When life hands you lemons, make lemon vinegar!

We use a couple dozen lemons every week. That is a lot of lemon peels hanging around. I have already zested and dried them, used them to freshen my disposal, composted them and scrubbed my stainless steel sink with them (which is AMAZING!). Now I am also using them to make lemon vinegar for cleaning.
      I cannot express my love for this vinegar to you. I keep a squirt bottle of it mixed 50/50 with water in the kitchen and bathroom. This is a sparkle maker. Use it to clean counters, floors, appliances (inside and out), freshen glassware with water spots, clean windows, deodorize the air. What can't this do? um, give you cancer from a bunch of chemicals and phony fragrance that isn't even listed for you like with most cleaning products.


How To:
Get ready, this is hard (not) 

... you put the lemon rinds in a jar, cover with plain old vinegar and strain it off in 2 weeks. Easy-peasy, right? 

You then mix it 50/50 with water in a squirt bottle and try to stop wiping everything down that you own...cutting boards, that seal around your refrigerator, light switches, your toilet, your faucets (they will gleam if you dry them with a soft cloth), laundry stains, mirrors...and on and on.

DIY Aftershave/Tonic

I have been making aftershave for my husband for a year or so. He has been enjoying them and I have enjoyed the fact that these are much safer and healthier for him than his old store-bought tonics. I started with a basic recipe that can be modified with different essential oils. The nice thing is that you can create these for aroma and medicinal properties by using the essential oils. So you can have a very personalized product. My husband likes a little "sting" in his aftershave, but one could easily reduce the alcohol and replace it with more witch hazel if you have very sensitive skin.  These recipes do not include water, which i prefer not to add to any of my beauty products, to decrease contamination.

I made him a Bay Rum cologne for Valentine's day that turned out really well and did not take long to make. Typically, one would use dried leaves and the mixture would have to age. My recipe does not need time to cure and can be used immediately.
     I find many of the things I need at one of three places online:
Amazon.com --- A good place to start looking and comparison shopping. The reviews are helpful and I often get free shipping as an Amazon prime member.

Bulkapothecary.com --- Located not far from where I live, they have great prices  and good products.

Mountainroseherbs.com -- Probably one of my favorite companies right now. I can find excellent prices on hard to find products. Most everything seems to be organic. The products are chosen for being of high quality and ethically grown, the packaging is beautiful and recyclable/compostable (and made of recycled paper) and generally knocks my socks off.

Here is my basic adaptable recipe:
                                                           

DIY AFTERSHAVE

Yield: ⅔ cup (FYI--will fit into cholula hot sauce bottle perfectly)

Ingredients:

• ⅛ cup rum (use white for a clear look, dark for an amber look)
• witch hazel
• ¼ cup alcohol (I use 91% for zing)
• essential oils
• ⅛ cup glycerin

Preparation:add rum and glycerin to the ¼ line on measuring cup. Add alcohol to the ½ cup line.  add witch hazel to almost the ⅔ cup line. Add oils.

I like to use lemongrass, lime and lemon for an Asian-citrus blend. I like our invigorating blend, "Wake up!", with spearmint, peppermint, eucalyptus and camphor. It is a nice muscle rub as well or to cool off in the heat. You are only limited by your imagination and essential oil budget! Please note that this will need to be shaken at each use, as the ingredients will separate.

Bay Rum Aftershave

1/4 cup Kraken spiced rum (left over from the holidays :)
1/8 cup glycerin
1/4 cup 91% isopropyl alcohol
1/8-1/4 cup witch hazel
12 drops of bay (west indies) essential oil, be sure it is pimenta racemosa
5 drops of allspice essential oil

Just mix the ingredients in a glass measuring cup and decant into a bottle. I keep an old glass measuring cup just for making my DIY beauty products. As for bottles, get creative. I enjoy finding new uses for old items such as vinegar and oil cruets, old glass syrup bottles, Cholula hot sauce bottles and anything else that catches my eye! I generally label them with a tag including which oils were used and advise to shake before using. These seem to age well without problems, even after a few months.

I would love to hear of any scent combinations you have tried and enjoyed! I am looking forward to making a black peppery/vanilla/clove combo. We will see how it turns out!

Something Old, Something New...

 My daughter just got married this Summer in a beautiful, eco-frugal, vintage, DIY wedding. Whew. The wedding day was so much fun, but so was all the preparation.  One of the questions we had to answer was how do you come up with a bouquet that doesn't involve fresh or silk flowers, that can be made ahead of time and has personal meaning?  Our answer was to fashion fabric flowers from clothing that belonged to some of the Bride's Grandmothers.
  We took silk scarves, a fancy nightie, old brooches, feathers  and the jewlery that the Bride wore to prom with the Groom, and turned it into  a vintage chic bouquet.

Some of the flowers were made from a Grandmother's "fancy" nightie that was also worn in the Father of the Bride's "first" wedding!

The bouquet ended up being a really fun project that brought a lot of memories with it.  We learned a lot about making a bouquet.  One of the best tips I learned was to create individual picks for the jewelry and flower combos and then it was a lot easier to arrange the larger bouquet. We also learned that tea staining and coffee staining are cool eco- friendly tips to help blend newer materials with antiques.  Also, you can blow-dry feathers, and they stink when you do so, but not once they dry, thank goodness!

a sad little feather after a brief coffee soak, tea just didn't do it.

Post fluffing with a blow dryer

Much better and stink-free!!