Thursday, April 26, 2012

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.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

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?

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

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.

Monday, April 2, 2012

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)