If you have been watching my YouTube channel (which will soon be undergoing a change), you may have noticed when I mentioned that last year for Christmas my present to my husband was a subscription to Bespoke Post.  That went over so well, this year I decided to gift him with a subscription to NatureBox.

We all go through those tough times.  Stuff can be happening at work, with our families, with our health or the health of a loved one.  It's nice to put a little gift together for a friend when she is going through something to make it known that you care and just because.  These little things can go a long way to making your friend know that you care and are thinking of her.

To my husband.  I waited a long time for you to come along, and you made my dreams come true.  My husband is actually pretty easy to shop for, something that can't be said about a lot of men.  I seem to find more than enough little goodies that I think he'd like.

We have two soon to be 20-year-olds, and I always seem to have a more difficult time choosing gifts for men than I do for women.  I know that at this age, a gift of cash is always appreciated, but who doesn't want something to open on that special day?

If you're like me, you have a liquid soap dispenser in every bathroom and on your kitchen sink.  During the summer I love to make easy crafts with A while she is on summer vacation.  I read recently that you can make your own liquid soap by melting down old soap bars, so today we thought we'd try it out.


We started out gathering up all the old hotel soaps we had gathered around the house.  We tried to only use soaps that had a mild fragrance.


We chopped up about six mini soaps to total one cup of pieces.


After chopping, we put the pieces into the food processor to grind it down to a coarse meal texture.


There was a lot of soap dust so make sure you don't inhale and choke.


We put it into a small saucepan over high heat and added 1 1/2 cups of hot water.


We were in one of those moods today where we didn't want to leave the house, so we used some room scent oils that we already had.  It would probably be better to use pure essential oils, but this doesn't seem to be too harsh.


It sort of resembled oatmeal as we waited for it to come to a boil.


We lowered the heat to a simmer, and after it had dissolved a bit, we added the oil, about half a bottle.  We did make something of a mess.  It took about 10 minutes for everything to dissolve, and I still had to strain a few large lumps out.


We recycled an empty from Bath and Body Works.


This mixture actually filled a bottle and a half, and it will thicken as it cools, so if it starts to congeal too much, add a bit more water.  We are very happy with the finished product after our first attempt.  It's actually very moisturizing and has a good consistency and scent.

I had to laugh at myself when I brought these Core spatulas into the kitchen the other day.  When they arrived in one of the PopSugar boxes, I wasn't in love with the colors.  As everyone knows, I'm not a bright person.  So why did I laugh?  I set them down on the counter where I keep the rest of the spatulas and realized that every spatula I own is either green, orange, or yellow.  How did that happen?

My niece just had a baby boy, Aidan, and his nursery has a nautical theme, so it was so much fun for me to shop for her shower.  The call had gone out for diapers, when I remembered the diaper cake a co-worker had made when her daughter was expecting her first baby.  I went to Pinterest for inspiration and decided to try making a small one myself.


A lot of the online directions call for hot gluing the diapers together.  Since I was starting small, I used this large rubber band to hold my tightly rolled diapers together.



Double-sided tape worked really well, and I never even turned the glue gun on.





I picked the bow to go with the nursery color scheme, but if I do this again, I would go with something smaller or even consider putting a blanket over the top to give the appearance of a smooth surface instead.

Before A was born and when she was tiny, I used to be quite crafty.  Not to blow my own horn, but at that point in my life, I could have given Martha Stewart a run for her money.  Having a Halloween party, okay, let's make pumpkin stew and serve it in individual mini pumpkins set on chargers that I personalized for every guest.  I had theme parties, spent more time wrapping presents than I did shopping for them, made an ornament for everyone on my Christmas list, and was always working on a needlepoint or cross-stitch project.  Then the child and the career got busy, and the crafts were the first thing to go.  It was either that or the already minimal sleep.  Coffee can only do so much.


Now that I'm starting to craft again, it's amazing how much has changed.  New techniques and materials, not to mention technology overwhelm me every time I go to Michael's or the fabric store.  Feeling like I didn't know where to start, I decided on this simple felt project.


Felt is so inexpensive, so when I went to the store by myself, I bought several colors for potential versions because the teenager can be a bit fickle on color choices from day-to-day. For some reason, I hate to use a sewing machine, so I liked that the stitching was so minimal I could do it by hand.


A now wants one in every color.  Pass the coffee.

Sometimes I see pictures of the most beautifully wrapped gifts, and I think that they are so perfect, I wouldn't even want to unwrap them.  I am in awe of people who are such artists with paper and ribbon, but I keep practicing trying to make mine look a little prettier.

My little great-niece turned three on Christmas Day, and my niece had her party the week before Christmas. Monsters Inc is my favorite Disney Pixar movie, and Madison looks like a little Boo, so this talking doll seemed perfect.




I keep a drawer full of small toys for times when little ones come and visit since we don't have a lot of things in the house anymore to keep them entertained.  When it came time for the name tag for the gift, I found this Snow White mirror in the drawer.  Ariana pulled out a silver Sharpie and instant name tag.




When it came time to unwrap the gift, the name tag was just as popular as the doll, but I've seen a few Instagram photos that prove that Boo is a bedtime favorite.