Freshening the Air

I made a simple, quick air freshener... literally, it took about 1 minute to make. I bought some little aluminum spray bottles online to keep the air fresheners in. I made one for the bathroom and another for the rest of the house. Here are the 'recipes':

Bathroom Spray:

Equal parts vodka & water - my bottles are only 4 oz. so I used 2 oz. of vodka & 2 oz. of water

10 drops Sweet Orange Essential Oil

5 drops Lavender Essential Oil

Kitchen / Living Room Spray:

2 oz. vodka

2 oz. water

15 drops Citronella Essential Oil

I know what you're thinking.... but the Citronella Oil smells like Murphy's Oil Soap, not bug repellant so each time you spray it, it smells like you just got done dusting! Well, it will smell that way to you if you grew up in a house that cleaned with Murphy's Oil Soap, like we did in our house.

The best part is that they are light and the fragrance stays in the air for quite a while. Not to mention, they are not toxic to our dogs (#1 most important reason for us to switch to no chemicals in the house).

These recipes can be modified to use whatever scents you like in your home. I'm going online to amazon to buy some 'wintery' scents to make for the holidays!

Enjoy!!

--M&K

Next on the list of things to make....

Okay, we had a really busy summer and didn't have much time to experiment making new products. We have continued to make and use the ones that are on this site and we love them! The detergent and fabric softener are perfect and I can't believe how much money it is saving us! Mike is thoroughly enjoying making the detergent - he grates the soap while watching sports!

The goal is to start making more products this fall. In the plan now are: air fresheners, body scrubs, shampoo/conditioners, & I (Kelly) am going to attempt to learn how to sew! I want to make decorative pillows as my first item so that's what I plan to work on. I think I am going to need my sister's help learning to sew. She taught herself and is making gorgeous bags!!

Very much looking forward to Fall and trying out new ideas. If you have any suggestions, feel free to let us know! If you want more info on how we're learning to make these things, we can give that to you as well.

Have a happy end-of-summer day!!

M&K

Lemongrass Lotion

I made lotion today! It was pretty simple and it seems to moisturize very well. It was greasy for about a minute but then when it soaked in, my skin felt very soft. I may try other variations and make it a little thicker but with a little less oil. Here it is:

2.5 oz. Olive Oil

1.5 oz. Coconut Oil

1/4 oz. beeswax

2 oz. aloe

2 oz. rose water

1 tbsp. vegetable-based glycerin

1 tsp. Vitamin C powder

1/3 tsp. grapefruit seed extract

10 drops lemongrass essential oil

Mix the oils & beeswax in a double boiler (I don't have one so I just put one pot with the ingredients in it over another pot with the water in it that was sitting on the burner). Once they melt, remove them from the heat, add the other ingredients and mix with an electric mixer. 

I used Lemongrass because it is a summery scent but you can use whatever you want.

Overall, I like this lotion but I am going to attempt to change a few things in it to make it a little creamier.

--K

Success!

I have to say that the laundry detergent works very well! We didn't have stains on our clothes so I can't report yet how well it will work on stains. But, the clothes feel, smell & look  very clean so we are very happy with that! 

We also used Vinegar for the softener. The mixture we used was: 1 gallon of White Vinegar, 1 tbsp. of vegetable based glycerin, & 10 drops of Lavender Essential Oil. If you buy a gallon of White Vinegar, you can just dump the other 2 ingredients right in the Vinegar bottle. And, you can use whichever Essential Oil scent you like. You really can't smell it much when the clothes are dry anyway. And I promise you can't smell the vinegar!

 We just put it in our Downy ball like we normally do with fabric softener. Then, when we threw the clothes in the dryer, we tossed in those little rubber balls that bounce around and help prevent static cling and also help soften the clothes (We have the ones that are made for that specifically but I know people who use tennis balls for the same thing. It doesn't matter which you use). 

So, 1st experiment was successful and we look forward to our next product!!

M&K

Making Laundry Detergent

The ingredients we used to make our laundry detergent are:

Borax(3/4 C.)

Washing Soda (3/4 C.)
Fela Naptha (1 bar)

We used a grater to grate the entire bar of soap into the glass container we will be storing the laundry detergent in. You can also use a food processor, but we don't have one right now!

After the soap was completely grated, we added the Washing Soda & Borax and stirred all the ingredients up. 

To Use: 1 tbsp. per load of laundry

I got this glass container at the store and made the decoration for it. 

This was extremely easy to make and we had a very good first experience! Be sure to wear gloves while you're doing this: it will make the soap easier to grasp while you're grating & the Washing Soda can be a bit rough on your skin if you get too much on you. 

We are washing our first load of clothes right now and we will report back!!

M&K

Our First Time

Haha! I just meant our first time blogging! We have decided to set up this blog because we are just starting to make our own natural products and several people have been asking how it is going. We are going to use this site to post the products we make, how we made them, and how they are working. 

We have chosen to start making our own products for very obvious reasons: (1) it is a LOT cheaper than buying products and (2) We are using ingredients that are not toxic to us, our dogs, or to our planet.

Tonight, we are making laundry detergent and I will put up the ingredients and pictures after we are done and will let everyone know how it goes. We are very excited to get started, so we'll sign off for now and update later!

--M&K