Homemade Anti-Chafing Cream

Maybe this is a weird post for the dead of winter, but I ran out of my homemade anti-chafing cream and made a fresh batch today. I thought I'd share what works for me:

Smooth, moisturizing, and powdery finish. I use it on the stray pimple now and then, too.

I have sensitive skin and tend to get irritated spots in the summer where skin rubs together or on sweaty clothes (underwires!!) I'll spare the details, but I think we can all conjure the inner thigh discomfort of walking a mile in a skirt on a sweaty day. If you're not skinny, that is. 

You could go buy that Monistat chafe gel, if you wanted to spend a whole lot of money, and rub chemicals and silicone on your skin. But this is what I've put together. I used to use coconut oil, but I like almond oil better on my skin. The lavender is antibacterial and smells nice. The corn starch could be replaced with arrowroot powder, I just didn't have any.

It's just sweet almond oil, corn starch and lavender oil

Mix them all together.

It's a little like cookie icing

The end result goes on smooth, soaks in and leaves a powdery finish. I *love* this cream and basically throw it on anywhere that gets sweaty/rashy. Especially under my boobs. There, I said it.

Homemade Anti-Chafing Cream

1 cup corn starch

1/2 cup sweet almond oil

40 drops lavender oil

I'm linking to:

 Homestead Barn Hop

Catching a Fireplace Squirrel the Stupid Way

So, we had a visitor. He landed with a THUD in our fireplace a few days ago, and I thought it was a bird who was able to fly back out. He seemed to fly straight back up and we didn't hear a peep since. Until this morning. 

A quick google search told me to climb onto the roof to run a length of rope down the chimney for him to climb up. Yeah... not happening. We considered borrowing a small live animal trap from a friend, but I wanted to start a toasty fire yesterday! 

The squirrel was probably hungry, dehydrated and tired, because he let us catch him very easily. I placed a cardboard box with a stale piece of bread and peanut butter into the fireplace and we waited.

Excuse the crummy iPhone photo. See the small box on the left in the fireplace? Mr squirrel is climbing the grate on the upper right hand side.

The squirrel got curious and went into the box. To our surprise, he stayed in the box while my husband grabbed my favorite funky retro blanket that some great aunt crocheted 30 years ago. The squirrel barely made a fuss while we covered up the box and tossed it outside - he must have been pretty worn out from his ordeal.

Out ran the squirrel to his freedom into more than a foot of snow. That got our hearts pumping this morning! But seriously, don't do what we did. I'm shocked we don't have a squirrel loose in the house at the moment.

Have you had any exciting visitors this winter?

I'm linking to:

Homestead Barn Hop

Homemade Deodorant for Delicate Armpits

After making my own deodorant last month and raving about it to my mom, she asked me to make her some. I had about 1/2 a container's worth left over from my batch, so I gave it to her to try out. Unfortunately, after a week of use she suddenly developed an itchy rash! 

Uh oh... I know I fudged with the ingredients a bit by using scented baby powder instead of corn starch, and probably used too much essential oil perfume. I've also read that baking soda can be irritating.

 But it's been working great for me! And might I say, my armpit hair is quite luxurious these days.

How I changed the recipe for my mom's delicate armpits:

I started off by eliminating the essential oil perfume. I know anything strongly scented can be irritating, so I thought about what I had available to substitute. I remembered that I had leaves in the freezer from our chocolate-mint plant that we had planned to use for tea. Perfect!

I warmed up coconut oil and cocoa butter (to help the deodorant stay a bit more solid) on the stove and steeped the chocolate-mint leaves. I instantly regretted not saving some of the mint for a cup of tea!

After the oil was smelling really good (I'm talking Andes mints, here) I took it off the burner and pressed all the oil out of the leaves.

Once the oil had cooled, I added just a splash of sweet almond oil and then stirred in plain corn starch. This mixture is so light and fluffy compared to the slightly oily/gritty texture of my first deodorant.

I nuked it just a bit so it would pour easily and poured it in an old, cleaned out deodorant tube.

If I had been a little more patient while pouring, it would have been prettier with no bubbles, but oh well.

Here's what I did this time:

5 parts Coconut Oil

1 part Cocoa Butter

Chocolate-Mint leaves (or other garden herbs), steeped and removed

Splash Sweet Almond Oil

After steeping, measure out 6 tablespoons of the prepared oils

1/2 cup Corn Starch

Slather it on and enjoy! My one day trial (from a bit of extra) confirms this batch is awesome and has a very nice, subtle fragrance.

I'm linking to:

 Homestead Barn Hop

Castile-Oatmeal Hand and Body Soap

In an effort to get rid of some of the nasty chemicals in our lives (and also because we ran out of hand soap) I decided to try making some sensitive-skin friendly liquid soap. I know I saw another blog with something similar, but couldn't find it again. Or maybe I had a dream about such a blog. This is what I've been doing, and I couldn't be happier with this easy swap for store bought. I love the peppermint Castile soap so much, I went ahead and bought the big bottle this time around.

I start off with about 1 cup oats and 2 cups water. This makes a fairly runny liquid, which is what I prefer. More oats to less water makes thicker goo, and more like store bought soap.

Boil the oats for about 10 minutes and then strain

I ended up with about 1 1/3 cups oatmeal goo, and mixed in 3 tablespoons liquid castile soap. This is what I've been using for body soap (gentle, but... fair warning the peppermint tingles) and in our bathrooms for hand soap. I love it, and so far nobody in my family has noticed it's not regular soap.

Does anybody know how long this would last if I made a larger batch? We go through it quickly enough (in a week or so) that it doesn't seem to go bad.

I am linking to:

Homestead Barn Hop

How to clean Marshmallow out of Microfiber

I'm not even sure I want to explain this one. Let's just say, two teenagers and one infant were involved. And thank God the baby didn't choke to death. I loved nannying the baby, but sometimes I was at a loss when it came to the messes we came across at their house due to the teenagers. This is one that Google only got me part way on.

At first, Google told me to use straight up rubbing alcohol, as to avoid water marks. Brilliant! It dries more quickly than water!

Unfortunately, the sticky dried on mess needed more work to melt off, or something. I was just rubbing it around. So I heated the rubbing alcohol in the microwave. Don't do that. It bubbled instantly and smelled up the kitchen, and I'm sure the fumes shortened my life. And the hot rubbing alcohol didn't work either! It cooled instantly when the air hit it on the couch.

Hot soapy water fixes everything. I mixed two drops of dish washing liquid with 1/2 cup boiling water and 1/2 cup rubbing alcohol. The marshmallow melted slightly, pilled up and wiped cleanly away. And some of the old stains on the couch came up too!

Success! Not perfect, but way better than the comparison to the right. And no more marshmallow. Have you ever had a particularly tricky mess to get up?

Homemade deodorant

After all that cleaning on the house, my husband came home and got the biggest grin on his face. Nothing says "Love" to my husband like doing the chores he'd rather not do. He smiled and opened his arms to give me a hug... wrinkled his nose and told me I'd missed a spot.

Time to get on the homemade deodorant bandwagon!

I ditched the regular store stuff months ago, and have been getting by with washing my pits between showers as needed. Hand sanitizer does the trick in a pinch. But I wasn't convinced that the coconut oil/corn starch/baking soda concoction would really work. But it does!

I gathered all my ingredients, and a stick of deodorant I was happy to empty out. Six tablespoons of coconut oil in a bowl to be melted and mixed with the dry ingredients:

I didn't have any corn starch in my pantry, but I did have corn-starch based baby powder, which, while not completely natural, is better than what's in my old deodorant. And I didn't spend a penny. 

I also used a sample of some really lovely essential oil perfume by someone local who makes perfumes and candles. It's jasmine/rose scented and combines with the lavender/chamomile of the baby powder into something I wouldn't mind slathering all over my body.

It even looks like the regular stuff, once I stuck it in the old, washed out bottle.

I used the standard recipe everyone seems to use, can't remember who did it first.

6 T coconut oil (melted, to make stirring easier)
1/4 c. corn starch
1/4 c. baking soda
10 or so drops of essential oils

That was really so easy, I don't know why I never tried it before. I put it on this morning and I still don't stink. That's saying something!

How to get things done when you're lazy

I'm a procrastinator and I'm lazy. Those two things make me a terrible house wife. My husband has been out of town for work all week and the house was... worse for the wear. One thing I am very good at, and took pride in when it came to college midterms and papers, is the ability to pull it off in the end. I always get it done, and always got an A on that paper (after pulling an all-nighter). The same goes with things around the house. I'm very good at pulling it together at the last minute after weeks of letting it fall apart. Here's how I do it:

1. Write out a list. Include everything large and small.

I even write down showering so that I can feel accomplished when I cross it off my list. 

2. Do not multitask (except for laundry)

Multitasking is a great way to break your spirit. You get a lot done, but no one area gets thoroughly clean. The only exception is keeping laundry going, and running to take care of it as soon as you hear the beep. De-cluttering and cleaning is easier when you break it down and stay focused. Pick up all the dirty dishes in one go instead of picking up every little thing in sight. 

When I find laundry soap from the last shopping trip that never made it to the laundry room, I do not deliver it there. I put it on the stairs leading up to the laundry room and only take it with me when I have to go up there anyway. This does two things: it keeps me from seeing some other mess that may distract me, and it keeps unnecessary running around to a minimum. And that brings us to...

3. Embrace child labor

My daughter gets really, really excited to help. She's very helpful if given very specific tasks that keep her out from under my feet. I like to send her up and down those stairs a lot. "Can you put these headphones down with Dad's computer?" "Please put this shoe up in your bedroom." "Now this shoe!" 

She spends the entire day with a big grin on her face because she's being such a big helper, and it increases the chances of a nap. And napping was on my list.

4. Prioritize and pick your battles

Look real hard at your list and the amount of time you're realistically going to spend doing this. Today I had eight daunting tasks to get done before my husband came home from a work trip. I had six hours to get it done. Knowing myself, I would likely get distracted and need lots of breaks. Cleaning the toothpaste out of the sink is less urgent than scrubbing up the results of a dog terrified by New Year's fireworks.

5. Most importantly, forgive yourself if you don't get it all done, and make yourself a list for tomorrow.

I employ this one a lot.