Oh Pinterest, how I love thee.......

.....let me count the ways....I'm not addicted to it as some, at least not yet anyway, however I have found TONS literally, tons of stuff that I want to try out. My first endeavor was homemade hand soap. Someone actually posted a link on Facebook and that's where I found the original recipe, but there are lots and lots of recipes on Pinterest. They are all basically the same with slight variations here or there. My first attempt was so-so in the success category. I definitely had liquid hand soap, but it was more in the consistency of snot. Nonetheless, it worked! And it made one whole gallon, which lasted me almost two months! With three bathrooms and a kitchen, 4 children and 2 adults, and as much as we wash our hands, that's pretty darn good. So, for $4.19 (the price of the bar of soap) we got about 7-8 weeks of soap. For the next batch, I decided the recipe definitely had to have the glycerin, so I ordered 16 oz for $4.35 from my most favorite essential oil supplier. And because I still have plenty of essential oils on hand (a small bottle lasts a long time) I didn't have to order any this time, but if you want a little scent in your soap (if it doesn't have any already), essential oils are safe for most sensitive skin, if blended in a carrier (soap included), they don't recommend rubbing the oils directly on the skin, they are too strong.


I won't go into what scents work best for what, that is an entirely different post and gets into aromatherapy, which is not my strong suit, I just know what scents I like. But some basics: tea tree is good for cleaning, as is eucalyptus (my personal favorite), lavender is relaxing (another favorite) while mint and peppermint are refreshing. The website I listed above has some awesome combination oils as well as individual, some are more expensive than others, it all varies with the market value.


The second batch worked out much better, although it's still a little bit stringy, I think that one more adjustment to the recipe and it will be as close to perfect as it gets without lots of added chemicals. And a gallon of soap, even in the refill bottles for about $4.30 is practically unheard of, even at Wal-Mart. In fact, if the next batch works as good as I hope, it will also be great shower quality soap, we all know how expensive that stuff is, at least the good stuff.


So, what do you need to do if you want to make good hand soap:


A pot that will hold a gallon of water without overflowing
Empty pump-type soap containers
Cheese grater
Container to hold the extra soap (1 use an empty 1 gallon ice cream pail)
Funnel
Large plastic spoon or ladel for stirring
handmixer or blender


1bar of soap: Castille soap (I like Dr. Bronner's and Target carries it in store and Amazon has it in bulk online), Yardley's, Mrs. Meyer's, Kiss My Face or any natural soap is great, but really you can use anything except Dove.
1-2 tbsp of glycerin (best deal is on the wholesale site, but you can get it at the pharmacy area of your grocery or drug store, they may have it behind the counter if it's not on the shelf)
1gallon of water


Grate bar of soap, warm your water on the stove, just before it boils mix soap, glycerin, and any essential oils you might want to use together until soap is melted. Once all combined it will look milky/hazy. Let sit 8-12 hours or overnight. Soap will thicken. If it becomes too thick to spoon, take your hand mixer and blend until you get a smoother consistence. Using your funnel ladel/spoon your soap into the pumps and pour the rest into your extra container, and there you have it! Lots of soap for a little $$.


I've also been trying lots of new recipes for family meals like the crockpot breakfast I posted last Sunday morning, and Crockpot potato soup in the crockpot on Monday. I have many many more to try, yay.


I've even added a bunch of crochet projects to my Store. I have a bunch more I want to offer, some really cute patterns I have to try out, but most of those will probably be worked on after Christmas as I have so many things I'm working on to get done by Christmas. Thankfully school for me will be done next week and I will only be schooling the kids half time through Christmas break, we aren't taking it completely off because there really is no good reason to not be doing something for most of those days, but they will be off when their dad is home for his 96's and that will be good. We are looking forward to those days together.


That's it for now, back to the research paper I go....