No "poo" hair washing. Week 1

On my quest to become toiletry snob extrodinaire, I have decided that I shall no longer use the devils sauce shampoo and conditioner. I had become a product snob, thanks entirely to Saramae and her hair stylist clan, using the best products I could afford. Well, I learned that my tightly curled frizzy fried hair dosent care if I spend 1 dollar, or 50 dollars on shampoo. Its going to be frizzy and uncontrollable no matter what I use. FINE, have it your way hair. I stumbled on a pictoral of a girl whos hair was slightly less curly than mine, using baking soda for shampoo and a vinegar rinse to condition. Hrmmmm... I must try this. I only wash my hair once a week to start with, so I figured my hair is used to producing less oils anyhow. This shouldnt be too much of a shell shock. Right?

So, I used her recipe for shampoo. A quart of boiling water and a quarter cup of baking soda. I splashed this on my crown and let it drizzle down to my ends. (my hair only goes slightly past my shoulder) I rubbed and scrubbed from top to ends and rinsed very well. It felt squeeky clean, like I had just finished washing with a normal shampoo. I thought, OMG I LOVE THIS!!!

Next stop, vinegar rinse. ewwww I wasnt really looking forward to this part. I used a slightly modified version of her recipe. Which was 3/4 cup of water, 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar, a tsp of aloe gel, few drops of peppermint, and a few drops of tea tree. Well, my aloe is in oil form and I had spearmint not peppermint, so I changed it up a bit with spearmint oil tea tree oil and a bit of 5x orange essential oil. I also threw in a tsp of rice bran oil for good measure. This was a bit harder to tell how much I was actually getting smooshed around in my hair. So I probably used way more than I needed to. But whatevs, it still felt smooth. There were a few tangles left when I rinsed it out. (I dont brush my curls for a week either) the salon shampoo I was usually typically made all the tangles fall right out, but the vinegar rinse just mostly got em out.

Brushing my wet hair with those few tangles posed a slight problem. Mainly because I am not used to it. I didnt have the same glide to my hair that I usually did but I dont think that is such a big deal. Tangles and glide are not yet a deal breaker.

So, now I am parked back on my couch with season 8 of NCIS and will sit here, upright, until my hair naturally dries. I am anxious to see what the curls will do to show approval or distaste for my new routine.

Pictures to come!

Soap making blues

Its official, I totally suck at making cold process soap bars. I cant get the scents to stick, and more times than not, I am having to hot process some goofy slop out of my batter. I enjoy the HP batches, but they arent what I wanted. And when I dont make things perfect, then I must suck at it.... Right?

What I have discovered, is that I have a natural talent for liquid and cream soaps. Each time I have attempted a batch of either, it has come out exactly as I planned. And that makes me happy.

I did a batch of liquid soap a few weeks ago. I enjoy the fact that I can make a buttload of paste, and dilute it later with whatever superfat and scents I want. I enjoy that I dont have to worry about seizing or ricing with any of my fragrances. And I enjoy that the finished product is tucked nice and neat into a sweet little bottle and dosent make a mess in my shower or bathtub when a kid leaves it in a puddle of water. And my favorite part, the cure is called sequestering. And I just really like the word 'sequester'. Its fun.

My cream soap is still in its beginning process. I am whipping it up every other day or so. I have a few weeks left before it is done rotting. (cream soap version of cure) I used way more water than I originally thought I would need. but its light and fluffyish and the color is fairly white/ivoryish. I cant wait till its done so I can make it smell pretty then dig my fingers in it all day long. My eldest said it looked like divinity. (candy) which I guess was a compliment. I need to grab a camera and take pics of the stages. Who knew chemistry could be fun???

I have an order in for some more goodies that should be here tomorrow! Including my preservative, more smelliegoodies, and emulsifying wax. Gunna try lotions next! I actually go through way more lotion than I do soap. Its one of the few things that helps releive my Restless Leg Syndrom. YES ITS REAL DAMNIT! So, theres my weekend project. Even though I have been neglecting my scrap room for weeks. I really really really need to organize it. ooOOooo maybe I can make some pretty boxes to put soap bars in? oooOOooOOoo.......

For Realsies

And another blog, long forgotton, wandering aimlessly through cyberspace, alone, desolate. OOPS!

I blame Saramae. The brat decided that, in the grand tradition of her entire immediate family, she too, should become a hair stylist extrodinaire. A whole year and a half, including a WHOLE summer, wasted while she was in prima hair school. On a good note, she finished school and graduated as elite. And very much teachers pet. Yay Saramae!

All the kids are in school now. Its halfway through winter. I havnt really scrapped much of anything, except a gift now and then. Nothing amazing. (I sorta, kinda, but not really updated my youtube on projects. I have a whole SD card of videos I need to edit) I started making home made soap. Not the melt and pour kind, but real lye soap like great grandma and great grandpa used to make back on the cotton farm. Its a friggin BLAST.

But, not being able to give up the scrapping just yet, I am in the middle of a mixed media soap recipe box which will showcase all my fabo soap recipies and offer sniffy samples and a visual extravaganza of each and every batch. Kind of a soapy growth chart. Perhaps I should finally get that finished... or, make that valentines day batch of heart soap.... oooOOOooOoOo Decisions Decisions.

Drats! Time flies, kids are out of school. Byyyeeeeeeeee

What a bunch of craft!

Ok, so these past few months have been just insane. When we arent running around all over the place, we are lounging by Saramae's pool. We really need to figure out a way to scrap outside poolside without stuff blowing away or getting wet :)

Anyway, so I havnt really done any videos or hell, even much crafting lately. We busted ass to get the Scrap Beach 'Bitch' Tags done. But I didnt get a chance to do a video of them. Ill have to make another one to show what I did to em haha. Im super excited to get back all the cool bitchy tags from the other ladies at the scrap beach!

Upcoming projects that I just HAVE to get done are a flower swap, and a wedding mini I need to finish for our amazing bartender, waitress, and friend extrodinaire who was married last week.

I also grabbed some artist books, I think its time for me to jump on the art journal bandwagon. I tend to do things like that but never all in the same book. It will be fun to be able to try all these techniques all in one spot. And NOT throw away the test page! :)

Currently, I am in Louisiana, MELTING, visiting my Momma for the week. Ill be heading back north where its normal in a few days. The kiddos are staying for a week or two so I get my whole house QUIET for a while. YAY!!!!

Anyway, here are some stuffs I was able to throw together last week just to curb the need for creating.

I've been doing this book technique for years. Its alot of fun and the possibilities are really endless. This one I decided not to gesso/paint. I just used the raw book pages. I did brush over a whitewash and a pop of color here and there with some acrylics. Here are the videos of the book itself, and how I shaped it.



And the technique!



Thanks all that subscribed and entered the giveaway. I'll be doing the random drawing this coming Saturday when Im back home.

IM SO EXCITED! My first giveaway!!!!

Love yall!
Jaime

(You know Im in the south when i start using 'yall' again hehe)

Haul and April ATC Swap on Life on the {scrap} Beach

So with Saramae being gone to France for a week, I have totally lost my creative mojo. I havn't felt like scrapping or anything for a while. It dosent help that spring is here and my gardens are screaming "FEED US!! We want to be big and beautiful this year!! And please get these weeds away from us, they are so unattractive!"

So, yeah, I've speant more time at the nursery than at hobby lobby. woohooo.

I did sign up for a swap on The Beach though. It was my first ever ATC. Im working now to make something special for the hostess, but again with the creative block. I really need to get my mojo back asap!

So here is what I came up with!



I worked hard to keep the piece usable in another project. All the information and writing are tucked into something, or adhered using a re positional adhesive. I hate my handwriting so I figured I would give the recipients a polite way to use these in a mini or something :)

I also got some cool stuff during the week at various stores. I had a bag from Canfields (Local sporting goods store) and let me tell ya, fishing supplies are AMAZING for scrapping stuff. I got all sorts of swivel clasps, connectors, pins, and other unique items for cheap cheap cheap! So I lost that bag and its not in this haul vid, but if I find it Ill have to show some of the awesome stuff I got my hands on!

Woohoo!

Gunna be back in the groove. Saramae is on her way home from Paris today! I'll have my scrappin buddy back just in time to start an April ATC swap on Life on the {scrap}Beach. The girls there seem to be super nice and talented. I am glad I joined. :) I'm super excited to do my first ATC Swap, this should be loads of fun!

Dude, Really?

Saramae has been gone for just a few days and I am so flippin bored out of my mind. I cant scrap without her!! So, I have kinda been a video recording fool.

So I was looking at these clear epoxy stickers for a month wondering what the heck to do with them. And I decided to mash em together to make a charm. I love love LOVE the antique music sheets I found, so I used them to sammich between the stickers. This paper is so delicate, its really hard to work with. Regular or double sided paper would work just as well. I just like to choose what I want to show on each side of the charm. I love the way it turned out!!