This month's theme for the Crafty Chicks Challenge is "edible". Now to be honest, I have no idea what the other ladies have created for this challenge, but I will post the links to their posts as soon as I have them.
This challenge was fairly difficult for me. As a family, we have eliminated most conventional food in exchange for organic and unprocessed foods. That means no gross food dyes to make things look "pretty". My recipe was inspired by our lifestyle and summertime! So here for your enjoyment is Strawberry Yogurt Popsicles.
Ingredients:
3/4 c strawberries (frozen, thawed, drained)
1 c greek yogurt
1/4 raw honey
Supplies:
spoons
popcicle mold
STEP ONE: Combine yogurt and honey. Add strawberries, stirring gently.
STEP TWO: Spoon yogurt mixture into popcicle mold. Insert sticks.
STEP THREE: Freeze.
STEP FOUR: Eat!
See?! Healthy CAN be pretty!
These were so delicious. My family loved them. Hope your family loves them too.
If you follow me on facebook, you know I've been buried in sewing these days, building my cloth diaper shop on etsy. This doesn't leave a lot of time for blogging.
Yesterday, I took these shots of the vegetable garden. Not a lot to show here really. We have tons of tomatoes coming in, as well as one little cayenne pepper. The squash, zucchini, and cucumber have been flowering beautifully for some time now. And our poor broccoli plants are still under attack by the green caterpillars.
Not long ago I was approached by an old friend of mine about doing a blogger craft challenge. The premise is that each month a group of crafty ladies would create something based upon a set theme and then present it to our readers. This month's theme was "your choice". My choice for this month? You guessed it: CLOTH DIAPERS!
As you, my lovely readers, have probably already figured out, I am a bit fanatical about cloth diapers; buying them, washing them, organizing them, sewing them - oh yea, and using them on my daughter! After an encounter with a particularly bad WAHM diaper I was inspired to sew my own, and boy have I been sewing! These are the beautiful fluffy jewels I have created:
"BALI"
"BUDAPEST"
"LATVIA"
"KANDAVA"
Features:
Two rows of snaps (waist & hip snaps)
Square cross-over tabs
OS snap-down (allows baby to wear diaper from 8lbs – 35 lbs)
Fleece inner wicks moisture away
Generous pocket opening for easy stuffing
Hidden PUL (no cover needed!)
Designer fabric outer
Materials Used:
Cotton fabric
PUL fabric
Fleece fabric
Elastic
Snaps
Thread
LOVE
Design/Pattern: I designed these diapers myself, creating my own pattern based off of features from various other diapers. While I love the functionality & affordability of (most) mass-produced diapers, I wanted to create a diaper that was functional and beautiful.
As you probably have guessed, I will more than likely be selling these diapers in the near future. I have some ladies who will be testing these diapers on their little ones over the coming weeks. Once I get feedback from them, I will be re-opening my etsy shop {be}eleanorgrace featuring these diapers, "{be}fluffy".
Don't forget to check out these chicks to see what they created for this month's challenge!
I finished the AI2 diaper I started and I have to say I did an awesome job. I really enjoyed making it, too. There isn't really anything I would change other than using better materials. Now that I am confident in the design and my abilities, I can purchase the right materials and sew my heart out!
Melissa Flores is a fabulous momma I met on the Fluffy Stuff Trading Group on Facebook. She and her husband have been married for 10 years and have 6 children between the ages of 11 and 10 months. In addition to being a wife and mother, Melissa has been a soapmaker for 8 years. After sharing her soaps with family and friends for so many years, she is branching out and will be selling her soaps via custom order on her facebook group page Soaps & More.
Ingredients:
Melissa started making soaps because she had a desire to make something better than traditional store-bought soaps. She has hand crafted several bases (not “melt & pour”), including olive oil, goats milk, shea butter and glycerin. The following is the list of scents that can be added to the base:
cocoa mango,
chamomile,
crème brulee,
cucumber melon,
dreamsickle,
french vanilla,
honeysuckle,
lavender vanilla,
lick me all over,
mango,
melon,
monkey farts,
orange,
orange blossom,
papaya mango,
peppermint,
pink grapefruit,
pina colada,
pineapple,
raspberry,
ruby red grapefruit,
sage & chamomile,
sensual warming,
sex on the beach,
strawberry,
birds of paradise,
black cherry,
butt naked,
cantaloupe,
caramel,
amaretto,
apple,
baby powder,
chocolate,
cinnamon,
lavender,
vanilla,
banana,
bay rum,
blueberry,
bubble gum,
chai tea,
champagne,
cherry almond,
chocolate raspberry,
coconut,
coolwater men type,
country spice,
dark kiss BBW type,
dark temptations,
dolce & gabanna light blue men type,
dragons blood,
dream angels halo type,
dream angels heavenly type,
english ivy,
summer sorbet,
sunflower,
tahitian vanilla,
tangerine,
tranquility,
tutti fruity,
very sexy for him,
warm vanilla sugar,
watermelon
In addition to this HUGE list of scents, there are add-ins such as orange peel, lavender, and rose petals.
My Thoughts:
Melissa sent me two soaps of my choosing for this review: Orange Peel Glycerin soap and Monkey Farts Shea Butter soap. My first impression was of astonishment at how great the soaps smelled. The first couple days, I placed them in different areas of my house where I could smell them most often. I have been using the Orange Peel Glycerin soap in the shower, and I am really enjoying it. The bits of orange peel seem to exfoliate my skin, the scent is lovely of course, and afterwards my skin feels soft. There is no residue either, just clean. The Monkey Farts Shea Butter soap is also lovely. This scent is a combination of bananas, grapefruit, kiwi, bubblegum, strawberry, and a hint of vanilla. My hands are perpetually dry and cracked, but the shea butter base of this soap has helped keep my hands soft without drying them out like most other hand soaps do. What is also striking about these soaps is that they are as beautiful as they are useful. The soaps I received were molded in an oval shape with a cherub on top. Melissa has several mold options, which she will be sharing on her page in the near future.
Prices:
These custom soaps are $3.50 - $5.00 shipped. If you’ve priced handmade soaps in specialty stores you know that this price is a steal! On the Soaps & More page, you simply request the soap you want directly from Melissa. Payment is accepted through PayPal or Money Order.
Conclusion:
I highly recommend Soaps & More by Melissa Flores. These soaps are of excellent quality, and you can feel good about purchasing from a WAHM (work at home mom) here in the US.
As promised, here are some pictures of our vegetable garden and how things have progressed since we started planning & building.
As you can see, some things are still in containers. We bought more plants than we had room for in the beds. At the rate things are growing, they'll need to be moved to larger containers very soon.
This is one of three tomato plants, already showing a bunch of little baby tomatoes.
A shot of our cayenne peppers, with the sweetest little white flowers.
The best of the three broccoli plants, as they've been attacked by very hungry inchworms. My hubby has been diligently removing the inchworms by hand since we are determined to keep this garden chemical-free.
Finally, the zucchini. It has really taken off! Can't wait to make some muffins with the zucchini from this guy!
