ClassiclyAmber » Natural Living

Natural Cold + Congestion Relief

classiclyamber — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 14:44:49 +0000

The recent sick stuff we had going on here transformed to this annoying, lingering cold and congestion dealio for my hubby and myself. My mindset is to avoid the doc/hospital unless absolutely necessary, so we’ve been treating this here at home and getting some relief. Just thought I’d share a few of the natural remedies we use when there is a cold with congestion here:

Power Blast Tonic

makes 2 mugs

2 cups of boiling water

2-3 garlic cloves

1 tbsp. chopped or minced ginger root

2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar – with the mother

1 lemon

2 tsp. raw honey

capsicum, high quality [optional]

In a glass pitcher, put in garlic cloves and ginger root. Pour in the hot water, and let steep for 10 minutes. Next, juice in the entire lemon and add in the apple cider vinegar. Pour through a fine mesh sieve into your mug, and add in 1 tsp. honey. Stir until melted in. Last, sprinkle on some capsicum powder, if you wish to kick this up a notch. Only do this last step if you are extra brave. It really does work, but it is NOT for the weak!

Guzzle it down as fast as you can. The taste is not bad, but kinda punchy. Our kids enjoyed drinking it when sick. I do okay with it, too. Hubby, however, usually has to force it down – but is always glad of it after the fact.

Does this work? Absolutely. The garlic and ACV have natural antibiotic properties, while the ginger root helps keep your stomach settled while offering a delicious taste. The lemon and honey are also delish and help soothe a sore throat. Capsicum, if you choose it, helps clear out the mucous membranes even more, while also fighting a cold and cough.

I should mention that you should be prepared in advance with a box of tissues, and maybe even just go stand at the sink. The junk in your head will be so scandalized that it will do whatever is necessary to get out ASAP. After it’s passed, you will feel a LOT better as your throat and sinuses will be clear. Repeat this process 2-3 times a day until gone completely.

Garlic Poultices

Another thing you can do is to make garlic poultices. Take a cloth or paper towel, lay it flat centered over a small plate. Chop up a couple of garlic cloves, and place it right in the middle, on top of the plate. Wrap up the sides of the towel, and pour on a little boiling water. When it is cool enough to touch, place it immediately over your neck and hold for 60-90 seconds. Don’t leave on too long or the powerful garlic can burn the skin. However, a little bit of it is really good for the throat. Do the same thing, but this time place it on the soles of your feet. Your body absorbs the good stuff from the garlic through the feet and can help bring faster healing.

Healing Foods

I try to keep citrus fruits around and fresh squeezed orange juice makes for a yummy healthy treat when you have a cold. You can boost your Vitamin C levels even more by also taking Emergen-C mixed in with some water. For dinner, put a whole chicken in a crock pot with lemon and thyme to eat with a salad or something light. Save all the bones and put them back in the crock pot, fill up with water and continue cooking to make a delicious chicken stock. It’s extra tasty when you add in chopped onions, garlic, mushrooms, carrots and celery. Don’t forget plenty of salt and pepper. The next day, you will have lots of super tasty, super healthy homemade chicken stock to make soups with.

Stop the Cough

The above remedies help fight off any cough you might have, but sometimes it can still be an aggravation to try to sleep at night with any cough what-so-ever. Put VapoRub [or make your own version with coconut oil + some drops of eucalyptus oil] on the soles of your feet…slip on some cozy socks, and go to bed cough-free.

Past all of this, remember to keep drinking lots of water and get rest when you can. You should be better in no time!

Make Your Own Yogurt Ninjas

classiclyamber — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 23:34:37 +0000

Homemade yogurt is about one of the easiest things you can make. And when you get in the habit of making it every single week (something that I used to be faithful at and am getting back to it) then your family’s excellent digestive tracts will make all the neighbors jealous.

Our family is coming out of a crazy battle with a stomach bug. It hit the kids the hardest, especially the girls since they are the youngest, I suppose. Sarie Beth, who is about 11 months old, wasn’t even able to keep MY milk down. That was when I started to be more concerned. We are still dealing with it all and helping her recover. My point is here – that if I had made sure that our whole family was still getting plenty of raw milk yogurt, then when this stomach bug came around – I am about 99% sure that they would have been able to kick it out FAST. That’s how it was in the past when we made and consumed this yogurt faithfully.

What I’m talking about here is probiotics – or – the good bacteria that every gut needs in order to be healthy!

You might not believe it, but I’ve seen this stuff cure some of the worst digestive system disorders – and even horrible diaper rashes on babies! People who do not have enough healthy flora in their gut will suffer from the worst intestinal issues! It goes beyond that, too…even if you buy store bought yogurt and eat that regularly, but you also eat a lot of processed foods from the grocery store…and take lots of antibiotics and drugs…then your system will be outta whack.

Have no fear, though! Raw milk yogurt is here to help! AND – it tastes really good! Why raw milk? There is a world of difference in this homemade yogurt from fresh milk versus the store bought yogurt made from that other stuff.

My boys get a laugh because I call this yogurt White Ninjas – that go in your intestines and kick tail of the bad dudes in there causing all the trouble. In the beginning, it really helped my kids visualize what was going on inside their bodies when they ate this yogurt. Your body NEEDS these ninjas!!

This is how we do it:

1. Take a little less than half a gallon of fresh milk from your cow or farmer (that you know, love and trust);

2. Pour it in your pot with your thermometer in place;

3. Set the flame to medium-low;

4. Watch the milk and heat it up to 180 degrees;

5. To make the yogurt have a slightly thicker consistency, you will want to keep the temp right around 180 for approx. 30 minutes;

6. Cut off the heat and let milk cool down to 110-115 degrees. Pour it into a clean half gallon Mason jar.

7. Add in a 1/4 cup of either last week’s yogurt, or store bought organic plain yogurt – or you can purchase those nifty yogurt cultures in powder form from a supplier (you’d use a different measurement for the powdered cultures); Mix it up with a long handled spoon;

8. Let it set out and coagulate in a warm area for 6-12 hours. It needs to stay around 110 degrees. During that time, it will thicken (this is what happens when it makes more and more ninjas). During the cooler weather, I usually leave my yogurt in the top oven I just slightly heat up the oven and then cut it back off. It’s insulated and keeps in the heat for a long time.

Fav way to eat it? For now, I’m really loving to layer it – parfait style – with roasted peanuts, raisins, fresh ground cinnamon – and sometimes even topped with some chopped organic bananas! You would NEVER think that something so delicious could be so daggum healthy!!

Here it is, folks! Makes a great breakfast, lunch or snack.

And those bad guys in your gut? Don’t worry. You can NINJA ‘em out now!!

Edited to add: It’s been been brought to my attention that you don’t HAVE to heat up your milk that high if you don’t want to. Part of the reason in using raw milk for your homemade yogurt is because it has so many good ninjas [good bacteria] in it already. If you heat it up higher, then you are killing a bunch of them off. So also try making yogurt just like this and only heat the milk up to 110-120 degrees and do everything else the same.

Some resources:

To find a raw milk farmer in your area, check here: http://www.realmilk.com/where.html

To purchase live cultures to make your own yogurt, checkie: http://dairyconnection.com/commerce/catalog.jsp?catId=11

Just Whip It. [Whip it GOOD]

classiclyamber — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:35:24 +0000

For the love of butter!! Mmmm…PURE butter, that is! <3

Today I’m gonna show you how to whip up some homemade butter from fresh milk. When I tell people that I make my own butter, I get lots of questions and requests for instructions. People want to know about my Amish Paradise lifestyle (Kidding! We are faaaaar from it!). You will see how easy it is with a KitchenAid mixer. Use whatever you’ve got, though!

Okay, if you are New World and believe some of those new fangled ideas that butter is positively evil, then you may wish to peek at this post through your fingers. I, personally, can not get on board with such thoughts ‘n ideas. Firstly, there is proof from many sources that raw milk butter is quite good for you – and is actually better than the alternatives (fake butter margarine, plastic Crisco, etc.) Your brain is made of fat and definitely needs the good kinds of fat for optimum nutrition. And then we could sit here and talk all day about the vast difference just in TASTE, folks! Oh my goodness! Drinking fresh milk is almost like drinking the most pure form of ice cream that you can imagine. No, I’m not talking about that sugary mess – just a nice, really clean, naturally sweet milk. So the butter that’s made from fresh milk is also copacetic! Yumness abounds!

Let’s get a few things cleared up first: when I speak of butter, please know that I speak of the truest form of butter that you can possibly imagine, and that comes from clean fresh raw milk. Why raw milk? Close your eyes and think about it: acres of (pesticide-free) green, green grass…clean Jersey cows here and there, grazing happily and smiling at one another…their milk bags of normal, healthy size…two calves laugh and jump, leap-frog-style, one over the other while some of the older cows bask just beyond the sunlight under a canopy of trees…

Yeah. That’s not TOO far a stretch from the exact farm where we purchase our raw milk from.

Where does the milk that YOU buy come from? Do you know? It’s okay, if you don’t. A lot of Americans don’t have a clue about that. But if you were to take a trip to one of those ‘other’ farms that is typical of a lot of dairy farms in this country, you might be in for a reality shock. You just might feel so bad for the animals involved or you’d get nauseous looking at the sanitary levels of the place – - that you just may eternally vow to never buy regular store bought milk again. Yep. I’m serious!

At ‘those’ farms, the cows typically aren’t treated as well. They are treated more like numbers and not living beings. They get routine and unnecessary shots of antibiotics and hormones…the first sometimes causing them to be more sick and the second causing them to produce SO much milk that they are ridiculously full of milk and they can barely walk straight. Since they are “only numbers” and not living beings in the way they are treated, then they sometimes aren’t so closely inspected…and will frequently get mastitis and infections because they are unhealthy. Besides, who cares if they pump the milk out of them when they are sick or dirty because – all the milk is just going to be boiled to death anyway, right?

So then because they are sick and dirty…um…then there is typically pus in the milk. But that’s okay, right? Maybe…not….?

Because of the conditions that the farmers create with their dairy cows, then they have to routinely boil the milk (pasteurize) it, and then to make it “cosmetically” pleasing (and have a longer shelf life?), it is homogenized. That basically means that they pump the milk through tee-niny holes that create a more consistent texture to the milk. Well, whoop dee doo! I actually LIKE to see the thick, yummy cream rise to the top of the milk.

Please note that I do realize that there probably are some decent, clean dairy farmers out there who don’t practice organic/all natural farming methods. The point here is that consumers should know where their milk comes from…who the farmers are…and how they actually raise their cows or goats. You can try to find a fresh milk local farmer in your area by going to RealMilk.com or by contacting the Weston A. Price Association to find the good stuff. And that’s just the moral to this part of the story: when you make the switch over to fresh milk, you HAVE to know your farmers and the animals who make the milk! You need to know that they are clean and that the cows are happy and healthy! So find your farmer and definitely take a tour of the farm. Take your kids and have a fun day of it!

What all can you do with clean fresh milk? Plenty! For starters, there’s butter (which we will actually make here, believe it or not), buttermilk, yogurt, kefir, sour cream, cheese, etc.

First, separate your cream. It will have risen to the top, of course, and you can either just spoon it out, carefully pour it out or suck it out with a baster. OR you can be like me and do a combo of the 3.

Next, pour into your mixer. It’s not too late to whip it into shape.

Make messes.

And let the machine do its thing! I’m not sure what the variables are here – and maybe someone else can tell me – but sometimes it only takes 8 minutes to get the thicker butter parts separated…and other times I’ve had it going for 30 minutes or more before the butter separated. Still…using the machine is easier than using a hand churn, right? Though doing it by hand would certainly help tone your arm muscles. So you pick! I’ve even read about people who put it in a tightly sealed half gallon Mason jar and shickety-shake it like nuts until it separates. You wanna do that? Go for it! Or better yet, give it to your kids to do and teach them about it while they get to contribute and stay happily busy all at once!

I should also give you a quick warning, too: Please stand by your mixer at this point! When you first turn on your mixer, you will feel like you’re just making whipped cream (and you are)…but when the butter decides to suddenly separate, it happens REALLY fast all at once! If you’re not standing right there to turn down the mixer, then buttermilk will fly up EVERYWHERE as it’s being sloshed around with the thick butter! You have been warned. =-)

After just a little bit, you will see the thicker butter pieces start to come to the center and stick to the whisk, too.

See the buttermilk in there?

This is not like the cultured buttermilk you buy from the store. This is real buttermilk! Just like you saw, it’s the separated milk left over from making butter. You want to save ALL of that yummy good stuff! It makes the best eggs for breakfast – and the best biscuits and pancakes and anything else you can dream up. Use it for almost all of your baking needs and taste the difference!

Once you’ve gotten the buttermilk separated, then you can return the butter to the bowl and start kneading it with your hands. The goal here is to remove as much of the buttermilk as possible to keep the butter from going rancid too fast. Some people put in some salt in their butter to also help in that area. I sometimes add just a teeny bit of salt.

So when you’ve gotten most all of the buttermilk squeezed and pressed out, you can then plop it all into a container of your choice…or even just wrap it in unbleached parchment paper (which I’ve done many times and works well). If you want to make a big batch of butter, then put some in your fridge and freeze the rest.

Mmmm! Smooth like butta! That’s ’cause…wait – nevermind. But what are some of your favorite recipes that call for the real deal? Do share!

Just for kicks, check out some of these antique butter churns:

Like I said, TONED ARM MUSCLES!

And this one is a butter press. Isn’t it pretty? And it would make pretty designs on your butter, too! I keep saying that I’m going to get me some sort of a butter press, but it just hasn’t happened yet. “One of these days!”

Photo credits: I dunno. You tell ME and I’ll give credit!

Homemade Honey Wheat Bread

classiclyamber — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:45:30 +0000

Why you should try making this…

Plus, yummy fresh bread baking in the kitchen equals yummy smelling home…and yummy smelling home equals smiling, happy family…and smiling, happy family equals crazy, happy momma! We won’t mention that it is more cost effective to bake your own bread every week instead of buying that (eekers) store bought stuff. And let’s also not mention how much healthier this is for all of you, either. Neh. Hushies on all of that!

Ready to get started? Grab the ingredients!

6 + cups of your BEST whole wheat flour (if you can grind up your own wheat berries and use that, you are even more awesome.)
1.5 tablespoons dry active yeast
2.5 cups warm water
2.5 teaspoons sea salt
1/3 cup of oil (expellor pressed canola, or olive oil or whatev)
1/3 cup of good raw honey (always pour in your honey AFTER your oil. The previous oil in the measuring cup makes the honey come out super easy!)

I use my stand mixer to make this extra simple, but you can definitely do it all by hand. You will have the strongest arm muscles in all the land! Who needs a gym membership, eh?

This is the homemade loaf bread that I make each week for my family. Once you start doing this, it really is nothing to keep it up every week. In fact, it makes things easier at mealtimes and all. Truly.

In your mixer’s bowl, pour in the 2.5 cups of warm water. Make it not too hot, but certainly not cold. If it’s too hot, then it will kill the yeast, which goes in next. Pour that in. Give it 5 minutes or so to activate and look alive. You will notice it start to change in texture and you may even see some bubbles!

Next pour in just 2 cups of your WW flour. Turn your mixer on to Speed 2 (this is what my KitchenAid says to make breads at). As it’s going, add in the rest of your ingredients, starting with the remaining 4 cups of flour.

Your dough will be looking quite sticky. You want to keep the machine going until it begins to be smooth in appearance and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

Then you can have fun and get messy. Remember: if you don’t make messes in your kitchen, then you’re just not having enough fun baking stuff! So…the more messy you get, the better you’ll cook. That motto has always worked for me anyway.

Turn your dough onto a slightly floured surface. Please don’t add in tons of flour. Honest-to-goodness, you will make the bread WAY too dry that way! A little bit of flour goes a long way. When you first start baking your own breads, you will think that you’re not doing this part right and that you need to get the dough as un-sticky as possible. That’s just not true. The dough should always be a little sticky…but not TOO sticky. You will learn how to balance this better with practice.

(Just so you know, I had WAY too much flour out on the counter when kneading this dough! Most of that, I simply did not use. So keep that in mind while perusing through these photos…)

When you knead it for a little while, it will start to smooth out.

**After you work it to a more non-sticky consistency, you have the option to divide this dough in two to make 2 small loaves. I prefer to leave it and bake 1 large loaf, though!**

When you’ve made a smooth dough, you are ready to pan it. Tuck the ends under and put it ‘seam’ side down.

Move it to your fancy loaf pan. Now, I have tried a few different types of pans, and my hands-down fav is this stoneware pan made by Pampered Chef. This is one that my mom let me “borrow” years ago and I’ve had it ever since. The bread simply does not stick to it at all like it does with different metal loaf pans I’ve used. Plus, it’s super easy to clean.

Pat down your dough to try and get it even across the top if you’re interested in a more perfect-looking loaf of bread. This makes your sandwiches nicer.

Now it’s time to proof! That simply means that you are leaving your dough alone now so it can think about what it needs to do next. Set your timer for 30 minutes and give it some space. You will want to let it rise in a draft-free warm-ish place. I have a double oven and I let mine rise in the top oven and then allow the bottom oven to preheat during that time. Or you could simply put it in the corner of your kitchen somewhere with a flour sack towel draped over it.

Your oven that you are cooking it in should be 350 degrees F.

Pop it in! Set the timer for 45 minutes and walk away.

When the buzzer goes off, check your bread. It’s should be a beautiful golden brown color on top and should sound hollow when tapped.

I allow mine to cool in the pan somewhat before attempting removal. If you try to take it out too soon, then it will be so crazy hot that it will rip and fall apart. Been there – done that! It’s not a bad thing, per se, but it does make crafting sandwiches a little more tricky.

To remove, I simply use a sturdy butter knife and run it along all the edges all the way to the bottom of the pan and sort of slide it towards the center (if that makes sense at all). If it’s cooled enough, it will totally pop out in one piece after that point.

Cut the bread with a good serrated knife and make yourself some of the tastiest sandwiches and toast ev-OR!

Again, this is our basic bread that we make here pretty much every week. Sometimes I change it up and make it with herbs or garlic, etc. Try it and see how much you love homemade bread! Mmmm YUM!

P.S. I just want to encourage you breadmaking newbies out there! This might seem like it’s too hard or impossible to do at first, but for me personally – it took me lots of tries until I got the bread the way I liked it (you know, NOT ugly and SUPER tasty!). The more that you practice, the better you will get. So don’t give up if your first breads are not what you expected. It gets better each time, I promise!

Candid Clothesline Construction

classiclyamber — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 22:00:34 +0000

It’s here! I can’t believe it’s happening!

It’s something that I’ve been talking about for nearly 2 years…Yessiree, 2 years!

I can’t believe this is happening… *fans face furiously – Miss America-contestant-style.

Yes, some people dream about shopping adventures and Star Trek conventions and weekend parties with co-workers…but me.

Me? I dream of simpler things…like freshly cleaned laundry blowing dry in the summer’s breeze, and yummified baked honey wheat bread hot out of the oven, and cleaning my babies down in our big farmhouse kitchen sink.

Let’s go back and talk more about that freshly cleaned air-dried laundry: Two years ago, I wanted this so bad that I set up two volleyball poles held down by cement blocks – strung up some twine as tight as I could betwixt them and then happily clipped up my baby’s cloth diapers to air dry naturally. Wow! I had ingenuity! Did it work? Heck yeah! For at least 2 or 3 weeks, pride emanated from my face. Was the line pretty? Not at all! It was a sight to behold, and something that I didn’t mind at first, but then became more and more embarrassed. The twine stretched out and began losing interest as it let our clean clothes seep further and further down to the ground. The whole thing ended when the winds of change came in and blew down the volleyball poles. I resigned the clothes line for then. What sense does it make anyway when the clothes are getting a brush with the dirt like that? I knew in my heart that we would one day have a clothes line again and that it would be better than before.

That day has finally arrived.

Aaaaaah! Looks so fresh! Smells so charming!

Wait…scratch that. Reverse it. Or maybe it actually DOES work both ways!

My days of hanging all of our laundry up to dry inside are officially over. …Okay, maybe not totally. I know that every now and then, the weather won’t agree with me, so I will still hang dry some things indoors, and I have another project in mind for air drying…but for the most part it will all get the nicest outdoorsy treatment I can give ‘em.

Towels, sheets, cloth diapers, donkeys…whatever we want to hang out to dry in the sun, we now can! We have 4 lines on this thing with room for more, should we need it in the future. Hubby built the poles from wood posts and basically made a “T” out of them with diagonal supports underneath the arm. He dug holes in the ground that were about 2 feet deep.We have really rocky earth here that is chock full of clay, so I can tell you that it was a whoooooooole lotta fun for him to dig such deep holes!

Our kiddos certainly loved him for digging deep holes, though! Here’s Nolan, our 4 year old boy, showing his hole sitting skillz. Do try this at home!

After you get your holes dug and “T’s” in place, all you need are some eye hooks and line and you’re good to go!

Line drying your clothes is a natural way to get the stains out of fabric and is a good second step to cleaning your laundry just after using your Homemade Laundry Soap. Yeppers – the sun ‘bleaches’ any mess outta there!

Also, your home dryer is one of your biggest energy producers. With the price of everything skyrocketing – including electricity – do yourself and the environment a favor, and build yourself a nice clothesline. It’s a step in the right direction and you won’t regret it!

Be sure ‘n check here for the whole Lovin’ Your Laundry series!

Freshly Ground Cinnamon

classiclyamber — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 03:22:25 +0000

Really…what is the big deal?

A lot, actually. Even someone who’s NOT a food snob (such as myself) will smell and taste a real difference with freshly ground cinnamon.

And it’s easier to acquire than you’d think. But what the crap IS that thing??? It’s just a regular old grinder. Yeppers, it’s totally manual, so it will totally help get your flabby arms in shape! There are always motorized machines, though, so don’t feel like you have to really do any work with this thing. Read on.

First, you need…cinnamon sticks! Check out Bulk Herb Store. They have great prods at great prices. It’s where I order my herbs ‘n cinnamon sticks from, too.

Somewhat random fact: Did you know that a cinnamon stick is actually the bark from a tree? Crazy, huh?

Anyway, get out a few sticks and place between a sheet of wax or parchment paper. Then get out your meat tenderizer hammer thingie that you never use and go to town on those cinnamon sticks! Go ahead…let out all that frustration and anger. It’s gonna be TASTY anger!

Another somewhat random fact: good quality cinnamon is GOOD for you! There have been studies on how it is effective in treating people with Diabetes, how it can help relax you and reduce anxiety and stress – and how it promotes good blood circulation and get your brain going (sounds like I need more cinnamon in my life!).

Watch it! If you keep letting all those chips and pieces fly out like that, then there won’t be anything left to grind into yummy powder, K?

Using the paper as a funnel (which is NOT what I’m doing in this pic!) – slide your chunks and pieces into the grinder.

Twist and grind! You got it! Yeah! This is where you will get your arms in shape.

Smell that? YUM! It’s lookin’ good! The first pass through will create smaller chunks and splintery pieces. You’ll probably need to pass it through 2 or 3 more times and then…

Voila! You will have super fine, super yummy cinnamon powder for all of your fav recipes!

Now, I know…I know…the cinnamon bottle thingie that you see in the picture above is from one of those store bought varieties, but I’ve just been using that to keep refilling up on FRESH ground cinnamon. It works for now! One of these days I will get a glass bottle to store it in.

The manufactured ground cinnamon powder that you buy at the store has already lost a great deal of its potency by the time you toss it into your shopping cart. Get yourself a good grinder – either manual or electric – and see the difference for yourself. You won’t regret it, I promise!

Oh man, what to make next? How about some cinnamon raisin oatmeal cookies?!? =-)

Lovin’ Your Laundry Pt. 3

classiclyamber — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 11:30:15 +0000

Continued from Lovin’ Your Laundry – Part 2…

Sniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiff! Mmmm, smell the yummy freshness!

Now let’s have some good, clean fun! Since your curiosity has been piqued about the ingredients in natural cleaners – let’s talk about how to make them happen for your laundry. All you need is a good recipe or two for Good ‘Ole Laundry Soap. I’ll just share a really basic one with you that I’ve used before:

1 Cup Soap Crumbles (ground lye soap)
1 Cup Borax
1 Cup Washing Soda
Several drops of your favorite Essential Oil (some to try are Lemon, Grapefruit, Lavender)

Mix it all up really well with your hands. Yes, it’s messy – and yes, it’s fun to do.

You will have the cleanest hands and fingernails in all the land!

See how it starts to break up the soapy clumps? It’s almost like working with a flaky pie crust dough. Almost.

I guess at this point, you should store it in an airtight container if you want to preserve the essential oil part of the recipe, but I’ve just got mine dispensed in this glass jar with a not-so-tight-fitting lid.

We use 1-2 tablespoons per average size load. For cloth diapers, I tend to use more like 2 tbsp. but I also have to make sure to add vinegar to the rinse so that it doesn’t cause breakouts on my baby’s tushi! Remember – the vinegar helps all the soap rinse back out really clean.

Some notes about homemade laundry soap:

First- Don’t expect it to be bubbly and sudsy because it won’t! That’s okay, though, because we don’t want the chemicals that cause the sudsy action in the first place – and it’s not suds that get your clothes clean. We now have better ingredients for that!

Second- Feel free to skip the essential oil part completely. It’s not a necessary component. When you don’t use it (and I frequently don’t) then your laundry will simply come out smelling fresh and clean with no unnecessary fragrances.

Third- While your newfound ingredients are natural, you still want to keep them out of reach of children. It wouldn’t be fun to ingest some of that stuff…

Fourth- You do the math and see how much money this will save you! When you start making your own homemade laundry soap, it is VERY cost effective!

Anyway, I’m telling you – there is something about making your own laundry soap that is entirely satisfying. I’m not quite sure what it is, but it really makes you feel like you’re the greatest wife and mother around. Maybe it’s because it’s something that you will use all the time and that your family constantly needs…and every time you go back to your jar or tin with handmade laundry soap that you made, it’s another pat on the back. I did this! Wow! “Oh cool, Mommy! I’m glad you washed my favorite shirt!” They love me! They really, really love me! – And my handmade laundry soap, of course! “Ethan? Please go start loading those clothes into the machine.” “Mmmm! This soap smells really great!” Yeah, doesn’t it? I made that myself! See? It’s laundry soap that is good for your self esteem.

So talk to me! Have you tried making it yet?

Be sure ‘n check here for the whole Lovin’ Your Laundry series!

Lovin’ Your Laundry – Part 2

classiclyamber — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 13:21:23 +0000

Continued from Lovin’ Your Laundry – Part 1…

Speaking of clean, what are you cleaning your laundry with? Are you still using those harsh detergents from the store that contain dangerous chemicals? Okay, I’m quite surprised that a lot of those big time companies aren’t out of business by now. I mean, this isn’t news that it’s unsafe to use these chemicals in our homes, so I’m not sure why people are still buying these products! For instance, if you use something like Bounce fabric softener sheets, then you are coating you and your kids’ clothes with a layer of toxic chemicals. When you put the clothes on, your body moisture causes your body to absorb those toxins – going directly into your bloodstream. Does that sound like a good idea? But that’s only ONE example. I will stop here so this post isn’t 347 pages long and plus, I think you get my point.

So throw out all of those chemicals from your laundry room and first off, it will smell better (no more laundry cleaner-induced headaches!) and secondly, it will be better for you and your family’s health. If you’re new or WANT to be new to the World of Natural Laundry Cleaning, then let me introduce you to some mighty nice friends:

All natural goat milk soap – Go on Etsy.com and locate someone who makes this by hand. This soap is usually cold processed and contains lye. This is the way your ancestors cleaned their clothes back in the good old days and it’s good stuff that works! You can do a search and find Soap Crumbles, which is basically the bars of soap shredded up in a food processor in small bits. Crumbles are good when you don’t make your own soap but DO want to make your own laundry soap. You can find it very reasonably priced, too!
Washing soda or baking soda – Washing soda is sodium carbonate – it’s a sodium salt of carbonic acid. It is used to soften the water and soak up the extra magnesium and calcium in the water. It’s good at removing oil and grease stains. Washing soda and baking soda are very similar in their makeup and either one can be used in laundry soap recipes.
Borax – a mineral and salt of boric acid and dissolves easily in the water. It helps brighten and whiten your laundry!
Essential oils – this could be lavender, lemon or even tea tree oil – or whatever your favorite scent is as this is used purely for the fragrance. You can experiment and come up with your own favorite mix. Note that this will not leave an absurdly strong fragrance on your laundry like the store bought chemicals, but it will leave your clothes with a hint of sweet smelling freshness.
Vinegar – use this to help get your clothes cleaner and use it as a rinse. It’s wonderful for cleaning cloth diapers, too! It also helps with softening your clothes, which is especially a nice bonus when you line dry your laundry!

Besides the goat milk soap, all of these ingredients can easily be found at most grocery stores. Check the cleaning aisle and there ye shall find it. So go gather your ingredients and come back soon for the rest of the laundry lowdown!

Tune in for LYL Part 3!

Lovin’ Your Laundry Pt. 1

classiclyamber — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 20:24:09 +0000

Oh boy…now THIS is a never ending job, isn’t it? How many of us actually enjoy this task? I remember when I first heard Martha Stewart talking about how much she loved doing different chores around the house, and laundry was one of them.

Do WHAT?

Well, she certainly LOOKS like she’s having fun, doesn’t she? (Wait, is that big window in the background PhotoShopped in?) And the most insane part of all of this is that I think I would be the same way as she is – if I had her laundry room!

Anyway, I believe her when she says she loves it. Truly, I do. Martha is a role model for me in some ways, and the fact that she loves being a homekeeper is one of them. The woman has everything set up right, though! Like me, she is a perfectionist – but, unlike me, she actually has her home organized. The laundry room is no exception. She encourages you to make your laundry room organized and pretty…you know, a space that you wouldn’t mind spending time in every day or every week or however much you need to do so. A person can get a lot done in a nice, organized room!

So is your laundry room/closet/space working for you? How does it make you feel when you’re in that area?

For me, I’d have to say that there is simply not enough storage. When we built this house 2 years ago, it was supposed to have built-in cabinets all along one wall for storage. Due to financial constraints, it wasn’t added but was planned to be shortly down the road. As you can see, it’s just never been done. I’ve scoured the free section on CraigsList for used cabinetry, hoping to score a deal – but I’ve rarely seen anything like that. I have a feeling that when used cabinetry is posted, it’s snatched up Pronto Squanto. It’s just in high demand. Maybe one day I will either find it – or will have this sudden creative idea for making this space work better for us.

If there’s no cabinets, then what’s in there exactly? Obviously our washer…and then the dryer (which we never use anymore except for dire emergencies; we are converting almost totally to line drying everything), and then we also have a cherry wood armoire (a little much for a laundry space, don’t ya think?), a 3-bin cheap-O laundry separator, a hamper, and one of those plastic utility sinks. There are two gold tones framed floral prints above the sink (and hung crookedly, at that).

See that? Yeah, that junky looking mess of wire hangers from various sources? I have been using those for quite a while now to dry our laundry. If it’s a shirt, or diapers, or a skirt – I just hang it up on one of those hangers on the back of the door, or in the adjacent bathroom window, or the doorway…or pretty much anywhere that works to dry the stuff. If its a blanket, pants, towel, sheet or anything larger, then they get draped on the banister railings on the second floor going up to the 3rd. On days where I’ve had mucho laundry to do, it can start to look like a scene out of Sanford & Son around here. It’s one of the many reasons why I will be super stoked when hubby gets the fancy laundry line built for us outside!

There are two white shelves on the wall above the machines that I have regretted putting in the very moment that I completed installation, which was a pain in the spleen. There is even the pie eating contest trophy that my husband won back in the 80′s when he was but a lad. I bet that we have the only laundry room that showcases something like that!

Nothing in here flows to me. The prints go okay with the nice armoire, and the white of the shelves matches the white machines, but it doesn’t all work together to create a pleasing space. Just like any other room in this home, I feel like I can make it look and function 80% better than it is today, but need to get my mess together to do it.

I do love that in Martha’s laundry room picture above (and I know that this is just ONE of her many laundry rooms!) the color palette of the room is bright and white. Doesn’t it just feel clean? It makes you feel like you are easily getting your laundry just as clean as its surroundings, I’m sure.

At this point, I’d love to start over on our laundry room and go with something more farm chic. I would maybe not do it quite so rustic. I mean, I do want it to look clean-ish, but it would really fit nicely with our farmhouse style here – and I could still add in a few fancy things to give it that Rustic Opulence look that I want to be the defining style for our entire home.

Are you loving your laundry space? If you could change something in your laundry room, what would it be? If nothing else, tell me what I can change in mine! Inspiration, please!

How about naturally cleaning your laundry? Tune in for LYL Part 2!