Make it Yourself Monday!!!

Since I came out of the No-Pooing closet, quite a few people have messaged me interested in getting recipes for some of my homemade products, mostly beauty related or bath related. I decided that every so often (i.e. when I run out and need to make more), I would do a post with recipes that I use to make every day products!
Introducing my favorite product of all time: Castile Soap!! This can be used for everything from scrubbing floors to washing babies. It's super concentrated, so keep that in mind when you see how little of it is used in recipes!
Yes, my kitchen is a mess...
I like Dr. Bronner's and Dr. Wood's castile soap, but I've found that the Dr. Wood's is a lot less price-wise than Dr. Bronner's, although Dr. Bronner's is more widely available. You can find it at Target now!
This is castile soap with peppermint essential oils and organic shea butter, so this is what I use to make bath products. Keep in mind, this has no numbing agent like most shampoos, so watch out for eyes.
Since this has the peppermint essential oils, keep that in mind when using it on kids. There are mild versions, especially good if you have a little one with sensitive skin or a diaper rash. Some kids are more sensitive than others. But for us, personally, the little ones really enjoy the minty smell (and Keelin likes the cool tingle, Jackson has yet to comment- LOL)!


This is a jar that once held my favorite oil cured kalamata olives! I'm craving them just looking at the glass jar!

For the kids, I fill the jar halfway with hot water and dissolve about a 1/4 of a cup of castile soap. I called a mommy friend of mine who uses the same thing on her kids and she says that she uses 1 part soap to 5 parts water- gives loads of suds and isn't tough to wash off.
There is no magic measurement, just make sure that you use a lot more water than soap- it's really concentrated!

My no poo recipe is still being adjusted. I make a thick paste out of baking soda and water, scrub it really well into my scalp, and then work it down to the ends of my hair, rinse with cool water, and then rinse with some diluted apple cider vinegar (organic and unrefined ACV is best, but you can use white vinegar in a pinch). Definitely works for me!
I've been reading online and a lot of people seem to use a thinner mixture instead of a paste. The common ratio seems to be 1 TBSP of baking soda to 1c of water. I'm going to try it later!

And here is something I am really excited to share!!!
Homemade dishwashing detergent!
Isn't it pretty?
Recipe:
2 cups of Borax (I bought "20 Mule Team" brand borax at Harris Teeter for $2.50)
2 cups of Baking Soda (or washing soda) (I bought Arm & Hammer, huge box, for $2.50)
4 small packets of sugar free lemonade Kool-Aid (you can also use 4 tablespoons of citric acid--if you can find it) (I accidently grabbed Orange- LOL, hence the color! - $1 for 12 packets)
White Vinegar until it's really wet and soft ($1 for a HUGE bottle)

You use about 2 tablespoons per load and I have had really good results with it so far today!
For $7, I got enough to make enough dishwashing detergent to last for a YEAR!!! That is half of what I used to pay for one small bag of my all-natural dishwashing tabs that lasted not even a month and a half... We cook at home a LOT, hence a ridiculous amount of dishes.

EDIT: My mixture dried solid within a couple of days, which I am sure is caused by my jar not being air tight. Since then, I have mixed my powder together in the jar, using the vinegar in the rinse aid compartment in the dishwasher instead of mixing it with the dry ingredients! Hope that helps!



Next time:
homemade deodorant,
facial cleanser,
moisturizers,
styling spray for no-poo'ed hair,
and homemade laundry detergent!!

18 weeks and 1 day

So, I popped my due date into this little thing-a-ma-jigger and it told me that I am more than 18 weeks pregnant. Uh. No. Could I possibly be almost halfway through this pregnancy?! No way!!

*sigh*

Denial won't change it. This pregnancy is getting away from me. I swore I'd enjoy every minute of it- and I am, so why is it going by so quickly?!

I have his newborn cloth diapers ready, I have some little newborn wool sleep cocoons (will post pictures next week when the custom I ordered gets here), some little teeny clothes that I'm planning to dye when I dye his prefolds all sorts of beautiful colors.

Basically? This baby boy could make his grand entrance tomorrow and have everything he needs, except for a carseat! But of course, he needs to stay in for another 22 weeks- which gives me that much longer to obsess about it. And the nesting hasn't even kicked in yet. I am in such trouble... even though I'm totally going the handmade, minimalistic route with this little boy's items!

18 weeks and 1 day with baby #3

I think I popped a bit since my last picture! :)

Friday, Beautiful Friday!!

People that know me know that I adore furniture that has been taken from a virtual heap and turned into something beautiful! And I have always been in love with Hoosier Cabinets. If you love antiques, then you might know that when they are in good shape, they are expensive!! I finally found one about half an hour away within my budget and picked it up yesterday. I'm so in love! Can't wait to bring it back to life- the picture makes it look like it is in a lot better shape than it actually is. This furniture is going to require a lot of TLC to return it to it's former luster. :) It has an original flour storage unit and I'm hoping to find a glass sugar storage to mount on the inside. The countertop slides out towards you. It seems that this piece of furniture was a favorite of women when baking bread. They used the slide out panel to knead dough and cut out biscuits!

A picture of my precious Keelin! She goes to a 3 morning a week preschool and loves it. She chose, on Friday morning, to wear her tie-dyed t-shirt, turquoise flats, and her breast cancer awareness hair bow. She's just so bright and shiny. I can't get over how delightful my daughter is. Love her!!!

Oh, and before I forget, Tim and I were able to go out for dinner and a movie last night, courtesy of my awesome dad for watching the kids- especially when Jackson stripped naked and peed all over the floor AFTER he was supposed to be asleep in his bed ;)

We went to Basil's & Co., a local bistro that locally sources some of their food- including a lot of their meats and cheeses (Goat Lady Dairy, anyone?!). We shared the fried pickles with horseradish aioli to start with- SO good. Tim got the shrimp and grits, I had a small plate portion of the sirloin with a green salad, truffle dusted shoestring fries, and ordered an extra side, because the asparagus risotto sounded too good to pass up! For dessert, we had a chocolate ganache cake that was so rich, we brought most of it home!! The baby bump enjoyed it, though!

It was really nice to get out for a while together and focus on what we wanted to talk about, no booster seats, enjoy hot food (parents, you know what I'm talking about!), and the movie (Limitless) was pretty good, too. Although by that time, I was ready to go home and go to sleep. I'm too much of an old lady (at 24) to go to a ten o'clock movie! :)

No Poo Week 2!!!!

I don't really like taking pictures of myself, but I promised!

Here is a picture of my hair after 2 weeks of No Poo-ing!

When I still used shampoo, my hair was super "poofy" without product,

my curls undefined and frizzy.

Now, my curls are DAILY becoming more defined, my naturally wavy hair is more under control than it has been in years.

I'm working on mixing up a good defining "product" in my bathroom.

Not sure if it will work or not, but if it does, I will definitely post a recipe!

I particularly love how my hair looks after a day on the beach.

Maybe I will end up with a sea-salt based spray of some sort?

That is my goal! We'll see how it goes :)

Where do you put the batteries?!

I was playing with my munchkins this afternoon and decided to snap some photos of them playing. I can count on two hands the toys these kids have that are battery-powered. Most of our toys are kid-powered :)

We used to have all of the light up, noise making, Disney character covered plastic junk. The more I researched, got headaches from the noise, and realized that the mess was NOT something I wanted in my home, we started slowly but surely minimizing the number and type of toys in our house. At last count, we have 7 toys that require some sort of power, including the tv that I have in the back of the house for the kids to watch the occasional movie on. The rest is mostly wooden, imagination requiring, and I love it! And so do they!

Keelin trying to use a wooden pizza cutter on a wooden apple stuck together in the middle with velcro. She's wearing a bioME 5 "K for Kangaroo" shirt.

Click here to see bioME 5's organic clothing options for kids!

Here is Jackson playing with the apple and Keelin playing with the darn pizza cutter ;) She's cutting a wooden loaf of sliced "bread" held together with velcro.

They were pretty hung up on play food this afternoon, but you can also see the Plan Toys lace up shoe, and the Melissa and Doug toys- the word matching game, the tool set, etc. We love Melissa and Doug, even though their items are mostly made in China and we wish they would make them here in the U.S.A.

Jackson, making a pizza for his big sissy!

Little mess maker! Keelin would run away before I could take many pictures with her in them. Don't know why she was being camera shy today :-/

So there ya go, y'all! Just a little peek into the toybox. So many people act like our kids are deprived because they don't have TONS of toys or the "latest and greatest," but shoot, they are happy kids and I feel good about what they have to play with. Kid-powered is the way we like to do it at our house :)

An incredible Etsy find!!

Happy Wednesday!! :) The kids and I have been focusing a lot on weather and seasons here lately with our un-schooling/homeschooling, since it's been what has interested them. I'm hoping to move on to rainbows in the next couple of weeks, since I've put together a really great set of plans for activities in many areas that involve rainbows- including making some decorations for our house! (That doesn't qualify as child labor does it?!) Since I'm planning more than a week of total rainbow goodness, I thought I'd shop for a nifty, handmade learning toy for the kids and came across Mama Mama May I on Etsy.

Mama Mama May I Explore?

her etsy shop

This is a picture of her "Nesting a Rainbow" playset.

I don't know about you, but I think it is devastatingly beautiful.

Putting it on my list of things to buy for my curious, feisty, little ones!

Just had to share!

A trying evening...

I buckled up the kids and drove 45 minutes to pick up some chicks tonight. The guy wasn't home. What. The. Heck? I called. Knocked. Nothin'. Dude knew I was coming. Well, there was a place about 15 minutes down the road that supposedly had the same breed I was looking for, so I drove there. It was about an hour before they closed, supposedly. Closed. Dark. Locked. Nothin'. At this point, I'm thinking- "Seriously, people? You consider yourselves businessmen?!"

So, after two hours of nonstop driving and nonstop disappointment, I took home two heartbroken kids and no chicks. We stopped and split a milkshake, but it didn't help. By this point, they were exhausted, sad, and my composure was slowly but surely fading.

Oh, and lest we forget- I'm 17 1/2 weeks pregnant. So, yes, I cried the whole way home with the kids.

I didn't care about not getting the chicks (I'll get them eventually), I didn't overreact to the kids being upset (They're 4 and 2, it happens, they'll be okay), but I had just had it.

Then my sweet Keelin reminded me that our night could have been much worse. I asked her how she thought it could have been worse. She said, "We might have seen a rabbit get eaten by a lion- and that would have been bad." Yep, Keelin, that would have been bad. Shaking off the annoyance, crawling into bed, and reading a book. Goodnight :)