DIY cute anniversary or wedding present.

A few months back I made a cute little inexpensive anniversary present for two of my very best friends. 

Found on Pinterest here... 

I totally loved it and since It was so quick and easy looking I went right to work!

I found a cute frame at the dollar store along with the spoons (one set of 2 for $1) 

I had the background paper from an earlier project as well as the letter stamps and ink. 

I hot glued it all together and I think it came out pretty cute!

Thankfully I remembered they started dating around the same time as my hubby and I! So I made one for us while I was at it. It's super cute to put in the kitchen. Pretty great when your friends keep similar anniversaries to you, makes it all easy to remember! 

Anyway, I would like to make nicer ones eventually if I can find better frames and cool looking spoons. But you can't beat that for $2!!

Happy crafting everyone!!

DIY heating pad.

I was having a particularly crummy night on Monday, with a belly ache on top of it all. The only thing that seemed to be helping was warmth and pressure. And while I have a heating pad, it doesn't help in the way of heaviness. As usual I had been pinteresting earlier in the day and was reminded of the heating pads I used to make when I was younger. You can take many different things and see them up into fabric and it makes a great little warmer. 

I chose a soft plaid I had laying around and cut it into a kitty cat shape and sewed it up, leaving about a 2 inch hole in the side where I could stuff it. I had in my cupboard a few bags of different dried beans, and a ridiculous amount of white rice so I poured it all into the bag I had made, sewed up the hole, and threw it in the microwave for a few minutes and done! I now had a nice heavy kitty shaped heating pad. 

My cat approves since he wouldn't get his tail out of the pictures. 

There you have it! A quick simple DIY. 

You can use all kinds of things to stuff it and add herbs and oils to make it smell good if you use it for headaches and the like as well. 

Till next time!

Update:

I made another kitty last night for my sister and remembered to take a picture of it pre sewed 

The many colors of Hannah. And a wedding.

Where do I even begin? Well, I am a red head, naturally, a rare breed. But like many other people in the world I get bored with my hair. When it is the same color you see every day it tends to look dull and boring to me. A lot of my friends cannot comprehend this because I am a red head. To me, it’s just like being any other color, also I am a girl. I change my mind by the second. Here, is a small-ish montage of my many hair....things.....

 This is what happened recently. I haven’t done a thing to my hair since early summer where I added some blonde ombre to it, just to make it a little more light for summer. Well as you can imagine, I got bored, and as I was looking around on pinterest I found this color I fell deeply in love with. They called it cherry cola, I was all over that.

I sent the picture to my hairdresser and made the appointment. Her name is Caitlin(Kelly) Bruscoe, If you live in the Western Mass area, go see her, she is amazing. Currently she’s working out of SuzannAndre Salon in Wilbraham. Everyone I showed it to was looking at me like I was crazy, mostly I think because of some of my previous hair choices. But I was determined nonetheless to have this color. Well the results were and are amazing, I have never gotten this many compliments on my hair, and I just love it.

Being 25 now I feel like I need to start looking a little more adult, and this totally helps. People yes still think I am 18, but at least I feel like I look a little more mature. I got it done just in time for this amazing wedding we went to, and I felt like a million bucks. The wedding was BEAUTIFUL. It was like being in a pinterest board!! Here are a few photos.

The DIY life.

I had mentioned in an earlier blog that I had made my own Homemade Deodorant. I wasnt comfortable sharing the how-to until i had actually used it. I wouldnt want to tell you all about it and then have it set my arm pits on fire and have to retract all my information. But no fear dear readers, no such thing happened. Now i don't always wear deodorant, its just not something that i was ever religious at. I know you are probably thinking, "this chick is gross, she doesnt shampoo and condition her hair, she rubs coffee grounds all over her legs, plays in the mud." While all of these statements are true to a point, you can ask my friends and family, 90% of the time I do not smell offensive and am relatively clean! While testing out the deodorant I had my huband smell test me often and be honest if i was smelly or not. He said i had no smell so i deem that a success! So if you want to make your own deodorant here it what to do!

1/4 cup baking soda 1/4 cup corn starch 5 tablespoons of coconut oil essential oils (i left out the essential oils when i made mine, only because i dont have any!) throw all these ingrediants into a bowl and mix em together.

It takes a bit of elbow grease to blend it all with the coconut oil but then you should have an almost soild mix. Depending on what you like, and your environment, (it has a tendency to get melty in a hot climate) I have read that you can try to mush it all into an old (empty) stick of deodorant and use it that way. I put mine into an old candle jar because thats what i like.

Well there you have it. Rememeber, this is a deodorant, not anti-persperant. So while you may not be smelly, you may be a bit moist, depending on your body. If you try it let me know in the comments i would love to hear your experience! 

Till next time! 

*kisses*

Day four

Day three of no poo arrived. All in all everything is normal. My hair feels much like it would normally 3 days after washing it! Tonight I went out so I did a little styling and hair spray it all held well! 

Yes I am writing this from bed where I an overly sleepy, but my hair looks good! 

I plan on doing my next wash tomorrow before I visit my bffls, one of whom is going to go no poo as well! Very exciting!!

More later!

~*ginge 

Day 2

It's been 24 hours since I washed with the "no poo" method and so far so good! My hair is soft and happy! The only parts of it that are feeling greasy are the parts I put the jojoba oil on. Which is fine with me! 

Here it is today. 

More updates later!

"No Poo"

So I, Hannah Hope Stephens, have decided to take the "no poo" challenge.
What is that you say?
You are no longer going to poop?
No sillies!
No Shampoo!

Again you say WHAT?! You aren't going to wash your hair?!
Once again, no. Stop being ridiculous.

After reading many articles, and blogs, and pinteresting all over the place, I've decided to make the switch and ditch my shampoo and conditioner.

The idea is, using Baking Soda and Vinegar to wash your hair instead of using expensive products full of nasty chemicals that are doing nothing good for you. Shampoo is like a detergent that strips your hair yes of all the gross nasty but also of all the good happy oils that you want to have in your hair. So by using baking soda you only have to wash your hair maybe once or twice a week and your hair will start to go back to normal and produce its own oils and good stuff and yay happy hair!
Basically here is the blog that i like the best that explains it the best way http://livinginanotherlanguage.com/blog/tag/no-poo/


Anyway today is day one,
I just washed it about an hour ago, and although it was a snarly mess that is nothing new. I rubbed a little jojoba oil in there and i was good to go. So far the hair that is dry on the top of my head is super soft and happy, and according to Caleb it smells just like hair! haha

I shall continue to update as the process continues!

I'm going to make home made deodorant next! More DIY to come!!!