My Sleeping Beauty

Last year I just about blew a gasket looking at Halloween costumes targetted for girls. Back in my day (when did I become old enough to say that??!?), we made authentically cool, extraordinary, unique costumes. Unlike the dreck (sexy/scary, polyester, "don't wash" bits of fabric barely sewn together) in your local Halloween shop or super store.
My little one was recently invited to a princess party and really wanted to be Aurora from Sleeping Beauty.
I pretty much knew from the beginning that I'd have to make the dress. First of all, I can't stand polyester. Second, the temperature tends to reach 100 in the summer here. And third, Disney doesn't appear to sell a realistic Aurora dress anymore. And Disney doesn't even pretend to offer it, now the dresses are 'inspired by' [insert movie title]. And sewing patterns to make a Sleeping Beauty dress are out of print.

Ebay to the rescue. For a higher price than I would normally pay for a pattern, I won an ebay auction for the  mini-Aurora dress pattern. Now I really hope she likes it right up until Oct 31, I have no interest in sewing an Ariel dress.

Vinegars and Oils, Oh My

Is this gorgeous or what? Hibiscus nettle vinegar... For my hair rinse. It probably doesn't stay in my hair long enough to give my hair any red... but I can hope.

Here's a blog post that covers infusing vinegar, oils, alcohol and honey.

 The pink bottle has vanilla steeping. My four year old and I paper-mached a glass jar to keep the vanilla shaded. And she painted it her favorite color. Unfortunately the little glass jar is probably a mistake... My hemp oil says to keep it refrigerated, so why did I put my prized lavender from my garden in there and promptly put it back into the fridge? Because I wanted to do *something* and I got two steps ahead of myself. Word to the wise silly - think it through before you do. Sigh.