First there was measuring and taping.  Then came the sanding, followed by the washing off of all the dust.

Next, he applied a whole lot of sheetrock compound to the wall and let it dry overnight.

Then he sanded some more….And some more…And some more.  When he was finished the wall was smooth.

Then I stupidly forgot to take pictures of the next couple of steps, but it went like this:

• Wash the dust off and apply two coats of primer, let that dry overnight.  We used rollers with super low nap to keep the texture to a minimum.
• Another light sanding (chalkboards have to be super smooth, you know?)
• Apply four (?) coats of chalkboard paint.  This paint is thin.  I suppose that’s so that it goes on with a fine finish.
• Prime and paint a trim piece.
• Measure twice, cut once.
• Nail the trim on, fill the holes, apply more white paint.

When all of that was finished we had this:

Cheeks waited patiently while the paint cured for the next three days.

And then it was time to condition the new chalkboard by covering the whole thing with chalk and then wiping it off.

Cheeks didn’t want to wait until we’d finished wiping it off.

I forgot that it was the end of our three day wait period and so didn’t get new chalk and an eraser, but I had a big chunky piece of gray chalk on hand for the festivities.  We’ll go out and get some awesome new colors soon.

That strange looking devil-beast that Cody drew at the top?  That’s Frankie.  We like to include everyone in our family projects.

Here’s the idea, tell me if you think it’s nuts:

1. Cody and I grow a small patch of grain (barley? wheat?) and 1 or 2 vines of hops somewhere in our yard.

2. I do a heck of a lot of reading on the art of brewing beer from my own harvest.

3. We beg, borrow, and steal our way into beer brewing equipment.  Equipment that we then set up in our guest room.

4. Let the brewing commence (this is the part where Tom winces).

Me Eve.  Me make beer.  *grunt*

There’s an alternate plan brewing in my head (pardon my pun), that doesn’t involve the growing of a beer patch in the backyard, the sizable equipment investment, or the help of Tom.

Country wine.

Yes, fermented fruit.  You can find it in Kentucky.  The best part?  We can still make it in the guest room.

Tom is totally not disappointed right now.

The face soap (which doubles as hand soap in our bathroom) is a carefully calculated mixture of Dr. Bronner’s liquid baby soap, rose water, lavender, and aspirin.  It’s simple and fun to make and I can add or remove any ingredient that I wish to make a unique concoction.  I made some yesterday and it took about 1/2 an hour, including the time to make the rose water.  So, here’s how to do it:

things you’ll need:

• a liquid measuring cup
• a teaspoon
• a teapot or pan in which to boil water
• a glass jar that will hold 1+ cups of HOT water
• a lidded container that will hold 3+ cups of liquid (A wide mouth, reusable water bottle works well.  You know, the kind you have laying around but are afraid to use anymore because of BPA.)
• a reusable tea bag or a tea ball that will hold 2 tsp. of dried herbs
• a mortar and pestle (or a plate/bowl and a spoon)
• a bottle with a pump top for your finished product

ingredients:

• 2 tsp. dried roses (in a reusable tea bag or ball for steeping)
• 2 C. boiling water
• 1 C. liquid castile soap
• 2 aspirin, crushed (for pimples! ack!)
• 5-10 drops lavender essential oil

process:

Put tea bag/ball with dried rose in a large jar (mason jar works) and pour 2 C. boiling water over the top (I use my teapot to boil the water).  This is easier if your rose water is warm but not hot, so sit that aside and allow it to steep until just warm while you do the rest.  Crush two aspirin by whatever means available to you (I use a mortar and pestle, but I’m pretty sure you could do it on a plate with the back of a spoon).  Put 1 C. of soap, the crushed aspirin, and the lavender oil into a lidded container that will hold 3 C. of liquid.  When your rose tea has cooled to a manageable temp remove the tea bag/ball (squeeze out that extra water!) and pour the water into the jar with the other ingredients.  Put the lid on to avoid splashing and slosh it around to dissolve the aspirin without causing the soap to foam up too much.  Pour your new soap into a clean bottle with a squirt top and your done.  Get to washin’.

The face oil that I use is totally awesome, I think.  It’s also almost a non-recipe it’s so easy.  (Are you seeing the trend here??  If it isn’t easy, I don’t bother.)  The recipe below is for my oily skin, if your skin is normal or dry you should use different oils.

things you’ll need/ingredients:

• 2 ounce dark glass bottle with a dropper top
• 2 oz carrier oil (I use grapeseed.  If your skin is dry try olive oil, if you’re lucky and it’s normal try apricot kernel oil)
• 15 drops essential oils (I used 10 drops tea tree oil and 5 drops lavender oil.  Bonus: Lavender smells nice and is good for all skin types, yay!)

process:

Fill your little glass bottle with 2 oz of chosen carrier oil.  Drip you essential oils in.  Cap it, shake it about, and it’s ready to use.

to use:

Start with a clean, dry face and a slightly moist hand.  Drop 2-3 drops of your face oil into your moist palm, rub your hands together and then rub it on your face.  Adjust the ratio of oil to water depending on the dryness of your skin (I use 6 drops of oil).  Enjoy.

Sometime in the next few weeks we’ll talk about the family body oil that Cheeks refers to as, “Oooooooo!” and Cody’s new deodorant (still in it’s test phase).  Stay tuned!

“Rip Van Winkle” — Scarf, Completed 01/01/10
Ummm…Hello fast ‘n easy!  This scarf is seventy-six inches long and took a mere 3 1/2 hours to knit.  Awesome.
Rowan Big Wool (100% merino wool) in shade 01 (white)
Kristina, I almost kept this thing.  Be glad Cody was around to guilt me into mailing it!

“New Year, New Ewe” — Scarf, Completed 01/06/10
This scarf took about 26 hours to knit.  I’m not kidding.  I started it in December.  It’s 6 1/2 x 50 inches and it would hold water if it were a bowl.  No joke.  Also, the knitting blisters were severe.
Kraemer Yarns Mauch Chunky (60% New Zealand wool, 40% domestic wool) in Sage.

No more scarfs, please!!  I’ve moved on, I’m sick of knitting scarfs this year.  Next up…Baby Booties.  As soon as I finish them.

In the meantime, lemon oil is exactly what I needed to make my dish soap.  The recipe for dish soap is so simple it should be illegal.  20 oz Liquid castile soap + 30 drops lemon oil = Done.  I put it in the bottle that we’ve always used for dish soap and it’s sitting by the sink right now!  I’ve used it a time or two already and I really like it.  I haven’t had to tackle any seriously greasy messes yet, just a slightly greasy cookie sheet which my soap whipped into shape with no trouble.  I also haven’t had to fill the sink with soapy water yet.  This I’m thinking could prove disappointing since castile soap doesn’t have a foaming agent added to it and won’t build up into that giant sink-o-suds that normal dish soap produces, it just sort of makes the water milky instead.

But, wait!  There’s more!

Today was cleaning day so I thought to myself, “Self, you should see what new thing you can cook up to clean with!”  After much consideration I decided on toilet bowl cleaner…Because I don’t have any commercial cleaner, but I do have all of the ingredients to make my own.  So, into the toilet bowl went 1/4 cup of vinegar, 10 drops of tea tree oil, and 1/2 cup of baking soda.  Reward:  Awesome fizzing action, nice non-toxic scent, and (after a little scrubbing action) one sparkling toilet bowl.  Also, I felt a little like a scientist.  A janitor scientist.  Like Will in Good Will Hunting except my genius thing would be science instead of math.  You know.

In January we committed to not buying anything new that could be purchased used.  I am happy to report that it worked wonderfully!  The new things that we purchased were gifts for the children of friends, a toilet seat for Cheeks (ew), a sweater for Cheeks’ 18 month (!) photos, and a few glass bottles (3 + one used that was free) for some of the concoctions I’ve been brewing up (more on this later!).  That’s it.  We’ve been so happy with this that we’ve decided to keep it going.

But now we’re moving into February and it’s time for a new change.  I’ve started a list of possibilities so that as the months wear on we’ll be able to look at the list and choose one rather than try to come up with something at the 11th hour, and I’m surprised by how long the list is getting.  I thought that it would be hard to come up with changes for us…because we’re cheap and unwilling to change.  So, I started a list just in case but now the problem is choosing one since they all seem so fun and easy (and like something different to break up the monotony of the longest shortest month of the year) and we want to do them all at once.

For February we’ve taken a long, hard look at our list and decided that this is the month we’re going to work to replace our household cleaners with those that I can make at home.  Last month we had a little foresight and purchased a very large bag of baking soda and a very large bottle of vinegar to facilitate our change.  Now we just need to get a couple of recipes together, do some mixing and bottling, and we’ll be ready to start cleaning.

I got a fantastic book for Christmas last year (this year? how does that work?) in which there is an entire chapter dedicated to simple homemade cleaners and I plan to use the crap out of it.  In fact, it’s only the first of February but the pages are already starting to look like I’ve had the thing for years just from my reading it over and over.  Cody, I suppose, will be a little less involved in this month’s challenge than he was in January, but he doesn’t seem to mind so much (that is until I remind him about the bonus).

So, there you have it!  For February we’re making friends with the baking soda and vinegar.  Wish us luck.

(Bonus!  You might recall from elementary school that baking soda + vinegar = one awesome volcanic explosion!)

UPDATE:  I’ve been informed that this post is boring and that I should post some of the things that I make (because toilet bowl scrub is so exciting), which of course I plan to do but first I have to make those things.  Duh.  So, as the month grinds on (as February does) I’ll be letting you all know just what I’ve made and how I like it or don’t.  Fair?  I think so.  Awesome?  Probably not.