2012 challenge: One-A-Week

Well, being mildly addicted to Etsy, I started a new team: One-A-Week, basically in a nutshell its a challenge to make/post at least one new item each week in 2012. You can read more here: http://www.etsy.com/teams/11248/one-a-week?ref=pr_teams

In 20 days, it has almost 80 members! =) I'm so excited that I actually started a blog as part of the challenge. I'll post my items there to help keep track of them: http://moyoworkshop.blogspot.com/


Also, I have an FB page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Moyoworkshop/157584004260986

so why do we need all of these outlets? I suppose it is replacing other forms of advertising, etc. However, it still feels very self-endulgent. that's something I'll figure out at some point. =)

What are your challenges/resolutions this year?

Onesta Shampoo!

I got my haircut yesterday and my hair was washed with this shampoo. Onesta is made with all natural ingredients AND is honest about social responsibility...not to mention the best shampoo my scalp has seen in years. If you're looking for more natural hair care, this is an awesome product and worth the money, I think!

Here's some more info:

Updates from the mobile workshop

We've really stopped posting things this year, haven't we?

I've been doing a lot of random, weird things in the craft world lately. Bleaching and then re-dyeing a pineapple sarong in my washing machine, helping a friend make her ikea light fixture less horrible looking with lace in Chicago, lost wax casting a sterling silver ring, making jewelry from shrinki-dinks, and raku pottery. Those last three new opportunities have come because of a class I'm teaching (Materials Science) - I'm learning right along with the kids, but what a fun experience to see the lost wax casting process! Wish I could get that setup going at home. I'm considering starting with PMC clay...

Before

After!

The two most successful and time-consuming hobbies this year so far have definitely been my first foray into soap making with Jenny (5 batches in - 3 really good ones, 2 mediocre) and attempting to pick up sewing again. I will write a post soon with our recipes for soap in more detail, but right now, I'll post some fun pictures! (I'm also attempting to make shampoo right now...I'll post when I get something remotely useful)

A (surprisingly) great nightgown (Jenny came to my rescue via gchat on this one)!

Some photos of the inaugural soap-making adventure over Thanksgiving weekend in Portland!
(Left) me with the lye, (Top Right) Jenny stirring the oils, (Bottom Right) Tada! Bergamot-Clove-Rosewood-Oatmeal Soap. My favorite batch yet.

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Jenny, you said you made some lotion? Can you tell us about it? What other projects have you ladies been working on? Share some pictures/stories!

new etsy site- moyo workshop!

hey kids! check out the new etsy site for me and Dad!

experimenting with crackle finishes

crunch, rough, raw, stale, aged, lovely

A year or two ago, I bought some crackle finish (valspar) for my bedside table. It worked great! I put gold on first- it shows through the light teal color = awesome!

Fastforward to the last two weeks, Frankie (beloved cat) insists on jumping up and knocking crap off of our walls... really annoying... so, I took our knick-knack shelf off the wall and replaced it with a new canvas. I like the placement.

Emmanuel and I painted the three canvases various green hues. I thought to myself- "self- why not try crackle finishes on these three canvases?" so, we did. Little did we know though, it's suttle when used with this kind of paint/on canvas... so, we'll likely need several more layers! I'll keep you posted when it's finished.

For now though, we're so busy! so, we've hung them and we'll work on it in the coming days.
you can see the finish on the smallest one, we haven't done it for the other two yet. I'll let you know how it goes... =)

making things to hold the things you've made

I've been wanting a jewelry organizer for a long time. Not a box that covers everything up and results in tangles, not the several small dipping sauce plates I have held my stuff in for years, but a nice, wall-hanging organizer. I was drooling over a few on etsy, but never actually got around to buying one.

So, this morning I decided it was the day; I gathered some cardboard, paper, ribbon, mesh from my TJ's garlic and tons of hot glue and went to town.

1) first, I modpodged a piece of green-leafy paper on to some thick cardboard.
2) then, I decided there should probably be some space between the paper and mesh so that the earwires would have some room, so I lined the outsides of the rectangle with another layer of cardboard.
3) next step: hot gluing the mesh to the cardboard, which was tricky. I tried to stretch it well so that it wouldn't sag in the middle.
4) after that, I covered up all the blemishes by framing the rectangle with WAY too bright orange ribbon I had laying around.
5) then, for kicks, I used some thinner ribbon and hot glue to make some bracelet holders at the bottom.
6) hung it to my wall with 3Ms...

And, voila!


Though, I think I should have made it a bit bigger:

Update on the natural experiment

Hi ladies!

So Megan asked me for an update on my experiment.

I will say this (in a nutshell): while the no shampoo experiment hasn't been all roses, I'm still sticking with it for a while longer to see what happens. I think it would be smart to wean yourself off shampooing every day before you start with this so that your scalp isn't producing tons upon tons of oil daily. I wash my hair more rarely to begin with, so that might have helped.

Okay, more details:

Try # 1) tried shampoo recipe of 1 t soda in 3 oz water and conditioner of 25/75 ac vinegar/water (because I've read a bunch of places that vinegar kills the bacteria that causes dandruff and that's why I got interested in this method to begin with). Worked fine, my hair was SUPER soft. (I'm thinking "hmm, maybe this IS going to be amazing!")

Try #2) Same recipe, crazy static. (I do work outside, so that might be part of the reason for it)

Try #3) Not so staticy, and I read that the vinegar is more for the tips of your hair (to combat static) whereas the baking soda is most important to massage into the scalp to break up oil/dirt. That worked better

Try #4) Didn't have enough baking soda, so my hair was really oily the next day (whoops!)

From then on: I'm doing more like 1-2 T of baking soda in 3 oz (~1/3 cup) of water and now am doing ~50/50 vinegar/water. The dandruff isn't going away completely, so I'm wondering if this is worth it. On the blog, commenters were saying stuff like "my hair has never had so much body or looked so healthy!" and "I used vinegar on my head once and the dandruff was GONE!" I haven't been that lucky, but it is interesting to see how my hair reacts. Some days I have body, some, it's totally flat. One of the best times, I massaged straight-up baking soda into my scalp after soaking my hair in vinegar for a while before (for the dandruff help). It was really clean after that!

I'm hoping to hone in on a good plan and try the castor/olive oil mix soon on my face. I've been using 20% shea butter from L'Occitane since christmas, and it's okay, but not great. The dead of winter is probably not the time to make generalizations about skin items that work for me, though.

Until next time!