DIY Hair Styling Wax

My poor husband has been asking me for hair gel for such a long time and I keep ignoring him. Finally, I made a solution.. instead of toxic chemical laden hair gel, I made him a all natural Hair Styling Wax!!! It works pretty good, I've used some on my hair too! Here's my recipe:

Melt together over medium heat,
3T Coconut Oil
1T Sunflower Oil (or Jojoba)
8T Melted Bees Wax
Remove from heat and stir in
2T arrowroot powder
5+ drops of essential oil for scent, if desired.

Will make about 5 ounces..  pour in a small glass jar and allow to cool in the fridge. Scrape a pea sized amount and rub between your fingers and apply to your hair - if it's too hard remelt and add more coconut oil, if it's too soft remelt and add more coconut oil :)

DIY Easy Cleaning Spray

I've been making my own Cleaning Spray for a couple years, it's so super simple and dirt cheap!

I just fill a spray bottle with water (recycled from a store bought cleaner or buy an empty bottle) 

the add about 1T Dr Bronners Sal Suds and a few drops of essential oil (Lemon or Lavender are my favorites!) Screw on the spray top and give it a gentle shake - and you have a bottle of spray cleaner to use just about anywhere in your home.. kitchen, bath, etc!

If you're not familiar with Dr Bronner's Magic Sal Suds - Check it out, http://www.drbronner.com/DBMS/SAL.htm It's a great all purpose cleaner to keep around the house. I buy it by the gallon for $35.99 from Vitacost, http://www.vitacost.com/dr-bronners-sal-suds-liquid

That works out to be just about $ .14/spray bottle for the cleaner - the essential oil is optional for scent only, I made it for years before I added the essential oil when I finally got some for bath and body projects!

DIY Vanilla Syrup - Just Like Starbucks!

I love a vanilla latte but I hate spending $5 on a single cup of coffee at Starbucks or Panera Bread. My last trip to the Salvation Army Thrift store I found a Mr Coffee Espresso Machine for just $9.99, then I came up with a method for making a pretty good Vanilla Latte at home using Organic Free Trade Espresso Roast Coffee, Family Cow Organic Raw Milk and (unfortunately) Starbucks Vanilla Syrup. Once I finished up the bottle of vanilla syrup, it was time for me to make my own recipe for Vanilla Syrup.... Here's my recipe:

In a pot combine 4 cups organic sugar, 2 vanilla beans and 4 cups heat and stir to dissolve sugar, allow to cool. I filled up my Vanilla Syrup Container with a Pump - since it's so easy to just pump in the syrup in the morning!

And it's so much cheaper than the $10 for the bottle from Starbucks and has no junk in it.. just sugar, water, vanilla! But remember - sugar isn't healthy - it needs to be avoided when ever possible!

DIY Weed Killer

Weeds - Yep! We've got 'em too! and I've been struggling for an environmentally friendly solution... FINALLY! I've found it!

Sunday, April 29, 2012 at 11:00 am

Sunday, April 29,2012 at 4 pm

As you can see my homemade formula worked very well, better results than I had see previously in my chemical weed killing days.... Here's my recipe:

1 Gallon Distilled White Vinegar, 4-5% acidity

2/3 cup Epsom Salt

Combine all and mix well (I just mixed everything in the vinegar gallon - take out a little vinegar if you need to get get all the salt in... then fill up a sprayer of choice, and generously apply to any plant you want to kill on a bright sunny day. This will kill everything, not just weeds.. so be careful (like with all weed killers) to avoid getting it on plants you want to keep!

Terrific Teriyaki Sauce

1/2 c Organic Tamari Sauce (wheat-gluten free soy sauce)
2t Ginger, freshly grated
4 Cloves of garlic, pressed or finely chopped
2t Sesame Seeds
2t Sesame Oil
1t Rice Wine Vinegar
1/4 c Brown Sugar
1/8 c Honey
1t Crushed Red Pepper - more or less to taste

Combine all ingredients in a small pot or sauce pan, cook over medium/low - adjust seasonings to taste

In a mixing cup or small bowl, wisk together 2t corn starch and just enough water to make a smooth slurry - stir into the sauce - continue to heat over low until thick - add sliced scallions as desired.

DIY Lemon-Thyme Hand Soap

I'm always looking for easy ways to save a few bucks on household supplies and I enjoy making things myself!! This is my first attempt at making liquid soap from bar soap and it turned out great. You can experiment with other scent/herb combinations but this was easy since I always have lemons and fresh thyme on hand.

2 Bars of Kirk's Natural Castile Soap, grated
1T Vegetable Glycerine
10 c water
Zest of 1 Lemon (use peeler to remove zest in large strips)
Sprigs of Fresh Thyme

Combine the grated soap, 1T vegetable glycerin, 10 cups of water and lemon zest in a large pot - and heat over medium until all melted/combined. Allow to cool then fill containers - adding springs of thyme.

Cost, $.02 per Ounce of soap, Total cost $1.60 for 80 oz liquid soap!
$1.34 - Kirk's Natural Castile Soap, at Vitacost.com and Now Foods Vegetable Gylcerine, $8.54/16oz at Amazon.com

You can grate the bar of soap on a traditional cheese grater, but I coarsely chopped up the bar of soap then tossed it in my dry cup of the Vitamix - it ground it into a fine powder, which saved a lot of time compared to hand grating.