Category: Lifestyle

Lemon Balm Tea (Melissa Officinalis) Health Benefits

Lemon balm tea is a caffeine-free herbal tea made from the plant, Melissa officinalis. Melissa officinalis is one of many herbs which have a natural lemony fragrance without the sourness and acidity caused by citric acid in lemons. This article explores the health benefits and medicinal uses of lemon balm, and the benefits of drinking an …

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How To Make Pure Coconut Oil Soap

For most soap recipes, you have to mix several different oils to achieve a good soap that is moisturizing, cleansing, and has a nice hardness.  However, with coconut oil there is a way to get around having such a complicated soap recipe, and that is by superfatting. “Superfatting” is adding more than 20% of oil …

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Amigurumi Snowman Pattern

I had some leftover white, pink, and grey skeins of yarn from the baby blanket that I last posted, and I liked the color combination so much that I made this amigurumi snowman & scarf with the yarn. Here is the snowman crochet pattern. Supplies Vanna’s Choice® White Vanna’s Choice® Silver Heather Vanna’s Choice® Rose Shocking Size F/3.75mm Crochet …

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Swirly Birds of Paradise Tropical Soap for Valentine’s Day

Here’s a useful and whimsical gift idea for your loved ones – Birds of Paradise tropical scented pure coconut oil soap!  The fragrances in this soap combine sweet and tangy fruity scents with island hibiscus, making for a true tropical getaway. This is another one of my favorite superfatted pure coconut oil soaps – I …

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Crafty Recipes: Milk Paint

Okay, this is a very interesting paint since the end result provides a very shiny finish to the painting. It isn’t a paint that you will want to save but much like tongue painting, you can have a lot of fun with this paint. It is very easy to make, it provides a different texture …

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Crafty Recipes: Non-Cook Playdough

This is a recipe that I created when I was working in preschool.  There isn’t too many opportunities when you want to make playdough with the children, especially since our kitchen was upstairs and didn’t have enough room to sit and make it with 16 children.  This meant that teachers in my center often made …

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How to Make an Upcycled Juice Carton Birdhouse

I’ve been on a quest to upcycle every container I use and decided to make my juice cartons into bird houses!  These are mainly decorative, but I put one of mine outside anyway, just to see! This is a great project to do with the kids, too, just be sure that an adult does all of …

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How To Make Unity Candles

When it comes to having a unity candle, the sky is really the limit.  You can find ones that are pre-made with a little plastic envelope in the front to insert your invitation or a poem into the space.  You can also have them custom made in the colors of your wedding and featuring a …

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Blending Fragrance Chords: Creating Your Perfect Scent

For over thirty years I’ve played piano, which must explain why I love thinking of blending fragrances in musical terms. Just like in music, fragrances have notes that range from high to low, and creating a balanced fragrance chord is a great way to achieve a complex, interesting blend. I recently made a scent which …

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Japanese Crafts: The Basics of Origami Folds

The first time I ever experienced Origami was in grade 4 when my teacher invited her good friend to come in and teach the class the art of paper folding.  If I remember correctly, we all did very well and by the end of the two weeks of lessons we could competently create a ball, …

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