And the winner is......

Thanks everyone for entering and for sharing the link to my blog.

I just know you have all been on pins and needles just waiting to find out who won this awesome homemade spa kit.

Drum roll please.....



ha ha, classic.

I am to cheap to use Random.org so I had my husband pick the winner the old fashion way.  He drew a name out of a hat

So without further adu, our winner is....

 KRISTEN TRAPPETT

Congratulations! and thanks again everyone who entered. 

Crayon T-Shirt

Now that it's getting colder, we are trying to find more indoor activities so the kids don't get cabin fever.  I saw a blog about a crayon t-shirt and thought it was such a cute idea.

You will need:
crayons
white shirt
sandpaper (the finer the grit the better)
iron
towel

Directions:
1) Color a picture on the sandpaper (it will be reversed on the shirt)
2) place a towel between the shirt so the color doesn't bleed onto the back
3) place the sandpaper on the shirt (image down) 
4) using a cotton setting, iron the back of the sandpaper for 30-60 seconds
5) put the shirt into the dryer for 30 min to set the color

I grabbed some 400 grit sandpaper and told my son to color whatever he wanted. My daughter is a little to young for this activity I think.

As he was coloring he gave me the play by play of what it was.  It started out as Iron Man, then it turned into Iron Women then he decided it should just be a big ball of fire. He tends to draw really light, so I went back over it and made the layer of crayon wax really thick on the sandpaper.

We put a towel in between the shirt and I let him do the ironing. 

After 30 seconds I pulled up the corner.  I could tell it was transferring but decided to go a bit longer.

The Verdict:  It was lighter then I thought it would be but it still looked good.  My son loved wearing a shirt that he made but unfortunately it didn't last. 

 Two washes later and it was starting to fade.  About the 4th wash it looked like a faded spaghetti stain. When he wore it it was no longer a cute homemade shirt but a pathetic neglected shirt. 

The next time we do it I think I will try it on a pillow case and  iron longer on a higher setting.

I've been staring at this blog post for about 30 min trying to figure out how to make it more entertaining by throwing in some humor.  I have nothing.  Apparently there is nothing funny about crayons and t-shirts.  So have a nice day

"Can you bring me my chapstick.... but my lips hurt real bad."

I am a chapstick addict.  I'm not kidding, I hate the feel of chapped dry lips so I am always globing chapstick on.  I have a tube in every room of the house, in all my purses and in the car.  It's pretty pathetic.

I use to get really annoyed at the movie Iron Will because of how chapped his lips got.  He can bring a whistle and all sorts of food but he couldn't find room for a small tube of chapstick?

So now that winter is upon us my chapstick consumption has doubled, but sometimes it still doesn't do the trick.  Sometimes I get gross chapped lips with all sorts of dead skin hanging off that is impossible not to pick at. For a long time I used Satin Lips from Mary Kay and it did a fantastic job of exfoliating my lips, but you know me, I wanted to find a homemade version.

This is a DIY that I have been doing for so long that I don't remember where I first heard about it.

Lip Exfoliant:
Sugar
Honey
Mix the two together until you get the consistency you want.

There is no right or wrong with the amount you use, it just all depends on what you like.  I like to get a lot of sugar so I can really buff my lips and get all the dead skin off. Plus, the more sugar you have, the less sticky it is.

I tend to be really lazy and just do it all in a spoon.  I get a spoon full of sugar (I bet you just thought of Mary Poppins) squirt some honey on it and mix it with my finger.

 Using your fingers, rub the mixture all over your lips until you feel that you have buffed off all the dead skin.  It usually only takes about 10 seconds. 

If there is any of the mixture left over after your failed attempt at not licking it off, use a warm wet wash cloth to get the rest off. Apply your favorite chapstick. 

The verdict: A lip exfoliant that cost almost nothing?  That is my kind of DIY. 

Before: Hello dead skin

After: goodbye dead skin. 

Floor Cleaner

I don't think there is anything more disguising then walking barefoot across a dirty kitchen floor.  Stepping on sticky patches of yogurt or soggy pieces of cheerios really grosses me out. 

For a long time I mopped my kitchen floor with water and Castile Soap.  It worked very well.  But now, between a larger kitchen and a tiled entry way, I have 3 times the amount of floor to mop.

My simple water and Castile Soap wasn't keeping up.  Halfway through mopping I would have to empty and refill the sink with fresh mopping solution because I was basically just pushing dirty water around the floor

I found this Floor Grease Cutter Cleaner (say that 10 times fast)

1/4 cup white vinegar
1 tablespoon liquid dish soap (I used Castile Soap)
1/4 cup washing soda (There is a difference between washing soda and baking soda.  You can find the washing soda in the laundry section of most stores.)

2 gallons tap water, very warm

Directions:
1. Place all the ingredients into a bucket and mix well until sudsy.
2. Mop the area with the solution.
3. Not recommended for waxed floors--it may make the wax gunky.

I really wanted to put this to the test so I didn't mop my floor for 2 weeks.  This was really hard for me considering I mop twice a week. By the time the two weeks were done I felt like Miss Inch walking into Susan's (or Sharon?) cabin on Parent Trap with the grass and mud all over the floor.

I mixed all my ingredients in the sink then used a real state of the art (insert sarcasm) sponge head mop. (I almost typed sponge bob ha ha)

The Verdict: This is one of those homemade solutions that definitely lives up to the hype.  I have used it 4 times now and I am still amazed at how easily things come up off the floor.  I don't have to scrub as hard to get 2 day old hardened milk off the floor.  And what really blows me away is that I don't have to refill the sink with new solution.  No matter how dirty my floor is, the dirt stays in the water.

Look how dirty this water is, but for some crazy reason the dirt stayed in the sink so I was still mopping with clean solution.  My floor is so much cleaner now.

There is a down side.  It leaves streaks on the tile that are pretty noticeable in the light.  However, I'll take streaks if it means a cleaner floor. 

Spa Kit Giveaway

That's right, I am jumping on the "bribe your readers so they will advertise for you" bandwagon.  

You have two chances to enter
1) share this link on the social sight you use the most (ie: facebook, google+ etc)
2) Pin this link on Pinterest

Let me know how and where you have shared this link by either leaving a comment or by emailing me at thediyguineapig@gmail.com.  Be sure to tell me if you have done a social sight and Pinterest so you can be entered twice. Please leave your full name so when I announce the winner there won't be any confusion.

The winner will get a homemade spa kit that includes;
Eucalyptus and Honey Bubble Bath
Citrus Sugar Scrub
Lavender Bath Salt
an Oatmeal and Lavender Soap bar

It will come pre-wrapped in this cute wire basket so you can either pamper yourself or give it away as a Christmas gift. 

My only restriction is that you must live in the U.S.A.  Sorry, but my small budget can't afford to ship international.

The winner will be chosen at random and posted on this blog on Sunday December 9th 2012

Good luck everyone. 

Homemade Mayo

If you haven't noticed yet, I post every Sunday and Wednesday night.  Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving I am going to keep this one short and sweet. But be sure to check in on Sunday night because I have something awesome planned.

so.... blah blah blah something personal blah blah attempt at humor....

Very Cheap Easy Mayo - for the ingredients and directions, please visit the original website

 The first time I tried this it was a disaster.  It was lumpy and oily and really gross.  I tried again but with half the recipe and it came out perfect.  I have made it several times and this is always the case.  If I try to make the full recipe it doesn't work, if I half the recipe it comes out great.  I have no idea why this is.

 The Verdict: This took me awhile to get use to because it has a strong oil taste that I wasn't fond of.  But after using it for 3 months it's fine and I don't even notice the oil taste anymore. This has good and bad with it so let me break it down.
Pros: very creamy and easy to spread.
         Easy to make
         You can add all sorts of spices to it to change the flavor
Cons: You have to use vegetable oil. Any other oil just messes it up. 
          It doesn't taste like Mayo.

If this is something that you plan on making then let me give you a tip; pour the oil in very slowly and a little bit at a time until you get the consistency you want.  Every batch I have made I used a different amount oil.  I think the amount of oil used is tied to how well the other ingredients are whipped together.

Some more blah blah, another attempt at humor, blah blah, insert sarcasm aaaaaand were done.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

P.S. this mayo doesn't get crayons off the wall

Trying to Get Long Glorious Hair

Most of my life I have had long hair.

I would let it grow to about this length, then get bored with it and cut off about a foot then repeat this process.

I love having long hair because there are many different things I can do with it.  Like put it up in a ponytail so it's out of my face.

A couple of years ago I decided I wanted something new.  Something extremely new.  I wanted to look less like a frumpy pony tail mom and more like a cute stylish mom.

So I went to one of my beautician sisters and told her to chop it and die it

 I took me several days to get use to it but I loved it.  I loved that I looked put together and I LOVED that it was stylish and out of my face. Plus, I always had awesome bed head in the morning.

However as time went on I discovered something..... I’m lazy and not high maintenance.  Even though it took me about 10 min to do my hair, I wouldn't do it.  So I became a hat lady.  This resulted in being an even more frumpy mom then I was before.  At least a pony tail can be somewhat stylish, but a 'Life is Good' hat every day is just sad looking, especially with slacks and a collared shirt. Ok I wasn't that bad. 

I kept the style for a year then decided I wanted my long hair back.

Thus we come to today’s blog post.  I found a website that gives you 30 Natural Remedies to Make Your Hair Grow

Most of them are things that I have heard of before such as not washing your hair as often, using less products and try not to brush it when wet.

But there were a few that I had never heard of and I wanted to try some of them.
I measured my hair to see how long it was, then I measured my roots to see how fast my hair grows in a month. My plan is to try each method for a month, then re-measure my hair to see if it actually grew faster.

I started with the Apple Cider vinegar rinse.  The website says

If you’re looking for really long hair, apple cider is the trick! Basically, you want to mix apple cider vinegar with a bit of water and then use it to rinse your hair after every shampoo. This will stimulate your hair follicles and help it grow much quicker! 

I love that they use the word 'bit'.  What the heck does that mean?

So I decided to get really scientific, and wing it.  While I was in the shower I would pour some of the vinegar in a cup then put some water in it.  I have no idea how much I put in there and it was a different 'bit' every time.

I would wash my hair then attempt to carefully pour the stuff on my head and massage it into my scalp and rub it all over my hair.  I'm not a fan of the smell of vinegar and thankfully the smell didn't stick to my hair. 

The Verdict: EPIC FAIL!!! Let me explain why this was so bad.
The first time I used it, it was great.  My hair felt so clean because the vinegar was a great clarifier.  However, the more I used it the more I realized that the vinegar is apparently politically correct because it didn't discriminate what it was stripping from  my hair.  Not only did it take away the bad stuff but it also stripped away all the good stuff that my hair needs to be thick and healthy. I was left with sad limp straw like hair.

I was debating if I should continue with this rinse and then one day I woke up to see about 30 strands of hair on my pillow. No wonder my hair was feeling so thin, it was falling out.  My hair went from making Fabio jealous, to being jealous of Gollum

I plan on using apple cider vinegar every so often as a clarifier, but not as a regular rinse.  It took about 6 weeks for my hair to feel normal again.

Even though I only made it 10 days with this method, I decided to measure my hair at the end of the month just to see if there was a difference in how fast my hair grew..... there wasn't.

Let’s hope the potato mask I’m getting ready to try doesn't leave me completely bald.