Lipstuff!!

Ok, I know "chapstick" is probably a copyrighted name so.... Lipstuff it is! I. Made. Lipstuff. Every time I make something new DIY, I am SOOO tickled. This lipstuff is very super nice too. Smooth, soothing, rich. mmmmmmmm






3 tsp Beeswax
2 Tbsp coconut oil
2 Tbsp Shea butter

10 drops sweet orange essential oil


I melted the beeswax & coconut oil in the microwave using a toothpick to stir every 20 seconds. Added the shea & honey, stirred. Added the essential oil, stirred. Used a little kid medicine squeezer to fill the tubes. What a treat!!

Big Feelings and Foot Lotion

I'm watching Baraka. Its Beautiful! Have you seen it? There's all these indigenous peoples, and I just imagine: If an alien species came to Earth, they would assume that we all KNOW each other. They wouldn't think that some indigenous people wouldn't know anything about some other indigenous people. I find those other people SO FASCINATING. I don't know anything about them and they have a WHOLE history, and society and way of doing things. They live in their own little world, and it is MY world too and we don't know each other! Its really a beautiful movie if you haven't seen it yet, DO.

I turned 37 yesterday. I guess everyone has a big deal birthday they look forward to all their life and this was mine. I have always believed that I wasn't going to make it to 37. I just feel so alive and glad today and happy that I "made it" so I don't have to worry about it anymore. I'm reborn! I'm vegan! I'm making all these new fun & healthy household & toiletry products! Slowly, I'm gaining confidence in myself, as people ask me "how do you do it?". I have something worth while to offer.

I had a person in mind today when I wanted to make a lotion. This person is very particular about her beauty regimen and I'm pretty sure that if I gave her "body lotion" it wouldn't get used. No offense taken! I'm weird about that stuff too that's why I'm MAKING it now lol. I decided she probably wouldn't mind trying some homemade stuff on her feet, so I made a whole batch of "Nighttime Foot Cream" with eucalyptus, peppermint, and lavender. The lotions I make are SO nice for my nails and are SO thick I know this cream is going to make some tickled tootsies.

Deodorant

TOO easy:
1.5 Tbsp Shea Butter
1.5 Tbsp Baking Soda
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 Tbsp Cocoa Butter

melt in the micro, 30 seconds at a time till melted. Stir. Add 15 drops of essential oil of your choice-I chose lemon for this. Stir, Chill. It stays firm at room temp. I never get BO because I am a pure angel, so Mike is going to try this for me for a couple days and I'll report back soon. Enjoy!


***UPDATE*** This stuff WORKS. On a man, on a 95 degree day. I'M impressed

Laundry Soap

All this Do It Myself stuff has given me SUCH a boost and a breath of fresh air. I was getting super bummed out about the whole food system in our country, and Agribusiness. I watch so many documentaries about food, what's wrong with the healthcare system, conspiracy theories. I weigh each soundly. I do feel responsible to make the changes I can for my family that I think are best. At the same time, I'm trying to find my place in this world like anyone else and I LIKE being a homemaker. I flail at it, I feel. And I think a big reason for that is, I don't have a solid religious structure in my life. You know, I dabble and explore my spirituality a TON. Nowadays I'm reading a lot of these MommyBlogs and how to make your own anything and it seems like most of these ladies are solid Christians. Which is great for them. But for me, I really don't know if that's my personal answer. While at the same time, I KNOW that many of those principals apply to me: honoring my husband by keeping a happy home, uplifting my family by guiding us in the right food decisions, embrace my role in keeping the home. I'm hoping I can continue to grow along this path even though I don't attend church and I don't have my finger on my personal beliefs/religion.

As a homemaker, I manage our finances, and making my own laundry & dish soap saves a TON of money. I'll ad an update post with cost analysis later if you all need it but TRUST me on this, making my own dish(washer)soap cut my spending to about 20% of what it was IF that. And now I'm making my own laundry soap, and lotions.... Who knows what's next.

Most importantly, I'm working on reducing the chemicals in my home. Laundry detergents contain KNOWN carcinogens such as 1,4-dioxane, Benzene, and Acetaldehyde. For the longest time, this just didn't concern me. I guess I just figured, well we've all been doing this for so long and nothings happened so what's the problem? But something IS happening! People are getting cancer. People I know. See the thing is, we have all these carcinogens in our daily environment so we have to 1)eat right to give our body what it needs to fight off any cancers trying to set up shop in our body, and 2) get as much cancer causing crud we possibly can out of our environment. To me, for years, doing those 2 things seemed futile and impossible. Now all the sudden, for me, it's easy and common sense. This is where I'm at today and it feels good.

OK! Now for the laundry soap. The easiest thing yet:

1 bar shaved soap. I used Kirks Castille for this batch
1 Cup Washing soda
1 Cup Borax




I used it to wash already and I was so shocked. HONESTLY I thought I would have to just "suffer" with scratchy, ikky fabrics. The load came out just fresh and normal and CLEAN. Corbin had a stain on one shirt that was washed and dried in from before and it came OUT I couldn't believe it. How exciting is this???

Let's make it more exciting! First person to correctly guess my next DIY wins a batch (of mystery DIY)

Body Lotion

I MADE body lotion. Very exciting, but I can't TELL you how easy it is and how excited I am that I will be saving millions of dollars now :-)



I got the basic recipe from A Sonoma Garden, my new FAVORITE do it yourself blog, and I ordered the ingredients from Mountain Rose Herbs.








I did make a couple minor tweeks on the recipe because I wanted shea butter in my lotion. So the recipe is this:










Melt together 1/4 C Emulsifying Wax & 1/4 C Sweet Almond Oil. Microwave for 30 seconds, stir, then another 30 if needed




















Add 1/4 C Shea Butter to the warm oil/wax and stir till it's melted. I read somewhere online that if you over heat the shea it can become gritty. This method seemed to work fine.























Add 30 drops of Lavender Essential Oil




















Add 1 C water hottest from the tap. Stir, pour into a jar & let cool overnight....



















I'm not waiting :-)

Best Stir Fry Ever

We all have our own way of making stir fry. But I thought I'd share my method, in case any of you is looking for some new ideas or refreshment.

Lately, I've been using wide rice noodles. Boil them up and put them aside.





















I cut up the baby bok choy, and mushrooms, and saute them separately ahead of time. If I'm using broccoli, I'll cut & trim it and quickly blanch it, then set it aside too.

Meanwhile I cut up all my other veggies: Asparagus, kale, red onion, zucchini. All of THESE veggies can be mixed together in their staging bowl, along with the already started mushroom/bok choy/broccoli. We've also been enjoying this bean curd stuff a LOT. It's yummy and the protien rounds out the dish.























I also mince up a whole bunch of garlic, and stage that separately.


Now, I'm ready to start frying. I use coconut oil. I put in all the veggies, reserving the garlic. Fry for about 2 min, then start adding sauces. For Mike, I use Kung Pao sauce. Easy. For me, I use: 1/4 cup lite coconut milk, a GENEROUS shake of red pepper flakes, couple splashes of tamari, sometimes a nice dollop of Yum Cafe Yummi Sauce. After adding all the sauce, I'll grab a handful of noodles. It is helpful to keep the noodles in the colander near the sink. They stick together and I have to rinse them fresh before adding them. Stir, fry, add sauce if needed. at the VERY last second, I add the garlic. Give it a last quick mix up and plate (bowl)

Creamy Chai Soap

What a treat! I made a couple tweeks from the method used for my first try soap.
here's a step by step:

First I grated 2 Cups of pure unscented glycerine soap. Added 1/4 C Almond oil, and 1/2 C water and put it in a "double boiler system" like so.





















Next, I added yummy spices that smell good, and some raw honey. 1tsp cinnamon, 1/2tsp allspice, 2tsp cardamom, 1Tbsp honey. I also added 1.5 Tsp ground gluten free oats (flour).




















Last time, much of what I added settled at the bottom of the loaf, producing an uneven bar. So this time, I tried something that worked perfectly. I used an immersion blender and blended it as I alternately placed the container in the fridge to bring the temp down.
























I think I'm going to let this batch cure for a few weeks, it's very soft. Maybe I'll try it as a shampoo bar