Growing Bulbs Indoors Part One

This spring I decided to plant a LOT of flowers. With all of this warm weather, I've had plenty of opportunity to do just that. I mean, who doesn't like flowers? You get to watch the sprouts grow up and blossom into bright, beautiful, colorful flowers. Flowers are just so much fun! A while back I got some bulbs; I'm pretty sure it was right before Christmas. I put them in the fridge for eight weeks. This is supposed to be a substitute for when the ground freezes, because in Louisiana there are only a few winters where the ground actually freezes. I'm not kidding. Last Christmas it was about 80 degrees. Warm weather has it's good sides though such as being able to plant flower seeds sooner. It's pretty awesome. Back to the bulbs now. I had planted all of the bulbs I wanted to and still had leftovers. What was I supposed to do with the leftover ones? Well, I saw this cool picture where someone had taken a bulb and put it in a jar with water and marbles. Sounds easy right? Well guess what? It really is. I'm going to show you how I did mine and also share some tips. All you need are these five things...

• Flower bulbs - I found mine at Lowe's a few months ago. I recently saw some bulb packs at Sam's. 
• Mason Jars 
• Glass marbles- You can get a bag of these at Dollar Tree.
• A window with tons of sunlight. 
• Water, of course. :)

Okay! Lets get started. Grab everything listed above and find somewhere to do this project. First, you need to decide how many jars you want to do. You could do seven or twelve or twenty jars. Just do however many you want. Hey, you could even fill all of the windows of your house up with these things, except you'd need sunlight in every window. Keep in mind as you start these some might not work. If you are planning for a certain number you may need to plant a few extra. 

Start with the marbles. Fill the jar 1/3 or 1/2 full with marbles. The flash on my camera made the marbles glow. It was kind of cool.

Next choose one bulb and put it on top of the marbles. To support the bulb you can also put a couple marbles beside it. 

Now pour water in the jar until it just touches the bottom of the roots. It is very important that you don't cover the bulb in water. I did that with one of mine and it um, rotted. Lol!

Finally put all of your lovely jars in a window and watch them grow. 

Every few days you will need to change the water in the jars and also wash the roots off. This will keep the bulbs from rotting. 

After a couple weeks your bulbs will begin to sprout! This is what mine looked like after almost two weeks.

This is what they looked like after four weeks. They were almost twice as tall. 

Do you see that little one in the right corner? It doesn't want to sprout. I don't think it ever wants to sprout. I'm still keeping it in the window though just in case it decides to sprout. All of the others are doing good. Once the flowers begin to bloom I will post a update for all of you. Until then I hope you try growing bulbs for yourself! 

Sugar Scrub Hearts

Hi everyone! I hope the beginning of fall has been great for you.

For this post I am going to show you how to make sugar scrub hearts. 

These sugar scrub hearts are a lot like sugar scrub but the sugar is all in one piece. Using just a few ingredients you can make these awesome sugar scrub cubes for yourself. I like using them on my hands and in the shower. If you have dry skin these are perfect! The sugar works great to exfoliate and the coconut oil is great for moisturizing. These things are so much fun to make. You don't have to stick to my recipe. Be creative and come up with your own versions! This recipe makes about 12 small hearts. 

What you will need:

• Shea butter soap base
• Coconut oil
• Brown and/or white sugar
• Soap scent of your choice
• Double boiler
• Soap mold (you can find some inexpensive ones at Hobby Lobby) 
• A heat proof bowl or container you don't mind smelling like soap scents forever
• A butter knife and several spoons

Now we can start. You will need to use 1/4 of a cup of shea butter soap base. In my container it is two cubes. 

Cut those two cubes up into smaller pieces. This will make them melt a whole lot faster. 

Once you have them cut, put them into the top pot of your double boiler. Next put 1/8th of a cup of coconut oil in with the shea butter. I just use a heaping tablespoon. 

Now fill the bottom pot of the double boiler halfway with water. Most of the time I kept the heat on high. While the shea butter is melting, you can start getting the sugar ready. 

For the sugar you can pretty much do what you want. All together you will need a 1/2 cup of sugar. I normally go with 1/4th brown sugar and 1/4th white sugar. I've found that if you do soap dye just using white sugar will make the color more vibrant. The brown sugar makes a softer sugar scrub. Since brown sugar is finer it absorbs more so you might need a little more than 1/2 a cup. Put the sugar in your container and mix them together. Be sure to mash any clumps of sugar or it won't mix as well.

 By now your shea butter and coconut oil should look kind of like this:

Use a spoon and stir them up. Don't worry about the shea butter and coconut oil if they don't mix together. It will all mix once you add it to the sugar. Now you need to have your soap scent, mold, and sugar ready. 

While your double boiler is still on the stove top,  add your soap scent. I don't really measure it. Some of the scents are stronger than others, so just add a little at a time until it gets strong enough. 

When you add all of this to your sugar you have to work fast because it hardens fast. 

Stir this up really well. You definitely don't want any loose sugar in the bottom of your container. This is when the fun begins. Haha! I have found that when the mixture is too runny its harder to put it into the molds.

See how thick this is? It's almost the same consistency of  play-dough. All you have to do is grab some and press it into the mold but you have to do it fast. It hardens in almost one minute. If you need it to stay softer longer you can put it in the bottom of your pot with the water like this. 

After you put it all into the mold put plastic wrap on top and slide them into the freezer for fifteen minutes. This will help them finish setting. If you have a little sugar scrub left over that won't fit into the mold usually you can go ahead and take out the first one you did and put the leftovers in there. 

After they have been in  the freezer for fifteen minutes take them out and pop them out of their molds. 

Now they are finished! They don't take as long to make as you might think. I timed the process from the beginning of putting the shea butter in the pot to putting them into the freezer and it only took about fifteen minutes. 

I found these cool glass jars with a chalkboard labels at Micheal's craft store. 

You can try all different things in these sugar scrubs. One of the things that I really like adding is apricot seeds. The apricot seeds and sugar work well together for more exfoliation. I just add about a tablespoon into the sugar.

You can even add in all different colors! Just add in a few drops to the shea butter and coconut oil and stir it up.

For another version I made sparkly peppermint hearts. To make them you will need soap sparkles and peppermint essential oil or soap scent. For these you can use brown and white sugar but I just used white sugar to make it seem like snow. :)

Look how cool they are when they are done!

Now find jars or bags for yours and package them up. These will make great gifts! To fill my jars up it takes almost two batches. The great thing about doing multiple batches at a time is you don't have you wash the dishes in between unless you add different scents. 

Here are some of mine completed.

I added some scrapbook paper circles on the side with the ingredients on them. 

There you have it! They are super easy to make and so much fun to use! 

I'm Back!

Hello! It's been forever since I have done a post on here! We have been a little busy. ;) It's been fun though. I have another tutorial coming up soon. I will be sharing how to make pretty cards. :) 

Since I don't have that done yet, I wanted to show you something that my awesome sister made for me.

She crocheted me a scarf! Isn't it pretty! Here is a picture of me wearing it.  

Just in case you want to make a lovely scarf for yourself HERE is the video on how to do it.

Heather (my sister) has crocheted tons of pretty things! I have tried to crochet in the past, but it all got tangled after the chain stitch... I am learning how to knit though! We went to a class at our library and learned how. It is starting to get easier. I finished my first square with no mistakes. I didn't count how many times I restarted. :D Here is a picture of it. 

 It looks a little crooked in the picture but if it is stretched out it straightens up. My plan is to knit tons of different colored squares like this one and then sew them all together. Eventually I will have a really colorful blanket. :) Do you crochet or knit? Or both? If so, which do you prefer? Knitting is easy for me because you repeat the same stitch over and over.  That's all for now. :) I will post again soon though! I hope that you have a wonderful Easter!! 

Make Your Own Yarn Scarf

Hi everyone! Today I will be sharing how to make your own yarn scarf. These scarfs are not only soft but warm, too. Here is what you will need to get started.

• All of your favorite colors of yarn
• Scissors
• A tape measure
• Duct tape
• A friend to help you (Or a sister)

When you are choosing your yarn types you don't have to stick with just plain yarn. You can use fuzzy yarn, popcorn yarn, or you can even use ribbons. Use as many colors that you want. The fewer that you use the more of each color you will have. I like to use either a white or cream yarn in my scarfs to brighten them up. Here are of the colors that I used for my scarf.

This scarf will take about an hour and a half to complete. To start put a piece of duct tape on your floor or edge of your table. Next measure out fifty inches starting at the duct tape and ending with another piece of duct tape.

 Choose your first yarn and put the end on one piece of duct tape. Pull the yarn until it reaches the other piece of duct tape. It helps to have someone else at the other piece of duct tape holding the end. After that hold your yarn on both pieces of tape and double it. Bring your yarn back to the first piece of duct tape.

After your yarn is doubled use your scissors and cut it. If you have a lot of different colors only cut three or four strands of each color. Continue cutting different colors until you have your desired thickness. Keep in mind that your scarf will be doubled when you wear it. When you are through cut one last piece but after doubling it go halfway back up to the other piece of tape. This will make it just a little longer than all of the others. Set this piece aside for later. 

Do you see how the same colors are beside each other in my picture? This next step will help blend all of the colors together. What you need to do is lay each color group over a flat surface until all of them are separated.Then go to each color and grab one of each of the colors until all of them are gone. Be careful when grabbing each color to hold the ends neatly in one of your hands.

For this next step you will need another person to help you. One of you hold the scarf in the middle and the other one of you grab the longer piece of yarn that you set aside. This is for the person that has the longer piece of yarn, grab that one piece of yarn in the middle and wrap it around the middle of the scarf that the other person is holding then tie it once. Wrap it around again and tie it again. Do this one more time but knot it. You will want to pull the knot pretty tight. There you have it! 

    
All you have to do now is give it a haircut! You should have one end with smooth ends (this was the one that you were holding when you put it together) and one end that is kind of uneven. Just use your scissors and even it out a little bit.

Now I will show you how I like to tie my scarf. Grab your scarf in the middle. It should be easy to find because of the yarn wrapped around it. Next fold your scarf in half so that it is doubled.

Wrap it around your neck and hold the side with the loop. On your other side you have all of your ends. Split the ends in half and bring one section through the loop.

Next twist the loop and bring the other half through.

Straighten it up and then you are done! You have a beautiful colorful scarf! Tell me how yours works. :)

I like to braid my scarf together when I am through wearing it so that it does not get tangled.