into that description.

Vaseline- Our winter has been VERY VERY dry.  I run the humidifier everyday.  I use lotion all the time.  Despite this, our skin has been so dry. In fact the skin around my eyes has started flaking making it hard to put on makeup.  So...I started putting vaseline on my face at night, mostly around the dry areas.  Wala!  Skin is soft and supple and back to normal. It doesn't sting when you put it on chapped skin like regular lotion can which is good for the kiddos. Hate the greasiness, but love the results.  It has also helped heal Kadyn's very chapped hands and Bren's chapped cheeks.  You can also use it as diaper rash preventer and it takes off eye makeup marvelously.  It is so cheap!  Can't beat that.

Hamper-  We have a small circular hamper. I sometimes marvel at how many uses we get out of this thing.  Of course I use it for laundry all the time.  It is small enough that it is easy to store and carry around.  It doubles as a little table for the kids when you flip it upside down.  They also use it right side up as a crib for their babies or a bathtub.  They also climb in it and pretend to take a bath or ride in a car or push each other around.  And my favorite use?  Every day at 5:00 we pick up toys.  The kids used to pick up one toy at a time and carry back to the toy boxes.  Now I put the hamper in the living room and tell them to load it up.  Then they push it back to the room with all the toys and start sorting it. This saves so much time and they don't loose focus as much running back and forth between rooms all the time.

Baking soda- This is cheap and nontoxic.  I use it as a deodorizer in the laundry occasionally or to deodorize the refrigerator.  I use it as a soft scrub on my stainless steel pots and pans and in the bathtub too.  And of course you can cook with it.

Vinegar-  Jeff hates this stuff, but I love it!  It disinfects.  It's nontoxic.  It is a wonderful cleaner!  I use a mix of 50/50 on my counters.  I use it to clean bathrooms with the baking soda.  I use it to clean fresh stains off the carpet.  I even got chocolate milk puke off the my white carpets!  I use it to neutralize the odors in my diapers.  It cleans hard water deposits so well.  It cleans out out my coffee pot so well.  Love it!  It's so cheap! 

Baby Soap-  Before I had children my sister came to visit me with her brand new little girl.  She accidentally left behind her baby soap.  One day I realized I was out of facial cleanser.  I saw the bottle and thought, 'why not?'  After all if it's gentle enough for babies and tearfree.  Probably would work well on my face.  I was right.  I have used it ever since and never looked back.  Takes makeup off wonderfully.  Can use it on my kids without stinging their eyes, and it's SOOOO much cheaper than regular facial cleanser.

There you have it, five of my favorite things.  Cheap, easy, many uses, doesn't get better than that!

By request

One of my readers requested links to the hair and makeup videos I watched.  The lady who does them is so cute, bubbly, and real.  Her name is Kandee.  Hope you can get some good tips out of them like I did.  She has more videos if you want to see more.

Just a little side note here, I am all about simplicity because it makes life cheaper and less stressful. After watching women put on eye makeup in these videos I was blown away how many products they used to achieve a certain look.   I certainly didn't run out and buy any extra makeup as we are on a pencil thin budget.  In my makeup case I have 2 colors of eye shadow I use on my eyes, one eye liner pencil, one compact of blush, mascara, compressed [powdered foundation, and a liquid foundation as primer for my eyes.  That's all I have ever used.  Even though I didn't have any of the stuff they talk about in these videos I was still able to use some of the techniques described in the videos I watched to create a much better look than what I had been getting.

I can't find the link to the eye video I watched, but there are a TON of them on YouTube. 

Here is one I viewed to learn more about foundation.

This one teaches how to use a simple and cheap to make exfoliater. (Love this when I tried it!)


 This  last one teaches how to get volume in your hair, something I struggle with a lot.

Have fun!

Three old/new tops

So I've been a busy little bee on my sewing machine this weekend.  3 new/old tops.  I say old because they were already in my closet but I gave them a face lift so they now look new....to me.  Up first is that little number that I showed you in my last post.  I wasn't happy with the fit of the shirt.  Felt too tight.  Length seemed too long and the sleeves stuck out too much for my taste.  So....I cut and tied the sleeves to eliminate the poof.  I shortened the shirt.  I also let out the inseams a little. Then I cut off the neck and made it a V shape which loosed it up a bit. It was hard to get a clear shot without a flash.  I couldn't use the flash because it reflected off the mirror.  Anyhow, as you can see I had a whole new shirt that looked like this.

Front View

Side View of sleeve

Next is an old band shirt Jeff had. It was too small to him, but he was too attached to let go of it.  He told me he'd let me have it if I thought I could make it into something wearable so it got to stay in the house (I'm into purging which makes him nervous).  I cut the sleeves and then put a white tie in the holes.  I also altered the sides to fit me body shape better, cut the neck so it was wider, and gathered the sides for a more feminine look.  Unfortunately, I was so eager to get started on this shirt that I forgot to take before pics.  Woops!  My apologies for the wrinkles, I had to dig it out of the dirty laundry to take pics as I forgot the day before to photograph it

Front view

Side view of tied sleeve and gathered waste line.

Lastly was a shirt that I had on hand but was plain, old, and ugly.  I actually screwed up on the sleeves and had to cut them off.  This turned out to be a cool idea as I was able to get three totally different looks just by moving a tie around on the top part.  I still want to put some darts under the arms to make the bust lay a little better.  The only thing I needed to make this shirt was a pair of scissors.  Absolutely NO sewing.  I just cut up the middle, tied a whole bunch, cut off the sleeves and wala!  Hard to believe this was just a plain old t shirt.  The ties are kind of hard to see on the pictures.  Sorry.  Once again, no before pics.  Forgot in all the excitement to get started.

Here is the tutorial I used to do this in case you are interested.  You can at least see what I was going for before I had to cut off the sleeves.

And since were on the subject of doing things for myself, last night after the girls were in bed I started searching around some more on the internet for shirt ideas.  Then I ran into you tube videos made by a professional hair and makeup artist on how to put on makeup and do your hair.  Everything I have learned about fashion, putting on makeup, taking care of my skin and hair has all been self taught.  I have never had anyone sit down with me and show me the correct way to do these things.  So this morning armed with new knowledge I gave it a try.  For the first time in a long time I liked my hair.  I felt glamorous with my new makeup look too, and I loved the way my skin felt after my little lemon juice and sugar scrub facial.  I feel so girly.  How did we ever learn anything before internet?  I feel like a new woman:)  Sigh!

First attempt

As I put in my previous post I wanted to make some clothing for myself.  I decided to start simple.  This is what I did yesterday.  Turning an oversized tshirt into a fitted one. I didn't think it was too bad for my first attempt.  I used a fitted tshirt I already had that was fitted as at template.  I did think my template shirt was a bit too snug for my tastes, so I added 1/2 and inch.  The final result still felt a bit snug, so next time I might try adding an entire inch.  I also didn't like how the sleeves flare out.  Not sure what's going on with that, but it's wearable and I'm pleased for my first attempt.  Don't you love the little heads peeking out on the bottom pic.  Silly kids.  I think Kadyn was as excited about my first attempt as I was.  She asked me to make one just like it for her.  Silly girl.  I love having a cheerleader.

Amazing how a fitted T can actually shave about 10 pounds off my look.  The beauty of it all is that if I totally screw up a shirt, it doesn't matter as we were going get rid of them anyways.  So anyways.  Here's the pics of what I did.
 
Today I think I may actually take off another 2 inches from the length.  I tend to think women's fitted tshirts are too short, so I wanted to leave the length of this shirt alone before I did anything to it.  My problem area on my body is my booty and longer shirts help draw attention away from it by drawing the eye up to my waste. However, I think this shirt could stand to loose another 2 inches and still look just fine.  

So if you need me, you can find me at my sewing machine in between cooking, cleaning, preschool lessons, storytimes, and doing laundry.  I think I found my new obssession.

Cool

For some time I've been thinking I really need to make something for myself on my machine.  An item of clothing.  Jeff and I bagged up a bunch of clothes to send off to the thrift store.  I looked through his bag and rather than seeing a bunch of old beat up clothes that were way too big, I saw.....FABRIC.  My little creative juices started stirring in me.  I could really use some more tops.  Maybe I could make these into something cool for myself.


My biggest concern was not getting in over my head.  I knew it would be a lot easier to make clothes for myself with a dress form, but I don't have a dress form.  I'm a tuturial kind of gal, not a pattern gal.  I just started surfing around.  Here's what I learned:  you can make a hundred different styled shirts from a plain old t-shirt.  Don't believe me?  Check this out



 And this is only the tip of the iceberg. You would be surprised what you can make with only a pair of scissors and plain old tshirt.  No scissors required.

Then I discovered the circle scarf.  If you have never heard one of these you've GOT to see this video.  You will finish it wanting one....I promise.  I think making one of these is in my near future. 



Are you as inspired as I am?  I may need to go buy more hangers.  Glad I cleared some space in my closet.  All I need is a couple cheap tshirts from the thrift store.  This is going to be fun.  Time to play.

Eat your Veggies

Aw the battle all mothers across America have to go through on a daily basis....getting their kiddos to eat their veggies.  Today I had a conversation with the kids that had them cleaning almost every single veggie off of their plates.  Not sure if it will work everyday, but it did today at least.  In fact I somehow managed to use Michael Jackson as an example to make a point about veggies.  How in the world did I do this?  Keep reading.


Me:  You know, your veggies are like medicine.  Medicine from God in fact.
Kids:  (looking puzzled)
Me:  Well veggies have vitamins that help build your immunities.  What do your immunties do?
Kids:  Fight germs.
Me:  That's right.  Where does corn and green beans come from?
Kids:  Seeds.
Me:  And who makes those seed grow?
Kids:  God
Me:  Yes, so you see God gives us all the medicine we need to stay healthy everyday.  And wanna know the best part.
Kids:  (puzzled look, as if to say, 'there's more?')
Me:  What happens if we don't eat our veggies?
Kids:  You get sick and have to go to the doctor.
Me:  That's right and the doctor gives you medicine.  What does that medicine do?
Kids:  Fights germs.
Me:  Yes, and what happens if you take too much doctor medicine, kinda like what Michael Jackson did?
Kids:  You die.
Me:  That's right, you can die if you take too much.  Can you die from eating too much corn?
Kids:  (lots of giggles) No!
Me:  That's right.  God makes medicine that you can eat as much of as you want.  The only thing that will happen if you eat too much corn is you'll feel really, really full.
Kids:  (giggles)
Me:  Man, our God is awesome.  He's always taking care of us and giving us everything we could possibly need.  So eat up God's medicine guys.
Kids:  I'm going to eat ALL my vegetables.

I'm thinking to myself, 'Man Darci that was pretty good.  Not being able to tie God into regular lessons at school would be hard.  I think I would really enjoy teaching at a Christian school some day. Hmmmm.'

Bren reads

I bought Brennan two books for Christmas.  We had checked them out from the library and they were hits,  so I picked them up at Walmart. Now it has become part of our good night routine to read them.  This video doesn't do this moment justice.  She had read them so well before we stated video taping her.  She was about done with it when we shot this, but at least you can see her attempt to read the first two pages and hear the way she says the end, "Amen."    The second video is Bren on her new rocking horse.  I just can't get over how cute she is in her new hat and cowboy boots.  Grandma and Grandpa on both sides would be proud. Click to see the video.


Untitled from Darci Bilberry on Vimeo.



Untitled from Darci Bilberry on Vimeo.


Untitled from Darci Bilberry on Vimeo.