May sound morbid...

 We have spent so much time lately looking for landscaping stones. Sure you can go to the local shops/soil companies and buy great rocks for $5 a pop, however spending a $100 to haul a load of  stones home is not our idea of fun. Craigslist, free cycle, and even driving around aimlessly hoping some wonderful person would simply offer us a pile of beautiful boulders ended fruitless.  Then we had an idea to check out a very apparent yet overlooked source. Every town has cemeteries, and every cemetery has headstones. We called the local headstone manufacturer and asked if they had broken pieces or production rejects they did not want. These guys were more than happy to let us haul away their unwanted waste. A little bit of time, some sledgehammer work, and lots of heavy lifting later we are well on our way to beautifully polished granite lined flower beds for free.

Sticking it to the man

I don't know why it took us so long to think of this.

I'm a little terrified we will end up as hoarders, but we have been trash picking all kinds of wood scraps. Barry scored some sweet railroad ties about a month ago and instead of building yet another garden border we just stuck em in the ground and put a 2x4 at the top of each pole so we could run 2 lines.

 Oh yea, as far as clothes pin storage is concerned we came up with this little re-purposed gem. All it took was 1 screw and old grapefruit container.

 It's now been 30 days since we used the dryer. Our electric bill went down more than $50. I don't know if we can contribute all of that to the clothesline but either way I'm thrilled.

The sweet smell of success.

DIY foaming hand soap:
3 drops tea tree oil
3 drops peppermint oil
5-10 drops lavender oil
Liquid Castile soap

Fill the empty hand soap bottle with almost an inch of liquid castile and add your oils. Slowly add warm water until you have a little less than an inch at the top. Pop the top back on that bad boy and gently rock a few times. DON'T SHAKE! Now pump chump.That's it. You're done. Want a little more good news? This cost less than 50 cents to make, even less if you skip essential oils.



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 We chose tea tree for it's antiseptic properties, lavender because its so great for dry skin and peppermint for a little pizzazz. Lavender and peppermint is a great combo and helps cover the slightly medicinal smell tea tree oil can give off.

FAIL!

Hmmmm.....homemade lotion? I'm in. After checking a few recipes we found the best looking one on http://frugallysustainable.com/ this website is genius. Our main motivation behind the recipe? It's lack of borax. It's great for cleaning but i don't wanna rub it into my skin. Side note: the store bought lotion I've been using my whole life contains much worse. So we tried it.

First things first, wash and sanitize your designated lotion jar or use and old plastic lotion bottle. Just make sure everything is thoroughly washed and dried.

Now group your ingredients:
1 cup Aloe Vera Gel
3/4 oz. Beeswax, grated
1/2 cup Grape seed Oil
1 tsp Vitamin E Oil
15 drops Lavender Oil

Melt the Beeswax into Grape Seed Oil in a double boiler. We used a Pyrex glass bowl placed inside your average pasta pot filled 1/3 of the way with water.

THIS IS WHERE WE SCREWED UP!!!! 

DO NOT MIX YOUR ALOE IN WHEN THE BEESWAX/ OIL IS STILL A LIQUID!!!!!

So to do this the correct way once the Grape seed oil and Beeswax combo has cooled slowly add your Aloe, Vitamin E oil and essential oil.We used lavender oil because its good for Eczema, Psoriasis, and skin issues in general. Our Problem? lack of patience. We didn't realize letting the oil cool meant like almost back to a solid, cool.

 So we ended up with this little beauty. We tested it on ourselves first. Results: A little sticky and a little grainy, but all in all, smells good and moisturizes. Aesthetically? Hideous. We'll update you with our second batch after I use up this lifetime supply of poison moisturizers

This particular batch is for our adorable pit bull Dexter. Poor Dex, he's got very dry skin and an oatmeal bath doesn't seem to do the trick. Plus, with dry skin you should wash him as little as possible. 

 Look how thankful our little man is for his first application of home made ugly lotion.

The best of both worlds

Got some milk at the Newark Co-Op.Organic, Grass fed and local......ish. Pennsylvania totally counts as local, right?

Organic or Grass fed? that is the question

We have made some of the most basic (and necessary) changes to our diet one step at a time. I'm sure you all realize how important, yet expensive going organic is. We started with the organic, free range eggs. Delicious, but an extra $2 a dozen. Organic Milk, delicious but an extra $1 per half gallon.Frozen organic Berries  (no, not Barry's :) didn't really cost any extra as long as we stocked up when they were on sale. Last but not least, organic celery. So a quick explanation as to why we decided these should be our organic staples. You want to consider which foods you consume the most of and which are most cost efficient. Also, some foods are simply more susceptible to pesticides and other poisons. A great way to decide which small changes would work best for you is checking out what is known as "the dirty dozen". This link will give you a quick run down. http://www.organic.org/articles/showarticle/article-214 What you really wanna know is how to do it and save some cash. Obviously, stock up on anything frozen on sale and ideally grow as much as you can on your own. If you grow your own, you know exactly what goes into your dirt and what goes into your mouth. But, today we discovered a new way BUY LOCAL! We went to locust point farms located off of route 213 right here in Elkton, MD. We got 1.37 lb of ground turkey for $3.00 because they do all the processing and sell it on the farm. No gas to ship, no extra cost to the consumer. Stopped at Detwiler's Farm market on the way and got tomatoes from Dover, DE and green beans dirt cheap. Just buy wisely and plan your meals around the best priced items. Now this is where it get's confusing....do we buy organic milk in the grocery store even though it's less cost efficient and has to be shipped (Horizon's comes all the way from Colorado!) or do we go with the grass fed non-organic local milk? So we want YOUR opinion. Come on patchouli sniffers tell us what you think.

Out with the old and in with the.....Older?

Here is our coffee maker. Isn't he cute?

 This lil darling is our #1 survival tool.

 Good thing we love him so much, cause he's expensive. 

For the 2 of us we always make 10 cups of coffee. We almost always throw away at least 2 cups.We have to buy filters and use electricity to get it going and even more to keep it warm for the 2 hours it takes us to consume that delicious java. 

Say hello to Monsieur French Press. We bought him for $2 at a yard sale. It makes 4 cups at a time. Just fill this Parisian gentleman with coffee grounds and boiling water and....PRESS! Voila'! Sorry buddy you've been replaced. Now we just have to invest in some fair trade, organic beans and get a manual grinder

 (Side note we ran white vinegar through the old automatic to clean it and put him in storage, just in case)