Happy Pits!

     One of the worst things about living is Florida is that it's hot. Not just in the summer, but all year round, it's hot. Since moving to Central Florida 11 years ago, I have used my winter coat maybe 10 times. Last year I didn't even have to put it on once. This consistently high temperature is great for growing plants, but not so good for for the whole BO (body odor) situation. While having a good diet and being in moderately good health can go a long way to eliminating the stink of BO, sometimes you need a little extra boost. Enter, deodorant.

     Deodorant is part of my morning (and sometimes afternoon) routine. I wake up, brush my teeth, do a little dry brushing, take a shower, and apply my deodorant before I really get my day started. But I cannot justify using typical deodorants. There are so many ingredients, even in some of the “natural” deodorants, that are linked to health problems. Aluminum has been linked to Alzheimer's and breast cancer. Parabens have also been linked to cancer, as well as several hormone conditions. And there are many more of these nasty ingredients in most store-bought deodorants. This is why I decided to make my own.

     Making the switch to a homemade deodorant seems like an easy thing to do, but I just want to warn you that there is a detox period. Your body detoxes itself by sweating. Conventional deodorant and antiperspirant clog your pores. When you sweat, your body pushes out those toxins, but if you are using a typical deodorant, you're just putting those toxins right back. This is why pit stains occur. After you make the switch to natural deodorant, your body will push out all those toxins that have been clogging your pores, and after a few days your pits will be detoxed and much happier.

     Now, there are hundreds of recipes for homemade deodorant online now a days. They range from a liquid spray, to a cream, to powder, and all in between. This recipe is for my favorite application, deodorant bars. I tend to work in hot environments, moving around quite a bit. I wanted a deodorant that I could take with me and use when I felt I needed a touch up. So I worked on a few recipes, combining ideas and finally developed my deodorant bar. This recipe mashed together the concept of deodorant and lotion bars. You can use an old deodorant container if you want, but I like to use silicone molds for mine. It stays solid enough that I can leave a small bar in my bag during most of the Florida year (as long as I remember to not leave it in the car).

A Word on Ingredients:

Coconut Oil is super antibiotic, and when you're dealing with your pits, you want as much antibiotic action as possible. You can choose a different oil, but coconut oil is semi-solid at room temperature so if you decide to substitute, make sure you increase your beeswax to match it.

Almond Oil is full of amino acids and vitamins that your skin needs to stay healthy. It also helps the more solid oils, such as coconut oil, to penetrate deeply. You can choose a different oil here if you'd like. One of my other favorites is olive oil.

Cocoa Butter will help your deodorant to stay more creamy and less oily. It's also super packed full of nutrients that help to keep your skin happy. You can substitute Shea butter if you'd like, but cocoa butter is more dense and will help your deodorant bar stay more solid in those hot months.

Arrowroot Powder is a must for deodorants. Not only does it act as a thickener to help your deodorant bar stay solid. It also helps to draw toxins out of your body.

Beeswax helps to solidify these deodorant bars, but it also helps to provide a protective layer on your skin, without clogging your pores.

Vitamin E can be found in most oils you might use, but it's essential for healthy skin. This is why I like to add extra vitamin E to all of my skin products.

Tea Tree Oil may not be 100% necessary for a deodorant recipe, but I like to add it in to all of mine. The #1 reason? Because it is one of the most powerfully antibiotic essential oils I know of. Your pits are breeding grounds for bacteria, and bacteria is the leading cause of body odor. It just makes since to pack extra antibiotic power into your deodorant. Plus, it doesn't irritate most people's skin! If you don't like the scent, don't worry. This recipe only calls for 5 drops, you can overpower it easily by adding more of your favorite essential oils. However, I think it blends very well with lavender essential oil, which is one of my favorites.

Essential Oils are all antibiotic to a certain extent. However, the main reason for these is to make you happy. Add whatever essential oils you want, in order to make your deodorant smell pleasant. I personally like to do 5 drops Lavender, 5 drops Cedarwood, and 5 drops Lemongrass. A word of caution however, make sure to test your essential oils on the inside of your wrist first. That way you don't put irritating oils on such a sensitive area.

Happy Pits Deodorant Bars

¼ cup Coconut Oil

½ cup Almond Oil

½ cup Beeswax (grated or pellets)

¼ cup Cocoa Butter

8 tsp Arrowroot Powder

Vitamin E (2 capsules or ½ tsp)

5 drops Tea Tree Essential Oil

15-20 drops Essential Oils of your choice

Combine first four ingredients in a glass jar and place in a pot half filled with water. Bring water to a boil and stir ingredients until melted. Remove jar from pan and slowly add arrowroot powder, stirring constantly to prevent the formation of clumps. Allow to rest until you are able to safely handle the jar (don't wait too long or the mixture will be mostly solid and hard to work with). Add remaining ingredients and stir. Pour liquid into molds (or deodorant containers), cover, and allow to cool overnight. You can put them in the refrigerator to speed up the cooling process if you want. Once completely cooled, remove from molds and wrap with wax paper. Store in a cool, dry place.

I hope you enjoy these deodorant bars. For more essential oil blend ideas, check out my previous entry, Herbal Home Fresheners for Spring. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below!

Resources:

Homemade DIY Deodorant Recipe: Pronounce Skincare: https://pronounceskincare.com/effective-easy-homemade-deodorant/

How to Make Natural Deodorant: Wellness Mama: https://wellnessmama.com/1523/natural-deodorant/

Luxurious Lotion Bars: Fabulous Farmgirl : https://fabulousfarmgirl.com/diy/lotion-bars/

5 Simple DIY Garden Projects

     I don't know about you, but during the warm weather, I like to spend a little time every day in my garden. I enjoy getting my hands dirty, spending time in nature, and finding creative ways to improve my garden space. So, today, I'm sharing with you 5 easy ways to do so.

1- Brick Markers

Over the years, I've tried lots of different ways to mark my plants. There aren't very many ones that have held up over time. However, these simple markers have lasted the longest, and are really cute and easy to make.

Supplies:

Bricks (1 per plant)

Black Sharpie

(optional) Stencil

Directions:

It's really just this simple. Write the name of the plant on a brick. If you want a specific style of letters, feel free to use a stencil. Over time, the sharpie will fade, but you can always trace over your original letters again, or leave it faded if you like the way it looks.

http://simpledetailsblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/brick-herb-markers.html

2- Tomato Cage Container Trellis

I do a lot of container gardening because my husband and I rent, and I get attached to my plants. Over the years I've found a few tricks to growing just about everything in a container. If you want to grow a vine, you need a trellis. The easiest trellis I've ever used is a tomato cage.

Supplies:

2 wire Tomato Cages

Several black zip ties

Container (filled with soil and your awesome vine)

Wire cutters

(optional) Colorful paint, or green if you want them to blend in with your vine

Directions:

1- Using the wire cutters, cut the legs off both tomato cages, reserving the legs for later use

2- Nestle one tomato cage inside the other, turning them to make sure the long, vertical wires are alternating.

3- Fasten them with zip ties to hold them in place at the intersections.

4- Optional* Paint the tomato cages and let dry

5- Bend the legs (from step 1) in half, like hair pins, and use them to stake the tomato cages down into the soil around your vine.

You can also make a really tall trellis by using 4 tomato cages and stacking two, upside down, on top of the original 2.

https://www.lowes.com/creative-ideas/lawn-and-garden/flowerpot-trellis/project

3- Pallet Gardens

Two awesome trends in home gardening right now are raised beds and vertical gardens. You can use a recycled pallet to achieve both. There are lots of designs, from the very simple, to the not so simple, but I'm going to give you the simplest two designs that I have used.

Supplies:

Pallets (as many as you need for the space you want to cover), you can usually find them free at the dumpster of just about any big, box store

Cardboard or Landscaping paper

Staple gun and staples (for the landscaping paper)

Soil

Plants

Directions:

1- The easiest to do is a basic raised bed. Just lay your cardboard over the ground, place your pallet on top, add in the soil and start planting. The cardboard will kill the grass/weeds under your raised bed and will break down over time, improving the soil as it does.

2- The other design can be used either as a raised bed, or as a vertical garden.

1- Place your pallet upside down, if there isn't much support, add some in using scrap wood, just make sure it's even down the back.

2- Double or triple the landscaping paper. Lay it on the back of the pallet and start stapling. I wrap the paper around to the front of the pallet, framing it, to add support and prevent the loss of too much soil.

3- Fill the pallet with soil, and plant you garden!

4- If you want to use it as a vertical garden, after a few weeks (to allow the plants to take root) just prop it up on an outside wall!

http://snappypixels.com/interesting/25-diy-ideas-using-pallets-for-raised-garden-beds/

http://www.designsponge.com/2011/09/diy-project-recycled-pallet-vertical-garden.html

4- Nesting Planter Towers

Container gardening is awesome. You can move plants around in your garden without transplanting, you can move them inside, or you can use them to be very decorative. Here are two ideas to use multiple containers to create towers of plants.

Supplies:

A center bar, smaller in diameter than the hole in the bottom of your terracotta pots

Several terracotta pots, all different sizes

(optional) Paint

Soil

Plants

Directions:

1- Optional* Paint/decorate your pots and let them dry.

2- Stick your bar in the ground, or in the bottom, largest, pot. (I don't recommend moving it after it's assembled, so build it where you want it to be.)

3- Place your pots on top of one another, threading them onto the bar, then filling them ¾ with soil. You can choose to keep them upright, or tilt them for a different, more whimsical look.

4- Continue until all your pots are stacked, filling the top pot all the way with soil.

5- Plant your garden!

http://balconygardenweb.com/genius-vertical-gardening-ideas-for-small-gardens/

http://weheartthis.com/2013/05/14/diy-garden-project-topsy-turvy-flower-planter/

5- Easy-Harvest Potato Pot

I don't know about you, but I love potatoes. I hate harvesting them though. Or at least I did until I saw a tutorial for making this pot.

Supplies:

2 Plastic pots (one slightly smaller than the other)

X-Acto knife

Soil

Potatoes

Directions:

1- Using the x-acto knife, cut large squares out of the smaller pot.

2- Nestle the smaller pot in the larger pot.

3- Add soil and get to planting!

4- When it's time to harvest, just lift the smaller pot out and pick the potatoes out of the sides.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/539306124109902472/

I hope you find these ideas helpful and fun. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below!

Natural All-Purpose Citrus Cleaner

    I have been slowly and methodically ridding my home of chemicals over the years.  One of the things that has been hard to work with in this fight is my husband’s supreme dislike of vinegar.  Vinegar is a great household cleaning supply, but he hates the way it smells (and tastes, but that’s a different story).  So I decided to try using alcohol instead, and it’s been great.  One of my favorite things to make is a citrus vodka cleaner which can be used on just about everything in the house, including windows (though essential oils on windows can be a bit streaky, so just leave those out of your window cleaning version).  You can use any citrus fruit you want, and even get a little creative by adding herbs (pine needles work well) or essential oils like lavender, basil, or mint to spice it up a bit. 

 A Quick Word on Ingredients

Citrus Fruit makes great medicine, tasty food, and awesome cleaning products.  Plus the scent of citrus leaves everything smelling clean.

Vodka is an amazing disinfectant and cleaning agent and leaves surfaces virtually streak free.

All essential oils are also antibacterial, so to an extent you can feel free to vary the essential oils in my recipes, but tea tree and lavender essential oils are typically considered the best antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal oils.  Also consider aromatherapy benefits when choosing essential oils, lavender helps to maintain calm and mint helps to energize so adding these could help create the energy you want in your home.  Essential oils are really strong medicine and should be treated with respect.  Rosemary, eucalyptus, camphor and certain kinds of lavender essential oils have been known to trigger seizures in epileptic patients, please use caution when using these oils.

Citrus Vodka

Ingredients:

Citrus peels of your choice

Vodka

Instructions:

Fill a mason jar (or other jar that seals tightly) ¾ of the way full with citrus peels like lemon, grapefruit, orange, or lime.  Pour in vodka, leaving a little space at the top of the jar, but covering the peels.  Let sit for 2-6 weeks.  Once it has set, strain it for use.  If you want to add fresh herbs to this recipe, add them in with the peels.  This will last for a very long time and if you want to have fun, you can add simple syrup (sugar and water) to turn it into a cordial, but if you don’t want to sweeten it you can use it to clean your house. 

 

Citrus Multi Surface Cleaner

Ingredients:

Citrus Vodka (see previous recipe)

Purified or Filtered Water

15-20 drops of Essential Oil(s) of your choice

Instructions:

I use equal parts vodka and water, but you can mix it up however you want.  Combine ingredients in a spray bottle, shake it up and use it!

    Like all of my recipes (both edible and non-edible), you can feel free to play around with it.  I rarely use the exact same recipe twice for my own purposes.  I hope you enjoy making your own household cleaner and let me know what you think in the comments below!

Resources:

Apartment Therapy: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/how-to-make-homemade-citrus-cleaner-apartment-therapy-tutorials-185527

Clean Mama: http://www.cleanmama.net/2014/04/lavender-lemon-bathroom-disinfecting-spray.html

Do It Yourself: http://www.doityourself.com/stry/homemade-cleaners

Green Cleaning: http://greencleaning.about.com/od/DIYGreenCleaningRecipes/r/Diy-Disinfecting-Aromatic-Vodka-Cleaning-Spray.htm

Organic Authority: http://www.organicauthority.com/sanctuary/5-ways-that-vodka-can-clean-your-house.html