Skin care GONE WILD!!! Yahoo!

I have to sing the praises of witch hazel. What new mom doesn't use the stuff? I am expanding that repertoire with toner. I have made my own toner. Thank goodness I had the sense to only make a small batch to see how it fairs. It works, but is a bit on the harsh side. It might be because I put all the rest of my commercial toner with it in order to not be wasteful. My next batch will be better and I am thinking I will include some tea tree, lavender, sweet almond oil, vitamin e oil, and castor oil. I know, a toner with oils? Well, not too much but enough so the witch hazel isn't so drying. Do you have any ideas?

My previous post about lotions included the idea for adding vaporub. Today was the day!
Renée woke up with a touch of congestion (she is fine, just that rattly sound in the back of her throat from drainage). I don't have any baby vapo and decided it was time to make my own! Starting with the ratio of 2 parts lotion, 2 parts vitamin e, and 1 part jelly consistency stuff, I made Renée a soft mentho-rub. It is perfect and I loved that I controlled the vapo strength. Here's what I ended up with:
1 tsp lotion
1 tsp vitamin e
1/4 tsp vaporub
some squirts of sweet almond oil
I am housing the concoction in the Tucks container sent home with us from the hospital. Now, to enjoy the the sweetness of a metho smelling baby. Ahhh.

Rahm bus

Prelude: I watch TV with closed captions.


I love Create TV! While watching a show demonstrating interlocking knitting, I got a good laugh. During the demo, they started talking about the elementary terms for shapes, particularly, how a diamond is not called a diamond but a rhombus. The closed caption read rahm bus.

What the heck is a rahm bus?

Go, go Speed Racer!

I blogged earlier about having to say goodbye to my Nalgene bottle. Sniffle, weep, squish, squish. I have been keeping my eye out for a proper replacement.
I also have another bottle that I keep by my side of the bed so my daily pills are always ready to take before my feet even hit the floor. Okay, Mike puts them and a straw in my mouth so I don't forget!
During a visit, Sarah and I each bought a Foogo. The one I bought I gave to Phoebe and she keeps it by her side of the bed.

While at Target this past weekend, Mike spotted the find of the week: clearance Foogos. Now, I can replace the plastic bottle that I have kept by my side of the bed.
They weren't labeled as the Foogo Thermos brand, but as a FUNtainer. It has all the same characteristics as the Foogo with added character, specifically for ours: Speed Racer. (I couldn't pass on the bad crossover with the word character). It even included an extra set of silicone straw guts that didn't come with the actual Foogo.
You can see in the picture that I used some 220 grit sandpaper and water sanded off the Speed Racer screen print. Voilá! Perfectly good and plain stainless steel, double walled, vacuum sealed beverage container! I can barely contain my excitement (had to go for one more).

Onbag and wet bag

I have completed many projects. One of which was a diaper bag. The hospital sent us home with a simple black Similac bag that I used after I removed the labels. It really wasn't big enough for outings with the cloth diapers plus I was lugging around purse, diaper bag, and baby. There are tons of great free projects on the web, some of which are free for a reason and others that should be making someone rich. The Onbag should be making some rich. It is genius; diaper bag with extremely long straps to be worn around your body and accommodate your baby wearing! My purse fits in in to boot! Here are some shots.


Wal-Mart $2 cotton with a bit of lycra. It is a cool charcoal color. I didn't want black but yet needed versatility in color. Grey. Who goes wrong with grey?
The straps are tied criss-cross, through the loops, across one another to go back through the loops, then finally knotted together. I think I need to make a little loop to go around the upper part of the straps to keep them closer in at my shoulder blades. I thought the 14" width would not be too wide, but alas, it is.


Opened up, here you can see the pockets and lining. I got a great deal on the salmon colored raw silk. Being one of my favorite colors and fabrics, I couldn't resist.


Here is a much needed wet bag for soiled nappies on the go. Here I used Baby Dry from Hancocks, quilting green cotton, and the remains of the zipper from the futon revolution.
I enjoyed sewing up the bag and plan on making the baby version, valuables bag, and sling pouch. I have fabric remains for all of the projects plus a few more.

UPDATED 4/20/09:
I have added a little iron-on frog patch that I have had in the stash for so long! I found the perfect spot for it on my OnBag. I also added orange and white resin snaps. When I initially made the bag, I didn't put on any hook & loop tape knowing that I wanted to do snaps. I was tired of metal snaps and they really didn't like going through this fabric. The resin snaps were a breeze to install and are far superior to the metal snaps I had.
On the front pocket are two sets of sockets in order to allow the flap to secure at different stuffing levels.
I also realized that the loops to pass the straps through had pockets that opened to the sides. So, the side pockets have been altered a few times to get the right depth for a water bottle.

I also added snaps to all my pouches. Those pouches have ended up all over my home housing toys, small items and collectables, winter clothing, camping gear, embroidery, and this one below: an entire change for the baby. It includes diapers, wipes, extra set of clothes, lap pad, and plastic grocery bag. It is grab-and-go if I don't want to take the entire bag.

answer to joke

Here is the answer to the joke from my previous blog entry: Why is the crosswalk hand always red?
Well, the answer is: The hand got sunburned because it stayed outside too long.

Similarities & differences

left to right:Stacy (abouts 2 months old)-Phoebe (1 day shy of 2 months old)-Renée (4 days shy of 2 months old)

Quite often Phoebe & I get a comment about how much we look alike. As a baby, I saw a lot of Mike in her and only some of me.
Well, I think Renée looks more like me as a baby than Phoebe did. Here are our 3 baby shots to demonstrate.
Come on! That cute little one on the left made some of the cutest babies, don't you think?

librarian for a day and a joke

Today I was librarian at my school. I got to read to little kids and check out people's books. I was librarian for the day because I earned 250 AR points. AR stands for accelerated reader. To earn points, I had to read certain books that had a star on them or were on the AR list. My favorite books are the Harry Potter series and Boxcar Children series.

I also made this joke while we were driving around town: Why is the crosswalk hand always red? Leave your answer in the comments. I will tell the answer the next time I blog.