I really love my peanut butter on a piece of toast in the morning.  I've tried the generic brands and was less than impressed with the smell and taste.  So either it was go expensive or find an alternative.  I found a post online about making my own and thought ok I'll try that.  So I bought some honey roasted peanuts.

Did you know that a tiny little tube of neosporin costs almost $6.00.  Since my husband has been out of work for more than a year and a half that is a bit expensive when I can make 10oz of homemade salve for way less than that. Best part is I can find all the herbs I need in my backyard.  I use Comfrey, Calendula, Yarrow and Broadleaf Plantain.  If you don't know what that last one is, google it.  I think you'll be surprised.  I have it growing all over in my grass and always thought of it as just a weed.  It has some amazing properties.  I infused 1/4 cup of each in a clean spagetti sauce jar along with olive oil.  After a few days of infusion I add 1 cup of this oil to 1 cup of coconut oil and some beeswax.  Thats it...a wonderful salve for sunburn, bug bits, cuts, scraps, excema.  I've been using it on dry cuticles for the last few days and they are nice and soft again.  I've even used it on my dog who got into something and has been scratching his stomach.  He's felling much better now.  Its a great anti-itch salve too. 

I was never really a fan of store bought lip balms.  They always felt waxy when I used them.  So I decided to try and make my own.  I use 5 ingredients, coconut oil, mango butter, vitamin e oil, beeswax and zinc oxide.  The zinc oxide is there to add some sun protection.  I ordered some sample flavor oils from www.brambleberry.com to try out.  I tried vanilla icing, mint, lemon pound cake, rainbow sherbert and watermellon.  I love the vanilla, lemon, mint and watermellon.  They are fantastic.  The rainbow sherbert really didn't smell like rainbow sherbert, its kind of has a hint of floral to it.  But I still like it.  I'm really pleased with the way these turned out.  I carry at least on of them on me at all times. 

Have you ever looked at the ingredients on your store bought deoderant.  Its pretty scarry.  Try googling a few of those ingredients.  Many contain Aluminum Chlorohydrate as a main active ingredient.  Besides being linked to cancer and Alzheimers, I don't think applying anything with aluminum is a good idea to apply to my skin.  So I looked for an alternative.  I found I could easily make my own deoderant with 3 simple ingredients, Coconut oil, arrowroot powder and baking soda.  Wow really...coconut oil and baking soda can be found in any grocery store.  Arrowroot powder is alittle harder..you can find it at health food stores or online.  I got mine from www.brambleberry.com.  I can get it by the pound, besides I can use it in cooking too.  You'll need some beeswax too, thats what holds it all together. I like the lime essential oil because of its antibacterial properties and its a nice scent, but you can leave it unscented. I found these really great 2oz push up containers from www.elementsbathandbody.com.  They are perfect for deoderant.  I love this deoderant, I'll never buy store bought again.  Go ahead try it yourself, or if your too busy I do sell these at $4.00 for 1 or $10 for 3.  I have 3 types, lime, lavender and unscented.  If you are interrested send me an email to midwestgreenworks@wi.rr.com.  Let me know what you want and I can set it up for you to buy from my esty store.

So keeping with my nature them, I've started an adventure into making homemade soap.  I was a bit leary as it required me to use sodium hydroxide, which is know as lye.  I did my research and in I jumped.  Not wanting to wait for my new soap to cure, I decided to try what they call Hot Processed (HP) soap first.  It requires the use of a double boiler, which by the way is almost impossible to find locally, or you can use a crockpot. Ooooh I have one of those.  Plus you need some sort of mold.  I chose to not invest in something expensive till I get the process down a bit, so I used an empty, clean pringles container.  I infused some olive oil with calendula petals (thats marigold flowers).  I also used crisco, coconut oil and castor oil.  A pretty simple recipe.  Plus lye and water and off I went.   Here is a picture of my first batch of HP soap.