DIY Life

Join me each week as I explore the naturally aromatic side of DIY. Helpful recipes for your "scentual" pleasure: from essential oils, herbs, and other botanicals, to soap-making, body care products, and other useful blends.

You have soft, smooth feet from our pedicure of two weeks ago. Your face is aglow with healthy skin after last week's facial. What about the rest of you?

Get ready to pamper yourself (or a loved one) with the gift of relaxation and cared-for skin -- all over!

After the break, I'll share recipes for relaxing bath salts, a detoxifying body scrub, a gentle hand scrub, and body oil, along with packaging ideas to make lovely gifts of these homemade products.

In this age of doing-it-yourself, handmade gifts are becoming more and more popular. The trouble with that is making sure your gifts are original and unique.

Making a spoon rest out of clay can be as one-of-a-kind as you want it to be, or you can make it simple and use a cookie cutter so your kids can help with the project. The article suggests making a heart spoon rest, but you could make anything you wanted to -- freehand, or use a cookie cutter or stencil of your choice.

You'll need air-drying clay, acrylic paint, both in colors and clear, and any tools you will want to use to work the clay. Suggestions about how to make hole to hang the spoon rest and how to make it rest on a flat surface easily are included in the instructions. You can paint it when it is dry and even put felt on the bottom for a nice base.

If your kids -- or you! -- know your way around a can of Play Doh, you can easily make a clay spoon rest as a keepsake gift for any occasion.

I'm simply giddy that sandal season is upon us. If you've made your feet pretty with our home spa pedicure, then you are ready to try your hand at making your own sandals.

If Anna's recycled tire sandals aren't your thing, you might like to order this Make Your Own Sandals Kit. They are customizable and very stylish. The assembly instructions are clear and easy to follow, and you can purchase fun add-ons like charms and other embellishments.

The drawback? At 39.95 for a basic sandal kit, you could just go out and buy a pair of already-made sandals. But if you are a die-hard DIYer, this is an easy way to say, "I made these shoes."

I am wondering if you could use an old pair of shoe soles, buy new leather strapping, and fashion yourself a similar pair of sandals for less -- recycling old shoes, to boot. It would be better for the planet and your wallet!

I know, I know they come seedless now. I even know the beauty of the watermelon seed spitting contests of my youth. So is there really a need to know how to un-seed a watermelon?

Well, it is a neat trick, a way to show off to your friends, something else to say you know how to do. So yes, you really do need to know how to un-seed a watermelon.

Instructables gives a step-by-step tutorial, complete with pictures, on how you can do this. Basically, you cut wedges up to where the seed line would be and you serve those parts. Then, cut the seeds away from the middle and serve the center of the watermelon.

You are officially ready to be seen with red juice dripping down your chin.

(via Lifehacker)

You may not know it, but there could be a tea garden growing in your very own yard. Many weeds make excellent herbal tea, and they are medicinal to boot.

In my yard, I have a variety of chocolate mint that is my favorite tea, but I also have rosemary and sage that come up every year. Oh, and the plethora of dandelions, but I suppose I shouldn't admit that.

Country Living has some fresh plant blending ideas that you can use to make your own herbal teas. They include weeds, herbs and even edible flowers. They also include an extensive list of edible -- and drinkable -- plants, some of which may surprise you. I've never thought of steeping young birch leaves or pine needles, but according to Country Living, they'd make some great tea.

So, whether for medicinal or culinary purposes, fresh plants can make delicious tea. Now, who is baking the cookies to go with this delicious fresh tea?

(via Lifehacker)

Join me each week as I explore the naturally aromatic side of DIY. Helpful recipes for your "scentual" pleasure: from essential oils, herbs, and other botanicals to soap-making, body care products and other useful blends.

Last week, you learned how to pamper yourself, some friends or your mom with a home pedicure. Recipes for foot soak, foot scrub and foot butter helped to set the stage for a day of feet-lovin' fun. Use those newly neat feet to gather supplies for the best home facial you can give -- just in time for Mother's Day.

After the break, I'll share recipes for making your own facial cleanser, face scrub, facial mask and face oil, ideas for packaging them as gifts, and tips for choosing oils and essential oils based on your skin type.

Is all of this spring rain getting to you? If you have a three-year-old, you are probably outside in it everyday like I am, enjoying projects like making a rain gauge ruler and a rain book. But if your older, slightly more rational children prefer to stay indoors on torrential days, you might like making a rain stick with them.

What is a rain stick, you ask? It is simply a long tube filled with various noisemakers that make the tube sound like a rainstorm when tipped end over end. It has been used in different cultures -- invented in Chile -- to attempt to make the rains come.

This is an easy project that leaves the creativity window wide open, so every rain stick really comes out a unique expression of each creator. You'll need a mailing tube, some dried rice and peas, plastic drinking cups to cover the ends of the tube, aluminum foil and the odds and ends of art supplies, staplers, etc.

After this past week here in New England, I can't imagine talk of a drought. The creek that runs through our backyard is a raging river and I don't remember what the sun looks like.

Yet the rain inspires me to write about some fun rain projects you can do around your yard and with your kids to pass the time on rainy days.

Since we have gotten so much rain, I thought it would be fun to measure the amount of rainfall that has graced us. It is so easy to make a rain gauge ruler, from an old olive or peanut butter jar and this printable rain ruler. You can graph the daily rainfall with your kids -- or your science-minded husband! -- and make it something to look forward to on rainy days.

Flowers are a wonderful gift, if only they would last longer. With these flower gifts that you can make with your kids, they will last perhaps longer than the recipient would like them to! Or the flowerpots are perfect for presenting real flowers or plants.

Make this photo flower bouquet from paper, using photos as the center of the flower. Glue onto a chenille stem and present as a bouquet or in a vase. I like the idea of using patterned paper; handmade paper would look stunning, as would scrapbooking paper.

It is so easy to paint this clay flowerpot. All you need are some acrylic paints and your creativity. You can plan a pattern with your kids beforehand, use some stencils or let them go, Jackson Pollock style. You know they will come up with something spectacular, and uniquely "them."

My local moms' group is in the middle of a community service project right now -- raising money to buy backpacks and school supplies for students whose families need a little financial help. One of the ways we are doing this is through bake sales.

We have a good, active group of women who have really come together to share ideas, and now you can benefit from what we've learned about how to have a successful bake sale.

Look for events / locations where there are already lots of hungry people.
Some of our ideas are: at T-Ball and soccer games, at the local concerts in the park, and in front of a local grocery market. Always check with your town to see if permits are required for set-up.

There is something about the hand print gift. Maybe it is because it is so overdone that it has become kitschy, like every mom must own one. Probably it is because the size of your child's hand is frozen in time, a special keepsake of your growing child at the given age of the hand print.

If you find the hand print gifts charming, I've gathered a sampling of hand print projects that are slightly more unique, and dare I say upscale, than the typical hand print wreath. You know you've got one.

This easy hand print hand towel is made using towels you buy at the store and fabric paint. You can add the child's name, date and other embellishments and you've got a real keepsake here, and a usable one at that.

We all need renewal time, and a little pampering pleasure tops my list. Who doesn't love facials, pedicures, full body scrubs and the like? You can create the decadence of a day at the spa, right in your own home.

So plan on a little you-time, invite your girlfriends over for a spa party, or create a spa day for your mom, just in time for Mother's Day (and early enough that you can get your materials together!). Or, get some pretty containers and give these "products" as gifts.

This week, we'll start with pampering the feet, and columns on the face and body (and hands) will follow in subsequent weeks.

We all know how versatile duct tape is. From duct tape wallets, a duct tape book cover, even a duct tape top hat, this is one hard-working DIY tool. Here are a few of ways we use duct tape in our house, and I bet you haven't though of them!

Hold up your skinny kid's pants
Our three-year old has been skinny all of his life, yet very tall. Adjustable waist pants were our savior, but until duct tape came along, we found no good way to hold up his sweatpants. Simply fold over a small flap of the waistband from the inside, and duct tape to fasten. I know this is a hard explanation to visualize, so check out the gallery for detailed photos and instructions.

Make a knight's sword and shield
Our little guy also has a penchant for playing dress-up, and he loves knights and castles. We fashioned a sword and shield from man old cardboard box and covered them with duct tape to look like metal. It is much more durable than wrapping in tin foil, which I have seen done before, and it helps the cardboard stay sturdy.

An author's blog is an unlikely place to get advice on shaving; nonetheless, that is where the inspiration for this post comes from. A friend of Neil Gaiman's suggested he try using hair conditioner on his beard before shaving. Lo and behold, a close shave!

Now, my husband has the potential to be a perpetual Fred Flintstone (Homer Simpson, character on Miami Vice, you get the point). He tried this trick out this morning and his face looked like a teenage boy's, sans acne. Smooth, hairless, amazing. I have never seen my husband look this clean-shaven, and he's tried just about everything.

Need some other tricks to try? If you use a face scrub before shaving, the exfoliating action opens the pores so you can get a closer shave. Common sense would also dictate that you use a sharp blade and shave slowly and carefully. You could even try a shaving brush, which is reputed to prepare the face in an exceptional way.

My one-day experience, though, tells me that you should never run out of hair conditioner.

The weather is finally right for your budding artist to let loose on the driveway. After you've made Bethany's homemade sidewalk chalk, print out some of these stencils to help your child create a masterpiece.

I wouldn't be a former teacher and art student if I didn't say that freehand is best to encourage creativity, but that there is also something to be said for the skill of staying in the lines. The best way to use the stencils would be to incorporate them into a freehand design, so I'll suggest ways to do that for each stencil design.

Since you'll be using these stencils outside, use cardstock to print them. They will be much sturdier and possibly even reusable. Then, just cut out the designs using pointed scissors or an exacto knife. Join me after the break for some fun ways to decorate your driveway, kid style.