Friends, Family, and Learning.

Today was one of those day where I couldn't seem to get motivated. Ever have those days? Of course you do, we all do at some point or another. Maybe it's because I slept way too long, or maybe because it's Saturday and hubby was home so all I wanted to do was snuggle. Who knows.

After an incredibly lazy morning, we met up with some family friends for lunch, that we hadn't seen since we got married about two months ago, which helped perk me up and get me ready to go. Then hubby said some magic words, "Wanna go to Barnes and Noble while we're out here?". Best response to that is "Oh, you're evil!" so yes, we went to the book store, and ended up spending probably an hour in there, with me on the floor picking over sign language books. For $19.12 I picked up a book with a DVD.

Sign language seems to be my new 'gotta learn it' item. I took some sign language in elementary school, but all I remember is the alphabet, how to ask where the bathroom is, and a few colors (hey give me a break it was almost 20 years ago!). Also a few year ago when I worked for an in home health care company, I had a patient that was deaf, so I started to look at ASL again. Now all of a sudden, I want to learn again, and perhaps even become proficient. Maybe it's because it's something I've always wanted to learn, maybe it's because I've seen my friend communicate with her 16 month old daughter with sign language before she could even speak. Maybe because I've also been bit by the baby bug, and want to know how to communicate with a child I may have as early as possible. It's probably a combination of all of the above. My wonderful husband is once again encouraging me to learn, and even offered to learn with me. Maybe this will go just as far as learning Japanese did, maybe further :).

By time we got home, I was geared up and ready to make something! So....I started on some lotion bars I saw on Frugal by Choice, one of my favorite blogs to follow. Now I had made these once before, but they turned out REALLY oily, and just dissolved into a puddle in your hand. Not quite what I wanted... This time, I added more beeswax, so it was 1 1/2 parts wax to 1 part of each oil. I think this worked better, but now it's really firm, and doesn't like to let go of the oil. Maybe I see that way since my hands were cold from being out putting up garland outside for the winter. I'll have to try it again when my hands are nice and warm (yeah right, like that happens this time of year).

If you do try to make these...don't poke at them until they are completely cooled....the one I poked at exploded up and outward all over my face...well at least now I smell even more like a flower than normal, and got a slightly hot oil facial treatment at the same time!

I found these cute little molds at the local craft store, with an adorable little snowflake on top. The batch here is scented with gardenia. Special thanks to my 'sister in life' from Global Odyssey who is going to help me find homes for my extra gardenia scented items!! Don't worry, I'll get on the lemon grass, or lavender ones for you soon!

Ever trying to reuse instead of toss, I pulled out some tulle circles left over from the wedding, and viola, pretty little packages to stuff in stockings! I can fit 4 little lotion bars in one baggie so I'll be able to give an assortment of scents.

My next creative endeavor was to make some body scrub. Just about everyone on my gift list this year is a crafter, gardener, or just in need of some pampering (mostly all of the above!) so my whole theme this year is bath stuffs. I followed, and I use the term loosely, a recipe from Martha Stewart and used some more gardenia scent. I also found out that coloring it, isn't as easy as it sounds. I ended up with a mostly green bath salts, with blue and yellow spots...really makes me feel like I should be in Alice and Wonderland. 

Thankfully I just did a small test batch with the coloring, I left the rest plain, and put them in little favor tins from the wedding section of the craft store. 

I still haven't decided how I'm going to decorate them, but I'll work on that tomorrow. It's time for snuggles and movies now, and hopefully I can convince hubby to have a LOTR marathon. Until next time!