All Natural Tips and Tricks

  I love reading about household items that can be used in different ways to save me from going out buying yet another product. I’ve found a ton of different tips people have posted about doing your beauty and household regimes naturally and easy so I’d like to share some of my favorite finds with you here:

 

Beauty

Soothing and anti-inflammatory, oatmeal contains beta glucan, a soluble fiber that creates a thin, moisture-retaining film on the surface of the skin. Place a handful of whole oats in a clean washcloth and use a rubber band to secure it. Next, immerse it in a sinkful of warm water and squeeze the bag four or five times. Once the water is cloudy, splash it on your face and then air-dry. (If you must towel dry, pat as gently as possible.)

 

Rich in oil, walnuts make for extra-gentle sloughing. Blend 1/4 cup shelled walnuts, 1/2 cup olive oil (for extra emollients), and a tablespoon of honey (to seal moisture into your skin) in a food processor set on a slow speed, creating a fine-particle scrub. Standing in the shower (if you're scrubbing your feet) or over a sink (if it's for your hands), work the mixture thoroughly over your skin for a couple of minutes. Rinse with warm water.

 

The fruit acid loosens dead skin cells. Cut a fresh orange in half and squeeze the juice of one half into a bowl. Add 1/4 cup granulated sugar and 1/4 cup olive oil and then blend into a moisture-rich scrub. Next, rub the exposed side of the other half of the orange over knees, elbows, heels, and any other dry spots. Last, rub in the sugar mixture to slough off dead skin. Rinse with warm water and pat skin dry.

 

The lactic acid in milk serves as a gentle skin exfoliant, while its natural fat content acts as a body moisturizer. Add a gallon of whole milk to a tubful of warm water and soak. It's a great alternative to sugar and salt scrubs, which may be too abrasive for people who suffer from eczema, psoriasis, or sensitive skin. If you prefer a fragranced bath, add 10 to 20 drops of an essential oil, such as lavender.

 

Toss your old used coffee grinds them in with your conditioner to make your hair extra shiny and use as normal. Pretty simple stuff eh? Another great conditioner tip is to replace conditioner with common white vinegar 1-4 times a month (depending on whether your hair is dry or oily) This helps get rid of build up and dullness and gives you a shiny mane.

Tone and rebuild skin with avocados and carrots by combining 1 avocado, 1 cooked carrot, 1/2 cup heavy cream, 1 egg and 3 tablespoons of honey. Leave on for 10-20 minutes and then rinse. These ingredients add tons of vitamins, antioxidants and calcium to rebuild natural collagen, tone skin and remove age spots. Each natural element does more than any store-bought item can.

 

A lemon and egg facial removes the red splotches on your face. Soothe both symptoms away easily by mixing together one egg yolk and the juice of one lemon into a paste. Cover your face with it and leave it on overnight. If this seems like too much work, leave it on your face for an hour. You might not get the optimal results with this time, but you will see a difference.

  

Household

Keep brown sugar soft by throwing in a marshmallow. Boom, done!

 

Use this method to clean sinks, toilet, tubs and tile: 1. Halve Grapefruit: 1 medium to large grapefruit will clean your entire bath or shower from top to bottom, including all the fixtures. Simply cut it in half with a knife and you'll be all set. 2. Sprinkle With Salt: Using 1 grapefruit half at a time, sprinkle liberally with salt. Wet your bathtub and sprinkle the remaining salt around the bottom. 3. Take That Scrubbing Bubbles!Scrub your grapefruit around your shower or tub, making sure to slightly "juice" the citrus over each fixture and lifting it every few seconds to pick up fresh salt from around the tub instead of just pushing it around. 4. Rinse: When all is said and done, simply rinse away the pulpy bits and the salt and your shower is as good as new.

 

Use mayo to get rid of water ring left behind on wood surfaces.

 

Save yourself the nail chipping and time consuming effort of peeling up the end of the tape by using the bread bag clip to keep it ready for when you need it.

 

Save old shower caps to put your shoes in while packing a suitcase and protect your clothes from getting dirty.

 

No more crying when you cut onions! This tip came thanks to watching the movie The Help last weekend and I was glad to hear it because I cry like a baby when I cut onions. All you have to do is put a matchstick between your teeth while you cut and you wont cry (unlit!) If you don’t have any on hand trying chewing gum. This works for some people too.

 

  Soak a dryer sheet in with cookware that’s been burnt or has baked-on food in warm water. It makes the scrubbing far less work on you later. Also works on cook tops and dingy cabinet doors.

 

I’m always really impressed by these tips. It makes me feel so empowered to not buy into the latest nonsense product that companies put out. Give some of these a try and see how they work for you, I hope you have some success!

 

(Credits go to Martha Stewart, Inspiring Pretty, Anne Taintor,  Pinterest and Google Images)

Falling For Fall

My absolute favorite season is Fall. I am completely in love with the colors and smells it has to offer. I also really adore decorating and dressing (and eating) for Fall so I’ve been trying to find some inspirational ideas to get myself into that harvest-lovin’ mood. Here’s some of the things that have been grabbing my attention lately:

 

 

       

 

   

  

  
 

    

  

  

I’ve hauled all my fall decorations out of hiding and have been working away at making my house look the part for the season. I’ll be posting some pics soon of how it all looks once the job is completed to my satisfaction. 

Do you decorate when the seasons change? What sorts of things do you put up for Autumn?

 

 

*Photo credit Pinterest*

-Snapshot Of The Week-

“You have to make peace with yourself. The key is to find the harmony in what you have.”

-Ms Naomi Watts

 

*Picture credit Pinterest*

 

Ornate Frame DIY

My sweet dear old mama decided she wanted to do some redecorating at her house and wanted to toss out these spiffy (and outdated) pictures. Before they met their end I snatched them up and told her I had big plans to re-vamp these babies. That was sort of half true…

She got them from my grandma’s house after her passing. They do have a very antique-y baroque look to them that does sort of say, “To grandmother’s house we go!”

I’m not saying they’re ugly or anything; I’m sure in the right setting they would fit right in. However, that setting is not in my house. But as I was saying, I had big plans in my head for these guys. I do have plants to give them a fresh new look but past that point I’m hitting a dead-end.

I thought they had really nice details and would make a very dainty touch to a girly girl’s room like mine.

 

That is to say, after some major elbow grease to scrub off the 20 plus years of accumulated gunk built up. Cue the Q-tips and rubbing alcohol.

I did feel a little hesitant to tear into these suckers. They put in so many years of hard work decorating lovely ladies spaces. But then I got over it…

After some prying and splinters and a little bit of banging on the ugly carpet floor, I managed to remove the ‘painted’ canvas from the gold frame. Right after this I spray painted my little heart out. After a few coats of an ivory white I got this:

 

So cute right? I managed to get the dainty girl look I was hoping for. Success! But going to my original point. ‘What to do now? What to do now?’ Maybe you guys can help me out in some kind of vote or advice, I’ll take what I can get.

So far these are some of the DIY ideas that I’m digging. Some of them would need tweaking to fit my frames but I’m using these images as inspiration for the final product:

Cute canvas look with a DIY’ed fabric flower

  

Canvas with a family letter or some other meaningful symbol

 

 

Using them as 3-D frames to show cases items rather than pictures

 

 

Bulletin board frame

   Chalkboard frame

Simple look of empty frames on a shelf

 

So what do you guys think? Any winner ideas in the bunch or is there some other fabulous project I’m missing out on completely? I’m anxious to get these purdy frames back in action. Share your thoughts!

  

*Photo credit Reckless Bliss and Pinterest*

-Snapshot Of The Week-

“Don't wait around for other people to be happy for you. Any happiness you get you've got to make yourself.”

-Ms Alice Walker

 

*Photo credit Google Images*

   

Welcoming September Via Shopping

Today being the first day of September I couldn’t help but bust out my fall decorations in anticipation. I am crazy in love with the smells and colors of autumn. After my decorating frenzy my fella and I went for an impromptu shopping trip across the border into Washington since our dollar is doing good and lots of stores are significantly cheap on a whole than in Canada. Michaels is a good example of such a store. I was rather pleased with the haul we brought back so I thought I’d kick Friday off with the deets. Our haul involved crafty finds, delicious finds and entertaining finds as well as facing somewhat of a moral quandary which I’ll touch more on later.

First off we stopped at Michaels with 40% off coupons in hand. One for my purchase and one for my fella to do a separate purchase and score me another 40% off. My indulgent purchases were from Martha Stewart’s craft tools line. I’ve never bought any of her stuff at full price because I frankly don’t have Martha money. With one coupon I bought this nifty paper cutting tool above. It works like a charm and is going to make crafts sooooo much easier than me fumbling with my scissors trying to cut straight lines. This was regularly price $24.99 (with coupon came to about $15). For the record, this handy gizmo is more like $35 at Canadian Michaels.

   The other Martha tool I bought was this funky border cutter in lattice. It was priced at $17.99 but with the coupon we paid about $10. In Canada these run you about $25. This one also works really well and makes super cute borders. I don’t dig Martha’s prices but I have to give her props on the quality of the merchandise. It all feels very sturdy and well made with tons of conveniences thought of for your benefit.

After Michaels we decided to pop into Target since we don’t have those in Canada yet. I was hoping to find some nice Fall decor to add to my home but they were still in back-to-school mode. We still did however manage to spend a pile of money. We bought some delicious salsa’s and treats. As you may have guessed by the picture, we also finally jumped on Wii bandwagon. We’ve wanted one for awhile but we kept waiting for the price to go down because money was tight after buying our home and this is hardly a necessity purchase. We’ve come pretty close a few times to taking the plunge but could never commit.

The purchasing of this Wii is where the aforementioned “moral quandary” came into play too. Along with the console we were also purchasing extra controllers but when the lady rang everything up the actual Wii didn’t scan properly and I only got charged for the controllers. When cashiers get me to sign the credit card slip I’m usually on another planet paying no attention. I just scribble down my name and move on so I didn’t notice the mistake. That is, until I was just about to load the bag into the car. Something felt weird but I wasn’t sure what so I checked the bill. Sure enough the Wii was nowhere to be found on the bill. Of course there’s a little devil on your shoulder saying, “Whoo-hoo! Free Wii!” but since I really try to pride myself on being a genuinely good person and living honestly I couldn’t live with myself knowing I let the mistake go. Even though I didn’t actually do anything wrong I felt like I was stealing and that’s something I would NEVER do; it instantly churned my stomach to think of so I turned around and marched back into Target to set the record straight and pay for my unnecessary and overly indulgent expense. I thought I would feel better but when I explained to the person what happened they wanted me to tell them who made the mistake so they could be reprimanded. Our cashier was a very sweet older lady who made an honest mistake and I hated to think that by trying to do the right thing I was getting this poor lady in trouble. The conversation with him went something along these lines:

Cashier: “Do you remember who served you?”

Me: “Yes…”

Cashier: “Who was it?”

Me: “Will they get into trouble for it?”

Cashier: “Yes, this is unacceptable and they’ll need to be reprimanded for it.”

Me: “In that case…. I forgot, sorry.”

Suffice to say he was somewhat annoyed with my lack of details but I didn’t have the heart to rat this poor woman out who was harmless. If he had just said they were only planning on letting her know that it happened and tell her to use better caution in the future I wouldn’t have minded but it sounded like she was really going to get an ear full. He also mentioned that the same situation had happened that morning. A woman had $250 worth of groceries scanned and was somehow not charged a dime for them, then the person in-line behind her wound up paying that bill as well as her own by mistake. It sounded like a giant mess and he was pre-steamed about the problems. The lady who got the freebie groceries never came back to correct the error so I suppose she sided with the little devil on her shoulder. (For the record, it wasn’t the same cashier I had because that was in the morning and I was there around closing so it was someone else’s mistake.) Anyhow that was my trip to the states. My karma slate is nothing but good (for now) and I can play my Wii without the guilt of knowing it was ill-gotten. At the risk of sounding preachy I just want to pass on the message to do the right thing in your life. Humanity has no hope of keeping it’s civility if we don’t ignore the little devil in our ear.

 

Have a wonderful weekend my pretties!

*Photo credit Google Images*