Day Sixteen: I Actually Complete a Project from a Magazine! - (AKA Citrus Sugar Scrub)

          

OK...  True Confession Time...  I am a recovering magazine junkie.  In the past, I have pretended that I had subscriptions to fifteen different magazines because my clients needed a variety of reading materials in the waiting room of my office.  But let me set the record straight here:  My name is Christy, and I'm a magazinaholic.  It's not so much the subscribing to or the time spent reading these magazines that is the problem.  It's the discarding part that I truly struggle with.

You know that issue with hoarding that I was talking about? Yeah...  Well, I honestly have a ton of back issues of magazines in some crate or other down in my basement that I actually MOVED from my last abode back in 2005 and possibly two times before that in 2002.  You know, because someday I might  miraculously get in touch with my inner Martha Stewart and NEED to reference that article from 1999 that teaches me how to make my own place cards for that summer picnic that I will be hosting in honor of flag day.  Right...  

And, not surprisingly, I've actually completed one of these magazine projects just about zero times!  

So upon the birth of my son, I decided that it was smartest for me to go cold turkey and let my subscriptions run out.  For two years, now, my clients have had to make do with my one office subscription to People and about a million back issues of everything else under the sun.  And I was doing a pretty good job, too.  Until, yesterday when I had a relapse...

You remember my brief taste of complete freedom?  Still feeling giddy, I swung by the local drugstore to pick up some supplies for my sick husband and decided that it would be OK if I just looked at the magazines because they might inspire me in my quest for novelty...  Yes, people, I used THIS experiment to justify opening the door to relapse.  Two magazine purchases later and I was on my way home.  In my defense, one of the magazines was truly novel to me: Do it Yourself!  As I've explained that I am not a do it yourselfer this does count as an additional novel experience for yesterday, AND is very ambitious of me, if I do say so myself!  The other magazine was an old favorite:  the March edition of Whole Living from Martha Stewart.  It was the happiness edition.  Seriously, with my love of positive psychology, how could I do anything BUT purchase it?  And my clients need new reading  material, right?!

So today, with my son tucked safely away at my sister-in-laws and my daughter sleeping soundly in her swing, I indulged in my addiction and sat idly on the couch flipping through my treasures in the interest of finding my novel activity for the day.  And there it was:   directions for a homemade sugar scrub made from honey, raw sugar, citrus zest, and olive oil!

Here's what the ingredients look like in Martha Stewart's world...  Lovely!

  

And here's what it looks like in mine...  And admit it...  You have a crystallized honey bear, too, don't you!    

I assembled and mixed the ingredients:

And put my homemade citrus sugar scrub into a lovely, used mason jar...

Clearly, it needs a ribbon or something, but I must say, I'm rather proud of the results!  A quick test run in the bathroom and my skin was left feeling smooth and soft... in fact, I'd say it did a better job than the expensive stuff I buy!  My one complaint would be that the scent was more Eau de EVOO than it was citrusy.  Despite this, I think I might actually make this again with a lighter oil.  And if it turns out OK you all know what you'll be getting from me next Christmas!  Because maybe there's a little bit of Martha in me after all!

Day Thirteen: Purging my Stuff

Today's intended novel experience was set up well ahead of time, and it was a big one...  We're talking potentially life altering!  But then, as seems to occur all too often in my life, things went awry...  This time, my husband was the culprit.  The day before, he started to complain of stomach issues and tried to blame the cheesecakes.  However, when no one else got sick and he woke up today exhausted and nauseous, it seems clear that he's caught THE stomach bug.  

Now I've been hearing about this nasty little virus for months now, and have been counting my blessings that we seemed to continuously get by unscathed.  But now our luck has finally run out.  It was inevitable really...  The nurse at my doctor's office told me that there seems to be a 30 day contagious period after people's symptoms subside.  THIRTY FREAKING DAYS!  How any family with young children could avoid something that contagious, nasty, and lingering seems unlikely!

So, with plans thrown aside, I was left to figure out a new novel experience for the day.  At this point in the experiment, I'm starting to get used to having to be flexible.  There are too many wild cards thrown into my deck for me to really count on any particular experience working out as planned.  However, I've come to realize that opportunities for novelty tend to present themselves to me when needed.  So when the events of my life led me down to our basement, my path for the day became clear.

Now, I've mentioned that I have a hard time getting rid of things.  So our basement is starting to SLIGHTLY resemble an episode of hoarders.  What I didn't mention is that I also have an incredibly generous mother who frequently is giving us all sorts of cool gifts that she finds either second hand or at traditional stores.  The VHS hula tape:  My mom!  The tea bath bags:  Mom again!  Really, a good portion of the things we have in our tiny house can be traced back to my very wonderful, giving mother...  And let me tell you, this comes in very handy when you are embarking on a year-long challenge to create novel experiences...  BUT, let's take a moment to deconstruct this family dynamic...  In corner number one we have me: the mini-hoarder.  In corner number two we have my mother:  the generous garage sale gifter.  And then, alone in corner number three is my husband: the purger of things.  So....  Let's just say that sometimes he and I butt heads.

The worst example of this, (from my corner, at least), came after the death of my beloved cat of fifteen years last spring.  As I am actually quite allergic to cats, I knew that the likelihood of getting another feline friend was low so, to my husband's great joy, I was actually getting my kitty's things together to donate to the local pet shelter.  I had decided that there were two toys of his that I would keep as mementos:  his squeaky snail and his cat nip mat.  As I scoured the basement there was no sign of either one of these treasures...  And, after a slight interrogation, my husband broke under the pressure and admitted that he had thrown both away ages ago due to a little hairball contamination issue...  Unknowingly pregnant, hormonal, and distraught, I had a complete and total melt down.  That was an ugly, ugly day...  But, although my husband has been much more careful about this issue since that day, it's still safe to say that my penchant for saving things drives him crazy...

So, with my poor husband sick in bed, I decided that I would dedicate my novel experience of the day to him and set up an advertisement to sell something on Craig's List.  Therefore, if anyone within driving distance to Southern Maine would like a white, compact refrigerator please feel free to email me at noveltyexperiment@gmail.com.