Can you think of a better way to celebrate Mother’s Day than with a relaxing morning spent soaking your feet in a Ginger Green Tea Detox bath while eating spring rolls and drinking warm Jasmine green tea? Yeah, me neither. Keep reading to see how to achieve a high-end spa look with a low-cost budget courtesy of World Market!
Like most of you, we’re working on cutting out as many chemicals from our daily lives as possible. We haven’t used chemical cleaners for years now (and honestly, they weren’t really even a part of my every day life. I hate to clean.) and have found that vinegar, baking soda and plain old water can clean pretty much anything.
We’re still working on switching over to a more natural body/hair wash. Dr. Bronner’s Castile Soap has pretty much been the complete solution to our non-chemical bathtime routine. We’re washing our body, hair and face with it and haven’t had any issues with it yet (I’ll let you know if my hair starts to act funny). Going Green with a Bronner Mom is a great blog with tons of helpful information on using the soaps throughout the entire house.
I don’t vacuum everyday (I know…gasp!) but when I do, I love to add a few dashes of natural carpet freshener. Super easy to make and customize. I used lavender buds but really you could use anything (cloves and cinnamon). Here’s the recipe:
Materials:
1 c baking soda
1/2 c cornstarch
1 c lavender
Blend together until nice and smooth in a food processor. Pour into shaker and spread sparingly on carpet. Vacuum to release the peaceful aroma of lavender without all those nasty chemicals you can’t pronounce. :)
PS: You don’t have to add more powder every time. I vacuumed a few days later (I know, Mom, a record!) and the beautiful scent of lavender was still very apparent.
Update: So the jury is undecided on homemade dish soap. It seems to work for some and not at all for others. Thanks to a comment from Kristine, I believe the trouble starts right at the beginning when you mix soap (a base) with vinegar or lemon juice (acids). I’m going to try my hardest to find a solution and will update this post as soon as I do. I would hate to disappoint all you lovely Pinterest visitors!
We ran out of dishsoap the other day and even though I visited a number of stores, I kept forgetting to buy more. It didn’t take long for dishes to start piling up and when I had to eat my soup with a serving spoon, I knew something had to be done.
A quick search on the internet led me to Bonzai Aphrodite’s recipe for dishsoap. Super easy and if you’re already into alternative cleaners, you’ll have all the necessary ingredients on hand! All you need is Castille soap and water. If you have unscented Castille soap, you can always add a few drops of essential oils (mint, lemon, etc). I used Dr. Bronner’s in Almond and it smells absolutely divine after we wash dishes now. Like someone washed the walls with Amaretto, yum! I also added a couple tablespoons of vinegar to help cut through any grease.
I should mention that a natural dishsoap, by it’s very nature, won’t lather up as much as commercial products and doesn’t cut grease as quickly due to the absence of Sodium Lauryl Sulfate. While most experts agree that SLS cannot be directly linked to cancer, as once suspected, it is still pretty harsh on your skin and if you live in the desert like I do, you need all the help you can get. Plus, you know exactly what’s going into a homemade dish soap. I really like that idea considering some of my favorite people in the world eat off these plates!
I knew I was going to forget the actual measurements of the ingredients so I made up a little label for my reused dishsoap container. I just used sticky-backed laminating sheets to affix it to the bottle. We’ll see how long it lasts. Feel free to download the label off of my Scribd accounttoo!
Materials:
2 cups Castile soap
6 tbsp water
2 tbsp vinegar or lemon juice
Sheesh, it’s getting harder and harder to capture good pictures of Jackson. This kid doesn’t sit still. Ever. Had to eventually bribe him with “Mama’s Forbidden Music Machine”. Can you see the look of victory in his eyes in that second picture? Ah, the things I do for this blog.
After pulling out one of Jim’s old sweaters that doesn’t fit anymore for the Ice Pack Cover Tutorial, I figured I might as well use up the rest of it. I’m not sure what to do with the main body of the sweater but the arms got transformed into pants for Jackson. They were super easy to make and took maybe 20 minutes to complete from cutting to the final stitch. It helped that Jim’s old sweater was tightly knit so I didn’t have to worry about hemming the pant legs.
As for online tutorials for making kids sweater pants, there are a million. Google it, you’ll see. I kinda followed one from Green Kitchen except I just used a pair of pants that fit him decent as a template, folded them in half and cut around the edge of them (instead of ruining them). I also wanted the pant legs to be wide so I made sure to cut off the bottom portion of the sleeve.
The resulting pant are super cute, I think, and I somehow managed to get the stripes to line up further adding to the cuteness! Wonderful pants to wear when we’re just hanging out around the house. These look so comfortable, I wish I could find a sweater large enough to make me a pair. Maybe Hagrid has some old sweaters he wouldn’t mind me cutting up?
Adriana: Brilliant!!!!...
Vanessa Brady: I'm so glad you like it! I love using watercolors when I have the time...
keri @ shaken together: These are SO cool - pinned! I have tons of friends who homeschool and...
Melony: Could you create your own scents with the soaps by using 1/2 a bar of ...
Vanessa Brady: You can get Dr. Bronner's at all health food stores as well as Walgree...
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