Monthly Archives: March 2012

Liebster Award

“Liebster is a German word, meaning dearest or beloved, but it can also mean favorite. The idea behind the Liebster Blog Award is that it is given to bloggers who have less than 200 followers in order to create new connections and bring attention to these wonderful blogs!”

I was really excited and happy to find out today that I have been chosen for the Liebster award by Diane at Mamal Diane. She is from Ohio and her blog is about gardening, cooking, frugal and simple living. So please go and pay her blog a visit : )

The rules of the Liebster award:

Choose 5 up and coming blogs to award with less than  200 followers.

Show your appreciation to the blogger who awarded you by linking back to them.

Post the award on your blog.

Link back to the blogs you are awarding so that everyone else can pay them a visit.

 

So here are the 5 that I have chosen out for the award:

Yours Truly, G is written by Gwyneth. You can find great recipes and great craft projects on her blog!

Mari Makes is another great crafts blog with tutorials from how to make dresses to Christmas decorations.

Inside Sweetfern Studio is written by Liz Ging. She is a henna artist and her blog is much about henna art as well. But you can also find a lot of inspirational DIY projects and I love the Arabic feel that her blog has : )

Confessions Of A Wisconsin Housewife is written by Greta and her blog is about cooking, cleaning, parenting and organizing stuff : )

Made By Me & Shared With You is written by Tricia and she has a passion for sewing. A truly creative blog!

 

Thanks again Diane for choosing my blog for the award and also thanks to all the other inspirational bloggers!

 

 

March 31, 2012Permalink Leave a comment

Baking Soda As A Deodorant

I’m sure almost everyone knows by now that baking soda makes a really good household cleaning product, but turns out it’s also an excellent choice as a personal hygiene product. For example it makes a really really good deodorant.

The way I found out about it was quite accidental. I had been looking for the perfect natural deodorant for a while already, but none sold in eco-shops ever worked as I expected, so I had chosen out a few DIY deodorant recipes to try out but it happened so that when I ran out of my conventional deodorant and hadn’t had time to make my own yet then I needed something to try, fast. And I remembered reading somewhere that baking soda makes a good alternative for deodorant, so I gave it a try and have been using just baking soda as a deodorant ever since because it really works! So what I usually do is that after a shower I take about half a teaspoon of baking soda and use my fingers to rub it on and that’s it. You can rub it on either wet or dry skin, however you prefer.

It doesn’t prevent sweating completely (and you don’t really want that anyway, right) but it sure does prevent the smell for up to 24 hours. So next time you’re in need of a quick deodorant fix then give baking soda a try. Also it helps you save money on store-sold deodorants and all the ingredients that are usually required in DIY deodorant recipes : )

March 29, 2012Permalink 2 Comments

DIY: Aloe Vera Gel

Making aloe vera gel at home couldn’t be any easier if you have a mature aloe vera plant.

So first what you need to do is cut off some leaves from the aloe vera plant. Try to pick the leaves that are closest to the ground because then the plant won’t be too irritated and it can continue thriving. Then leave the cut-off leaves into an upright position for a few minutes to let the darker resin drain out. This part is important because the resin can be a bit irritating on the skin if it finds its way into the gel you’re making.

Here’s what the resin looks like:

After the resin has drained, wash the leaves and start peeling off the thick skin of the aloe vera leaves with a knife, leaving you with the transparent gel. If you have really long and thick aloe vera leaves then you can cut them into smaller pieces first to make the peeling and removing the gel easier.

Place the gel into a blender and also add a few drops of either grapefruit seed extract, vitamin C powder, vitamin E oil or some essential oil to help preserve the gel for longer period. Then blend everything, pour into a clean glass jar and you’ve got yourself some fresh aloe vera gel which will keep for several months in the refrigerator. Don’t mind that it has some foam on top at first, this will settle down later : )

If you want to know more about what wonders you can do with Aloe, check out this link. 

 

 

 

March 23, 2012Permalink 16 Comments

Toilet Rescue Remedy

Have you ever wondered how to get your toilet from looking like this:

into this:

Well, using harsh chemicals sure isn’t the answer. Actually, the answer is really simple, it’s by pouring a bit of citric acid into the toilet and then scrubbing (not actually even scrubbing but rather wiping) the dirt away. I got my pack of citric acid from my local grocery store and it’s usually used for marinating foods but if your local store doesn’t have it then you can also find it here. Some people use Coca-Cola for the toilet cleaning purpose, because it also contains a lot of citric acid, but then you have to leave it in the toilet overnight because the citric acid concentration isn’t too high and I personally prefer not to spend my money for the benefit of the Coca-Cola Company, even if I just pour their products down the toilet.

 

 

 

 

March 20, 2012Permalink Leave a comment

DIY: Dishcloth With A Scrubbing Effect

If you have any old rags lying around at home then you can put them to use by making a dishcloth out of them, and to add scrubbing effect to it use some tulle material also.

Here’s one dishcloth that I just made out of my daughter’s old leggings and some cut-up jute ribbon:

So basically all you need to do is cut the rags into a yarn, cut the tulle or jute (or whatever harder material you’re using) also into a yarn and use the two yarns altogether to crochet or knit a dishcloth. This is my second DIY dishcloth already and the last one served me for about 1 month so I think it’s worth a try.

 

 

March 18, 2012Permalink Leave a comment

Raw Kitchen Corner: Vegan “Parmesan”

If you’re a vegan or just feeling adventurous, then here’s one recipe that you can try out on your pastas and salads instead of parmesan cheese. It actually tastes like the real thing : )

Take 100 grams of Brazil nuts, 2 garlic cloves and salt (use quite a lot of salt because you want the mixture to be really salty, just like the real parmesan).


Now mix everything in a blender and you should end up with something looking like this:

Featured on Real Food Forager and Mrs Dull’s Nourished Kitchen

March 17, 2012Permalink 4 Comments

Before Just Washing The Grapes…

… soak them.

Preferably in hot water and for at least half an hour. This will remove pesticide residue better since grapes are known to be one of the fruit with the highest pesticide contents. After soaking wash them under running water as well. Of course, if you can get your hands on organic grapes then you can skip the soaking part : )

March 17, 2012Permalink Leave a comment

Coffee Grounds

If you’re a coffee-drinker, or anyone in your family is, then don’t throw away the coffee grounds that you’re left with after the morning cup or two. Because you can use coffee grounds as an organic fertilizer for your indoor or outdoor plants. Simply add a thin layer of the coffee grounds to your plant pots and your plants will be very thankful for the extra vitamins, minerals and nitrogen they’ll be getting from it : ) Here’s a picture of my two callisia fragrans plants with some added coffee grounds fertilizer:

But that’s not all that you can use coffee grounds for. You can also use it to make a little treat for yourself, your skin, to be more specific, because coffee grounds mixed with some olive oil makes a really good skin scrub (and fights cellulite as well! ). Just take the leftover coffee grounds:

Add some olive oil:

And stir:

If the mixture is too liquid or too thick then simply add some more coffee grounds or olive oil. Now take your coffee & olive oil scrub and go pamper yourself in the shower : )

March 17, 2012Permalink 2 Comments