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Homemade Slippery Soap Squares

By Christina Lee| March 24th, 2019|DIY Home, Handmade, Homemade Soap, Oh My Crafts!|

Okay, so I’ve watched one too many videos on BuzzFeed and this video on making your own DIY aromatherapy soap finally made me do it. I dropped everything I was doing, pulled up Amazon, and Amazon Primed myself all the stuff needed to make homemade soap. For someone who loves DIY projects and gets a little anxious about having all the right materials, the starter kit for making soap wasn’t too bad. I shopped around for the soap base first. There is a lot to choose from. You can get clear glycerin, goat’s milk, oatmeal and one of my favorites, Shea butter. I decided to go with an oatmeal base, since I wanted to it to be textured and all-natural looking. I knew for this first go around, I was going to use dried flowers and rely little on added coloring.

For the flowers, I decided to buy myself a mixed bouquet from the market. Yes, I buy myself flowers! I love the idea of having fresh flowers in the house. The color, the scent and just the idea of having something alive in the room really just brightens up your day. It’s sad when they die, but now I know how to make full use of them. I took the flower petals and set them aside so that they would dry. This batch had blue hydrangeas and others that I’d save for a later time. I also had a sash of dried lavender that my mom got from her vacation that I thought would be great for this project.

With the dried flowers ready, I went ahead and bought the rest of the ingredients: soap mold, a pack of essential oils and alcohol spray. Since I was doing Melt and Pour, you literally just had to cut the block of soap into cubes and melt it over a pot of hot water. It took about ten minutes to melt, but make sure to keep an eye on it and keep stirring so it won’t scald.

While the soap was melting, I stirred in lavender and lemongrass essential oils. Then I sprayed the soap molds with alcohol and drizzled in the dried hydrangea and lavender. Once the soap base was completely melted, I poured them into the soap molds and then popped them straight into the freezer for about four hours. I think I poked and prodded them at the two hour mark just to see how they were doing. They were rock hard, but you can tell they were still setting.

Four hours later, you’ve got soap that you can proudly use!

Coral Crocheted Hand Towel

By Christina Lee| February 18th, 2019|Craft Day, Crocheting, DIY Home, Handmade, Oh My Crafts!, Yarn Addict|

This crocheted hand towel is just so fun that I was inspired to make another one. It’s an easy project to bring with you when you’re on the go because the white portion of the towel is just single crochet all the way through to about 90 to 100 lines (depending how long you want to make it). I tried other patterns such as double or half double, but it just made this hand towel seem too ornate — especially with the decorative edging at the bottom.

Having made this before, I decided to buy the cotton yarn in bulk instead of two to three separate balls. It made for less clean up in the middle of the pattern — and sewing in loose ends is not one of my favorite things to do. However, the fun part of this project was choosing the accent color and just about any color goes with white. I previously made this with purple edging, so this time I went for coral, a color I thought would really pop in my bathroom.

The edging itself while it might look complicated is really simple. In fact I just made up this pattern using a combination of single and double crochet, and threw in some loops. You can really do as you please and customize the length. I thought two to three inches worked well for the overall length of this towel. If you’re unsure, you can just eye ball it to a store bought towel.

Well, how does it look? I think it makes a great addition to any bathroom. When I wash my hands, I secretly prefer to use this handmade towel over the others because it just feels luxurious.

Happy Crocheting!

Star Stitch Crocheted Dish Towels

By Christina Lee| July 22nd, 2018|Crocheting, DIY Home, Handmade, Yarn Addict|

If these star stitched crocheted dish towels don’t motivate you to clean then I don’t know what will. Hopefully Spring cleaning wasn’t the last time you touched a dish towel. If it is, then you and your dish towels are long overdue for a kitchen scrub down. Inspired by a new crochet pattern I learned from YouTube, I decided to add a little splash of color into my kitchen. Summer shades of green, yellow and blue make the kitchen pop in a sea of brown cabinets, granite counters and stainless steel appliances. The star stitch pattern itself is an easy pattern to learn. It’s repeatable and it takes two rows to complete the star configuration, so you can swap out different colors of yarn pretty fluidly in between rows. It might seem intimidating at first if you’re not used to creating multiple loops in one stitch, but if you can get a few of these under your belt and you know how to do a half double crochet, then this is a great pattern to use to make dish towels. It’s a beautiful stitch and it creates a thick, plushy texture that’s good for scrubbing counter tops or wiping down a glass of spilled milk. And adding that hook in the upper corner makes it convenient to hang in your kitchen cabinet.

Mosaic Bowl

By Christina Lee| April 22nd, 2018|DIY Home, Handmade, Humbling Hobbies and Habits, Mosaic Art, Oh My Crafts!|

In addition to learning and acquiring new hobbies, this year will also be about finishing my projects — all of my projects. I started this mosaic bowl over a year ago when I first got introduced to mosaic art and glass cutting at the Alameda Art Lab. I got a fair amount of practice for both cutting and catching flying pieces of glass through the air since I completed a few mosaic art projects — a turtle, a rock and a heart. I decided to take on this mosaic bowl, and just as I was about halfway through it, I ran out of steam. I left the the bowl with JaYing and she said she’d hold on to it until I decided to come back and finish it.

Well a year later, I came back. I was wondering if the bowl was still there… and it was! It was just sitting there in the corner. Other students came and went, and she did mention that someone had offered to finish it I never came back, but luckily, it was still exactly how I had left it. Shards of yellow, purple, pink and brown glass were still plated though I had to pick up a few more slabs from the color bin. I started out with mirrored glass encircling the “eye” of the bowl and lined it with gold and yellow, which really made the rich sea of purple and brown pop. I have to admit, it was hard to distinguish the dark browns from the dark reds, so I “snuck” in a few shards of deep red. You could only tell when you hold it up to the light. I think it gives it character! I also decided to leave room for shades of brown and pearl to contrast against the pink and pearl, and to complement the eye. With those last few pieces, it’s time to grout and let it sit.

With my sister’s birthday coming up in the next month, I decided this would be the perfect gift for her apartment. She’s a fan of purple and I’d like to give her a place to leave her keys, drop in a few coins and leave her knick knacks. I can’t wait to see how she receives it!

Spicing Things Up

By Christina Lee| July 18th, 2014|DIY Home, In the Kitchen|

Inspired by Sandra Lee’s Semi-Homemade television show, I decided to apply her concept to some DIY handmade projects to spice up the kitchen. When contemplating ways to tidy up the kitchen and give it a bit more pizzazz, I decided I couldn’t just let bags of spices overtake the cabinet and counter space. It just left too much of a mess. Oftentimes, I’d leave these spice packets lying out as I cooked or cleaned the dishes only to find them pour over between the crevices of the sink and stove, and other times, they’d just fall to the ground and become one with the dust particles. Enough is enough. A much needed trip to The Container Store seemed to be the solution to end this ‘cry over spilled spices.’

One trip to The Container Store was longer than expected. You would think it was the long lines, but no, it was actually the unforeseen zigzagging through the aisles that stole my attention away from the household aisle. After a few moments of aimlessly wandering through the store, I made my way to that aisle only to find these beautifully stacked, clear containers sitting on top of a revolving tray. This is going to be perfect!!

While I could have stayed a lot longer, I was more excited to head to the local grocery store and pick up a few of my favorite spices. Perusing the aisle for what seemed like over a hundred different types of spices was overwhelming at first, but then, I had a new appreciation for all the flavors and aromas. I picked up a generous handful of day-to-use and a few others, like bay leaves that I hardly ever use, but just appreciate for its smell and texture. I must say, they don’t come cheap.

Pouring them into their new containers was the best part and seeing the assortment of color, texture and fragrance come together lit up the small corner I had in my kitchen. Well, I am very pleased with my new spice rack and now, I just need to dig through those recipe cards so I can actually put them to use!

Christmas in February

By Christina Lee| February 26th, 2017|Crocheting, DIY Home, Handmade, Holiday Fun, Humbling Hobbies and Habits, Yarn Addict|

Well, we finally did it, Cooper. We put the finishing touches on this blanket and now, Susanna can take home her Christmas present even though it’s now February. Way to sit on it for so long, Cooper!

The idea was to plan ahead for once and start this blanket in October, so I can pair this blanket with the one I’m giving Mom and Dad for Christmas and surprise Susanna with her very own. However, I think I was a bit too ambitious finishing up the other blanket, working on two scarves and then starting on this one. The other projects were also a bit more taxing since I had to constantly read the pattern and tally up each row. So, I decided to give myself a little break and work on this Granny Row crochet pattern – a simple combination of double crochets and skipping spaces – one that I can actually do while watching television and sipping on some red wine.

For the next couple of weeks — and months, this blanket and Netflix became my best friend in the evenings. I started the blanket completing rows of two with each color only to realize that A) I still had a lot more rows to complete and B) two rows of a single color wasn’t going to get me very far, so I began differentiating the count and varying the width to three rows, then five rows and back three rows of one color. The most exciting part was switching to the next color, especially the light purple in the middle. And since we’re in nearing winter, the faster I completed a row, the warmer I got to keep my legs — one advantage of working on this blanket during the winter season.

While I didn’t end up finishing it for Christmas, I was about 90 percent of the way there – close enough to wrap it in a box and gift it to Susanna for Christmas. The look on her face was the most gratifying for me especially since she did not expect a blanket for herself after spending nearly a decade on Mom and Dad’s. But here it is, a blanket just for her in the nick of time to keep her warm this wet and rainy, winter season. Merry Christmas, Susanna. Here’s to keeping the spirit of Christmas alive in February.

Merry Christmas!

By Christina Lee| December 25th, 2016|DIY Home, Holiday Fun, In the Kitchen|

This is our third Christmas celebration for the weekend and it just wouldn’t complete without having to play some silly game that my sister conjured up — and this is on top of singing two rounds of “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” My ear is still ringing from yesterday’s rendition. Of course, this was all caught on camera so we can use this as a baseline for next year’s singing. Don’t be surprised if this magically disappears from your phone, Susanna.

This year’s family game involves pantyhose and balloons. Oh goody. And the fact that this ‘reindeer game’ sits after a round of drinks and hors d’oeuvres, but just before dinner and presents is a skillful maneuver and the perfect way to get the family’s concentrated attention. Each of the ‘kids’ are asked to pair up with an ‘adult’, blow up as many balloons as you can and stuff them in your nylon pantyhose — all within a five minute time constraint. Who comes up with such games?!

My sister ended up being the cameraman and moderator, while each of us tried to be strategic with blowing up balloons, tying them together, replacing the popped balloons and balancing them on each side of the stocking. My Aunt Julie and I rocked this game and we were the first to finish and demo our ‘antlers.’ Demoing them was fine so long as you stayed as far as you could from the mirror. But I’d certainly say they were most fitting on my Dad.

Well, we made it through Game Night holding our ‘antlers’ up high. Now it’s time for some much deserved hot cocoa from our first ever Hot Chocolate Bar.

Here is one holiday where hot chocolate doesn’t fall too far off the menu. I mean, it’s Christmas. Anything goes, right? I’m a sucker when it comes to sweets. Walking up and down the aisles while picking up last minute gifts at Target didn’t exactly curb the craving, but it did inspire this idea of a hot chocolate bar. Peppermint candy canes, Christmas tree-shaped lollipops and chocolate peppermint sticks were plentiful and just calling my name. And red and green marshmallows sitting on top of plain old marshmallows almost made my knees buckle, so I might as well grab a bag of those. Finally, this year’s pick for hot chocolate goes to my friend at Starbucks.

While all those lollipops and marshmallows are pleasing to the eye, I must admit I like my hot chocolate dressed up with mini marshmallows, a dollop of whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

Merry Christmas to you all from the Lee Family!

Chihuly In My Living Room

By Christina Lee| June 18th, 2016|Creative Inspiration, DIY Home|

During a sisters’ trip to Seattle, we visited Chihuly Garden and Glass near the Space Needle. Little did I know I’d fall in love with all of his strikingly beautiful glass art. From wall to ceiling, spirals of hand-blown glass took center stage and commanded the room’s attention. The ornate designs and vibrant colors of reds, yellows, blues and greens were fascinating and stained your eyes. With every delicate piece, came fine art that radiated with beauty. Chihuly knew exactly how to stun his audience.

One day after I work a little harder and make some more money, I hope to take home one of his flawless designs. Until now, I’ve got my high resolution Samsung 6 Edge camera and this snapshot I can now hang on my wall at home.

Chihuly, you are a master of design.

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