Deodorant Update & A Lip Balm Recipe

The homemade deodorant post was surprisingly popular! My beeswax came and I've tried using it in my latest batch of deodorant. It works great! The wax made it solidify enough that it's not runny anymore and will hold it's shape nicely in my recycled container. Be very, very sparing when applying this. It doesn't take much at all!

Deodorant
3 Tbs Coconut Oil
1 Tbs Beeswax
2 Tbs Cornstarch
2 Tbs Baking Soda
10 - 15 drops Tea Tree essential oil
15 - 20 drops Peppermint essential (or scent of your choice)

Melt the oil and wax together in a double boiler*.
Mix together the cornstarch and baking soda in a separate bowl.

Once the oil and wax are melted, stir in the essential oils, then mix the cornstarch and baking soda into the oil/wax mix, stirring with a pair of chopsticks. Remove from heat and stir occasionally until the mixture thickens but is still pourable. Pour into an empty and clean deodorant tube. Refrigerate until hardened, then you can store at room temperature.

This recipe generously filled a 2.6 oz deodorant tube with just a bit leftover. 

I tried making some lip balm the other day with a 1:1 mix of coconut oil and beeswax. It was a trial run and I was testing out the ratios. While it was still a decent lip balm (it worked just fine on my chapped lips) it wasn't as silky and glossy as I prefer my lip balms to be, so I remelted everything and added more coconut oil. The new batch is perfect - silky and smooth and just a bit glossy to add some sheen to dry lips.

Lip Balm
2 parts coconut oil
1 part beeswax
10-20 drops essential oil of choice

Melt oil and wax in a double boiler*.
Add essential oils and stir.
Pour into small tins or lip balm tubes (clean out your old ones and use them!). Allow to cool before using.

*My "double boiler" for these has consisted of a empty and clean tin can from crushed tomatoes placed into an inch or so of boiling water. Works great!  

Happy Tuesday!
Meg

Mid-Week Random

Random Zombie picture.

I figured it's close enough to Halloween that zombies are appropriate now. ;)


~ First things first! I haven't turned my air conditioner on since Monday morning! I LOVE this weather. It has been a wonderfully breezy and cool mid-upper 70's so far this week. We have a chance of rain tomorrow and I really hope that holds out and happens. I would love a good storm and I really hope we have a wet winter.

~ Our debt free saga continues: While we've been "commercial" debt free since June of last year, we are still working our house. We played around with some numbers and realized that we can pay it off in 6 years for sure, possibly sooner. Considering we just bought it in 2009, I think that's a pretty cool thing. And once that's done we can work toward getting a chunk of land for the farm/ranch we dream of. 

~ Last night Ben and I were sitting on the porch enjoying the cool night when I heard a noise on the other side of the fence. We have stray cats all over the neighborhood so I figured that was just what it was, when I looked over and saw the figure scurrying along the top of the fence... And it wasn't a cat. It was an opossum! I couldn't believe it! I've never seen one up close before (it was seriously 5 feet away)... actually I don't think I've seen one in person before, and it kind of freaked me out. We're on the outskirts of town, but still in a fairly populated area, and I didn't know we had that kind of wildlife around here.

Swirly lace edge wrap in progress

~ I'm at the tail end of this large order - I have two scarves and two pairs of fingerless mitts done, and that leaves the wrap I am currently working on and one more scarf. After that, an order of Emilies in a few different colorways.

I still have openings for anything that can be completed from mid-November forward. If you'd like to place an order, now is the time!

I think my favorite part about working on orders is not so much the knitting and creating (which is fun, don't get me wrong) but getting the yarn in the mail. I love getting boxes of yarn in the mail. It's like presents! I have one due the beginning of next week and I can't wait.

~ I woke up to Munchie saying "nanananana" and "mumumumumum" on Monday morning. Looks like little Mr. is going to be an early talker. He spent all of dinner fussing at and talking to his food last night, in a very serious fashion. It was really cute.

~ I've been in a housekeeping and organizing slump for awhile - since about the time Munchie was born I think. I've been feeling so scatter brained and really not my normally anal self. A friend gave me an organizational handbook for home and school complete with blank forms and how to use them and as I've been reading through it my brain is feeling more refreshed and ready to get back into the swing of things. I've realized that we need a new schedule now that we are doing school in the mornings (my usual Clean The House time) and it has given me some new ideas on keeping up with paperwork and everything else. It's called The 99 Cent Notebook System, for anyone interested (put out in the late 90's). Thank you Sandy! I think you saved my sanity.

~ We are late in starting our fall garden, but I'm hoping to get seeds in the ground this weekend. All my seedlings that I had started in the garage died - a million degrees and not enough water will do that. Plus out of sight, out of mind didn't help. So! I'll just be restarting everything in our garden beds and see what happens.

~ Quick P90X update: We're in week 5! Some days I really just want to quit, but I'm so glad Ben is doing it to keep me going. I feel like if I quit and he keeps going I'm a total wimp. Good news is I've lost 2 inches since we started. I'm also starting to lose a bit of actual weight now that my muscle weight has seemed to hit the max. For awhile I wasn't gaining or losing, so I must have been switching fat weight for muscle weight. But as of this morning I've lost 3 of the 15 pounds I want to lose. Huzzah!

Happy Wednesday!
Meg

New Pattern: Rock Falls Scarf

The Rock Falls scarf pattern is now available!

You can purchase it from Ravelry here ($5.00).

You'll need:
Worsted weight yarn - 660 yards
US 7/4.5 mm needles

Skills required:
Knit, purl and cabling

Happy Knitting!
Meg

Meant to Be

We have this picture on our fridge. It is a picture of Ben when he was a baby. I love this picture, because it makes me laugh. Here's why:

Baby Corbin

Because Munchie is a near perfect clone of his daddy. I couldn't believe it the day that Ben's mom gave me this picture. She would always look at Munchie in the weirdest way, just stare at him, and I could never figure out what the deal was. Then she gave me the picture, and I see now why it would have weirded her out to see her son in my son.

But that's not what this post is about!

I was standing there at the fridge getting some water, a few days after rearranging our closet, starting at the picture.

Something was sticking in my brain.

Then it clicked. When I had cleaned out the closet to get the cabinets installed, I had pulled down a pile of pictures that I got from my Grandma and Grandpa's house when they moved.

One of those pictures was of me as a baby.

Now, ignore for a moment my incredible cuteness and just focus on the background...

Notice something?

We apparently got our pictures taken in the same studio when we were babies.

As I thought about this I remembered that my husband was going to the AWANA program at our church the same time I was (junior high).

And who knows what other places we've appeared at the same time without knowing each other.

Apparently, we've been unknowingly crossing paths since we were born. We were meant for each other. ;)

Happy Romantic Thursday!
Meg

In Which I Get Really Weird

The "Secret" is it's not really commercial!

I hope I don't weird anyone out with this post.


Y'all know I like to make things from scratch, be it food, clothes, cleansers, or beauty supplies like scrubs and soaps.

But awhile ago I made something from scratch that I've almost been embarrassed about... Deodorant. But now, since my sister-in-law just made a comment about it on Facebook, I figured I would share my findings because now at least ONE person will not think I'm super weird...

I think it's kind of a touchy subject for me because I'm so self conscious about smelling at all. Even a little. I will freak out and go wash and re-deodorize if I think I smell even remotely off. So the idea of people knowing I don't use the commercial stuff and therefore might smell makes me antsy. But this has been such a wonderful thing for me, maybe it's just time to share.

It actually started a few months ago after a lifetime of commercial deodorant. Every few days - and then every single day - I would start itching under the arms. Like, scratch myself til bleeding kind of itching. So annoying, and nothing I did got it to stop. I tried a few different kinds of deodorant. No luck.  I've also been a little weirded out that commercial deodorant never seemed to really wash off and learning that it contains aluminum....Well. Straw on the camel's back, if you will.

So after finally being uncomfortable and in pain for awhile and generally creeped out by the ingredient list, I remembered a post that I had found on Little House in the Suburbs about making her own deodorant. I figured it couldn't hurt. I'll try making my deodorant. If it didn't work, I could just go back to the commercial stuff.

So I did. I mixed equal parts cornstarch and baking soda (**Edit: I wrote baking powder at first - I meant soda**), mixed in just enough coconut oil to make it semi-firm, then put in a few drops of Tea Tree oil, which acts as an anti-bacterial (and other things) and some peppermint extract for a nice refreshing smell, then stuffed it into the empty commercial container.

Well it's been well over a month now and I can tell you it's way better than I ever thought it would be. Not only did I stop itching, but I think it works better at blocking any smell than the commercial stuff did. The first thing I noticed was I never got to the end of the day and had that "old deodorant" smell. It was just the same as when I put it on in the morning. We've been doing the P90X thing for 3 weeks now, and I've been through some very vigorous, sweaty workouts without any problems. And did I mention the itching stopped?? It only took 2 days for that to happen. Finally, some relief.

The only complaint I have with it is sometimes the coconut oil doesn't stay solid and will melt to make the deodorant kind of liquidy in the container (not on my body, it rubs in nicely) - but that's a problem of our own making since we keep the house at 76 and coconut oil melts at... you guessed it, 76. I have ordered some beeswax and will put that into the next batch which will hopefully keep it firmed up.

Now, for the really critical part which is just about the whole reason for my posting this. (And this is kind of personal, but I feel it's important.)

I have a mole just under and behind my armpit. Or ... I did...

A little bit before I switched to homemade deodorant I was really noticing this mole. It was kind of a weird color and stuck up quite a bit. It seemed like it had come out of nowhere. It was getting to the point where I was sort of eyeing it, wondering what the heck was going on. I thought maybe I had just scratched it and now it was irritated, but was wondering if I should have it checked out.

Well, a week after switching it started diminishing a bit. And now? Gone. Completely vanished. Can hardly even tell it was ever there. Creepy huh? What kind of stuff was in my deodorant that was causing that to happen?

About a week ago I saw a post on Facebook from one of the businesses I follow (Bar-Maids. Try them. They are FANTASTIC!) stating that 99% of breast cancer tissues contain parabens, which are the preservatives used in antiperspirants and cosmetics - and that most breast cancers start in the area of lymph nodes where antiperspirants are applied. After seeing what happened to that one, single mole, I am a believer of the dangers.

For that reason alone, I will never go back to commercial.

I think it's time to start making my own everything.

Happy Wednesday y'all - go make some deodorant!
Meg