Homemade Dishwasher Powder

One day, I was curious to read what was in my dishwasher product, and when I read there was some type of  bleach in it, it stopped me right away. Why would we want to put that in our dishes?? In fact, why would we put any type of bleach in our water?? (for any use) because, what you put in water will all come back to you. Nothing disappear!! So, I decided to look for a dishwasher power, and I found 2.

I have to say that I am very happy with the results.

Recipe 1:

2 cups washing soda
1 cup borax
1 cup baking soda.

Shake it well, and then use 2 tablespoon per load (if residue on glass, use 1.5 tablespoon). I personnaly use a bit less than 1.5. (it leaves the dishes very clean. The glasses might not be a transparent shiny, but when I take them out of the dishwasher I dry them with a cloth and that does the trick. And most of the time I don't do it as to me they look perfectly fine.

Recipe 2:

2 cups washing soda
2 cup borax
6 tablespoons citric acid powder (can be found in health stores)
25 drops grapefruit essential oil
Mix with fingers the oil with the powder, and then shake it. Follow the same directions as above.

I found all my ingredients online at www.soapgoods.com

I started with the first recipe for a few months and then switch to the second recipe. The main reason? It is because it smells so good, but both of them work great.

Try it, it really is great :-)

Flies, shoo away

Flies, shoo away

With Seth, my husband,during my first trip to Colorado, we stayed in a little place in Nederland, right above Boulder. It was beautiful.
We went to the little place to have breakfast and saw that on every door, outside, there was a clear bag with water in it. We thought it was some tool to measure the amount of snow that fell that night, or something like that. Well, wrong we were!!! When I asked what it was for, they said it was for the flies.
See, in colorado, where we live, there is quite a bit of horses around, and they do attract flies. So, that little bag stappled to the top of the frame door, confused the flies and they do not get in. How clever is that!!!??? No chemical, just plainly water :-)

However, I just read that there was a test done in university about it, and they found out that the room where there was bad of water hanging was actually attracting more flies. So, I guess this is not the result we are looking for.

I have to say that we don't have much flies here in my house so I don't have much experience with it. So I only can report what I have found. However, my sister in france found a product that does not kill flies but repell them. It is AMAZING!!! (won't work outside though, that's for inside). It is called  mouchclap (you can find it there: http://coudelou.fr/produit.html?id=586&ajout=1)

Now, if you are just in the garden and flies are bugging you (sort to speak), I found a recipe, and I have to say that it is so difficult to find the products that I decided not even share it (if I can't make it, I don't want to share it).
So I found another one that is effective as well. How many times, have you heard me saying how much of a fan I am of Lavender oil?? Well, here it comes again. People, have your bottle ready, anytime, anywhere. If you are at home, just soak some rags or ribbon of lavender oil and let them hang around where you are. Bugs do not like lavender. (you might wonder, well, what about the bees, they love lavender!! Well, I learned that it is not the smell that brings them to lavender, but the color. Yes my friends, the bees' favorite color is purple. So if you plan to be on a summer day near bees, do not wear purple, they will love you :-)

Here is another thing I have found:
Make natural fly repellent strips. Many essential oils are naturally effective at repelling flies. Some of these include, citronella, peppermint, eucalyptus, lemongrass and lavender. Cut several strips of fabric from old clothing. Dot each strip with several drops of your essential oil of choice. Hang the strips around the perimeter of your campsite to repel flies and a host of other insects.

Make your bathroom smell pretty

Here comes the holidays with parties, lots of people in your home and lots of bathrooms usages. So here is a good tip on how to make your bathroom smells good.

Just put a few drops of your favorite essential oil in the roll of the toilet paper (not on the paper itself, but inside the round carton). And everytime someone uses the roll, the smells comes out. Easy, no?

Of course you can also use pot pourri, but if you are like me, it dries out, is not very pretty, makes a mess with the cats, takes room on the counter..... so go for a few drops of essential oils :-)

Happy holidays :-)

Skin burn and bites

Today I decided to bake a cake with the kids. And as I was taking the cake out, I burned myself with the oven. I am clumsy, what can I say. So, here is what you need to do when you burn yourself. Put some Lavender essential oil on it. Yes, I said it before, this oil is the best thing you can have around you.
Don't be shy on it, just rub it until it feels better. Of course, I am not talking about 3rd degree burns (those, you need to go to hospital right away). This has worked every time, from oven burn, oil that jumps out of the pan and so on.

Also, another great use in the same area is when you get stung by an insect. I was amazed on how quick it works. One night, in provence, I woke up to go to the bathroom. The kids were sleeping in the same bed as I so I did not put the light on. When I went back to bed, while I was siting down, I felt a sudden burn in my knee!! Darn it hurt!!! So, too bad for the kids, I turned on the light and looked for my purse to get the lavender essential oil. I rubbed and rubbed and eventually (after a few minutes) the pain was gone and we could barely see anything. It was a wasp (guepe in french). The next day, I could not see anything, except a red dot.
 Then a few week later, Timo, my 7 years old son, got stung also by a wasp while in the shower, between the legs. He was just screaming. Well, the good news is that lavender works great on kids too. After a few minutes the pain went away (I did not know if he was allergic or not, so I monitored it in the middle of the night with a flashlight and there was nothing to be seen).

Have fun with your lavender. And have a good smell too :-)

Hand Sanitizer, all natural Lavender.

I never liked hand sanitizer as is it better to have microbes on your hands, or have bunch of chemicals that then you put in your mouth. Have you ever tried to taste it? It is awful and just does not seem right.

So I have the perfect solution for you: Lavender Essential Oil.
In fact, if there is ONE oil that you need to have at hand at all time, Lavender is the one. I have a few bottles around the house and always one in my purse. I use it all the time for so many different uses, which I will share with you as my posts come.

So back to hand sanitizer: Just put a few drops in the hands and rub them together. It smells great, and kills all the germs. Great, no??? No more of that nasty chemical hand sanitizer.

Here is some information about Lavender oil: It acts as an antibiotic, antiseptic, antiviral, and anti-fungal.
It is used for hundreds of recipes and conditions. It is easy to buy, you can find it in every health store. Also, this is one of the few essential oils that can be used on babies.

Burned Pots and Pans; and how to remove wax off fruits/vegetables

I wish you all a very happy thanksgiving. I bet lots of you will do some cooking. And if some of you are like me, then you might burn some of your food. There is nothing worse than a burn pot. In the past, I tried everything, all type of chemicals, but I usually had to say goodbye to my pot. Until I discovered a great recipe, where you almost have no scrubbing to do!!!
That's right, easy as can be.

Here is the recipe: How to remove the burned from Pots and Pans

1 -cover the bottom of your pot or pan with baking soda (don't be shy with the quantity, cover it all thickly).
2 - Then pour some vinegar on each (enough that it fuzzes everywhere)
3- Add some dishes soap, just a little bit, like if you were going to wash the pot (I use my castille soap)
4- Put the pot or the pan on the stove and let it warm up, low is good. You don't want to burn it even more, so no high heat.
5- While watching (because that's pretty cool), take a spatula and scrub gently until everything is detached.

So far I have had great luck with this trick. It has worked all the time. Then I take my pan and clean it in the sink.


Removing Wax off fruits and vegetables.



There is one things that is annoying, is to buy organic stuff and have them full of wax. For example, an apple (especially apple in fact), you want to eat it straight out like that, but it has wax on it (that makes it shiny, and people want they fruits to be perfect). I tried to wash them, but it does not go away.
Today, I decided to use baking soda. I took some in my hands and rub the apple, then wash it off under the water, and voila!!! all the wax was gone. Simple and fast, isn't great??


Now,have a great day with friends, family, or just byyourself. But no matter what is your day looking like, make sure that you say thank you to yourself. You are the most important person in the world. Make sure you know it :-)

Happy thanksgiving, and thank you for reading my stuff.

Naturally Clean Bathroom recipes.

A lot of the recipes I use have Baking Soday in them, so I thought about giving you a little information about what it is:

This is a great product to have at hand. There are two kinds: Natural and artificial. The ones that we usually find at the store very cheap is the artificial kind.
Baking Soda naturally is coming from mining and is called nahcolite. Lucky us, the two main mines are here in Colorado and in Wyoming. Scientist have found a way to re-create it artificially (and that's the ones that we mainly use). I buy it in huge quantity for my cleaning purpose. And since I have been reading in more depth, I realized that the way they make it artificially is by putting salt through amonia (that's the really fast version). So, I have no problem using that for cleaning, but thought that it did not make much sense to eat it (although it has never hurt anyone I believe). So now, I am also buying a natural version that I use for the cooking (I found it at Natural Grocer-Vitamin Cottage, my favorite store).


Tub and Tile Soft Scrubber:

1 Cup baking Soda
1/4 liquid castile soap
2 vitamin C tablets, crushed
3-5 drops eucalyptus or tea tree essential oils.

Combine all of it in a plastic bottle (I used an empty shampoo bottle). Add just enough water to make a smooth liquid paste and shake. Then put paste to surface and rub with sponge and rinse.

You can find liquid castile soap in natural store. Buy it in large quantity as you can use it for many many many recipes, such as liquid for washing dishes by hand, make your own shampoo (this is great), soap for the skin, and lots of others. There are different smells. I personally only buy the one with no smell in it so I can add my own essential oils.

Tea tree is a great essential oil to have at home. It is an anti-viral, desinfectant. I use it in a lot of recipes around the house, and also for medicinal use. It is the same for eucalyptus (great for cold and coughing for kids as well. However, make sure if you are using it with kids around, to use the Eucalyptus Radiata. The other kind, eucapyptus Globulus is cheaper but too strong for little kids and can harm them if used medicinally). You can find the oils at Vitamin Cottage as well.

Toilet Bowl Cleaner:

1/2 cup baking soda
1/4 cup white vinegar
10 drops tea tree essential oil

put everything in the toilet, swipe with a brush and you are done.

Mirror Bright:
1 1/2 cup vinegar
1/2 cup water
8 drops citrus oil

put everyting in a spray bottle and spray and wipe. Some people swear by newpaper, I can't say really. I have never done the newspaper (I always recycle it before thinking about it). I have a special cloth for mirror and glass and it works beautifully. I also many time omit the citrus oil and it still works great.

Herbal Disinfectant (I clean the whole bathroom with it)

2 Cups hot water
10 drops of thyme essential oils (I usually don't have thyme, so I use tea tree)
1/4 Cup borax

The smell with tea tree is very strong as you clean,so make sure that your little ones are not in the room with you at that time (it works fine with the older kids, my son 7 is the one who cleans the bathroom).

Also if you like to have your bathroom smell good all the time, here is an easy trick: Put a few drops of your favorite essential oil in the paper roll (not on the white paper, but inside the cardboard roll ), and every time you roll it, it smells good :-)

Happy bathroom cleaning :-)

Vinegar. The magic product around the house.

I am so happy to say that I got rid of all the chemicals products in my home. I had everything for everything. So many bottles. Not only it was costing a lot of money, taking a lot of place, but also, I figured that even if I don't eat those product, I do rinse them and they all end up in the water. Let's remember, that what goes down the sink, pretty much comes back to us in different ways. An example would be traces of prozac in the fish; more hormones in our kids (and us too; we keep forgetting us; I guess this is easier to change things for our kids than it is for us). So, one day, I figured that everything we buy, we can make it ourselves, and I was right!!! I was amazed by the amount of information out there. Pretty much there is everything about everything. All you have to do is make it (and gather a few natural products as well, which is not hard). So, I wondered, why would I write a blog when everyone else has already done that. Well, for a few reasons: First, I have been trying to convince everyone I know to do it, this is my way of saving the planet. Some people are interested but don't have the time to research, some people are not interested or don't have time to shop for those items (that you can't always find in the store next to your house). And because a friend convinced me to do it. Why not sharing with everyone what I have been doing, telling them how to do it, where to find the product. Easy, right? Well, why not. I don't know if anyone will ever read this blog, but I know that I am doing the right thing. I know I cannot change the whole world in their habit (even if I would love to), but if I only can change of few people, that would make it all work. So, here I come.

Today, I will talk about Vinegar.
I have been buying vinegar at cosco by the gallons. It is very cheap, and it has great qualities all around the house and on the body:
1- Vinegar and Chlorine from the pool:  Chlorine used to dry my skin so much that I was hurting all the time. I was soaping up, putting lots and lots and lots of lotion, and yet it did not seems to help that much. Until a friend told me about the chemical reaction behind Chlorine. Chlorine is a base, and in order to neutralize a base, you need acid, therefore Vinegar!!! Voila!! Easy, no? Well, what does this mean? It means that your skin no longer smells like chlorine and that the skin found back its PH. And on top of that, it makes your hair sooooo soft, that's a real bonus (that's another topic though). So, all you need to do, it put in a bottle a third of vinegar and two third of water (I prefer hot, it feels nicer). That's it. Some people don't like the smell of vinegar, so you can add a few drops of lavender essential oil (there will be a full topic on that as well. If there is one oil you need to have, this is this one). Great all the way around, no???

2- Vinegar around the house:
I have one of those ceramic top stove. Great looking, but pain in the ass to clean. To be clean, you have to have a special product, full of chemical. Soap and water just won't cut it. So, just put a little bit of baking soda (another product that everyone needs to have. Another special topic to come on that) and vinegar. There will be a reaction happening, like a volcano. It is so cool that you can even have your kids doing it now. Anyway, you then just rub with a sponge and this is it. It cleans great.

I also use vinegar every time I clean the table. It degrease much better than those expensive product.
Vinegar is the best product for washing windows. Just do 1/3 vinegar to 2/3 water, spray it on the windows and rub. This is it.

3- Lice. We just found out that there was lice in school. Pain in the ass!!!! Well, just rinse your kid's hair with diluted vinegar in water (warm). Lice sure don't like that. And it will bring a great shine to their hair. Make sure though that they cover their eyes with something, because it can sting their eyes if open.


I have a lot of others recipe that requires vinegar, and I will describe them in future posts.

I hope you enjoyed it. I love my vinegar :-)