The Sugar Scrub Experiment

I have been wanting to make home-made sugar scrubs for some time now.  It just seemed so simple… sugar, oil and stink… How hard is that?

So I decided last night to give it a try.  I absolutely love my Vanilla Chai body wash and lotion from Organics, so I decided that I wanted to make a vanilla chai scrub to compliment my other products.  So I started with a cup of brown sugar and added 1/2 cup of olive oil.  I mixed it up and it turned it to the perfect consistency for sugar scrub.

Next, I needed to make it smelly.  I added vanilla  and then pondered a way to give it that chai smell.   Hmmmm…..   

FYI people… Don’t brew black tea and add it to the sugar base.  I should know that warm water makes sugar dissolve, but everything was going so well up to this point, I think I got cocky and let my guard down.

Starting again from the beginning, I began with the brown sugar and olive oil.  I then added the vanilla.  This time I broke open the tea bags and poured the contents into my concoction.  It took about 4 teabags to get rid of the olive oil smell, but once I added them, it actually smelled pretty good.  Now all I had to do was give it a test run.

Another tip… do not use tea to make sugar scrub.  Especially black tea.  It will stain your sink, the towel you use to dry off with and whatever part of your body that you choose to scrub.

Discouraged, but determined to make some sort of sugar scrub, I threw out the idea of “Vanilla Chai” and pulled out my trusty peppermint oil.  I was almost out of brown sugar by this point, so I took 1/2 cup of brown sugar and mixed it with 1/2 cup of white granulated sugar.  Then I added the oil, mixed and said a little prayer.  I added 5 drops of peppermint oil to the mix and… VOILA! 

I now have some kick-ass sugar scrub that smells like candy cane.  Just in time for the holidays!  Luckily I have some peppermint body wash and lotion to go along with it!  Yay!

My Computer has the swine-flu…

So, I haven’t posted anything for a couple weeks now.  My computer had the swine-flu or something and decided to eat its own hard drive.  So I said goodbye to the laptop and got a new “more powerful” desktop.  At least that is what they tell me.  Technology… where did our stress come from prior to computers?

Anyways… I have been preparing majorly for my jewelry show in 3 weeks, so most of my creative energy has been centered around that.  I’m very excited about the show.  It is the 3rd “Christmas Open House” and hopefully the biggest yet.  My Christmas shows always seem to do the best and I am hoping this one really does well.  I need it… both financially and emotionally. 

I have been working on some “vintage-inspired” and “altered-art” pieces that I think are going to be a big hit!  I am going to post some jewelry pictures really soon…  Promise!

Awesome Craigslist Find!!!

Oh my goodness… OH MY GOODNESS!!!!  I am so super excited about my newest craigslist find!!  I just purchased an antique Woodstock Typewriter for $10!!!  I’ve been wanting to find an old typewriter to use for jewelry for so long, but have not been willing to shell out $50 for typewriter keys or $100 for a typewriter I am just going to turn around and destroy.  But for 10 bucks?!? 

My only problem now is that it is so cool looking, I’m afraid to destroy it.  Maybe I can turn the rest of it into some sort of planter or something….

A Woodstock Typewriter

Whoo-hoo!!!

Creative Break?

How did I know that I would not be able to go an entire weekend without some sort of creative adventure?  I know I said I didn’t have time, and that I was going to take a break from my projects… Who was I trying to kid?

The weekend started with the Mat Kearney concert.  As much as I enjoyed the show, I found myself drifting away from the music at times to brainstorm.  At one point, two women in front of me stood next to each other – one wearing a pale turquoise top and the other wearing a rusty-red and brown top.  As they stood next to each other, I thought “I must make a necklace in those colors!!”  I thought about just strands and strands of seed beads, each strand one of those colors, wrapped and twisted… 

Then, at another point during the evening, I saw a woman with a wrap necklace that totally got me thinking.  I didn’t like the beads that were used to make it (cheap and mass manufactured), but there was something about the piece that started to inspire me.  I have made many wrap necklaces before, but this one used a unique combo of medium-sized gemstone beads next to some oval-shaped silver rings and then small seed beads in between the clusters of silver and gemstone.  I thought if I used some very elegant, classy pearls or even mother of pearl beads in combination with the silver… 

Then my focus went back to Mat.  Then back to the ladies in the tops.  Then back to Mat. 

And this was just Friday night.

Luckily, Saturday was BUSY.  If I wasn’t helping my daughter with her costume, funk-i-fying her hair or creating the perfect Zombie color combo with make-up, I was driving her from party to party, house to house, all so that she could get 6 lbs. of candy (most of which she will never eat and will eventually find its way to the trash can before next Halloween). 

Finally, on Sunday I started with a major cleaning of two of the rooms in my house.  I spent the majority of the time contemplating how I was going to reorganize and redecorate the office/craft room.  I found the perfect desk and organization system on the Pottery Barn website – but then realized it was going to cost me close to 2 grand to get everything that I wanted.  New plan I guess.  Time to search Craigslist and Ebay.

I spent what little weekend I had left working on some more Cakeballs.  Pumpkin spice cake with cream cheese frosting and white chocolate coating.  I got everything done except for the coating.  I will post a photo as soon as I get them finished. 

In the meantime…

Pumpkin Cake Balls

I began with yellow cake mix, 1 – 15oz can of pumpkin, 4 tsp pumpkin spice, 2 tsp baking soda, 3 eggs, 1/4 cup water and 1/4 cup of veg oil.  Mixed and baked on 350 for 45 minutes.

Again, once the cake was done, I crumbled into a large mixing bowl and blended with an entire container of cream cheese frosting.  I rolled the dough into balls just larger than marbles, but smaller than ping-pong balls.  Then I set them into a container and placed them in the freezer overnight. 

Tonight, I will melt white chocolate candy (from Michael’s) in my double-boiler and coat each of the balls in white chocolate.