The other day my friend, Megan, was over and she saw that the foaming soap dispenser in my bathroom was almost empty.
Side note: I love foaming soap. I like how it washes off your hands quicker and easier, and won't ever go back to the liquid soap. That's just my opinion.
So back to the story. Megan says to me, "you know the secret about foaming soap, right?" I was thinking, "yeah, that it's awesome?" But I shook my head. And she says, "You can make your own. It's cheap and so easy." (Am I the only one who didn't know about this?)
As long as you already have the foaming soap dispenser bottle, you can make your own! It is a great way to reduce and reuse. Here's how you do it.
1. Buy yourself one small bottle of liquid hand soap (the thick stuff) 2. Fill your foaming soap bottle 1/4 with the hand soap 3. Fill the rest of the way with water 4. Shake it up.
This really does work. I'll be able to fill up that foaming soap bottle 2 more times with that 99 cent bottle of liquid hand soap. Thanks for sharing the "secret", Megan.
Since Father's Day is around the corner, I thought I'd post this funny, awesome item as Monday Fun Find #2:
Floppy Disk Notepad
Joe, the mastermind behind GeekGear,claims that "sometimes it's cool to be a geek". He describes himself like this: "During the day I'm a network engineer, fixing and designing computer networks and making sure all these machines play nice with each other. By night I'm a craft making geek that is trying to come up with interesting ways to keep some of our discarded computer and electronic items out of the landfill.
I think it's an admirable idea and I appreciate his efforts and his creativity.
I can now officially add "sold items at craft fair" to my hand crafting resume. And not just any craft fair--the Eugene Saturday Market. In fact, it can't really even be called a craft fair--it is better called a community marketplace for strictly handmade items.
My friend approached me last week about possibly sharing a booth with her, and although it scared me to sit at a table all day long and have people walk by judging my items, I also wanted to see what it is like to sell in person and participate as a seller in an event I've attended only as a buyer.
As new sellers, we had to show up early this morning to sign in and wait for booth spaces to be assigned in order of seniority. Being the lowest on the totem pole, we were told not to get our hopes up for the first few weeks, but just to show up and we would get "points" that would help us move up in the pecking order.
I was actually quite unprepared for the day, as last night my sewing machine decided to freeze up for the first time in the 5 years that I've owned it, and I wasn't able to finish all the produce bags and canvas bags that I thought would be my top sellers. But since we were told not to expect a booth, I wasn't too worried.
Perhaps it was the rainy, cold day that kept many of the regular sellers away, but there ended up being lots of vacant spots, and we were the lucky recipients. So after getting over the shock of it all, we set up shop.
(It was cold and windy most of the day, hence the coats and bad hair)
(This was taken at the end of the day when items had been picked up and moved around, hence the haphazard look of the table)
All in all, it was a unique, fun experience and I really hope to have another chance to sell when I can really showcase the items I'd like and also when we can have some really beautiful June weather.
In the spirit of making Mondays fun days instead of what they usually are, I'm starting a new feature where I share my favorite handmade item of the week. I'll call it the Monday Fun Find.
Here is the first: KeyChain Lip Balm Holder
Even though BeaG lives in Belgium, the total on this cute little lip balm holder (including international shipping) is less than $12. She makes several sizes of Lip Balm Holders in all colors to fit all sizes of lip balms, and each is an original design hand-crocheted by BeaG.
Marie from Make and Takes has a great feature where she invites guests to post a fun idea for a craft or treat they have made with their kids--and she calls us Guest Make and Takers. I'm proud to have that name for today.
I discovered her blog some weeks ago when she was the guest mom for the week on Design Mom, (another blog I have on my google reader) and was instantly hooked to her fun ideas for kids crafts, activities and treats. Each post is a tutorial with such great pictures that you feel like you're in her house participating in the fun. Her kids are lucky to have such a fun mom, and readers of her blog feel equally lucky. Thanks Marie!
One of my favorite tutorials from her blog is how to recycle your old, broken crayons into these:
This is a terrible version I found on YouTube, but perhaps you've seen the real version when you accidentally forgot to fast forward the commercials in your nightly DVR catching-up session (that's how I saw it).
So the message I get out of this is spend more time with your family by using paper plates at every meal. Like your children are really going to suffer in that 10 minutes you spent away from them loading the dishwasher. Whatever happened to teaching your kids how to do their own dishes?
Now, don't read me wrong here. I am not anti-paper products. I do believe that some situations warrant the use of disposable dishes and utensils--although one of the things I hate most is to see a garbage can full of used paper plates and cups. I do use them, though, when necessary.
I mean, I hate doing dishes like the rest of the world, but I think that this is very irresponsible advertising.
Emilee, my other sister who is always discovering fun things on the web, sent me a link to this book, written by Karen Farmer. I have been thinking of making a child-size canvas shopping tote for some time now, and this is a great inspiration to make it happen.
Perhaps when our young children are adults, the question of "paper or plastic?" will be a thing of the past. Perhaps if they forget their shopping totes, they will just be out of luck at the grocery store. Probably not.
But many of them, having grown up watching their own parents carry their reusable shopping totes, will not even think it strange to carry on this ritual. And if we get them started young, with their own canvas tote, even better.
So, be on the lookout in the next few weeks for a new line of totes, inspired by My Bag and Me.
Oh, and P.S.--Make sure you go check out my new shop banner created by my awesome, talented sister, Alisa. THANKS Lis!
Posts
