Online Early Learning Freebies

I've been using DLTK's Early Learning site since my oldest was little. Today I saw this Hickory, Dickory, Dock clock craft using paper towel rolls and a paper plate. They have nice templates and great directions. I'll have to wait until I have the supplies, but we plan to work this craft soon.

More nursery rhyme printable activities here.

Check out their Bible activities and crafts. They even have a Veggietales area.

Many of the cut-out templates can be crafted on felt rather than paper. I've been thinking about cutting out double sided felt Veggietales, sewing them together, and stuffing them for little felt toys for my daughter. DLTK is an awesome site for early learning and crafting. There are even extended ideas for learning with older children, and ideas for using alternate materials with different versions of learning.

Check out the sister sites while visiting DTLK. There is so much more for early learning and above.

Extracting Fragrance from Fresh Herbs and flowers

I've been experimenting with my garden lavender attempting to find the best way to extract the fragrance for cologne, insect repellent, and room spray. In the past, I've tried soaking fresh herbs in vodka for a week, but the herbs smelled like they went bad. I tried it again with lavender for a shorter duration, just overnight, and the next day it smelled like it had turned. I could still smell a hint of lavender under a heavy grain smell. Instead of throwing it out, I added water and boiled it in the microwave for four minutes. Somehow this worked, and although it has a brown cast to it, the liquid smelled very good with a light to moderate lavender scent. The heavy brown scent went away.

I'll be using this lavender water as a base for my next batch of insect repellent spray.

Here is a recipe that I'd like to try for rose petal perfume using fresh rose petals. This involves soaking the petals overnight in oil.

Lavender Tea Recipe

This was a very fragrant tea! I added more lavender from my garden than was called for in the recipe. I also added some fresh lemon balm. I had to pass on the sugar.

Ingredients:

* 1-1 1/2 teaspoon dried lavender blossoms or 2 teaspoons fresh lavender blossoms
* 2 tablespoons earl grey loose tea
* heavy cream
* sugar cubes

See recipe here.

I enjoyed this tea with just the lemon balm and lavender for a calming bedtime tea.

Homemade Coffee Facial Mask

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons very finely ground coffee(I used regular ground)
4 tablespoons cocoa powder
8 tablespoons whole milk or cream(I used half and half)
2 tablespoons molasses(not in original recipe)
Read instructions and entire recipe here.

Coffee has astringent and antioxidant properties, and tightens and tones the skin.

Milk has antimicrobial and cleansing properties.

Cocoa powder softens the skin and has antioxidant properties.

Molasses has firming, softening, and exfoliating properties which is more gentle than honey. It's also good as a conditioner for damaged hair.

Results: Frightening to look at, but pretty good results! My skin was much tighter, but not dry, and very soft. It helped with a few blemishes as well. I've tried honey masks before and they were really too strong for my skin. This was a perfect blend for my normal to oily skin. I had some left over, so I've stored it in the fridge for next week.

See more at the Make It From Scratch Carnival.

Hair Helper: Beer

Beer supposedly makes your hair shine, helps with frizz and increases volume. Maybe you remember the beer enhanced 1970's shampoo, Body on Tap. The 1970's really was a bonanza decade for shampoos.

How Beer Can Help Your Hair:

"In addition to B vitamins, the proteins found in malt and hops are said to repair damaged hair and boost overall body. Meanwhile, the maltose and sucrose sugars in beer tighten the hair’s cuticles for enhanced shine.

Although it is debatable whether the corn, rice, or wheat protein in beer can actually deposit on your hair to form a strengthening film, there is no question that it makes hair seem thicker. This effect may be attributed to the proteins left on the hair fiber, though beer also seems to slightly swell the hair shaft. Ideal for fine hair, an at-home beer solution is an economical alternative to the $20-40 thickening tonics on the market, since it kills two birds with one stone- adding extra volume while at the same time coating the cuticles with shine. When experimenting with beer as a hair product, it is recommended to use traditional brewed beer made from hops to maximize nutrients and minimize chemicals (since most commercial beers are loaded with stuff you probably shouldn’t be putting in your body, let alone your hair)."

Beer should be used when flat, and some recipes recommend that you reduce it on the stove top, probably to remove the drying alcohol. Here's a nice tutorial.

I've seen several ways mentioned to use beer on hair: as a rinse, as a spray, and in shampoo. I'm going to add some to my shampoo, Dr. Bronner's castile soap, and as a spray for a mid-day boost to control the effects of humidity on my hair.

I also ordered some beer shampoo bars from Etsy. These are great for travel, and I've always wanted to try a shampoo bar.

Just for fun, here were a few of my favorite 1970's shampoos:

Lemon Up was my absolute favorite.

Natural and Organic Henna Hair Dye

I decided to henna my hair, so I've got my head wrapped in plastic wrap, trying not to drip on the camera. I haven't tried this for years, and now I know why. It's messy, and you have to walk around with saran wrap on your head for at least an hour. On the flip side, it's all natural and conditions the hair as well as adds color. This particular henna covers gray. I didn't purchase the indigo which may be mixed with henna for brown. I am hoping for auburn, not a carrot red.

I'm wearing my husband's old t-shirt, and an old towel around my neck to catch drips which happens every time I look down. If I had some cotton strands, I'd stick that under the edges of the wrap. Plastic gloves are a must, and a little Vaseline on the skin around the hairline and ears keep the henna from dyeing your skin.

"After" pictures later....

It turned out great, and my hair is back to normal, dark auburn and curly. I had been getting a light golden color at the ends(?) with dark roots, peppered with gray. This is so much better than the gray, two toned stringy look that I had developed. Completely worth the hassle.

This store sells bundles for different hair colors and types - long and African hair. You just have to scroll all the way down to the Hair Care Directory at the bottom. There is also a free ebook at this link for first timers.

Benefits of Chandrika Soap

Chandrika soap is an inexpensive natural vegetable soap. I got a bar of this healing soap for about 65 cents at Vitacost.com. Chandrika vegetable based soap has been made in India since the 1940's. We use vegetable based soaps for our sensitive skin, and the children need soaps that help their rashes since they are prone to eczema(eczema runs in my family). I tend to like soaps which are not flowery, but have a fresh or exotic scent. Chandrika is not over powering, but definitely has an exotic fresh scent. We use this nice lathering soap as a shampoo for the children. It's strong enough to get an active tween boy's hair smelling extra clean, and gentle enough for my three year old daughter's hair. I wouldn't recommend it for very dry skin. It's definitely a no nonsense cleaning soap, great for summer.From the Chandrika website:

The ingredients are :

Coconut Oil : it nourishes, moisturizes and lightens your skin tan.

Wild Ginger : soothes the skin and helps prevent infections and rashes.

Lime Peel Oil : for a refreshing cooling effect and rich, penetrating lather with an astringent action.

Hydnocarpus Oil : helps prevent skin problems, rashes and outbreaks.

Orange Oil : tightens pores, helps prevent pimples and blackheads.

Sandalwood Oil : to cool, refresh and gently perfume your skin.

Healthy Flaxseed Bran Muffin Recipe

This is the second time making these for the children. I had one delicious bite, but it's not on my diet plan. This was adapted from a Bob's Red Mill recipe. These muffins go fast.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups Whole Wheat Flour (I substitute 1/2 cup almond flour for wheat)
3/4 cup Flaxseed Meal
3/4 cup Oat Bran Cereal
1 cup Brown Sugar
2 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt or less
2 peeled and shredded Apples
1/2 cup brown bananas
1/2 cup mashed sweet potatoes
3/4 cup Milk(I used coconut milk)
2 beaten Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla

Mix the first seven ingredients well in one bowl, and the remaining in another. Combine wet and dry until dry is moistened, spoon into cupcake pans and bake for about 12-15 minutes at 350 degrees. I accidentally cooked them at 425 degrees(forgot to change it) for 10 minutes, and they came out fine.

Note: These are very moist; a little chopped nuts would really round out the muffin - moist and crunchy. My children don't like nuts in their muffins, so I leave them out.

Make Your Own Platform Sofa

There were no directions with this image that I found online, but it looks very simple. The base is probably made from pine formed into boxes and stained. The cushions are foam wrapped with fabric. I've seen large foam pieces at sewing stores, and Walmart carries thick foam mattresses which can be customized. I just saw the decorative bamboo stalks in the corner at Target. A clever frugal furniture idea for a small place.

Here is another one with no instructions, but easy to make because of it's boxy design. This one is from HGTV and is actually a platform bed made to look like a sofa, or daybed. It can do double duty, and all you need is a standard mattress and cushions.

An interesting idea for the back of a sofa, a repurposed headboard. The least expensive way to make a platform would be to simply reuse the box spring on the floor without the rails(metal frame), and cover it with fabric, staple gunning it to the wood frame. If you take the original box spring fabric off, you may be able to stain the wood, and cover the rest with fabric. Two headboards drilled onto the long edge of a twin box spring could make an interesting sofa back. Add a mattress, cushions, and fitted sheets, and you've got a sofa. Image source.

Here's another design which can be altered by placing the headboard at the long side of the mattress for a sofa back. Simply construct a rectangular box which could be covered with foam padding, stapled to the wood, and then covered with a fabric. Little boxy arms be added in the same manner, all nailed to the platform. This could be free standing as well as a corner sofa. Image source(beam bed). Those legs are actually beams, and the headboard may be made from same.

This platform sofa uses over sized pillows.








Not a platform sofa, but I really liked the colors and style - good for inspiration.

Easy Wrap Skirt Tutorial for Children and Adults

I keep seeing people wearing these now! I wore these in the 70's and early 80's, and I am so happy to see them back. These can be customized for children or adults. This particular wrap skirt does not have a hole along the waist band to pass through an extra long string. You can add this if you want the skirt to wrap around more(wider length) to ensure it doesn't flip open with the wind. I wear a slip with mine for modesty. If you do have it wrap around more(one time and 3/4), you need this hole to run the string through to ensure the skirt doesn't fall down along the waist. All mine wrap around this way - about one time and 3/4.

You can also make them reversible.

Click here.

Organic Cosmetics Review

Usually, I buy Clinique's foundation because it doesn't break me out, and the color "Petal" is a perfect shade for me. Because of some health problems, I've decided it is best to give my largest organ(my skin) a break from chemicals. I did a bit of internet research and purchased Physicians Formula Organic tinted SPF 15 moisturizer in "Fair to Light" at Target. Amazingly, it moisturized my skin without breaking me out, and the shade is not bad. It's just the tiniest bit chalky, but I can warm it up with a little bronzer or blush. I tend to have a difficult facial shade to match with foundation - I am fair with freckles and a bit peachy/rosy.The foundation is called a "tint", but in my opinion it was much darker than a tint. I liked the way it spread easily and dried quickly with no oily residue. It's also quite a bit less expensive than Clinique.

From the Physician Formula's website:

Organic wear^® is the first ECOCERT^® Certified Organic Line of Makeup in the U.S.
Most Organic wear^® products are certified by ECOCERT^®, an internationally recognized guarantee that environmentally-friendly practices are upheld in all aspects of the product.

All Organic wear^® products are

100% Free of

• Harsh Chemicals
• Synthetic Preservatives
• Parabens
• Synthetic Fragrances
• Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO’s)
• Animal Cruelty

I had some trouble finding the full line of Physician's Formula Organics at Target, so if I want to try some of their other products, I'll probably have to order them online. I'd like to try their lipstick, called lip veil.

My other change has been my lipstick. I usually use Rimmel of London because they have fantastic shades for my skin tone, but I've switched to all natural Burt's Bees tinted lip balms, Lip Shimmers. I purchased raisin(more like dark pink) which goes one well, but like most lip balms, comes off easily. I still like it though, especially the way it moisturizes and tingles from the peppermint. It's a very fresh lipstick, and it was less than $5.00 at Walmart. I actually wanted something with more brown in it, but the raisin color is okay on me for summer. They do have some brown colors I like online: papaya and nutmeg, but I didn't see these at Wallyworld.

That's all I wear out of the house: a little foundation, lipstick, and some blush. I still need to purchase some organic blush.

As I was searching the Burt's Bees website for this post, I noticed that they sell a herbal deodorant with sage as the main ingredient. I've got tons of sage, more than I know what to do with, so now I've got another project - sage deodorant.

Burt's Bees Herbal Deodorant - ingredients: alcohol denat., water, salvia officinalis (sage) leaf extract, lavandula hybrida (lavandin) oil, citrus medica limonum (lemon) peel oil

Easy make at home ingredients. I've got the sage, lavender, and a lemon essential oil.

I already use Lafe's Deodorant Spray, but I love trying new things.


BTW, sage tea is nice...I'm drinking some with a little lemon balm and spearmint leaves fresh from my garden.

Also see: Budget Green (and Safe): Personal Care

Museum Field Trip

We did a museum field trip today to the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk, Virginia. It was free admission today. They have a nice ancient history and 16th-17th century European painting collection, enough to review many highlights of the Old and New Testaments in painting and sculpture. The Greek collection was a perfect complement to my son's readings on Greek myths this week.

We viewed several 16th-17th century paintings of saints : Saint Sebastian with the arrows, Saint Elizabeth, Saint Anthony of Padua, Saint Catherine, Saint Margaret, and a good many of Saint John the Baptist. There were some nice Albrecht Durer wood block etchings of the Jesus's life, paintings of Our Lady, and a small illuminated Book of Hours in the tiny medieval gallery.

We browsed a gallery of Dutch and Flemish paintings showing common everyday scenes with rich details near the end, as attention was waning.

There was a wonderful large painting of Lot(first painting above) and his daughter's fleeing the city of Sodom. We stood in front of this painting for quite a while because it was full of symbolism - lust, deceit, and lecherous folly vs. chastity, virtue, prudence and self-knowledge.

There was another lovely painting which sticks out in my mind, and that was the one of Mary and the baby Jesus surrounded by a garden wall (chastity/purity) where not even the angel enters. He hands her a lily from the other side.

It is a smaller museum, but has a decent collection of art and sculpture. It was a beautiful day, warm and sunny, nice enough to wander through the Victorian garden on our way out of the museum.

Ancient Greek Studies for Middle Elementary

Two new vintage ebooks my son is beginning tomorrow:

The Story of the Greek People By Eva March Tappan, 1909.

The Heroes, or, Greek Fairy Tales for my Children, by Charles Kingsley, 1914.


Both public domain ebooks are free to read and download at Google Books. We load our free ebooks onto a flash drive and then read them on a laptop.

I even got my three year old daughter to read a book online with me today. We read My Book House: In the Nursery by Olive Beaupré Millera, 1920 which has cute illustrations.

Hints and helps:

In order to print or save pictures to your computer, you'll need to switch to the HTML version at the site. Look to the bottom right sidebar. Make sure you right click on the image of the page, or you'll get the entire web page.

I had trouble downloading these books with dial-up, so I use a free download manager which works very well, even with dropped connections.

If you need to return to a main page, click on "review book", and then "about book".

The Edible Garden

We have lots of shade in the backyard; we are covered by a cooling canopy of oak trees. So it's a bit dry and difficult to grow vegetables, although we keep trying. Things are growing much better this year thanks to Sluggo (organic slug and snail repellent) which is working better than Diatomaceous Earth.


Here are few herbs and vegetables which are growing well in a small corner with partial sun:

Sage, oregano, mint, and lavender

Garbage can potatoes














Tire tomatoes











Apples













See more at From Seeds to Harvest carnival.

Grenadian Spice Cake Recipe

I've got some leftover limes from Cinco de Mayo, so besides limeade, I'm making a cake using the lime zest. This Grenadian Spice Cake looks very good, and it has a rating of five out of five stars at allrecipes.com.

Image from Allrecipes.com

Update: This was very good, a bit plain for children, definitely a good tea or coffee cake. My tween son loved it, but my preschool daughter was looking for something more. It had a nice hint of lime, but I'd have rather had a stronger lime flavor. If I make this again I'll add lime juice and more zest.

Simple Baked Macaroni and Cheese Recipe

Tonight I am making something the children will like, homemade macaroni and cheese. I didn't have a car today, so I had to make do with what I had on hand. My substitutions and additions are in bold.

Ingredients:

* 1 (16 ounce) package elbow macaroni(egg noodles)
* 1/2 cup evaporated milk(dried milk and water, and a bit of whole milk)
* 2 eggs
* 1 (8 ounce) container sour cream(ricotta cheese)
* 1 teaspoon seasoning salt
* 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
* 1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
* 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
* 1 tablespoon butter(canola oil)
My additions: a few squirts of homemade catchup, onion powder, garlic salt, and seasoned stuffing bread on top with more cheese.

See rest of recipe here.

I'd add a picture, but my camera needs charging. It's still cooking, but a little taste of the cheese sauce tells me this will be really good!

Update: Very tasty, but definitely needs the sour creme for a creamier texture. I probably should have added more milk and oil. This recipe needs very little bake time as it can dry out quickly.

Hygiene Hypothesis: Are We Too "Clean" for Our Own Good?

Interesting medical college article, especially if you suffer from an autoimmune disease. Click here. If this hypothesis is true, a little dirt and germs as a child could be beneficial.

"Increased hygiene and a lack of exposure to various microorganisms may be affecting the immune systems of many populations - particularly in highly developed countries like the US - to the degree that individuals are losing their bodily ability to fight off certain diseases.

That's the essence of the 'hygiene hypothesis', a fairly new school of thought that argues that rising incidence of asthma, inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis and perhaps several other diseases may be, at least in part, the result of lifestyle and environmental changes that have made us too 'clean' for our own good."