DIY Homemade Body Wash ~ Lavender Wisteria

  

My mom and I made our own body wash this week! I had seen an easy tutorial on Pinterest (yes.. I know. I have a problem. I am hooked. Can't help myself!) to make hand soap so we thought we'd try it on body wash. (something that I was desperately in need of as I had been using my husbands bar soap for days now..) 'Manly' is not quite the fragrance I go for most days.

Anyways... we used Yardley's Lavender Wisteria bar soap although any, all natural soap would work great. (I'm not sure how the deodorants would melt in soaps such as Irish Spring)

 You will need:

• About 8 oz of an all natural bar soap (we used two 4 oz. bars at $4.99 each)
• Grater (I used our kitchen grater.. it is just soap after all!)
• 2 Tbsp of Glycerin (I found mine at CVS near the skin lotions and Vitamin E) $5.79 for the bottle but we barely used any of it. A one time cost for gallons and gallons of liquid soap.
• Large stock pot (again, just out of my kitchen)
• A gallon of water
• Funnels of different sizes (see below.. we made our own!)
• Large metal spoon (we used a wooden one that I'll keep just for soap now)
• Electric beater
• Containers to put your finished body wash in (we upcycled some from our recycle bin.)

 How to:

Step One, grate your soap! This is the hardest part of the whole process! It's a 'grate' arm workout! *groan*

We grated ours onto parchment paper.

Next, put your soap shavings, the gallon of water and the 2 Tbsps gylercin into the stock pot. Put it on the stove and set the heat to medium. We didn't boil ours, just let it heat up. It smells so wonderful when it's warming up!

Stir your soap mixture gently until all the soap shavings dissolve/melt. You will have a nice cloudy soft mess in about 5 minutes.

Take your pot off the heat and let your soap sit. It'll start to thicken in a few hours but needs 8-12 hours to completely set and cool. Once set, it'll be the strange consistency of goop. Part solid, part snot. Sorry, there is no other way to describe it. You'll understand.

Next, stir it up as best as you can to loosen it, then use your mixer with beaters to mix it. this breaks apart most of the globs and smoothes it out.

Lastly, use some creative funnel mojo to pour your newly made bodywash into your recycled containers. I used an old J&J baby shampoo bottle for what I'll use in my shower and the rest I poured into a cranberry juice container to refill from later. My mom took half a gallon in a half gallon milk carton.

That's it! You're all set to use your body wash! An entire gallon of it! The only thing a bit strange, (not bad, just strange) is it's a bit slimey? I guess is the word. I smoosh it into my washcloth and it works perfectly and smells wonderful! That's the only thing 'wierd' about it.

When my husband got home the other night and asked "Why? why make it when you can buy it?" Well, Because.. because it keeps ten? plastic bottles out of landfills or from needing to be recycled. Because, now I know EXACTLY what is in my soap. Because it saves money! A lot of money! you can buy 20 oz of all natural, organic body wash for about $10. My mom and I made 128 oz for $15 which includes the full price of the glycerin. Next time it'll be only $10! Six times the product, for the same price and no waste. You can't beat that! It makes sense for EVERYONE, even if you can afford to buy it.

Oh, wait. there was a bit of waste. The two soap boxes. Here is an idea for upcycling them, too.

Open your box carefully along the seam. Flatten it out. Flip it inside out and close the seam with a bit of glue or clear tape. Fold the tabs in and voila! A pretty little box just the perfect size for giftcards, jewelry, etc.. (and it smells lovely!)

THERE. Now there is NO waste.

Feel free to Pin any of the images from this post, just please make sure they link back here!

Thank you! Enjoy!
xoxo~

Abbie

I have fallen down the rabbit hole..

Have you ever gotten hooked by something that so intrigues you, you just can't seem to get out it's grip? Yes.. that is where I have been. Trapped in the fascinating clutches of Pinterest. What a FANTASTIC way to quickly bookmark all things fabulus on the net. It is sooo easy to use, so easy to keep organized, it just fills all of the needs my soul has. It is almost more fantastic than facebook. Almost. ;)

If you are on Pinterest already I'd love to see what you're interests are or if you would like an invite to see what all of the fuss is about, just leave your email for me and I'll send you one.

As I find nifty printables, freebies and crafty goodness I am popping it up on my pinterest boards.

Love.

xoxo~

Abbie

Floral Silhouette

I have been spending my time behind my camera lately. The above silhouette is for you to use any way that you would like!

We have tons of feathered friends around.. altho really, this winter has been very easy on us and them. We have barely any snow (about 4" give or take) and typically we are up to our noses in it by now. I am wondering if this winter is so calm, what in the world will next winter bring? I'm sure Mother Nature has something planned to make up for the gentleness of this year!

xoxo~

Abbie

February Desktop Wallpaper Calendar Freebie!

Left click on image, then right click to save it as your desktop image.

Nine years ago today, my husband and I were married. It was just the two of us, no family, no children (my son was just 4 at the time) and it was a quiet, lovely moment. No big fuss, as we both had been married before and it truly wasn't necessary. We got married at The Balsams, in northern New Hampshire.

As you probably noticed my website is back up and running. When I left a few months ago I had plans to return to college to finally finish my college degree, something that has haunted me for a long while now. (seriously.. I have nightmares about it!) As it turns out, the timing isn't right and I'm going to wait a bit longer. I received an email the other day from someone who requested I start Percy & Bloom back up, the timing was perfect and it was just the spark I needed! I'm glad to be back here, like whenever my husband and I go back up the Balsams, it just feels like home and I missed you.

Please grab the above February Wallpaper as a Thank You! Thank you for keeping up with me. Thank you for putting up with my back and forth, my on again, off again attitude. I swear I have creative ADHD. I get sidetracked, forget what I am doing, loose my thoughts, change my mind. Often. But I always seem to come back to here. This creative place in my life.

I found this quote the other day and I just love it!

“Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.”

                                                              ~Golda Meir

Happy February!

xoxo~

Abbie

Handpainted Wooden Sign Tutorial

Have you ever stumbled across something on the web and said "They want how much for that?? I could make one myself!" Most often I do just that, but alas, very rarely do I ever get down to work and actually 'make' what ever 'it' happens to be. Painted name signs are one of those things...I love them! Have been browsing through Etsy looking at different styles, etc.. and finally decided to take the plunge. Here is a quick tutorial on how to make your own, custom, hand painted wall plaque, wall art, sign, whatever.. :)

First, you need a board or canvas. I prefer wood. We have a ton of scrap lumber in the basement left over from our home construction. I found a tongue and groove piece, maybe 12" by 28". I'm not exactly sure how big it is, it's hanging up above my sink and I don't want to climb up there and measure. But size doesn't matter.. you'll see.. I wanted black letters on a white background, so, dah, I painted the entire thing white. With acrylics. Again, what I had on hand.

Now, to the computer! :) I typed our name into Microsoft Office and adjusted the font BIG. The size of your font is not limited to the numbers that pop down, you can click on the font size box and type in any number you choose. Did you know that?? Really slick for making fonts BIG. I guesstimated the size I wanted the letters, (if you scale your word processing screen view to be the size of an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper you can see the font at the exact size it'll print. I think the font size I used was 130. Only three letters would print per line.. MOO and then below that was NEY. I changed fonts for the 'est. 2003' just, well, I like that look.

HINT: Print your letters in light grey!! That way you use way less black ink than if they were solid black. You just need to see the edge clearly.. grey works fine. Trim out your letters/words and place them on your board the way you'd like them. Make sure they fit and that you have centered them. Nothing will peeve you more than going through this whole process to find that your work isn't centered.

Next, old school it. Flip your papers over and scribble with the edge of a pencil all over the back making sure to cover where the letters are on the other side. (If you have tracing paper you can use that instead). Place them back on position on your board and tape them down. (they won't slide around on you that way.)

Trace over all the edges of the letters and transfer their outline to the painted surface.

Now comes the harder part for most.. take your time, use a small, well made paint brush with a fine point (crappy cheap doesn't cut it here AT ALL!) When you have a nicely made paint brush in your hand you'll be amazed at the quality of painting you can do!! Fill in all of the letters/numbers as best as possible. Hold your hand steady, water down your paint (acrylics work fine) just slightly to help the paint flow if needed. Don't sweat the waggles and jogs, the next steps can take care of that.

Now, step back and let it dry. OVER NIGHT at least. Nothing will make you swear faster than trying to sand wet paint. It ain't purrrty, I tell ya.

Ok, now you need a sanding block or sandpaper. Go at it!! distress those corners and take off paint! It'll smooth out the surface and you really can't hurt it. It all just adds character.

Wipe with a slightly damp paper towel or a tack cloth to remove the dust. (I used paper towel.. it's what I had on hand) You can choose to leave your piece like that or you can stain it.. which I chose, just to age it a bit more.

Again, using acrylic paint I mixed brown paint and water to the thickness of milky coffee. You want a deeper color? Use less water or a darker brown... I dobbed (technical term) a paper towel in the watery mix and wiped it on the sign and then wiped it off... I did this several times until I reached the effect I was going for. Just a little bit of color in the corners and on the surface to take away the glare of the pure white.

That's it! Attach a hanger to the back or prop it up on a table or shelf . the nice thing about making it? when I get tired of it, I can trash it. Hey, you make the art, you have the right to toss it out! Or change it, or give it away, or break it, or paint over it..

Enjoy!

xoxo~

Abbie

Update on Sunday, January 29, 2012 at 6:31PM by Abigail Mooney

One of our visitors, Janet, had the BEST idea for transfer images!! Here is her comment,

"I love it! Another tip is to trace your letters on to tissue paper, then lay the tissue on your sign board and use a fine Sharpie pen to trace over the letters. The Sharpie bleeds through the tissue paper, leaving easy lines to follow for painting."

Thank you for sharing Janet! that is definitely the way I'll do it next time!

xoxo~