Spring Health and Beauty Goals.

Since the new year, I’ve cut artificial sweeteners, soda, dairy, meat and most white sugars out of my diet.  It’s been a daily journey figuring out how my best, most healthy self is supposed to feel, but it’s been a great experience so far.

The meat and dairy thing sort of makes me the “v-word,” which feels odd.  I used to think vegans were tree-hugging, animal-loving hippies, but now I wonder if that’s a bad thing.  I’ve been reading some awesome books like The Kind Diet and Skinny Bitch, and I feel like, for the first time in my life, I’m really learning about the importance of what I put into my body.

I feel sad for the animals who are killed or abused to produce meat and dairy, but my decision was based more on just how gross meat and dairy are if you truly think about it.  Decaying flesh?  Another animal’s breast milk?  Eek.

I had suspected for some time that I had a sensitivity to dairy, and so I decided to cut it out of my diet for two weeks.  When I started cutting it out, I also started reading and researching, and although I was supposed to reintroduce dairy into my diet after the two weeks, I have absolutely no desire to.

I.  Feel.  Amazing. 

Better than I’ve felt in a long time.  I have energy.  I’m not bloated.  And a friend came over for a play date this afternoon and asked me why I was glowing!  Glowing!  (I had to assure her, in fact, that I am under no circumstances preggers.)

This is a new journey for me, and I’m learning every single day about the vegan lifestyle.  I’m not sure how much of it is a permanent change – but I feel amazing and I’m taking it day-by-day and enjoying some yummy food in the process!

My newfound energy has me making all kinds of plans for spring.  I plan to pick up more sewing and crafting, and have even been inspired by a friend to make jewelry.  I saw necklaces made from wooden beads and old t-shirts on Etsy and fell in love.  I was surprised at how easy of a DIY project it was!

I’ve also been debating chopping all of my hair off.  I haven’t had a major hair cut since before I was pregnant with Kennedy, and my hair is crazy-long.  I have a love-hate relationship with it, but I think I’ll end up keeping it because I’m always getting inspired by blogs like The Paper Mama to try new things with it – like this braided up-do.

I also recently made the decision to get an IUD (sorry if that’s TMI) because the pill was making me feel lousy.  This change has made my skin go a little bonkers – so I have been exploring new skin-care techniques, face masques, toners, etc.  I love a good skin peel, and am long overdue for one, so I’m planning a review of Skin-Peel.com’s new Jessner peel.

Jessner peels include Salicylic and Lactic Acids, as well as Resorcinol – and claim that they will rejuvenate skin and stimulate new cell growth.  Goodbye, icky winter skin – Hello, spring beauty!

Stay tuned for more posts about all things vegan, crafty, and beauty-related!

Happy almost spring!

Project 365: Weeks 106 & 107

April 6, 2011:  Andrew went to the Beer, Bacon and BBQ festival, and brought Bennet these temporary tattoos home!  I put them on, but quickly realized that we should probably take them off before sending him to preschool.  Unfortunately, they only stayed on for about a day, but they were lots of fun while they lasted!

April 7, 2011:  After I picked up Bennet up from school, he helped me clean out my car and vacuum it.  Since it was so clean inside, we decided to take it to the car wash to clean the outside.  We took Sophie with us, and Bennet was thrilled both with driving through an automatic car wash and having Sophie ride with him in the back seat!

April 8, 2011:  Andrew’s mom and dad came to town for a visit!  Bennet and Kennedy had such a great time playing with them and visiting with them, and we loved having them stay with us!

April 9, 2011:  My mother-in-law loves collecting sea glass, so we headed to Maryland’s Eastern Shore to hunt for sea glass!  We had lunch in historic Chestertown, and then went to Tolchester Beach to look for glass.  Such a lovely day!

April 10, 2011:  Kennedy got her first hair cut!  I can’t believe we had to do it before she was even 9 months old, but her hair was getting out of control!  Special thanks to Grammy for taking lots of pictures for us to commemorate the big day!

April 11, 2011:  Andrew took off work for his parents’ visit.  Since they left early in the morning, we had the whole day to do something fun with the kids!  It was beautiful outside, so we went to a local park and had a picnic lunch while the kids played on the playground.  Bennet is growing up so fast – last summer he would never have attempted this rope bridge but this year – he was all about it!

April 12, 2011:  This was my day.  Beanie had been running a fever which I believed was teething-related.  After her growing increasingly grumpy, I took her in to the pediatrician only to find that she had a double ear infection!  A long couple of days for Momma, but as soon as the Amoxicillin kicked in, things were looking up!

April 13, 2011:  My kids love the dollar store!  Nothing makes them happier than roaming the aisles, checking things out!  On this day, Bennet chose a toy snake and a basket to keep it in as his treat.  Kennedy picked out a stuffed caterpillar. 

April 14, 2011:  I ordered Little Einsteins stuffed animals on ebay for Bennet, and they finally came in the mail!  He was sad that he didn’t have a “rocket” to put them in, so I improvised and made one out of an Amazon box, red tissue paper, paint and Modge Podge.  He was, obviously, thrilled with the result!

April 15, 2011:  We took the kids to the mall for pictures with the Easter Bunny!  Bennet got stickers and a toy in a plastic egg, and Kennedy was pretty excited to chew on the egg!

April 16, 2011:  A rainy day.  Shenanigans on the front porch with the kids and the dog.  Just another day at our house!

April 17 2011:  Since being sick, Kennedy has gotten very needy.  She insists on being held all the time, and cries when you refuse to hold her.  Although it has been getting better, on this night she cried unless I let her hang out on a blanket in the kitchen with me while I unloaded the dishwasher. 

April 18, 2011:  One of the big benefits to finally fixing the front porch and front yard up is that I get to play out front with the kids.  Bennet loves driving his cars all over the front porch.  I love how smart and interactive he’s getting!

April 19, 2011:  Are you freaking kidding me?  I found this pin for Kennedy at a thrift store and I had to buy it!  A Human Bean!  Love it!

vintage sewing supplies.

When I saw an assortment of patterns and sewing notions offered up on Freecycle, I jumped on it quickly. I picked up my sewing goodies this morning, and I was amazed at the incredible assortment of vintage sewing notions and patterns I scored – for free!

There’s a plastic sewing box filled with thread, tons of vintage buttons, and a bag of notions like bias tape, snaps, and elastic. The woman who owned all of this stuff also made dolls and stuffed animals, so there’s also a box filled with eyes – cat eyes, googly eyes, wooden eyes – more eyes than I know what to do with!

There are also some really cool vintage appliques. I don’t see appliques this pretty in stores anymore! My favorites are this little doll, and this anchor. I can’t wait to add them to clothes for the kids.

There’s a huge box of vintage ribbon and lace. I’m dying over it. Just like the appliques, I never see things this beautiful in sewing stores anymore!

Those two in the front are my favorites – a see-through, yellow lace and a floral print ribbon. I can’t wait to find some uses for these in my sewing room!

And the patterns. Oh, the patterns. All of them are from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. Stuffed animals galore. Kennedy and Bennet are going to be getting lots of cool, handmade friends!

There are bedding patterns…

Curtain and bag patterns…

And even some sweet, vintage patterns for clothes for the kids!

I do wish I knew why I ended up with all this stuff. I picked it up from a local church, and my feeling is that maybe a sweet, old lady died and the church was helping to get rid of her stuff. Otherwise, I can’t imagine why someone would be getting rid of such a wealth of sewing supplies! Whoever this lady is, I hope I do her proud with the things I create with her stuff!

I definitely hit the mother load of free, vintage sewing loot today! I’m really excited to go through it and get it organized, and then put it to use! I’ll be sure to post whatever exciting projects this windfall inspires me to take on!

tulle and ribbon tutu.

One of the best things about having a baby girl is getting to sew and make all kinds of frilly, girly things!  With the help of tutorials from a few websites that I love – Vermillion Rules & I Heart Naptime – I’ve been teaching myself to make tutus.  Making tutus at home is extremely easy – and oh-so-much cheaper than buying them!  My Moms Club a raffle tonight – and I volunteered to make a tutu and matching headband as one of the prizes.  I finished it this afternoon and I sort of love it!

I made a little flower out of tulle and attached it to the headband along with one of the flower embellishments I added to the tutu.  This was my first time incorporating ribbon and tulle into a tutu and I love the way it turned out.

 

I wanted to check the size of it – so I had Bennet model it.  He really was fond of it, and was “too sad” when he had to take it off.

I still owe Kennedy’s best pal, Addison, one – so next I may get to working on St. Patrick’s Day ones for both girls!

make DIY photo coasters from bathroom tile.

I've come across more than one blog tutorial lately on making your own photo coasters. I wanted so much to find a great DIY Christmas gift for the grandparents and great grandparents, so I was excited to check out the ideas floating around out there and figure out an easy, inexpensive Christmas gift that the kids and I could make for our family! After some tweaking, and some combining of different blog posts out there, I came up with some really adorable photo coasters that were affordable and lots of fun to make! Here's how I did it:

Materials:

4 X 4 tiles (I used white, bathroom tiles that I bought at Lowes for about 30 cents a piece!)

photos, cut to 3 X 3 squares

tacky glue

craft paint

sponge paint brushes

outdoor modge podge

hot glue gun

3.5 X 3.5 felt squares (for bottom of coasters)

I gathered my tiles, and cut photos of the kids to 3 X 3 squares.

I used glue to adhere the photos to the tile before sealing them with Modge Podge.

After gluing the photos to the tiles, I decided that I wanted to add a "kid" border to each coaster, so I sponge-painted a border on each coaster with craft paint.

I chose to use Outdoor Modge Podge for my coasters, to get some extra water-proofing from the condensation from glasses. I did 3 coats of Modge Podge on the coasters to seal them.

Once the Modge Podge had dried, I hot-glued 3.5 X 3.5 felt squares to the bottom of each tile, to keep the coasters from scratching tables.

They turned out really great, and were a big hit when we passed them out on our visit to Andrew's family this past weekend!

I'm so happy with how they turned out! I even let Bennet help with the sponge painting, so he could proudly tell Grandma and Great Grandma that he helped make their Christmas gift!

making a pine door swag with christmas tree clippings.

When we took the kids Christmas tree shopping on Black Friday, Bennet and I both spent some time admiring all of the pretty, pine wreaths and swags Lowe's had on display. They seemed over-priced to me, especially when I knew we'd be trimming some clippings off of the bottom of our tree once we got it home. I figured it couldn't be too hard to make a pine swag for my front door out of the clippings from our Christmas tree. Surprisingly, I couldn't find many tutorials online, so I thought I'd share with you how we made a front door swag out of our Christmas tree clippings!

The first thing we did, which I did not get a picture of, is gather all of your clippings together, and tie them at the top with any strong, sturdy string you have around your house. From there, you get to decorate it. I wanted a big, red, Christmas bow on mine.

I found a very simple tutorial on the Save on Crafts website, which basically consisted of measuring and cutting several lengths of ribbon...

Using a hot glue gun to form the ribbon into little bow loops...

And hot gluing it all together! Isn't it pretty? It was so easy, friends!

We then simply hot-glued our Christmas bow to the pine clippings and hung the swag on our front door! We saved about $15, and had a fun time making a little holiday craft together.

Andrew's been calling it our "love swag." We've been trying to do more things together, other than just vegging out in an exhausted coma in front of the TV when we get the kids in bed every night. Doing this little "love" craft together was a lot of fun!

Happy "love swag" making!

a fun new hobby.

Our local Whole Foods is always offering fun classes for the community. In addition to the kids classes I've been taking Bennet to, I decided to sign up for an adult class this month - a Floral Arranging Brunch. My friend, Rachel, went with me this morning, and we had a great time.

There were all sorts of pastries, quiches, fruits and drinks, in addition to the floral arrangement class - yum! Our teacher works for Whole Foods doing all of their floral arrangements. She was a great teacher, and really took her time to teach us how to make a floral arrangement from start to finish. We learned everything from what kinds of flowers to pick out for an arrangement, to what order to assemble your arrangement in. Today being the first day of Spring, it seemed fitting to bring home a beautiful basket of flowers for my dining room table!


I was surprised how simple making an arrangement was, and I'll definitely try this at home myself next time I want flowers for the house, rather than just putting them in a vase. Being home with a toddler all day, it's definitely nice to get out of the house and learn something new. I'm very glad that I went! Whole Foods is always having adult classes, so I'm sure I'll be going back in the future!