101 Things Update - September 18

I'm afraid today's 101 Things Update is a little boring.  I completed several things, but I either took no pictures of them, or they weren't really the type of things one photographs.  But, I've still got to keep you updated, so here goes:

1. Homemade Disinfectant:



There wouldn't be any point in me sharing a picture of a bottle with clear liquid in it.  I'm pretty sure you can imagine that yourself.  And you can read what I thought of it in the Pin's description or right here: there's no way for me to test the disinfecting properties, but it did clean well.

23. Homemade Bagels:



These are the ones I actually made:



This was a great recipe and they are good versatile bagels.  They were amazing plain, with honey, with jam, with peanut butter, with peanut butter and jam, or with pizza toppings.  I have plans to try other recipes in the future now that I know how easy it is.

75. Make your own pore strips.



I've tried this one before (and I thought I reviewed it here, but now I can't find that old post), but I wanted to try it again.  I usually get pore strips when they go on mega-crazy sale, but this recipe could still be cheaper than that.  I say 'could' because she says to use a full tablespoon of both the milk and the gelatin.  A full tablespoon of gelatin is a whole packet - at least of the packets I get - and this mixture also makes way more than I need.  I spread this on my entire face, neck, and upper chest and back, and had barely made a dent in it.  Next time I'll try only using a teaspoon.

Anyway, there are pros and cons to this method.  The cons are that it is far messier than a store-bought pore strip and doesn't peel up quite as easily (it's hard to get a grip on the edge).  The pros are that it is cheaper and you can spread it over your whole face, instead of just your nose or one little area.

87. Crocheted Sock Monkey



I'm not sharing a picture of my finished one until after Christmas because it's for a friend, but let's just say that it's SUPER cute - and I'm now going to be making at least 5 more for other friends/relatives.  It was a full day's worth of work for my crocheting skill level.

So there you have it.  I also have the oatmeal-lavender face scrub (#11) mixed up and plan to use it this morning, but won't have results in time to add to this post.  I also made several steps forward on other projects this week, so hopefully I'll have some better updates soon!

Love and Gelatin,
Leah Joy

Book Review: Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede

It occurred to me recently that I have read so many books this year, I could start including a book review portion for you.  I do get asked a lot for book recommendations, so I'm going to start sharing some here.  Today, I'm going to tell you about a fantastic series I discovered by accident.

I was at one of our local library's Spectacular Book Sales and it was the last two days, where everything you can fit in a paper grocery bag is yours for $2.  Talk about an awesome sale!  At that price, even if something just looks slightly interesting, it's worth it!  And if you don't like it - just donate it back to the library for their next sale.  But I digress.  I found Dealing with Dragons on the Sci-Fi/Fantasy Table, and since I love dragon books, put it in my bag.



You can see my basic review in there, but it really is fantastic.  Princess Cimorene wants to learn magic, cooking, Latin, fencing, and the like, but her parents consider them improper subjects for a princess to study.  When Cimorene learns that her parents plan to marry her off to a boring prince, she runs away to become a dragon's princess.  There, she has to battle a plot against the King of the Dragons.

This one was so good, I immediately got the other three out of the library.







Cimorene's adventures continue in the second two, but the fourth is more about her son.  I highly recommend them all.  They're intended for grades 4-8, but of course anyone over that age will enjoy them, too.  They are very clever and enthralling.

Love and Literature.
Leah Joy

P.S. I'll be picking random books I've read this summer for book reviews every Tuesday, but if you have a particular request, please let me know!

The Monday Rant: Things I'll Never Name My Children

We all know about the taboo on ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend names.  And anything that sounds similar. And we can't name our children the same thing as that annoying/mean/stupid person from our K-12 days.  Or anything that sounds similar.  And then, of course, we have to avoid anything that will give our kid weird initials or nicknames.  And anything that's too popular or the same as a celebrity.

But working as a camp registrar, I see a lot of names every day.  In fact, over the course of the summer, I've dealt with nearly 930 names of individual campers, not to mention their parents and siblings.  And this large list of names sometimes leaves me wondering why people choose the names they do.

Brailee and Raimee?  (They're sisters.)
Kaizer?
Guinavier?  (A beautiful name, but not even spelled the 'typical' way.)
Brycen and Bryten are both boys, believe it or not.
So is Kaidence.
We have a Melissa on staff… oh sorry, it's spelled Mellyssa.
Gamiere, Demitrick, and Dalton.  Are we having an ugliest name competition?

I've actually recently heard it put that naming your children is now an extreme sport.

I'm sure I just offended some people, and sure, it's not the end of the world if your kid never gets a magnet with their name on it.  Unique names are great.  My 1-year-old nieces were named Juliana and Selah.  These aren't your Jennifer, Jessica, and Ashley names; they are unique.  But they're not weird! They're beautiful without being obnoxious and original without being ugly.

Your child has to go the rest of their life with that name.  They could be a painter or a rock star.  They might be president or CEO of a company.  They might flip burgers.  Whatever happens, they're stuck with that name on their dressing room door, their desk plate, or their name tag.

Don't give your kids stupid names.

Love and Letters,
Leah Joy

I Can't Say I Don't Win Anything Anymore!

I used to never win things.  I'd enter contests and drawings, but never ever get called.  And then last year, I won a free massage and then this year, I won this prize package:

How cool is that?  It was so exciting.  And there's no way I can use that all, so I was able to share and bless some friends.

Happy Friday!

Love and Prizes,

Leah Joy

Celebrating Louisa May Alcott - or at least the 1800s

Why don't people go calling anymore?  No, you don't need to tell me.  I actually get it.  We're so busy.  We go to work.  We have cars, so we don't all live within 3 miles of each other.  There's not one time of day when we're all free.

But you know, I want to bring the 1800s back.  Which is why I'll soon be announcing a Calling Day.  Unfortunately, I won't be announcing it on here, because anyone can see this and I don't want just anyone showing up at my house - but I will be putting it on my Facebook page for my friends to see.  During the day, any of my friends who happen to be in the area (or want to be in the area) will be welcome to stop in for fresh-baked goodies and conversation.

I'll let you all know how it goes.  If it goes well, I'd like to try it again... and again!  :)

Love and Cookies,
Leah Joy

101 Things Update - Around the House

Here are a couple house projects from my 101 Things in 2013 list.

9. Towel hooks in the bathroom.

Home Depot was running a sale on items like this, so we were able to get a really nice one (with a gift card we got for our wedding).  Caleb hung it while I was in Virginia visiting some cousins (so please ignore the part where it's slightly off-center).

It's so pretty.  (Here's the link to it, in case you're interested in getting one for yourself.)  We wanted something with plenty of room for future children's towels, and this certainly has it.  

If you read the reviews, you'll notice that everyone loves it, but a few people mention something about the box it gets shipped in messing up some of the edges.  This is true.  It is not in stock in the stores - only their warehouse - so they have to ship it to the store.  For some reason, instead of just getting a bigger box, they put it crosswise in a small one, meaning that some of the edges will probably be a bit 'bruised'.  It's not a huge deal - you can hardly notice.  We might end up painting that bit so you can't tell at all, but there's fair warning if that sort of thing bothers you.  

But it holds a lot!  This is with our shower towels, our beach towels, and our swimsuits after a recent pool day.

15. Try stripping fireplace.

Can I tell you how glad I am that I made that say 'try' instead of 'do'?  This is a ridiculous project.  We borrowed a heat gun from a friend.  This took a long time and tons of effort, but at least it got the paint up.  But it also made a pretty gross smell (and my husband is allergic to gross smells - not kidding, actually).

Then we bought a low-odor paint stripper (no such thing, by the way).  After putting on several coats, the paint would only smear around, like this:

And it stunk worse than the heat gun mess.  Boo.

That's a very frustrating project.  We've kind of set it aside for now, leaving it like this:

(It's modern, right?)

But we also have a mess:

So that's that.  Any ideas on how to get that off without (1) completely redoing our budget for the next 5 years and (2) making a huge stink?

Love and Wire Brushes,

Leah Joy

Final Earring Update - September 10

Friends, for those of you who are thoroughly sick of earrings, you will be very glad to know that my earring challenge is over at last. Actually it was over a long time ago, I just haven't updated you on it yet.  

To begin, I must tell you that there are two pairs I never wore which I will be keeping.  One of them is the double of my Rock Star earrings (see post here).  The other pair is made of small Christmas light bulbs - and they are very Christmassy, so I only wear them in December.  Trust me on this.

Also, there is one new pair of earrings I purchased after the challenge was technically over.  Aren't they fabulous?  I got them at a garage sale for $1.

This is what my earring storage looks like now:

I love having the CD rack as my dangly earrings holder!  It's perfect!  I can see exactly what I have and it's not too hard to get them off or hang them back up.

Below it, I have my baskets/containers for post earrings and extra backs.  I don't really like this system for my smaller posts because it makes it harder to find a match, but this is what I have for now.

Next organizational project will be my bracelets....

Oh yeah, and see my cute inspirational sticky notes?  Those were from my sister and the girl I used to nanny.  I saved a couple of them, like this gem from my sister:

It's actually extremely accurate.  At least the hungry part. :)

So, final count for earrings?  96.  And did I get rid of any?  Yes.  19 pairs, actually.  Here they are:

The very far left pair is something I tried to make with Shrinky Dinks.  It was supposed to be a small frond of leaves on one earring and a big leaf on the other, but the green gets really dark when it shrinks, so they look really stupid.  Then of course lots of pop tab earrings and a couple random studs that have corroded or something.  The set of 9 colorful studs was from when I got my cartilage pierced.  I was going to wear one of these cute ones every day to match my outfit, but then my cartilage was infected pretty much all the time for 2 years straight, so I couldn't wear cheap earrings anyway (believe me, they're not 'sensitive solutions' like they say!).  I eventually let it heal over and have never really worn these since.  They're also really crappy quality, as you can tell on the black one, where the side is grey because the paint wore off.

And that's all, folks.

Love and USB ports,

Leah Joy