Great Event in the Kawarthas!

If you like handicrafts, vintage items and vegan and gluten free baking, and you're in the Peterborough/Kawarthas area, you need to see this! My crafty friends over at Rabbit & Bumble are hosting an open air market on Saturday August 18th. Check out their fabulous poster and visit their blog and facebook page for more info! I wish I could go, but alas, I'm working that day.

Dresser Update

Well, I've made some more progress on my dresser makeover project. Yesterday I stained the drawer fronts a lovely dark walnut. I was a little concerned that it wouldn't absorb evenly. When I sanded the drawers, I found that the old finish had absorbed deeper in certain spots, so even with a very thorough sanding, some areas were darker and some areas were lighter. However, once the stain went on, it looks pretty even. I love the shade it turned out, much more modern and more neutral. This weekend I will be varnishing them to protect the finish, then the next step is to pick the perfect shade of white paint to compliment the walnut stain. Here's how the drawers look now:

Mid Century Modern Dresser Makeover

So, I'm a little obsessed with mid century modern design. Ok, a LOT obsessed. I just love the lines, the simplicity of form mixed with the fun details. Its clean, but not minimalist, not austere. I feel like it has a sense of humour. Its fun without being childish. And a good teak or walnut finish gets me really excited! I've been searching for a while for a great mid century dresser to complete my bedroom. You know me, I'm a bargain hunter, so I've been keeping my eyes on the local classifieds and in thrift stores for the perfect piece. I ended up finding a cool tallboy dresser listed on Kijiji for $40! It's big and solid and fairly well made. It has dovetail joinery in the drawers, and its original sliders all still work perfectly. The finish however needs some work. There are some scratches and marks, and overall I'm not a fan of the colour, but you have to look past these little details. Nothing a good sanding and a coat of stain or paint won't fix! So, for $40 and a little elbow grease, I'm going to have a great dresser that I can be proud to say that I refinished all by myself!

Here's how it looked originally:

As you can see, it has nice clean lines, cute little peg legs and interesting integrated drawer handles. What I plan to do is to stain the drawer fronts with a dark walnut stain, and paint the sides and top a creamy white. I'm doing this for 2 reasons. First of all, I like the two-tone look. I think it will draw attention to the neat drawer details. Secondly, painting the rest instead of staining will minimize the work involved. You don't need to sand as much if you're going to paint. Just a light scuff, and then prime and paint. It will be easier, faster and more forgiving (seeing as I'm not an expert finisher by any means). Here's a photo of my inspiration:

Source

Conveniently, the blog where I found this inspiration piece also has a detailed tutorial on creating this look. So, on my day off, I loaded the drawers into my car and took them out to my dad's shop so I could borrow his tools. I spent a few hours sanding, and I have now completed step 1 of the project. The drawer fronts are sanded down, and ready to stain on my next day off. Feels good to get started on a big project! Here's how they look now:

Stay tuned, I will post updates as I complete more steps in the transformation of my new old dresser!

Eco Swimwear

Here we are in the middle of another heatwave! All I can think about, as I sit here in my un-air-conditioned house is pool, pool, POOL! Us lady-folk know how hard it is to find the right swimsuit. When you throw in a desire to be planet-friendly, it gets even harder! But I have good news. I've been searching every corner of the internet for swimwear that's both eco-friendly and cute. I've found some great options, but I have to tell you, they don't come cheap. Today, I stumbled upon a swimwear line that meets all my criteria! Let me introduce you to La Isla.

Source

Their bikinis and swimsuits come in a variety of great cuts, bright colours and cool patterns. But what I love about this company is their commitment to the environment and ethical business practices. They use organic cottons and Oeko-Tex certified fabrics. They use FSC approved printing facilities, and solar-powered internet hosting. They also give back to a number of worthy causes, including Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Futures Society. I highly recommend checking out their website if you're in the market for a new bathing suit!

DIY: Body Butter

If you're anything like me, you probably worry about all the nasty chemicals hiding in beauty products. You want products that work, but you don't want to slather your skin in artificial fragrances, dyes, hormone disrupting preservatives, and known carcinogens. Why would anyone want to pay big corporations to poison them? Sure, there are natural products available. Lots of them actually. Some are healthier than others, and they have varying degrees of effectiveness. The problem is, you often pay a premium for these toxin-free products. I don't know about you, but I'm frugal. I want green, healthy products that perform well and don't cost an arm and a leg. So, I decided to experiment with making my own natural beauty products. After doing some online research, I found a recipe for body butter bars that I decided to try out. I modified the recipe a little, and my results were FABULOUS! You can find the original recipe here. Here's how I made mine:

Equal parts:

Beeswax

Coconut Oil

Cocoa Butter

A few capsules of Vitamin E oil, pricked with a pin and squeezed in with the oil/wax mixture.

At the time, I was running low on coconut oil, so I did half and half coconut oil and olive oil.

I'm not including measurements because it depends on how big of a batch you want to make. I used a silicone flower shaped ice cube tray that makes 16 "cubes." To get my total amount of oil/wax needed, I weighed the tray on my digital kitchen scale, filled one cavity with water and weighed it again. That gave me the measurement of one "cube." I multiplied it by 16 to get my total weight of ingredients. Then I divided that number by 3 to get the weight of each ingredient. I weighed out the wax, oil and butter individually and put them all in a large pyrex measuring cup. I microwaved them until everything was melted together. You could also use a double boiler, crock pot or just a pot of boiling water with another container inside. Then I poured the mixture into my ice cube tray. I did this over a large bowl of cold water. That way, any oil/wax that spilled just hardened in the water, minimizing the mess and cleanup. I put the ice cube tray in the freezer to set the body butter.

I couldn't wait to test them out! They are fantastic! They are fairly solid, so you rub the body butter bar between your hands to warm and melt it a little. Its super rich and moisturizing, great for feet, elbows, knees, and everything in between. A little goes a long way. And it smells heavenly! Like chocolate with a touch of honey. It honestly makes your skin GLOW! This experiment was well worth it. I will definitely make these again. That's one product I can now cross off my shopping list.