Sulfur Mud Mask

I just wanted to share my favorite homemade mask. I found the recipe for this mask when I was pregnant with my son and my face was breaking out horribly. {This is not my own original recipe} Unfortunately, I cannot find the original source, I will keep looking and add it if I am able to find it.

I had read that the usual chemicals commonly used for acne are not very good for the baby, but since sulfur is a natural mineral, topical use doesn't affect the baby at all.
This recipe also uses Fuller's Earth Clay, which has been used for centuries in India. Fuller's earth is a natural cleanser and draws out oil and other impurities from your skin.

Recipe:
1 tsp Sulfur {Found here}
3-5 Tbl Fuller's Earth (Multani Mitti) {Found Here}
Water

Simply mix all ingredients together. I didn't measure the water, I just added more until it was the right consistency. A baby food jar is a perfect size.

The reason for the gradient in the amount of Fuller's earth depends on how strong you want your mask. There are 3 (American) tsp in 1 Tbl, so with a 3 Tbl formula, you would have about a 11% solution. I would be careful making it any stronger than that. Sulfur works by drying your blemishes, so too much may lead to skin irritation.

I use mine as a spot treatment, but I also do a whole mask a few times a month.

Hope it works for you!

Thanksgiving in Wyoming

This year we were able to get together with my husband's family in Wyoming. Everyone was able to make it except his younger sister and her husband. We were bummed they couldn't come, but we still had a lot of fun. 

The Boy has a few cousins near his age and he had a blast playing with them! Even the older ones had some fun making him giggle. 

The boys all went shooting for a few hours. Mine is too young still so he had to be left out. Maybe in a couple of years, Buddy...

You can't tell here, but he is laughing hysterically; no longer inhibited by ceilings!

Snapped this after he took a digger onto the cement. He is a really good walker, but sometimes he trips when he is wearing shoes, poor boy. He is very tough though. 

I love my family!

On they way home, we stopped off at my parent's house to stay the night. It helps to break up the drive home, plus my parents get to see their grandbaby!

My uncle and his family also came and he brought his samurai sword and practice sword. 

We each took turns slicing up some jugs of water.  I'm pretty much a samurai now. 

Zombies better watch their backs...

Thanks for reading!

Give Thanks

{Mama Kat's Weekly Prompt - 4}

There is so much to be thankful for, it's so hard to narrow it down to a few things or even a few paragraphs.  I read about what is going on in other countries and the living conditions of other places around the world, and I marvel at how spoiled I am, and how blessed my life truly is. 

I am grateful for clean drinking water. 

Here in America, we have practically limitless access to clean drinking water, and I think it is so easy to take it for granted. I have suffered with chronic headaches since I was a child. I  have been on and off countless medications, had an MRI to check for abnormalities, seen many doctors, kept food logs, but could never nail down what exactly was wrong. Then, when I became pregnant, I started drinking lots of water, 12-16 glasses a day. Within a week, my headaches were nearly eliminated. Now, wherever I go, I take my bottle of water and find out where I can refill it. Since I have become so medically dependent on water, I have such gratitude for clean water to drink. 

I am grateful to have been raised in a loving and safe home. 

As I am typing, my throat gets a lump and my eyes water a little bit just thinking of children around the world and in our own country who can't say this. Children who may never recover from the emotional and psychological trauma and injury that incurs from horrific living condition. Words fail me in explaining my gratitude for how I have been blessed to have loving parents. I am lucky. 

I am grateful to have had the opportunity to be a parent, and to have an awesome husband to be a parent with me. 

Unfortunately, I have many friends and family members who have struggled with being able to have children, as well as those who have lost their babies in utero or shortly after birth. My heart breaks for them, and I look into my own baby's eyes and cry with gratitude that I have been so insurmountable and incredibly blessed. I am so grateful for my baby boy.

I am grateful to live in a free country.
This election has been hard. I have had family and friends pitted against each other.  And even though there are so many things to complain about in this country, I know I am so lucky to live in a country where I, especially as a woman, have an opportunity to vote, to go to school, and to make choices about my own healthcare and body. I am so lucky and grateful. 

These are just a couple of the things I am grateful for this year, but I have been trying to analyze my life and pick out all the things that I have, things that make my life worth living, things that I am so grateful for, and anything else that maybe I have wanted and felt I needed just fades into the background and dissipates. I am so blessed and so grateful for my life and all those in it. 

T-shirt into Comfortable Skirt Tutorial

I LOVE finding new uses for t-shirts. For one, knit fabrics are actually kind of expensive. Also, it's a great way to refashion old shirts that are filling up closets. 

For this project, I used one of my husband's old shirts, and a cute striped thrifted shirt from the women's department. I loved the stripes and I also liked the cute little slit; perfect for a skirt. 

One of the wonderful things about this skirt: It. Is. Comfortable. You feel like you are wearing sweats, but you ware wearing a cute skirt! It's wonderful! 

Bonus: it's also super easy to sew!

Supplies:

Thrifted T-shirt ( I used two because I wanted it to be knee-length)

Elastic

Safety Pin

1.  Cut your shirt under the sleeves. 

If using one shirt, you can skip to step 5.  

2. Cut a few inches from your second shirt. If it's hem is straight, keep it, if not, trim the bottom. 

Now, my women's shirt was wider than my men's shirt, so I actually had to cut a second strip of black and sew the two together to make it long enough. Two men's shirts should match up even enough for you to just cut two strips. 

3. Sew the strip ends together and pin it to the top of your skirt. Put the top inside the main part, like you are sewing a sleeve, RIGHT sides together. All seams should be showing out. Match up the edges and pin. 

4. Sew around where you have pinned. 

5. Now,  to make the elastic casing, fold down the top. I don't fold under twice for two reasons. One, knits don't fray, so a raw edge won't come back to haunt you after the first wash. Two, several layers of knit tend to be hard to sew through, causing thread breakage and skipped stitches, so I just opt out. 

Make sure to leave a few inches un-sewn so you can thread through your elastic. 

Attach a safety pin and push your elastic through the casing. Once it's through, sew the ends of the elastic together and sew up the hole. 

Now, just even out your elastic and you are done!

The most comfortable skirt you will ever wear. I actually gave this one to my sister, who is pregnant!

Thanks for reading!

Diary of A Boxspring (Vol 3) Harvest Wall Decor

I finished another project made from my recycled wood. I don't have much in the way of decor for fall or Thanksgiving, so I decided to get autumn festive.

This project was pretty straightforward.
I just cute a few irregular sized pieces of wood and sanded them down.

Then I painted them and found a few different fonts I liked and did one letter in each font.

Then I decoupaged on one big block and added 3-D foam stickers to spell out "Happy."

I just glued the blocks together using wood glue.

 I have mentioned before, it seems to always look better in my head than it does when it is finished... Oh well, it's coming down in 2 weeks anyway, and the Christmas stuff is going up!

Thanks for reading!

Four Girls Together Again

All three of my sisters are now living in southern Utah, so when my parents took a trip down for the weekend, I decided to take the Boy and go see everyone. It was a very quick trip, we left Friday afternoon and came back Saturday afternoon, but it was so nice to see my family. Since my son is (only for a little bit longer!) the only grandchild, he gets a lot of attention! And he loves it.

We mostly just chilled. I really wanted to go over and see my sister Caitlin's and her husband Kyle's new home, which is in a very cute neighborhood. It was nice to just be together and do nothing. But we did take a few hours and visit some cute shops downtown.

This thrift store was my favorite: 

I love how they decorate with old books.

But one of my absolute favorite things at this store were these monogram books!

Adorable! I will have to figure out how to make these. I don't have any kind of electric saw, so I might have to collect some old books and take them home with me when we visit for Christmas, for my dad to cut for me. I just love them!

They also had cute vintage toys. I love this old tricycle.

The Boy found this cute little pencil chair.

I really liked these measuring cups, too. 

Gramps and Baby had fun blowing kisses in the huge mirror. 

We also stopped by a soda shop. 

They had so many types of soda! I didn't count but I bet they had 100 different kinds, lining a whole wall. 

And candy. I am not a huge soda girl, but I LOVE candy. 

Plus, my mom found her favorite childhood treat!

It was a quick trip, but it was nice to see family for a little while. I am excited to see all of them at Christmastime. 

Thanks for reading. 

Um... Ya... Embarrassing...

{Mama Kat's Prompt Thursday}

In high school, I was very fortunate to get a job working as an aide for a physical therapy clinic. It was a really fun job, and they also had a location in a city that was home to a community college, so I was able to work for the company through my first years of college.

My job was to assist the PT while he did inpatient care at a nursing home. I really loved it. The old people were hilarious and pretty entertaining (although sometimes frustrating) and I got paid relatively well for a college student.

We were able to wear scrubs to work, and since they are pretty dang comfortable, and the fact that we had to be to work at 6am, I took advantage of the opportunity. However, as a poor college student, I really hadn't invested in too many pairs.

On the day of this particular embarrassing moment (I am the type of person to whom many moments like this happen, unfortunately), I was wearing a pair of bottoms that were not actually scrub bottoms, but had a button and fly, not elastic, and they were more fitted than traditional scrub bottoms. But since they looked like them, they still worked.

During my shift,  I was helping a woman who was recovering from a total hip replacement. She was laying on the bed doing leg lifts, and I was helping her with her exercises. I was sitting on one of those low stools with wheels, when I saw her motion to me to lean in so she could whisper to me.

"Darling, I think it's your menses,"she tried to whisper, but spoke not too quietly, pointing her finger at me.

I stared at her. What?

Ohhhh. That's an old-timey way of saying that I am on the rag.

Wait, What?!

My eye snapped to my pants only to discover a HUGE gaping hole, exposing my bright red underwear.

Yep, I had worked for several hours, at two different facilities, with a huge hole in my pants, with my underwear exposed.

Thank you co-workers and anyone who may have seen but didn't say anything to me, 'preciate you guys!

Diary of a Boxspring (Vol 2) A Home for Keys

We have never really had one of those key hooks. Is that weird? I lost my keys for like 4 months one time, only to have them turn up in a coat pocket, so suffice it to say, I really need a permanent home for them. I also wanted a little shelf for Dallas to put his wallet, sunglasses and earplugs (he is a pilot and uses them at work each day).

I used my recycled boxspring wood for this project. The method was pretty self-explanitory. I just cut two pieces of wood, same size, and nailed one on top of the other. 4 hooks, a decoupage top, and several different coats of paint later, I have myself a Key Holder!

Projects always to looks better in my head...

Oh well, it serves its purpose and it's made out of recycled wood.

Thanks for reading!

Pick a Peck of Pickled...Olives

Outside my apartment are these dense, beautiful olive trees. They are tall and weepy, and provide comfortable shade all year-round. Their colorful olives are ripening, so I decided I might try canning/preparing some.

I am not sure what kind of trees they are. I did a little research, and I am not certain, but I think they might be Pendolino olive trees. Their fruit is apparently ideal for olive oil. I actually might try making oil if the canning is a success!

Well, I read a few articles and although they all had slightly different methods of preserving olives, they all had the same basic gist.

I was able to pick about a gallon( fun fact: a peck is a gallon; log that one away, kids!).

Such a gorgeous color! 

They look like ripe, sweet grapes. Yum!

Has anyone tried a ripe, uncured olive?
Well, I hadn't, so I though I would just try one before I got started...

I actually thought I had eaten some rare, poisonous variety, growing nonchalant and carefree in my yard. As I was swishing my mouth and wondering where I could find the number to poison control, I angrily thought: why would someone plant three poisonous trees in a residential apartment complex, why?
Well, they aren't poisonous. They are just super-gross. I would not recommend eating one fresh-picked.

The method of turning fresh olives into something edible is not difficult, just lengthy.
They have to be rinsed, and then slitted with a sharp knife.

The olives need to soak for three weeks in fresh clean water, changed daily (presumably to neutralize the poison bitterness).

I am about 2 weeks into it, and I am excited to see how they turn out!

The next step is to soak them for another 3 weeks in a brine solution. 

I might do some flavors.

Hmmm...Jalapeño anyone?