Makeup Remover

 The other day someone asked me what my favorite DIY is. As I was telling her about the makeup remover I use, it occurred to me that I had not posted about this stuff.  You would think, that when starting a blog about DIY's I would start with the one that I am the most passionate about, but no, unfortunately I tend to have moments where I am a few cards shy of a full deck. And by moments, I mean all the time.

So lets hurry and get the basics over with so I can tell you why this is my favorite DIY product. 

Makeup Remover
1 C water
1 1/2 TBSP tear free baby shampoo (I use Bert's Bees)
1/8 tsp olive or coconut oil

Mix them all together in a container
Shake before each use

I fill up a 3 oz bottle that lets me squirt the mixture onto a cotton square (I have no idea what the real name is for those things)

I store the rest in a mason jar under my sink.

 The Verdict: FANTASTIC

Ok, now that the basics are out of the way, "let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up."

There are 2 main reasons why I love this stuff;

1) It's cheap.
For a long time I was using Bert's Bees face wash (the disposable cloths.)  I spent $5.97 a month for them.  That really isn't bad, I can handle $5.97 a month.  But lets compare....

To make the DIY makeup, the recipe I posted above, it cost me...

wait for it...

$0.58

You read that right 58 Cents...

AND

That mason jar will last me about 3 1/2 months.

Lets compare those prices another way;
In 1 year I was spending about $72.62 on Bert's Bees
Now I spend about $1.99 a year for the DIY stuff

Do you know how many pints of Ben and Jerry's I could get with that extra $70?

Onto my next point....

2)  IT WORKS!!!!

My makeup comes right off.

 Now, I wish I could say that all the brown in this next photo is base, but it's not. That is all the dirt that came off my face (yummy).  Now before you judge me, just know that I had spent several hours doing yard work that day.

So lets really compare.  One day, after another several hours doing yard work, I used one of my old Bert's Bees face cleaner.  You can see where my finger was really scrubbing to get the dirt off. 

Then I went back over my face with my DIY stuff.  Can you see the brown in the middle? Yeah, this stuff was picking up dirt that my old stuff left behind.  It's like the Dyson of the face cleaning world.

I still do get an occasional zit, so it's not a cure all, but my skin is a lot softer and I now get complements on my complexion. 

So in case you didn't catch my enthusiasm about this...
DIY makeup remover = awesome!

Homemade Ranch Dressing

I recently heard about budget101.com.  How is it possible that I am just now hearing about this site?  It's a fantastic site with a lot of money saving tips.

One of my favorite things about that website is the mixes list. It has a ton of recipes for dry mixes that are easy to do and save you money on your grocery bill.

 Ranch salad dressing.- For ingredients and directions please see the original website.



I was impressed at how well the dry ingredients blended together in my cheap-o-matic blender. 

Keep the dry ingredients in an air tight container until ready to use: combine 1 Tbsp. of dry mix, 1 cup of mayo  & 1 cup of buttermilk. Mix it all together and enjoy. (I used homemade mayo, but that's for another post)

I halved the dry recipe from the website and I got about 16 Tbsp. of dry mix.  That gives you about 32 cups of Ranch dressing.  Unless you drink this stuff by the gallon (which is tempting), it is going to last you a very long time.

The verdict: It tastes nothing like ranch.  Nothing!  But I love it, and so does my husband. I was afraid that all the garlic was going to be over powering but it wasn't.  The consistency is pretty runny, which at first I thought would bother me but I really like it.  When I pour it on salad it actually runs off the pieces and coats every bit of the salad. This is a really nice change from the usual Ranch glob I get in the center of my salad that seems to latch onto 5 pieces of lettuce and nothing else.

Also, when I dip veggies in it, it just lightly coats it so I get the flavor without a big glob.  And in my mind that means less calories.  Yahoo.

It does seem to lose some flavor the longer it sits in your fridge, so I now just make half.  I still get 1 cup of dressing, which lasts a few weeks in our house.

So I love it, my husband loves it, but a couple weeks ago I really put it to the test.  I went to a small get together at a friends house and brought cut up carrots and the ranch.  People started eating it and said "oh, this is good" but I couldn't tell if they were sincere.  For all I knew they were really thinking "wow, this is horribly disgusting and I'm going to toss it in the fake tree when your not looking."

But then a pregnant woman came in.  I've been pregnant 4 times, I fully understand how a pregnant woman's sense of smell and taste become heightened and it's hard to hide that heightened sense of taste.  When she got a plate of carrots and dip I started to watch her out of the corner of my eye (just call me a stalker). She ate it, then got more and ate that, then she started dipping popcorn in the ranch.

So there you have it, Homemade Ranch Dressing: Jannie tested, pregnant women approved.

 UPDATE: I tried a batch where I substituted the buttermilk with plain Greek yogurt.  I didn't notice any change in the flavor but it did make it a lot thicker.  So depending on what consistency you like, the buttermilk or yogurt both work great. 

Carpet Spot Cleaner

 I've been using a DIY carpet spot cleaner for a while now, and for the life of me I can't remember where I got the original recipe.  So...

Dear Person Who Originally Made This Carpet Spot Cleaner,
If by a 1 millionth chance you stumble across this blog and see that I did not give you any credit, please know that I am not plagiarizing on purpose.
Sincerely,
A women who recently lost all her brain cells due to a new carpet cleaner

So here is the carpet cleaner I use.
1 1/2 quarts of hot water
1/4 cup hydrogen peroxide
1 1/2 Tbsp. of white vinegar
a few drops of an essential oil such as tea tree or on guard (optional)

WARNING: hydrogen peroxide can act as a bleaching agent.  If you have darker carpet you should test this mixture before using it all over your carpet. 

Like I said, I have been using this for awhile and I love it.  I use it with my Bissell, but you can put it in a spray bottle, spray the spot and scrub with a carpet brush, then blot it dry with a clean rag.

Recently I was able to really put this stuff to the test.  Long story short, the carpet in one of our rooms turned brown due to a leak in the roof.  A professional carpet cleaner came over to deep clean the carpet and make sure mold wasn't going to grow.  Before he left, he told me the brown spot may come back again, once or twice, and he left some of his carpet cleaning solution so I could scrub the carpet myself and not have to call him to come back. 

Two days later the spot came back and I wanted to see how my simple DIY carpet cleaner measured up to the heavy duty professional cleaner.

So I got my Bissell and my bucket of the professional stuff and headed upstairs.

I'm not sure why my camera refused to get a good photo of the brown stain, but if you look hard enough you can see the brown, especially towards the baseboard on the top right.

I poured the professional stuff into my Bissell and scrubbed half the floor. I cleaned out my Bissell, refilled it with the DIY stuff and scrubbed the other half of the floor.

The Verdict:  The professional stuff was crazy.  I slightly touched the carpet and the stain was gone.  It took no effort on my part to get the brown stain up.
The DIY took some scrubbing for the brown to come out. But it did come out, and the carpet is just as clean as the professional stuff. 

So even though it takes a little more effort, I'm going to stick with the DIY carpet cleaner.

However, just 2 days after this incident my trusty DIY carpet cleaner failed me.  *sigh*

My son painted a picture at school that day, and even though he washed his hands at school, drove all the way home, washed his hands at home then had a snack, he still managed to get red paint on the carpet.

To add insult to injury, I mowed a wet lawn that day and without thinking, walked across the carpet with wet grass on my shoes. I didn't notice any of this until the next day so these stains had a good 24 hours to set in.

I tried my DIY carpet spot cleaner but it did nothing on the paint and it sort of lightened the grass stain.

 

 For the last few months I kept seeing a carpet cleaner on pintrest but I always ignored it because it involves ammonia. I have never used ammonia and was never planning on it.  I have always heard how strong the fumes are and I was afraid that if I ever used it, my overly sensitive nose would pack up and walk right off my face. 

However, I needed something more heavy duty since my DIY had turned it's back on me in a time of need (ice cream anyone?)

I know what your thinking, why didn't I just use more of the professional stuff that the carpet guy had left?  While that would have have been the logical thing to do, I foolishly thought I wouldn't need anymore and had dumped the rest out.

So here is what I tried. 

Homemade Carpet Stain Remover:

fill an empty spray bottle with

1 part ammonia 

1 part hot water

spray the spot liberally

lay a clean towel on the spot and iron the spot

the stain will be absorbed into the towel

So I bought a small jug of ammonia and went to find a spray bottle. I really should buy more of these because I can never find an empty one. 

I ended up using my sons spray bottle that he got for his birthday.  It goes with a kids gardening kit. 

I prepared myself for the worse and opened the ammonia bottle..... I should have prepared harder. 

Those fumes were like a smack punch sledge hammer to the face.  My sinuses immediately started to burn and I felt very lightheaded. 

I decided to work as fast as I could.  I mixed up the water and ammonia and sprayed it on the paint and grass stain.

My iron was already on and hot so I ironed as quickly as I could.  If I had been in my right mind I would have known not to lean directly over the iron because as we all know, when something hot hits something liquid we get whats known as steam, and I got a lovely ammonia steam facial.  

The fumes and I then floated over to the next spot and worked quickly, doing what I could to avoid another blast in the face.

  

The Verdict: It worked wonders.   It got out the paint and the grass stain in just seconds.  However, I had a headache the next day and it was 2 days before my sinuses felt normal.

 

If I use this carpet cleaner again I will play it safe and wear a haz mat suit.

Car Freshener

My sister sent me a DIY for a car freshener that she saw in her Doterra magazine, so a few weeks ago I gave it a try

It's very simple: Put a few drops of lavender oil into 1 cup of baking soda and mix it up.  Using a sifter, pour the mixture onto the floor and seats of your car.  Wait for an hour then vacuume it up.

I got my lavender and baking soda, put it into a container with a lid and shook it up.  Now of course when shaking a container, you have to do some sort of dance. Fortunately for us all, I don't have any documentation of my 'mixing up the oil and baking soda' dance. 

 I don't have a sifter, so I poured the mixture into my hand and tried to use my fingers as the sifter.  It looked more like my 2 year old grabbed handfuls of the stuff and tossed it all over the car.

 The cup covered two seats, the floor of the driver seat and the entire floor on the back.  I'm sure it would have gone farther if I was property sifting it. 

It said to wait an hour, but my hour turned into 90 min.  Why you ask?  Because I have two children who have this 6th sense that tells them to play nicely by themselves or with each other whenever I have free time, but the seconed I have something to do they suddently need me and demand my attention. At one point things went like this.
 My daughter saw me walking to the garage and said:
"mom, what you newing?"
"I'm going to vacuume the car"
"NOOOOOO" she crouched down and covered her face with her hands.  This is a new move for her, and it's pretty fun to watch this overly dramatic display of emotion.
me:"it's ok, I'll be back really soon"
"NOOOOO" she then raced over and latched herself onto my leg. 

At this point my son wanted in on the game and he started giving me the third degree;
"mom, I have been waiting and WAITNG for you to play school with me" *said in the most pitiful pouty voice imaginable* (apparently he forgot that we had spent 30 min playing school right before I threw the baking soda all over the car)

Thus I found myself having to use a crow bar to pry a drama queen off my leg while simultaneously arguing with a 4 year old.

So here we are at the 90 min mark.  I went out to vacuum my car, then vacuume it again.  Then got really annoyed that my car looked like this. 

The baking soda had found little patches of moisture and latched onto them with a vengeance.  Knowing that my time was limited before I found myself surrounded by the traveling duo of drama queens, I got a rag, wiped up what I could and called it good.

The Verdict: My car smelled great.  It was a very mild, fresh lavender scent.  However, it didn't last long.  I did it on a Thursday night and by Sunday morning I could no longer smell it.  I basically got 2 full days of a nice smelling car.  That's it!  Two days. All that drama and work for only 2 days?  No thank you.

So here I am 0 for 2 with air fresheners.  Maybe my home to just destined to smell like butt paste and my car like moldy food lurking between the seats.

Tile Grout

I'm starting to get requests, I feel so loved.

A couple of people have asked about a good tile grout cleaner.  I'll have to admit, this is something I have NEVER thought of.   I think I've had magical blinders on that never let me see the grout in the homes we have lived in. Naturally, having a request for grout blew up those blinders.  *BOOM*

I walked to the entry way and looked down.

Then I went to look at the tile in the shower



My grout was pretty horrifying.  Time to take action.

I went to my old friend, the Internet, and started to look up tile grout cleaner.  Baking soda and water are a common theme so I decided to try that.
But of course I can't just try one, I have to find out what the best is.  So I decided to try this one also;

Grout Cleaner
7 cups water
1/2 cup baking soda
1/3 cup ammonia (or lemon juice)
 and 1/4 cup vinegar

I don't have ammonia, so I used the lemon juice. And I halved the recipe because 8 cups of a cleaner seemed like a lot

Then  decided I wanted a third option and came up with my own concoction of baking soda and hydrogen peroxide.

I started with the baking soda and water.  I mixed them together until I had a nice paste, then I used a stiff finger nail brush to scrub the grout.

I didn't have to scrub long to see that it was working.  My paste was turning to a nice gray color.  I let it sit for a few minutes. Then scrubbed a bit more before using a wet sponge to clean it off. 

Then I tried the mixture with the lemon juice in it.  It was very runny and the mixture kept trying to escape it's fate of being shoved into years of dirt.
I did the same thing as before, I scrubbed, let it sit, scrubbed again, then washed with a sponge.

I then tried the baking soda and hydrogen peroxide.  I mixed the two until I had a nice paste then started on the same cleaning routine I had done on the previous two.

Usually when I clean I listen to pod casts,  but I had left my ipod upstairs and was to lazy to get it.  So instead of being intellectually stimulated while cleaning, I let my mind wonder, and when my mind wonders things get very random. 
It went something like this

*singing* grout, grout, cleaning the grout
grout is a funny word
grout
grout
grout
gaaarout
GAAAAArout
grOUT
Steeerike your grOUTTA here
grout
grout
grrrrrout
They're grrrrrout
I wonder what happened to Tony the Tiger

These are the intellectual workings of a stay at home mom who needs to read more non-fiction and less Pooh Bear.

I let the grout dry for 2 hours before I went back to see the results.

Baking Soda and water

Lemon Juice mixture.

Baking soda and hydrogen peroxide

 

 The verdict: I know that these 'after' photos don't show much of a difference but there is.  The lemon juice mixture worked, but not as well as the others.  Plus, It was really annoying to use because of how liquidy it was. It was a close tie between the two baking soda mixtures but the baking soda with water was a little bit whiter, which surprised me. 

But how do these mixtures work on grout in the shower? Lets find out shall we? 

The nice thing about the tile grout was that the results were instant.  I didn't have to wait for the grout to dry to see what the best cleaner was.

I started with the baking soda and water.  I made a paste, used the same nail brush and stared to scrub. 

  

It didn't take much scrubbing for the grout to get clean. 

Then I did the lemon mixture.  Because it was so runny it was hard to get it on the wall and I didn't have a clean spray bottle handy.  So I pored some onto the nail scrubber and on the wall then scrubbed as fast as I could before the cleaner made a break for it.

 

It worked, but not well.

 

Finally, the baking soda and peroxide.  I made a paste and scrubbed.  

It didn't take much effort to get it clean.

The verdict:  It's pretty close between both of the baking soda mixtures, but I would say the baking soda with the hydrogen peroxide got the grout a little bit cleaner, but that might just be me being biased since it was my own mixture.

So thank you ladies for the request, my grout looks very clean.  And now I'm off for a late night snack because for some reason I am craving Frosted Flakes.

Headlight Cleaner

For a long time my husband and I washed our cars at a car wash, which was fine by me.  Then one day my husband came home and announced that we should wash our own cars in the driveway to save money, which was fine by me.

But then he went to the auto store to get cleaning supplies, which was not fine by me.  My husband likes the best of the best so it was no surprise that he came home with 5 star cleaning supplies that cost more then many trips to the car wash.

One of the things he came home with was a headlight lens restorer.  This amazing product cleans dull yellowed headlight lenses.  Why replace when you can restore!

Now, I don't blame him for buying that, our headlight lens were looking pretty dull and yellow, but he obviously hadn't heard of the toothpaste trick.

Using toothpaste to clean headlights is a DIY that I had heard about several times through out the years, but had never tried. After we ran out of the 'amazing must have headlight lens restorer,' I decided to try the toothpaste.

Instructions
using a rag, rub toothpaste all over the headlight until the dirt comes off
clean off the toothpaste with a wet rag

So here is the before shot of the dull yellowed headlight.  Or as I like to call it, the boring chicken headlight, badum tish!

Moving on.... I grabbed one of the million toothpaste samples I have that seem to multiply in my house for some unknown reason, and grabbed an old rag. 

I started to rub the toothpaste on the lens in a circular motion, and naturally I had to say "wax on, wax off" while doing this. (Admit it, you just heard Mr. Miyagi's voice in your head) I couldn't see dirt coming off so I had no idea if the boring chicken was turning into a comedian hawk.  So I just rubbed for a couple minutes until the toothpaste started to get a little dry. I then got a wet rag and it wiped right off.

The verdict: It worked great.  The headlight is so clean now. Look at these before and after photos. 

By the way, the lovely dent you see in the hood..... this is my husbands car. As in, a Man's car, not a Woman's car. So please check your women driver jokes at the door. 
But in his defense, a deer jumped out in front of him.  We assume the deer is fine.

Single Serving of Mac and Cheese

My kids use to be macaroni and cheese snobs.  The only kind that they would eat was the single serving Velveeta kind.

Even though I had no hopes of them eating it, I decided to attempt a single serving mac and cheese recipe I found here.

The ingredient list is short, which I was pretty happy about.

Instant Mug o' Mac and Cheese
1/3 cup pasta
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup 1% milk
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Now lets look at the instructions. For such a small list of ingredients, the instructions are surprisingly high-maintenance.  The red lettering are my thoughts:

Combine the pasta and water in a large mug or bowl. Microwave on high for two minutes, then stir. A lot of times the water will overflow while it heats up. It is OK if this happens. (easy for you to say, you're not the one cleaning it up) If you don’t want it to overflow just make this in a very large microwaveable bowl. Repeat this for at least 2 to 4 more minutes, stirring at each 2-minute interval. (So your saying I have to get a hot boiling-over mug out of the microwave, stir it, put it back in, and repeat. I don't think you know what the definition of 'instant' is) The water should absorb completely and the pasta will be cooked through. If the pasta needs another minute it is okay to add one more teaspoon of water and microwave for another minute.  My pasta cooked through in 4 minutes every time, but my microwaves tends to be very powerful. (show-off) Remove it from the microwave and stir in the milk and cheese. Microwave for another minute.(my microwave now thinks I'm schizophrenic from all the turning on and off and pulling the mugs in and out) Stir the cheese thoroughly into the pasta and eat up!

These instructions were not giving me a lot of confidence, but I went ahead and tried it. I got the biggest mugs I have to try and stop the boiling over part. I couldn't use a 'very large microwaveable bowl' because I was making two single size servings and two large bowls wouldn't fit in the microwave.  Why didn't I just combine them both into a 'very large microwavable bowl' you ask?  Because then they wouldn't be single serving size, duh!
Aaaaaaand because I didn't think of that until later.

Ok, lets get started

Water...... check
noodles......check

boiling over........ big check

Well, at least the microwave was already dirty

But hey, the final product actually turned out good and the kids ate it.

The verdict: two thumbs way down.  Instant mac and cheese is suppose to be easy. If I'm going to make it I don't want to sit by the microwave and babysit it.  Plus, it didn't take 4 minutes to cook, it took 8 (I guess my Steve Urkel microwave is no match for her Schwarzenegger microwave.) It was very annoying to keep pulling those mugs in and out of the microwave to stir them every 2 minutes.

Save yourself some time and mess. Just boil the noodles on the stove, drain the water and throw in some milk and cheese to your liking.

As a side note, my kids new favorite mac and cheese is macaroni with Parmesan cheese, and nothing else.  It's so easy to make and they love it.