While Walking My Dogs

Are you a morning person or a night person?  I tend to be a morning person, but on those mornings when I don’t go to bed early enough or I am woken by doggies in the night, I need a large cup of coffee and a ‘refreshing’ splash of cold water on my face to get going.

I LOVE the cup of coffee, but I could do without the ‘refreshing’ splash of water.  Until I discovered a Wake-up Spritzer made with essential oils.

It was super easy to put together.  I followed this tutorial, but substituted my own essential oils for the one’s they suggested, but I didn’t have.  I came up with a blend of peppermint, spearmint, orange, lime and lemon.  Incredibly uplifting!  I think I’ll also look up essential oils that promote rest and relaxation and make a spritzer for bed time.

They didn’t say to do this in the tutorial, but I think I’ll store mine in the fridge to get the added ‘benefit’ of a cold spritz.  It’s momentarily uncomfortable, but certainly wakes you up.

I think this would be a wonderful addition to a gift basket dedicated to pampering.  Maybe this, the body butter I’m making tomorrow (spoiler alert) and the foot soak I made yesterday.  There’s nothing like being relaxed, energized and moisturized all at the same time.

Until tomorrow,

Know what wakes me up in the morning?  A refreshing walk… nothing like it to wake you right up!

Today was one of those days where my feet really needed a good soak.

I’ve been wearing a boot because my right foot has peroneal tibial tendonitis.  I have to wear it for another two weeks and its working, but there are days like this where my feet just need a relaxing soak in a tub of warm water with a little mix-in.

I found my mix-in at One Good Thing By Jillee.  It’s a foot soak and detox. Apparently I need to do this once a day for a week, then twice and week for 30 days and then finally once a week for maintenance.  This will not be a difficult habit to stick to ;-).

The ingredients are Epsom Salts, Baking Soda, Sea Salt and Lavender Essential Oil.  Mix them together and store them in a large mason jar.  As I was putting this together I thought about using this as a gift.  I could go to the Dollar Store to pick up a foot soaking tub, mix up a batch of this foot soak and include a knit wash cloth. I think this would be a very welcome gift.

Until tomorrow,

So I shouldn’t think of your foot soak bowl and ‘just another bowl of water’?

Today I tried DIY Toothpaste.  And I have to say I’m not sure if I’ll stick with it.  The DIY Shampoo and Conditioner is working fine, but neither of those involves taste.  This one does.  I’m willing to give it the old college try though.

Following the excellent instructions from this tutorial, I combined coconut oil, baking soda and peppermint essential oil into a creamy textured mixture using my hand blender.  It certainly looks yummy, but the harsh taste of the baking soda, like I said, is going to take a bit of getting used too.  I don’t mind coconut oil because it’s the only oil we use to cook with.

Honestly I really don’t mind my regular toothpaste, but I love trying to see if other ways will work.  I’ll give you my final thoughts at the end of the month.

I think it goes without saying that whatever toothpaste you use, you should brush and floss everyday.

Until tomorrow,

Do they make dog toothpaste?  If so I’d like chicken flavor.

I don’t know how things are where you live, but it’s cold and flu season around here.  A few weeks ago, Mike was out for two weeks with a nasty cold and flu and just this past week my mom caught a bug.  I’ve upped my Vitamin C and Echninacea and so far so good.

And to add to my anti-germ arsenal, I thought I’d make a batch of hand sanitizer.  I found this tutorial that uses three ingredients:  rubbing alcohol, aloe vera gel and essential oil scent.

I removed the label and cleaned up an empty liquid soap bottle, mixed the ingredients and I’m armed and ready to fight those nasty buggies.  You’ll notice that my sanitizer is green.  That’s because I found this bottle of mint rubbing alcohol.  It’s green and smells like mint.  I also chose not to use the essential oil because the mixture is minty-smelling enough.

What are some of the ways you protect yourself against the cold and flu season?

Until tomorrow,

Maybe you could find a recipe for a ‘paw sanitizer’ for when we walk outside?

I must admit that I’m on a quest to see if I can make most, if not all, of my beauty and household items from scratch using simple and cost effective ingredients.  I’m guessing you’re already of aware of that.

Today’s post is all about how to make a DIY Face Cleanser using 2 ingredients: baking soda and coconut oil.  The recipe I found recommends mixing the coconut with tea tree oil or other essential oils, but I decided to use the coconut oil on it’s own.  Tea tree oil is used for it’s anti-bacterial properties, but coconut oil naturally has anti-bacterial properties and I really don’t like the smell of tea tree oil.

In preparation for this post, I’ve been using this ‘face cleanser’ for a couple of days and I’m really pleased with the results.  I recommend reading the recipe blog post, but it’s a bit lengthy so I’ll summarize.

Step 1) Wet your hands, take a pinch of baking soda and rub your hands together until the baking soda becomes ‘pasty’.  Rub it all over  your face in a circular fashion and then rinse thoroughly.  Pat your face dry.

Step 2)  Take a pinch of coconut oil, with or without the added essential oils, and apply it to your face in the same circular fashion.

Your face will feel greasy for about 20 minutes, but then it will just feel extremely clean and soft.  I have normal skin, but the recipe blog post has instructions for oily and dry skin.  DISCLAIMER:  It goes with out say that you need to be sure your skin can tolerate these or any ingredients before you use them long term.  While I have summarized this recipe blog post, I recommend you read it through before deciding for yourself.

Until tomorrow,

I love how everything is smelling like coconut.

When I find a lipstick color I really like, I use it until I have to scrape it out of the tube.  In many cases, by the time I’m finished with the tube the color has been discontinued, so I have to start the searching process all over again for another color I love.

Since I’m in a DIY mood at the moment, I thought about scouring the internet for a recipe to take the remaining bits of my lipstick color and extending it’s life.  Over at BakingChic, I found a lip balm recipe using my own lipstick, coconut oil and beeswax.

The recipe not only helps me to extend the life of my favorite lipstick, it moisturizes my lips as well.  Coconut oil is the best.

I assembled all my ingredients in a heat proof pyrex type jug.  I put the jug in a pot of boiling water and melted all the ingredients.  It was that easy.

I found a pretty container that happened to have a plastic insert and poured the lip balm into that.  I put the container in the fridge to set for about 30 minutes and then gave it a go.  It worked beautifully.  Like I said the coconut oil is incredibly moisturizing and the color is perfect.  It’s the same shade, a bit softer, but I actually prefer that.

Until tomorrow,

I love when you give me kisses, but not the lipstick lips that you leave on the top of my head.

I know…. you thought we were all finished with beauty stuff.  I have a very good reason.

Like my shampoo routine (quick and not fussy), my makeup routine is equally quick and not fussy.  As a teenager I went through the black eyeliner stage and the liquid makeup but I didn’t like how the makeup felt on my skin and the black eyeliner was just regrettable.

I have great appreciation for women who can apply shadow and mascara to their eyes and make them look stunning, but it never interested me.  Probably because most of my life I’ve worn glasses and my eyes weren’t particularly visible.  I wore contacts for several years but the mascara would flake and the bits would land on my contacts and cause great havoc.  Such are my eye makeup woes.  I settled on a nice cobalt blue shade of eye pencil decades ago and have pleased ever since.  I’m nothing if not predictable.

But I digress….

I was getting ready yesterday and noticed that my face powder was running out.  I put this on after my moisturizer and have used the same shade for years.  Instead of buying a new one, I thought I’d jump on Pinterest and see if anyone had a recipe for DIY powdered makeup.  Today’s post tells you they did.

Over at the Great Oak Circle website, I found a simple recipe for making home natural powdered makeup.  I had the supplies from previous soap projects so I was ready to go.

The two main ingredients are cornstarch and French green clay.  (I bought both at a store called Sprouts.  The clay was a bit spendy, but you use so little that it will last for several projects).  An optional ingredient is baking cocoa to add color, but I chose to avoid that because I wasn’t comfortable powdering my face with chocolate.  Instead I took the remaining bits of my powder and ground it into the mixture of cornstarch and clay.  I use a very light shade of powder, so it doesn’t show up a lot, but the combination of all three ingredients works for my skin tone.

It’s a one to one ratio of cornstarch to clay and I used a 1/4 cup of each.  I also believe it has a shelf life of 1 year.  I’m storing it in a glass bowl that has a lid.

It works great and I honestly think the amount will last longer than a year.

Until tomorrow,

We’re really glad you didn’t add the cocoa because chocolate is not good for dogs and we wouldn’t be able to kiss you anymore.  That would be sad.