Anti Aging Face Oil

Hawaii, Honolulu - Report by Taylor. Today, we will give information about Anti Aging Face Oil.

For years, I have struggled to find a face moisturizer that will work for my skin. I have tried many brands, some were good but expensive others left my skin too dry or too oily and even sometimes gave me break out. Being on a budget, I decided it was time to experiment with the essential oils I have been collecting over the years and I found an excellent recipe for an anti aging face oil which does not leave my face oily, dry or with breakouts. I have used this oil for several months and have received many compliments. I don't think I could ever go back to buying another tube or jar of face cream that contains so many chemicals.



Essential Oils

I have been using essential oils in my bath, as air fresheners, as face steamers for fighting colds  and cleansing my skin.. for over 15 years. Not only these oils are natural oils, they have so many great benefits for your well being and and ave countless uses. If you are interested in knowing more about aromatherapy, I can suggest two of my favorite books.

The first book was written by Valerie Ann Worwood - The Book of Essential Oils & Aromatherapy.

The second book was written by Franzesca Watson - Aromatherapy Blends & Remedies.

These books are full of information and recipes and I like them both. I have made many blends from either one of them but if you ask me which one I rely the most on, I would have to say the Valerie Ann Worwood book. I love the detailed information and all the essential oils charts.

Now about that anti aging hydrating face oil.....

Valerie Ann Worwood has several recipes divided by four age groups.

The wrinkle preventative for the over-twenty, over-thirty, over-forty and over-fifty.

I am going to share her recipe for the over-thirty as I am turning 40 this year and felt that I no longer belonged in the over-thirty six months ago.

Neroli - 10 drops

Lavender - 10 drops

Frankincense - 10 drops

Rosemary  - 2 drops

Fennel - 10 drops

Lemon - 3 drops

Carrot - 1 drops

Evening Primrose - 10 drops.

Diluted in 2 tablespoons of either hazelnut, almond or apricot oil.

Lightly massage the mix every night on the face, and if you wish, on the neck and chest as far as the collar bone.

I have used both almond and apricot oil for this recipe and I find the apricot oil to be less thick and oily. After massaging it, you may wipe off any excess oil on your skin.

Well, I hope you can give it a try and let me know how it turns out. I know that essential oils can be expensive but they last a very long time and if you research them online, you can find online stores who sell them at a pretty reasonable price. I know I have.

Thank you for reading this article about Anti Aging Face Oil. Give your feedback when articles about Anti Aging Face Oil very interesting for you. Please share to social media or leave a comment. May be useful. ( Taylor )

Mail Station

Kansas, Wichita - Report by Olivia. Today, we will give information about Mail Station.

Two Weekends ago, I decided to pick up the old muddy pallet that had been sitting around in our yard and make something out of it. After a lot of washing and scrubbing I tried the take it apart with a hammer but the nails were so long and rusted, the slats would not budge. So, I decided to get the power tools out and put our jig saw to good use. I cut all the attached pieces off and to make them all the same size and have better clean cuts, I got my husband's miter saw out and started cutting again. After a few breaks, I finally had 13 pieces that were the exact same size.

Now, what could I make with this.....I remembered a wall organizer that one of my dear neighbor has at her house. It is hung by the back door and has all kinds of knobs on it so she could have her keys, dog leash, coats.... at hand's reach when leaving the house. I also had a old vintage glass mail box that I was hoping to hang on our hallway and the idea hit me!

Why not build a mail station? And this is how my design came to life.

Do you like it?

I put all 13 slats together on the floor and used the nail gun to attach a couple of pieces of wood (2x1x45) vertically.

After looking at it, I thought it needed something else. Some type of writing to give it a vintage look.
I used a two inch stencil set I had gotten from AC Moore a few months ago and watered down some white acrylic paint to make it seem washed out. I traced the stencil with a pencil and tried to stay outside the lines as much as I could to make it look imperfect. Boy, was that hard! For years and years, I have been painting inside the lines so doing the opposite felt very unnatural.

Once the paint was dry, I just screwed in all the hooks and knobs I could find lying around and added a little basket and my antique glass mail box. I am hoping to find a small rod I can screw  to the bottom this board in order to hang the magazines that come in the mail. I will update my pictures once I find one I like.

This beauty had been sitting against the wall for two weeks until I hung it yesterday. I wasn't sure how I was going to do this, so I headed to Lowe's to see what they had. I found those L shaped hooks and thought they would do the job. I drilled holes in the studs and voila!

What do you think?

We have been hanging our keys, hats, putting our phones in the basket, writing messages on the board since yesterday.I love the way it looks. I know I can keep on adding knobs and hooks to it over the years.

Thank you for reading.

Thank you for reading this article about Mail Station. Give your feedback when articles about Mail Station very interesting for you. Please share to social media or leave a comment. May be useful. ( Olivia )

Artisan Bread

California, Los Angeles - Report by Taylor. Today, we will give information about Artisan Bread.

I love making bread.


I come from a big bread country. FRANCE!!! I love baguette, poilane bread, brioche and all different kinds of flavored bread. I did not even know  how much I loved bread until I moved to the US. The bakeries were hard to find and the processed bread on the shelves of the grocery stores where not crunchy enough for me (or should I say not at all?) so I started baking bread at home to sooth my nostalgia.
Making bread by hand was a real challenge at first. Sometimes my bread would turn out great sometimes it was a complete disaster. There would be days when the yeast would not make my bread rise. I would measure the ingredients the same way each time but the dough would turn out different. And let's talk about the time it took to actually make a good loaf of bread! I loved the kneading part of it, but I did not like the fact that I would always have to watch the clock and stay home so I could take care of my bread until I met my friend...the Bread machine.

Many years ago, I was out at a yard sale and fell upon a brand new bread machine still in its unopened box for just $5. I thought it was the best deal ever since I had seen that fabulous machine at the stores selling for over $100. I snatched it and put it to work immediately. Yummy homemade bread was on its way to my house or so I thought.
Don't get me wrong. I love my bread machine. It does so much more than just bread and I could make any kinds of breads I liked without worrying about the rising, the kneading etc... but I was still not fond of its crust so I continued to pay over $4 for fresh baked bread until I found a new way of baking bread....I call it the easy lazy way!

The Artisan Bread recipe I am going to share with you is delicious, super easy to make and leaves your house smelling like a bakery. I found this recipe on youtube a long time ago but I have seen it on pinterest too so it has been around for a while. If you are a pinner than you might have come across this recipe and may have already tried it. If not, please hang in here for a while and continue reading.

Artisan Bread

Ingredients:
3 Cups All purpose Flour
1 3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups water (more or less)

Kitchen ware:
large mixing bowl
spatula
whisk
plastic wrap
enameled cast iron pot

Oven temperature 450 degrees. Cooking time 45 minutes

Let's get started....

Step 1. In a large mixing bowl, add flour, salt and yeast

Step 2. Whisk all dry ingredients well.

Step 3. Add the water, mix with a spatula, cover with plastic wrap.

Note: The dough will look very sticky. The recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups of water but I always add extra water. I do not know how much more. It varies every time. I guess I sometimes pack the flour a little too tightly. But you can see how sticky the dough looks on the picture.

Step 4. Let it rise overnight. DO NOT refrigerate! 

 

Step 5. The next day, after the dough has risen all night, preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Once the oven is preheated, place your enameled cast iron pot with the lid in the oven and preheat it for 30 minutes.

As soon as your pot is in the oven, you can dump your dough on a heavily floured surface and form it into a ball. you will need to have a lot of flour in your hands as the dough will be very sticky at this point. Once you formed your ball of dough, you can reuse your plastic wrap and cover it until your pot is finished to preheat.

Step 6. At this point, place the ball of dough in the preheated pot (careful it is very very hot), cover with the lid and bake for 30 minutes.

Step 7. When the oven beeps, remove the lid and bake for another 15 minutes. The bread looks fabulous now and you can remove it carefully form the hot pot and let it cool completely on a wire rack.

Voila! Your Crusty Artisan Bread is ready to be eaten. Soft and moist on the inside and crunchy on the outside.

Enjoy :)



Thank you for reading this article about Artisan Bread. Give your feedback when articles about Artisan Bread very interesting for you. Please share to social media or leave a comment. May be useful. ( Taylor )

New Desk tops

New Mexico, Albuquerque - Report by Lillian. Today, we will give information about New Desk tops.

My new house has a space next to the laundry room that I converted into a small office. I would have liked to have one large desk to accommodate my sewing machine and my computer but the corner wall is odd and made it impossible. Instead of one large desk, I must make 2 custom small ones.
One for sewing and one for computer work.
Both desk tops will be attached to the back wall but one of them will have 2 front legs and the other just a curtain to hide my printer and other supplies.

How to make desk number one:

Go to Lowe's, purchase an already made and unfinished table top measuring 36x24 and 2 table size legs measuring 29 or 30 inches.

To give your tabletop the aged look I have done on mine, mix 1 cup white vinegar with steel wool and let it sit for 48 hours. Use a foam brush to apply the mixture and wipe excess liquid with a rag. Let your newly stained tabletop dry overnight. You might need to do this a couple of time to reach the desired reclaimed wood look you want.

  

Paint your wooden legs the color of your choice, I chose to paint mine white and distress them a bit with sand paper.
Attach both legs to the front bottom of the tabletop.
Screw a piece of wood to the wall and then screw the table top to it. Voila!

How to make desk number two:

This tabletop is less wide than the first one but much longer. It measures 48x20.
I wanted to try a different finish but I still wanted the reclaimed wood look. So this time, I added some brewed coffee to my vinegar and steel wool mixture to see if it made any difference.

Guess what?......It did!  Can you see the difference?

To attach this desktop, I simply screwed 4 pieces of wood to all 3 walls. One on the right, one on the left and two on the back and screwed the tabletop to them. I used an inexpensive tension rod to hold the curtain I sewed and voila!

How to print on wood:

Materials:
1 - Grafix or other brand transparency sheet
1 - inkjet printer
minwax or other brand name furniture sealing wax

There are many ways you can print on wood. Some people use freezer paper. I have tried it and it works well but I did not like the fact that I had to cut the freezer paper to size and use adhesive to attach it to a card stock sheet (because it curls and won't fit on your printer's feeder properly). The worse part though, is that freezer paper is white and you cannot see your design once you flip the paper over. This makes it very hard to place your design exactly where you want it to be.

So I am going to share with you, my favorite way to print on wood!
I use Grafix transparency sheets. One side of the sheet is shiny and smooth, the other side has some type of coating that helps avoid smearing of the ink. I print on the shiny and smooth side that way the ink can be transferred onto the wood and I can just wash it out once I am done and reuse the same sheet over and over again.

Step one: Open your favorite image editor software, add your graphic and edit it to your liking. When you are finished editing, you can choose to reverse the image through your software or you may choose the mirror option on your printer's setting before printing. If your picture has letters or numbers and you do not reverse it at this point, your project will be ruined.

Step two: Flip your printed transparency sheet over so the ink faces down on your piece of wood. Hold it in place with one hand and rub a credit card over the design with the other hand. Keep rubbing and once in a while, lift one of corners up to see if the design has been transferred well. If the transfer looks good, you are done! if not...well you know what to do....just keep rubbing.

Step three: let the ink dry for a few minutes and rub a sealing wax all over the wood with a rag making sure to wipe any wax excess off.

I love my new desks. Now, I need to add some shelving above them to store all my crafts supplies.
Sorry the lighting wasn't great the day I took these pictures. I will update them once my office is completely finished.

Thank you for reading.

Thank you for reading this article about New Desk tops. Give your feedback when articles about New Desk tops very interesting for you. Please share to social media or leave a comment. May be useful. ( Lillian )

Guests Wash Cloths

Indiana, Indianapolis - Report by Brooklyn. Today, we will give information about Guests Wash Cloths.

Multitasker is my middle name!
The reason why I have not posted anything in the last week is because I have been working on several projects at once!

1. I am giving our master bathroom a small facelift. This project is taking me so long to finish because I have not been able to focus on it 100%.  I promise to write about it and share my DIY and photos within the next couple of weeks.

2. I am building a custom dinning room table. After searching for the ONE table that could fit our life style and budget for many months and not finding anything, I finally give up on the online shopping and got to work. This project is half way done and will hopefully be completed by the end of this week if weather permits.

3. I have been knitting away..... I learned to knit when I was a little girl and loved making sweaters and blankets for my dolls when I was in elementary school. It's funny how you never forget certain skills. I thought I would have to re learn to knit but it's kind of like riding a bike. The only thing I noticed is that I am much slower at it!  I have been practicing my old knitting skills by using several simple pattern of wash cloths for my guests.

I apologize in advance for the quality of my images. We have been having very cloudy and rainy weather lately and the use of the flash was necessary.

This pattern is called the chinese waves. it was very simple to follow but required some attention. As you can see above, I messed up a few rows when I was distracted. If you would like to better see or learn how to knit this pattern, you can find the how to-video here. If you prefer a PDF version, please click here.

Who doesn't know how to pearl? This is the first stitch I ever learned to knit. It is so simple and easy to follow. I do not have a pattern for this wash cloth but you can check youtube for How to-videos.

This pattern is called Grandmother's favorite. It has a little boarder all the way around and the stitching is diagonal which requires to increase the number of stitches and decrease them. This how to video can be found here. Note: this video is showing you how to create this pattern the continental way which is the way I learned to knit.

I am currently working on several washcloths which are knitted with the pearl stitch in a diagonal way but with no borders. I will update this page as soon as I am finished.

Hope you will give knitting a try!

Thank you for reading this article about Guests Wash Cloths. Give your feedback when articles about Guests Wash Cloths very interesting for you. Please share to social media or leave a comment. May be useful. ( Brooklyn )

Anti Aging Face Oil

Hawaii, Honolulu - Report by Taylor. Today, we will give information about Anti Aging Face Oil.

For years, I have struggled to find a face moisturizer that will work for my skin. I have tried many brands, some were good but expensive others left my skin too dry or too oily and even sometimes gave me break out. Being on a budget, I decided it was time to experiment with the essential oils I have been collecting over the years and I found an excellent recipe for an anti aging face oil which does not leave my face oily, dry or with breakouts. I have used this oil for several months and have received many compliments. I don't think I could ever go back to buying another tube or jar of face cream that contains so many chemicals.



Essential Oils

I have been using essential oils in my bath, as air fresheners, as face steamers for fighting colds  and cleansing my skin.. for over 15 years. Not only these oils are natural oils, they have so many great benefits for your well being and and ave countless uses. If you are interested in knowing more about aromatherapy, I can suggest two of my favorite books.

The first book was written by Valerie Ann Worwood - The Book of Essential Oils & Aromatherapy.

The second book was written by Franzesca Watson - Aromatherapy Blends & Remedies.

These books are full of information and recipes and I like them both. I have made many blends from either one of them but if you ask me which one I rely the most on, I would have to say the Valerie Ann Worwood book. I love the detailed information and all the essential oils charts.

Now about that anti aging hydrating face oil.....

Valerie Ann Worwood has several recipes divided by four age groups.

The wrinkle preventative for the over-twenty, over-thirty, over-forty and over-fifty.

I am going to share her recipe for the over-thirty as I am turning 40 this year and felt that I no longer belonged in the over-thirty six months ago.

Neroli - 10 drops

Lavender - 10 drops

Frankincense - 10 drops

Rosemary  - 2 drops

Fennel - 10 drops

Lemon - 3 drops

Carrot - 1 drops

Evening Primrose - 10 drops.

Diluted in 2 tablespoons of either hazelnut, almond or apricot oil.

Lightly massage the mix every night on the face, and if you wish, on the neck and chest as far as the collar bone.

I have used both almond and apricot oil for this recipe and I find the apricot oil to be less thick and oily. After massaging it, you may wipe off any excess oil on your skin.

Well, I hope you can give it a try and let me know how it turns out. I know that essential oils can be expensive but they last a very long time and if you research them online, you can find online stores who sell them at a pretty reasonable price. I know I have.

Thank you for reading this article about Anti Aging Face Oil. Give your feedback when articles about Anti Aging Face Oil very interesting for you. Please share to social media or leave a comment. May be useful. ( Taylor )

Favorite Scones

Nevada, Las Vegas - Report by Ella. Today, we will give information about Favorite Scones.

I find myself buying scones every time I go to Panera. As much as I love the cinnamon kind, I never got around to making them. It seems that chocolate chips and blueberry scones are the most common flavors to bake maybe because cinnamon chips are so hard to find or only available during the Holidays.

Well.......Search no longer! I came across this great recipe for cinnamon chips so I thought I should start baking right away.

I have been baking dozens of scones ever since. I have shared them around and around. No one seems disappointed and my father-in-law wants "encore, encore and encore". Which certainly is  a compliment since he is a great baker himself.

Enough talking...let's get cooking...

Cinnamon Chips

Ingredients:
Makes approximately 2 cups.

2/3 Cup Granulated Sugar
3 Tablespoons Ground Cinnamon
2 Tablespoons Vegetable Shortening
2 Tablespoons Light Corn Syrup
1/4 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees

Mix ingredients together with a fork. It will take a while and the dough should look like the one  pictured above when it is ready. Not too gooey or too dry

With your fingers spread the dough flat onto a piece of parchment paper that has been sprayed lightly.

Bake for 35 minutes and let cool completely

Slice the dough into strips and then cut across to make small squares

When the entire dough is sliced into cubes, I place them in a paper bag for about 24 hours to give them time to dry a bit and then I transfer them to a Ziploc bag until needed

At this point, the consistency of these chips is so soft that they will blend a little too well with the scones dough if used right away. Trust me on this one. I could not wait to bake and ended up with chip less but very flavorful scones! So if you are a chippy kind of person, wait a day or two to use the cinnamon chips.

Scones

Ingredients:

2 cups All Purpose flour
1/3 Cup sugar
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/4 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon Salt
8 Tablespoons (1 Stick) Unsalted Butter, Frozen
1/2 Cup Sour Cream
1 Large Egg
1/2 Cup Cinnamon chips

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Add flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt to food processor. Mix well.
Cut the butter into small squares, add to the flour mixture and pulse until blended. The flour mixture should look dense but not clumpy at this point.
Blend sour cream and egg together in a small bowl and add to the flour mixture. Pulse until a ball of dough starts to form. Add Cinnamon Chips or Chocolate chips. Pulse a few more times until blended and a ball has formed.
Remove dough and place onto a lightly floured surface to form a disk about 3/4 inch think. Sprinkle with a little bit of sugar and slice the dough into 8 triangles. Place wedges on a silpad non stick mat or parchment paper and bake for 15 to 17 minutes. The top should be slightly brown. You do not want to overcook them.

I love my "France" Glass. Thanks to my friend Mary Evans for thinking of me. She also gave me a "Paris" one to go with that one.

Love me some cinnamon scones

I didn't really eat two, although I think I could have

I also made a batch of Chocolate Chip Scones

Can you see the choc chips?

Yummy

Thank you for reading this article about Favorite Scones. Give your feedback when articles about Favorite Scones very interesting for you. Please share to social media or leave a comment. May be useful. ( Ella )