Took a momentary break from the work/school grind to make a few bracelets tonight.
Once I can force myself to finish The Three-Body Problem, I’ll post a review of it. Currently on chapter 22 of 34-ish. If you can’t tell, here’s a spoiler: I won’t be praising it.
Today’s project was Eucalyptus Shea Butter Lip Balm, following these directions from the Whole Woman Health site. I didn’t use Vitamin E oil or honey, but did use eucalyptus oil instead of peppermint.
Supplies:
I spent more time grating the beeswax than I did making it, so I don’t have many in-progress pictures. My teenage son helped me out, so you can do this easily with older kids. Next time I think I’ll just slice the beeswax instead of grating it because it melted so quickly that all that time grating felt wasted.
3. Very carefully pour into your containers, or use a dropper/pipette if you have one. If you’re using tins with hinges, be careful to not fill at or above the hinges as it can overflow (I learned this the hard way)
4. The containers will be hot for the first several minutes; do not cover them and once the top begins to solidify you can move them to a safer place to finish cooling
5. Allow to cool and harden completely before putting the lids on
Optional Additions:
This is a easy project that may take 15-30 minutes total. I got four of my acrylic jars and two tins worth out of the batch I made.. I probably could have gotten one more tin or jar worth had I not overflowed the first tin. These would make very nice gifts or stocking stuffers!
Did you miss Part One of my craft room organization? Be sure to check it out here!
My crafting storage needs have expanded a lot over the course of the past year. Not only does my bead collection continue to grow, but with me adding in other projects such as hair clips and activity boxes, I seem to acquire more and more varying items every day.
More IKEA Organizers
While looking around for some storage ideas on Pinterest the night before my last IKEA trip (it’s a 4-hour drive downstate to the closest one, so you make sure it is worth the time!), I saw a few rooms that used magnetic boards and pails hanging on rails. I cross-checked them on IKEA’s site and figured out which would be best suited for my corner of a room.
In the end I settled on a Spontan magentic board paired with Grundtal containers. The board is just large enough to evenly fit 21 of those containers, which is seven packs of them (they come in packs of three). These containers hold a respectable amount in them! I fit every single one of my embellishments for hair clips and bottlecaps, and even extra buttons and some other assorted items inside of the containers.
In June of 2012 we moved into our current home. Before that, my “craft room” was my bedroom–I had everything stacked into a corner and just pulled things onto the bed or over to my computer desk whenever I wanted to work on something. Moving into a much larger home that actually has a spare bedroom is still an amazing concept to me.
This spare bedroom isn’t just for my crafts; we also use it for a workout room, and my husband stores most of his supplies (molds, dyes, and scents mostly) for making soaps here. What takes up the most space is the large, empty space we need to leave for working out! That meant that while I was organizing I needed to condense as many of my craft supplies as possible into one corner of the room. Eventually this became a matter of building up, not out.
The desk I’ve owned since I was a teenager. It’s survived several moves now, though the chair had to be reupholstered a couple of years back. The shelving runs from the window casing on the right side of the above photo, all the way across the wall until it meets the closet, which is a ways off from the left-hand side of the photo. Those shelves are lumber that my husband cut to size and stained ebony, with scrollwork brackets from the Home Depot–looks great, doesn’t it?
I’ve grown to be a frugal shopper, and whenever I’m out, clearance stickers always catch my eye. I usually pause to at least glance and see what the item is and how much it is discounted. My husband avoids going to craft stores with me because I’m known to get distracted for hours while there.
Usually this habit ends up with me just walking away from the item after admiring the sale price. One day while in Jo-Ann Fabrics I happened upon two remaining packages of 7″ hat pins (3 count each package). I had no idea that hat pins existed, what they were doing in a beading section, nor how large of a hat you would need to make use of a 7″ hat pin.. but there they were, on clearance and marked all the way down to $0.97!
Continue reading “Thrifty Thursday: Hair Sticks”
