Giveaway Winner!

The winner of last week's giveaway is: comment number 50 - Cherilyn!  Congrats, Cherilyn! Your new wristlet clutch will be sent out to you today!

Thanks to everyone who commented!

Wristlet Clutch Giveaway!

*Giveaway Closed*

It's Giveaway Day over at the Sew Mama Sew blog, so I thought I would join the fun!

I'm giving away this cute little wristlet clutch that I made from a vintage bedspread.  It measures about 9 inches across and 5 inches tall.  It's lined with a coordinating periwinkle blue with tiny polka dots, and has a little pocket inside.

It closes with a magnetic snap, and is trimmed with a yoyo flower with a vintage button center.

I thought I would combine this giveaway with a  little bit of market research, so:

To enter to win this little bag, just leave a comment on this post answering this question:  

When purchasing a shoulder bag would you prefer:

A. A long strap to wear the bag messenger style across your body;

B. A regular shoulder strap to wear the bag on one shoulder; or

C. An adjustable strap to wear the bag either way.

Bonus entry: If you are a follower of this blog or my facebook page, leave another comment for an extra entry!

Please make sure I have a way to contact you by leaving your e-mail in your comment.  Only U.S. entries, please (international shipping is so pricey!)

Winner will be chosen on May 10, 2013, by a random drawing using Random.org.

After you enter my giveaway here, you can go to Sew Mama Sew and enter many other fabulous giveaways there!

Clean, Healthy, Beautiful: Homemade Face Wipes and Honey Lemon Sugar Scrub

One of the first "beauty" products I made for myself was homemade face wipes.  I use these every night to take off my makeup. They are convenient, easy and inexpensive, and I know what ingredients I am putting on my face, because I put them together myself! There are great instructions with lots of pictures over at WhiteHouseBlackShutters.com.

Here's how I make my homemade face wipes:

You need:
Select-a-size paper towels (Bounty, Brawny, and Viva are the best)
1 Tbsp. Coconut Oil
1 squirt of face wash or mild soap or shampoo
3 drops Lavender essential oil
2 cups water
Container that will fit half a roll of paper towels, with a lid that seals (mine is a Rubbermaid)

Cut the roll of paper towels in half with a large knife. This is easier said than done, but you can do it! Just keep sawing away at it until you cut it all the way through.  Place one of the halves in the container, cut side down. You'll just be using one of the halves now, so save the other one for next time.
Heat the 2 cups of water in the microwave or on the stove until steaming.  Add the coconut oil to the hot water and stir until melted. Add the face wash and essential oil and stir.
Pour the liquid into the container with the paper towels in it.  Put the lid on (you may have to press down and scrunch the paper towels down).  Turn it upside down.
After 5 minutes, take the lid off and remove the inner cardboard roll.  Your wipes are ready to use!

The coconut oil is so good for the skin!  These wipes make my face feel very fresh and soft. They're great for traveling, too. Just take out as many as you will need for your trip and put them in a ziplock bag.
These can also be adapted for baby wipes by using baby wash or shampoo instead of the face wash.  Or you can make cleaning wipes by just using a mixture of water and your favorite cleaner and/or essential oils.

Another homemade face product I recently made is my Honey Lemon Sugar Scrub.  I usually use a face scrub in the shower every morning, and I ran out of my super expensive kind, so I thought I would try making something to replace it.  Here's what I did:

You need:
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp. honey
3 drops lemon essential oil
olive oil

I mixed together the sugar, honey, and lemon essential oil and added enough olive oil to get the consistency I wanted.  I put it all into a repurposed shampoo container because I didn't want to mess with scooping it out of a jar while in the shower.  So, I just shake it up a little, take off the lid, squeeze some out into my hand, then apply to my face.

A little warning here:  The first time I used this I thought I was going to end up with an icky, sticky mess.  It felt like it wasn't rinsing off. My skin is naturally oily, so I thought it might feel like a sticky oil slick all day.  It did not.  I dried off my face and it felt sooooo very soft! Not sticky and not oily at all!  Oh, and a really cool thing to note: If you leave it on your face for a few minutes, it is much easier to rinse off because the sugar grains dissolve.

This scrub is also great to use on rough elbows and feet. I love this stuff! Apparently my daughter Rebecca does, too, because it's quickly disappearing and I'm going to have to make another batch soon.

Treasures from Grandma

A couple of weeks ago I was in Port Angeles, Washington, at my grandparents' house for a few days.  I was helping sort and pack things up so the house can be put up for sale.  Grandma and Grandpa are getting older now (Grandpa is 90!) and they have moved in with my aunt and uncle who graciously offered a part of their home, and Aunt Marilynn helps Grandpa with the care he needs for his diabetes and anything else they need.

While I was there, Grandma told me that I could go through all of her fabric and take whatever I thought I could use.  In fact, she said, "Please! I want someone who I know can use it to take it, because I won't be using it anymore."  Grandma has been a quilter for years and years.  She has also sewn her own clothes, clothes for her 7 children, and gifts for her grandchildren and many, many other people over the years.  So you can imagine the huge supply of fabric and scraps that she had built up!  There were huge bins and boxes to go through!  My Mom and I and my Aunt Joanna had a great time going through it all, and I set aside my favorite pieces as we went through it.

Now, keep in mind, I live in Delaware, and this was taking place in Washington State.  I had to be selective about the things I set aside because I had to ship it all home to myself!  I limited myself to two boxes.  It was so much fun opening the boxes when I received them a few days after I got home from my trip!  

My boxes were full of fabric pieces of all sizes...some larger ones that are a yard or two, some medium sized pieces, a lot of smaller ones that are maybe the size of a "fat quarter", and some really small ones that I just couldn't pass up because they were so cute.

Here's one with cute little mushrooms all over it:

And one with little children gardening:

And here are some pre-cut quilt pieces that I didn't even know were in the box!

These little scraps are so cute, but so tiny! I'm not sure what I'll do with them:

Maybe I can get some ideas from this little booklet:

I've begun a new collection in my Etsy shop called "Violet's Treasures".  My Grandma's name is Violet (I just love her name!). Every item that I make that incorporates any of the fabrics that I got from Grandma will be a part of this collection.  Here's the fun part: everyone who is related to Grandma gets a 25% discount!  So, if you're related, just contact me before you order, and I'll give you a coupon code.  To find the items in my shop that are part of the collection, just type the words "Violets Treasures" into the "search this shop" box.

This little wristlet clutch is the first in the Violet's Treasures collection.

You can find it here in my etsy shop.

These scraps of fabric are truly treasures to me because they're from my Grandma. I'm so excited to see what I can create with them!

Clean, Healthy, Beautiful: Homemade Laundry Soap

Until a few months ago, I didn't know that I could make my own natural cleaning and beauty products.  The thought just never even occurred to me.  For several years now I have been slowly trying to phase out the harsh chemicals in our home.  For a while I was a loyal customer of a company that makes wonderful and very pricey natural products using tea tree oil, but they require you to buy a certain amount every month, and when we made some serious budget cuts last year (daughter in college...enough said) the super expensive tea tree stuff was the first to go.  So, out of necessity, I looked for some alternatives. I discovered that Pinterest has tons and tons of recipes for DIY cleaning, health and beauty products!  Who knew? (Not me!)  I now have a Pinterest board called "Clean, Healthy, Beautiful"  where I've pinned lots of recipes and ideas that I want to try.  I've already tried a few, so I thought I would share them here on my blog, just in case any of you are like me and didn't even know this could be done. (And also because my mom asked me for some of the recipes. Here ya go, Mom!)

One of the first things I tried was laundry soap.  I looked at lots of different recipes and came up with what I thought would work for me.  Here's what I tried:

You need:
1 bar of Zote laundry soap (I found this at Big Lots where I live, and I've seen it in Walmart in other places)
2 cups of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
2 cups Borax
1 cup Oxyclean or generic oxygen cleaner

Grate the entire bar of laundry soap with a cheese grater. I think you could also cut it into smaller pieces and grate it in a food processor, but I don't have one.  I grated it, and then ground it up smaller in the blender.  It worked much easier when I added some of the powdered ingredients to the blender, too.  Then I just mixed everything together.  I had a big gallon jar and it only filled the jar halfway, so I went and bought another bar of Zote (I think it was 97 cents) and made another batch.  It filled the jar perfectly.

This laundry soap is SO inexpensive, and it works great! You only need to use one tablespoon for each load! Yes, you read that right, just one tablespoon.  I made my double batch back in December, and it's maybe about halfway gone now in April, doing laundry for three and sometimes four people.  Also, I've read that this type of laundry soap is perfect for HE washers, because it makes hardly any suds.

Now for the fabric softener.  I decided to stop using those dryer sheets coated with nasty chemicals.  For fabric softener I use a quart of white vinegar with about 10 drops of lavender essential oil and a teaspoon of rubbing alcohol.  I add about one-half cup to each load in the little receptacle for fabric softener in my washer.  The rubbing alcohol helps the vinegar and essential oil blend together.  The essential oil and alcohol aren't really necessary, but I love the fragrance of lavender.  You can just use straight vinegar if you want, and once your clothes are dry they won't smell like vinegar at all...just fresh and clean.  This works great as a fabric softener and also gets rid of any leftover soap in the rinse cycle.  The only thing it doesn't seem to do is control static. I'm still trying to figure out what to do for that.  I've tried dryer balls, but they're not working for me either.  It's a good thing the weather is getting nicer, and I can start hanging my laundry out on the clothesline again!

Coming up next...Homemade Face Wipes

Passover Prizes

During the Passover Seder, it is a tradition to break a matzah in two and hide part of it for the children to find.  This matzah called the "Afikomen".  It is wrapped in a linen cloth and hidden by the leader of the seder, usually the father.  For believers in Yeshua the Messiah, the Afikomen is a symbol of Yeshua, His death and His resurrection.  At the appropriate time in the seder, the children look for it, and the one who finds it is rewarded with a "ransom" paid by the leader.  

At our family seder, since we just have two daughters, I like to tell them to search for the Afikomen together, so they both get a prize.  I usually put together a gift bag for each of them for my husband to give them in exchange for the Afikomen.  This year in their gift bags they each got a little lamb that I made out of vintage sheets from a vintage pattern. 

Aren't they cute?  This is the pattern I used:

Adorable, right?  I didn't put the silly hair on the lambs, though.  I thought they were cuter without it.

Also in their gift bags was a beautiful bookmark for each of them from an Etsy shop called Light of Zion Handcrafted Jewelry. This one is called "Torah on Your Heart":

Torah on Your Heart Bookmark

And this one is "One in Messiah":

One in Messiah Bookmark

They are so pretty, like jewelry for your book or Bible, and they are so special and meaningful!  My girls love them!  They came with a little card with a scripture attached, and a sweet handwritten note from Elisheva, the artist who created them. Elisheva also has an Etsy shop called Messianic Cards, featuring her works of art on gorgeous cards.  I haven't ordered any yet, because I simply can't choose! Here are a couple of nice ones for Passover:

Messiah Our Passover Cards

Celebrate the Feast Cards

I hope you are all having a happy and blessed Passover week!

Passover: A Night to Remember

My family and I have been celebrating the Biblical Holidays for about 5 years now, and every time I celebrate one of them I am more and more amazed at the intricate symbolism contained in each one.  As each holiday comes around every year I learn more and more about God's infinite wisdom, His plan for His people, and the depths of His love for us.  I also learn more about our Messiah Yeshua, because each of these holidays points directly to Him through symbolism, prophecy, and tradition.  Each time I make to effort to observe one of God's Holidays I am drawn closer to Him and I am greatly blessed.

Passover began last night at sundown.  This year as Passover approached, I was especially impressed by the theme of remembrance.  God has given us all of His holidays because He wants us to remember.  He wants us to remember that we are His people and He is our God.  He wants us to remember the the great miracles that He has performed on behalf of his people.  He wants us to remember Him!  So he gives us special times set aside specifically for remembering, and he fills these times with symbols, illustrations, and object lessons to help us remember.  This is what Passover is all about.

While preparing for Passover, we literally clean the leaven out of our homes.  Leaven is a symbol for sin, so we throw it all out.  We sweep, vacuum, mop, and clean to make sure there are no little crumbs left that might contain leaven.  While we do this we remember how easily sin can creep into our lives, and we need to throw it all out!  As we work to get the leaven out of our houses, we remember that sin, like leaven, can be hidden in unexpected places, and we must be vigilant in keeping it out of our lives.

Once the leaven is all cleaned out, it is time for the Passover seder.  Throughout the seder, we remember and we teach our children to remember.  When we read the words of the Haggadah, we remember the events that took place when God delivered His people from slavery.  We remember the pain and bitterness of that slavery when we eat the horseradish and our eyes water.  We splatter ten drops of wine or juice on our plates as we remember each plague that Egypt suffered because Pharoh wouldn't let God's people go.  When we see the shank bone on the seder plate, we remember that each family was required to sacrifice a lamb.  When we eat the parsley we remember that God passed over the homes of His people during the plague of the firstborn if they had spread the blood of the sacrificed lamb on their doorposts with hyssop as He had instructed. When we drink the first cup we remember that God brought His people out of Egypt to sanctify them; to set them apart.  The second cup reminds us that He delivered them from their bondage, and the third cup helps us remember that they were redeemed; a price was paid with God's powerful, outstretched arm.  The fourth cup is the Cup of Hope, and when we drink it we remember that God gave His people a hope for the future. When we eat the matzah we remember that the people left Egypt in haste, and their bread did not have time to form leaven and rise.

But that's not all!  As believers in Messiah Yeshua, there is so much more!  We look at all of these symbols from another perspective, because Yeshua told us to do these things in remembrance of Him!  Now each part of the seder becomes a beautiful picture of Messiah.  When we drink the wine we remember the blood he shed for us, so that WE can be set apart, delivered, redeemed, and have a hope for the future.  When we eat the matzah we remember that Yeshua had no "leaven", and did not sin, yet, like the matzah, he was pierced, striped and broken for us.  Throughout the seder we remember that Yeshua is our Passover lamb.  He was the ultimate sacrifice for us, and we can now be brought out of slavery to sin and into freedom!

Passover is the beginning of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, when we eat matzah, and no leaven, for a week.  We are reminded of Yeshua every time we eat matzah during this week.  The Feast of Firstfruits also takes place during this week, which is the day the offering of firstfruits was waved before God.  This is the same day that Yeshua rose from the grave!

This has become one of my favorite times of the year.  Passover has such great significance, especially for the believer in Yeshua!  There is much, much more to it than what I've written here.  Here are some links to additional information if you are interested in learning more:

Why would a Christian Observe Passover?
Passover Overview
A Messianic Seder and Haggadah
The ABCs of Passover
What is Passover?
Another Messianic Haggadah
My blog post from 2 years ago "Why I Love Passover"

And here is my favorite Passover video this year:

This post is linked up here:
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Deep Roots at Home
Teaching What is Good Women Helping Women
Winsome Wednesday
Wholehearted Home Wednesday
Thought Provoking Thursday