Monday, July 29, 2013

Painting the Townhouse Gray

Eeeny meeeny miney mo! 
The colors look very different in the photo but it just shows how you can have five fabulous recommended colors and it's still a tough decision.

 

Since we've moved cities a few times, our first home has since became a rental.  The townhouse was originally painted in beige/cream color (called Ceyon) but we wanted to update it with a neutral gray to give it a more contemporary look.  Paint color and carpets would need to be picked out in person, so I flew down to check it out.  Eventually picked Sherwin Williams Amazing Gray paint (SW 7044)!

Friday, July 12, 2013

Guest Favor for Baby Shower ~ Homemade Sugar Scrub

A few weeks ago, I co-hosted a baby shower for a university friend who is due this August with an adorable baby boy!  The other hostess and I decided to give guests a sugar scrub because it was something we would want to take home ourselves.

Update for printable files and instructions: Click here to use this free printable for your event.  You can customize your text and label size to fit any Avery brand printer label.   Graphics are available in pink or blue.




Here's how I made these adorable little jars.

Grabbed the Ball 8 oz wide mouth mason jars at Target.

Filled the jars with Shaina's Ginger & Coconut Oil Sugar Scrub recipe.  As you can see from my photos, I extended the recipe a bit for the amount of baby shower guests. Plus, I could only find coconut oil in a tiny jar or a big jar, so I made the recipe to match the amount of coconut oil.  Where the recipe calls for essesial oil, I picked lemongrass.  And opted for non-comedogenic almond oil.  Organic ingredients were used whenever possible.
When I make this again, I would use more ginger than the recipe asks for because I love ginger and can never get enough.  It was fun to make, especially with a bottle of wine. Total Breaking Bad moment while "cooking" the scrub.



I've used the scrub myself and I really liked it.  My skin felt like it was naturally moisturized after it, not super oily - but the results were even more amazing in the winter when it can be difficult to moisturize enough.

Printed the jar labels using Avery's 2.5" round glossy labels.  I created the graphics and then uploaded them to Avery's Design & Print Online system.  While it was super easy to use and print from the Avery online layout (even allowing me to save a .pdf version), the graphics in their software were quite basic and disappointing.  The nursery has an animal theme, which is what we used as a basis for the baby shower, hence the elephant and giraffe print on the back ingredients label.  Awe!


EDIT TO ADD LABELS TEMPLATE (click here for more detailed instructions):  It's the first time I've made something like this,  so I'd love to hear any feedback!

Last step was to use the 3/8" ribbon to tie the bows.  I used about 22"-23" of ribbon on each jar (if that helps anyone calculate how much ribbon to buy) and the sheer ribbon I tried first, did not look nearly as nice as the grosgrain ribbon.
Tying a bow seems easy, but my first tries had them looking like my shoelaces, messy and not so precious.  Google-fu lead me to this super helpful tutorial on tying the perfect bow. Silly, but necessary.  And a quick flame to seal the ribbon's cut edges and viola, all done!
If you wanted to really get detailed, you might consider using a glue dot behind the bow to keep the ribbon attached to the lid.  It was easy to pop off which made tying the bows slight more time consuming because you have to be careful.

If my math is accurate, each jar cost about $5.65 each to make (but this includes the left over ribbon and extra labels, so maybe cheaper depending how many you make).  This project would make an excellent gift for Christmas.  Maybe made with a peppermint scrub?  Could use white sugar and dye a portion red for a candy cane stripped look in the jar?  Endless possibilities!

This was so fun to make, hope I remember the next time I need gift ideas!



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