Fail

I have been slowly replacing products in our home with natural ones. I started by replacing our soap and my bubble bath with soap from Goat Milk Stuff. I replaced our toothpaste with Tom's and made my own laundry soap. All these things have worked out well for us, except we are not crazy with the flavor of toothpaste I bought. So when we ran out of our store bought chemical filled shampoo I decided to make it. Just like there are many brands and types of shampoo to buy there are also many different ways to make your own. I tried two different recipes, both with coconut milk and both did not work for us. The first one I thought was okay until day 4 when I ended up with dandruff. So I tried a different combination, this one with more coconut milk less castile soap. While using it in the shower Mat declared it the worst shampoo ever. :-( I was not thrilled with it either. I felt like it did not wash all the way out but I decided I would at least use what was left before I tried another recipe. However, after a few days my hair looked horrible and I could no longer take it so I used undiluted castile soap to get my poor hair back to normal.

I am going to try a few more recipes and if they fail I will just buy us natural shampoo at Whole Foods or the shampoo bar from Goat Milk Stuff. I would just rather make my own as it would be cheaper.I am feeling about down about this but I am not giving up!

I also decided to make my own deodorant. I was surprised at how well it worked. We have had some warmer weather here so it was a great time to test it out. I even had Mat smell me to make sure I was not smelly. He said it was the weirdest thing I have ever asked him to do lol.

However after about a week my skin was red and a bit raw. I think the baking soda and corn starch in it was to rough on my skin. So back to the drawing board. :-(

My last fail has nothing to do with homemade chemical free stuff but it is also a fail so I thought I'd include it in this post. My MIL bought me a pineapple slicer thing for my birthday. I bought a pineapple and Mat and I decided to use it.

Yeah, another fail. It is supposed to cut the pineapple not juice it. I think next time maybe we should try taking the skin off first. Live and learn right?

Missing Socks

I am not super thrilled with how this turned out, but it serves its purpose. We always seem to have that one sock that is missing and then of course by the time we find it the match is missing.
I went with the silver and lavender colors to match our bedroom. We fold our clothing in our room so I hung this on the inside of our door. Now we just need to remember to use it.

Pumpkin Dog Cookies

Do you know what is in your dog's food or treats? Do you know where the ingredients came from? Was the meat was from a healthy or diseased animal? I started making Tyson's treats after I learned what was in some of the stuff I was feeding him.

Tyson LOVES pumpkin. It's also good for dogs. It helps with digestive issues. Anytime Tyson eats something I know is going to make him sick (usually cat food) he gets a big spoonful of it. So it was a no brainer to make him pumpkin cookies!

2 eggs

1/2 cup canned or fresh pumpkin (not the pumpkin pie filling)

2 cups brown rice flour (I got mine at Whole Foods)

Mix the egg and pumpkin, then slowly stir in the flour. The dough will be a crumbly consistency. Roll out on a floured matt (I used the rice flour but you can use regular flour too). Cut into shaped and place on an un greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes then turn cookies over and bake for another 20 minutes.

Thats it! Using a small 1 inch bone cookie cutter I made about 80 cookies (1 pound). These can last a week or so in a sealed container. I just put Tyson's in the freezer so they last longer.