Bat those eye lashes

Have you ever heard that mascara was made from Guano?  You know bat poo.  Well it is not true but stop and think about this.  Do you know what is in your mascara?  You can use aloe on your lashes.  I put a little on an eyebrow brush and apply to my lashes.  Make sure to avoid getting it in your eyes.  I then use the comb side of the brush to seperate the lashes.  This works just as well if not better than clear mascara.  The aloe conditions the lashes and when it dries it sets them like hairspray would. 

Wendy the good little witch and her friend Hazel

  I thought with it being Halloween I would share with you uses for witch hazel.  I recently bought a 16 oz bottle at Wal-Mart for under $2.00.  First let me start by saying I have seen many uses on various websites that include ingesting witch hazel for a multitude of symptoms.  I do not recommend this.  The FDA does not regulate any kind of supplement that is sold over the counter.  That being said I have used it topically for many things. 

Witch hazel can be used as an astringent to help clear up/prevent acne.  It can be applied to the skin to ease the pain of a sunburn.  You can apply it to a bruise three times a day to make it fade quicker.  Dab a little under you eyes, avoiding
                                   direct contact with your eyes, to shrink the bags under your eyes.  You may have
                                   heard of using hemorrhoid cream to shrink those bags.  Witch hazel is one of the
                                   active ingredients in those creams.





 

Oatmeal.... it is not just for breakfast

My son has ezcema and at times gets some pretty nasty flares.  We have splent plenty on lotions and ointments, one cost $100 for a tiny tube!!  Something that I have found helps is oatmeal bathes.  You put a cup of plain oatmeal, not the instant kind, in a food processor or blender and process into a fine powder.  Add the oatmeal to a warm but not hot bath.  If you have flares on your face you can cook the plain oatmeal as directed and let cool.  Once cool apply to your face, leave on for 15 minutes then wash off. 

feelin the burn

Ever since I got pregnant with my second son I have had a problem with heartburn.  I am not talking about a little discomfort.  I mean wake you up out of a deep sleep, throat on fire heartburn.  I was going through a bottle of antacids every couple of weeks.  I only used a particular kind and flavor that cost around $4 a bottle.  I thought it was well worth the price.  One night it was a wake up on fire night.  I went to the bathroom, opened the medicine cabinet and confronted my worst nightmare.  I was out of antacid.  I was in a panic.  What was I going to do?  Then I remembered my uncle Doug telling me that he eats baking soda when he had heartburn.  Hmmm  was it worth a try?  At this point I was willing to try anything.  I could not make myself eat baking soda but I was willing to drink some dissolved in water.  I took a spoonful of baking soda and disolved it in a small amount of warm water.  I held my nose and chugged it down.  I stood there for a couple of seconds and proceeded to  have the biggest burb in my life.  Relief was instantaneous.  No more antacids in this house.  Instead of paying $4 for a bottle of antacid I pay under a dollar for a box of baking soda.  I will warn you it does not taste the greatest but it is totally worth it!

Noodle use your noodle

When my oldest was little he loved a show called PB&J Otter.  They were brother and sister otters that would figure out problematic situations by doing their noodle dance.  The dance song started with the line noodle use your noodle.  One night I came home with the full intention of making beef and noodles from leftover roast.  I opened my freezer and started digging for my favorite brand of frozen noodles.  None in sight.  Great now what was I going to do.  I got out my cook books and started looking.  I came across an egg noodle recipe that seemed simple enough.  They turned out wonderful!!  I was paying around 3.50 a bag for my favorite frozen noodles.  This recipe makes the same amount and costs 75 cents. 

2 cups flour
2 large eggs
2 tbsp of oil*
2 tbsp of water
2 tbsp of milk
1/2 tsp of salt.

Beat the eggs.  Add in the oil, water, salt, and flour.  Mix well with a fork to form dough.  Roll thin on a well floured surface.  Cut into then strips with a pizza cutter.  Drop into boiling broth.  Cook for 20-25 minutes.

This works well for beef and noodles or chicken and noodles.
*I used olive oil once and it gave the noodles a different taste.  We didn't like it so I stick to canola oil. 

Balms away

It is that time of year again when the heaters come on, the air dries out, and the cold winds blow.  It is chapped lips season.  Have you ever flipped over your lip balm and read the ingredients.  I feel like I am back in high school chemistry class (shout out to Mr. Reeves).  I recently looked at the ingredients in a tube of Nivea Kiss of Smoothness lip balm.  It had over twenty ingredients.  I could pronounce two, water and lanolin.  By the way did you that lanolin comes from secretions of the sebaceous glands of wool-bearing mammals.  In plain english.... sheep sweat.  Yummy huh.  I went searching for a truly natural non-animal sweat containing lip balm.  I found many.  Most of them had ingredients that I would have to go to a specialty store to buy.  No savings there.  I finally came across some recipes using vegetable shortening as the base.  I have that in the pantry so away I went.  This is the one I came up with. 

1 tablespoon vegetable shortening
1/8 tsp olive oil
1/8 tsp vanilla extract
1 squirt natural honey not the cheap honey flavored corn syrup.
1 empty clean small container.  I actually use an old prescription bottle.  Anything you can come up with is fine as long as it is cleaned and dried before you put the balm in.

In a microwave safe bowl melt the vegetable shortening.  Add the oil, vanilla, and honey.  Mix well.  Put into the cleaned container to cool and set back up.  You can use any extract you like to flavor it.  If you would like it colored use food coloring. 

*  I use this as a preventitive balm.  I am not sure how well this would work healing severely chapped lips. 

Biore be gone

I can remember standing in the bathroom with my sister counting  1.....2.....3.  We would pull off the dried Biore strips.  We would then hold them up towards the light to see what we had just pulled out of our pores.  "Eww gross look at that! "  Now a days I don't spend money on black head removal.  It is fairly easy to do it at home.  You will need:

School glue and time.

Apply a thick layer of school glue to the affected area*.  Let it dry completely.  This is a very important step or it won't work.  After it is dried slowly remove.  Hold up to the light and say "Eww gross look at that!" 
That last step is optional :)

*I have used this on my nose only but I am sure it would work on any area.

Liquid Laundry Soap

This is where it all started.  My first home made savings.


4c hot water
1 Fels-Naptha soap bar
1 cup Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda
1/2 cup Borax


Grate the bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted. Fill a 5 gal bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soap, and borax. Stir well until all the powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to the top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit over night to thicken. Stir and fill a used, clean laundry soap bottlle half full with soap then the rest of the way with water. Shake before each use. Use 5/8 cup for top loaders and 1/4 for front loaders.

This is Michelle Duggar's recipe from her site http://www.duggarfamily.com/content/duggar_recipes/30455/Homemade%20Liquid%20Laundry%20Soap-%20Front%20or%20top%20load%20machine-%20best%20value

I love this stuff!!