Lately I’ve been experimenting with beeswax to find a good recipe for body butter. So far, I’ve made a type of balm that is wonderful for dry skin. I like it for my skin, but it also works well as a diaper rash cream.

Saturday afternoon, I made up another batch since we were almost out. It smells faintly of honey, which I absolutely love. It also dissolves into the skin pretty quickly, without a greasy feel. The only thing I’d like to change is the texture. When it first cools, there’s a pretty hard top layer. After you use the top layer, it’s a nice creamy texture. I just can’t seem to figure out how to keep it creamy throughout the whole jar.

This time, I took pictures along the way.

Just after adding the olive oil to the beeswax. The oil was cooler than I realized, so it actually caused some of the wax to solidify for a moment.

After the wax has melted again and mixed with the oil. The darker stuff in the bottom is actually honey that hadn’t been rinsed out of the wax completely. It will not completely dissolve in the double boiler. If you want to add honey to your mixture, it must be stirred in as the product cools.

Poured into jars to cool. One jar is for me, the other is for the changing table.

Once the jars are almost cool. The one on the right is more solid than the one on the left for some reason. It hardened into a beautiful yellow balm.

The last time I made it, the wax was a lot lighter colored. I really think I prefer the darker yellow – to me it’s just prettier for some reason.

It’s been a lot of fun experimenting. I don’t have a recipe I’m 100% thrilled with yet (due to the hardening on top), but I’ve been really pleased with the results. Most of the recipes I’ve found have been good places to start, but it’s been more fun to make changes to devise my own.

Because sometimes, there’s nothing that tastes as good as whole milk from the carton. This one was gone before it ever made it to the refrigerator. We LOVE whole milk around here.

Or maybe I should just title the post something like “camera ham.”

Trying to fit into the infant carrier

Books and a ball – what more is there in life?

Goldie came up on our back porch this morning to crow at us for a while. He was a bit late to wake us up, but it was fun to watch him.

Most of our chickens are in a pen behind the house to protect them from predators, but Goldie is allowed to roam free with our mama hen and her chicks. So far, they’ve been fine, but it hasn’t been that long that they’ve been loose.

I have to admit – I really enjoy seeing our chickens loose and roaming around!

This glassware was a wedding gift from old family friends. It’s far too girly for Stephen’s tastes, so I use the glasses for things like homemade French vanilla iced coffee.

When I got home from my weekly OB appointment today, I could hear this awful clunking coming from the laundry room. It turns out that Stephen had washed the bassinet parts and they were in the dryer.

Just about everything is ready for Little Miss now. There’s just under 3 weeks until my due date though – so who knows when she’ll actually make her appearance.

The other day, I noticed that Jessica had left a comment for me, letting me know she had sent me the Kreativ Blogger award. I’m honored – thanks for thinking of me, Jessica!

5 quail chicks hatched so far. . .

Here are 6 of the newborn diapers I finished yesterday. They seem so tiny compared to the other diapers! They’re from the Mama Bird NB size pattern, but from what I’ve read, the lady that offered the Mama Bird pattern isn’t offering it for free any more.

I had quite the adventures making these. The first two (not pictured) I got the steps out of order, so they don’t have the hook and loop closure. It’s not a big deal, since I don’t mind using pins, but I didn’t intend to make them that way. Then, when I did go to put the tabs on the rest, I sewed some of them on the outside of the fleece instead of inside on the flannel where they belong. Oops. Thankfully, Stephen noticed it before I did them all that way – and he even sat down and picked out the stitching for me on one of the diapers before he had to go do something else.

I just love brand new diapers. They’re so soft and fuzzy. They hold up well enough in the wash, but I wish they stayed this soft on the outside. Oh well!

That gives me a total of 19 newborn-size cloth diapers. They’re stuffed and in the drawer with the rest of the diapers, ready to go!

One of the gifts for my baby shower on Saturday was cash. I decided to use a little of it to buy supplies to make some hairbows for Little Miss. I also bought fabric to sew her some clothes, but those projects are a little farther down on the priority list at the moment.

Here are how the clips turned out. I love them!

They were so easy to make, and they made up so quickly that I have a feeling Little Miss will have no lack of hairbows once she arrives. These were so fun to make! I used the tutorial here to make these. I’d love to try some other ideas, but figured I should stop with these for now.

The problem is that Hobby Lobby had what seemed like half a million ribbon choices. I could literally make bows to match every single outfit.

I can definitely see this becoming an addiction. . .