Can't take it anymore..

i really cant take this anymore. today sucks. Halloween  is my favorite favorite time of year, but the past 6 years Halloween day has been one of the hardest days of my year. 6 years ago today my twin brother was hit by a drunk driver while walking home from a party because he didnt want to drink. He died hours later because there was so much internal bleeding they could not stop it all. I was never able to say good bye, never able to tell him I loved him, and I wasnt mad at him. A few days before the accident we got into a fight over how ad where we would spend the weekend after Halloween that year, he wanted to come see Dad and I wanted to go see Mom. Stupid thing to fight over, I know, but we were 15, we had fought worse over way less. We never spoke again. And I have never forgiven myself for that.

Drew, I miss you with every fiber of my being. Every year, I think of all the things we should have done together, and it brings tears to my eyes. You never got your drivers licence, never went to junior prom or senior homecoming, never graduated, never turned 18, never went to college, never turned 21. Remember when we used to say all the things we would do when turned 21? Like party on state st for Halloween. Or not have to sneak drinks at family holidays? lol.

I am a terrible blogger...

So I know I'm horrible. I missed almost two weeks this time. I have a way better explanation this time though! Last week Monday, my normal posting day was a holiday so I was spending time with family and friends. My plan was to post on Tuesday, but I woke up in the week hours of the morning very very sick :( . I suspect I got the flu because I didn't start feeling better until Friday night. Then I had to haul butt and pack because my sister got married on Sunday. I didn't have internet again until Wednesday and it took me until now to get everything together again. I know I know poor excuse. I promise to be better!


This week I'm going to talk about something that is a little different for most people. First, a little background. I have always hated taking artificial medication. When I was little my parents had to hide crushed up pills in ice cream or bribe me to take liquid medicines. I was diagnosed with Bi Polar disorder over a year ago and to me it was the same a death sentence. Being told I had to take a cocktail of meds, that may not even work, every day, morning and night, for the rest of my life was devastating. Now mine is an unusual case and I do not condone going of medications unless you have had a long talk with your doctors and they ok it. I went through months of different mix of pills, changing each month trying to find the right mix, and each month having to deal with a whole new batch of side effects. Some months I was a zombie, sleeping 20 hours a day then when I was awake I was barely coherent. Others, made me itch so much it felt like there were bugs under my skin. To make an already long story shorter, my doctors graciously took me off my meds and let me instead take vitamins and herbal supplements.


Lately, I have had to add a new potion to the mix and I can not stop raving about it. I know insomnia is very common 3 out of the 4 people in my house suffer from it a least a few nights a week. For me, it starting being every night, I would lay in bed starting at the ceiling until four or five in the morning, then without an alarm, I would wake up at seven, at latest seven thirty. Suffice to say I was not a happy camper, nor was I pleasant to be around. Luckily, I have a good friend that owns an amazing little apothecary not 20 minutes from me. For those who don't know, an apothecary was the first type of drug store. They date back hundreds if not thousands of years, and sadly, they are a dying breed. But thankfully, my amazing friend Melissa is keeping the tradition alive with Aurora's Apothecary in Morrison, WI. If you are anywhere in the state, it is worth the trip to see this funky little shop. And no, she isn't paying me for this I just cant stop raving about the products I bought there!


When I told her I couldn't sleep she knew exactly what to give me. When I walked into the shop she directed me right to this adorable little cobalt blue bottle of Valarian Tincture. She explained to me that she makes it from the roots of the plant and it has a calming/sedative effect depending on how much you use. To put me to sleep, she told me, just add 35 to 50 drops in my favorite tea or juice about 30 minutes before I go to bed and I'll get a lasting deep sleep.


I was very skeptical I must say. Could this weird liquid really put me to sleep and keep me asleep? I researched it and everything I found back up everything Melissa said. So I grabbed my favorite tea, which happens to be Bigclow's Sweet Dreams Herb Tea, added the Valarian Tincture and waited to see what would happen. Well I slept! I haven't had this good of sleep in years. I even stayed asleep all night, and woke up feeling amazing!


Now, like I said, Melissa is not paying me for any of this! Even still I really encourage you to check the shop out. She has a Facebook group for the shop, it can be found her: https://www.facebook.com/groups/293260789675/ she has something for almost everything, all you have to do is ask. She even has classes out there.


Wow this is a very long post. I hop that makes up for missing for so long. Thank you for reading the things that fill my days. 

Was sucked in for a week... Now I'm back

Sorry about that folks, I meant to post last week, but alas I was sucked into the awesomeness that is Diablo 3. Yes I know, shame, shame, I was sucked in like the masses, but in all fairness the game is extremely fun. Also, the boyfriend and I traveled across the grand state in which we live (Wisconsin for those asking) to visit our mothers for mother's day. Which was amazing because my lovely boyfriend Ryan had not seen his parents or anyone from his hometown in six months! But we had lots of fun and saw so many people most of last week was spent recovering and playing the game. Also Ryan's best friend, another Ryan, returned from some Army Training so we spent some time with him and his lovely family.

But back to the crafty things that fill my days, lol! This one totally floored me when I saw it on Pinterest. It totally appealed to the girl in me that holds onto tshirts I will never wear again but I get them from some event I was in or something similar. I just can't bring myself to sell them or give them to Goodwill or the like so they sit in my closet for years. Well no more of that! This is an awesome, fun and super simple way to up cycle your old event shirts or even just shirts you just can't bear to part with! Today I am going to walk you through how to turn these treasured shirts into super functional, awesome, a million and one use bags!


Like I said, I found this the other day scrolling through Pinterest and thought, I suck at sewing and I can totally do that! I can't sew a straight line to save my life and I found this so easy and you don't really have to be perfect on it. The part of this project that took me the longest was trying to get my sewing machine working, then pinning the bottom of the shirt. But that's enough of my yappin', let's get craftin'!

First: Cut the sleeves off of the shirt as close as you can to the seam without cutting the seam off, this will give your handles some strength. 

Second: Using a plate or something else big and round, mark off what will become the top of your bag. I did this with sharpie so you could see it in the pictures, but I recommend using a washable fabric marker or pencil. 


I didn't like how shallow that ended up being on this particular shirt so I just deepened it by eye. Make the opening so it would be easy for you to use. I felt that if I had left it the way it was it would have been to hard to get things in and out of the bag.


Now flip the shirt inside out, and pin all along the bottom of the shirt right by the hem. Like I said earlier this part took me the longest but that is because at first I forgot to flip the shirt inside out. Luckily I realized this before I started sewing or that could have ended up a big oops! lol.


Now sew! I read online somewhere that the best stitch for this kind of thing would be a zig zag stitch, but it took me most of the day just to get my machine working so I just did a straight stitch as close to the stitching of the hem as I could get. For extra strength once I finished going all the way across the bottom of the shirt once, I put my machine in reverse and went over it again.


All in all with out counting the time it took to get my machine running I was able to do four of these in about a half hour. I'm using them around the house for everything from a knitting bag, to a new purse for summer, to a lunch bag! I had so much fun I actually went around my house asking everyone if they had shirts I could do this to. lol. I hope you liked this fun and super simple project and I will hopefully be back soon with more things to fill my days!

Welcome... And a DIY project!!!

So lately I have been having a lot of time on my hands so I've been trying to find different DIY projects to fill my days so I don't go completely stir crazy! After seeing a few of her things on Pinterest, I have completely fallen in love with everything on onegoodthingbyjillee . And thats where I found part of my inspiration for today's project making my own homemade laundry soap!! I was also inspired to do this because a friend of mine also tried it, and also I am insanely allergic to most laundry soaps and to me free and clear laundry soaps don't get anything clean.


So to make this recipe (and there are a ton of variations online but most contain the same 3 base ingredients) you are going to need 3 things, all of which can be found in the laundry section of your local Wal-Mart or similar such store. 

Item one is Borax, the most trusted brand that I have found is 20 Mule Team. Borax is an all natural laundry booster and multi-purpose household cleaner. It is safe in all washing machines including he washers. It is safe for septic systems, can be stored indefinitely as long as it is kept dry so it is safe to buy a large box. The box I have I found at Wal-Mart for around $3.50 for a four pound box and that, I do believe, should last me at least a year or so and I do laundry about every day. It is safe to use for baby clothes and around pets but still please keep it out of their reach because we don't want them eating it :). 

Item two is Washing Soda, I will repeat that again Washing Soda not baking soda. They will not do the same things. It is also know as Soda Ash and a good brand to get is good old Arm and Hammer. This is another all natural laundry booster that increases soap's cleaning power to get out ground-in dirt and satin, cut through grease, and it also helps neutralize and eliminate odors, not cover them up with perfumes. This really is a wonder product and I use it a lot not only in my homemade laundry soap but also in my homemade "oxyclean" that I will hopefully post soon. A 3lbs 7oz box of this goes for again around $3.50 at Wal-Mart.




The third and final ingredient is Fels-Naptha Soap. This is the actual soap in the laundry soap. It is an old school soap that is great for using as a pre-treatment for stains. It comes in the same type of wrapping as normal bar soap but is in the same aisle as all the laundry stuff. As far as I can tell it only comes in one bar packages but they are pretty big bars and are only $.97 a piece, so you really can't  go wrong!


Finally how to but it all together to make the Laundry Soap! This is a recipe for powdered laundry soap for liquid I would recommend going here:http://tinyurl.com/7rb4uda . There Jillee has an amazing step by step (with photos!) blog post about it.


You with need:
1 bar of Fels Naptha soap (grated, I recommend getting a grater dedicated to this so you  never end up with soapy cheese, I found mine at the dollar store!)
1 1/2 cup of Borax
1 1/2 cup of Washing Soda 


Place all ingredients into an air tight container (again I got one at the dollar store to use just for this) and mix. It really is that easy. The hardest part and the thing that will take you the longest is the soap grating, but all the work is well worth it. All you need is about 1-2 tablespoons per load. For top loaders turn on the machine and let it fill with a couple inches of water, add this soap and let it dissolve a little bit. Then through in your laundry and let the magic happen!


I have to say after using this soap for a few weeks now I think I can safely say that my cloths are brighter and I have had no reaction to this at all. It doesn't give my cloths a strong sent but the do still smell clean and are nice and soft. 


I know this post is kind of a book but I just wanted to be thorough with all my information. I hope you enjoyed and I hope to be back soon with more Things to Fill My Days.