Thieves Cleaner and Grease Monkeys

Published on: by catballou24 Category:Uncategorized Comment

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This one for the car enthusiasts…. Jason was cleaning car parts a few weeks ago. As you all know, dirty job! He decided to test my crazy hippie products and so used Thieves cleaner on one side and a cleaning solvent on the other side. Someone was sold!  The ratio he used was 2 capfuls to a quart of water.  As you can see it turned out great!  With the Thieves Cleaner, he didn’t have to worry about all those nasty chemicals coming in contact with his skin either!  I love using this cleaner for household cleaning as well.  I have a spray bottle, and a soft soap type cleaner I made that are amazing!  And did you know that you can get a whole Thieves Kit?  Yep!!  Check it out here along with the other kits available.

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This was 10 passes of solvent on the right, nothing on the left.

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Still 10 passes solvent on the right, and now 1 pass Thieves on the left.

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5 passes of Thieves Cleaner and this side is done!

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10 passes of solvent barely touched the grease.

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Finally, the solvent actually stained some of the metal on the right….Thieves cleaned up the rest!

Any questions?

Crafting On

Published on: by catballou24 Category:Knitting, Uncategorized 1 Comment

This is the pattern I am working on right now, Drachenfels by Mairlynd.  (My progress will be noted below).

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I found this pattern on Craftsy.  This is an excellent site for crafters like myself.  Great online classes for all different types of arts and crafts, patterns, ideas, etc.  You can buy whole kits or just the patterns themselves, and not just knitting.  Seriously, when I say all types, I mean all types.  A sampling of some of their current classes:

Craftsy was founded by 4 tech guys; John Levisay | Founder & CEO, Josh Scott | Founder & COO, Todd Tobin | Founder & CTO, and Bret Hanna | Founder & VP of Engineering.  According to their “About Us” page:

“Craftsy was founded in the spring of 2010 by four tech guys who wanted to create a new high-quality approach to online learning, and it launched in May of 2011. Our founders hoped to create a convenient education platform that captured the magic of a live classroom, including interaction with an expert instructor and fellow students.

Some of the first months were spent building a video player that would deliver the kind of in-class experience they dreamed of. After the founders first gave wine tasting and economics classes a whirl, John’s mother-in-law, an avid quilter, suggested trying quilting instruction, and from there, it was history!”

Sites such as Craftsy really inspire me.  I love learning new techniques and having a community of people to ask questions and share triumphs with!    If you haven’t discovered this site yet, you really should!

So for the update on my progress…here is where I am at with the scarf.  Setting a goal to have it done by the end of the month, and yes, it’s for me! (If my image is showing upside down, I apologize….for some reason is wants to post like that!)

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10 Free Kindle Books – 1/3/2015

Published on: by catballou24 Category:Uncategorized Comment

*contains affiliate links

Here are today’s 10 FREE Kindle Books.  Prices may change, it’s ultimately up to Amazon, but as of this morning these were free.  Don’t have a Kindle you say?  You can get one for only $49!   You can also download the Kindle App for free – Amazon.com – Read eBooks using the FREE Kindle Reading App on Most Devicesand just read from your phone or any other tablet you may have!  Who doesn’t love free books?!

Thank you to All Mommy Wants for the list!

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Your Brain On Knitting

Published on: by catballou24 Category:Knitting 1 Comment

Our brains are fascinating creations.   We have this complex computer system in our head essentially running our entire body.  Most of this is done with neurons.  Neurons are nerve cells that transmit nerve signals to and from the brain.  The pathway along which information travels through the neurons (nerve cells) of the brain is a neural pathway.  Some of these pathways are hard wired from birth…breathing, hunger, heart beating, etc..  Many are formed as we experience life.  Driving the same route everyday to work is a good example.  We tend to stick to what is familiar because of these neural pathways.  If we change up our route, it seems unfamiliar until we make it a habit, basically developing a new neural pathway, and soon that new route is the familiar one.

The more we do and experience the more we learn and grow.  For the most part these learnt experiences are beneficial to us, even if at the time it doesn’t feel like a positive experience. After it is over we often express how we learned from the experience and have grown to be a better person as a result.  Some experiences in life have taught us “bad habits” however, such as emotional eating, avoiding confrontation, etc…  So we need to do something new and different to change these pathways and develop new ones.

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Your brain grows and strengthens through forming new neural pathways, an effect that can be achieved by learning new skills–like knitting.  Knitting not only creates new neural pathways as we develop the skill, but also keeps your neural connections growing, banishes stress, and improves our moods.  It causes dopamine, the happiness hormone, to be released by helping you lose yourself in an activity.  Your brain can only focus on so many things at once, so when you occupy it with learning a new skill like knitting or figuring out how to perfect that sweater sleeve, it doesn’t have space or energy to dwell on the things causing you stress and anxiety.  How cool is that?  These are the things I think about when I work with kids and knitting.  Forming those positive pathways early!

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Don’t worry if you are a winter knitter and stop for awhile.  Those connections do not just disappear during the summer.  May take a little bit of practice to make it familiar again, but you don’t lose the skill.  So banish the blues and pick up the needles.  I can attest first hand it does a brain good!

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10 Free Kindle Books 12-26-2015

Published on: by catballou24 Category:Uncategorized Comment

*contains affiliate links

Here are today’s 10 FREE Kindle Books.  Prices may change, it’s ultimately up to Amazon, but as of this morning these were free.  Don’t have a Kindle you say?  Well there are several great choices, check out the links at the end of this post.  You can also download the Kindle App for free – Amazon.com – Read eBooks using the FREE Kindle Reading App on Most Devicesand just read from your phone or any other tablet you may have!  Who doesn’t love free books?!

*thank you See Mom Click for the list!

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Knitting Club!

Published on: by catballou24 Category:Knitting Comment
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A couple months ago, a friend of mine and I were chatting about me coming over and teaching her children how to knit.  We had been talking about it for awhile and could never make the timing work.  She homeschools and has a lot of friends who homeschool, but there wasn’t any knitting classes that she could find.  Lots of educational things and fun ones at that!  So, out of that convo the birth of the Lake Travis Kids Knitting Club came to pass.  We started with just my Xiola and my friends little girl.  I was surprised when another showed up that day who knew Valentina (my friend) and was also a homeschooling mom.  Luck would have it that Xiola knew her too from gymnastics!  Well, this little thing wasn’t sure if she really wanted to knit at all, mom had obviously dragged her to the library that Thursday morning.  But as the hour wore on and she picked up the knit stitch with ease, laughter and play with needles in hand changed her mind about it all.  And she enthusiastically said she would be back for the next class!  Huzzah!

Since this first class, the group has grown and the fun continues.  I love how the girls all sit around, needles and yarn in hand and chat like a bunch of old ladies.  LOL  I call it our Hen party now and honestly can’t tell you how much fun we have.  The library has gotten used to us and makes us feel right at home each and every time.  The girls are learning a new skill and are proud of their work and friendships.  And according to this article, they are also building new neuropathways in their brains!  That’s another post!  😉

If you are local and would like to join our merry little group, we are meeting every other Friday, the first meeting for 2016 will be on Friday, January 15th at 4PM at Lake Travis Community Library.  We either meet in the meeting room if it’s empty or the childrens’s area.  You can’t miss us…we are the group with tons of yarn and tons of laughter!  I love these kids so much and am so privileged to be a part of this little club with them!

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Handmade Holidays – Teacher Gifts

Published on: by catballou24 Category:Uncategorized Comment

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We love making gifts for people during the holidays. Cookies and pies are filling our oven on almost a daily basis. Teachers get treats as well! This year we decided to combine some yummy treats with some homemade goodness. What better way for a teacher to relax than with a cup of tea in their new cup, some shortbread cookies and a bath with delectable homemade soap and Peace and Calming oil? We had a blast making them, and hope the teachers love using them! Here are the recipes for all….happy making!

    Grapefruit and Himalayan Pink Salt Soap

1/4 t Rose Clay (I found this at Whole Foods in the beauty section)
1 t Himalayan Pink Salt (look in the bulk spice section…can use course although I used fine)
1 T local Raw Honey
20 drops Young Living Grapefruit EO
1 C Goat Milk soap base (I found mine at Michael’s, really easy to melt and pour)

Plus 1 t Himalayan Pink Salt per bottom of each mold.

Melt soap in double boiler or microwave (be sure to use a heavy glass measuring cup if using microwave).  Once melted, take off heat and let cool slightly.  Add Rose Clay, Salt, Honey and EO in that order and stir to combine.  Add salt to each mold and pour mixture into soap molds and let cool.  Sprits with rubbing alcohol to disperse air bubbles for a nice finish.  Super easy and a wonderful treat for the recipient!

Shortbread Cookies

I used my favorite Martha Stewart recipe found here.  Instead of rolling out cookies, we pushed dough into super cute Snowman cookie molds I found on sale at Michael’s!

After baking the cookies we packaged it all up and added a sweet Nutcracker miniature ornament, sample of Peace and Calming EO, and a Young Living Lip Balm in each gift.  The kids loved giving these to their teachers and from the notes we got in return, the teachers loved the gifts.

Creating something for someone is such a lovely way to say I am thinking of you!  So much love and attention is added and I know for me, receiving a homemade gift is something I treasure.  I have noticed over the years, the gifts the girls have saved and keep in special places are the ones that were made for them.  I love passing this tradition down to them and my grandkids!

Now to break out those needles and finish some Winter hats for the crew!  If we ever see Father Winter here that is…LOL

Peace!

Cat

P.S. Check out the Essential Oils section of this blog for more info…;)