Homemade Natural Shampoo

I finally ran out of my store bought shampoo, so I made my own. After using this recipe I have decided I won't be buying shampoo from the store anymore. It is SO easy to make, and it is SO much cheaper to make it. Also, I love how it suds up and really cleans my hair. I can customize it to my hair needs. For example, it can be more moisturizing in the dry winter, and more sudsy in the summer when I'm trying to wash away garden dirt and sweat. Here is how you can make this wonderful shampoo:

Ingredients: 

•  1/4 cup coconut milk
• 1/3 cup Liquid Castille Soap (I use Dr.Bronners) 
• 20 drops of Essential Oils (I used lavender and tea tree oil) 
• 1/2 tsp Almond oil or Olive oil (This is great for dry hair, or during those dry winter months)

Mix together and put into a empty shampoo bottle. 

A little bit goes a long way, and it really suds up! 

Leave a comment and let me know how you like it.

You can get all the above ingredients at VitaCost. For $10 off at VitaCost click here. You and I will both get $10 off.

Organic Garden Pest Control

Gardening is a bit tricky when you are not using any chemicals. I decided that if I was going to have a garden it must be organic. It requires quite a bit of weeding by going this way, and it also requires alternative insect control. This is how I stumbled upon food grade diatomaceous earth, otherwise knows as DE. Apparently this is the bees knees when it comes to killing bugs and the sort. It is safe enough to consume yourself, and you can put it on your animals, and even feed it to them. It gets rid of everything apparently.

Yesterday I spread it out around the garden. It is supposed to take a couple days or even a week to get rid of everything. Because it isn't a chemical it isn't going to be a instant fix. However, I will gladly wait because it is safe enough that I don't even have to wash it off of my vegetables before I eat them. This is a trade I will gladly make over the non-organic bug control. I will let you know in a few days how it is going with the bugs. I have read many reviews though, and I am pretty sure it is going to get rid of them.


Have you tried DE? Did it work for you?

Want to get good quality essential oils? Click here.

Pickles!

Pickles...

As you probably know I have a very large, organic garden. This garden has several cucumber plants. Which means I have a BUNCH of cucumbers! My solution this issue? Pickles! So far I have only made refrigator pickles. However, they are freaking awesome! I got to use up quite a few cucumbers, spend a couple hours with my mom, and as a reward we have sweet, delicious pickles. Here is the recipe I'm using incase you would like to make your own.

Refrigerator Pickles 

Ingredients:

1 cup distilled white vinegar 

1 tablespoon salt 

2 cups white sugar 

6 cups sliced cucumbers 

1 cup sliced onions 

1 cup sliced green bell peppers 

Directions:

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, bring vinegar, salt and sugar to a boil. Boil until the sugar has dissolved, about 10 minutes.

Place the cucumbers, onions and green bell peppers in a large bowl. Pour the vinegar mixture over the vegetables. Transfer to sterile containers and store in the refrigerator.

Mine didn't have the bell peppers in them. I didn't have very many bell peppers ready yet, so I saved them to just eat on their own. 

Let me know if you try out this recipe! 

Want to get good quality essential oils? Click here.