It’s another dull, gray day here in Columbus, Ohio. Almost everyone I have talked to around here in the past few days is ready for some sunshine and Spring weather but according to the calender we have several more weeks of this doom and gloom to contend with. This morning after an additional cup of coffee, I noticed at about 9am that it wasn’t much lighter than at 7am and I was figuring out how many hours until bedtime. I was planning to either sit on the computer all day or take a nap . Then the sun peaked out for a minute and I decided to bundle up and head outside with my camera to at least get some fresh air in hopes that it would wake me up. I only got a couple of shots worthy of posting but a little exercise and fresh air certainly helped get us through the day.

I bet he is wishing for Spring too!

I bet someone is missing this but probably better that they don’t find it now

a little evidence of life

like a crook of an arm or leg

Other than this I’ve got nothing. Not feeling too crafty or too motivated these days. Just feeling like hibernating and drinking tea and eating oranges. So that’s what I plan on doing!

The little something for your dryer as promised in my Natural Laundry Soap post

Homemade natural Fabric Softener Pouch

I try to always credit recipes and ideas when I post them here and these fabric softener pouches  came from a book on SouleMama’s side bar which I checked out of our local library.  MAKE YOUR PLACE by Raleigh Briggs

Also-let it be known, that I HATE the smell of dryer sheets. When they waft out of the dryer vent and scent the whole neighborhood or  especially when you pass someone while out running and the lingering smell of Downey or Snugglie fills my nose!!! Really that should be outlawed. These pouches are in no way overwhelming or offensive.

The directions say you will need to make pouches out of tightly woven fabric. I have never sewed before so I thought this would be a great little first project for me!!

These really don’t need to be very big at all-maybe 4 x 3.

Fold  a rectangle of fabric in half and sew up the sides. Add a couple of spoonfuls of this mixture:

1/2 cup baking soda

1 T arrowroot powder

1 T rice flour or cornstarch

1-3 drops essential oils of your choice

Tie up the pouch tightly and pop it in the dryer with your clothes. Refill the pouch when the scent fades. I made a couple with different scents…Lemon-Eucalyptus and the other Lemon-Orange.

The scent from these pouches is very subtle, really just fresh smelling, soft laundry.

I have thought about making my own laundry soap for quite some time but thought it might be hard,  not really work as well as store bought detergent or in the long run, not really save me any money. Boy, was I wrong!!

I scoured the internet and books looking for a recipe. This is the recipe I decided to try. Only then I did a bit more digging because I am overly thorough sometimes, (my friends and family may even say anal!!) And found that Fels Naptha soap isn’t very natural.  So I decided to just use Dr. Bonners bars of castille soap. I have been using Dr. Bonners for so many things for so many years.  They smell great, are super concentrate, they get the job done and the bottles of the liquid soaps provide for some great reading material!!

I used my food processor to grind up the soap. Next time I will follow the suggestions to follow the shredding blade with the metal blade along with some of the washing soda to pulverize and “powderize” the soap.

You will also need a bucket to keep your soap in. Preferably one with a lid. I found my blueberry bucket to be just perfect.

The  ingredients are simple and all were found at my local Meijer store:

1 bar dr. bonners soap (your choice of flavor!) I made a double recipe and used 1 lavender bar and one citrus orange

1 cup washing soda

1cup Borax

1/4 cup Eco-store pure oxygen whitener or oxyclean

I then copied the recipe on to the lid so I would never have to go searching for it again when it is time to make a batch!

Note you only need 1 Tablespoon for a regular load and 2 Tablespoons for a heavy load!! So little goes a long way! I do start my wash cycle with hot water to get the soap dissolved and then switch back to cold.

The scent is so fresh! It reminds of summer time and line dried clean clothes! Ahhhhhhhhh!

Really this is easy, cheap and works just as well as store bought laundry products.

Tomorrow I’ll have a little something natural for your dryer!!

I swear to heaven above that these really do taste like Sour Patch Kids. Only they are a little more healthy!

I saw this recipe on local, Columbus blogger Rachel’s,  Hounds in the Kitchen. I knew right away that I would love this sweet and Oh, so sour concoction!! And boy was I right! I barely have any enamel left on my teeth after eating almost a whole bag of these sugary, sour goodies.

You will need to mix :

2 T of honey with 2 T of hot water in a bowl. To that add grated orange peel, 1/2 t cinnamon (more or less)  and 1 teaspoon (more or less)  vanilla extract.

Rinse a bag of cranberries and add to the bowl, mixing to coat.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment and pour a mix of 1 to 2 cups of powder sugar and granulated sugar.

With a slotted spoon, add cranberries to the sugar mix and coat well.  Let sit about 30 minutes or until sugar hardens. Store in a jar for 3 to 4 days. I didn’t use a slotted spoon so  mine are still drying since this morning. But that didn’t stop me from eating them all day!!!

It’s that time of the year when the germs start to proliferate and settle in homes all over the place!!! My kids have been sick this week. I have been trying really hard to not catch their cooties and so far I have been successful!! Knock on wood! But it’s only October and we have a long germy season ahead of us!  It is going to be a long road naturally pumping up our immune systems.

The weather has allowed us to let some fresh air in this week which unfortunately  won’t be happening for long. The sneezing and coughing is filling the air in our house with lots of nasty germs.  So to help fight the germs flying around in our house I made two natural, non-toxic,  disinfecting air sanitizers this morning.

I went on a hunt in my cupboards for some empty spray bottles. I was successful! I only had to rinse the colored water out of one of them. You can find cheap spray bottles at beauty supply stores, dollar stores and Target to name a few.

I filled them both up with our Reverse Osmosis water. If you don’t have filtered water you can purchase distilled or purified water. I used about 1 1/2 to 2 cups of water.

I went through my stash of essential oils and chose those that are known for their anti-bacterial, antiseptic and disinfectant qualities.

For the first bottle I added

20 drops sandalwood oil  (antiseptic properties)

20 drops patchouli oil (antiseptic and anti-bacterial properties)

20 drops lavender oil (antiseptic, anti-bacterial and disinfectant properties)

20 drops orange oil (antiseptic and disinfectant properties)

Shake it up and spray it around!! Don’t spray at people or too close to fabric as the oil may stain. Mist high into the air.

We used this good smelling, germ fighting, air cleaner/sanitizer in the bedrooms.

To the second bottle I added

20 drops Eucalyptus oil (antiseptic, anti-bacterial and disinfectant properties)

20 drops tee tree oil (anti-viral, anti-bacterial, anti-microbial…pretty much anti everything!)

20 drops lavender oil (see above)

20 drops lemon oil (same as orange oil)

20 drops orange oil (see above)

Again, shake it up and spray, spray, spray those germs away!! We sprayed this in the kitchen and the bathrooms.

These make the perfect, SAFE, non-toxic  addition to your fight against both seasonal, swine flu (H1N1) and other viral infections. These essential oils are proven natural germ fighters!  Safe because you can let you kids spray these around and help kill germs with out worrying about what harsh and poisonous  chemicals they are coming in contact with.

Just another safe way to keep us healthy!!

I see lots of recipes that use young coconuts. I have bought one before, but it spoiled before I could use it-(like it sat in my fridge for 3 months!)   So I bought another recently without a plan in mind. I had some left over fresh pineapple and thought it would go really well with the young coconut. That was if I could get the darn thing open!!!!  Several knives later I remembered seeing directions in a cook book for opening young coconuts.

By the way, this is the first raw cook book I ever bought-at least 3 years ago. And do you want to know why I bought it-because who wouldn’t want to look like Sarma and Matthew! I thought if I ate raw food I would look just like them. Call me gullible or stupid. But marketing works.

Finally I was able to open the coconut and pour about 2 cups of water out of it!

Into the vita-mix it went along with the cocnut meat I was able to scrape out of the inside. This is fresh not dried coconut-so it’s a little different.

About 2 cups diced pinapple

1 orange-with the white still intact

2 frozen bananas

6 dates-which you may want to add less. I think my blades need sharpening so most of the dates are still in a clump at the bottom of my vita mix

1 cup frozen blueberries

splash of vanilla

The taste was like summer!  It didn’t have a super strong coconut taste and it wasn’t too sweet. I froze what was left for a sorbet for later.

If you have a raw recipe to share add the link to your raw recipe blog post in the comments or just type the recipe out in the comments. Thanks for playing along!

The theme for this weeks unplugged project is ORANGE.

We found the perfect thing to do with all those clementine peels…..make candles!

This is super easy and only requires oranges or clementines, a knife, some oil (I used canola), and a lighter!

The tricky part is peeling your fruit so that the “wick” stays in the peel. So first take a knife and cut around your piece of fruit, just through the skin. Then carefully peel your fruit-keeping the peel in one piece. But don’t just rip it off when you get to the top, twist back and forth to loosen the wick from the middle of the fruit.

Next take your top piece of peel and place it on the table like the one in the picture above. Use a knife to cut out a small shape or circle to let your smoke and light out of the top of your lantern.

Place your bottom half in a small bowl and pour a small amount (1/8 to 1/4 of an inch) of oil into the peel.

Carefully light your wick and place the top back on.

We used this to light up our table.

Master Cleanse update: Almost finished with day 2. Not so bad. I felt horrible this morning but once I got past the salt water flush, I felt much better. I have a slight on-going headache, which I think is a caffeine withdrawal headache. Even though I only have a cup or two in the morning my body is still missing it! I can’t really say that I am hungry. I really like the lemonade drink, thank goodness.  One more day and then I will re-evaluate to see if I think I can do 5 days.