Vicks Shower Disks - Project Pinspiration #1

I was so excited to find this pin, especially because it never fails that I am sick most of the winter. I'm not sure if it's colds, allergies or the flu, but I almost always have at least the sniffles from October to May. I used to buy these things at the store but for whatever reason they aren't available anymore. I don't know - because I haven't taken the time to look it up - if they were discontinued or if they're still out there but in limited areas. I just know that I can't go into my local Walmart and pick them up any more and it's really been years since I was able to.

So I followed the recipe - well I halved the recipe and did a few other edits as I saw fit for my needs - on the site linked in the pin above. I used:

1/2 c. baking soda
About 1/4 c. water
15 drops Eucalyptus essential oil

From the pictures on the blog post I followed, I think the original recipe makes 6 regular muffin sized disks. I decided I wanted to make mini ones so I halved the recipe. My version made 6 mini muffin sized disks. I also made this recipe twice, the first time I baked them at 350* for 20 minutes as it said I could and added the oil to the disks after baking. The second time I left them sit to air dry and the oil was put into the mixture before filling the muffin cups.

Baked

Air dried

I prefer the air dried ones in texture. They are so much less crumbly and brittle. I'm not sure if I did something wrong with the baked ones or what, but they weren't what I was expecting at all. The only thing I might try different next time is making a bit more of the mixture and filling the cups more. However, I one this size lasted me an entire regular shower so the size is really fine.

However, after letting the air dried ones dry for the recommended time, I couldn't really smell the eucalyptus when I used it in the shower. Outside the shower I could smell it though. I would recommend adding a couple of extra drops to the disk itself before placing it in the shower.

So would I recommend that others try this too? Yeah actually I would, but it seems you may have to play around with the recipe a bit to figure out what works for you. Humidity, among other things, could factor in to how these turn out.

Have you tried these? How did they turn out for you?

Bath & Body Works Forever Red Eau de Parfume Review - Influenster Cosmo VoxBox 2012

Lately I've been a bit overwhelmed with perfumes. I've gotten a perfume sample in just about every Birchbox I've received for the last 5 months or so and yeah. I just feel like I have a lot of scented things around now and it's a bit much to try to use, sample and really test out each one to decide if I like it or not.

But, I've been slowly working my way through things and I've just come to this gem that I got in the Cosmo VoxBox 2012 from Influenster.

If you read my unboxing post (or saw the video), you'll know that I wasn't initially a big fan of this particular scent. Though it's not necessarily a bad thing, my first thought when I smelled this was my mom. I thought it was very much a scent that she would wear and not necessarily a scent I would wear. I also noted that sometimes it takes a little while for these warmer, less summery scents to grow on me.

That's exactly what happened.

I went back and smelled it again, tried it out and fell in love. Maybe it's because pre-holiday season I was thinking more of vanilla-type scents. I have no idea, but at any rate, I'm really falling in love with this perfume. It's a blend of pomegranate, red osmanthus and vanilla rum, according to the info card that came with it. I still have no idea exactly what pomegranate smells like and I still don't even know what red osmanthus is. I do, however, know that this is a very warm and inviting scent. It's perfect for the cooler months.

When I smell it now I think it smells cozy. Maybe that's where it reminds me of my mom? It does still smell like something she would wear, but it also now smells to me like something I would wear.

Have you tried Bath & Body Works Forever Red yet? Had it made it into your winter scent rotation?


Disclaimer: I received this product complimentary for testing purposes from Influenster.

30 Days of Pinspiration - Now Project Pinspiration

This past weekend I started working on the 30 Days of Pinspiration challenge I set for myself and realized a few things.

First, I love Pinterest. I already knew that it was an amazing site to get ideas from, but I guess I hadn't really realized just how amazing some of the pins actually were. I'll admit to spending an hour or so sometimes just pinning away for "someday" and never really getting past that initial pin. I'm so glad I've actually started going through and DOING some of the things I've found.

Second, there's no way I can limit myself to 30 projects. As I said above, there are way too many great ideas out there just waiting to be done. Also, the way I had titled the whole thing before kind of implied it would be a month long process and it was never meant to be that way. I'd like to spread the projects out as much as possible and if that takes the whole year, then it takes the whole year. I don't have a specific number of projects I'd like to do, nor do I have a specific length of time I'd like to do it in (though I'm leaning toward seeing how many I can do in a year).

I still need your help to get this done! I'll be using the same pin board that's already been started- but I'll be changing the name of the board to reflect the change in direction - to choose projects from. This means that I need a TON of projects to choose from - recipes, crafts, garden ideas, hair styles, beauty tips, EVERYTHING.

There are several ways you can do this:

1. Send me an email with your email address and tell me you'd like to join the board and pin away
2. Comment below with your email address and tell me you'd like to help out
3. Comment below with a link/links to pins you think I should add to the board and I will pin them to the board myself

 As always, I appreciate everything that everyone has done to help me with this. I've found some great ideas I might not have found on my own. I can't wait to see all the wonderful things I can fill my house with as this project progresses.

I'll be doing periodic reminders and updates aside from the posts about the actual projects I do so if you aren't ready to get on board just yet, no worries! There's always room for you when you're ready.

Walmart Christmas 2012 Gift Card Shop and Tell

I got a gift card from Walmart for Christmas and ended up needing to kill some time there while waiting on a prescription so of course I found a ton of stuff to spend it on. I also got 3 shirts, not pictured.

Since it was after Christmas when I was shopping, all the Christmas goodies were 50% off, making all of the regularly priced $0.97 Studio G craft supplies just $0.49. I then wandered away from the Christmas stuff and found some leftover Halloween Studio G things that were just $0.10 each!

Christmas themed paper

There are 6 sheets in each pack and I got 2 packs of this particular theme. There are also border strips included.

More elegant Christmas themed paper

I only got one of these paper packs, also 6 in a pack, though I wish I had gotten more. After looking at all the patterns in there, I realized some could easily be used for other things.

Stickers

I really thought I was getting two packs of the 3-tiered ones on the right but obviously that wasn't the case. I wanted more of the ones on the right because there are more of them, but the ones on the left are bigger.

Stamps:

Ribbon

I got two rolls of ribbon: red and brown. Because they're just polka dots, I can totally use them for other things as well.


Ink pads:

These are actually much, much better than the ink pads I bought after Christmas a few years ago. They're still very moist and work great!

Had I purchased these all at regular price they would have totaled $27.16 before tax ($28.93 with tax here). Because I got them all on sale, I paid just $9.43 before tax ($10.04 with tax)! That's a savings of $17.73 (or about 63%)!

New Year's Resolutions 2013

Happy New Year!

Yep, it's that time again: Time to make resolutions for the New Year. I'm sure you've already read how I did with last year's resolutions so I won't waste time on that. I'll just jump right into what I'm resolving to do new/different this year.

There's a lot I want to do and do better/different in 2013 so it was a little hard to narrow it down to a few things. Hopefully I'm able to stick to these!

1. Be more present - I, like many, spend so much time caught up in what happened and what will happen that I forget to think about what is happening
2. Take more pictures - It kind of goes with the first resolution, but while it's nice to have memories of things, sometimes a physical memento is nice too. Plus it would be helpful for continuing my scrapbooks.

Hopefully my resolutions will benefit my friends, family and even you readers as well. By being present and taking more pictures, I'll have more interesting things to share with all of you!

What are you resolving to do new/differently in 2013?