Vinegar hair rinse as conditioner

http://www.flickr.com/photos/aroberts/ / CC BY 2.0

My fiance thinks I'm obsessed with vinegar. I think the stuff is awesome! It kills mold, removes soap residue and has anti-static properties. On top of all that, it makes great dumpling sauce and salad dressings! What's not to love? So I'm going to write about yet another use I have for vinegar: hair conditioner! Remember how I said before that it removes soap residue and has anti-static properties? Turns out those properties are good for you hair too. The trick is not to use too much.

To start, you might want to dilite 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in 1 cup of water. If you find that this leaves your hair too flat, you can reduce the amount of vinegar per cup of water. When you're ready to rinse the shampoo out of your hair, slowly pour and rub the vinegar hair rinse into your hair. Yes, your bathroom will smell like a salad bar, which is an odd smell to be smelling when you're showering, but it certainly isn't the worst smell out there. Lol! Anyways, I always rinse the vinegar out with water afterwards. I do walk out smelling faintly of vinegar, but it disspates once my hair is dry.

If you use this regularly, it will strip the soap residue out of your hair, leaving it shinier than before. It also conditions your hair just like a store-bought conditioner, but without the unfamiliar chemicals. Long-haired girls in NYC will know how absolutely awful the static can get in the winter. I've had hair stick to bathroom stall walls all around me! Ever since I started using this rinse though, I have not had this problem at all. It's seriously wonderful stuff! Of course, I can only speak about my own hair, which is long, thick and very straight. I have no idea if this works on curly hair as people with curly hair have the most issues finding the right conditioner. For those with curly hair, I'm curious to know how the vinegar rinse performs. It may not work as well, but not having any curly hair, it's hard for me to say one way or the other.

Make your own synthetic diamond

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/ / CC BY 2.0

This is a cool project, but it makes really tiny diamonds (what can we really expect from home-made? Lol!). Still, it's good if you're trying to demonstrate the science involved in how a diamond is made to a kid. For me, after reading the instructions, I think it's more likely that this experiment would break my micorwave first, but hey, it worked for the dude that authored this instructable, so who knows?

http://www.instructables.com/id/SM2TX1AFSUUXNG0/

The convertible dress

In an earlier post, I wrote about how I wanted to make a convertible dress using this pattern:
http://rowena.typepad.com/rostitchery/infinity-dress.html

So guess what? I did! It was really, really easy and because jersey knits don't fray, there's no finishing of the raw edges or heming. Fantastic!

Here are some photos of the different ways I've figured out how to wear:

Now imagine what this would look like in two colors or a jersey with shimmer or a beautiful printed fabric... the possibilities are tantalizing!

I was bored one weekend

A few weekends ago, I felt totally pent up with crafting energy because I haven't done anything crafty in weeks! So I went to the Canon CREATIVE PARK to print out and put together something fun. At first I wanted to make some sort of crank-operated toy, but I ended up with this instead:

I do have to say that it was a pain in the rear to make because of all the meticulous cutting involved. I had to use a pencil-sharp craft knife and cutting mat to get around all the sharp curves and turns. This is definitely not a project for little kids as the cutting and pasting needed precision and a degree for coordination and patience that younger children generally don't have. For me, this was fun to do to get that energy out of my system, but I probably wouldn't make this particular project again. Lol! If you can see the photo in more detail, you can make out how sloppy my work really was. Overall though, I'm glad I did it and I'm fairly happy with the result. :-)

Satin wrap

A few months ago, I saw a post from the Weekend Designer blog. It looked so simple and pretty that I had to try it! I started work on it last night and finished it this morning. Not my best work because I never made "button lips" before, but at least I now have experience making those. I made the ends a bit too boxy, but I'm too lazy to go back and alter them now. Lol! If you'd like to make your own, you can get the free pattern here:

http://wkdesigner.wordpress.com/2008/11/15/929/

DIY Hand Sanitizer

I came into work this morning and there was a small bottle of alcohol-based hand sanitizer on my desk with a note about how to not spread the flu. I never use the stuff since I'm very conscientious about washing my hands properly and often, but I know people who love these hand sanitizers. So here's a DIY tutorial on how to make your own!

http://www.ecosalon.com/diy-hand-sanitizer-and-surface-disinfectant-spray/

The one seam convertible dress pattern

I totally love convertible dresses and wear them often when I go on vacation. The only ones I have are the two layered wrap ones I got for twenty bucks each at a street fair. I think they were made from unwanted silk saris, so the fabric has gorgeous prints, beautiful drape and is very lightweight. From what I can tell, it's really just two layers of rectangular fabric sewn into a waistband with long straps. You can find a great video on the different ways to wear them here:
http://www.karizadesigns.com/

Another kind of convertible dress uses stretch jersey knit fabric. I first saw that kind of dress on Victoria Secret, seen here:
http://www2.victoriassecret.com/commerce/onlineProductDisplay.vs?namespace=productDisplay&origin=onlineProductDisplay.jsp&event=display&prnbr=EE-238573&cgname=OSKEYCLOZZZ&rfnbr=2201

The jersey dress has a different construction and is also very versatile. You can see the different ways you can wear this type of dress here:
http://www.monifc.com/marilyn-convertible-dress.html

I really like versatile clothing so I don't end up overloading my closets or spending loads of money on different looks, so I'm totally intrigued by convertible clothing. Since I don't have the jersey style dress, I think I'm going to try to make one of my own. A really popular and simple pattern for this dress can be found here:
http://rowena.typepad.com/rostitchery/infinity-dress.html

I'm really tempted to stop by my favorite fabric store today to pick up some jersey fabric!

Denise Interchangeable Crochet Hooks

Holy moocow! I am sooooo excited to see Denise Interchangeable Crochet Hooks! I have the interchangeable knitting needles set and I love them! I do all my knitting on those and now I want these off the hook hooks! No longer do I have to spend loads of money building up a collection of single crochet hooks, double-ended crochet hooks and tunisian crochet hooks. This set can do them all! If you're into crochet, you should definitely check these out!

http://www.stitchdiva.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=DEN-001

What a dress!

I gotta post a link to this wedding dress! Not my style, but totally amazing nonetheless!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/39802315@N03/3921609109/

More tips on making your razor last

Some reiteration here, but still good and useful!

http://www.wisebread.com/save-money-on-shaving-with-these-razor-tricks

Paper iphone dock

I would love to have an iphone dock, but I just don't see how I really need an iphone dock enough to plunk down the money for one. The answer? An iphone dock you can print and make out of paper! Once you print out the template, just cut and fold and voila! A dock and stand for your iphone! The cool thing about it is you can totally customize the stand. Think of all the different kinds of paper that are out there and you might be tempted to make a different dock for each day of the week, or a unique dock for whatever mood your in.

Check it out here:
http://www.dessinemoiunobjet.com/iphone-and-itouch-paper-stand-dock/

Weight loss... what weight loss?

Okay, I'll admit that I got a bit stressed out these past few months and decided to stop caring about my weight loss journey. However, I honestly can't stand not caring anymore so I'm back! The Battle of the Bulge continues!

Today will be a fresh start. No stressing about how I failed in the past or how I've gained all the weight back that I lost before. To move forward, I'm going to start with small steps. I'll keep in mind that it's not impossible to lose a few pounds, so for now, I'm going to try to lose just 3 pounds. In a previous weight loss venture, I've been most successful with a combination of diet and exercise. No surprises there, huh? Sorry to say that there's no magic bullet that I've found.

First exercise step: Get into exercise mental mode. This means getting into the habit of exercising on a regular basis. I think it's too much pressure and too ambitious to set a goal where I have to exercise every day for an hour. I get tired and lazy and start rebelling against my own strict rules. So taking a slightly more relaxed approach, I'm going exercise for 15 minutes just 3 times a week. This is just to get me into the swing of things. It could be weight training or it could be cardio. Right now, I just want to get into the habit of exercising.

First diet step: Eat lighter foods. I really haven't been eating a lot of sweet and fatty foods compared to some others, but I can't say I've been eating very healthy foods either. I have a weakness for cheese and creamy sauces. I also tend to snack. So in an effort to eat a little lighter, I'm going to replace one meal with a salad at least once a week. It's got to have a minimal amount of dressing, and have a variety of veggies.

I'll stick with this for a week or two and then see if I can't build a little more momentum. Wish me luck!

Using old books as wall storage

If you've got a lot of old hardcover books lying around, just waiting to be sold, donated or thrown out, here's another idea on what you can do with them: turn them into wall storage! It's a great idea!

http://gingerbreadsnowflakes.com/node/90

Extending the life of your disposable razor

I gotta admit that I'm a freak of nature and shave very rarely because I'm pretty hair-less. I was quite envious of my friends in high school because all I could do was listen to them commiserate about the task of shaving. Honestly, I felt left out! I didn't realize how lucky I am, but my friends did and practically shouted in my ear to never start shaving if I could get away with it. Lol! Of course, unless I wear sleeves all the time, there are times when I need to shave. That's when I get a little peeved when I go razor hunting. Razors aren't cheap and they do need to get replaced if you use them regularly. Granted, I probably don't use up my blades quite as fast as some other girls, and thus am able to save a few bucks here and there, but the amount of money I spend on replacing an old razor still adds up to quite a bit!

So here's a link that talks about how you can extend the life of your disposable razor using an old pair of jeans. Cool!

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/work-connect/disposable-razor-sharp-jeans.html

DIY Pizza stone

I can't say I've ever really wanted a pizza stone, but if you're feeling desperate for one and wouldn't mind scrounging together a makeshift one from the Home Depot, this might be helpful:

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/home-garden/diy-pizza-stone.html

Simple beaded bangles

I've seen beaded bangles in stores and have generally been reluctant to spend my hard-earned cash on something that I've always felt I can make at home. When I found this tutorial, it would seem I've been proven right. You CAN make beaded bangles at home! Can you imagine making this with sparkly Swarovski crystals or glass pearls of varying sizes? I'd totally wear it!

http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=174661.0

A button-down dress and bread baked in an Altoids tin!

I don't think I'd ever bake bread in an Altoids tin, but it sure is a cool project!
http://www.instructables.com/id/Altoids-Tin-Bread-Bake-Survival-Bread/

However, I just might make a dress out of an old button-down shirt!
http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-a-Dress-from-a-Button-Down-Shirt/

Homemade lemony hairspray

I have no idea if it will end up bleaching my hair, but I keep coming across it. There's also a method that includes Elmer's glue (not doing that one!) and a method that uses sugar water. I hear the sugar water hairspray works very well, but may attract wasps! So lemon hairspray it is.

Now, I've never actually used hairspray on myself, but I hate it when I take a curling iron to my hair, and after all my clumsy fumbling and bungling work to curl my hair, it falls back straight within an hour. Even so, I'm not desperate to get hairspray since I usually don't have the patience to style my hair. It's a once in a blue moon thing. So why not try the recipe out?

Basically, you cut up 1 lemon and boil it with 2 cups of water until it's been reduced down to at least half or less. Strain it through a cheesecloth, coffee filter or fine sieve and let cool. Once cool, bottle it into a fine mist spray bottle. It will keep for 2 weeks in the refrigerator, or 2 weeks unrefrigerated if you add an ounce of alcohol.

So I tried it out and guess what? It really works! However, not for free floating curls in my hair. Since the droplets are bigger than that of an aerosol can, the water weighed down my curls and straightened them as it dried. It didn't straighten completely, but it was straighter than when I released the curls from the curling iron. I think it would be great if I had my hair up in a french twist and needed to keep it in place. It doesn't smell overpoweringly of lemons, but it does have a lemon scent. So far, it doesn't look like it bleached my hair either. Perhaps it would work better if I got a spray bottle that squirts out a finer mist...

Got some invitation kits!

We were in Michael's on Sunday and I saw some very plain invitation kits for 16 bux! I got two, which gives me about 200 invitations. I also got a lot of other crafty supplies and some blue cardstock paper from Staples. If I can get to use 115 invitations, I still have 85 blank ones to either mess around/experiment with, or use to create the maps and RSVP directions. No RSVP cards because I found a website that helps you control the amount of guests a person can enter.

Basically, the invitation will get a passkey or code. They go to our RSVP site and enter the code. The number of slots available to input names will have been preset by me and there's nothing they can do about it! I'll also make it clear on the RSVP card with something like, "X number of seats have been reserved in your name," or "This passcode will allow you to RSVP for X persons."

Anyways, I plan to use the blue cardstock like a frame or backing, and white invitation paper will be trimmed down and printed on. I am very excited to try out my new stamps and embossing equipment! I got some paper punches too! Honestly, I don't know what I'll end up using for the invitations, but I definitely want to use all my stuff for something! Lol!

Wok

I just got a wok for the kitchen and have been dying for one for months! A flat-bottomed pan just isn't made for some of the dishes I like to cook! So I got one from The Wok Shop via Amazon.com. It's a carbon steel, round bottomed wok with a wooden handle that includes a whole bunch of stuff like a wok ring (essential for round-bottomed woks), a dome lid, wok spatula, ladle, brass skimmer, bamboo cleaning whisk (never used one of these before), a steaming plate and a fry rack. Check out the product with the link below:
http://www.amazon.com/Carbon-Steel-Wok-Set-included/dp/B0001CNK7M/ref=sr_1_23?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1251812774&sr=8-23

I chose carbon steel because I didn't want to eat teflon and cast iron was just too heavy for me. The wooden handle was important as I'd like to be able to move the wok around on the stove without burning myself. The lid is also essential for cooking and steaming vegetables. As I mentioned earlier, round-bottom woks need to sit on a wok ring that is placed over the burner. These were the things I wanted when I started my search for a wok. In truth I could have gotten a super cheap one from a restaurant supply shop, but this particular package had everything I wanted all together with a bunch of accessories. It was just too convenient to pass up!

So upon bringing everything home and washing them, my next task was to season the wok. Like cast iron, the carbon steel wok, once seasoned, will be non-stick. My mom has always used a flat-bottomed teflon wok because it's easier and convenient and she doesn't have any cast iron cookware, so seasoning stuff was not something I had extensive experience with. We do have a cast iron skillet at home that I faithfully season on a regular basis by baking some oil into it, but I didn't know anything about how to season a carbon steel wok. Thankfully, the wok set came with a booklet of recipes and well as a pamphlet outlining the different ways you can season your wok. For all the methods, the wok must be REALLY dry and to ensure that, you can heat the wok up on the burner for a few minutes. Anyways, for carbon steel, there are 3 ways you can season it.

The first method is the same method I normally use to season cast iron. You rub the wok inside and out with oil and place it upside down into an oven preheated to 300 degrees. Leave it in there for about an hour.

The second method requires using about 1 to 2 cups of salt. I did not have that much salt lying around so I didn't use this method. Basically, you toss the salt in and heat up the wok pretty hot and shovel the salt around until it burns into the wok all over.

The third method is the one I used. You heat the wok up really hot and pour in about a cup of oil. While moving the wok and using the spatula, swirl the oil around constantly until it burns itself into every part of inside of the wok.

A well-seasoned wok has that lovely blackened look. The great thing about cooking with a wok is that you really don't need as much oil as you would with a flat pan. When I first started cooking using my fiance's flat pan, he kept noticing that I never used enough oil, even though I was certain it was the same amount of oil to cook the same amount of food at my mom's place. Sure enough, he was right, but almost never having cooked without a wok, I didn't know why I needed more oil at his place than at my mom's. Lol!

Anyways, now that it's seasoned, I couldn't wait to test it out! So the other night, I stir fried some stuff and was so happy! Nothing stuck and it felt SO good to be using a wok again! Unfortunately, I underestimated how hot it could get and burned some stuff, but I chalk that up to having gotten used to cooking with my fiance's flat pans. I'll just have to get used to my new cookware. As far as woks go, I am very happy customer with this one!