adventures in grown-up living
You may remember that last year I surreptitiously liberated several service or Saskatoon berries from city property. This year it rained on Canada Day, our national holiday, and between thunderstorms I went out and hauled in about 4 litres of them. Everyone who passed through the kitchen during our Canada Day get-together asked where I’d … Continue reading “Jam Session: Saskatoon Berries”
I like to learn one big major skill in DIY every holiday season and turn it into my showcase gift for friends and family. This year, the Pie and I learned how to make soap, from scratch. There are four main methods of soap preparation: Melt and pour: basically you get a kit containing a … Continue reading “Saponification!”
I found this tutorial for making lip balm with freeze-dried raspberries from Hello Natural and thought I’d give it a shot, with a few Ali Does It modifications, of course. I love making home-made lip balm. I find it feels much better and more luxurious on my face than the commercial brands, and I love … Continue reading “Raspberry Red Grapefruit Lip Balm”
These easy peasy lemon squeezy fire starters are a perfect stocking stuffer for anyone who loves to curl up in front of a nice wood fire on a cold evening. They’re great for avid campers or armchair bookworms alike, and don’t contain any of the scary chemicals you find in a lot of commercial fire … Continue reading “Aromatic Fire Starters”
There’s a joke going around that you can tell it’s fall on college campuses because all the undergraduate girls are dressed in yoga pants, wearing Ugg boots, and hefting pumpkin spice lattes. When I was in undergrad, yoga pants hadn’t yet become the lazy fashion statement they are today, Ugg was something you said when … Continue reading “Pumpkin Spice Latte Mix”
You may recall that in the spring I acquired several envelopes of vintage postage stamps once belonging to my great grandfather and I was casting about, trying to figure out what to do with them. In the interim, my dad found some more of them in a filing cabinet, and now I have lots. It … Continue reading “Going Postal”
I still had a huge amount of old beeswax sitting around, leftover from way back when we made teacup candles. Just blue, though. Three shades of blue. I also had a 24″ x 24″ piece of hardboard that I bought back when I had a different sort of idea for the tree branch coat racks. … Continue reading “Team Project: Beeswax Art”
I saw this recipe on Freshly Pressed this past summer and was inspired by Krista and Jess to make this recipe from the New York Times (thanks ladies!). My brother Ando has always been a fan of carbonated beverages. Specifically the cola variety. The more caffeine the better (he used to be a bit of a … Continue reading “The Un-Cola”
I made a wedding cake this weekend. And it is AWESOME. Unfortunately, I’m too tired to post about it right now so you’ll have to wait until Wednesday. And actually, at this very second I am preparing to hurtle at 650km/h across the North Atlantic to return home to the Pie and Gren. So some … Continue reading “A Vintage Arrangement”
This is a cute waste-not idea from Martha Stewart, but it’s been done by many others as well. Teacups are ideal for this particular trick as they are already designed to withstand high temperatures, but you can use canning jars and other heat-safe containers as well.For my DIY Christmas I spent a lot of time … Continue reading “Teacup Candles”
