Whiten Those Nails

About 2 months ago I spent half a day in the front yard working on the landscape. A majority of the work I did was digging up two dead bushes and replanting new ones.  By the time I was done my "I am woman, hear me roar" mantra had turned into "I am out of shape, hear me moan." Sean T would be disappointed in me

Even after I scrubbed off several layers of dirt and skin, my fingernails were still looking pretty gross.  Over the years I've heard of a few different ways to get your fingernails white so I chose two of those and tried them out.

Baking Soda and Hydrogen Peroxide Nail Whitener
You Will Need:
Baking soda
Hydrogen peroxide
bowl

Directions:
Mix the two together until you have a thick paste.  Dip your nails into the mixture and let them soak for 10 minutes.  Rinse

 I put my left hand into the bowl and wiggled my fingers around until my nails were completely covered in the mixture.  Then I kicked back and enjoyed a frustrating game of Candy Crush

 The Verdict: It worked great.  My thumb was still a bit dark but I don't think the mixture had gotten to the inside of the nail.  The down side to this was the pain from all the fresh cuts and scratches I had from working in the yard.  The mixture found it's way to each tiny wound and was not sympathetic. 

Lemon Juice Nail Whitener
You Will Need:
Lemon juice
bowl

Directions:
Place your fingers in a bowl.  Pour in enough lemon juice to cover your finger nails.  Soak them for 10 minutes then rinse. 

I got my right hand situated in the lemon juice then went back to Candy Crush, determined to finish the level I was stuck on. 

The Verdict: For some reason my right hand had no little cuts, so this soak was much more enjoyable, but it didn't work well.  The stains were lighter, but still pretty noticeable. 

The Overall Verdict: Three cheers for baking soda and hydrogen peroxide!!!

Cocoa Tanner

Recently a friend of mine sent me a Pin in Pinterest about using cocoa powder to tan your skin.  Intrigued, I clicked on the pin only to be taken to a picture that had no additional information ..... intrigue turned to doubt.

When a pin takes you right to a picture then there is a good chance it won't work, but there is only one way to find out.

Cocoa Tanner

This is the information taken right from the pin; 
What to do:- 1-Get some cocoa powder 2tbps depending in how tan you want to be. (I used 2) 2-any moisturizer you have 3-a empty bottle 4-cotton buds, or anything that can help you apply the cream 5-mix it all together you should end up with a brown mix. Don't worry, it won't be that dark on your skin. Good for super light girls! Interesting

Interesting indeed original pinner. 

I grabbed the the cocoa powder and the only lotion I currently have and started to mix the two together.

Am I the only one who can no longer see or hear the words Nestle Toll House without hearing Phoebe Buffay say "Nestle Toulouse?"


 It didn't say how much moisturizer to use, so I just kept squirting some in until I had a good creamy mixture. Then using the cotton ball, I spread it all over my legs doing the best I could to get it even.

The Verdict:  NAILED IT!!!!!

Hmmmm, not quite as glamorous as the original picture.  Clearly my mixture was a lot thicker then it needed to be. I decided to add more lotion to the mixture until I had the consistency of lotion.  Apparently cocoa is a moisture killer because I ended up using 1/3 of the bottle of lotion.  Just for good measure, I re-shaved my legs and buffed them with my body scrub.  After all that prep I was ready to try again....

 Fortunately, it washed right off. 

Battle Of The Headlight Cleaners

About 2 months ago a comment was left on my Headlight Cleaner post about using baking soda and water to clean a headlight.  I love how easily and effective using toothpaste is but naturally I wanted to see if baking soda and water was better.

Baking Soda Headlight Cleaner
You Will Need:
Baking soda
Water
Rag

Directions:
Mix baking soda and water together until you get a thick paste.  Using a damp rag, rub the mixture all over your headlight until all the dirt and gunk is off. Wipe the headlight clean with a wet rag.

Both headlights on my husbands car were looking pretty grungy and in serious need of a make over. 

I scrubbed baking soda all over one headlight.....

 Then rubbed toothpaste all over the other one.

The Verdict: Both headlights looked equally clean and the baking soda was just as easy to use as the toothpaste was.  However, the headlight with the baking soda stayed cleaner longer. The headlight with the toothpaste started to look foggy again in just about 2 days while the headlight with the baking soda stayed clean for a week. 

Baking Soda:1; Toothpaste:0

4th Of July Drinks

Have you seen those 4th of July drinks on Pinterest?  The red, white and blue ones?  I've seen so many different photos of them that I didn't doubt that it actually worked, what I wanted to know was how it tasted.

4th of July Drink
You Will Need:
Cranberry Juice
Blue Frost Gatorade
Diet 7-Up

Directions:
Fill your glass completely full with ice.  Pour in Cranberry Juice.  Pour in the Blue Gatorade Frost. Make sure to pour gently onto the ice so that it does not mix with the red juice. Pour in the Diet 7up, also pour onto an ice cube to prevent them from mixing.

First of all, the vast amount of ice is key.  No matter how carefully you pour the drink in, if you don't have ice you get this.

So I grabbed my a couple of glasses and filled them both with ice.  With all that ice I realized things might get interesting when I tried to drink it, so I shoved a straw into one. 

Very slowly I started to pour.  The Gatorade did mix with the cranberry juice a little bit but not enough to change the color. 

 The Verdict: I didn't want to attempt a huge spill, so I went for the drink with the straw.  I took a sip and not surprisingly all I tasted was cranberry juice.  I pulled the straw higher and sure enough I could only taste the Gatorade.  Those liquids were pretty determined to stay separated.  I decided to put a stop to all that segregation and gave my drink a good stir.

 I wasn't a fan.  I thought it tasted like watered down cranberry juice.  My husband thought it was great and finished his and mine.

I have only tried this one combination, but looking at other sites it looks like this drink is very customizable.  You can choose any drink for the red, blue and white. It's the sugar content that matters.  The drink with the most sugar needs to be on the bottom while a sugar free drink will sit on the top.  So if you plan on making this then you might want to attempt a few combinations until you find the one that your taste buds prefer. 


HAPPY 4TH OF JULY EVERYONE!!!!!

DIY Butter

I'm really not a big butter person. When I do use butter it's very minimal. My husband on the other hand is a huge fan of the stuff. For him everything taste better with more butter.

So when I decided to try and make my own, I had to rely on his expertise and get his opinion for this post.

Blender Butter
You Will Need:
1 cup heavy cream
ice water
blender
strainer

Directions:
You want to start with the cream at room temperature…it will go a lot faster that way. Pour the cream into the blender. Add salt to taste if desired. I used about a 1/4 teaspoon. Blend on medium-high speed for 3-5 (or more) minutes. How long this step takes will be highly dependent on your blender. It could take up to 10 minutes in an older blender.  Just keep an eye on it and when the butter starts to separate into butter and buttermilk stop the blender. Let the cream sit for a minute or two as the butter rises to the top. Pour the buttermilk off into another container. This next step is highly controversial in the butter-making world…to RINSE or not to RINSE! Rinsing the butter is supposed to make it last longer without spoiling (which is a good thing), but MY experience with butter is that it really doesn’t last that long around our house. Especially when you’re just making what is essentially one “stick”. But I decided to play if safe and did the rinsing thing because it’s really not much more work. All you do is add cold water to the blender and pulse for few seconds, then drain the water. Repeat this process until the water runs clear. Mine never really ran CLEAR, but after 6 or 7 times I figured that was good enough.Spoon butter into a strainer to drain. At this point you can pack your butter into molds or form it into a log like I did. Stick it in the refrigerator to chill.

 When my whipping cream was just about room temperature I poured it into the blender and turned it on full blast. 

 It was only about 2 minutes later that I had this.  I was surprised at how quickly things separated.

I put a strainer over a bowel then dumped the entire contents of the blender onto the strainer. I used a fork to smash the butter a bit and was able to get a good amount of buttermilk out.  

From the original directions it sounds like rinsing the butter may not be necessary but I decided to go ahead a do it. So I put the butter back into the blender, added water, gave it a quick pulse, poured the water out then repeated. 10 repeats later my water still wasn't clear and I was losing patients, so I figured that was good enough. 

I slapped my butter into a little container and let it chill in the fridge.  I had about the equivalent of one stick of butter

 The Verdict: Like I said before, I'm not a butter person so I had to get my husbands opinion on this one.  I had him use it for a few days then asked him what he thought.  He wasn't a fan for a few reasons. It was rock solid so he couldn't spread it on anything.  If he tried to leave it out to soften, it became to liquidity.  He said it didn't cook well and it didn't taste like butter at all, in fact it didn't have much of a taste, even with salt.

The curiosity got to me and I decided to make another batch and try it myself.  I agree with everything he said.  I tried to put it in my Butter Bell to see if that would keep it at a soft spreadable consistency, but it just kept falling out.

I'll be sticking with the store bought butter.

Gel Air Freshener

So far I'm 0 for 2 with making my own air freshener. Let's hope that I can redeem myself by trying a homemade gel air freshener.

Gel Air Freshener
You Will Need:
plain, unflavored gelatin or pectin
water for preparing gelatin
food coloring (optional, just for added flair)
essential oils
small glass jars or bowls  (I filled three with 2 cups of finished gelatin)
1 tablespoon salt (prevents mold)

Directions:
To make this, place 1-2 drops of food coloring in each of your glass jars or bowls, and then prepare the gelatin according to the package directions, adding the salt during boiling. Once the gelatin has dissolved in the water and it's ready to set, add 20-30 drops of essential oil and mix. Then pour into your individual containers and mix with the food coloring.  Check the strength of the smell at this time and add more oil if necessary.

I wanted to try three different scents so I grabbed Lavender essential oil, then I grabbed Eucalyptus and Citrus fragrance oils.  

 I followed the instructions and I put 20 drops of each oil into the glasses. The scent was pretty strong so I figured the 20 drops was plenty.  For some reason my gelatin rebelled and didn't want to set up when it was suppose to.  It took 24 hours before it finally turned into a gel.  I have no idea why.  It was just trying to annoy me I guess, it worked.

 Each glass was assigned a bathroom (each bathroom is roughly the same size) and I started the countdown to see how long the scent would last from each jar.

The Verdict: The citrus oil pooped out after 3 hours.  Even if my nose was in the glass I couldn't smell anything.  The lavender made it 9 days before it called it quits.  The eucalyptus made it a full 2 weeks.  Unfortunately, I don't know if it's the type of oil or the scent that made the eucalyptus out last the others.

By the time I took the eucalyptus out of the bathroom it was looking pretty depleted.  The gel was mostly evaporated (I didn't know gel did that) and it had left a green gooey funk around the edge of the glass.  It washed off very easily though. 

 Even though some of the scents didn't last long and if you try this you will have to experiment to find the right oil and scent to make it worth your while, I'm calling this a success, mostly because I don't want to be 0 for 3

Detox Drink That Boosts Your Metabolism.

Summer has been slow coming, but the heat is on the rise and there have been several times where I have found myself slightly dehydrated.  Not a good idea when I'm prone to heat stroke. 

I knew I needed to up my water intake so I started to look online to see if there were any little tricks to help remind me.  I came across a blog about a drink that can help detox, enrich and raise your metabolism.

You mean I can get hydrated, boost my metabolism AND detox all at the same time?  Uh, yes please!

Metabolism Boosting Detox Drink
You Will Need:
1 gallon of water 
1 Lemon
1/2 a cucumber 
a handful of fresh mint leaves

Directions: 

Slice the cucumber and lemons into decently thin slices, the more you cut it open the more flavor your going to get out of it.Decide whether or not you want to crush your mint. Throw all of it into a gallon of water let sit over night (about 8 hours) Wake up and enjoy the rest of the day! Note: water will get bitter if it sits longer then 24 hours. Note: for a list of how each ingredient helps with your metabolism and detox please see the original site.

The original poster said she drinks 1/2 - 1 gallon of this 3 times a week and it helps her lose a lot of weight, like 8lbs in a week (insert skeptical single eye brow raise).  My plan was to drink 1/2 gallon every other day for 3 weeks while keeping my exercise routine and diet the same.

The Verdict: First of all, if you don't like the flavor of any of the ingredients then you might as well not even try.  I was amazed at how distinctive the taste was for the lemons, cucumbers, and mint.  It was a bit of a taste bud overload at first but I got use to it and it was pretty refreshing.

But the real verdict that I know your dying to know is, did I lose weight?  Did this amazing drink help me shed those pesky pounds?  Nope! Swing and a miss. Some how I actually gained a pound.  Other then feeling more hydrated, I didn't notice any difference. 

The original poster said that she does this with a very healthy diet and she exercises 5 days a week, so I'm wondering if it's not the drink itself that caused her to lose all that weight, but the diet and exercise.  I could be wrong. It's been known to happen.