A few of My Favorite Things

If you are a new reader here, it might be a lot for you to comb through all of my back posts looking for juicy tidbits to make your day. I thought I’d make that easy for you and show you a few fun things I’ve done over the past year or so. One of these projects might just become your favorite, too. A girl can dream, right?

Broken Mirror Art from recycled mirror bits and pieces. When the light hits it, the whole room shimmers!

A Springy, Silk Scarf Shirt is the perfect answer for a wintery wardrobe. And, it’s so easy & cheap to make yourself!

If you haven’t seen my DIY Spinning Composter already, here she is. (And here’s the video of it in action.) This composter design speeds up the composting process from months to weeks. And made from recycled/salvaged materials makes it easy on the pocketbook, too.

Make your own Simple, Organic balm quickly, easily and cheaply. I love it better than my Burt’s Bees. I ain’t goin’ back, baby!

In an effort to rid my house of nasty chemicals, I made my own Cheap, Organic Face Wash-made from ground oatmeal. So easy. So lovely. So breakfasty.

Use an old tablecloth or curtain to make this Lace Cape Shirt. Simple, practical and it looks great with a little tank top underneath.

I wanted to replace the cleansers in my house with something more organic and cheap. My Homemade Household Green Cleansers list several recipes to get you ready to boot out nasty chemicals from your house, too!

Hope you’ve found a little something that suits your fancy. If not, I’ll keep trying to get you hooked. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life.

DIY Organic Eye Makeup Remover

I’ve been having a blast this past month finding replacements for every day things I buy and use at home. My month long challenge of slowly ridding our house of nasty chemicals began several weeks ago.

My first item to replace was my face lotion. I created a Recipe for Facial Moisturizer. I moved on to replacing my dishwasher detergent-DIY Organic Dishwasher Detergent, face wash–Cheap, Organic Face Wash  and finally last week I shared several DIY Household Green Cleaner recipes.

I am concocting my own household replacements with little more than what I have on hand or what I can find at the organic market.

But the replacements must meet or exceed three important expectations for this frugal gal:
1. It must be easy to replace-no beakers or science lab experiments. Thank you.
2. It must be just as good or better than the current product I’m using and,
3. It must cost the same or less than the current product I’m using.

photo source unknown

If the product I create passes the final test-me using it for over two plus weeks to make sure it does its job-then I’ll be sharing it with you. I will break down the cost for you, provide you the recipe and give you my honest opinion of the final product.

Today, I’ll be sharing a tested and loved recipe for Eye Makeup Remover.

This recipe only requires two ingredients. And, it ends up costing $1.13 for 3.5 oz.

I have very delicate skin, and my eyes irritate pretty easily. I was skeptical making my own remover, but was pleased with the simple results.

Here’s all that you’ll need to make your very own Eye Makeup Remover:

(This recipe will make 3.5 oz of remover)
4 TBS Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3 TBS Organic Sweet Almond Oil
Container

Use a funnel if needed and measure the 4 TBS of Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Next, add the 3 TBS of Sweet Almond Oil. Cap tightly and shake.

Squeeze out a little onto a pure cotton ball and gently wipe across your eyes to remove makeup.

I always wash my face first with my Cheap, Organic Face Wash before removing my eye makeup. This softens up the eyeliner and mascara, which will remove easier and it helps to avoid tugging at the delicate skin around my eyes.

It only takes a little of the Eye Makeup remover to go a long ways.

This recipe was very simple to make and super cheap. There’s no going back for this gal.

Here’s the financial breakdown of this Eye Makeup Remover Recipe (know that 1 oz = 2 TBS):

Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil is $5 for 16 oz (or $.31 per oz). For this recipe, we needed 2 oz (or 4 TBS)=$.61.
The Sweet Almond Oil is $5.75 for 16 oz (or $.35/oz). For this recipe, we needed 1.5 oz (or 3 TBS)=$.52.

To make 3.5 oz of Eye Makeup Remover the total cost was=$1.13

(This recipe is replacing my 2 oz Physician’s Formula eye makeup remover which is $5.50.)

Linking up to this and other parties:
The Thrifty Home

Easy Laundry Soap

My month long challenge of slowly ridding our house of nasty chemicals began several weeks ago. My first item to replace was my face lotion. I created a Recipe for Facial Moisturizer  and secondly, I wanted to replace my dishwasher detergent DIY Organic Dishwasher Detergent. This last week, I shared a replacement for face wash with my Cheap, Organic Face Wash recipe.

I am concocting my own household replacements with little more than what I have on hand or what I can find at the organic market.

But the replacements must meet or exceed three important expectations for this frugal gal:
1. It must be easy to replace-no beakers or science lab experiments. Thank you.
2. It must be just as good or better than the current product I’m using and,
3. It must cost the same or less than the current product I’m using.

photo source unknown

If the product I create passes the final test-me using it for over two plus weeks to make sure it does its job-then I’ll be sharing it with you. I will break down the cost for you, provide you the recipe and give you my honest opinion of the final product.

I’ve seen a million recipes for laundry soap floating around the world wide web (as my mother calls it). I wanted to try one on my own, tweak it a little, test it out and compare it to what I’m already using. I also hadn’t seen an easy way to grate the soap, so I got a little crazy with my Oster blender.

I hope you enjoy my Easy Laundry Soap recipe.

With three ingredients, your store bought laundry soap can easily be replaced with a homemade version that will cost you only $.05 per load. And, you can store it in a cute jar with your own hand-written label. I think that’s pretty much a win-win.

What you’ll need to make your very own Easy Laundry Soap (this makes approx. 48 loads):

1 Bar (5.5 oz approx.) Fels-Naptha, Zote Soap or Ivory Soap
2 C Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (make sure it says “Super Washing Soda”)
2 C Borax
Blender/Food Processor

Cut the soap into manageable pieces for the food processor/blender. Use the finest chopping blade available, making the pieces as small as possible.

Add the 2 Cups of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda to the grated Zote or Ivory Soap.

Next, dump in the 2 Cups of Borax. Mix everything as much as possible with a wooden spoon.

If the pieces are large, transfer a cup at a time of the mixture back into a blender. Blend thoroughly. I have settled on using Fels-Naptha soap, which grinds down to small pieces the first time around. So, I no longer need to do this step.

The mixture should look like this when everything has been blended thoroughly.

Transfer the mixture into a cute jar or container. Add a label (I always print the recipe on the label to make it easier for refills when the time comes).

Use 1/8 Cup of the mixture for normal loads and 1/4 Cup for heavily soiled clothes.

Here’s the financial breakdown of what this recipe will make per 48 loads:

Borax $3.38 for 76 oz= 9.5 Cups
A & H $3.00 for 55 oz= 6.8 Cups
Soap $1 per 48 loads

Per 48 Loads
Borax=$.67
A & H=$.90
Soap=$1

Total=$2.57/48 loads= $.05 per load

Garden & Landscaping Preparations

It’s almost time to begin sowing those seeds, ladies! Weeks before the planting season, I request my favorite seed catalogue from “Gurney’s” and pore over it as some women do shoe advertisements.

Visions of green beans, spinach and tomatoes are dancing in my head.

I even make an excel spreadsheet of what I hope to buy, determine the planting date, harvest date and if it’s better to buy the full plant or the seeds.
It gets pretty technical, but I love a good excel spreadsheet-reminds me of my accounting days….awe…

I narrow down my needs vs. wants using a system of highlighting, page marking and price comparison shopping. Tomatoes are the most difficult thing for me to narrow down. I could plant every variety that Oklahoma allows and still not have enough.

The tabs at the top are rearranged and my poor Biceps has to hear about the latest string bean that sounds interesting over and over.

This year, I’m going to plant a cover crop. I thought I would use a winter rye-but have decided to go with a clover. A cover crop is helpful to prevent erosion over the winter/spring season and also provides green manure for next year’s garden.

Also, this year we are going to finally landscape the naked front of our house. I would love to have an almond tree, several types of grasses, lavender, and two large oak trees out front.

It would look something like this if a second grader got ahold of markers and my computer screen.
Now, to just get Biceps on board with all of this. I think a romantic dinner, a massage and a discussion of seedlings, plants and trees are in his future….