Get Kamfortable

How To Dry Flowers Without Silica Gel

05.13.20

I received the most beautiful bouquet of flowers on my birthday from my sisters and it was one of the best gifts I’ve gotten. My sisters live in BC, so when there was a knock on the door with a man delivering me the flowers, it was quite a special surprise. I couldn’t stop admiring the flowers and every time I saw them over the next couple of days, I couldn’t help but smile. I was already dreading that they were soon going to die and I would have to throw them out. So, I went to Google and started researching how to dry flowers. I saw lots of tutorials of drying flowers using Silica gel, but I just didn’t want to go out and grab that.

So, I contacted Coriander Girl (the florist who made the arrangement) and she gave me some tips. So, I thought I’d share with you how to dry flowers without silica gel today based off what she told me and what I learned during the process. It really is quite easy and you can easily preserve the beautiful arrangement of flowers you receive forever! With Mother’s Day having just passed, I’m sure many of you received some beautiful bouquets and with the Pandemic going on, this really is the perfect time for this DIY project.

How To Dry Flowers Without Silica Gel

After a few days, the flowers will start to die. This is when you need to carefully take out each of the stems from the arrangement. I recommend doing this outside as it can get quite messy. If you find rotten stems, throw them out.

Next, grab the ends of the stems and tie some twine, string, or ribbon you have at home carefully around them. You may need to do several bunches of stems if your bouquet is quite large. Make sure to leave some of the string, twine or ribbon hanging out.

Then find a dark and cool area in your home. We found our garage to be the perfect location. Tie the flowers onto something that will allow them to hang upside down. We tied ours to the garage opener.

Now allow the flowers to dry over the course of a couple of weeks. I checked back on the flowers after 2 weeks and they were perfectly dry. Since I didn’t know which flowers would dry well and which wouldn’t, I just dried them all to find out. Roses and eucalyptus dried beautifully. The flowers that didn’t dry well I got rid of.

With the remainder of the flowers, I used the tin vase they came from to arrange the flowers. I’m obviously not a florist so I did the best I could, and if I do say so myself, I’d say they look quite remarkable.

Here are some vases that I think would look beautiful with your dried flower arrangement:

I’m so happy with how these dried flowers turned out and now I keep this arrangement of flowers in our bedroom. I wake up to these flowers every morning and they instantly bring a smile to my face. I hope you all enjoyed this little DIY and I’m so glad it really is so easy to dry flowers without silica gel. And if you’re looking for more DIYs, check out the Kamfy Living section of the blog!

Collaborations

Easy Ways To Make Your Home More Comfortable

05.09.20

If you are thinking of trying to make your home considerably more comfortable, there are many ways in which you might be able to do that, and it is important to make sure that you know about as many of these as possible. By making your home more comfortable, you can enjoy being indoors more, and that could be particularly important right now with everything that is going on. But what can you do to really make your home that much more comfortable? In this article, we are going to take a look at some of the best ways to do that, including some bigger changes like solid hardwood floors and some smaller ones, but all relatively straightforward to achieve.

Image Credit – CCO Licence

Update The Flooring

People don’t often think about the flooring when they are trying to make their home more comfortable, but in fact it is one of the most important parts of the whole process. If your flooring is not quite comfortable, then you are going to find that it is harder to enjoy being in the home in quite the same way. Bear in mind that you can use many different kinds of flooring here and still hope for it to be comfortable – not only the plush carpet styles, but you’ll also find that good quality wooden flooring and laminate can be more comfortable too, especially if your current flooring is very old. Take a look at the flooring store and see which type you might want to make use of in your own home.

Get New Bedding

The bed is one of the most vital parts of the home when you are thinking about comfort. As long as the bed is actually going to be kept up to date, you can probably say that it is considerably more comfortable. No matter what, having new bedding is always going to achieve that, so this is something that you are going to want to consider. If you have not had new bedding in a while, then this is going to make a huge difference. Remember that this is also a chance for you to express yourself, which in turn will make the bedding that much more enjoyable, and in the process more comfortable too.

Image Credit – CCO Licence

Eliminate Clutter

Having too much clutter is a very normal thing for many homes to have, but it is also one of the quickest ways to feel uncomfortable in your own home. If you have a lot of clutter in your home at the moment, then you are going to want to think about what you can do to get rid of it as soon as possible, or as much as you can. Most of us own too many things, and you will find that getting rid of many of them has a great way of making you feel much more that your home is liveable, so that is something that you are going to want to consider too. The more you get rid of clutter, the more comfortable the home is going to become.

Make It Warm

It’s good to be able to have a lot of warmth in the home, for the evenings or for those winter days. There are a lot of good ways to make the home warm, but one which is particularly cosy is to think about using underfloor heating. If you don’t have this yet, you should really think about having it installed. It is more affordable than you might think, and yet it provides your home with an amazing quality to it that you will find people always remark upon, and which is going to help make your home much more comfortable in no time. Warm flooring is a real treat during winter, in particular.

Keep Things Personal

It might sound strange, but you can actually make your home much more comfortable by thinking about ways in which to personalise it more and more. If you can do that, you will find that you are going to have much more of a comfortable home, as you will just find it easier to relax in the space and really enjoy it for what it is. You can achieve this with photographs of your loved ones or other items that remind you of your life. However you do it, it is going to make your home a much more comfortable and enjoyable place to live.

With these changes, you should find that you are going to have a much better time of being comfortable in your own home.

Bekaming a mom

Bond With Me Panda Crate Review

05.04.20

I came across KiwiCo and the Panda Crate subscription service while I was pregnant and I knew I wanted to try out at least one box once Partaap Singh was born. So, I signed up and received the first crate (the Bond with Me Panda Crate) and was hooked. My son and I loved it so much that I signed up for the entire Panda Crate subscription right then and there. So, today I thought I would share what we received and do a Bond With Me Panda Crate review (one of the first crates we received).

KiwiCo is a subscription company that sends monthly crates to your home specifically curated for your child. The Panda Crate is meant for babies ages 0-24 months and comes every 2 months. You can subscribe to the box by paying for each box or you can pay for all the 12 boxes and get a great discount. Okay, now on to the review.

Bond With Me Panda Crate Review

The Bond With me Panda Crate is one of the first crates you will receive as it contains some really cool products for a newborn. We used every single one of these products right when he was born and we are still using them now (he’s 4 months today)!. You really do get more than your moneys worth. If you search for similar products on Amazon and add up the cost, it is more than what you pay for the box.

I love the panda theme for all the Panda Crates. I also love that there is no plastic, the toys are amazing quality and the packaging is minimal. Most of all I love the uniqueness of the toys and that all the products are specifically designed to aid my child’s development. The Bond with me Panda Crate explores parent child bonding, recognizing baby clues as well as visual development. Let’s get into all the products.

The box comes with a large swaddle blanket. Swaddling is great for the first few months as it helps with the Moro Reflex. The swaddle is large, made of cotton, is beautiful and we use it for every nap and bedtime. If your child doesn’t like to be swaddled, you can even use the blanket for tummy time or a burp cloth.

Next, you will find black and white contrast cards in the box. All these cards are space and Panda themed. PS loved them all and still enjoys looking at them. I show him one card at a time, describe what is on it all while moving it back and forth and up and down. He loved looking at the cards when he was 1 month old and still loves them to this day.

One of the best things (imo) in the box was the foldable tummy time mirror. This is great to use during tummy time, however, PS seemed to enjoy staring, talking and laughing at the Panda on this mirror book well before he started doing tummy time. The Panda made him so happy, that sometimes when he was crying, I would show him the panda and he would start smiling. It was so cute.

Next, there are monthly card cards to use for monthly pictures of your little one. On the back side is room to write down milestones, height, weight and other information. They also come with a pillow that the cards easily slip into with a little panda on it. I havn’t used the pillow for the monthly pictures, but I am planning on using it to prop on the nursing chair once I stop nursing. It’s a cute little pillow for sure.

Other than those products, the box also comes with a magazine with great information as well as cards that help explain each product in detail. There are additional cards that give information about other activities you can do with your baby as well.

I hope you all enjoyed this review and as you can tell, I totally love the subscription box. I love the concept, I love all the toys in the box, I love that I don’t need to do my own research since the box comes with everything I need to know and I love the price. If you want to purchase the Panda Crate subscription, for a limited time they have one month free with the code FUNSUMMER for the 6 and 12 month subscriptions!

We love using the Ofie play mat. We spend a lot of our days on the mat playing with PS and all his toys. This mat is comfortable, has grip, is super soft and I just love the print. Oh, and it’s double sided! Highly recommend.

Happy Playing