Thursday, February 14, 2013

Valentine's Day Card, How to Keep Cut Flowers Fresh, and 18 Liquid Castile Soap Uses: #7 Bathtime

Happy Valentine's Day!

Every year I *help* my daughters make a special card for their daddy to give to him for Valentine's day.  This year's card came from my Holiday Crafts pinboard.  The Sign Language "I love you" card was just right for a 3 year old with a 10 month old helper.  This was quick!    First, trace hands; second, cut them out.  Glue in place, then bend down and glue the middle and ring fingers to form "I love you" in sign.

My next pin comes from my Homemade or Natural Remedies pinboard, this one is really handy, especially on Valentine's day!  10 surprising uses of sugar: #1 keep cut flowers fresh was a much better alternative to the little packet of chemicals my lovely roses came with.  To keep cut flowers fresh: cut stems at an angle, remove leaves and damaged petals, add 3 teaspoons sugar and 2 Tablespoons white vinegar to vase, and use room temperature water.

And finally, continuing in my Liquid Castile Soap series, 18 Liquid Castile Soap Uses: #7 Bathtime. I added 3 squirts of Dr. Bronner's soap into a warm tub for my two kiddos for a test.  It was a nice water softener and it didn't seem to have any negative effects while the splash war raged.  Impressed, but bubble bath is still king in the tub for both kiddos baths and mommy baths.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Homemade Shower and Tub Spray & 18 Liquid Castile Soap Uses: #6 Washing Wool

Both of my pins came from my Homemade or Natural Remedies pinboard.

My Homemade Shower and Tub Spray was desperately needed after my using coconut oil as shaving cream, I had scrubbed my tub for an eternity to get it livable again and I vowed never to waste that much time and cleaner again!  Now, after each shower or bath the Mister and I do a quick spritz of this cleaner and leave it on until the next person uses the tub and they rinse it off while adjusting to the right water temperature.  It is so nice!  I've been doing this for a week already and haven't needed to scrub the tub yet!  Yahoo!
Almost time to make more!

Homemade Shower and Tub Spray

Equal parts BLUE Dawn dish soap and White Vinegar

Heat the vinegar, then add the Dawn, and swirl to mix.

To use daily:
Spritz down light layer over tub, tub walls, and doors/curtain.  Rinse off with next shower!

To use for weekly scrub:
Spray over everything, let sit 1-2 hours and then wipe off with damp towel.

*** You can heat vinegar in microwave, or like a baby bottle, in a container of hot water.  Vinegar must be heated to incorporate the Dawn dish soap!***

I've been going strong on my 18 Liquid Castile Soap Uses, and today I used it for washing wool.  For wool articles I've used Woolite then laid them flat to dry, it's worked so far, but Woolite is kind of pricey and I'm out of it, so I decided to give a go!



This is the lovely antique sweater that was lovingly made for my dad.
It needed to be cleaned for baby girl #2.  This is how I washed it:




1.  Fill clean bathroom sink with cool water and a dash of soap.
2.  Gently hand wash, don't twist.
3.  Rinse until cool water.  I rinsed until no color remained.
4.  On a laid out towel, lay flat clothing re-shaped.
5.  Roll up like a jelly roll, and press out excess water.
6.  Lay flat to dry on a dry towel.


































Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Mexican Stuffed Shells and 18 Liquid Castile Soap Uses: #4 Shave Soap & #5 Tooth Soap

First pin, Mexican Stuffed Shells from my New Recipes to Try pinboard was a hit!  A great twist on a traditionally italian dish.  I found my filling just a tad too liquidly, so I adjusted the recipe.  Enjoy!



Mexican Stuffed Shells
Adapted from busy-at-home.com
       4 cups chicken breast, cooked and chopped
       1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
       6 green onions, diced
       2 whole bell peppers of your choice, diced
       3 (8 oz.) blocks cream cheese, softened (not melted)
       2 cans diced tomatoes with chiles (don’t drain)             
       1 tsp cumin
       1 1/2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
       1 cup of salsa
       large pasta shells, cooked al dente
1.           Cook pasta shells in well salted, boiling water until al dente
2.           To make the filling, mix diced chicken, drained black beans, green onions, diced peppers, and cumin in a large mixing bowl. Thoroughly incorporate all the ingredients.
3.           In a separate bowl, mix the cream cheese and undrained tomatoes with chiles. When thoroughly combined, pour it over the chicken mixture and mix well. Spread 3/4 c. salsa in the bottom of a large baking pan. Reserve the final 1/4 cup, for later.
4.           Using a spoon, or your fingers, fill each of your cooked and cooled pasta shells, setting them into the salsa covered pan. Continue until all shells are filled and arranged in the pan.
5.           When the pan is full, drizzle the shells with the remaining 1/4 cup of salsa and then sprinkle with the shredded cheddar cheese.  Cover the baking pan tightly with foil and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

My other pins are continuing my 18 Liquid Castile Soap Uses.  I've done laundry soapshampoo, and body wash.  Today I tried using liquid castile soap for shave soap and tooth soap.  

For shaving, I only used 2 drops of soap per leg and it lathered up nicely and worked just like shaving with a bar of soap.  Whoohoo for shaving with soap.  I wouldn't recommend it unless you like shaving with soap, or are camping, or something like that.

For tooth soap I used barely a drop on my toothbrush and brushed as usual.  My teeth felt clean, but I have the almond soap and I couldn't get over the soap linger in my mouth, which lasted about 20 minutes.  My girlfriend Alexis recommends the peppermint soap if you have to brush your teeth with it.  I say, just chew gum or rinse with minty mouthwash afterwards.  After researching on-line, apparently many people with sensitive teeth use Dr. Bronner's Liquid Castile Soap for brushing their teeth since it doesn't have any abrasive ingredients.  I received a concern about the lack of fluoride if you use this soap over a long term period of time, never fear!  If you choose to use this soap for brushing your teeth and are using public works water in the US, you will still be getting enough fluoride on your teeth, and if you are very good and actually go to your dentist twice a year, you'll be in great shape!  Well water or water from countries other than the US don't necessarily have fluoride, but fluoride can be found in bottled water, if you are on a trip and this is the route you want to go.

Monday, February 11, 2013

18 Liquid Castile Soap Uses: #3 Body Wash

I'm going strong, 3 uses of soap in a row!  I'm trying not to get sidetracked with all the other pins I've been seeing for Valentine's Day or Disneyland. 

Today's pin was liquid castile soap use #3 body wash.  I have to say, I'm really impressed with this soap!  It took  15 drops of soap to wash off in the shower!  It lathered well and washed off quickly.  There wasn't any scent left by the time I toweled off.  Castile soap feels different when you rinse off than traditional soap and I noticed that when I toweled off my skin didn't need as much lotion as usual.  Plus, it has a natural deodorant properties, so it helps you not stink so much!  So nice for after Zumba!

Sunday, February 10, 2013

18 Liquid Castile Soap Uses: #2 Shampoo

Yesterday was the start of my 18 Uses for Castile Soap.  I figure it's best to go through all 18 in a row so I don't get sidetracked.

Today is shampoo day!  Yay!  I generally shampoo only every 2-3 days, my hair is long and has a grown out perm and takes too much time to deal with, plus living out in Utah dries out my hair considerably.  I am picky about my shampoo and conditioner, so when I read on my Dr. Bronner's Castile Soap pin that one of the 18 uses is shampoo, I cringed.  (I also saw it used for toothpaste, not looking forward to that one!)

Like with the Liquid Castile Laundry Soap recipe, there are a ton of concoctions on Pinterest.  I went on the companies website and the shampoo instructions were vague, "dilute and use".  Hmmm.  1/4 C. of soap washed an entire load of towels, so how much of this did I want on my hair?  Yes, it's all natural and biodegradable, but still.  So I guessed small, and made a 1:3 ratio of soap to water shampoo.

It looked like water and I poured the whole amount on my head at once, so's not to have any drip-age.  Smelled great, and lathered up nicely - not store bought nicely, but still nice.  The biggest difference came with rinsing it out, it rinsed out very quickly, I couldn't believe it.  Usually with shampoo you have to rinse out the lather for like a minute or two, but this took 15 seconds, maybe.  Time saving in the shower could be very useful...

After shampooing, I conditioned and styled my hair as usual and noticed no difference in how it behaved.

Reading on-line, many sites recommend using liquid castile soap for camping because you use it for everything from body to dishes without hurting the environment.  I will have to remember that for this summer!

Saturday, February 9, 2013

18 Liquid Castile Soap Uses: #1 Laundry Soap

I use castile soap in bar form in the shower and I really like it, but I thought that that's all there was to it.  Boy, was I wrong!  Pinterest is definitely for the thrifty, crafty, or bored, because while looking up pins for my Homemade or Natural Remedies pinboard I kept coming across this need for liquid castile soap in all sorts of  house cleaning and beauty up-keeping in true granola style; my searching lead me to think that this was the one-cure-all like coconut oil.  Turns out, they're related.

So after comparing 5 brands via the internet, I pinned Dr. Bronner's Pure Castile Soap as the winner.  The label is just a mess, but  when comparing brands this one was the real deal - especially with the unscented baby formula, this was the ONLY brand that actually was unscented!  I could read in the labels from other companies where fragrance was added!  Plus, this company has a great website and user fan base filled with great ways to use this soap.

The label claims 18 uses, so I am going to find and try 18 different uses.  So today was use #1, laundry soap.  I found a couple different recipes and instructions on Pinterest for using liquid castile as laundry soap, but I went with the instructions on the actual company website: 1/4 C. soap and a dash of baking soda.  I tried it out on towels, because I figured that if anything went wrong they were the least likely to get ruined.  I poured the soap and soda directly on top of my load, not in my h.e. washing machine detergent slot, and ran it.  My towels turned out very nice and soft, as if I had put in fabric softener, which I never do.  The Mister and I tested them, both for hand drying and body drying, they were great!  Plus, even though I bought the Almond scented soap, my towels didn't smell really like anything other than just being fresh!

I liked this and am going to try experimenting with other castile laundry soap recipes from Pinterest!

Friday, February 8, 2013

Homemade Drain Cleaner - a bust!

My pin tonight comes from my Homemade or Natural Remedies pinboard, and unfortunately, it was a bust.  Homemade Drain Cleaner, made from just baking soda and vinegar didn't have the cleaning power needed to unclog my bathtub drain from using Coconut Oil as shaving cream which was horribly sticky inside my tub as well as the pipes it seems.  This pin did seem to help a little in my kitchen sink, but not enough to keep dumping 1/2 C. of baking soda down my drain!  I will be buying some Drain-O tomorrow!