Review - DIY Foaming Hand Wash (and all-purpose cleaner)

I wasn't quite sure where to post this review as it sarted off as foaming hand soap, so...Beauty wing, right?  However, it ended up as an amazing, multi-purpose, indispensable item that could go on here since this is crafts and home/random shit.  At any rate, I figure it was high time I review my home-made products now that I've had a few months to test them properly.

If you like the review and want to give my recipe a shot, you can get a full tutorial here with the instructions on how I DIY'd my liquid castile base here.

Simply put:  I'm in love.  That is an unbiased opinion as one of the things I made will NOT get a good review and was replaced by this (obviously, the all-purpose cleaner).  While family seemed to really dig my other all-purpose cleaner, and it DID do its job, I just couldn't get over the heavy vinegar smell it had, even though there wasn't really all that much at all in there once it was diluted properly.  I loathe the smell of vinegar and had hoped all the other ingredients would cut the scent at the right mixture, but it turns out even a drop of the stuff makes everything stink to high heaven.

Now, this works great as a foaming hand soap.  I re-purposed an old dispenser, the only issue being that it foams great for one or two pumps, then not so much unless you let it rest for a bit, but that may be the pump.

After deciding I didn't like my all-purpose cleaner much due to the smell, I opted to give this a shot.  I've used it straight from the foam pump to dampen a cloth to dust, I've used it straight from the large container to wipe down the walls, cleaned the stove, mopped the floors, etc., and it does a marvelous job and leaves no residue or icky stuff behind that I've noticed at all.

The best part?  You're cleaning your house with something so natural and gentle that you can feel comfortable keeping it by your sink and washing your hands in it.  Try that with store-bought cleaners.  The mix of castile and the eucalyptus oil I added to the mix makes for a delicious, clean scent that is light-years better than vinegar, as well.

Verdict?  On this particular, glorious, multi-purpose product, I am NEVER going back to store products.

<3
WW

DIY 5-minute Hair Accessories

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No, your memory is not failing you, nor is it that funny taste that may have been in your drink.  Although, if that actually happened, you may want to look into it.  You may have seen this post before.  In an attempt to make everything easier to navigate for everyone, I am working on transferring all of the old beauty and craft posts from the recipe blog to their appropriate homes on the newer wings.  I'll be only one a day so as not to clog up your feeds, so please bear with all the boring re-caps!

<3

-WW

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Why, yes, I do realize it is taking me forever and a day to move things over, but, sadly, life does not always cooperate with our plans.  Things have been busy and when they haven't I've just been too damn tired to worry about blogging, but I am making a concerted effort to do better.  I have a shit ton of craft projects to finish and it should be cooling off soon, which means I can get back to creative cooking and wearing makeup for more than ten seconds before I sweat it off, which will really up the posting frequency of all of the wings, so please bear with me and don't abandon me.  

I'll be all weepy and pathetic if you do, and that just isn't pretty.

No one wants to see that.

Here's a simple, quick, and super cute way to make some hair accessories out of old buttons.  See?

Cute,  no?  Easy, too.

All you need are some buttons, some bobby pins, some super glue, and some embroidery floss.

First, pick your button and see if the bobby pin will fit through the loop.

If it does, then this 5-minute craft just turned into about a 3-minute craft.

Dot some super glue on it and set it somewhere it can set up for the glue to dry.

If the your button holes are too small to fit the bobby pin through, grab the embroidery floss, cut off a small piece, use it to tie the button onto the bobby pin, then trim the ends as close as you can get them.

Super glue it all together, and don't forget the ends of the floss so they don't come undone.

One of them I put two buttons on...It still stays in your hair pretty well, actually.

And here's the whole line-up.  Quick, easy, and you can make hair pins to match anything.

<3

The Wookie Wifey

Hearthstone Plushie DIY

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No, your memory is not failing you, nor is it that funny taste that may have been in your drink.  Although, if that actually happened, you may want to look into it.  You may have seen this post before.  In an attempt to make everything easier to navigate for everyone, I am working on transferring all of the old beauty and craft posts from the recipe blog to their appropriate homes on the newer wings.  I'll be only one a day so as not to clog up your feeds, so please bear with all the boring re-caps!

<3

-WW

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This is one of my favorite projects still, even as simple as it is.  :)  It is just one of those things that gives me a happy every time I see it!

Isn't it obvious I just HAD to do this?  I mean, come on.  Its cute.  And home is where the hearthstone is, after all.  Which is usually either Undercity or Orgrimmar.

This was easy, but if you're confused on a few of the plushie steps, I've made a few already so you can check out this one if you need more clarification since its tutorial is pretty in-depth.  :)  Above, the hearthstone I made is pictured with Lurky, whom the Wookie got me from the Blizz store because he loves me and he's awesome.  (Not sponsored, duh, I'm just a WoW nerd.)

Since I didn't have any grey felt, I used white.  As usual of my plushies so far, I only have that sheet foam you see up there, so the stitching is on the outside because that stuff is nearly impossible for the inside-out-stitch-then-flip-and-stuff method.  Admittedly, though, the stitched-together-DIY look is rather starting to grow on me.

Back to business, cut out your two hearthstone shapes - I drew it on the felt in my awesome off-brand yellow sharpie (its hard to tell because is so cheap the print is fuzzy, but I think its technically a "Shoupie" or some shit and I have no idea why I find that so entertaining.), then cut them out.  Same with the swirl.  Three cheers for super easy patterns!

Once you have the hearthstone shapes, lay one on top of the foam sheet, then trim the foam around it to get your stuffing.  If it is the same size as your felt or even a teeny bit bigger, that's okay, you can just squish it in as you sew and it will be fluffier, just make sure it's not WAY too big or else it will try to fold and curl up and then you'll have a lumpy hearthstone.

Stack 'em and stitch 'em.  I used white embroidery floss, then just glued the swirl onto the front with hot glue because I wanted the swirl to be flat instead of all stitch-y,  but its whatever you prefer.

DONE!  Set it with your favorite innkeeper and there ya go!  I'm going to Azeroth now, I don't want to live on this planet anymore.

<3
The (totally nerdy) Wookie Wifey

Embroidered Felt Wall Art with Buttons...Cute...Thing.

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No, your memory is not failing you, nor is it that funny taste that may have been in your drink.  Although, if that actually happened, you may want to look into it.  You may have seen this post before.  In an attempt to make everything easier to navigate for everyone, I am working on transferring all of the old beauty and craft posts from the recipe blog to their appropriate homes on the newer wings.  I'll be only one a day so as not to clog up your feeds, so please bear with all the boring re-caps!

<3

-WW

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This is another one that got inexplicably popular...One of the most re-pinned, which is funny, because I was so unhappy with it I only posted it as a "well, here's...something, anyway"...sort of a "they can't all be winners" post.

Many of you may know Mass Effect 3 just came out.  On the night of its Wal-Mart birth, we went to get the Wookie a copy.  Now, I'm a gamer, but I wasn't at all stoked about Mass Effect 3.  There's many 360 games that I love to watch him play, but they've yet to come out with one that I want to play badly enough to deal with that massive, ungainly controller.  I'm a Play Station girl, what can I say, and since we don't own a PS3, this has pretty much limited me to PC gaming or playing on one of our gazillion other consoles we have lying around here.  Poor me, I know.

Anywho, since I anticipated he'd be neck-deep in Mass Effect 3 for at least the next month, I decided to stubbornly drag him around the Wally-World craft section for half an hour (total rant:  WHAT is up with the Wal-Mart craft section, it COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY SUCKS, which makes my life hell since any actual craft stores are to hell and gone across town and we rarely get out that way) until I found something to keep me occupied for a while while he was doing recliner-yoga, blasting things into oblivion, and making odd conversation with space aliens.  I ended up getting a big pack of felt and a econo-pack of embroidery floss.

This is the first project I made when we got home, and something I just played around with until I liked how it looked.

You'll need:
Buttons (I had a ton of vintage ones I was trying to find some uses for, which is where this project originated)
Embroidery floss - two colors  minimum
Thread
Felt
Embroidery hoop (I used a plastic one)
Sequins or other deco
Needle (duh)
Pins (optional, but they do make life easier)

First, pick the felt color you want for your background and put it in the hoop.  For those first-timers who aren't aware of how this works, you just put the little hoop on what you want to be the back-side of your felt and the big hoop on the front side, then push them together.  If you have a plastic hoop like the one I'm using, it should make it nice and taught all on its own.  If you use a wooden one, you may have to tug it taught on your own before you tighten down the little screw.  Once the felt is in place, you're ready to rock.

Place the buttons in whatever configuration you wish.  I just played around with them until I was happy with how it looked, then pinned them all in place by jamming a pin through a hole of each button.  Then, pick the color of embroidery floss you want to use to secure the buttons and thread your needle.

Sew on all the buttons.  I went through some of them twice, depending on how much I wanted the orange floss to show in the flowers.

Next, take the color you've chosen to do the details and stitch them in...Green if you're doing a flower pattern like me...Or brown if your flowers are dead, I guess.  I just eyeballed-it, didn't draw a pattern or anything.  I'm not THAT artsy and I can't draw to save my life and I'm not that good at embroidery, either, (still new at it and learning) but I figured there was something seriously amiss with me if I couldn't stitch a damned flower stem without a pattern.

Here's the completed stems.  Yes, I  know my leaves look more like thorns, don't make fun of me!!

Next, I wanted to add a few gold and silver sequins for a bit of sparkle and to take up a bit of the dead space.  These, I sewed on with regular ol' white thread.  Now, I didn't want the knot at the end of the thread to go through the felt, so I just tied one of the little sequins to the end instead so it would catch in the back and my project would be all safe.

I randomly stitched on the sequins until I was satisfied with them.  Sometimes, you get ornery sequins and you have to make sure they know who the boss is.

Then, I trimmed off the excess felt.

Hang it up, and DONE.  YAAAY!  (And there was much rejoicing.)

<3
The Wookie Wifey