Homemade Air Freshener

We all want our house to smell clean and fresh, right?

The weather has been nice, the kids have been playing outside much more often and when they come inside,...well, it's been smelling a bit "sweaty." So, I decided to try a new "recipe" and make some homemade air freshener. All you need are a few ingredients -

Baking soda

A container to put it in

Something to cover it with that you can poke holes in for the scent to work

Essential oil(s) of your choice

Here we are getting started with my baking soda, peppermint oil, lavender oil, and I am using an old Mom's Love Rub container that I washed out. If you don't know about Mom's Love Rub, you've got to check it out...we use it for everything. It's our carrier oil of choice, we put it on any "boo boo," burns, dry skin, etc. Here is the website, and I know the maker personally - Mom's Love Rub

I put the baking soda in the container, dropped about 10 drops each of the oils, and then cut a piece of plastic wrap to put on the top. I poked about 15 holes in the top and then tried a ribbon around it to keep it in place. About every couple of days I will give it a little shake and that will restart the scent. We have these all over the house and I would say about once a month you might need to add a few more drops of oil, but they do last, they do smell fantastic, and I highly recommend this easy project. Enjoy!

Making a "new" dress from an "old" dress

My daughter loves pink and she loves dresses. So, the dress below with pink and orange, butterflies and flowers, that I got on the clearance rack last fall at JCPenney, has been quite a favorite this summer. It pretty much got worn every 3rd or 4th day.

As the summer is winding down, and I know we're heading into fall, then winter and spring, when a tank top dress just isn't a reasonable clothing choice, I figured I needed to do something to update this cute little outfit.

I was at Walmart and saw their long sleeve t-shirts on sale for $4 and that they had a shade of pink that was pretty close to the dress at home. I purchased it and brought it home to see if it would match. It's a bit darker than the original top, but there are so many shades of pink in the dress, it works.

I took pictures of our project along the way. So that if you have a similar dress that still has life in it, it just needs to be lengthened, or given a new look, you can copy these steps and make it work for your daughter as well.

The t-shirt, in a size 7/8, and the summer dress on my ironing board.

First, I pinned the tank top to the t-shirt so I could see where I would need to cut the t-shirt. Then, I figured, why not add about 4 inches or so to the length, so it will last all the way until next summer...maybe into the next fall?!?!

Then, I pinned where I would need to cut it (I added about another .5 inch to the 4 inches so I would have a good seam allowance) and ran a tape measure across the dress, so I would cut a straight line.

Here is the t-shirt, cut at the length I needed.

Then, the hardest part was taking out the old tshirt. I used my stitch ripper and carefully tugged and pulled. There is a "lace" waistband on the dress, one of Sissi's favorite parts of it, so I needed to keep that part in tack. The tank top had been sewn to the dress and then the lace waist band sewn over it. You can see how I tried to at first just cut out the tshirt, but then realized that the lace would be backed by the old tank top, which is a different color pink, so then I started pulling the stitches.

Great! A fully removed tank top and the lace is all still attached and in one piece.

Then, I pinned the tshirt into the dress. I first lined up the 2 side seams, then the center of the front and the back, and then the center of those sections, so I had 8 pins connecting the t-shirt to the dress. Then I went back and put "pin tucks" in the spaces in between each pin because the t-shirt had more material than the skirt's width. This way, the material was evenly spaced and didn't get all bulky at the end.

I put in 2 seams, one along the elastic and then attached the top of the lace to the t-shirt as well.

Here is my girl, so excited and jumping in her new dress.

She was so happy that she can keep wearing it through the winter! Glad I got to keep the dress and have a happy girl!

Let me know if you have any questions about how I did the update.

Cute girl hair and dress pictures

This is just a compilation of pictures of me and my girl.  I actually feel bad, I take WAY more pictures of Sissi than I do of the boys.  Guess you'll be subjected to a "Random pictures of handsome boys" blog next week some time!

Gwangi took this picture of Sissi and I on Friday, before we started school.  He seems way more comfortable behind the camera than in front of it.

Sissi in her new dress.

Look how curly that hair is getting!

Love that personality.

Getting ready to go to a dance class.

It's all about the cute hair buns and the attitude.

Cute and sweet pose.

Give me a kiss!

We've been enjoying the American Girl Doll Hairstyles book lately.

A cute little bun in the back on her head.

A dress I made for her from an old t-shirt and some local fabric.

A Tea Basket

One of the hardest things I've had to deal with here, is making our house feel like a home.

We left so many of our personal belongings, like pictures, knick knacks, books, furniture, etc. in storage back in the US.  What we brought with us, for 2 years in Africa, was 23 pieces of luggage and/or plastic bins.  In this amount we fit most of my kitchen stuff, sheets, towels, clothes and shoes for 5 people, books and toys for the children, homeschool materials, gifts for birthdays and Christmas, vitamins, bathroom stuff, and the list goes on.

We have tried very hard while we've been here to buy simple, basic stuff that will last us for our tenure in Dar.  We question everything we purchase, trying to be frugal and to also not buy so much that we can't sell it, or give it away when we leave.

There are often times that I miss my conveniences and my "pretty" stuff.  I'm being totally honest here.

While in Dodoma, I think I have mentioned that we shared many a cup of tea and coffee.  Here, in Dar, we hardly ever have tea and coffee, even though we very much enjoy it.  I started wondering...why is that?  It's not just the heat.  I finally hit the nail on the head...the reason was, that it wasn't convenient.  So many things here take so much longer than they should; but, I can control how long it takes me to make a cup of tea, and set it up so that it's easier for me.  Enter, the tea basket!

Wendy had a similar basket, and so all you had to do was heat up your water, grab your cup and the basket, and everyone could make their own cup of tea, or coffee, or hot chocolate.  So simple, and yet I had to see it in action to make it a reality in my home.

I already had the basket, it was in the pantry with odds and ends in it...like ziplocs of nuts and chips and crackers, half eaten.  I cleaned it out, put those snacks in re-purposed, plastic cookie containers, and I had a tea basket.  Then I grabbed a plastic leftover container to put the tea in and old glass jars from sauces that I had kept, to put in the sugar and Nido (powdered milk).  I found salt and pepper shakers at Game (it's like a super small Walmart, we have the only one in the country here in Dar) for the cinnamon and cocoa, they are hiding behind the purple spoon cup.  Finally, I decided to take the plunge and buy an electric kettle.  I actually have a tea pot at home, in storage, so we've been using a cooking pot here to boil water.  The tea kettle was such an answer to prayer.  I hesitated, went back and forth, not wanting to spend the money; but, finally Indy said, "We're still here another year. Do you think we'll use it?  Then it's worth it."  So, we bought one and it's been great.  NOW, we have tea (and coffee or hot chocolate) everyday.  You can see Indy's French Press, that he bought last fall on his HOPAC trip to South Africa, behind the kettle.

Have you ever re-purposed anything?  Like baskets or plastic bins?  I have a few more examples to share...but, that will be for another day!