Homemade Mascara!?

A friend of mine said, "I haven't ever even THOUGHT of making mascara myself." Well, I had - for the last two years - in which I kept wanting to but never getting around to it. I just wanted to try it - why not? And the bonus? This mascara has two of my most favorite ingredients in the world in it: cocoa powder and Lavender Oil!

I first got all of my ingredients together:
Cocoa Powder
Aloe Vera Gel
Vegetable Glycerin
Bentonite Clay Powder
Lavender Oil

It took a little trial and error, but I came up with these amounts:
1/4 tsp cocoa powder
1/4 tsp bentonite clay powder
8 drops glycerin
1/2-2/3 tsp aloe vera gel (The mixture seemed a little thick, so this is where I added extra to get the consistency I like.)
3 drops Youngliving lavender essential oil

After mixing everything together, the hardest part was getting it into my cleaned out mascara tube. I took a popsicle stick, swiped some in, and then tapped it on the counter until that portion went down into the tube. Kind of repetitive. This took longer than anything.

(My two girls loved helping me make this.)

Results:
All in all, I really like this mascara. Every morning I get a kick out of the fact that I'm putting cocoa powder on my eyelashes and I think the lavender smells dreamy.

It's really not as dark as I would like. Next time I will replace some of the cocoa with activated charcoal.

It did have a front end investment - I mean, seriously, how long is that tube of aloe vera gel going to last at 1/2 tsp per batch? I'll be making my own mascara well into my 80s!

I think it stays on just as well as any store bought mascara! Yah!

Wouldn't YOU like to wear cocoa powder on YOUR eyelashes?

playclay earth!

One of the things I really enjoy about Classical Conversations is that it encourages me to homeschool on topics that I might be tempted to skip. Like earth science. It seems crazy to me that a science major would be so apt to skip these all important subjects! I think it's the MOM in me that skips science though - who needs another mess to clean up?

Anyone?

[Crickets chirping in background.]

That's what I thought.

As I was saying, the fact that my kids get to learn about different science topics and do hands-on experiments each week is a huge bonus.

This semester we are working on earth science. Time to learn about the layers of the earth! Each kiddo got to make their own earth complete with inner core, outer core, mantle, crust and hydrosphere! It was a fun class, as you can see.

I definitely liked that this project was very tactile. Everyone learns in different ways, so I hope these helped the layers of the earth 'stick' in their little brains.

For next time: I think it would've worked better with more contrasting colors of playclay. Also, I used homemade - which was a great consistency but the colors were too similar and tended to run together.

Not surprisingly, there was quite a bit of earth-mashing going on during this science project. I'm surprised some of these globes turned out even remotely spherical!

giftie for Bebo

The illustration with My Fave Pen

I've pretty much tanked on the last few holidays. I'm a terrible gift chooser! Especially for my husband. I always want so much for the gift to be loved. And then I psyche myself out. Of course, there's always this problem:

Repurposed Mat Board

Clear Glaze drying in the Sunshine

Me: What do you want for [this or that holiday]?

Him: I dunno. Maybe a CD?

Pause.

Him: Or this one [usually very technical, specific and expensive using jargon like F-stop or mm or focal length or gigabyte or other similar what-have-you] thing with these specs.


Me: (to myself) Yah, I'm not buying and/or ordering that. I don't even know what 'specs' ARE. And I would totally get the wrong one. He knows it and so do I.

But, this Valentine's Day I decided to make a little giftie. I got the idea from the illustration I did for the Illustration Friday challenge last week.

And I think he liked it.

Things I learned:

1) Try to have your project done more than 15 minutes before he gets home from work. It's less stressful that way. And it's also dry by that time. Not that I would know. On second thought, why not even finish it a day or two early?

2) Sewing scissors? Really?

3) Mat board is very thick. And I can't cut a straight line. I hope he didn't notice.

Awww...

Paint Like a Master: EL GRECO

So, El Greco ('that Greek guy') was named Domenikos Theotokopoulos. While he was from Greece, he made it big in Spain. Which reminds me a lot of how David Hasselhoff was a popular singer in Germany for awhile. I'm not kidding.

That was a tangent. A big one. Sorry.

Back to El Greco. Just another one of your basic, multi-talented, famous painter/sculptor dudes who started humbly and finished big.




Known for his stretched out solemn people (foreshadowing the elves in that one big trilogy?). And his big forehead, apparently.

Anyhow, this was a fun project. Using a sketch of Mona Lisa borrowed from somewhere else (like here), my class of 5 & 6 year olds cut through the sketch horizontally several times and then glued down the pieces..stretching vertically as they went. Then we just played connect-the-dots.







Areas I do not suggest cutting through: eyeballs, hands, nose. That's just weird.

I wish we'd had more time to color these pieces. But little fingers take longer with those kid scissors than you might think! And the glue sticks. Don't even get me started on the glue sticks!










I wasn't sure about using the other-colored paper under our pieces, but I actually kind of like how it turned out. It would've been nice to have time to paint, though.

Here's an example of another class' technique - they used tracing paper for their finished piece.

Next time, I think it'd be fun to turn a picture of my kids into a pencil line drawing (here's how) and then use that to do the same El Greco project.

Another idea - for those kids who like cars and trucks. Cut your picture vertically and stretch it out horizontally. You can turn anything into a limo! Tractor, helicoptor, ambulance, cow, etc.

Paint Like a Master: MICHELANGELO

We talked about Michelangelo in class today. It took that poor man 4 years to paint the ceiling of the Sistene Chapel (which I have never seen, but boy would I love to)! Scaffolding, upside down paint brushes, and painting to perspective sound awfully uncomfortable and difficult to me. But he did it. No wonder he's the most famous artist of the Renaissance.

My class got a taste of what he went through as we colored with oil pastels under our tables today! Luckily, Michelangelo was not 5 or 6 when he started his masterpiece... there was quite a bit of 'this is hard' and 'my back hurts' and 'do I have to color the whole thing?' But they were pretty good sports especially considering I didn't even give them a choice about which colors they could use. (sheepish grin - insert here)

Some of the kids did their whole piece upside down and others chose to finish sitting in their seats.

An added bonus was that each student in our whole community colored one piece of a large communion-themed mural. A friend of mine, also a tutor, got the idea at Art Projects for Kids and printed everything out for us - so all the classes did their sections and we will assemble them all to see what they accomplished as a group. I'm so glad she had the idea because I'm always too cheap to buy things I think I might be able to do myself (like make a huge mural) - but this was totally worth it. $5? Um, yah.



Next time I plan to bring more oil pastels - as I forgot mine and had to borrow. Our 30 minute time slot was a little too short. What with all the backbends and everything.

And, next time I'll have a bigger print out of what the finished piece will look like so the kids have a better idea of what they are working toward.

S., Age 2, lipstick, ice cream, and mascara on face

This last picture is sort of related. It's a 'masterpiece' that my littlest little created on the way home from class. I look back to hand her a little baby ice cream cone only to find she's been in my purse. (I forgot to wonder why she wanted to hold it.) So I figured, "What the heck, have at it, kid!"

how to e-publish : step 3

I said I'd tell you about step 3.

Hubby took me out on an art date, which is really the most awesome kind. Here's what our art dates entail: two artists drinking a bumload of coffee, drawing and saying things like 'wouldn't it be great if we could make a living off of this or that amazing creative idea (or type of art project)?' and 'watch me draw this!' and 'did you see that sign with the heinous kerning? Yah, I'm SO sure.' Plus it's fun because we take silly pictures of the other one drinking coffee and we sometimes try not to snarf hot coffee out our noses from laughing.

Since the book I'm working on is a picture book, the story of a little character I've had in my head since our oldest was a little, a big aspect of my book is how it will look. The illustrations. Droolings, we sometimes call them. There I was, all proud of myself for having finished step 2 when ...

Hubby says, "Prototypes. 3 of them. Now." 

Obviously the picture of him is a re-creation. But it's pretty true to the actual event so I feel good about including it here.

And so I did. 3 prototypes. BAM! I almost passed out after the first two. I had no scissors with me, people! Sharpies? Left at home! But he was 'adamant', what with his ordering me my favorite dinner (without olives) at my favorite restaurant and getting me coffee refills and everything.

It's good for me to have something tangible. It makes the whole prospect seem a little more real. And actually helped me realize some of my ideas aren't as rounded out as they may need to be. Maybe it was all a little vague... that ethereal desire to 'make a book' is now getting more specific. I'm more of an idea person. It's the doing. That's hard.

Still pushing through, though. On to step 4. Yikes.

And still I can't find that little slip of paper.

Print Like a Master: DURER

{This idea was pretty much straight out of Discovering Great Artists. The woman is a genius.}

The art portion of class today was enormously fun. It was many of the kids' favorite project so far.








Who did we talk about? Albrecht Durer. Self-portrait to the left.

A German, so right there you know he's probably cool.

Albrecht is especially known for his Renaissance wood cuts/prints, his attention to detail, and his amazing hair.

We used small 4"x4" pieces of balsa wood, available at, you guessed it, Hobby Lobby. Rather than hand the littles a bunch of sharp wood carving tools, we used hammers, nails, coins, nuts, bolts, screws and other metal doodads. Balsa wood is so soft, that some of the kids just used the back end of a paint brush to make their indentations. And, you don't necessarily even need the hammers. If you just push hard enough, the balsa wood will take an impression.

However, the hammers were a big hit anyway.

Especially with the boys.

We used a brayer (a paint roller, in the vernacular) to apply the tempera paint (not egg tempera, though, thank goodness). Then you just flip your 'wood cut' over onto paper and be careful not to jiggle it while you apply pressure to the back.

Easy Breezy. Perfect wood prints for little artists.

To improve this project, I would bring a larger variety of doodads (springs? cookie cutters? fridge magnets for letter shapes?) and leave more time at the end for the actual printing. Most of the kids only got to make one or two prints. IF I was a pre-planning kind of person, we could've printed cards for mommies for Valentine's Day!

I'm going to try to remember this idea next fall when we're thinking about Christmas cards. I love the very organic vintage feel of these prints.

getting in the garden groove

Last summer's tomatoes. Ink and colored pencil.

If you know me, you know I like to garden. It's really so much fun. Fun to get the kids digging in the dirt. [Our pediatrician recently reminded me that Baby was eating dirt last summer. Totally forgot about that.]

Fun to plant seeds and water and wonder and hope things will sprout. Rejoice over the weather. Haul compost. Drag rain water. Fret over the weather. [When the package says 'full sun', I don't think it means full high-desert sun.] Pray to the Lord for some zucchini. That sort of thing.

It's been a long road...

The year we first put in our raised garden beds, and filled them with wonderful composted truckloads of dirty loveliness, when everything was ready, anticipating the seeds...

I laid down in the gravel landscaping, with my hands over my face.

"What in the world are you doing?" says my surprised husband.

And I say, "I'm going to fail! I'm so overwhelmed! What if I can't grow ANYTHING!?"

And he says, "Um... you haven't even tried yet?"

And I'm like, "What does that have to do with anything?"

Me and Little Buddy in 2008. First Garden!

No, kidding. I got up out of the gravel and started planting. After I got over the drama of it all, I realized he was right. And I re-learned that my husband is very wise. And patient.

But I digress.

There's nothing better than an early walk, with my mug of coffee, outside looking at the plants, counting the new tomatoes, squashing my arch-nemeses (squash bugs), and burning the breakfast eggs to a carmelized crisp as I was only going to be outside for a few minutes.

This year, my new challenge to tackle is sprouting seeds indoors. I have no place with good sun. Someone was thinking, when they built this house, about keeping too much sun out. Good for the air conditioning bills in the summer. Bad for seed sprouting. And honestly, for someone who loves to garden so much, you'd think I could sprout seeds inside!

Seriously - It weighed over a pound!

So, what's a girl to do? Growing lamp. It's big time over here now people! But then the question is, should I just go buy one (or a used one) or go the DIY route, build it myself, and spend just as much money?!

Time to get on it... need to get some of the best tasting heirloom 'Grandma Wolfe PA Super Sweet Tomatoes' planted!

[Let me know if you'd like some seeds!]

how to e-publish : step 2

So, I'm really doing this thing! One friend kindly chastised me for setting the bar low when I wrote, "I said I was going to publish a book. I never said it would be any good."

I'm done with that talk.

This book is going to be totally awesome.

[Which means 'really cool', for those of you who were not in middle school in the 80's.]

This week I achieved step 2. And possibly step 3. But I'll tell you about that later.

Step 2a) Set a tentative deadline.

Step 2b) Make a list of all the things you know you have to do.

This list may include things like, 'find out all the things I have to do' and 'freak out because as you go along you realize you forgot about 10 things, like the existence of ISBN numbers' and 'freak out some more as you look for the first draft you wrote, on a tiny piece of paper, which you can't find.

after looking...

for a long time...'

As you can see, my list is extremely organized, concise and clear.

We've officially started! (And if you haven't, maybe you should consider it!)

how to e-publish : step 1

If you're here because you're hoping for advice and help on how to self-publish an e-book, or e-publish, you're in the wrong place. Because despite the title of this post, I have no idea how to do either of those things! No, it's true.

But I've got a plan.

A hope.





I'd like to learn how. I'm going to do it. For reals, as I like to say (even though the grammar is tragic). It's a goal for my year, this year of not living in fear. This year of doing things I've been nervous about, or afraid of.

for.

far.

too.

long.

My husband and I are going to work on this project together - which I'm really excited about, since it's been a long time since we've worked on a book together. As usual, I'll be illustrating (and in this case also writing) and he will do what he always does, which is, make everything look good. (Thanks, honeycakes!)

Even just posting this is a bit of a fear-buster. If I tell people, then the hope is 'out there' and then other people, besides just the one in my head, will know if I fail. But whatever. It's done now.

What's the book about, you ask? Well, it's a little story that's been swimming around in my head for a long time. And, since I think in pictures, that's mostly what it is at this point. But since those are still in my head, too, you'll just have to wait and see.

Step 1.
Post about how you're going to e-publish. So it's more real. And other people can ask you about it.

Check.

Sculpt Like a Master : GHIBERTI

Lorenzo Ghiberti - so in the early 1400s he wins this contest to be commissioned to design the baptistry doors for a big church in Florence, Italy (Battistero di San Giovanni). Apparently, he dazzled the judges with his gold leaf technique and his green chile stew (I made that last part up).




And with skads of people working under him, it took 20 years to finish those doors.

Michelangelo (yes, THAT Michelangelo) said that they deserved to be displayed at the Gates of Paradise. They were that good!

I'd like to see those doors.

Also I'd like to contemplate taking 20 years on one art project.

Or any project for that matter. [I don't think it counts when you take 2 years before you even start it.]


Today, my class and I did a Ghiberti inspired, easy breezy project.

Take some cardboard. Glue a bunch of stuff on it. The more varied the texture the better. We used wiki-sticks, yarn, pipe cleaners, cardboard pieces where the corrugation was showing, and fabric leaves.

Cover the entire piece with foil wrapping around the edges to the back. Then have the kids use all those little fingers to smooth, pat, and form the foil around each texture.  Next, paint the whole front with black tempura paint. After it's dry, go over the texture with steel wool. The foil shines through on the raised portions!

 
I liked this project because littler kids can just glue stuff on to their hearts' content while older kids can focus on creating a 3D scene. I think the kids liked seeing how it turned out after the steel wool step. Next time I'll try to give them more time to create and also bring a sample so they can see where things are going. The only girl in the class would really have preferred pink paint.

budget blues.

We have a budget. It's really necessary! I want to be a good steward of what the Lord has entrusted to us. But ever since I had this little tub o' love, or probably since being pregnant with her, the following of the budget has flown out the window. And headed to Timbuktu. Or somewhere.

It seems that the overwhelmation has overflowed into many areas of my life!





For us, the hardest part is the day to day tracking. Drives me nuts! We tried using cash for awhile, but that got complicated - maybe because neither my husband or I are solely responsible for any one category. So that meant two sets of envelopes. And then we tried tracking receipts, but I started drowning in them.

Literally.

I'm not kidding.

Then we tried excel sheets with a crazy number of budget lines for this and that, which worked great for a long time...but it got cumbersome. And now I just don't know. Is it because I'm the creative type? What do accountants do with their personal finances?

I miss knowing what is where. I have an inordinate fear of ending up living in a cardboard box (silly I know) so the 'not knowing for sure' in the day to day really wears on me, I think.

Any ideas? Do you keep track of your day to day spending? How? Do you have a budget? And how to make time for this?

Paint Like a Master : GIOTTO

I borrowed heavily from Discovering Great Artists to introduce Giotto (di Bondone c.1266-1337) to the kids in my Classical Conversations class today. I was nervous about eight 5 year olds and raw egg all over the place!

{Raw eggs? Oh. Yes. And the salmonella was just LOOKING for someone to infect. Let me tell you.}




Anyway, Giotto was a shepherd kid who liked to draw...
And then he got discovered and became a painter...
And then he became the chief master of public art in Florence, Italy!

It's like a So You Think You Can Paint, circa the Late Middle Ages!

Which all just goes to show, again, that Someone likes shepherds.

And since you can't just go to Hobby Lobby with your 40% off coupon during the Late Middle Ages (or Early Renaissance for that matter), he had to make his own paints. Ground up minerals. Rocks. Berries. Even insects! Mix with a little egg yolk and water and viola, Egg Tempera!

A., Age 5, Egg Tempera

For our version, we ground up chalk and mixed it with the egg yolk/water mixture. (1 egg yolk plus 2 tsp of water is the ratio.) It ended up like a thickish watercolor. The kids thought it was pretty cool to make our own paint and they did a great job painting St. Paul, Giotto style. (I had pre-drawn St. Paul to save time - but he wasn't supposed to turn out looking like Santa Claus with a turban on.)

Egg tempera is long-lasting, makes colors really bright, and dries with a nice sheen. Not something I would've chosen to do without prompting, but I'm definitely glad we tried this.

Next time, I will let the kids draw their template first, and make sure to crush the chalk more thoroughly. And bring more disinfectant wipes.

You should try this project with your kids. It really was fun.

Just please remember the mantra for doing art with your kids:
I can clean up when they're done.
I can clean up when they're done.
I can clean up when they're done.

Minty Tooth Powder

So I've been using a fluoride-free toothpaste for a while now. But I didn't really know why. I did find some some interesting reasons here (about flouride) and here (about sodium lauryl sulfate). I got to thinking, if the paste I've been buying doesn't have any crud in it, what DOES it have in it? Turns out, not much. Therefore, I decided to make some tooth powder myself. Why pay some company to package baking soda and flavoring in a non-recyclable tube?

Actually, it doesn't taste bad at all. And somehow I like the salt in it. Now, if I can get the rest of the family to use it...

Tooth Powder Recipe

2 Tbsp baking soda
1/3 teaspoon salt
5 drops peppermint oil (I used more like 8 drops)

Here's what I like about this new quotidian ritual: The little spoon I use to pour a bit of powder on my toothbrush each morning. It's sweet.

I'm thinking about flavoring the next batch with a little fennel oil, too. Yum!