Give the Gift of Luxurious Zzzs

Silk pillow cases are a unique gift. Not only are they indulgent, but they literally aid your beauty sleep. They make you feel luxurious while preventing your hair from breaking and alleviating wrinkles. Here are some instructions to make a basic silk pillow case:

Materials

• Sample pillow case
  
• 1¼ yard silk/satin fabric- basic lining silks cost $6-$8 per yard, while the more ideal heavier satin silks cost $12-$14
• Matching thread
• Scissors
• Pins
• Tape measure

Making a Silk Pillow

Measure the sample pillow case by placing the tape measure seam to seam and adding a seam allowance of 5/8" to 1" to all edges. Silk will shrink in the wash, so it is better to measure out the body a little larger (you can eyeball this).

Cut out 2 pieces of the fabric to the chosen size. In laying out your pattern, consider that the selvage (the finished edge of the fabric) will become the opening side of the pillow case.

Now place the fabric with right sides together, pin, and stitch around 3 sides. The pillow opening side, which has the selvage, stays open.

Turn the pillow case right-side-out, iron, and it's done!

For a more feminine look, add a matching, contrasting, or coordinating frill to a simple pillow. Alternative Windows has instructions on adding frills to cushions.

For an additional flair, I included a store-bought pouch and stuffed it with fresh lavender. DIY Life has a more sophisticated lavender sachet recipe. Or you might add other lavender products that incorporate the R&R theme such as scented bath salts prepared according to Nordea's recipe. The NewNew spa products also help pamper the body and soul.

I made a silk pillow case for myself and found my husband clamoring for his own… leading me to believe this is also a great metro-sexual Father’s Day gift!

-Fairywallah

eco-friendly hair care

as maryanne just taught us all, baking soda + vinegar are miracle products, and are practically the only things you need to have a clean and fresh-smelling home.

and now i'm here to tell you that they can work equally miraculously on...your hair.

i've fought a long fight with shampoo/conditioner. the day i washed my hair, no matter how well i conditioned, my hair looked and felt like straw. it would be okay the next day, good the next, perfect the next, then all of the sudden super greasy and gross the next, and i'd start the dance all over again. then i read about the natural method of cleaning your hair with baking soda and apple cider vinegar. possibly better hair plus better for the planet? sign me up.

the process is fairly simple. wet your hair thoroughly, then take about a tablespoon or so of baking soda and plop it into your palm and splash in some water to make a fairly watery paste. get the paste onto your fingers and work it all over your scalp, starting at the crown of your head and working outward. massage your scalp with the paste for about 1 minute (for extra green points, turn off the shower while you're massaging:), then rinse. do another rinse using a couple tablespoons of apple cider vinegar diluted in about a cup of water (i keep a large chinese take-out soup container in the shower for this purpose...), then rinse that out thoroughly. that's it!

it does take a little perserverance to make the switchover from shampoo to this method. everything i read about it warned that you'd have "yucky" hair for the first couple of weeks, because your scalp would continue to overproduce oil, as it had been doing to compensate for all the oils that the shampoo stripped away. i could never get a more precise description than "yucky", but now that i've lived through it i can give you one: my hair felt like it was coated in a mixture of wax and motor oil. by day 13, i was getting a little cranky, and tired of bandanas. but then like magic, on day 14, my hair was perfect and soft and glossy.

you may have to fiddle with the proportions of baking soda and vinegar a bit—everyone's hair and scalp are different. if you use too much baking soda and your hair turns out dry, you can use a little bit of natural oil to even it out; just smooth a tiny bit over your hair, avoiding your scalp, once your hair is dry.

and no, you won't smell like a big pickle. :)

- cakehouse