Homemade Bubbles review

I've been wanting to make my own bubble solution for a while, just because it seems like a cool skill to have, and because J loves bubbles so much, it might be handy in the future. So, I finally took some time to find a fairly easy bubble solution recipe, and made it up.

I used this recipe (http://www.playathomemomllc.com/2011/09/bouncing-bubbles-2/)

Overall, I have to admit I'm not such a huge fan of them. They were easy to make, but after sitting for 24 hours (which was a killer to J) I discovered a few things that rather put me off.


1- The liquid seems rather watery - maybe it was just me, or maybe it was the glycerin in the solution, but it didn't seem as slimy as the other stuff. On the one hand, that was kind of nice, on the other, it lead to number 2.

2- It doesn't bubble well - I think myself a fairly good bubble blower, and with the store bought bubbles, I can get quite a few bubbles (think 6-7) out of one dip into the solution. Not so with this one. I could get (on average) about 1.5 bubbles. As you can see from the pictures, we also have a more J friendly bubble wand that you can wave about and get bubbles that way.  It didn't work, and so J couldn't help with bubbles.

3- The bubbles, when they do finally form, seem heavy and don't blow very far. You'll notice that I don't have any pictures of the actual bubbles. That was mostly because i had a hard time getting them to bubble in the first place, but secondly, they fell fast to the ground, and I couldn't get a good picture.

Take Away: They work okayish... I've been hoping that as I just let them sit on the counter longer, they will magically start to work better. I think that what I need to do (now that we've used some of the solution and actually have room in the jar) is to add more soap to the mixture, and see if that helps (I think it will a LOT). However, this will be far down on my list of things to do. We were given two huge things of bubbles by neighbours moving out, and I think for now, we'll just stick with using those :) They work better. So if anyone out there tries adding more soap to the mixture before I get around to it (I'll edit this if I ever do) please let me know how it turns out. I want to be able to make this work. 

Quiet book - all finished up :)

So, I don't remember just when I started the quiet book, but I've finally finished it! You can now imagine me doing a dance of joy for having it finished.

Okay, so you're right. I didn't completely finish all the pages I have planned. But, I have enough for now. I've decided that the rest of the pages get to come later. As birthday or Christmas presents. Because frankly, I need this to be done. I need to have it not weighing on my mind all the time, and sitting in the living room for weeks on end not seeming to have any progress made.

But, I want to show off, just for the few of you readers who actually read this, my current finished quiet book :) I'll have links to some of the pages that have links here, otherwise all the other pages were found in an old book from my mom. I have no idea what the title of it is, so.... sorry?

So here we go!

First, the Cover, loosely based off of this.  The plad material covers some magnets to keep it closed :)

Page1 - This one came from that book, and has no link (though I guess if I looked hard enough, I could probably find one.

Page 2 - Again, from the book

Page 3 -  From the book

Page 4 - loosely based off of a page in this book (though lets face it, I wanted to do the whole book :))

Page 5 - Based off of this page 

Page 6 - this one doesn't have any real source page, I just saw a bunch of counting pages and wanted to include one. One thing I would have changed on this is to make the strings tighter. Otherwise, I love how this one turned out. J already loves to play with it, even if there isn't much counting involved :)

Page 7 - From the book

Page 8 - From the book

Page 9 - From the book

Page 10 - From the book

Page 11 - From the book

Page 12 - From the book

Page 13 - From the book

Page 14 - Loosely based off of this page (see the rest of this page here)

There are things I would do differently if I were to do these pages again.

1. I would change the type of Velcro I used. I happened to have some on hand, but it is super thick, and very...well... Velcro-y. It is really hard to get apart. I would have invested in a LOT of less sticky Velcro. I ended up using it more than I expected.
2. I would make sure the pages lined up better when sewing them together. 
3. On the last couple pages I put together, I cut down the excess fabric on all the inside seams. it helped a LOT with it going together smoother
4. I would pay more attention to where my hot glue went in consideration to the edge of the pages. Having the hot glue right on the edges made sewing the pages together nigh impossible in some parts. 
5. I would only do button holes and majority of sewing while little fingers aren't around to try and help and get fingers stuck under the needle. Pages done while J was awake easily took 3 times as long as the ones done when he was asleep. this is also probably why it took so long to get it all done.