My Dream Cream

Ah, the wonders of lotion!  It keeps my skin from looking like this:

Thanks Google for the visual!

   

Not every lotion or cream will do the trick for me, so when I find something that'll ward off the evils of the "ash" it becomes a sort of "creamy crack" for me.

My current drug of choice

I've been using this for quite some time and it does the job nicely!











There's just one thing though: it's not fragrant and I love fragrant creams and lotions!  See, I very seldom wear perfumes or sprays because they're usually too heavy and they irritate my bronchial tubes.  I've found a few that I can work with but I reserve them for special occasions.  I am talking everyday use.  What tends to happen is this: I'll combine the Nivea with an oil, cream, or fragrant lotion just to get the right combination of moisture and fragrance that I'm looking for.  There's just one thing:  I end up spending way too much money for products and running out of room to put things. Take a look at my current stash.

  
You might be thinking "that's not too bad" but let me tell you, that's tame!  What you see in the picture is actually a fraction of what I usually have on hand.  I am happy to say that in my efforts to simplify things, I've used up quite a bit of my stash and whatever I didn't use I passed on to a couple of my daughters.  I mean honestly, I don't need that much lotion!  I just need something that'll moisturize my skin and leave me smelling like a rose.  Okay, maybe not a rose but you know...all pretty like!   Here's the problem: my skin is really dry and the older I get, the worse it gets.  No joke; I am dead serious!  I am afraid that in a few years I'll need something industrial strength to keep me from looking like this:

      


Just for the record, that's not my foot!

Google images can be harsh sometimes but very useful in getting your point across.  As the saying goes "A picture is worth a thousand words"! So, what's a girl to do in order to smell good and keep from looking like that in a few years without breaking the bank?  I don't know what the person in the picture did, but let me tell you what I did.  First, I need to tell you how I ended up on this path. 

I owe it all to the stuff in this little jar:








  
I purchased it a few months ago from New Leaf Market for a whopping $7.99 (on sale).  I fell in love with the smell and how it feels on my skin, but the price!  I am not accustomed to spending $7.99 (on sale) for a 4oz. jar of cream, no matter how good it smells.  However, I considered it an investment and here's why:

Ingredients: Raw Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter),
Extracts of Frankincense & Myrrh,  Tocopherol (Vitamin E)
Essential Oil Blend

There's only a few ingredients and they're all natural.  How often do you find that in a lotion?  As a matter of fact, how often do you find that in anything?   So, guess what went through my mind as I read the ingredients?  I bet you guessed it!  "I can make this myself."  Wait a minute!  Is this a trick?  Every time I think I've found my "dream cream" I end up disappointed.  Sure, it smells wonderful and feels like silk on my skin but how's it going to feel two hours from now?  That's the true test for me.  I need to wear it for a while before I am confident the smell won't dissipate and the "ash" won't return within minutes.  I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by this product.  The combination of the Shea Butter and Vitamin E works very well for my skin.  Turns out, Shea Butter and Vitamin E have quite a few benefits.  This got me to thinking: "Are there other combinations of butters, oils, and essential oils that I might like?"  That's when I began the process of  researching and experimenting and I found this recipe HERE.   It's a natural body moisturizer that I made with coconut oil, almond oil, and tea.  Yep, you read that right...tea!  




To begin with, you'll need a cup of cold brewed tea. I used a flavored tea to enhance the scent of my moisturizer.

     
Note: The original recipe calls for 1 cup of filtered water, rose water, orange blossom water, or cold brewed tea.   Considering that I was making enough for 4 people, I decided it was more cost effective to use tea.

  
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You also need the following:

• 3 tablespoons of beeswax beads. The original recipe calls for grated beeswax.  If all you have on hand are the beads then that's fine. 
• 3/4 cups of oil, such as unrefined coconut oil, almond, avocado, or olive.  I used a combination of almond and coconut.
• A few drops of essential oils for fragrance. This is optional. 
• 1 tablespoon of Vitamin E oil or, as in my case 15-20 small Vitamin E capsules.

    

In a Pyrex measuring cup combine the beeswax and oil.  Place the measuring cup in a medium size sauce pan and fill sauce pan with water until it reaches about halfway up the cup.  Bring water to a slight boil allowing the oil to reach a hot enough temperature to melt the wax.  I added my Vitamin E capsules as soon as the beeswax beads melted.  My capsules melted completely.   When the wax has completely melted, remove the measuring cup from the water and allow to stand for 2 minutes.

 

When the 2 minutes are up blend the water or tea on medium speed.  Keep blending while adding the oil gradually.  If using essential oils add them in now. As the mixture begins to emulsify you may need to turn your blender up for a few seconds.  I have a pretty old blender so it stalled on me a couple of times.  No worries!  I used my spatula to turn the mix so the oils ended up on the bottom and it ran like a charm.
     

Avoid the tendency to over blend the mix. Over blending will cause the mixture to separate.

Voilá Lotion!

     

This is what it should look like:

Use a rubber spatula to transfer it to your nice, clean, sanitized containers.

Cover with cheesecloth and let stand for an hour or until it reaches room temperature.  Placing the lid on too soon will cause condensation to build, which will water down the lotion and cause bacteria to build up.  I let my mixture stand over night before placing the lid on it.







Cleaning the blender after making this recipe can be a bit challenging.  Here's what I did: I used about 10-15 coffee filters (we gave up paper towels a while back) and wiped all the gunk out before I processed to wash it.  A little Dawn dish washing liquid, white vinegar, and baking soda finished the job nicely.  Consider yourself warned!    

Vanilla-Sandalwood & Lavender-Vanilla Body Cream  

This recipe is perfect! The cream is rich, thick, and it does the job. I finally have what I've been looking for: moisture and fragrance all wrapped up in one cute little package. Time to really say goodbye to product madness and hello to simplicity!

Containers courtesy of Earth Fare Supermarket.

Happy Pappy Day!

This is a public service announcement: My Urban Pastures has officially been hijacked by the “Mini-Me’s”.

As a special Father’s Day treat, we wanted to dedicate a post to our daddy; and share some ideas on how we intend to make the day special for him. 

Daddy's Girls

This Father’s Day we decided to add a special touch by putting a crafty spin on our gifts. To show how much we appreciate what he’s done for us, we added as many homemade touches as possible. After all, nothing says I love you like a gift made from the heart and in the home! 

Every year we’ve made our daddy something for Father’s Day: food, cards, messes, broken dishes… just kidding!  Whatever we made, even if it was silly, he never complained and was always very grateful and appreciative. He's such an easy man to please.  We're so blessed to have him as our dad.  This year we're going to go less silly, and more creative.  We decided to surprise him with  cinnamon toothpicks.  He'll get a kick out of these!  Toothpicks are to our daddy like sun is to Florida, which by the way, is not always a good thing!   Florida is known as the Sunshine State for a reason just like daddy is known for his tooth picks for a reason. If you really know our dad then you know that after every meal he has to have his tooth picks.  He goes through these slivers of wood like they’re candy, so what better way for him to enjoy them than by making them into something delicious?  

This simple treat has only 3 ingredients: toothpicks, cinnamon oil, and time.

We put the toothpicks in a jar and drizzled about 1oz of the cinnamon oil over them.  Then we screwed the lid on tightly and shook the jar a little to make sure the toothpicks were coated evenly.  We then set the jar aside for 24-48 hours to allow the toothpicks to soak up all that good oil.

When you’re ready, take the toothpicks out of the jar and lay them on a pan lined with wax paper for 2 hours allowing them to dry.  Place them in a clean jar and present them to your tooth-pickin' man.

That’s it!  So easy, you'll have ample time to work on your other gifts!

Speaking of which…

Our next gift required a little more finesse while still adding that personal touch: a utility apron made from an old pair of jeans.  We originally saw this idea HERE and fell in love immediately. 

If your dad is anything like ours, then chances are he does a little bit of everything.  To us, our dad is a modern day Superman, and what better way to treat our hero than to give him a homemade cape? Or, in this case: a utility apron.

Just to give you an example of how versatile our daddy is, here’s a glimpse into our childhood.  In a single day, with three active girls, our dad could do everything from teach us to ride bikes, homeschool us, play Barbie's with us, and come up with the best bedtime stories.  In fact, a shared memory that we still talk about today is the bedtime story of a family of ants.  It was a story he made up as he went along and we absolutely loved it. Then guess what he’d do the next day? Everything all over again!

Anyway, that's enough reminiscing for now.  Let me tell you how we made this nifty apron. First we took an old pair of his jeans (ones that he wouldn’t miss) and cut the legs off leaving about 2 inches beneath the pockets.  Then we cut the zipper off.  Next, we finished the edges with some black bias tape. 

Not very manly looking now, but just you wait!

Next, add accessories according to what you think he’ll like. We decided to make a belt out of the pants legs, just to make use of the remaining fabric.

Cut the legs so that they’re lying flat; this will make it easier for you to measure. Then, cut the legs so that they’re 2 inches wide and however long of a belt your apron needs.  Just remember that the belt will be used to tie around his waist, so it must be long enough.

After this, dress your apron up, manly style! We used a black bandana, chains, and stuffed the pockets with some items daddy could use for the grill. Even Super Hero's need gadgets!  Our dad is no exception.  

Looks even better on!

Here's our finished product:  

Can't wait to see him in his "grill-man" apron standing over this!

Yep, we got him a new grill too!  If you could see the other one, you would know how much he needed this one.   Now he has the best of both: charcoal and gas.  He's truly worth every penny spent!

One more thing!  What's Father's Day without a card?  Our dad loves his cards!  So much so that he's saved every card we’ve given him through out the years.  In fact, it’s become a family tradition to save cards. We each have our individual stacks, but daddy’s takes the cake!  So in true "Mini Me" tradition, we're paying tribute with a homemade card!  Only this time we've gotten a little fancier.  Strangely though, this is the easiest card we've ever made! 

*We got the idea for this manly card from this site HERE.*

How's this for manly?

It wouldn't be a special day in the Mitchell/Rosenberg  home if there wasn't a banner; so in conclusion, here you have it: our Happy Pappy Day banner!

HAPPY PAPPY DAY!

To our dad with lots and lots of love! 

-       The "Mini Me’s" & "The Techie"

Liquid Gold

I am finding that homemade really is the best way to go with a lot of things these days.  It's healthier, better for our environment, and more cost effective. Take  laundry detergent for instance.  Given the fact that there are several variables such as: sales, coupons, and product size, I spent an average of $12-$15.00 per month for a family of four on detergent.   That's an average cost of $144-$180.00 annually.

Let's look at how much I spend monthly/annually on my homemade laundry detergent.

They handle my dirty work.

First, let me introduce you to my arsenal:

• Borax
• Washing soda
• Fels-Naptha
• Dove soap
• Tide stain release boost (optional)

Now let's get down to business! Here's the break down of my cost:

• Borax $3.38 for 76oz. Divide that by 16oz. (2 cups per batch), I'll get 4.75 uses for a cost of .71 cents per batch. 
• Washing soda $3.24 for 55oz. Divide that by 16oz. (2 cups per batch), I'll get 3.44 uses for a cost of .94 cents per batch. 
• Fels Naptha Laundry Bar Soap .97 cents per bar. 
• Dove $3.27 for a 2 pack. I only use 1 per batch for a cost of $1.64 per bar.  You can use your choice of soap.  I pay a little more for Dove because my youngest 'Minnie Me' is allergic to other brands of soap.
• Tide Stain Remover $3.97 for 20oz. Divide that by 8oz. (1 cup per batch), I'll get 2.5 uses for a cost of $1.59 per batch.  This is optional.  We used to add it to our loads but we went through it like it was nothing.  I'll confess, it was me. I wasn't sure this homemade stuff was going to do the job that my Tide did so I dipped into the stain remover a little more than others. My bad!  My oldest 'Minnie Me' has taken over the job of making each batch (because she loves it) and she adds it right in as she makes it.  After about four months of making it she has it down to a science. She whips it up like it's nothing!

Ready for the total?  Drum roll please...I spend, or should I say we spend, an average of $5.85 on a month's supply of homemade laundry soap for a family of six (my daughter & son-in-law included).   There just isn't any comparison.  I can make laundry soap for six much cheaper than I can buy it for four.  Not only is our homemade version cheaper but it works just as well, if not better, than any name brand on the market hands down!   For instance, take a look at this blog post HERE.  He actually does an experiment using his homemade laundry detergent and a brand name detergent.  The difference in his recipe verses ours is: I went to the added measure of including the Fels Naptha and the Tide Boost.  Both ingredients are used to treat for stains.  I am pretty sure that the added ingredients yield much different results than most homemade laundry soaps.  HERE'S another recipe.  It's the one we used when we first started.  It includes the Fels-Naptha.  We played around with it a bit until we came up with a recipe that worked for us.  You can start with any recipe.  Use one from the links that I included, search out one on the web, or use our recipe.  Just get started making your own.  It's as good as any name brand detergent,  will save you a bunch of money, and it works!

Here's the recipe:

2 cups Borax
2 cups Washing Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
1 bar of soap (your choice)
1 bar of Fels Naptha
1 cup of Tide boost stain release (optional)
6 cups water

Using a cheese grater, shred both the soap and the Fels Naptha.   In a 4-5 quart pot heat 6 cups water on medium heat.  Stir in  both soaps and continue to stir until soap has melted.  Slowly add washing soda and Borax.  Stir until dissolved.









Once everything is dissolved, distribute mix evenly over three 1-gallon containers and 1-(1/2) gallon container.      










Caution: Work quickly because it will start to solidify.   See, ours has already started.  Quick, add some more water!  It won't hurt!







You'll need to add some anyway.  After you've distributed the mixture evenly, fill each container with hot water until it's about half full.

It may not look like it but they're half full.

See! It's a little hard to tell because some of the mixture has already solidified.












It'll start to clump up but not to worry!  Place caps on bottles and shake.  Shake it, now shake it, shake your money 'saver'!  I am sorry, I couldn't resist!  Now fill each bottle with water leaving a little room at the top.

3 1/2 gallons

Simple isn't it?  A month's supply for only $5.85. See why I call this stuff liquid gold?




What are you waiting for?

All you need is 1/2 a cup

           


That's it for today!  I am clean out of homemade ideas!   Not really.  I'll be back soon with less is best, if you make it yourself.  


        

No Linen In It

Yesterday, I learned a very valuable lesson about blogging: back up every post you write.  Don’t expect your hosting site to do it for you!  As a matter of fact, back up your back up or you’ll find yourself doing exactly what I have to do: rewrite the script.  The sad part is: I know better! 

Since you have no idea what I am talking about, let me just tell you.  Only I’ll spare you the ugly details and the part where I wanted to rend my garment, fall to the ground, and cry out to God.  Here’s the short version: My host server (my .com account) was disconnected from the portal (where I edit my blog) which somehow caused my blog post titled “No Linen In It” to disappear.  That’s right! It’s gone, vanished, with no hope of being recovered.  The odd thing is that it’s not even showing up on my blogger dash board.  Go figure? After several hours of trying to recover it and finally getting my connection back between the host and the portal, it was time to accept my fate and move on.  No sooner had I done so, the screen on my lap top cracked.   At that point I almost lost it!  I am not sure how but I managed to keep it together.

Things look much brighter today. Thanks to my son-in-law, “The Techie”, my screen repair is underway!  In the mean time I am stuck with this get-up here:

My laptop is serving as my modem.

Sadly, things didn’t turn out so well for me regarding my missing blog post. Therefore, I have to rewrite the entire blog post “No Linen In It”.  So, with a lot of help from my three "Mini Me's" and without further delay, here we go!
   

I’ve been searching for linen tea/dish towels because I am in grave need of them.  You see, the current state of my dish towels look like Edward Scissorhands hand washed them using bleach.  In the event you’re not a visual person, let me paint the picture for you;  they’re tattered and torn with bleach stains all over them.  I have a few that have held up but for the most part, the rest look mighty bad!  Did I mention they’re shredding?

Now you may think that linen tea/dish towels wouldn't be too hard to find, right?  Wrong! Not only are they hard to find, they're pretty expensive, especially the kind I am looking for.  


I want something like this but in my kitchen colors:    

$24.00 HERE at Studiopatró

I can't do it! I just can't do it...I simply will not spend $24.00 on a towel!

$11.51 HERE at Amazon

                     This I can do!                

Though I would have a hard time spending $11.51 for one towel. I don't care if it is linen.  I would spend $11.00 on a pack of three towels but for one, I am a bit more frugal than that.

                  

                        

                   Now this, this I can do!

                               And this!

Actually, I did do it!  I made both sets for under $11.00. What's that? You want to know how I did it?  I am so happy you asked!  I couldn't wait to share the details!  I started with THIS very helpful tutorial that I found on Pinterest a couple of weeks ago.  Finding it couldn't have been more timely considering the current state my towels are in.  You can follow her step by step instructions or you can follow mine.  Either way you're bound to end up with  the same results.   

First of all, let me just tell you that we're not using linen.  I suppose you could but I doubt it would be cheaper than using flour sack towels.  

$5.38 at Wal-mart for a package of 5 towels

  

In addition to flour sack towels you'll need the following:

Cost for sponges, paint, bowls, and fabric medium $16.98

• paint (I used Martha Stewart)
• fabric medium (Martha Stewart)
• round sponges
• paper bowls (for mixing the paint)
• scissors (only if you plan to use the tape)
• stencils (only if you plan to get adventurous like me) 
•  card board (to use as a surface for painting)

Note: Paint brushes are only necessary if you intend to highlight any part of your  stenciled areas.  

To begin, cut each flour sack cloth in half and stitch seams along the sides of the frayed and finished edges.  Stitching both sides will give your towels a more uniformed appearance.  If you don't want the added work of cutting and sewing or you prefer the larger size towel, simply leave as is.  I get more bang for my buck by getting two towels out of one. Also, I just prefer the standard size tea/dish towel.  Any way you slice it, or don't, it's a bargain!   

Before beginning this project wash, dry, and iron your flour sack towels. 

My blank canvases

   


Now let's get started.  In a bowl, mix two parts paint to one part fabric medium.   

Begin with your choice of color and dab the round foam sponge into the paint and start painting your pattern.  You may need to dab the same spot twice to be sure the paint has covered the area.  If you end up with too much paint on the sponge simply use a craft stick to wipe a little off.

Repeat until you have your desired pattern.  Allow 24 hours to dry and heat set. That's it!  Pretty simple huh!

    

   

I couldn't resist the temptation to be adventurous so I decided to add a little pizzazz!  That's where the stencils and the paint brushes come in.

Stencil $3.45 at Home Depot 

Start by placing your stencil where ever you want the pattern to begin.  Dab the foam sponge in paint and stencil in your desired design.  To conserve paint, I used the smallest sponge in the set.  Repeat as desired.  


Total cost for supplies $25.81 divided by 10 (5 towels cut in half) equals $2.58 per unit.  


You can't beat that! Two gorgeous sets of flour sack tea/dish towels for under $11.00 and the best part of all is: they make wonderful gifts!  Who needs linen when flour sack towels can be made to look  like this:

     

Now that's a wrap!