natural body oil

A few weekends ago I participated in an Herbal Infusions workshop put on by the good people of Kinfolk and it was hosted by Julie Clark of Province Apothecary. I'm not exactly sure what prompted the desire to take this workshop because I don't ever remember being so interested in aromatherapy before. I think the main draw was that it was a hands-on, mini crash course of sorts and I can't resist a good DIY workshop. At the end of the 3 hour info-packed session, I came away with quite a few handmade products and the confidence to make some more on my own at home. Of the items that the group was taught to make, I was most excited about the body oil. We had also tried our hands at an herbal infused steam inhalation mixture, a sugar scrub, bath salts and an apple cider vinegar hair rinse. AH-mazing. After letting the body oil that I made in the workshop rest for a day, I used it after a (body sugar scrub) bath and loved it. I had infused the oil with geranium, pine, peppermint and lime for an uplifting and awakening scent to help me get moving in the mornings (Marcus still doesn't sleep through the night!).

Because I loved the body oil so much, I couldn't wait to try to make another, specifically for Marcus (my 23 month old). He's got a couple of dry patches on his legs and I wanted something natural and organic to put on his skin to relieve any discomfort he may have. I sought out some ingredients and started with something gentle for him. In his mixture, I used grapeseed, safflower and apricot kernel oil as the carrier oils. I had some chamomile tea leaves and found some useful sources on the net on how to infuse that in the oil. Of the options given, I decided on putting the oil mixture in a glass and put it inside a water bath in a mini slow cooker and left it on low for 48 hours. Once that was done, I strained the leaves and added some lavender essential oil for a soothing scent and bottled it. So easy and so lovely. 

I named it the Lullaby Oil and made a little label for the bottle in the hopes that Marcus would be able to recognize it as his own and make it a part of his bedtime routine.

After his bath that night, I used it on him and I think he liked it. He certainly didn't object to the leg massage that went with it :)

*If you want to make your own body oil, please do find some resources and how-to's online. I took some information from these helpful posts - here and here. If you can, I would also highly recommend taking one of Julie's workshops!

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Life lately with this little man has been a slice. Marcus is almost 23 months old and every day he says a word that I didn't even know he knew how to say. The days are long and the weather has been properly cold and rainy for November. So when the sun shines, it's a treat. Most days, M and I are indoors and snuggling under a blanket, or crashing (toy) cars, or playing hide-and-seek. It's a wonder I ever get anything else done around the house or getting in some time to print!

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cardboard play kitchen for Marcus

It all started with a simple search on Craigslist for a play kitchen for Marcus. He's very much into pretend play these days and I wanted to help him use his imagination as best I can. The play kitchens I found on CL were either too expensive, too large or too unsightly. Another search on the web lead me to a handful of sites which featured DIY play kitchens made out of cardboard! This was the perfect solution because I was looking for something temporary, inexpensive (or better, free), and customizable. Within the next hour, I was headed out the door on the hunt for cardboard boxes.

One trip to the grocery store, a few empty boxes from home and I had all of my building blocks. Good thing I'm a bit of hoarder when it comes to paper and craft supplies otherwise I wouldn't have been able to put the kitchen together so quickly and so easily.

STRUCTURE
I started by piecing the boxes together as the fridge, sink, stove and cupboard. After setting that up, I wrapped the boxes up in kraft and white newsprint paper for a unified look. The only exception to this was the fridge and sink where I cut the holes for the doors and sink before covering them.

FRIDGE
The fridge was made out of a diaper box which was just long and narrow enough. Rather than just drawing on the handles, I layered a couple of cardboard pieces together and wrapped them up and stuck them to the doors. And because the fridge sat a bit low on the ground I put it on top of another piece of cardboard box so that Marcus wouldn't have to bend down to use it.

SINK
For the surface area of the sink, I covered it with some left-over shelf liner, which coincidentally looks like granite. If there was anything that stumped be about this project, it was how I was going to make the faucet. Turns out, I just dug into Marcus' toy basket and started playing around with the wooden blocks until I got something that resembled a faucet and held the pieces together with Velcro and twine. I added a kitchen sink skirt to cover the existing hole with one of my favourite checkered fabrics. It actually doubles as an apron, but Marcus was moving too fast and too interested in other things to model it for us! I framed two pages of a thrifted book to add some fun and colour to the neutral palate and stuck them to the 'backsplash'.

STOVE/OVEN
A bankers box laid on it's backside makes an ideal stove and oven because the lid opens (or falls) just like an oven door. We put in a cardboard shelf to act as a rack. I used a toilet paper roll cut in half as the oven door handle. The knobs were made from individual bottom sides of an egg carton and glued to cardboard. The stove elements were made of cardboard as well, with string tied around them for texture. At first, I thought I was going to add a clock to the stove but decided that a colourful graphic element would like nice. And so it turned out to be a rectangular shape covered with origami paper.

SHELF/CUPBOARD
The shelf is pretty self-explanatory. Not much going on with that piece except that I was happy to line the shelves with vintage ledger paper. And the cupboard beneath the shelf, has a nifty panel detail made of cardboard on the doors.

COST/PROPS/TIME
The accessories were my only expense for the play kitchen. For under $3, I got a couple of enamel cups, a woven basket and a mini baking tin. The rest of the props I already had or got from my mom's kitchen! The kitchen took me four nights to put together. After Marcus was down for the evening, I had set to work for a few hours and then hid the boxes away in another room so that he wouldn't find them until the big reveal.

RESULTS
Marcus was intrigued by his new kitchen. He touched all of the handles and knobs, took out the plates, cups and utensils and put them back in their places and also found new places for them to sit. He opened and closed the doors. He even made swishing noises while washing the dishes and his hands in the sink. He 'drank' from cups and 'ate' from the bowls.

UNEXPECTED
He pretended that the freezer door of the fridge was a microwave. "Beep, beep, beep...".

This was such a fun project to put together. I got to channel my inner-kid and couldn't help but create a space that I wouldn't mind cooking in too.

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Little Book of Numbers

You guys, the Little Book of Numbers is done! I completed the book last week and am so pleased at how it turned out. It has 13 pages, printed mainly in black but red was used for the back and front covers. I've also included a bookplate with every edition! I personalized the one for Marcus by printing his initials on it. The book is held together by two handy metal rings (which can be opened should I ever want to include more pages). The numbers and words of numbers were all handset and the acquired images were individually printed. This means that one book was hand-fed through the press 79 times!

I introduced the book to Marcus (19.5 months) yesterday and he was quite interested. The timing was good because he is very much into books and has recently started counting. Or rather, repeating numbers when he hears or sees them. He only gets as far as two and skips to eight and nine, but it's still a marvellous thing for his parents to hear it :) The book is nice a small and fits comfortably in his little paws and he has no trouble separating or turning the pages. He even recognizes some of the images, like the birds and the rockets (or "planes" as he refers them to). It was great to see Marcus and the book in action together.

I've only made 10 of these books and they are currently being sold in the online shop. I've also reserved a couple to bring and sell at the Parkdale Flea this Sunday!

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sugar beach morning

Yesterday afternoon, Toronto experienced a wild rainstorm that caused major flooding in some parts of the city. Lucikly, we live just outside of the city core and weren't affected by it. The morning weather was quite a bit different from what we saw only a few hours later. That morning I decided to take Marcus to Sugar Beach since we had never been there before. It turned out to be a perfect place for him to run around. It 's a small beach but had plenty of sand and a great view of incoming airplanes landing at the city airport. He loves his planes! It was also early enough that there weren't more than twenty people on the beach. It was a warm, beautiful, clear and quiet morning. As you can see, it was bright and sunny.

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numbers book: the numbers!

I've finally added numbers to the numbers board book! Hooray! I can't wait to see this all come together. Next will be the numbers in words. I'm also trying to decided how or if to include colour. So far, I've printed the entire book in black ink. Not very colourful for a kid's/toddler's book, right? Though, something has to be said for the simple black and white contrast. 

We'll see what I end up doing with regards to colour or not!

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numbers book progress

Slowly making some progress with the numbers coaster book. For those of you who don't know what this is, it's a project I started last year! It's a small board book I intend to give to Marcus when it's completed. It goes through numbers 1-10 and is accompanied by pictures and is all hand-printed with my tabletop press. I'm printing a few extra copies, so it's taking me some time. But the good news is, is that I've finished printing all of the images. Now, it's onto the numbers!

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mama's boy

I finally caved and cut his hair. It was getting mighty long and unruly at the sides. I held off because I was attached to the silly notion that he'd be losing his 'babyness' if I cut his baby hair. I was wrong. He's still very much a babe and dare I say, even cuter? :)

I'm incredibly lucky to be this boy's mom.

Happy Mother's Day!

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simple cookies

The other day I bought a packet of Snackimals for Marcus as a change from his rice cracker snacks. It was his first foray into cookie-land and he liked it very much. I almost bought him some more but decided it would be easier, less expensive and healthier for him if I just made something similar myself. This isn't to say that the ingredients in Snackimals is terrible, quite the opposite. I'm finding it a pleasure to bake and cook for the babe whenever I can and figured that making cookies couldn't be too difficult.  I came across this recipe and didn't hesitate to start on it right away. Simple and with just a few ingredients. Yes, they are supposed to be animal cookies but I didn't have any cutters so I used an olive oil bottle cap to make the circles. M was none the wiser :) The cookies turned out great, not too crumbly and a little bit soft because of the yogurt ingredient. I did make a few substitutions to the recipe - I used organic unsweetened coconut, steel cut oats (instead of plain oats), brown rice flour (instead of whole wheat flour) and lemon yogurt (instead of plain yogurt) and added a touch of cinnamon. The recipe yielded approximately 40 cookies (1.5" in diameter). These are super snacks for on-the-go!

*Oh, and I didn't have a rolling pin so I just used a stainless steel water bottle, filled it with cold water and wrapped it in saran wrap before rolling the dough out. My kitchen lacks in some basic baking tools. I think I may need to change that!

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mama!

 Just the other day, Marcus called me "mama" for the first time and I just about died.  

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numbers book: one

I'm back at it again! The last time I posted about Marcus' numbers book was before the Christmas holidays. I've only got two more numbers to go and then I'll be printing the actual numbers. I haven't decided if it'll all be in black ink or if the numbers should be in a different colour (maybe, red?). We will see!

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Marcus is very much into balls and things that go "vroom-vroom".

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