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. 

In honor of Earth Month I have been trying to go more natural.  As you have seen from my previous post I've made my own homemade laundry detergent. 

I have been searching and searching for a really good shampoo alternative.  I have relatively thin hair and I find that by the end of winter my ends look like a frayed mess.  I've tried several different shampoos and conditioners that work for a little while and soon I'm back to the same old problem.  Searching the inter net I found several post called No-Poo, meaning no shampoo.  Well I thought that could be interesting.  This method calls for using baking soda and water.  That's it!  Wow that's pretty simple.  I figured I could handle that.  So a week and a half ago I tried it for the 1st time.  WOW, I am amazed.  Not nly was my hair clean but I was able to comb through it with no conditioner. It was soft and I found that I had less hair loss during the washing/conditioning process.  I have continued to use this method 3 times a week, with rinses only in between.  I'm going to give it at least a good month.

The thing about shampoos is they are made to strip all the natural oil from your hair.  This is bad because your body produces those oils for a reason.  So if you take all the oils out, you could end up with overly dry hair or hair that is too oily because your body will over produce oil to compensate.

So far I have been happy with the results. However, my cousin tried this method and she didn't like it.  She said her hair she said her hair seemed oily.  I have read that this can happen. Give it a little time for your body to re-adjust itself.  I say give it at least two weeks minimum.

In honor of Earth Month, I want to share my homemade laundry detergent recipe with you.  I use 3 simple ingredients and my clothes have never been cleaner, softer and fresh.  After looking at the ingredients of most of the store brands, I've decided that my family is much better off with this simple eco-friendly recipe. Here are the 3 things I use.

• No suds, so safe for top, front and High Efficiency washers
• Safe for delicate items
• Safe for sensitive skin (I have sensitive skin, eczema, and if works great)
• Great price..if you buy 6 bars of soap and 1 box of borax and 1 box of washing soap you can make enough soap for 365 loads of wash.  One wash a day for approx. $15.00 depending on where you get the ingredients. 

Since I loved my round knitting looms so much, I figured I'd invest in the long loom set.  I contemplated between the Boye set and the new Martha Stewart loom set that just came out.  After a bit of research I decided to go with the Martha Stewart set. It was $39.99 at Michael's.  I bought it with a 50% off coupon. Here is a picture of everything that comes in the set.