Photo by @lillalinaea

Slow Living Project: Create, take 2

What a beautiful month it was for the Slow Living Project, with our focus word ‘create’ there were so many inspired moments shared through the #slowliving_create hashtag — over 3200 in fact! The images were not only beautiful, but more importantly captured the spirit of creativity and creation in a slow and intentional way : slowly working away at a creative project over days and weeks, bringing slow intentional creativity to our time with our children, bringing our creative spirit outdoors, gathering, building, decorating, creating family traditions and even creating life (both plant and animal).

You can view all the contributions to the gallery here. Thank you to everyone for sharing and inspiring others.

Photo by @lillalinaea

Photo by @lillalinaea

Photo by @fareisle

Photo by @fareisle

Photo by @veronikagphotography

Photo by @veronikagphotography

Photo by @onbeing_kristy / @onbeing_mom

Photo by @onbeing_kristy / @onbeing_mom

Photo by @lightlovers

Photo by @lightlovers

Photo by @devine_tribe

Photo by @devine_tribe

Photo by @aplayfulday

Photo by @aplayfulday

Photo by @aspetalsfall

Photo by @aspetalsfall

Photo by @vanillalemoncake

Photo by @vanillalemoncake

Photo by @sapphireandlars

Photo by @sapphireandlars

Photo by @travel.little.one

Photo by @travel.little.one

Photo by @heartenohana

Photo by @heartenohana

Photo by @growingwildthings

Photo by @growingwildthings

Photo by @joyfulnoisephoto

Photo by @joyfulnoisephoto

Photo by @earth_mamma

Photo by @earth_mamma

Photo by @lessmeansmoreproject

Photo by @lessmeansmoreproject

Photo by @mommetry

Photo by @mommetry

Photo by @findingjoyforus

Photo by @findingjoyforus

Photo by @mama_2thelittleones

Photo by @mama_2thelittleones

Photo by @littlekinjournal

Photo by @littlekinjournal

Photo by @ambertia

Photo by @ambertia

Melanie’s selections can be found over on her blog www.geoffreyandgrace.com.

Congratulations to those who were selected for the blog, and thank you very much to everyone who has added their special moments to the hashtag gallery. With over 3200 entries to the gallery we were overwhelmed by the participation this month. Each image left us with something some sort of inspiration. As with last month’s theme ‘love’, there’s no reason to stop using the hashtag on your images, you never know who or what it might inspire in someone else.

As mentioned on my Instagram account earlier this month, April will bring back another favourite theme ‘Bloom and Harvest’. This time around the seasons have switched, with it being spring in northern hemisphere and fall in the southern hemisphere. Like the first time, we would love to see how you capture the colour and beauty of these seasons. Use the hashtag #slowliving_bloomandharvest to include your photos in the gallery. Please feel free to join in even if you have never participated before. As usual, Melanie and I will curate a collection of our favourites at the end of the month to share on Instagram, our blogs, and on our Pinterest board ‘Slow Living Moments’.

In December we started using the hashtag #slowliving_ for all our images in the project. Feel free to use it yourself, especially for any photos you love but don’t feel quite fit the theme of the month.

You can find selections from other themes here: “explore” “nurture” “love” “renew” “raise” “bloom and harvest” “create” “gather

Thank you to everyone who shares photos and inspires us to live slowly, wholeheartedly, with gratitude. Best wishes for a beautiful and colourful month! xo, Danielle

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You might also like my post:

Ecominimalism: Minimalism & Sustainability, an Interview with @twentyventi

How to Get Started with Minimalism

How to Make All Natural Temporary Tattoos from Dried Flowers

Let’s be friends! Please come find me in other places:

Zero Waste: How to Make Easter Egg Bath Bombs with Flowers + Essential Oils

zero waste vegan easter egg DIY flower bath bomb essential oils hippie in disguise

I freely admit that the naturally dyed Easter eggs I see on Instagram (these ones!) and Pinterest (these ones!) have me feeling a little underwhelmed with our own vegan Easter crafting traditions. For a few years now, I’ve wanted to naturally dye wooden eggs but haven’t found an economical source for the wooden eggs. We’ve been making our own bath and beauty products for the last year or so (deodorants, creams, toothpaste and so on) and it occurred to me when I was getting our Easter decorations out that the plastic Easter eggs we use for the egg hunt would make perfect bath bomb moulds, so I decided to try it out with the kids. And, low and behold we found our Easter egg, vegan friendly, crafting tradition! (Note: After years of frustration related to buying aluminum wrapped chocolates, I decided to buy reusable plastic eggs that I could fill with dried fruits and other treats, rather than put aluminum foil into landfill. Zero waste life!).

Making the bath bombs was really easy and a super fun activity for the children. They got their hands into some dough, designed their own scents from mixing essential oils, and crumbled dried flowers. A sensory and very satisfying experience! The bombs smell great, are healthy for sensitive skin and soothing for the soul. On top of this, you can make the bombs with common household ingredients that are likely to be in your pantry or available at the grocery store.

zero waste vegan easter egg DIY flower bath bomb essential oils hippie in disguise

zero waste vegan easter egg DIY flower bath bomb essential oils hippie in disguise

zero waste vegan easter egg DIY flower bath bomb essential oils

Here’s how we made them:

  1. In a bowl combine: 2 cups of baking soda, 1 cup of potato starch (you can also use corn starch or cream of tartar), 6 tablespoons of Epsom Salts (you can also use sea salt).
  2. If you want to make different scented bombs, then separate the mixture evenly into a few bowls — we separated into four bowls.
  3. Crumble approximately 2 teaspoons of dried flowers into each bowl. We did different combinations to get different colours. For example, a pink egg from wild roses, and a green egg from blue hydrangea. Make sure to finely crumble the flowers because the bits will go down the drain in your bath so you don’t want to clog it up. Although, as Ro said: “It would be the nicest clog ever!”
  4. Add 7-10 drops of your favourite essential oils to each bowl. I use Do Terra essential oils which are very high quality (pure) so I didn’t need many drops, if you use a more conventional essential oil you may need a few more drops to get a strong enough scent. We used lavender, wild orange, balance, serenity, citrus bliss, eucalyptus and melaleuca in different combinations.
    • Lavender, balance and serenity are calming.
    • Wild orange and citrus bliss are energizing and refreshing.
    • Eucalyptus is great for opening up the air ways especially if you have congestion or a cold.
    • Melaleuca, also known as tea tree, is a natural anti-septic, is soothing and smells great.
    •  I’ve included links above to purchase from Amazon, but if you are interested in opening an account with DoTerra to get oils at a significant discount email me: hippieindisguise1@gmail.com
  5. Add 2 tablespoons of melted (liquid) coconut oil to each dry mixture, if separated into four bowls. (Overall you would add 6-8 tablespoons to the entire mixture).
  6. Using a spray bottle or a teaspoon to very slowly add water and mix, only add water until the mixture is crumbly but will hold together if you squeeze it in your hand. At this point it can be pressed into your egg moulds. Pack the moulds fully and firmly so that as they dry they will hold shape. I let ours dry in the egg mould for 2 days although 1 day was probably enough.
  7. Gently open the moulds. A few of our eggs crumbled from over excited hands, so be careful.

natural easter egg bath bomb diy dried flowers essential oils

zero waste vegan easter egg DIY flower bath bomb essential oils hippie in disguise

natural easter egg bath bomb diy dried flowers essential oils

No surprise, the children couldn’t wait for Easter to use the bath bombs. We found they worked really nicely. They didn’t fizz around (you need to add citric acid to the recipe if you want fizz, but citric acid can be hard on the skin so I don’t add it to my recipe) but they smelled really good and easily melted into the bath water. The crumbled flowers floated to the surface of the bath and made the bath water extra fancy. The coconut oil was soothing on the skin and the essential oils gave off a delightful and calming aroma. Overall, the bombs were a success.

natural easter egg bath bomb diy dried flowers essential oils

If you have any questions about how we made the bath bombs please leave a comment and I will be happy to answer. For an amazing tutorial to make naturally dyed wooden eggs visit Fareisle Blog here.

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You might also like my post:

How to Make All Natural Temporary Tattoos from Real Flowers

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Drawing a Day: A Summer Drawing Project

Want to find me in other places?