DIY Hair Pomade Recipe

So Wesley, being the absurdly cool 3 and a half year old that he is, has a pretty snazzy haircut.  It's technically an undercut, I think.  Basically it's buzzed all around and long on top.  Because he inherited his father's super fine hair it needs product with some serious hold to style it.  Product with serious hold that you buy usually either a) is a shitstorm of chemicals or b) is very expensive (and sometimes both) so I decided to try my hand at making my own.

When I do DIY stuff like this I really only do it to either save money or minimize the chemicals in our house.  So when I look up a recipe on Pinterest and it has 37 different ingredients that just doesn't work for me because that gets expensive! So I made my own simplified version.

Supplies
Beeswax (I got mine here, but if you can get it locally I totally recommend that!)
Coconut Oil
*optional* Essential Oils (I pretty much exclusively use Young Living oils because, well, I sell them!  If you need information on any Essential Oils I'd love to help you out)
Double Boiler (I just use a Pyrex bowl on a sauce pan, because I'm fancy like that)
Container (I used a mason jar)

So you'll need equal parts beeswax and coconut oil.  For a single batch a quarter cup of each works well for me.

If you're rigging a makeshift double boiler like me, put enough water in your pan that it barely touches your bowl when it's place on the top.  Bring water to a bowl.  Place bowl on top.  Bring the heat of the burner down to low.  Et voila.  A super fancy double boiler.

First melt the beeswax because it will take a bit longer to melt than the coconut oil...

Throw in your coconut oil...

Once it's all melted pour it into your container and add your essential oils (if you're using any)...

I'm aware I need a shorter mason jar, I forgot to get one.  When I eventually remember I'll switch over.

I added five drops each of Cedarwood, Frankincense, and Lavender.  For one thing, I like the way they smell.  And they'll help keep his hair healthy.

Then you just need to let it solidify.  It really is that easy.

So in hand it feels really smooth, not waxy or sticky.  And once it's in hair it doesn't harden really, and stays pretty malleable.  It's pretty damn fabulous, actually.  If I still had a pixie cut I would totally use it.

He clearly wasn't into me taking photos at that moment.  When I asked him to take a nice picture, this is what I got...

So there you have it!  The simplest DIY hair product you'll ever find.

Do you make any hair products for yourself or your kids?  Would you like to?

In case you were wondering, we actually usually have his hair pulled out of his face in a pony tail.  Because, like I said, Wes is an absurdly cool kid.

Wear Your Baby Wednesday - Shibori Dye Technique aka MORE wrap dyeing!

Remember that time I told you I needed your help to win a free pod conversion?  Well, I won!  Woot!  And I decided I wanted it to be a rainbow zebra carrier.  Not sure why, but seriously, why not?  Well, it's not like there is a rainbow zebra wrap on the market I could just buy, so I had to dye my own.

This wasn't my first time doing a shibori dye.  I've actually done quite a few from back when I was making and selling ring slings, but I had never done a rainbow one and I had never done a whole wrap (those were just ring sling pieces).  My first attempt I had two things go wrong:

1. I had every color on hand except red and I was too impatient to wait for professional red to come in the mail so I used Dylon dye (which is perfectly safe for baby carriers but not a "professional" dye) for the red and in the wash it bled on the rest of the fabric making anything white pink.
2. Because a full wrap is so much longer than just a ring sling piece I had too many layers of fabric using my usual 6 inch PVC pipe and the dye didn't penetrate all the way through so only half the wrap got dyed.

So it looked pretty good until it came out of the wash and only half the fabric was dyed (not enough for a pod, but as you can see there was enough for a ring sling!) and what should have been white was pale pink.  So I started over, and this is where you should start if you want to dye a whole wrap!

Supplies:

• Soda Ash
• Professional Fiber Reactive Dyes (I like Dharma dyes)
• A round, plastic trash bin
• A tension rod big enough to hold up in your bath tub
• Zip ties
• Squirt bottles
• Gloves and a mask
• Synthropol textile detergent
• A wrap to dye (I used a 4.5m Colimacon et Cie wrap in natural color)

**Whenever you are handling soda ash or dye wear gloves and a mask**

If you're only dyeing a ring sling piece a 6 inch PVC pipe should be enough (which you can find at Home Depot or Lowes), if you're dyeing a long wrap you'll need something bigger so the wrap doesn't have as many layers wrapped around it.  I used a trash bin. You want a trash bin that is as close to a perfect cylinder as possible.

Getting Supplies

Before you get started you need to get set up.  Essentially your fabric will be wrapped around your cylinder, scrunched together, then you apply your dye.  Obviously some of the dye will drip off which is why I like to do this in the bath tub which is what the tension rod is for.  You need to cut a hole in the center of the lid and the bottom of the trash bin big enough for the tension rod to fit through so you can suspend your trash bin above the tub.  The Sailor is an overachiever and built a structure out of scrap wood to put in the tub.  This really isn't necessary, a tension rod will work just fine.

Once you have your suspension system set up in the tub wash your fabric and soak it in a soda ash solution  for 30 minutes.

Then you're going to wrap your fabric around the cylinder as tightly as you can.  With the trash can the handles got in the way so I couldn't wrap it as tight as I would have liked but it isn't the end of the world.  Once it is wound around your cylinder put zip ties sporadically every couple inches.  These will be the completely white parts after you're done. (I didn't get a good picture doing this around the trash bin, but the very first picture in the collage above shows exactly what I mean)

Once your zip ties are tightened as tight as you can get them squish the fabric together.

With the trash bin it's important you use zip ties so once you squish the fabric together you can re-tighten them since the bin is slightly smaller at the base then it is at the top.

Then you apply dye using squirt bottles.  You could do all one color.  You could do a mixture of colors.  You could do the whole effing rainbow like me! (I used Chinese Red, Golden Yellow, my orange was just a mixture of those two, New Emerald Green, Electric Blue, and Imperial Purple).

Fun tip - to put the dry dye in the bottles (since the opening is so small) I just make little funnels out of wax paper; the dye doesn't stick to the wax paper at all and I just toss each funnel after each color.

If you're doing a full rainbow like I did, in order to get the spacing right first I did a thin stripe of red and purple, then I split the center with thin stripes of yellow and green...

Then I did the orange and the blue in the middle of the two blank parts and filled everything in so the colors were at least somewhat even.  And I saturated the hell out of that fabric.

The zip ties kinda kicked up dye and may have made a pretty cool looking mess...

Then I waited.  For 24 flipping hours.

I hate waiting, but it's worth it, I promise.

Then, since it was already in the tub I just turned on the water to rinse as much of the dye out as possible.

After I rinsed out most of the extra dye I cut off the zip ties, threw it in the washing machine, and washed it with synthropol.  Then I ran it through a whole additional cycle without any detergent just to be sure it was completely rinsed and dried it as usual in the dryer.

And it was beautiful....

There isn't quite as much white as I would have liked (because the trash bin collapses slightly under the zip ties and I couldn't get a "perfect" wrap around the trash bin since it isn't a perfect cylinder) but the colors are exactly what I imagined.  Once it is converted to a pod with a hood that has a zebra mohawk mane and ears it will be more than obvious that it was meant to be a rainbow zebra.

I mailed it off to Shiny Star Designs today but it'll probably be a while since they just opened up custom slots in mid-September.  I'll be anxious to see it, but it isn't like I can really wear W these days anyway because of my stupid back.  But I'll be sure to share pictures as soon as I get the finished carrier!!

As usual, if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask!  And in case you didn't notice (and you definitely wouldn't if you're viewing in mobile mode) I added another "tab" to the blog specifically for babywearing related posts (including my other dye tutorials) so go check it out here!  And even if you're only stopping by for this tutorial and have no plans of reading any of my other posts do a girl a favor and leave a comment!  It's nice to know when people are actually reading (and even better actually using the tutorials on) my blog!

Early Potty Learning

The last full day that W was in diapers was September 9, 2013 making him 17 months and 9 days old when he graduated from diapers.  **I don't like the term "potty trained" especially since he is so young; it just has so much pressure along with it.  I just say he's out of diapers when he's awake since he does still wear - and need - a diaper for naps and overnight.**

People are so surprised when they hear that he is out of diapers at his age.  And they either ask me what kind of voodoo magic I used or just attribute it to W being "mature."  I honestly believe most babies could potty train this early if they're given the opportunity to.  If you have a young baby and want to start them on the road to "early potty learning" this is what we did...

I got W a potty when he was about 9 months old.  With BabyDeux I'll probably start even sooner; as soon as he can sit up on his own I'll let him "use" a potty.  When it was convenient for me (as in if I was going to the bathroom, when W was brushing his teeth, when the tub was filling up, etc) I would put him on his potty with absolutely no expectation for him to do anything it was just him getting to sit on a cool new seat with his pants down.

First time on the potty!

I think a key to this is the fact that when I would use the toilet I would bring him with me and put him on his potty.  If I was peeing I would simply tell him, "Mommy is peeing in her potty because she doesn't wear diapers, if you want you could pee on your potty, too" and if I was pooping I would give him the same general explanation.  So he knew what he toilet was for.  It was actually the second day I ever put him on a potty that he pooped!  And I didn't celebrate, I didn't give him a prize, I just said, "wow, you're pooping on your potty instead of a diaper!  What a big boy."  If he went in his diaper  didn't get upset (obviously, he wasn't even a year old yet) I would just simply explain while I changed him, "you peed/pooped in your diaper, I'm going to put a dry diaper on you.  Isn't that more comfortable?"

Within a month he was almost exclusively pooping on the potty.  I rarely changed poopy diapers for the month of February.  It was awesome.

Then we flew home to visit my family at the beginning of March and we both got sick and he was nursing non-stop (so his poop completely changed) and he totally freaked out about the potty.  ::whompwhomp::  I was a little heartbroken, but hey - he could't walk how could I expect him to regularly use the potty?

After that I would still put him on the potty but I never pushed it.  He had sorta lost interest in it.  Then The Sailor got back from deployment, and I got pregnant, and every time I would put him on his little potty he would just stand up since he could walk.  I got to the point where I thought he was gonna be in diapers for a loooooong time since once BabyDeux got here there was no way I was going to be able to potty train a toddler while caring for a newborn.

Then I got the idea to try and put him on the big potty (with a topper on it) so he couldn't just walk away....and it worked!  This was probably a month before a decided to ditch the diapers.  I started putting him on it whenever it was convenient for me again; sometimes he would go, sometimes he wouldn't.  Then one day he walked up to me, handed me his potty topper, and signed please.  As soon as I put him on the potty he peed and I accepted he was ready.

I picked a date to ditch the diapers about two weeks in the future to mentally prepare myself and made him some training pants.  I started offering him the potty regularly throughout the day instead of just when it was convenient for me and as long as I offered it every two hours or so he'd have clean diapers all day!

I originally planned to do a "three day potty camp" where you essentially camp out in the kitchen (for easy clean up) and pump your kid full of salty snacks so they drink (and thus pee) a lot and essentially dedicate three whole days only to using the potty.  But, because of my back we lasted about 2 hours in the kitchen then just went back to normal life in the house just W was naked for easy potty access.

And he's been out of diapers while he's awake ever since.

For the most part at home he's completely naked or just in undies.  When we leave the house he's in undies and cloths.  If we're leaving during nap time I bring a diaper to put him in knowing he'll pass out on the car ride home (since he does still wear diapers for naps and night time).  He's had two accidents in clothes - one he was asleep in the car seat with The Sailor (he passed out and peed, really can't hold it against him) the other was at a birthday party and he started to wet his pants but finished on a toilet.  He's also had a bunch of starts of accidents at home, but he's generally naked so I just swoop him up and toss him on the toilet for him to finish but those have become few and far between.

Chillin in his undies

So yeah...how did I get my 17 month old out of diapers?  Early introduction.  It was never hard for us to do, honestly.  Like I said, in the early days I never went out of my way and he essentially let me know when he was ready to ditch the diapers.  If you introduce a potty early you will know when your child is ready.  Just trust in that.

I also do give some credit to the fact that we cloth diaper.  Since disposables do such a good job keeping babies dry-feeling they don't really know when they've peed, whereas with cloth it's easy for them to tell.

Since that is more than enough information I'll do a follow up post with tools that helped us along the way,, and as usual if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask!

Reupholstering Tips and Tricks - AKA First big nursery project!!

Yeah...check that shit out^^  Coolest Dr. Seuss nursery chair everrrrr, right?!?

So, I wish I could give you a step by step guide detailing exactly how to reupholster a chair - but I can't.  The fact of the matter is every chair is different and that makes the process of stripping it down and reupholstering it different.  The general idea of it is simple - carefully pull off all the fabric, use that fabric as a template to cut out the new fabric, then put the new fabric on just like you took the old fabric off.  Easy peasy, right?

Well here are a few tips and tricks for you...

• Give yourself plenty of time.  I spent hours just pulling out staples.  This is not a process that is going to be completed in a day.  Maybe if you have a few people and a lot of patience you could finish it in a weekend, but I recommend spreading it out over a bunch of days so you don't give yourself carpal tunnel.
• I used a flat head screw driver and needle-nose pliers to pull out all the staples, it worked quite well.
• Save everything you pull off!!  Seriously!  Every scrap of cardboard, random spikey thing, and piece of fabric.  Saving everything will make it a million times easier to reassemble it.
• Label everything.  Where it goes on the chair, what order you pulled it off in, which part of it pulled up first, etc.  I just used a sharpie and wrote right on the panels where they went and all the details that would help me successfully replace it with new fabric.
• Don't expect perfection.  Seriously, this is true of all my projects.  If I wanted or needed it to be perfect there's probably someone out there I can pay hundreds of dollars to do it for me and there's a reason why they charge so much - this shit is time consuming!  There are some snags in my fabric from me stapling wrong and the back of it is a little wonky (I didn't have quite enough fabric but whatever...who's going to be looking at the back??)

So here's what you need - 

• A cheap piece of old furniture that hopefully was built well but just needs a facelift (you don't want the frame of the chair to be falling apart, just the fabric!)
• Flat head screwdriver and needle-nose pliers (to remove staples)
• Upholstery fabric - no not waste your time and get fabric that isn't heavy enough to be considered upholstery fabric...it will fall apart and then you will have wasted hours of your life for nothing.  I did, however, decide I could use a non-upholstery fabric on the parts that won't get much wear and tear and I think it was a safe decision (the blue Lorax tree print is just normal cotton, not upholstery weight fabric).  I calculated how much I would need after I ripped off all the fabric.
• A staple gun.  I have a fancy one my Dad got me for my birthday (after I reupholstered my kitchen chairs with just a hammer and upholstery tacks he decided I needed a staple gun) but you could use one of those old school plain ones (like this) - it would just take longer.
• A seam ripper to disassemble the cushions 
• And if you're like me...a hot glue gun.  Yes, I hot glued some parts, but I'll never tell you which ones (muahahahahaha) <--not sure why I'm evil laughing about that

I got the chair used from someone on base and it actually reclined (the foot part doesn't pop out, it just reclines) but not very well.  The Sailor actually re-did all the mechanical bits so now it reclines smoothly.  It cost $20.  Then I spent about $50 on fabrics (from onlinefabricstore.net and fabric.com).  

There is some sewing involved to make the covers for the cushions (just like the rest of the chair you pull the cushion apart - with a seam ripper - and use the pieces as a pattern for the new cover).  For this chair I was able to save the zipper on the bottom cushion but the back cushion was originally attached to the chair itself.  I decided it would be easiest for me to make it another cover so I had to get a long zipper for that which also cost me a few bucks. 

I would say I spent between 25 and 30 hours on the chair in all spread out over a bunch of days over two weeks.  But, I'm absolutely in love with it and it cost us less than $75 in all!

After I finished reupholstering it instead of putting back on the feet The Sailor turned it into a rocking chair!  He used scrap wood and the screws that were originally holding on the feet so again, no cost to us.  It took two tries to get the curve right for a rocking chair but still didn't take him much time at all.

So now it reclines and rocks and is gorgeous.  It will be the perfect visual centerpiece for BabyDeux's Dr. Seuss nursery and it will be mighty comfy for all those middle of the night nursing sessions in my future!

Semi DIY Cloth Training Pants TUTORIAL

We have done a form of "early potty learning" with W that for the most part has been really relaxed.  Essentially we just put him on a potty whenever we feel like it/have the time to/he expresses interest in it.  It has recently gotten to the point where if I remember to ask him if he would like to use the potty at regular intervals (and since I'm pregnant and pee all the time anyway it has been easier to remember to also offer it to him) he can go a whole day with only dirtying a diaper during naps.  So, I plan on trying out the three day potty training method (more on that after we actually do it) starting tomorrow!  Hopefully at the end of three days the only time he'll be in a diaper is for naps and overnight!

The potty is so FUN!

Since he is only 17 months old and can't actually ask (verbally, he does have physical cues) to use the bathroom I wanted to get him cloth training pants which are essentially reinforced undies.  Some have a waterproof layer, others do not.  A friend of mine recommended Hannah Andersson training unders, but oh-my-effing-golly-gosh, I'm not spending $26 (before tax and shipping) on only 3 pairs of freaking underwear.  I looked into some other, less expensive options (like Kawaii baby) but seriously dude - they're just underwear with extra layers in the crotch, I'm not spending a small fortune on them!

So obviously I decided to make my own.

There are tutorials all over Pinterest for using a pair of undies to make a pattern and adding extra layers to the crotch section, but all I could think while reading them is, "why don't you just keep the underwear you buy intact {as opposed to deconstructing it to make a pattern} and just sew extra stuff in the crotch??"  So that's exactly what I did.

Supplies

• Underwear - I got these from KMart.  They're still a little big on W, but they don't really make underwear in infant sizes so we'll deal. They're $13 for 7 pairs, or $1.86 each 
• Some sort of absorbent material.  You could even use old t-shirts (you'd probably need like 4 layers if you go that route) but I chose to use pre-fold diapers that I had originally used as burp cloths for W.  These are the ones I have and with a pack of four you could make eight training pants.  Those are $6, but you could make 8 training pants with the whole pack so $.75 per training pant but this part could actually be free if you just used old t-shirts you had on hand. 
• Waterproof material (optional).  I had left over from an old project, but this is what I used.  Be sure to use a coupon and you'll only need about a 1/4 yard (so you'd spend $1.95 to make a bunch of training pants).  I can't say exactly how much it'll cost per training pant, but it isn't much.
• Parchment paper to make a pattern
• Permanent marker
• Pins
• Sewing machine and thread

First you'll want to make your pattern for your insert.  To do this I turned a pair of the underwear inside out (after washing and drying them in case they shrink) and pinned a piece of parchment paper to them.

 Then I outlined the crotch area.

 And unpinned it from the undies

 It was a little wonky and not symmetrical, so I picked the side I liked more and used that to make a more symmetrical pattern (I folded a piece of parchment paper in half, lined up the good side of the original pattern, and cut out the new pattern).  The original is on the left and the one I actually used is on the right...

 With the pre-fold diapers the center section has more layers of fabric.  So I figured I could use the middle section for one, and double up the outer sections for another (making two pairs of training pants with each pre-fold).  So you have to cut the pre-fold into thirds.

 I used the pattern I made to cute out the waterproof PUL but the pre-fold sections weren't quite wide enough.  So I just sewed the pre-fold material down to the PUL...

 ...Then I trimmed the extra pre-fold material off.  I'm not concerned that it doesn't quite reach the edges of where I initially wanted it to be.

You'll notice I doubled up the pre-fold in the front section.  The pre-fold is more than long enough and since boys need extra absorbency in the very front (since they have penises) I just went with it.  It isn't completely necessary, but why waist the extra absorbent layers, right?

 Then you pin your insert into your undies (obviously with the waterproof PUL against the actual underwear)

 And you sew it down.  This step can be a little awkward, but it's totally possible!  Just take your time.

And you're done!!!

Like I said before, these undies are a little big on W (they're size 2T/3T - the smallest size I could find) but they work just fine.  They obviously won't save his outfit if he has a full on accident, but they'll definitely minimize the damage.

Wear Your Baby Wednesday - Another Technique To Dye a Woven Wrap!

Sorry I've been a little MIA lately - W and I have been crazy busy (next week he has two different classes at the local Family Resource Center, I have BabyDeux's anatomy scan, and we plan on going camping next weekend) plus I've started projects for BabyDeux's nursery already (you should seriously be excited about that)!  But today I'm going to put together a tutorial for a different dye technique that you could use to customize your own woven wrap or ring sling!

In case you missed the first dye tutorial post you can find it here or if you missed my ring sling sewing tutorial that can be found here.

Like the photo says, this is a Low Water Immersion (or LWI) dye technique.  This is a great technique if you want the different colors to "dance" together but don't love the look of a traditional tie dye (which I, personally, do not).  A little back story...a friend of mine had gotten a Kokadi Diorite Stars woven wrap but never got the hang of wrapping.  At first she asked me to help her sell it, instead I encouraged her to have half of it turned into a ring sling and even offered to slingify it myself as partial payment towards buying the other half of the wrap.  Best decision ever.  She loves the simple black and white star pattern and is getting the hang of the ring sling, but I wanted to spice my half up a bit before slingifying it so obviously I dyed it!

Supplies

• Textile Detergent
• Dye - I like Dharma Dyes (I used a little turquoise, a little Carribbean blue, jade green (which really has a blue look to it), and Imperial purple)
• Soda Ash Fixer
• Squeeze bottles
• Gloves
• Mask
• A plastic bucket or bin just big enough for your fabric to be compactly squished into
• Woven wrap or a fabric appropriate for babywearing (I would only recommend Osnaburg or 100% linen)

Always wear gloves and a mask when handling dye or soda ash

As always, wash your fabric with textile detergent before starting a dye project.

Then take your dry fabric and squish it into whatever container you have available that it will fit in compactly.  My sling piece fit nicely in the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket.  You can twist and turn it as much or as little as you like.  The more twisting and turning you do, the more dynamic the colors will be in the end.

Next mix your dyes in the squirt bottles, I actually made my dye highly concentrated because I wanted intense color.  This is something you'll have to test out to figure out what you prefer.  

Then you want to saturate your fabric with dye, but not add so much that your fabric begins to float at all.

If you want there to be white or blank spots left you don't have to do this...I didn't want any actual white spots left, so I actually filled a squirt bottle with warm water and slowly poured it over all of the fabric while kind of nudging at it to make sure that the dye penetrated all of the folds and overlaps.

Let your fabric sit as is for 30 minutes

Then mix up your soda ash solution and add enough that it completely covers the fabric.  

Wait 12 to 24 hours.  The longer you wait, the more intense the colors will be.

Rinse and wash your fabric until the water runs clear.  I actually just tossed the whole bucket in the washing machine did two cycles without detergent, a cycle with textile detergent, then an additional cycle without detergent and my wrap was good to go.

Common sense made me believe that this technique would be a big hot mess.  That letting the colors run together like that would just muddle them all up and it would either look brown or just purple from the mix of dyes I used.  But I trusted the many tutorials I referenced and lucky for me, it turned out glorious!

I had originally planned to have the primarily black side be out, but I actually fell in love with the mixing of colors on the white side...

So much cooler looking, right?

Then I slingified it using the same method I linked to at the beginning of this post and it was love at first carry!  (Sorry W looks like such a turd, he did not want to model, he wanted to play on the ground)

I love everything about it.  For one, Kokadi wraps are heavenly soft.  I'm obsessed with how the dye job turned out.  And I'm obsessed with how the shoulder of the sling turned out!  I chose to use one blue and one turquoise ring and the blending of colors and placement of stars is just flipping awesome.

Now I have to be slightly sentimental for a second.  I happen to notice that one of the pictures of use modeling the sling was really similar to a picture taken last August (so they're a year apart almost exactly) - where did my precious bald baby go...?