A Fail? A Work in progress? To Be Continued?

I've been wanting to make my own hand soap pumps for a little while now. You know....it's all the craze, turning a mason jar in to a soap jar. I love the idea. I didn't want to use plastic pumps, though. So, when I saw good quality, METAL, pumps advertised in last month's Organic Gardening magazine I knew I was ready for a project.

I ordered the pumps from onedreamdesign.com. I already have tons of mason jars.

Then.....oh then....Pinterest got the best of me. I saw an idea for turning a bar of soap into liquid handsoap. I got excited because I have lots of bars of soap from Goat Milk Soapers, but I'd rather it be liquid soap. So.....I got to cookin'.

Ugh! It's been 24 hours and this is the gobbly goopy mess I have right now! I've read through the comments on the soapdelinews site, because lots of people had to tweek their recipes. Originally my batch turned out too runny, so I added a tad more glycerin.

That didn't work.

I used an immersion blender to whip it up.

That didn't work, just made it milky in color with all the extra air.

I added a salt water mixture. This step thickened it up, but it's still pretty gloppy and yuck as you can see.

Has anyone ever done this? Do you have any advice?

I'm going to keep working it because I'd really love to figure it out...fill my beautiful pumps (which I'll show you later) with lovely soap that's not laden with chemicals, and eliminate all that plastic from store bought soaps. I'll keep you posted!

Another Homemade Cleaner: Soft Scrub

Homemade cleaning products are the latest craZe, aren't they? I have my favorites....I'm loyal to my homemade laundry detergent, my homemade deodorant, my vinegar in a spray bottle for windows and most surfaces, my baking soda to clean baked on grime and ovens. This one caught my eye for some reason and I have to say I am so glad I gave it a try. It is

fabulous!!

I saw it here on Make it Give it. I mixed it up, substituting the lavender oil with lemon oil since it's the only one I had.

Here's my grimy sink I know you would just love to see. I cleaned it when we moved in, but not very thoroughly....just enough to be comfortable that I wasn't washing dishes in someone else's funk. And then it kind of got neglected as we settled in and unpacked.

But then I put this fabulous smelling cleanser to work and it shined up in a jiffy and smelled oh....so good!!

Give it a try! You'll love it, I know it. And as a funny little side note, after I mixed it up, one of my kids took a big whiff of it. She loved the way it smelled and said...." I smell mint"....yup, there's mint. Then she said, "I also smell Tea Tree Oil" LOL! My six year old not only knows what Tea Tree Oil is, but can pick it out of a line-up!! Love it!

Meatless Monday and Other Stuff

I have 36 recipes tagged as Meatless Monday on this blog. I'm fresh out of new recipes right now! I have to admit I'm not all that inspired in the kitchen lately, what with all the knitting going on! But, I'm going to post a recipe from a while back. I have several new followers, so it will be new to someone and perhaps a reminder of a good recipe for someone else who's been following for a while.

Cheesy Lentils and Rice

While I'm at it, let this post be a refresher on a couple of things I believe in. Do you save plastic bottle caps for recycling? I know there are charities out there for which you can save. But, if you'd like to recycle them and just don't know where to send them, you can send them to Aveda. Here's my bottle cap post:

Collecting Bottle Caps

Are you curious about my continued use of my homemade natural deodorant? Well, I'm here to say I'm still exclusively using it and will never stop! Here's my deodorant post:

Homemade Natural Deodorant

I'm trying to think of any other random thing I'd like to talk about.....

Nope, I think I'm good. Have a great week, everyone!

Homemade Laundry Soap

To go along with my Homemade Deodorant and my Homemade Lip Balm here is a recipe for Homemade Laundry Detergent.

Grate and dissolve a 3 oz bar of ivory soap in 5 cups of water on the stove.

Pour 3 gallons of hot water in a 5 gallon bucket.
Add ivory water and stir.
Stir in 1/2 cup of washing soda (not baking soda - can be found in many stores' laundry...... aisle.) stir well,
then add 1 cup Borax and stir well.
Put on lid and let sit overnight.

Pickle bucket optional

It will look like gelatin in the morning.
Just stir it well or mix with your hands to blend well and make it "dippable". use 1/2 cup per load.

Cost to make one batch: $.79
One cent per load. The cost to wash 110.5 loads is $1.11.

This recipe is from my friend Steph. I'm not sure where she saw it, otherwise I'd link to it. I've been using this for more than a week now and I like it. It leaves my clothes bright and clean and fresh with no perfume scent. It does not suds up during the wash cycle; this is weird to me, but I'm dealing with it, because I like the results. I had two Tide bottles that were empty, so I filled them up with my homemade stuff. I have to shake it before I use it each time. I have a standard washing machine (not front load) and I use about a cup per load and I use vinegar as my softener.

I link to these parties on Mondays:

On Tuesdays:

On Wednesdays:

On Thursdays:



On Fridays:

Homemade Lip Balm

Lately I've been trying to make my own products rather than buy them in the store loaded with ingredients that are unknown and scary!

I started out with the homemade deodorant I posted about here. As an update, let me tell you, I've used this deodorant exclusively ALL summer and I will NEVER go back to store bought! It works better than anything I've ever used and I feel good that it's not loaded down with scary ingredients. Try it! You'll like it! I've converted several people.

I'm trying to master homemade yogurt, but so far have had no success.

The summer is over, but NEXT summer I plan on making my own sunblock. Of course, I'll be sure to share when I do.

But for now, with the oncoming cooler weather and blustery winter approaching, what a more suitable thing to make than my own lip balm! My cousin found this blog, Bobbi's Art, and passed it on to me. I followed her tutorial and found I had to add a little more Jojoba oil to make it a little smoother to apply. It's a really nice product! No scent. It lasts. It's natural. It's wonderful!

I used a little crockpot to melt my jar of ingredients: 4 grams of beeswax, 3-4 grams of jojoba oil, and a few drops of vitamin E oil. Essential oils are optional.

I gathered up almost-empty chapstick containers and cleaned them out. Between my cousin and I we had quite the little collection of containers. Carefully pour the melted ingredients into your containers. It was messy, so I just held on to a paper towel to avoid burning myself.


Let it cool and harden and you're done!

I had a lot left over, so I just kept it in the little mason jar and when I have a container that needs to be refilled, I'll re-melt it and fill it up.

I link to these parties on Mondays:



On Tuesdays:

On Wednesdays:

On Thursdays:



On Fridays: