Shampoo

What was I thinking?

This past weekend we went back home to NYC for Paul's father's birthday. We met up with my brother in law and his girlfriend in Manhattan for a night out on the town. She was meeting friends at a Hookah Bar so we met there. They were located in the basement that had very little ventilation. The hookah smoke from many lit hookahs and many smokers left me feeling light headed, but that's to be expected.

What I didn't expect was the need to wash my hair that weekend. The next morning, my hair smelled like an ash tray. As such, I washed my hair, but I didn't think to bring any of my shampoo with me. As such I used some left over prescription shampoo I had in my grandma's bathroom and some conditioner on the ends. What it left me with is a whole lot of dry scalp irritation and dandruff. I don't think I've had dandruff this badly since college. It's nasty and embarrassing and unfortunately we are headed to the lake to meet friends this weekend leaving me with not enough time to treat my scalp with some tea tree oil.

Ugh - next time, I'll need to remember to bring some baking soda with me.

Less Paper More Laundry

Especially now that we have a washer and dryer, I've wanted to reduce our paper consumption. One way I've managed to do this is buy utilizing rags and dish towels for nearly all my kitchen needs. I use them to wipe up messes, to scrub, to dry my hands, to dry my dishes, really I use them for everything. As a result I may do a bit more laundry, but I'm doing no more loads than I've done in the past.



I used a basket I've already had and filled it with dish towels and cloth place mats (that were drying when I took this picture). I also had a planted lying around that I don't use anymore (b/c it doesn't have a drainage hole) and placed it along side. I use this planter as a "hamper" for soiled towels. To avoid contamination, I don't reuse the towels I use to clean, but I do reuse the ones I use only to wipe up water spills or to dry my hands. No need to spread salmonella from a spilled egg or chicken goo onto my kitchen counters.


See that rag was used with some water and vinegar to clean up my counters after a particularly messy cooking session.

So far so good and we've both been consistent with using them. Our paper towel usage was never a lot, but now it's even less.

Ride the Pow!

Sorry I've been lacking in blog posts lately. My husband had to create a website for work to utilize the tool they've developed. I've been assisting him in blog posts over there. Why don't you go check it out and leave us some feedback. Feel free to leave the feedback there or if you are more comfortable, leave it here!

Thanks for your help!



www.ridethepow.com

Yogury Round 1

Last night I made homemade yogurt for the 1st time. I found the recipe on The Frugal Girl blog and followed the recipe she had shared. I made the vanilla version and only 2 quarts instead of her 4. I must say, I'm impressed, but also disappointing. Her yogurt looks almost custard like in it's thickness... mine... well not so much. It definitely tastes like yogurt. It even smells like yogurt. And it's consistency is yogurt, it's just not that thick and luxurious yogurt I was hoping for.

Take a look:




I have a feeling most of these will go into smoothies and mixed with granola for breakfast. It's yummy alone, but just a bit runny.

I'll try again and hopefully I'll get it right!

Homemade Detergents

So I did it... I made my own detergents and I'm pretty excited about it. I've used them and they work!

Laundry Detergent
For the Laundry Detergent, I loosely used the recipe on The Vintage Wren. I noticed that many recipes called for baking soda or washing soda. I used both.

Ingredients:

• 1 Bar Ivory Soap (or other plain soap)
• 1 1/2 - 2 Cups Baking Soda
• 1 Cup Washing Soda
• 1 Cup Borax

I grated the bar of soap on my box grater. The recipe on the Vintage Wren said to use the course side, but I think in the future I'll use a finer side of the grater. I then added the rest of the ingredients into a large bowl and stirred/mashed it up with a big wooden spoon. I then filled a jar with it, threw in a cheapo measuring spoon and tied on a label. Done! 2 Tbs per Load or a little extra if it's a very dingy load. I fill the fabric softener compartment with 2 parts vinegar and 1 part water for a rinse. I've done 3 loads with this new detergent and our clothes have come out smelling so clean.

Dryer Sheets
I also used the Dugger recipe for dryer sheets. I don't need gallons of the stuff so I added about 1/2 a cup of Downy Fabric Softener that we've had for maybe 4 years (our old apartment didn't have a dispenser for the stuff so we just left it out) and 1 cup of water to a small tupperware container. To that I threw in a sponge I had cut in 1/2. Now all I need to do is grab the sponge, ring it out and throw it in the dryer to dry with my wet clothes. I used a vegetable cellulose sponge I purchased from Trader Joes. I can use the same sponge again and again.

Dish washing Detergent
In addition to a washer and dryer, our new apartment has a dishwasher. As such, I've also made my own dish washing detergent.

Ingredients:

1 Cup of Baking Soda
1 Cup of Borax
1/2 Cup of Kosher Salt
2 Packets of UNSWEETENED Lemon Kool aid. This is added for it's citric acid. If you can purchase citric acid in your area, you can use this instead.

I mixed it all up in a jar and it was done. The next day it had hardened a bit so I jabbed at it with a spoon and now it's a bit grainy and perfect. I used it yesterday to do a load of dishes and they came out clean and streak free!



It was cheap, it was fun, and it was eco friendly because I used a lot of things I either already had or that I will use in many more projects.

I purchased a huge bag of baking soda from Costco. It's great. I found the Washing Soda in my local super market (Super Stop and Shop) and the Borax I found cheapest so far at Target.

I decided to fill a large jar with just plain old baking soda. I use it for so many things and like to keep it handy. It's great for cleaning out sinks, tubs and your fridge. It's great in household cleaning recipes. It's a great way to get your clothes cleaner (by adding a bit extra to an extra dirty load). And I even use it to wash my hair.

I also love how the jars look... love!

The Ugly Brown Room - An Update

So the Ugly Brown room... isn't brown. It's actually a grayish blue. It's still dark though. We continued with our plan though because we have no other furniture or bedspreads.

We spent a bit of time at Ikea on Thursday arguing on the curtains. Paul ended up putting his foot down and insisting we have opaque curtains in the bedroom. So this room, he grabbed some khaki curtains - I still hate them. But I guess he needs to win once in a while. They match absolutely nothing in the room, but he keeps claiming they "work".





The curtains aren't up because I still need to hem them. But this is where you'd sleep if you ever came for a visit.

Baahstan

We're here! So we've been officially living in Boston since Wednesday last week. Moving wasn't fun, but it was fairly smooth. My Brother-in-law & one of our friends came by Tuesday night to load the truck. Wednesday morning, Paul and I headed back to our old digs to sweep and dust and then it was 1 last breakfast with my grandma and Paul's dad and we hit the road.

We were able to load the truck in 4 hours... throwing the last piece in right before a torrential downpour started. Once arriving in Boston, we unloaded the truck in only 2 hours. Unpacking... well that's another story. We've been unpacking for 5 days and we are ALMOST finished, but not quite.

Hopefully the next few days are productive for me. Today I'm home, but Paul started work. Hopefully he has a really great day.