Homemade Christmas!

Recently I discovered the wonder of making soap! I have wanted to make bar soap for awhile but was always afraid of using the lye.  I had the chance to see someone make it and seeing it made me realize that while, yes it can be caustic if used incorrectly, it really is a simple part of soap making.

I also really have gotten into making my own candles.  I wanted to make them with materials I didn't have to worry about burning in my home and being toxic.  I knew if I made them myself I could make them safer

So with it being Christmas and my new favs to make, I decided to do a homemade Christmas! After all who doesn't love wonderful soaps and candles?  Oh and a little scented bath salt to go with!

In this blog I'll start with the making of candles.  I swear if I knew how easy this was I would have been doing this a long time ago and not spending so much money on the soy safer ones.

For my supplies I bought soy flakes from bulkapothecary.com, low smoke organic wicks from amazon, and lavender essential oil from Whole Foods.  I also purchased a pouring pot from Amazon. I already had a candle thermometer, if you don't you will need one.

For the Christmas candles I decided to make them in jam Ball jars.  Which makes this whole process incredibly easy.  Ready?

1lb of flakes will fill 3 jars with candles.  Put the flakes into the pouring pot along with the candy thermometer.  Put the pouring pot into another bigger pot and fill that pot, not the pouring pot, with water until it is halfway up the side of the pouring pot.  Put the heat on high simmer.  (basically you are doing a double boiler) When the wax is melting I like to take a wooden chopstick and stir it to make sure it all gets mixed in.  Then once it reaches 180 it's done melting.  Take out the pouring pot and let it cool until it reaches 100 before putting in essential scented oils.  I use 1 oz per lb of wax.  If you put the oils in before it has cooled off you can loose the scent.  Oils have what is called a flashpoint, which basically means it will burn out the scent if you add it when it's too hot. If you aren't using oils just pour it without.

before pouring the wax into the jars I take the ends of my wicks and dip them into the hot wax then put them onto the bottom of my jar and press with the chopstick to make them stick.  This will keep them in place.  Once they are set pour in your wax.  After I pour the wax I take a wooden clothespin and clip it to thick at the top of the jar.  This will hold in in the center while your wax dries.

Now let it sit until its cool and the wax is set.  That is all there is to it!

I added some sparkly wreaths to the lid and tada! Homemade lavender candles

How easy is that?

Give it a shot! You will be shocked at how easy it is to do.

Next up........Making soap!

Fav New Product! Beeswax Food Wrap

I have found a new product that I am completely in LOVE with! So of course I have to share.

Using plastic wrap in my house is just not an option. It is totally bad for the environment since it really isn't recylclable and will sit in a landfill forever, on top of which I am not ok with that plastic sitting on top of my food.  I have and use glass storage containers for almost everything, but there are times when they just don't fit.  It drove me crazy that I didn't have anything to fit what my food was on that would work and was safe.  Well, that just changed!

I found Abeego reusable beeswax food wrap.  They are amazing! They wrap around and adhere to anything!  They are natural, breathable, and when they are used up.....compostable!

They are made of beeswax, tree resin, and jojoba oil infused with hemp and organic cotton cloth. All ingredients that are safe.

They come with 3 sheets, a small, med, and large.

Now here is the cool part.  Take them out and decide which size works best for your storage needs, place it over your container and hold your hands on it and as your hands warm up the material it adheres to the shape and stays! Once your done using it gently remove it and wash with gentle dish soap and dry.

Here is another fantastic part, its breathable.  The other night I made a big salad and ended up with leftovers.  I have in the past put it into a glass container with a lid.  Well, because of the airtight lid the salad would get limp.  I used the Abeego beeswax wrap over the salad bowl and because it is breathable the salad was still super fresh two days later! Amazing

Give this one a shot! You will love them

Available at Reuseit.com

Till Next Blog...........

Used Coffee Grounds Cellulite Scrub!

My husband drinks a lot of coffee! Which is awesome for all the used coffee grounds.  I use them for everything!

Ants coming in the house, coffee grounds where they are coming from and they leave.  Fertilize the plants, bushes and lawn naturally with a mix of used coffee grounds and Epsom salt.  Blueberry bushes love them and I get the biggest, sweetest fruit.  My worms in the worm bin, love them and they make the prettiest soil after devouring it.   LOVE used coffee grounds!!

If you look at any of the store cellulite scrubs, yep ladies it just happens, they almost all contain caffeine.  It helps to demise the bumps on the upper thigh that we love oh so much!  However, they also contain ingredients that I'm not sure what they are and for me that means it could be toxic.  I don't like the idea of a hot shower opening up your pores and adding chemicals.  Seems to me like that is just asking for trouble.

Sooooo, as I was about to go outside with them when it hit me.  Make a scrub for cellulite.

I took the grounds from the day before, about a cup, and about a tablespoon of course pink Himalayan salt for a little extra oomph, a few melted tablespoons of organic coconut oil and mixed.  I added a little more coffee to get a consistency I liked.  Tada!

Now I am a big fan of dry brushing, have been doing it for years.  So I did my dry brushing and then took a small amount of the mixture and scrubbed, then rinsed and showered as usual.  It was very invigorating!  I've been using it a couple times a week and I love it.

I would caution to only use a small amount as coconut oil in large amounts can plug a drain!  But once a week I put some baking soda and vinegar in the drain to keep it clear.

There you have it!  Three ingredients, no crazy chemicals!

Give it a shot!

Till Next Blog..............Happy Scrubbing

Ridiculously Good Peach Jam!

It is one of my favorite times of year in our backyard, Peaches on our tree! There is something so wonderful about going outside and picking a soft ripe peach and eating it.  They taste so different than one that was picked way before its time to be shipped to the store to ripen.

We eat a lot of them straight off the tree, but then you need to use them for other things.  I have made pies and ice creams but decided this time to make some jam.  I have made jam with blueberries and strawberries but this was my first time using peaches.

I used 9 good sized peaches.  Put them in a pot of simmering water for about two minutes, then transferred them to an ice bath to make the skin easy to peel off.  Once peeled i pitted them and cut them up.  I put two tablespoons of lemon juice on them and let them sit.  In the meantime I put 1/2 cup water with 3 cups of sugar on medium in a pot until the sugar was dissolved.  I put the peaches in a food processor and pulsed it, but left some small chunks since we like our jam like that.  Then mixed the peach mixture into the sugar water mix, cooking it until it thickened.  I always put a plate in the freezer while making jam to test its doneness.  If you take the plate out and put a little jam on the cold plate and hold it sideways you can tell how thick it is.  Then proceeded them in my canning jars.

EASY, AND SO YUMMY!

This could be one of my favorite jams I have made yet.

I will be trying it with agave nectar for my diabetic grandfather next week.  Hopefully it turns out as good as the strawberry and blueberry did with it.

Give this one a shot while peaches are ready, you won't be sorry!

Till next blog.......

Delicious Jam Without Sugar

I love making jam! I have got it down.  This is the time of year in FL that we go strawberry picking, organic of course, and I start making our years supply of jam.  I love the way the house smells of strawberry for a week while I am getting all the jam made.

I make my jam pretty simply, fruit, lemon juice and sugar.  But I have a 96 year old grandfather who cannot have sugar and he wanted me to send him some strawberry jam.  Now he is a sneaky guy who would certainly eat my regular jam, but it wouldn't be in his best interest health wise so I had to do some research to see if I could make it work for him.

I am completely against using artificial sweeteners with chemicals in them.  I wanted to find something more natural that would work in the jam.  I discovered that I could use organic agave nectar.  It is a low glycemic sweetener made from the juice of the agave plant.

I will admit I wasn't sure how it would turn out, after all I have making jam down to a science with my sugar and I wasn't sure how this would process.  I did have to adjust the amount as 1/2 cup of agave is equal to 1 cup of sugar in sweetness.  So I went for it.

I mashed up 4 cups of strawberries (trimmed and hulled), added 1/4 cup lemon juice, and 2 cups of agave (instead of my usual 4 cups sugar).  I used golden light as it has a lighter flavor and wouldn't effect the final flavor of the jam.  I brought it to a gentle boil and continued boiling until it reached a temperature of 220 on my candy thermometer and took it off the heat to rest.

Now came the test.  Knowing that I am too much of a critic of my own cooking sometimes I had my husband taste it without telling him it was the agave.  He said it was delicious and when I told him he said he couldn't tell the difference!  Yesssssss

So I processed them as usual in a water bath and now they are ready to go to my grandfather!

I am so happy I discovered this!  If your have someone on a sugar restrictive diet maybe it would work for you too!

Give it a shot!

Till Next Blog.......