Multipurpose Garment Rack

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I’m turning 40 this year. And nothing says 40 like hitting “publish” on a post titled “Multipurpose Garment Rack”. So boring adult is the role that I now fill here. That said, please (I’m begging you) read on to find out why your house, apartment, and tiny house needs this garment rack. It’s the best boring-adult-thing for everyone, whether you’re in your 20s or your 40s.  Continue reading

Simple Stitched DIY

The countdown to Christmas is on!

Today we’re sharing a super simple and sweet DIY gift.

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For these towels, I had Alex write the word LOVE on a piece of paper. We did this project a year ago to give last Christmas, and it was when he was still learning to write. You can see that I wrote “love” in the upper left corner of the paper as a guide. In my opinion his creative writing gives these towels a pile of personality and will always help us remember the phase when Alex “tied a knot in his Os to keep them closed” and made “ladder Es”.

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Materials

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How-to

  • Determine your design. It can be a simple word, phrase, or line drawing. You can do something more complex, but our goal is to keep this project simple!
  • Using the chalk pencil, trace the design onto the towel. For these darker towels, I found it easiest to hold the design and towel up to a window for tracing.
  • Embroider! You can use any stitch you prefer, and there are complete stitch dictionaries that will help you pick the right stitch for your project. For this project, I used a stem stitch, which works great for both straight and curved lines. And you can see that I took some artistic license with Alex’s original work, straightening and extending a couple of the lines in the E in spots where he ran out of room.
  • Once your project is complete, iron it.

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Of course, these projects make great gifts on their own. BUT since they are for the kitchen, they are also the perfect compliment to a nice mug, fancy soap, or a beautiful cheese spreader.

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If you enjoy this project, make a few extras. These are great to have on hand as a hostess gift.

 

 

On top of their simplicity, these this project doesn’t cost much and can be paired with something for the kitchen for a nice DIY touch.

Rolled Beeswax Candles

Honey is our ingredient of the season(s). You can find our archive of honey posts here. Today’s post is all about beeswax. If you have a supply of wax, you can also use it in potions, see our lip balms, sunscreen, wood balm, and lotion bar recipes.

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Hello Friends! We’re just back from our bi-annual month-long vacation. Just like you, we never see these breaks coming, but we’re always so happy to be back!

So, let’s just jump back into. We’ll catch you up on our adventures in another post.

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Good Stuff : Aromatherapy (for sleep)

In January we were sharing some of the good habits that we’ve picked up over the years, and in February we continued that trend with a special focus on self-care. This post definitely fits both themes.

Have you tried aromatherapy? Aromatherapy is the process of using plant parts or aromatic plant oils (think essential oils) to improve psychological or physical well-being.

linen_spray3bThere’s a growing body of evidence that some uses of aromatherapy have measurable success rates. In this post, we are particularly interested in using aromatherapy to improve sleep, and we’ll share a super simple potion with you below.

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DIY Christmas Gifts

Jingle bells batman smells… We’re back with another round up of Christmas crafts, but this time they’re ones you can gift to your friends.  On Monday, we shared delicious treats that are perfect for giving and today we’ll round out your gift list by adding a few non-edibles for your loved ones.  These DIY gifts range from easy to advanced (mostly because of the ingredients), but we explain everything you’d ever need to know in the posts, so hop to it!  We also sell a few of these items in our Live Seasoned etsy shop if you’re low on time.  All of these homemade gifts have natural, gentle ingredients perfect for any loving home.  We also love to pair these items with other handmade goods to really amplify the maker aspect of these presents.  We love supporting other crafters and creators so after you whip up these potions, browse around on etsy for perfect pairing gifts if you think your loved ones deserve a little more this holiday season.

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DIY Handprint Mugs

Coffee is our ingredient of the season, and we’re slowly building up an awesome  archive of coffee posts! Today’s post doesn’t exactly include coffee, but just a slip of a bag of special beans in with this gift and the recipient will be oh so chipper on Christmas morning.

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Today I wanted to share personalized DIY coffee mug that makes the perfect gift for the coffee and tea lovers in your life.

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Large Scale Cross-Stitch

At the beginning of the year, I encouraged our readers to “make with me“. In that post I shared a few of the many benefits that you may get from picking up a hobby, and I gave you a few simple suggestions for how to turn your hobby into a regular habit (that’s good for you!).
If you follow our Instagram feed or have been a long-time reader, it’s no surprise that my primary hobby is knitting. I always have a project (or ten) in the works. While I don’t need the encouragement to knit more, I’m taking this resolution as a nudge to share more of my projects, in their many phases, on the blog. And if you’d like to find me on Ravelry, my username is winterfoliage.

If you like this project, you may want to check out our large-scale cross-stitched pillow.

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Have you ever tried cross-stitch? It’s a relatively simple embroidery technique where you make a picture by sewing a series of x-shaped stitches using colored thread. Today I’m improvising on that basic technique by making everything BIGGER (and bug-ier).  Continue reading

Make with Me : God’s Eye

At the beginning of the year, I encouraged our readers to “make with me“. In that post I shared a few of the many benefits that you may get from picking up a hobby, and I gave you a few simple suggestions for how to turn your hobby into a regular habit (that’s good for you!).
If you follow our Instagram feed or have been a long-time reader, it’s no surprise that my primary hobby is knitting. I always have a project (or ten) in the works. While I don’t need the encouragement to knit more, I’m taking this resolution as a nudge to share more of my projects, in their many phases, on the blog. And if you’d like to find me on Ravelry, my username is winterfoliage.

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Five months into the year, and I’m finally sharing a project that doesn’t involve knitting!

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Growing up, this was a project that we would make every so often. We always made them using two sticks, creating four points, and we called them God’s eyes. As you can see, this one is slightly more complicated, and I’ve seen these referred to as either a God’s Eye or a mandala. I use both names throughout this post.

Read on to get pattern info and to see how big this beast really is.

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34 Alternatives to Disposable Plastic Products

Happy Monday! In honor of Earth month, we’re sharing 34 alternatives to disposable plastic products. I hope you had a swell Earth Day yesterday. Initially I had a little lake kayak paddle planned, but a friend called and suggested a food truck rodeo in downtown Chapel Hill. After sharing a serving of every and anything that called to us, we headed to her deck to sit in the sunshine and plan a camping adventure. Soaking up eight hours of beautiful North Carolina sun was actually epically earthy. I enjoyed it to the max and ended up passing out well before midnight, a first in weeks for me!

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The food truck rodeo was a no waste event, meaning everything that could be recycled or composted was with the help of volunteers who stood by each trash can instructing consumers where to discard their plates, cups, and food scraps. It’s almost unfortunate that we need that type of vigilance to get it right, but we surely do. Besides proper waste disposal, the coffee truck was selling stainless steel straws! They don’t do lids or plastic straws, hooray!

Plastic straws and my wish to ban them forever is actually what inspired this post of 34 alternatives to disposable plastic products. There is just no reason for us to go through so many, so often. Two at once?! I want to punch that drink right out of your hand. I’m not saying I’ve never done it, but I am saying I will never do it again. I once spent an entire afternoon picking up trash on one of my favorite Thai islands and by far the most common item was plastic straws. It was heart breaking.

Major benefits of swapping disposable plastic for reusable items :

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