Dry Shampoo or Halloween Makeup?

Personally I have never understood the purpose of dry shampoo.  I figure if my hair looks like it needs a cleaning, then I should clean it...... or put a hat on. Even on those days when I've hit the snooze button to many times and my hair looks like it's been dunked in oil, I will still wash it, give it a quick blow then put it up in a pony tail.

I did try a store bought dry shampoo once, but it didn't seem to do anything.  When I saw a Pin about making your own homemade dry shampoo I decided what the heck, I'll give it a try. There have been a few times were it would have been nice to just slap something in my hair and run out the door.

Homemade Dry Shampoo
Choose one or combine them if you’re feeling frisky:
Cornstarch
Cornmeal
Baking Soda
Ground Oats

For one application, you need only use a tablespoon or two. Take the powdery substance of choice and apply it to your hair roots. Scrub it in with the tips of your fingers, and run your fingers through the length of your hair. With a fine-bristled brush, briskly brush the powder out of your hair

I didn't have any cornmeal, so on two separate occasions I decided to try the cornstarch, baking soda and ground oats.

My hair can go about 2 days without washing it. On the third day it always looks nice and shiny and in desperate need of a shampoo.  So I picked one of those mornings to try out the baking soda and corn starch.

Baking Soda Verdict: My camera didn't go a good job of emphasizing the greasiness of my hair, but if you look closely on the left picture you can see the shine by my ear.  Because I was doing this on one section of my hair, I used 1/2 Tbsp.  I rubbed it into my roots, shook my hair, brushed my hair and was left with hair that looked like I had put baking soda in it.  My roots were several shades lighter then the rest of my hair.  I let it sit for an hour and kept playing with my hair and brushing it but it still looked pretty gross.

Cornstarch Verdict: This one was my favorite.  Not because it worked well, but because it was so bad. After rubbing in 1/2 Tbsp of cornstarch I looked in the mirror and had a good laugh.  My DIY dry shampoo turned into a DIY powdered wig.


















After an hour of flipping, shaking, brushing and combing, my hair looked a lot better then it was, but it was still pretty bad looking.  I had streaks of white and a lot of little flakes. 

Ground Oatmeal Verdict:I put the oats into the blender on high until I had a fine powder then rubbed it into my roots.  The only thing the oats did was leave little flakes in my hair that kept showing up for several hours.  My hair was just as greasy as it was before. 

Overall Verdict: Even though these failed miserably, I now have a method to create my own powered wig , give myself a lovely dandruff look and I now know what I will look like with gray hair..... it's not pretty.

No Grate Laundry Detergent

A friend of mine once told me that she would like to make her own laundry soap, but she hated the grating part.  It was so time consuming and frustrating for her that it wasn't worth the effort.  When I saw a website about making your own laundry detergent without having to grate a bar of soap I thought, Eureka!  This could be the perfect solution for her.

No Grate Laundry Detergent
You Will Need

3/4 cup Dr. Bronner's Castile Soap (For laundry, I like to use the lavender, almond, and citrus varieties)

1/2 cup Super Washing Soda

1/2 cup 20 Mule Team Borax OR substitute with Baking Soda

 20-50 drops of lavender

2 one-gallon containers in which to store the detergent (I recycled an old laundry detergent container and a vinegar jug)

A measuring cup or two

A two-gallon bucket (I used my old mop bucket)

Funnel to pour the detergent from the bucket into the containers (not necessary but certainly helpful!)

 

Directions:

Take your two dry ingredients first – the Super Washing Soda and Borax or Baking Soda, and pour them into the bottom of the bucket.  Stir well.  Add enough hot tap water to cover the dry ingredients. It’s important to dissolve the dry ingredients BEFORE adding the liquid Castile Soap. Otherwise, it will get super clumpy and your batch will be ruined. Then, either add your liquid Castile Soap OR the water. The soap does suds up pretty well, so if you add it first, slowly add water. Otherwise, add the water first, then at the end, add the soap and stir it in with a long spoon. Fill your bucket up to the two gallon mark with hot water (or add your Castile Soap) Use about 1/3 cup for each load

 

The instructions say that you can either use borax or baking soda.  I chose to go with borax since that is the main ingredient in most homemade laundry detergents.  After mixing everything together I decided that this was going to be a fail.  It looked so watered down that I wasn't sure if my clothes were going to get clean, but only one way to find out.

 

 Using a funnel I poured my solution into an old laundry container and started some laundry that afternoon.

 The Verdict: I used it on the kids clothes first and when I pulled them out of the washing machine I couldn't tell if they were clean or not.  They seemed clean but they also didn't.  They looked clean but they sort of smelled like dirty water.  So I needed a better test subject. 

Instead of washing my rag pile that day, I decided to let them sit and fester until they had a lovely rotting odor to them.  When I finally washed them a few days later I used 1/3 cups.  I pulled my rags out of the wash and they still smelled.... a lot.  So I washed my rags again using 1 1/2 cups of the detergent, they still smelled and some of them still had dirty spots on them. The only thing this detergent is good for is to waste your time and money. 

I'm sort of 2 for 2 with laundry detergents right now.  I hope the next one has a better success rate.

Dye Those Eggs

I don't know about you, but my stomach is about to explode.  Between the kids "sharing" their Easter candy with me, and going to a fondue get together last night, I think I have eaten my weight in chocolate in the last 18 hours.

So before I slip into a chocolate coma, lets quickly walk through a homemade Easter egg dye.

DIY Easter Egg Dye
You Will Need:
Water
Vinegar
Food Coloring

Directions:
Take a bowl or coffee cup and mix water, vinegar & food color (80% water, 20% vinegar and 2 to 4 drops food color) You don’t have to be exact with this recipe as I generally just sort of “eye” it.

 I've heard about this method many times over the years but never bothered to try it because I can get egg dye and fun stickers in a pack for only a few dollars. But this year my daughter was old enough to dye eggs so I decided to let the kids each have their own set of dye and hope this minimized any fighting.  My son had a store bought pack and my daughter got the DIY stuff. 

The Verdict: The darker colors worked pretty good but the eggs had to sit in the dye for a couple minutes for the dye to do anything.  The lighter colors didn't do very well at all.

This is an egg that sat in the yellow dye for about 3 minutes. 

The egg on the left was put in the blue store bought dye.  The egg on the right was put in the DIY blue dye.  They were both left in their containers for the same amount of time.  

I think part of the reason for the lighter color on the eggs was because I had a lot of liquid.  I probably should have put in more then the 4 drops of food coloring for the amount of liquid I had.

HAPPY EASTER!!!!

Have Eyeliner On Your Walls? Try This.

I was getting out of the shower one day when I heard my son yell, "Mom!!! mumble mumble Eliza mumble the wall!"

Even though I could only understand a few of the words, the fact that he said 'Eliza' and 'wall' in the same sentence could only mean one thing, she found something and drew on the wall again!

I threw on my oh so unflattering mom bathrobe, ran out the door and saw this

She was down the hall holding two eyeliner pencils and looking very guilty.  I wish I could say that I reacted calmly and rationally, and that I lovingly corrected her behavior in such a way that resulted in a beautiful mother daughter bonding moment that is worthy of a Folgers commercial from the 80's, but I didn't. I pretty much reacted like this.

 That afternoon I grabbed my mayonnaise to try and clean it up but it didn't even smudge the eyeliner.  I tried make up remover, but surprisingly that didn't do anything either.  So I got on yahoo.com and posted a question on one of their forums.  I got several suggestions and decided to try a few.


 Baby Oil's Verdict: It came off very easily without taking any paint off, but left a nice greasy spot that wouldn't come off. Pass

 Nail Polish Remover Verdict: It worked so well that the paint came off with it. Pass

Hand Sanitizer Verdict: It got a little bit off but I had to scrub pretty hard and it started to take the paint off. Pass

Witch Hazel Verdict: It just smudged the make up a little bit. Pass

Rubbing Alcohol Verdict: This was a big fail.  A couple of rubs and I had wiped off all the paint and primer.  Big Pass

Hot Water and Soap Verdict: We have a winner! It took a little scrubbing but it got the make up off without hurting the paint. The cloth I was using had to be hot.  When it started to cool off I would have to scrub harder and harder until eventually nothing would come off.  I would rinse the towel in hot water, throw a little more soap on and start scrubbing again. 

I hope this is the last post I have to do about getting things off the walls, but the odds are slim.

Another Attempt at Dishwasher Soap

After my last failed attempt to make my own dishwasher soap a friend of mine tagged me in a Facebook post about a different kind of homemade dishwasher soap.

Hoping for better results I decided to give it a go.

Homemade Dishwasher Soap
You will need:
2 cups of Dr. Bonners castile soap
2 cups of washing soda
40 drops of lemon essential oil or lemon juice

Directions:
Mix all the ingredients until you get a crumbly texture, you can use more or less of the washing soda until you get the desired texture.  Use about 1Tbsp per load. 

I poured my castile soap into a jar then slowly started to stir in the washing soda until I got a crumbly texture. It looked like cottage cheese. The soap and washing soda turned out to be about a 50:50 ratio. I didn't have any lemon oil so I used lemon juice. Has anyone else noticed how often I say that?  I think it's time to invest in lemon essential oil

As much as I love Dr. Bronner castile soap I wasn't thrilled with the idea of using it in my dishwasher.  It tends to leave an oily residue and I really didn't want to have that on my dishes, but I have been wrong in the past about the outcome of a homemade project so I went for it.  But I played it safe and only put about 10 things in my dishwasher.

The Verdict: I think the picture says it all.  Can you see the black swirly marks?  That is where I used my fingernail to scrape off the horrible residue that was on there.  It took a good dose of Dawn soap and elbow grease to get my dishes clean.  Can you imagine how happy I was that I didn't use this on a full load?

I went back to the Facebook post and asked if anyone else using this recipe had the same problem and if I was doing something wrong.  Some people responded that they had the same results I had.

I have no idea why this homemade detergent works for some people and not others, maybe it's the type of dishwasher being used, or maybe it depends on if you have hard or soft water?  So if you do decide to try this one, I would start with a small batch and only put a few dishes in your dishwasher. 

I would love to hear from anyone who has had success with this dishwasher detergent, or with another homemade dishwasher soap that you love.

Shine On You Crazy Furniture

A friend of mine recently asked if I had any dusting tips.  She told me that she loves Swiffers but because they are a bit pricey she tends to re-use them so much that eventually she is just pushing dust around. It's nice to know that I'm not the only one guilty of this.

There are basically three ways to get dust off a surface;
1) Furniture polish
2) Just a cloth with nothing sprayed on it, like a Swiffer
3) Walk by a shelf, see that it's covered in dust, then proceed to pull the sleeve from your already stained sweater over your hand and wipe the dust off because your about to get in the shower anyways (I have done this more times then I would like to admit)

As I started to look at furniture polish, the first thing I noticed was that every one of them had olive oil in them.  I really did not like this idea due to some not so pleasant results that came from the last time I tried to put oil in a spray bottle. But I started to realize that it was unavoidable.  If I was going to make a good quality furniture polish I was going to have to add the olive oil in it, and hope it doesn't ruin another spray bottle.

Homemade Furniture Dusting Spray 
You Will Need:
1-3/4 cups water 
1/4 cup white distilled vinegar 
2 teaspoons olive oil 
1/4 teaspoon lemon essential oil (about 8 to 10 drops)

Directions: 
Combine the ingredients in a clean spray bottle of at least a 16 oz size.  Shake well to mix.
To use, spray onto wooden furniture and wipe off with a soft cloth to dust and clean the surface.
You’ll have to keep shaking this mixture as you use it to keep the oil and water mixed together.

I didn't have lemon oil so I used lemon juice instead.  I put all my ingredients in the bottle then started to shake.  About 10 seconds later I realized I was singing Shake Your Sillies Out by The Wiggles out loud and the kids were no where in site. I'm now singing kid songs for my own amusement, I need to get out more. 

 After I stopped my little one man performance I started to wander the house to find my first victim. It's amazing how much wood you realize you have in your home when it's time to dust it.  It's even more amazing how many knick knacks are usually covering those wood surfaces.

The Verdict:  I used the spray on all types of wood and all types of finished and the outcome was always fantastic.  The wood looked so clean and shiny.  I would spray the polish right onto the wood then wipe it off with a clean towel.

All the dust came right off and the wood looked great.

 What I really love is how easily it cleans gunk off the furniture.  The spray quickly dissolves anything on the wood like finger prints, food, dog slobber, etc and the spots come off with very little scrubbing.




















 It also works well with my homemade Swiffer, but that will have to wait for another post, to be continued....

No Scrub Toilet Bowl Cleaner

Long before I had children, my mom and I had a conversation about choosing to be a stay at home mom.  I had asked her if she ever got tired of staying home with us 5 kids and if she had ever wanted a career.

The only thing I remember her saying is "you can find satisfaction and fulfillment in the daily tasks of being a stay at home mom.  Even cleaning a toilet can be an uplifting experience because you know that by cleaning that toilet you are keeping your family healthy and safe from harmful bacteria."

I don't know why that comment has stuck with me all these years, but now that I have a 4 year old boy I have decided that my mom was wrong......very, very, wrong.

When she told me that, I think 1 of 3 things was going on
1) as she was saying this she was thinking "ha ha, this sucker is totally buying it."
2) she has suppressed the memories of having to clean a toilet that is being used by a little boy
3) my brother had good potty manners, unlike my son who likes to see how good his aim is "I wonder if I can make it in the garbage can from here.... nope, maybe the bathtub..."

Sorry mom, cleaning a bathroom is gross and if I could, I would hire someone to do it for me.

Naturally when I saw a Pin about not having to scrub the inside of the toilet bowl, I ran to the kitchen to grab what I needed so I could try it out right then.

It was one of those pins that tells you the pin has been tagged for spam if you click on it, so I can only tell you what the description on the pin was

Toilet Bowl Cleaner
Punch a hole in the top of a bottle of vinegar and sit the bottle in your toilet tank. In doing this you will save water, as the tank wont fill as much, the vinegar will clean your toilet AND tank on each flush, it leaves the bathroom smelling fresh and it doesn't harm any component of your toilet OR the environment when flushed.

The only un-opened bottle of vinegar I had was plastic, and even though it was full of vinegar I wasn't sure if it would stay in one place.  I put it in the tank and sure enough that bottle was trying to make a break for it. It kept floating and bobbing all over the place. 

So instead, I grabbed a mason jar, filled it with the vinegar and by using a hammer and nail I punched a hole in the top. 

There wasn't a lot of room in the toilet tank, so I'm glad my mason jar was smaller. I scrubbed my toilet, put the mason jar in the tank then started to count the days to see how long it kept the bowl clean.

The Verdict: Every time I flushed I would look at the jar to see if I could see the vinegar coming out, but I couldn't ever tell.  The toilet I had put it in usually starts to grow things around the 10th day after cleaning it. On the 14th day after I put the mason jar in the tank I started to see growth in the bowel.

I pulled the jar out and was surprised that it still smelled strongly of vinegar.  Clearly the vinegar wasn't getting out easily. So I decided to try again.

I poked another hole in the jar and this time I put it upside down in the tank.  I was hoping that this would create a better flow system for the vinegar to get out with each flush.

 The Verdict: 3 weeks of a gunk free toilet!  I'll take it!

For a few months I attempted to refill the jar with vinegar before the three week mark so that I could see if I could keep the toilet bowl clean indefinitely, but I kept failing.  1 of 2 things kept happening.  1) I would completely forget, then one day look in the toilet and say "oh yeah, i forgot to change the jar." or 2) my two little ducklings would follow me and insist on helping which would result in me scolding them for getting toilet water on everything, or me cursing when the tank lid is pushed off the toilet and onto my foot. These outcomes would help me to quickly forget why I was in the bathroom in the first place.

Even though I still have to clean the outside of the toilet, and the floor, and the garbage can, and the ceiling, (just kidding) it was really nice to skip that step and not have to clean the inside of the toilet.