a tiny peek at home

It's been a good long while since I've shared any peeks into our home life, mostly because I've fallen a bit out of love with our space, but in an effort to embrace the remaining 6 months we have here I thought I'd take pictures of my favorite bits to share. Here are two spaces (or vignettes) I'm happy to show off; above the beloved objects on my dresser and below Ryan's side of the bed. You can see my side here.

I love so many of the objects found in our home from the silly broken globe, to my great grandmother's dress hanging on the wall, to my one legged wooden model holding necklaces. It's not the objects we're tired of but the lack of walls and space to put them. I don't want to forget our first apartment in Philadelphia so I'm going to make an effort to snap more pictures in the future. What do you say, can you hold me to it? big kiss, bekuh

all natural oatmeal face mask diy

Summer can be really hard on the skin, and I started to really notice its toll on my skin a few weeks ago. In the past I would have grabbed a store bought face mask to battle the breakout, but this time I decided to take matters into my own hands. I found a simple face mask recipe meant for all skin types, using ingredients I already had in my pantry, and the results blew me (and Ryan) away.

With only three required ingredients, this has to be one of the easiest homemade face masks out there! Each part of the recipe plays an important role in the clarification of your skin as I'll describe below.

Ingredients:

+ 1 tablespoon oatmeal

+ 1 tablespoon plain yogurt (I used greek yogurt)

+ 3-4 drops of honey

Oatmeal is a natural exfoliant, and soothing agent for your skin. It helps to reduce puffiness, close pores, and scrubs away dead skin cells. Milk or yogurt in this case contains many of the vitamins our skin craves, like vitamins A, D, and E. Honey contains chemicals that actually help lighten your skin while also moisturizing it, reducing redness and bringing out your natural, smooth glow. Combined these three ingredients are like super food for your skin to absorb. Pretty cool huh?

Now that you know what all the ingredients do for your skin, here's how to make the mask at home:

+ Cleanse your face using your daily face wash and warm water.

+ Grind the oatmeal into a powder. I used a mortar and pestal, but you can also use a rolling pin or meat tenderizer for this job.

+ Mix the powdered oatmeal and yogurt together in a bowl.

+ Heat up the honey for a few seconds, until runny. Combine with the yogurt and oatmeal mixture until dissolved completely.

+ Smooth the mixture onto your skin, letting set for ten minutes.

+ After ten minutes wash your face with warm water, using a washcloth to help remove the dried parts.

+ Moisturize your face like usual

After using this mask my face felt soft and smooth, just what I needed. I'm looking forward to researching more homemade, all natural, face masks in the future. Have any of you made a face mask you'd recommend I try? big kiss, bekuh

sun printing 101

I've long been fascinated with sun printing techniques, but had never taken the time to learn about the process first hand. It's easy to understand the appeal if you've ever seen one of these prints, the persian blue background with white impression leaves a lasting visual memory. On Sunday I finally fulfilled my desire to learn about cyanotype printing in a class hosted at Terrain.

Sun prints are created using special, light-sensitive chemicals that are then painted or soaked into paper. The paper has to be exposed under the sun in order to develop an image, and submerged in water to stop the development process. This special paper is called cyanotype paper. We used a kit to create our sun prints at Terrain, found here. 

Our fabulous teacher, Morgan, gave us the following instructions to create the sun prints you see above:

We were pretty pleased with the results of our first sun prints, and plan to frame a few of them for our bathroom. I'd like to try this same process on silk or cotton to see how the prints develop differently, and to test out new techniques. Have any of you ever sun printed before? I'd love to here suggestions, tips, and advice for taking compositions to the next level. big kiss, bekuh

diy souvenir magnet

I've been accumulating an odd collection as of late, hotel room keys. With all the traveling I've been doing for work it should come as no surprise. Typically I try to shed things away as I travel, not gather them, but somehow I always end up with hotel room keys tucked into the folds of my wallet. Happily these types of souvenirs are easy to carry, and not at all kitschy, making them an ideal thing to keep. I decided to put a "key" or two to use by making them into magnets for our fridge. My favorite being my room key from the Ace hotel. This is probably the easiest DIY I ever, here's how you do it:

Supplies:
You'll need a hotel key, magnet sheet, scissors, pen and super glue

Steps:
1. Lay the hotel room key on top of the magnet sheet and trace around it with the pen.
2. Cut 1/4 inch inside the line with your scissors, so the magnet is slightly smaller than the key.
3. Dribble the super glue over the back of the room key, and place the magnet sheet on top. Make sure the magnetic part is facing outward.
4. Let dry for a couple of minutes, until the glue is completely set.

I told you it was easy. Now every time I look at our fridge I'm reminded of the travels I've been on, and it always gets me thinking of the next adventure awaiting me. Projects that remind you to live life are the best. I can't wait to add to the collection!  big kiss, bekuh

FOLLOW ALONG:

DIY Lavender Sachets

I love the smell of fresh laundry. There is something so calming, and reassuring about the smell of clothes fresh out of the dryer. Actually my favorite way to dry laundry is in the summer sun, but that's not always possible. In an attempt to elongate the fresh smell of laundry I decided to make some lavender sachets to put in drawers and baskets around our home.

Originally fresh herbs and spices were used to ward off bugs, and freshen rarely washed clothing. Though that is no longer the case, I still find the addition of fresh herbs a welcome change from the smell of dusty drawers or open baskets.Making sachets is incredibly easy. Start with a pile of scrap, or small pieces of fabric, embroidery floss, and lavender buds. I found lavender buds on this site, but dried home grown herbs would be even more incredible!

Using pinking shears, cut your fabric into squares. I decided to cut 5" square pieces of fabric, but you can do any size you like. Layer two of the squares on top of one another, ensuring that the back side of the fabric is facing the other. Now, thread your embroidery floss, and sew along the outside of the fabric square. Do not fully enclose the square, but leave a 1" opening to pour the lavender buds inside.I found the easiest way to get the lavender inside the patch was to do it by hand. Pinch a large bunch of buds and push them into the pouch until it is full to the top. Once you've filled the sachet, rethread the embroidery floss and close the opening. It's that easy.I find this method just as effective as using Febreeze, or other sprays to freshen clothes. It's also a much milder scent, and environmentally friendly. Just toss a sachet in your clothes drawers, or put them boxes as you store away your winter clothes. It's just one small thing I can do to reduce chemicals, and waste in my life. big kiss, bekuh

One Small Thing: Natural Air Freshener

As a dog owner, I'm a big fan of air fresheners. Puppies have a special smell all their own, and I kind of hate it most of the time. As such I've been a big supporter of spray air fresheners for some time. With my goal of being more sustainable, and natural I felt like it was time to find some alternatives to the chemical ridden stuff. Enter Pinterest, the endless sea of knowledge. I found this post on creating a simple, natural air freshener, and decided why not try it? So today I have more own version to share, and my review of this tutorial.

+ The ingredients are simple enough, you need: a small glass jar, essential oils (I used lavender & eucalyptus/lemon), baking soda, cheese cloth, and ribbon.
+ First, measure out about 1/4 cup baking soda and pour into glass jar.
+ Next, pour 8-12 drops of essential oils on the baking soda.
+ Using a fork combine the mixture. It will clump, so try to break those pieces up as much as possible.
+ Cut a piece of cheese cloth big enough to cover glass jar, and tie ribbon around it.
+ Every couple of days remove the lid and break up the baking soda, so it can capture more smells.

I've been using mine for two weeks now, and the essential oils are still smelling great! I would like to note that this hasn't really "scented" the room, but more deodorized it. I'll take deodorized over stinky though. It's just one small thing I can do to reduce my harsh chemical use. big kiss, bekuh

Make It: Easy Instagram Art

I made a promise to myself years, and years ago that when I grew up I'd only have original art, and artist prints in my home. Though I've been pretty good at keeping to this, there have definitely been times that I look at an empty wall and think to myself, "Maybe I should just buy that box store art this one time." My inner decorator gets sad at half dressed rooms. To combat this urge to buy cheap reproductions, or mass produced art I've made the decision to incorporate creative photo displays using our own photographs. Enter this easy instagram project...

The supplies you'll need for this project is are pretty minimal. I used a 16"x20" frame, a white matte of the same size with a cut out of 9"x12", a large piece of thick paper (like bristol paper), photo corners, acid-free masking tape, 4"x4" instagram photos, and a black marker. I use PostalPix to print all of instagram photos, but everything else can be found at your local craft store.

The first step is to tape the bristol paper to the back of your matte, using the masking tape. Flip the matte back over, and arrange your instagram photos down the center of the bristol paper. I was only able to fit three down, but could have easily put two across if I wanted it to look a little fuller. I wanted to add a couple of fun captions next to my photos, so I offset them slightly to make room for the text.

Once you've arranged your instagram photos the way you like, peel off a couple of photo corers and start placing them on each point of your photo. Press the photo back into the paper, and continue until all of them are pressed down completely. Next, pick up your pen and write the captions next to your photos if you like. I didn't do anything fancy, just a brief description of the photo. I think it kind of makes them look like artifacts, or scientific specimen.


All you have left to do once you've gotten your captions written, is to put the matte in your frame and hang. The entire project took me less than 20 minutes, and it will hang in our home for a long time. Have you been refreshing your decor lately, what kind of projects have you been doing?  big kiss, bekuh