scoby

My first kombucha scoby grown from a bottle!

Mega Swap box photos

These are going up for charity auction as well.

Candles for Charity Auction

Recently, I was in a swap where we traded handmade candles for handmade soaps.  It was inspiring to see the different products.  We took one of the candle boxes and decided to donate it for a charity auction.  Here's a photo of the candles and tarts that were submitted.

Candles and tarts - side view

Candles and tarts - top view

Floral Friday: Tomatoes

Today's post features lovely fresh, juicy, home grown tomatoes!  We ate tomatoes on bagels & cream cheese with lox schmear, sandwiches, pizza and we still had more so we made salsa and guacamole too.  Our next project would have been home made tomato sauce or soup but we managed to share with friends and neighbors too!

Yummy home grown tomatoes

Floral Fridays - Coral cactus

This cactus has a very unique fan shape at the top.  I saw it at a super fancy flower shop downtown and really liked it but it was priced high.  I did some searching and found it available at the home depot!  Due to cuttings, gifts and recent purchases, I am overloaded with interior plants right now BUT this will be on my list for the next succulent I get.  I have been tending towards non-prickly succulents but I may make an exception for this one.

Home Depot sells this cactus in the cute polka dot pot!

Angry birds fly in for a visit

Stephanie and I recently made these little angry bird magnet projects with the kids. While this does require manual dexterity to cut and glue the small pieces together, and also a little bit of patience, it is quite a fun and easy project for the 8 and up set.  The kids had fun making them and it was interesting to see the variety of facial expressions on these cute little birds!

Materials needed for the project

Materials:

• pom pom balls - in angry bird colors: red, teal
• wiggly eyes
• small scraps of felt (yellow, black, red, teal)
• scissors
• glue
• wooden sticks to help apply the glue (if you are not using a hot glue gun)
• magnet backs (optional)

Instructions
1. cut shapes from the pieces of felt - triangles for a beak and thin rectangles for eyebrows, and a squiggly cut for the comb on the bird's head, if desired.
2. glue the eyes, beak, eyebrows, and comb on the pom pom ball
3. if desired, glue the magnet backing onto the pom pom ball also.
4. let dry for 15 minutes and enjoy!

Finished Angry Birds on the white board

Sneak Peak: Lava Lamp Lip Gloss

This Saturday I will be teaching a new class called all natural lip trio at the Nova Studio.  I have spent the last 2 weeks re-making and fine-tuning recipes for this Saturday's class where students will learn to make lip balms in a pot, lip tints and lip gloss.  I'm still working on the design of the presentation and am much closer to being done than I was last week, which is a good thing!  Nothing like the reality of an upcoming class to help motivate.  This is a fun project and one of my favorites from the class - I love the color pop and hope everyone else likes it as much as I do.  At first glance, it is not that interesting but once you tilt and turn it upside down, it's very soothing and relaxing to watch the colors glide through.  Not only that but it is also good for your lips.  I experimented with the one on the far right by placing raspberry and orange layers to get a more interesting color effect - next time around, I will probably use thinner color layers so there is a larger clear area for the colors to migrate.

Bright colors in these retro-style lip glosses