Author: mjkisner

Make a Simple Car Air Freshener

I recently bought an air freshener for my car at the drug store counter. It clipped onto the vent on the dash. I lasted about 3 minutes before I threw it out…the scent was so strong and sickening I couldn’t stand it. It seemed like a good idea at the time!

Then I saw an Ad online that showed some air fresheners made of a simple chunk of wood with a clip attached. You were supposed to add drops of your own preferred essential or fragrance oil. At least I could choose the scent!

I found some samples online by just typing in “wood air freshener for the car.” There were interesting shapes like flowers with a clip on the back, or slices of a tree branch meant to hang on the mirror.

I wasn’t sure the oils would soak in properly and then provide a nice smell in the car without being overpowering.

With Bert’s help, and a bag full of wood scraps that he uses for all kinds of little projects, we gave it a try.

First, I ordered the clips from Amazon…they were called “Square Head Car Air Vent Clips.” A bag of 20 clips were $6.99.

They were a very tight clip. Next challenge…finding some chunks of wood. Bert came in with some round, fairly flat, disks to see if they might work. The groove around the center could capture the oil until it soaked in.

He experimented with how to attach the clip to the back. Plain glue would not work because of the kind of stress it would be under to pull it from the vent. He found a way to put a screw on each side of the base, with the edge of the screw overlapping the base. It worked great for now. He had some other ideas for the next batch.

Now that the base was secured, I needed to add drops of scented oil…I chose Lavender fragrance oil…mostly because I had a big bottle of it, and I could stand the scent.

First, I had to figure out a way to keep the whole thing vertical so the oil wouldn’t drip off before it soaked into the wood. I had this small box that held the roller balls in shipping. The clip just fit over the center divider and kept it upright while I added the oil.

Using the dropper, I filled the center ring and let it soak in. I did that several times over the next few days. Then I put it in the car vent. It helped to be driving around with the heated air coming through the vent. The first day it was quite noticeable, but by the second day it was very pleasant. Not sure how long it will last, but when I can’t smell it anymore, I’ll pull it out of the vent, bring it into the house, add more oil and put it back in the car.

Bert did make me five of these so I could switch up the scents. I’ll store them in labeled zip bags so I know which one had which scent. Pretty slick!

Try it yourself! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

Essential Oils and Nail Care

I’m always looking for new ways to experiment with essential oils. I now have enough supplies to try almost any recipe I come across. It wasn’t until I was cutting my fingernails the other day that I realized I needed something to help them be stronger and less ridged. I wasn’t familiar with even commercial products out there. I always just used hand cream to help dry, cracked cuticles, hoping the nails would benefit. I started researching products to help my nails.

I read an article from one of my favorite websites: https://strategiclivingblog.com. Gaye Levy is the author and she has been blogging since 2010. Her philosophy of life really appealed to me and I check in with her website frequently. She recently posted an article called, DIY Nail Serum for Damaged Nails. This serum is applied right to the edge of the cuticle where it meets the nail. She came up with a simple serum to help her nails grow stronger. With her background as a licensed manicurist she knew that, “the issues with my nails stemmed from the nail matrix. This is the area underneath and below the cuticle and this is where all the nail bed and nail plate nourishment comes from.”

Then I came across a recipe for a Cuticle Butter with essential oils that also might help. I’m not sure where the recipe came from, but it was probably one of the following sites: https://joybileefarm.com or https://www.pinterest.com.

I decided to make both of these products to see if I liked the way they felt and if they worked for me.

NAIL SERUM

This product is mixed up directly in a roller ball. I ordered them from Amazon, and luckily, they came with a tiny funnel, labels and a plastic tool that helps to lift the roller ball out of the glass bottle. I had never worked with roller balls before so these were very helpful. I have since ordered a packet of six tiny metal funnels, seen in the picture below:

I used the box the roller balls were packaged in as my holder while I added the oils. It kept them from falling over as I worked.

The ingredient list was pretty simple:

I just added the drops of oil to each bottle. I did six at a time, so I added the 4 drops of Vitamin E oil to each roller balls; then I added the lemon essential oil…10 drops to each bottle; etc. In the end, I had 24 roller balls filled with the Nail Serum…enough to share!

CUTICLE BUTTER

This recipe is also pretty simple:

Step 1: Melt the Shea Butter and the Coconut Oil.

Shea Butter and Coconut Oil

Step 2: Add the Jojoba Oil, Vitamin E Oil and Essential Oils of Lavender, Geranium and Rosemary, and stir well. Pour into containers.

This was a messy process! The containers I chose were just 1″ across. They filled up so quickly I couldn’t stop pouring in time!

Then I waited for it to set up…which was…never! I guess over two days or so it might, but basically it stayed liquid. I tried pouring one into a roller ball, but that was a waste because it did finally get thicker and then wouldn’t come out of the roller ball. I threw that one away!

Second Try

I poured all of the oil from the tiny containers back into the measuring cup, put it back on the stove and added more Shea Butter (you can see the recipe above has 1/4 cup crossed out with 1/2 cup penciled in).

The next time I poured, I set the tiny containers on a tray so I could slide them into the refrigerator. I hoped that would help them set up more quickly. It wasn’t pretty the second time I poured!

Increasing the Shea Butter and setting the tray in the refrigerator made all the difference. It made a very soft salve that melted in nicely to my cuticles. You can see how soft it is…my finger just barely touched the top of the salve and it left a dent. On a hot summer day I might want to keep it in the refrigerator.

My next step is to share these two products with friends to see if helps our nails. I’ll package them together and ask for feedback on which product is easier to apply.

As always, I include a list of ingredients so folks know what I used.

I’m not sure if I’ll have great nails by Christmas, but maybe by Spring I’ll know if they work! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly if you have questions at marykisner@comcast.net.

Remembering My Big Sister – Jeansylvia

Today would have been my big sister’s birthday…84 years old. She passed away in 2017, but every December 1st since then I’ve made it a point to recall a few of my treasured memories of her. I’d like to share just a few with you. Some time in the last 20 years, she combined her first and middle name to make one…Jeansylvia. To me, however, she will always be Jean.

I have only a few pictures of my sister before I was born. Here is a picture of my family before I was born and they lived in New Jersey.

I was born in New Jersey, and 6 months later we moved to State College. Jean must have been 9 years old in the first picture. Mark would have been 6 years old. I’m sure I was a novelty at the beginning.

About 1957, when we returned from my Dad’s year-long sabbatical in the Philippines, Jean would have been about 20 years old and in college. For this picture we modeled our special outfits representing traditional clothes from the Philippines:

In 1959, Jean competed for the first step in the Miss Pennsylvania Pageant. She won Miss Centre County, but did not go further. This picture below was in the paper. A few years ago, Bert and I attended an 80th birthday celebration of the young man driving the car. (We had no idea who he was in 1959!) This picture was part of his memory board at the party. What a surprise to see my sister on his memory board! I hadn’t seen this picture for many years, so it was a real treat.

More recently we would drive up to Mansfield to have lunch with Jean, Mark and Lita. This is one of my favorite pictures of her:

When she passed away, I had to quickly come up with an obituary while I was in a hotel room. Luckily, her daughter was with me and could fill in all the details of next of kin, etc. However, I wanted to add a sentence or two about her personality. This is what I came up with:

“With a quick wit and engaging smile, she charmed all she met. She was an avid reader, prolific journal writer and nature lover. If you want to honor her memory, love a neighbor, help a friend and pass it on.”

So, CHEERS to you, my big sister! We all miss your smile and sense of humor!

I hope all of you take a minute on a loved one’s birthday to cherish a favorite memory too.

If you’d like to comment or share a memory of Jeansylvia, you can comment here or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

A Year of Door Quilts

A year ago, about this time, I gave up trying to decorate my front door with seasonal wreaths. Anything I would put on the door that was thicker than an inch or two would get smashed between the door and the screen door that we leave on all year. After a month or so the wreath would look really smashed and bits and pieces would have dropped off, leaving assorted crumbs behind every time I opened the door.

Last Christmas, I decided to try something different. A small quilt based on a single quilt block could be decorative, season appropriate and still be flat. The first one I made was a Christmas stocking…based on the crazy quilt technique but without a lot of hand stitching. I used recycled neckties and ended up with this:

After a month, it still looked good and had not dropped any stuff between the doors. About every two months, I made seasonal quilt blocks to decorate the door.

The best thing about this project was how little space the whole pile took up, compared to 6+ door-sized wreaths. They fit into a large zip lock bag and was less than an inch thick! I could easily store the bag with my sewing supplies. Success!

So now, I’m starting over with the Christmas stocking. I may feel like making more blocks as the year goes on to add variety but I can stop wasting my money and my patience with wreaths.

If you would like to see how each of these were made, scroll down on my Welcome page and search for the Door Quilts category. The articles will be there with the most recent one at the top.

If you would like to see a list of the first 100 articles I’ve posted, take a minute to subscribe to my website (also on the Welcome page) and I will email you a PDF of my first 100 postings with active links to each article. Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

Experimental Pancakes for Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving Friends and Family! Yes, we had turkey and gravy. Yes, we had potatoes. Yes, we had corn. We did not bother with pumpkin pie because I can’t eat it. We did not have any extra people around so we kept it simple.

It was a lazy day in general so I enlisted Bert’s help in trying a new recipe. It was a recipe suggested by my nutritionist as a way to work more protein into breakfast for a gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free pancakes that incorporated my plant-based protein powder.

Bert’s expertise in making great pancakes from scratch (or even from a pancake mix) is well known in the family. He seems to know just how to adjust the ingredients and the heat under the skillet to make lovely, fluffy pancakes (even on the cook stove at camp!). Since regular pancakes have eggs and milk in them, they have been off my list of acceptable breakfast foods for a long time (so sad).

The following recipe shows the original recipe and the additional ingredients Bert added to make an acceptable pancake. On the right is for a double batch, which is what we made. I really don’t have to be gluten-free, but we thought we’d give it a try.

These were the basic ingredients:

When mixed up it looked like corn bread batter:

When first placed on the griddle, they looked like it might work…

…however, trying to flip them was impossible! The first two pancakes went into the garbage.

So, Bert added flour, oil and some water (exact measurements were not possible at this point.) Remember…this was an experiment!

The next pancake worked much better.

We had to taste this one just to see if it was worth it. It was delicious!

After we nibbled on the first two pancakes, we were left with this lovely stack of thin pancakes.

When they were cool, I carefully placed them on foil and slipped them into the freezer. I’ll package them up so I can have them for breakfast. Next time, we’ll just know to add those extra ingredients at the beginning…but they won’t be gluten-free!

My experimental pancakes ended up being delicious. I’m thankful for Bert’s expertise! I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving Day too!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

Remembering Our First Date

It seems so long ago, 58 years, yet I’m reminded of our first date every year by the headlines back then…

(Original Caption) New York, New York: Headlines announcing Kennedy’s assassination from three New York newspapers, the Times, the Daily News, and the Herald Tribune. November 23, 1963.

I was eagerly anticipating our first date. We were supposed to go to a fall dance at the High School. We hardly knew each other…had just met in English class our Senior Year, even though we had been in the same schools since 7th grade. Our paths had not crossed in any class before.

We were in our afternoon classes when the PA announcements came on that President Kennedy had been shot. We all listened in stunned silence. Over the next few hours, we were bombarded with all the speculations from the news media, our teachers and our classmates. The details would unfold over the days and weeks to follow.

Many of the pictures in the news are still familiar to me today:

President John Kennedy rides in a motorcade from the Dallas airport into the city with his wife Jacqueline and Texas Governor John Connally.
Lyndon B. Johnson, during his inauguration immediately after John F. Kennedy’s assassination, with Jackie Kennedy by his side.
Members of the Kennedy family at the funeral of assassinated president John F. Kennedy at Washington DC. From left: Senator Edward Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy, (aged 6), Jackie Kennedy (1929 – 1994), Attorney General Robert Kennedy and John Kennedy (1960 – 1999) (aged 3). (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

By the time I got home from school, the world had changed. I think we were all in shock. All I could think about was what a relief it would be to go to a dance to feel somewhat normal again…if only for a few hours.

Of course, we had not gotten the memo that the dance was cancelled! So, I got dressed up, Bert came over to pick me up and we went to the school. Oh no! The sign on the door gave us a reality check! We headed back home to just go for a walk around my neighborhood and talk. We hardly knew each other so it was an awkward time.

It was also a memorable beginning to our relationship that I will be reminded of every year. I guess it stuck, because 58 years later we’re still hanging in there!

This year we’ve been married 54 years!

Do you have memories of that day back in 1963? I’d love to hear about them! My email address is marykisner@comcast.net.

Aloe Vera Gift Soaps

Getting ready for Christmas when you’re a crafter often begins by Thanksgiving or even earlier. If you go to a store like Michael’s Craft store or JoAnn’s Fabric Store you will see Christmas projects and supplies available shortly after Halloween. They know when we start thinking about gifts we want to make and how long it will take to make them. We really are shopping for fabric, thread, craft supplies, etc. months before the holiday.

This year I wanted to give a few folks a bar of my Healing Aloe Vera Soap. I also needed a gift for an exchange, where I wouldn’t know the recipient. I’m sure you’ve been asked to “bring a wrapped gift that costs less than $10” for a gift exchange at some point in the past. Why not figure out a gift that I would be happy receiving? I decided to use some of this soap recipe to make some small gift soaps and found a clear container to hold them at Wal-Mart.

In this post, I’d like to share what I made, along with the Aloe Vera soap recipe. If you want a review of exactly how the soap is made, please see my previous posting that goes through step-by-step of how to melt the soap and add extra ingredients (see https://marykisner.com/a-healing-aloe-vera-soap/).

Here is my current recipe:

I usually make two batches at a time…in two 4-cup heat-safe glass measuring cups. I set each on a pan of water on the stove. Because we have hard water, I add about 1/4 cup of white vinegar so the boiling water doesn’t leave behind a layer of sediment to the insides of the pan and the outsides of the measuring cups.

I start with the melt-and-pour soaps of Aloe Vera and Shea Butter Soap Bases. That simplifies the process so I don’t have to deal with lye to make the soap.

Here are the soap bases, ready to cut into cubes:

And then…all the rest of the ingredients:

See the article referenced above that takes you through the specifics of adding each of these ingredients. Please note…I used only one drop of the soap tint. The melted soap is sort of light green already, so that one drop just evens out the color. I like the light green color that makes me think of the Aloe Vera plant. Any more than that and it looks artificial.

Each batch of melted soap bade six regular-size bars and about 9-11 little heart soaps. I filled the hearts up just halfway to make a smaller soap. Then I sprayed the tops of the soaps with alcohol to disperse the bubbles that sometimes form on the top.

This made a nice batch of soap. Each one was wrapped in a piece of plastic wrap. Melt-and-pour soap tends to attract moisture, so I recommend keeping them wrapped until ready to use.

I think this will be a nice surprise gift at our gift exchange…with a little ribbon!

I always include an ingredient list for the things I make in case folks are allergic to specific things.

One project done for Christmas! I’d love to hear about the gifts you’ve made! Leave a comment or mail me directly if you’d like to share! marykisner@comcast.net.

Plan B When the Sewing Machine Needs a Check-Up

Nothing is more frustrating than to be in the middle of a huge project and have an equipment malfunction! I’m trying to crank out as many greyhound coats as I can now that I have a huge pile of fleece to work with.

This time of year is a great time to be at my sewing machine because all the Hallmark Christmas Movies are on…on three different channels! Some of the movies I have seen before but the background music is usually Christmas themes so I can sew like crazy and not be too distracted.

Until my machine stops working properly. After I cleaned out the fleece fuzz, checked that the machine is threaded correctly, checked the needle for any issues, checked the tension, etc. and still…the thread broke, the bobbin jammed and I’m out of business. Grrrr!!

After a quick phone call to the local repair shop (Frye’s Sweeper & Sewing in State College) I was able to lift the machine out of the table case and set it in the back seat of the car…secured with the seat belt, of course…and headed off to the shop.

So…I’m out of the fleece dog coat business for a week or so. However, I still have some other sewing to do that isn’t fleece. Time to bring out the smaller portable that I use if I need to sew away from home. Works great…just can’t handle fleece.

I have to close up the table and work on top, but this 3/4 size Janome will work fine with regular cotton fabric. So, for the next week, I’ll be working on other projects…probably making more Christmas ornaments for gifts.

Hopefully, my workhorse machine will be all fixed up soon so I can continue with the dog coats. I know the dogs will appreciate them!

Always have a Plan B! Enjoy!

If you have any questions, contact me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

Building a Simple Family Tree

Family trees and genealogy are fascinating to me. I seem to have become the “holder of the family info” for the Paul Bixby family, which includes my parents (Paul and Ruth), their 3 children, 9 grandchildren, 17 great grandchildren and numerous great-great grandchildren. Thank goodness for Family Tree Maker software!

Paul and Ruth Bixby 1935
Paul and Ruth Bixby 1985

I do remember how confused I was as a young child trying to understand how all my aunts and uncles were associated with my parents. My Dad had 4 sisters and my Mom had a brother and a sister. Each had their own families, so I had a hard time keeping my cousins straight. What I really needed was a simple family tree diagram to show me these relationships. (Obviously, as a young child I could have used an illustrated diagram!)

I’d like to share some simple Family Trees I made for my grandchildren a few years ago. I thought it might help them picture their immediate relatives and how they are related. Maybe one day, one of those grandchildren will be interested in exploring the rest of the family tree.

I had already collected the basic facts for these simple family trees. In my software, it looks like this:

This is a basic format and hopefully someday, Ben will appreciate the details. However, I wanted this first tree to include photographs he could relate to and show simple relationships.

So, first I made sure I had photographs of his grandparents. I could not get photographs of all of his great grandparents, so I just included their names. This was done on an 8 1/2″ x 11″ sheet of paper; the photos were scanned and placed into a Word document. Then the pine tree and leaves were stickers I pasted in by hand. I took a picture of the finished “Tree” before I put it in a frame for each grandchild.

Here was Ben and Anna’s first family tree:

And of course, Ted’s children had a tree with different people. Here’s the tree for Aislinn and Annika:

I hope I’ve set these simple diagrams up so if they move to a computer-generated family tree, they will see the similarity of the layout. If nothing else, it prompted me to get my computer program updated with the correct spelling of all the folks four generations back.

So, consider simplifying your family tree with the information and photos you have and make a picture for the younger generation. It may spark someone’s interest in learning more about genealogy! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

Last Garden Update November 12, 2021

Sad as it is, our gardens in November look very similar to how they looked in the early spring (see https://marykisner.com/homestead-tour/). Of course, we had snow on the ground then, but who knows…it could snow this weekend!

Bert has almost everything tidied up except the partial row of carrots that we will probably dig up next week. Here’s how things look now:

The Dogwood trees are done and I imagine the first snow will bring down the leaves.
The whole row of dogwood trees look pretty sad…but notice how green the grass still is! Bert will mow one more time before putting the mowers away.
The Lemongrass is no longer green thanks to the frosts…we’re not sure whether to just cut it off or leave it until spring.
For some reason the chamomile stays green most of the winter. I did cut it back a few weeks ago, but it is still growing!
I cut the Lemon Balm back a few weeks ago, almost down to ground level, but it is determined to stay green a little longer.
The bright green carrots on the left will be dug up this next week. The Lavender will probably not come back next year, but we’re going to leave it alone and see what happens in the spring.
The rest of the garden will have a good rest until spring.
And my dear Echinacea will drop all those seed soon. Hopefully we’ll have a nice full patch of flowers next year.
The Butternut trees dropped their leaves quite quickly after the first frost.
And of course, Bert has removed the rain barrels for the winter and connected the spouting back up on the shop. If you want to see how he hooks them up, see https://marykisner.com/setting-up-the-rain-barrels/.

So, the next posting about the garden will be next spring. Maybe I’ll have to share snow pictures for all you folks in California, Texas and Florida…just to remind you what you’re missing! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.