July 14, 2012

DIY FarmWife

Pintrest will convince a girl to do all kinds of odd things. I've scrubbed my pans with baking soda and peroxide (didn't work).  I've cut curly-cues out of red paper to make roses (kind of worked).  I've got a jar of baking soda with a few drops of fragrance oil sitting in the kitchen to help cut down the cooking odors (love this one).  And if you'd have dropped by the farm this week, you might have found an ice cream bucket  with a t-shirt soaking in salt water in my bathtub (brine a t-shirt to make it feel vintage soft- didn't really work).

This week I decided if I'm going to keep pinning junk, I might actually want to try more of it.  I've also decided that with the price of groceries climbing at an alarming rate, I might need to cut back in other places.  Pintrest is full of DIY cleaning tips and recipes.

Currently there's a jar of lemon peels soaking in vinegar on my kitchen counter.  Vinegar is a wonderful cleanser, but the smell puts many people off.  Lemon is also a wonderful cleaner so the two together should pack a pretty good punch.  After 10 days (or so the recipe says) you strain out the liquid and use it to clean...well...anything.  I've got high hopes for this one.

I picked up the ingredients for homemade-no-grate-laundry detergent.  Aunt Silverbelle has been making her own detergent for years, but I cannot bring myself to grate and boil soap.  I know, it's petty.  But this week I found a no-grate recipe I'm dying to try out.  It's super easy and I'm hoping it will work as well as it promises.

I whipped up a batch of homemade toner today, too.  Hoping the witch hazel, lemon juice, alcohol mixture will help clear up the skin I'm battling with at the moment.  I put in a splash of tee tree oil to give it an extra boost.

QM grabbed a pound of bees wax for me on her way to my house this week.  I've got big plans for homemade lotion bars (I had one when I was preggers with Bitsy and adored it) but need to track down the perfect essential oils to scent it with and some pretty molds to shape them.

There's even a recipe for homemade Febreeze I'm considering, but I'm not reading good things about spraying fabric softener into the air you breath....still thinking (and googling) on that one.

So perhaps the hours upon hours I've spent pinning shoes I will never own and home decor we will never afford aren't entirely wasted after all.  And just perhaps, I will become a DIY expert.  Perhaps.

2 comments:

Kork said...

OOOH!!!! Please share the no-grate recipe! I found that remembering to set aside time to grate and cook soap for the liquid didn't work so well for me, found a grate and mix til you're blue in the face powdered detergent...

Also - I have a SMASHING recipe for a shower cleaner that is liquid dish soap, hot vinegar and water...

PS - I've heard weird things about the baking soda to wash your hair idea...so be careful with that one...

Kork said...

Dear FarmWife - piqued by this post and my own interest in being cheap...err frugal...I wandered through the vastness of Pinterest and stumbled upon this:
http://www.diylife.com/2010/08/12/25-household-uses-for-borax/

I know that some of these you may not need, but holy smokes! What great ideas...I may be spending my $20 a month on boxes of Borax and Washing Soda (which I found at Wal-Mart easily, though I don't regularly frequent their establishments)...

I am thinking that the Borax/Lemon Juice mixture might not only remove those stains but disinfect also?!?!?! Hmmmm...