How to Make Easy Embroidered Christmas Stockings

I bought a couple of color your own Christmas stocking kits  (similar to these color your own Christmas Stocking kits) thinking it might be a cute reusable gift wrap idea. (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links in this post for you convenience.) I wasn’t too jazzed with the colors or quality of the three markers that came in the kit which I expected since it came from a dollar store. No big deal. I planned on coloring it with craft paint and adding a few easy embroidered accents and outlines for fun.

 

Save this handmade Christmas decor idea to your Pinterest boards for later! Share it with your friends!

DIY Cotton Bath Puff and Friday Favorites Linky Party 554

While everyone else was baking sourdough bread during quarantine, I was making hot process soap. I took notes on what I did right and wrong and while I can't quite get it as thick as commercial liquid soap like I want, it cleans and lathers beautifully especially when I use a plastic bath puff. While a loofah is zero waste because I can compost it, it doesn't perform as well as a mesh bath poof that has to be tossed after awhile due to bacteria buildup. I tried washing one once and it fell apart.

I hadn't crocheted since I was a kid and recently picked up a hook to make a dishcloth. I looked for more quick beginner crocket projects on Pinterest (follow me @condoblues on Pinterest pretty please?) and found the answer to my zero waste bath puff problem - crochet a bath puff from cotton yarn!

I followed this crochet shower puff pattern from Hooked on Patterns and it was pretty easy once I got the hang of it. My shower puff isn't perfect but still not too shabby for the third thing I crocheted as an adult. Best of all, I can wash it in a mesh lingerie bag in the washing machine when I need to - no more bath puffs in my trash can ever again!

Time to link up your best projects, home improvements, recipes, and creative ideas!

Please support and follow our lovely blog party hostesses:

Jerri at Simply Sweet Home - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst

Lisa at Condo Blues - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst

Amy at A Day of Small Things - Pin

Penny at Penny's Passion - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst

Jennifer at Busy Being Jennifer - Twitter | FB | Pin | Inst

If you are featured this week, be sure and grab a featured button for your blog!

You can show your love for this week's favorites by going over and commenting on the posts and by pinning or sharing!

And if you love all of this week's favorites, please pin, share, and invite your friends to this week's linky party!

Friday Favorites Linky Party 552

Our family has been trying to get out to enjoy the colors of Fall in a socially distant way. We're lucky to have a lot of dog friendly trails to walk in our local metro parks. This park surprised us by having photo ready Fall displays that allowed us to give Lacey a little rest while also snapping a few photos.

Hi everyone! Lacey here!

Time to link up your best projects, home improvements, recipes, and creative ideas!

Please support and follow our lovely blog party hostesses:

Jerri at Simply Sweet Home - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst

Lisa at Condo Blues - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst

Amy at A Day of Small Things - Pin

Penny at Penny's Passion - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst

Jennifer at Busy Being Jennifer - Twitter | FB | Pin | Inst

If you are featured this week, be sure and grab a featured button for your blog!

You can show your love for this week's favorites by going over and commenting on the posts and by pinning or sharing!

And if you love all of this week's favorites, please pin, share, and invite your friends to this week's linky party!

The Benefits of Pet Health Insurance and Friday Favorites Link Party Week 543

Lacey was more than overdue for her annual vet exam, vaccinations, and a very much needed grooming as you can see from the photo. Our fantastic veterinary practice does all of that (including boarding and doggie daycare)  was closed due to lock down when Lacey was due for her shots. When the practice opened, pet parents have to wait in their cars during the exam. I put her exam off for a little longer because Lacey does better when her people are with her in the room and we all hoped things would get better and the practice could be back to business as usual. Lacey was not upset about this at all.

How would you feel if every time you go to visit Dr. H she squirts medicine up your nose and gives you a shot in the tushy? You wouldn't like it either Lisa!

Friday Favorites Link Party Week 542

My living room is the Room of Many Boxes as my husband and I impatiently wait for the one thing that will allow us to start our bathroom remodel - the floor tile. 

Waiting is the hardest part.

In the meantime, I've keeping myself busy sewing and soaping like a madwoman. My lastest projects are in the link party below!

Time to link up your fantastic and creative craft and DIY projects, recipes, and ideas!

Let's Party!

Super Silky Oh So Fluffy Coco Butter Body Butter Recipe

My latest batch of liquid soap came together beautifully. That gave me the courage to retry making the coco butter soap recipe from this soap making book that I messed up so horribly it came out like Flubber. (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links for your convenience.) I learned from my mistakes and had e a perfect batch of coco butter soap cooking in the slow cooker. I also had a wee bit of melted coco butter and coconut oil leftover – too little to use it for soap, too much to throw away. I am just about out of moisturizer and coco butter is one of my favorite types of lotion and body butter. Hey, let’s make some!

Except.

I don’t like how my previous homemade body butters made coconut oil eventually lose their fluffy texture, the oils started to separate,  and coconut oil turn grainy in the jar.

So much so that I told myself the next time I make it, it will not include coconut oil as an ingredient and that I’d make a lotion instead of a body butter. (Lotion= moisturizing oils/butters+emulsifier+ distilled water. Body butter= moisturizing oils/butters only.)

Which I remembered after I had measured and combined the melted coconut oil, coco butter, and vitamin E oil in the measuring cup I use for water. D’oh!

Can these homemade moisturizer ingredients be saved? Yes! Keep reading to find out how!

All is not lost! First up, using a high speed stick blender or mixer (like a like this KitchenAid Stand Mixer) over a hand mixer will help loads but to really keep the ingredients fluffy and from separating you need to use an emulsifier because well, that’s what emulsifiers were born to do. 

Never Underestimate a Small DIYer Driving a Small Car and Friday Favorites Link Party Week 541

I got a text that our new shower doors for our upcoming bathroom remodel are ready for pickup. Happily I emptied the trunk of our car, put the back seat down and zipped off to experience contact free pickup.

Home Depot guy comes out with my order (these exact shower doors swoon!) (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links for your convenience,) looks at my Ford Focus hatchback, and said it wouldn't fit.

Oh yeah? Well, I say never never underestimate a small woman in a small car who really hates her shower doors and will move Heaven and Earth to transport the new one to her house.

Especially when she has a long history of transporting oversize color guard props in tiny cars - sometimes across state lines.

My view from the passenger seat transporting 20 ft streamer flag poles in a Ford Focus sedan. They run diagonally from the end of the trunk to the end of the dashboard but they fit! (Never doubt me husband. Ever.)

Virtual Get Togethers and Friday Favorites Link Party Week 540

I make many things in my craft and sewing studio (and you can tell from the shelves in the photo that need a major tidying up!) Like many of you, I made myself an expert in Zoom and video conference calls (one was even a wedding!)  But last weekend was a first! I attended my first virtual community band conference with the international community band I also spin and play in because our yearly IRL conference was canceled due to Covid. 

The best part was the part of the conference was where we had a virtual band rehearsal lead by one of my favorite Artistic Directors to demonstrate how we can play "together" without playing together. It felt fantastic to make music with my friends again!

I've been getting a lot more use out of my tabletop music stand lately for holding my iPad while I Zoom and Facetime with family and friends. I was great to use it for its intending purpose!  (You can follow my affiliate link to get the exact folding tabletop music stand I have here. It is much more sturdy than those awful silver folding stands that always fall apart while you are playing!)

Time to link up your fantastic and creative craft and DIY projects, recipes, and ideas!

Let's Party!

Soapmaking and Friday Favorites Linky Party 538

Well, there is one thing I have to say about our social distancing summer, I'm getting a lot of projects done that I've been putting off (repeatedly.) For example just this morning I finally played that game of Sock Concentration (although you may call it  matching up and reorganizing your sock drawer) in a desperate attempt to find a pair of matching no show socks to wear today.

Although I briefly considered wearing a pair missing mates, because no show socks, amiright? But hey, it's done, I'm wearing matching socks (also I'm wearing an actual shoe that requires a sock) and in a Marie Kondo fashion that I revised after the first go round to work a little better for me - I hope.

My last batch of liquid hot process soap came out with the consistency of Flubber and I've been putting off trying again since its failure. Projects have been keeping me sane since this whole mess started and soap making was the only thing left on this list. Also, the summer heat in the garage already melted my coconut oil for me and since melting my oils at too high a temperature was Step 1 in my last comedy of errors, I gave it another go.

Soapmaking is easier when the summer heat melts your oils for you!

How to Strip Paint the Non Toxic Way

I have a love – hate relationship with spray paint. I love that spray paint will cover almost every surface (if you use the right formula) and easily paint hard to paint areas like indentations and intricate moulding. I hate that many of my spray paint projects en up with paint bubbles and drips.

Save this tutorial to your Pinterest boards for later! Share it with your friends!

The best way to avoid spray paint bubbles and dripping paint is to hold the can further away from object you are painting and use several light and even coats of spray paint rather than blasting a thick coat of spray paint from close up. Using a spray paint handle (you can find several types of spray paint trigger handles here) will help you paint with even coats of paint and not kill your fingers from pressing the can’s spray nozzle. 

Spray paint bubbles are also caused by painting a second coat of paint on an object when the first coat is not completely dry. I know this because 9 times out of 10 I get spray paint bubbles because I thought my last coat of paint was dry after 24 hours and it was not. The joys of living in a humid area!

 

2 Ways to Repair Spray Paint Bubbles and Drips

 

Easy DIY Small Space Under Sink Water Filter Friday Favorites Linky Party 532

My mini DIY project for the week was decided for me by my old water filtration system because it started to leak after I changed the filter. After some tinkering, some Googling, and tinkering some more, the only solution was to replace the whole thing. Which lead to more Googling and researching for the best under sink water filter for small spaces like our condo. 

Since our water tests at a good quality, we don't need a super duper reverse osmosis water filter system. Good thing because there isn't room under the kitchen sink for one. I didn't look at whole house water filter systems because I have even less room to install one of those on the water main and frankly all of our drinking and cooking water comes from the kitchen sink.

Save this idea to your Pinterest boards for later! Share it with your friends!

How to Hang a Hook on a Hollow Core Door

I want to add a robe hook to my guest bathroom.  The logical place to hang it is on the bathroom door.

Unfortunately it, like all of the doors in my condo is a hollow core door. Can you hang towel bars and hooks on a hollow core door?

Yes you can!

The secret to hanging towel bars and hooks on hollow door without them crashing to the ground is all in the type of wall anchor you use – in this case Molly Bolts!

 Save this easy tutorial to your Pinterest boards for later! Share it with your friends!

Growing Vegetables from Scraps and Friday Favorites Linky Party 531

Last year my patio container garden "plan" was Hey, this looks new and interesting. This year I was happily surprised that five pots out of the ten containers grew back since most herb plants don't survive the winter and turn into annuals no matter what. 

Normally when I'm stumped as to what to plants to grow, I just wander through the garden center and see what catches my eye. This year that isn't possible so other than taking our chances on a packet of free basil seeds I had in a drawer, I had no idea until we got a box of vegetables delivered from a local restaurant. Is Pinterest right or wrong? Can you really regrow vegetables from their scraps? We decided to give it a whirl.

This is what passes for entertainment when you are self distancing from the world.

Red, White, and Blue Face Masks and Friday Favorites 530

 I've been doing  a deep dive into my fabric stash and sewing reusable cloth face masks for family and friends who do not sew. I've been sitting on some white and blue star fabric someone gave me and figured with the Memorial Day and the Fourth of July just around the corner, it would make a cute mask.

I made this one with ties but I can also make masks with elastic if you like.

After all that sewing, I had to take my workhorse sewing machine in for repair and  my backup sewing machine when it decided it wanted to break too. Oh no!

How to Clean Caulk Off Clothing

I had a quick little caulking project I needed to do and didn’t bother changing into paint clothes because I didn’t think I’d get messy.

 Which of course meant I got several big smears of caulk on one of my few pairs of good jeans.

 It. Never. Fails. Why won’t I learn?

 

Pin this hack to your Pinterest boards for later! Share it with your friends! 

Can these jeans be saved? Yes they can! It is very easy to remove caulk spills from clothing. here’s how.

 

How to Remove Caulk From Clothing

DIY Mental Health Jar and Friday Favorites Week 529

While cleaning my craft room I came across the word of the year memory jar I made by painting a recycled salsa jar with stained glass paint (there are several types of glass paint here,) repainted the lid from a project where I broke the jar, and decorative stickers and bits from my craft room. (I am including affiliate links for your convenience.) For awhile I wrote down the little and big moments that made me feel happy, warm, or cozy (the loose English translation of my Danish Word of the Year Hygge) with the intent on reading the contents of the jar on that year's New Year's Eve but it fell by the wayside as the year went on.

After one too many social media conversations about being disappointed about upcoming plans, events, and whatnot being cancelled due to Covid-19 (and then feeling guilty afterward for being sad over something so trivial when so many people around the world are going through much, much worse) I started to think that for my mental health I should try to focus on what little good things are happening around me instead the daily mountain of bad.   

I took the ribbon and label off the jar to repurpose it for my Mental Health Jar.

Photo courtesy of my food blog Lazy Budget Chef

No good or happy event or moment is too big or small for my jar, because let's face it, things are so weird that I road the happy until the wheels fell off the day I ordered Instacart groceries and the original delivery date was a week away until I added my product substitutions and the delivery date changed to later the same day of the order - which hasn't happened in a very long time.  Kinda silly, I know, but at least it points my head in the direction of complimenting rather than complaining.

I showed you my project. Now you show me yours!

Elizabethan Chemise (Shift) and Friday Favorites Week 528

I'm trying to be productive during our quarantine lock down by sewing the personal historical costume projects that got pushed way down my To Do List when paying gigs came my way and took precedence. My latest Quarantine Costuming project is a square neck linen Elizabethan Chemise which is also called a Shift.

Historically women of all social classes wore a chemise or shift as their first layer of clothing to keep the more expensive to replace and difficult to clean layers (namely their corset and dress) from getting dirty more quickly from sweat and body oils up until the end of the Edwardian area. This is long before washing machines and when Laundry Day took ALL. DAY. LONG. to do. So if you want to take a quick reading break to go hug your washing machine - go for it. I'll wait.

Welcome back!

The necklines and sleeve length of chemises changed with the fashion of the time. In Elizabethan England square necklines where all the rage and arms where covered to the wrist although most historical performers including myself, where a rounded German style gathered neck like the one below because it is easy to make. Last season, after spending fourth months quilting a new jester costume I made do with a shift I already had. The short sleeves aren't period but I can get away with it because I'm a jester and as an ad for one of the faire's vendors. Also it is stinkin' cute!

3 Quarantine Bottle Cap Crafts and Friday Favorites Week 527

Doing DIY and craft projects keeps me from going stir crazy during quarantine. I figure it was a good time to dip into my bottle cap collection stash and use the time to recycle it into  the trinkets and favors I trade with children on that glorious day when we all will safely be able to gather in groups and my little jester character will once again perform at a renaissance festival.

Here are the three recycled bottle cap crafts I'm making. They are very easy to make for children or better yet, make them with your children!

How to Make Bottle Cap Lady Bugs

How to Make Bottle Cap Bumble Bees

Allergy Free Trick or Treat Idea: How to Make DIY Bottle Cap Halloween Pumpkin Pins

I showed you my project. Now you show me yours!

How to Build Recessed Bathroom Storage Shelves

I never liked the cheap plastic medicine cabinets that came with my condo. I was even more perturbed when I removed the medicine cabinet to paint the walls and found the hole and framing for the cabinet less than square - to put it mildly.

 I figure I better replace it and poked around window shopping while I was searching and pricing every thing else I needed for the guest bathroom remodel.

Have you ever priced medicine cabinets?

Be prepared for some sticker shock. Even the cheaply made medicine cabinets like the one I have are a couple of hundred bucks. The medicine cabinets  made from actual wood are even more expensive while still lacking style. That’s more that I wanted to pay for a medicine cabinet in a second bathroom we don’t use often.

I really don’t need a medicine cabinet with a mirror door because there is a mirror hanging over the sink.  Actually I really don’t need a door either because the way it was installed, the current medicine cabinet door smacks into the bathroom vanity light if we’re not careful. Open bathroom storage shelves are the only answer.

Pin this post to your Pinterest boards for later! Share it with your friends!

I stood in the guest bathroom staring at the wall and trying to visualize how to turn the medicine cabinet hole into an open storage niche as pretty yet affordable as possible when I realized I was standing on my answer – use leftover tile from the bathroom floor!

Mini DIY Ceiling Light Makeover and Friday Favorites Week 526

I've been keeping busy with a bunch of quarantine mini makeover projects.

Because quarantine mini makeover sounds so much nicer than bunch of nagging DIY projects I put off forever and need to do something to keep from going stir crazy in lockdown so I'm finally getting around to it.

Ahem.

My late project is getting rid of one more ugly builder ceiling light in the in our upstairs hallway. I installed this industrial beauty while my husband was making dinner. One more light banished - 2 more to go!

You can buy a similar semi flush mount ceiling light here (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links in this post for your convenience.) 

The thing that made my heart sing "this is the ONE"are the Edison style bulbs (you can buy Edison style light bulbs here) because they work with tapestry and pendulum clock. Best of all you can buy LED Edison bulbs so I get the energy saving LEDs I like and my husband gets the warm yellow light of an incandescent light bulb he likes. We both win.

I showed you my project. Now you show me yours!