After Bath Oil

If you are sensitive to dyes and preservatives in body care products, you might consider using an after bath oil to moisturize your skin instead of a lotion. Lotion is an emulsion of water and oil. The mixing of oil and water creates an environment ripe for bacteria. It takes preservatives to prevent unfriendly guests from invading your moisturizer. Avoid the need for preservatives by avoiding the mixture. I must warn you that any oil in the bath will make you very slippery until it absorbs into your skin, so be careful. The idea here is to use light oils that quickly absorb into skin. I measure by weighing the oils into my container, but you could measure by volume. One ounce of oil has the volume of about two tablespoons.

2.5 oz Safflower Oil
2.5 oz Extra Virgin Olive Oil (if you can find it, extra-extra virgin would be even better)
1 oz Sunflower Oil
1 oz Jojoba Oil (You can substitute apricot kernel oil or sweet almond oil or just leave the jojoba out.)
.10 oz Vitamin E Oil (Open up a few capsules of vitamin e supplements)
10 drops of your favorite essential oil (optional)

I pour the ingredients into an 8 oz bottle, put the lid on, and shake well. Apply a thin layer to your skin after you towel off. It should absorb quickly. I put it in a spray bottle, but it doesn't spray out in a fine mist, it comes out in a stream. Enjoy!

Decluttering: A New Project for a New Year

I've decided to simplify our possessions. I'm tired of spending so much of my precious time managing stuff. I want to spend more time enjoying my family. Plus, we hope to move this year. I've decided to employ this awesome calender in my efforts. Here's what I have done with a few of the de-cluttered items:


Bean Bags made out of expired beans in the pantry and some fabric scraps. Check out some cool bean bag games here


Mocha mix made from coffee creamer, instant coffee, and hot cocoa mix hidden in the pantry. I used this recipe


Dosed our liquid hand soap with a tablespoon or two of expired vanilla to make some wonderful smelling bubbles. Hasn't stained our vanity top, but if you had a more porous surface, it might discolor.


Made play dough with old salt and Kool-aid from the pantry. Molded it into a volcano. Erupted the volcano with old baking soda and vinegar from the pantry. Even the baby loved this one. Find the play dough recipe here

I'm so excited to see what the next few weeks bring us in the wild world of decluttering.

The Bogner Missing Toe

Families have genetic markers: detached ear lobes, tall foreheads, pug noses... Almost everyone in the family, no matter how little they look alike or how distantly related, will show that characteristic. In my family we have a wide gap between our first toe and the other four toes. The gap is so large that it appears we have one toe missing. It seems to be pretty dominate too. Most of my cousins have it. My son has it. It's a genetic marker that's been passed on threw hundreds of generations. I've been thinking about it lately. My ancestors lived their lives hundreds of years ago. They wrote about their lives or others wrote for them. They interacted with friends and community members. Now time has erased their names from history. But this little piece of them remains, the Bogner missing toe. That's neat to think about. When time has moved me into antiquity and scrambled our language to the future generations, some little memories of me will still remain in the genetic traits that I leave behind to my children and my children's children, and their children...

Woolie Warm Fuzzies

Why use wool?
• All natural
• Breathable
• Anti-bacterial

How does wool work?
• Both absorbs and repels
• Hair forms air pockets that hold moisture, up to 30% of its weight before it feels wet.
• Lanolin, naturally occurring oil in wool, does not mix with water.

Tell me about the terminology…
• Soaker – is a pull-up style of diaper cover that looks similar to a bloomer.
• Shorties – shorts
• Capris/Board Shorts
• Longies – long pants
• Skirties/Skorties – soaker or shorties with a skirt attached
• Wrap – like a diaper cover that needs snaps, Velcro, or a snappi to hold it on.

What types of wool are used for diaper covers?
• Upcycled/Recycled: old sweaters are sewn into covers.
• Wool yarn: knit or crochet into wool covers.
• Wool fabrics: interlock, crêpe, flannel, can be sewing into covers.
• If you want to use it for a diaper cover, avoid superwash yarn, fabric, or sweaters.

How do I measure my baby for wool?
• You need at least baby’s rise, waist, and inseam. I prefer to have the width of the hips and thighs too.
• Photo tut: http://mamacarversmusing.blogspot.com/2009/02/how-to-measure-for-woolies.html

How do I take care of wool?
• Before the first use, wool needs to be lanolized. You can use lanolin spray, wool wash with lanolin, or baby shampoo and lanolin breast cream. http://mamacarversmusing.blogspot.com/2009/02/how-to-take-good-care-of-your-woolies.html
• When you take the wool off baby, hang it up to dry. If it smells like urine when it’s dry, that wool needs to be washed. Wool has natural antibacterial properties, so it can go several uses before it needs to be washed.
• Wash the wool with a gentle soap like baby wash or wool wash. Woolite, Dawn, and standard laundry detergent will strip the lanolin out of the piece.
• When the wool starts to leak/wick, it needs to be lanolized again.
• Make sure you always use cool water and air dry it to avoid felting.
• Spot clean with a wool wash bar or Dawn on a fingertip.
• A word on scented wool care products…

I want to up-cycle a sweater, what do I need to look for?
• Test for colorfast dye by soaking a small snip in a cup of hot water.
• Select a sweater that is at least 80-85% wool. Avoid nylon. Use polyester thread.
• To felt or not to felt, that is the question.
• Decide on a waistband: yoga style, elastic, or drawstring.
• Katrina Soaker Pattern http://katrinassqs.blogspot.com/2007/10/free-soaker-pattern.html
• To make pants http://sewingdork.blogspot.com/2009/08/how-to-make-wool-soaker-pants.html and http://www.diaperswappers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=227639

Are there any local Work At Home Moms that make wool diaper covers?
 Rebekah Bogner Carver – knit and crochet. Carver Creations on Facebook tobylovesrebekah@yahoo.com
 Heather Diemer – upcycle sweaters. heatherd0584@yahoo.com
 Kristina Steuber Dalton – knit, crochet, upcycle sweaters, and sew wool and fleece fabric. monnyandmomos@hotmail.com
Tripp Hartmetz – knit. tripp.hartmetz@hotmail.com
Lindsay Bench – knit. (316) 990-2538
 Indicates this wahm can be found on the Kansas Cloth Diaper Talk & Swap Facebook Page

Psalm 121

I've been absent from my blog for a while. Well, 13 months :sheepish grin: Let me tell you what happened 13 months ago. At the end of July 2010, we found out that I was pregnant, again. Since our last pregnancy ended in miscarriage, we wanted to keep the good news a secret for a while. But I just couldn't blog without telling everyone. So, I decided not to blog until the 'tell-day,' Oct. 2010. Tell-day came and went. We told our friends, but I was busy with getting ready for the new baby and our son's first year of pre-school. Then our baby girl was born 10 days early on March 26, 2011.
She was tiny, only 18.5 inches long and 7 lbs 1oz. She also didn't sleep. Now I know that newborns don't sleep much, but this was different. She would fall asleep after fidgeting but wake up only 45 min later, no matter how tired she was. She would draw her legs up, twist her head around, grimace, cough, sputter, fuss... Generally act uncomfortable. I was worried about her. I would stay awake watching her, nervous that she would choke in the night or that some other calamity would befall her. One night I told my husband that I had been staying awake, watching over her to keep her safe. My hubbie expressed his concern about my lack of sleep. He was also slightly unsettled that I was 'watching over' the two of them. Then God spoke to my heart, "He who watches me will not sleep nor never slumber." I was so comforted to read in Psalm 121:
³ He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
⁴ indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
Just like I watched over baby girl, to keep her from harm, God was watching over her too. He never nods off to sleep. He doesn't need sleep. So, I can rest knowing that He's watching over her.

Greg saw his first movie in the theater last night!

We saw Toy Story 3, very fitting since Greg is 3 years old! It was so bittersweet too. The movie is about growing up and that's what my sweet little boy is doing. He was mesmerized by all the lights inside the Warren Theater. We took him the store and let him pick out a Toy Story 3 shirt just to wear to the movie. Then he got to wear a Buzz Lightyear pj top to bed. He was very excited about the wings on his pj shirt.

How to Make Your Own Liquid Laundry Soap

Need a project to use up all those little leftover pieces of soap? If you have sensitivities to fragrances or dyes you could use an unscented soap bar to make this laundry soap. It's a lot more cost effective than buying a fragrance free detergent. Just a little note though, I don't use this soap on my cloth diapers. It has a lot of borax in it and I'm concerned that it will harm the elastic.


Ingredients:
about 5 ounces of soap
1/4 cup Dawn dish-washing detergent
1 cup borax
1 cup washing soda
hot water
fragrance or essential oil of your choice, optional

Equipment:
2 quart covered saucepan
old liquid laundry detergent bottle
2 funnels

Directions:
1) You will need about 5 ounces of soap pieces. I leave this pan sitting out on the stove top and collect little pieces of soap until I have about 5 ounces. You could also grate up a larger piece of soap or a whole bar using a cheese grater. If I plan to use this laundry soap on whites, I make sure I'm using white or very lightly colored pieces of soap. I don't want to dye my husband's white dress shirts lavender with my laundry soap.

2) Completely cover the soap pieces with water. More water makes this process go faster but too much water and heat can make your soap bubble up into a foamy mixture.

3) Cover the pan and heat on low for 1-2 hours until all the soap pieces are completely dissolved. I usually check on it every 15 min. or so just to make sure it hasn't bubbled over.

4) When the soap is dissolved, pour the hot mixture into the laundry detergent bottle. I find a funnel very helpful.

5) Add 1/4 cup Dawn dish-washing liquid to the soap in the bottle. Normally I would use Original Dawn, but all I had on hand at the time was Ultra Dawn. I add the Dawn because my handmade soap contains moisturizing oils for my skin. My clothes do not need moisturizing so the Dawn helps to trap those extra oils.
6) I use a different funnel (that I made out of a piece of paper) for the dry ingredients. Pour 1 cup of borax and 1 cup of washing soda into the laundry detergent bottle.

7) Fill the bottle up with hot water from the tap. Using hot water is important to help the borax dissolve. Put the lid on and give it a good shake after filling to help in cooperate all ingredients. If I were going to add a fragrance or essential oil, I would do it here at the end. I think 1/2 ounce would be a good starting point to experiment with scent amounts.
8) I use 1/4-1/2 cup of this soap in my wash loads. I do give the bottle a little shake before every use just in case there are some undissolved ingredients.