Homemade Vanilla

As I was looking through the pinterest pages the other day I found a homemade gift pin that included homemade vanilla extract.  I was intrigued.  Can't find the pin, even though I swear I pinned it, but hey I did see it.  Since the holiday season is among us, and handmade gifts need to start being made I am on it.

Since I lost the pin I had to find a recipe, but it turns out vanilla extract is super simple to make.  Why have I been paying so much over the years for this stuff?

I found long vanilla beans and bottles on amazon, then went to the store and bought vodka.  Funny story, I don't know when I have ever purchased hard liquor before and our store has a roving liquor/wine lady who helps you.  Well I must have looked confused as all get out because she zipped right over.  Since we were not looking a beer I didn't really have a CLUE what the better deal was, and that was really all I was looking for; a good deal.  I knew I had a coupon on my app thingy, but she wasn't in the mood to give me time to compare and such.  She tried to sell me kettle one, which I am sure is a great vodka, but truly, couldn't tell you, until I told her what I was doing.  Then it was to the Smirnoff and I was out of there.

So I cleaned out my bottles, sliced my vanilla beans and added the vodka and beans to the bottles.  From what I read online this is one of those it gets better with time, so I had to get it started now for giving in December.

I must say this is a relatively inexpensive and EASY homemade gift.

Here is what I have so far:

 This was the first day.  No color, just sitting in the vodka extracting....

Now it is starting to look like vanilla extract!  I can't wait to try it!

What are you making for the holidays?

Best laid plans.....school outside

This morning was eventful.  I went to my yoga class to find my teacher gone, he is having a family a emergency and my thoughts are with him and his family.  The substitute was different, much more mellow, not as invigorating or challenging, but not bad.  I am spoiled by my morning teacher as he is awesome. 

I got home from yoga to find little l wandering around as if looking for her lost sheep.  First thing out of her mouth, "I pee peed in my pull up.  I need a new one".  Okay, mom duty begins dad is.....still sleeping?!?!? 

Got the big L off to the bus stop after packing a lunch for her, feeding breakfast and eating breakfast.  I packed a lunch and bag for little l and I, threw it in the stroller, along with the child and off we went.  We began our trek to the park from the school bus stop and it was still a bit cold, but it was nice to be outside in the mostly fresh air.

The only wildlife we saw this morning was a bunny, no javelina in our path.  Though, off topic, yesterday we had to pause while driving to allow a bobcat to cross the road.  A beautiful specimen, larger than the ones I have seen this year.  We saw a lot of birds, and cars and some people. 

Got to the park, played, took ONE picture, not for the blog.  Played on the playground, ran around in the cold air ignoring our lungs which are complaining for they are recovering from a cold.  Little l decided it was time for school, so I took out our supplies we started, I pulled out my phone, which had been at 67% battery, went to take a picture.......

Well, long story short there are no great school in the park pictures for this post, but there were going to be!  We had fun with fun dough, making it into the shape of lower and upper case L's.  She picked the letter M in her ABC book to do today.  Then we were back to playing.  She lasted about an hour at the park this morning, then we started back home.  All total it was a little over a two hour excursion, I burned 618 calories (not counting yoga), YEAH!   The big hill before we head downhill to our home was a bit easier today, YEAH!!

Despite being a bit under the weather I feel better for the exercise.  I do think I deserve a nap with my little one today though.  That may also help recovery.  Well, next time I will have pictures.  Now to figure out what is wrong with my silly phone!

Homemade Shaving Cream

For some reason shaving cream has been one of the last things I have tried to make for myself.  Not sure why, probably because I never plan ahead enough and just break down and buy it, but this time I wouldn't let myself shave until I had tried this recipe.  It was VERY good motivation. 

I found this recipe mentioned in one of my facebook threads:
Homemade Shaving Cream

Basically, you take 1/3 cup of coconut oil and 1/3 cup of shea butter.  I melt mine in a double broiler.  Once melted you remove from the heat pour into another bowl and add 1/4 cup of olive oil, almond oil, or whatever oil makes you happy.  I used almond oil this time because I happened to have some.  I am sure the next time I make it I will use whatever I have on hand at that time. 

Also, I love looking at other people coconut oil, mine never really needs to be melted, so I find it fun to look at it.  I am sure when cooler weather comes along my coconut oil will need to be melted but for most months it is fairly liquified when I open it. 

Once you mix in the other oil stick it in the fridge and let it get hard.  Then whip for a few minutes 

I put mine in the plastic bottles you can get at Target.  Then used it.  I got a nice smooth shave, no rash AND my legs were moisturized in the process.  Since it has been dry around here my skin needs all the help it can get!

Another wrap-around skirt-Lined!

 One thing I have never made is a lined skirt or....well lined anything.  But this fabric while nice was a bit itchy.  Wool is not my friend!  However, the fabric was free and I liked it and thought it would make a nice skirt.  So I used that same pattern from my previous post and whipped this up in a day, a day of interruptions and such.  This time I used the pocket pattern.  no ruffle on the side and two pockets on the front.  It was super simple, especially since I have mastered this pattern!

 SEE!!  Pretty lining!  I am not obsessive about lining up lines on seams, so for those of you who are don't look!

These are really comfortable skirts to wear and you don't have to worry about them opening up and flashing things you don't want to flash to the world! 

Recovering

So, last Tuesday was my breast reduction surgery and I feel great.  Okay maybe not great, but I do feel like once the healing is done I will feel better.  I can already tell a difference in my posture, and other than the surgery pain I am feeling less pain. 

It is a little weird not having all that stuff in the way when I look down.  I can see that I need to get back on the exercise routine as soon as the doctor gives me the go.  My tummy needs some exercise!  I can actually see my tummy! 

I am very grateful that I was able to have the surgery and look forward to being able to do yoga again and seeing how different my balance is on those arm balance poses!

On gaining ten pounds, Fibromyalgia and being REALLY anxious

Most people stress eat.  I try not to, but the past couple weeks I have been living in the world of DENIAL!  That's right denial.  Today I am having surgery, my breast reduction.  Which I really want to have done, and I am really looking forward to the lack of weight on my chest.  Truly, this is a good thing and that is what I keep telling myself.  The truth is I am nervous.  I am VERY anxious.  It is surgery and it is pretty major.  There will be scars.  I am not really anxious about that though. 

What is stressing me out and causing this weight gain and pity party is my fear of how long it will take to recover.  I have been through two c-sections, so I know there will be pain and no lifting.  What I haven't figured out is HOW I am supposed to take care of a two year old with no lifting.  My husband doesn't seem worried, he is going to stay home the day after surgery then plans on going back.  This is freaking me out a bit though.  I will be home with the kids.  I will have to pick up little one and put her in and out of the car.  I will have to drive.  I don't want to do this.  I am afraid I won't be able to do this. 

So I eat.

To top it all off the last week or two have been horrible Fibromyalgia weeks.  The fatigue has been immense.  The pain has been a bit unbearable.  To put it in perspective, I took a six hour nap on Saturday.  The weekend before I slept for 11 hours.  Needless to say all this sleep cuts in to exercise time.  During the week I usually only have time for an hour or two nap.  All and all I  have been a bit ANGRY at my body.  What the heck?  I have been taking care of it.  Why is it letting me down like this?

I know I need to change how I view this.  I need it to just be that I need more rest, not that my  body is letting me down, but it is hard to feel that way when you have been training and eating right and then BOOM you are down.

I will work on my attitude, loose this ten pounds and make it through recovery.  It will be fine in the end, but right now I am anxious.  While ten pounds may not seem like a lot, when you have been through what I have to lose weight it is the slippery slope back to fat.  I am going to jump off this slope and have a better and more forgiving attitude so that I don't eat to deal with my negative feelings.  

Flirty Skirty

I have been on a bit of a sewing kick of late.  While I still have not taken the serger class and learned to use it, I do plan on doing that soon too.  Instead, I have been sticking to the things I know how to do.

I purchased a pattern, McCall's M5430.  It is a "one hour skirt".  Now I am not the best of seamstresses so it was more like a two hour skirt for me, including cutting time.  I am pretty happy with it.  I screwed up the first one because I read the pattern wrong, however, the second and third one (which will be featured in a later post) came out okay.

Here is the first one:
 You may note that there are two sets of buttons, that is because I screwed up the tie.  A good seamstress would rip it out and fix it.  I just added another set of buttons. 

This gray one is done properly and actually ties on the side.  I haven't fully figured out how to tie it nicely.  Suggestions?  It is a little heavier as I used corduroy.  I like it though it is fallish. 

When I wear them I don't feel thin, but looking at the pictures I look thinner than I feel.  They are really comfortable and a good length.  I can get up and down with the kids and not worry about flashing my "assets" to the world.