Easy DIY "Poo-Pourri"

Who has seen those Pou Pourri commericals? I laugh every time I scroll past those on my news feed because they are so creative and they do address a common problem we all face - odors in the bathroom (specifically from #2)! As you probably know, the odor is caused by bacteria that are released into the air when you use the toilet. Lighting a match will sometimes work to get rid of the smell but there are more fun ways to deal with this problem.
Poo-Pourri and sprays like it work to coat the surface of the water in the toilet so that so odors cannot escape! That is what makes these sprays different from air fresheners.

It is actually fairly easy and inexpensive to make your own odor-blocking spray and I am here to show you how. :-)

You will need:
Rubbing alcohol, any percentage
Purified water, NOT tap water
Your favorite essential oils
Castile soap OR regular dish soap (optional)
Food coloring (optional)
Vegetable glycerin (optional)
Empty spray bottles
Labels, ribbon, etc. (anything else you would like to use to decorate the bottle)
Funnel - to get your liquids into those tiny bottles


There are a lot of variations on the recipe but this seems to be a common combination that works well:

Place in your bottle:
5-10 drops essential oil per oz. (really you can use as much as you want)
1/2 Tbsp. rubbing alcohol per oz. (again, you can use different amounts depending on what you like)
If you are using vegetable glycerin, put in equal amounts of alcohol and vegetable glycerin
Fill the bottle almost the rest of the way with water.
Add 1-2 drops of castile or dish soap (You don't want it to foam too much when you shake it)
Shake well!

Here is how I made mine for this Christmas:

I went ahead and bought tiny plastic spray bottles since this was my first time doing the recipe. Next time I definitely want to go with larger bottles. One of the things I did like about the smaller bottles that I got was that they came in their own little kit with a funnel, a cloth to wipe the bottles with and some little droppers. 

If you are going to be doing this long term, I would recommend getting glass bottles that are tinted. Essential oils can eat through plastic over a LONG period of time and they can be damaged by exposure to light. Generally, though, plastic bottles are fine for most people.

I gathered all my ingredients together and started creating! I was able to make 4 of them very quickly.

There are SO many different recipes for this kind of spray online and a lot of different combinations of essential oils that people like to use. For this particular recipe, I just used 10 drops of sweet orange oil, 5 drops of lemon oil, and 5 drops of lavender oil (I know that's more than most recipes call for but I like a lot of scent). Other good combinations you can try are peppermint & orange, tea tree oil, lime, & lemon, or a citrus blend of lime, grapefruit, orange and lemon (I love this one!). Just have fun and create something that smells fabulous to you/

My favorite essential oil to use is sweet orange oil - it's just a very clean and gender neutral scent. You can find a 2 oz. bottle of Aura Cacia sweet orange oil here on Amazon.
Another brand that is really good an inexpensive is Eden's Garden. They have SO many different kinds. I was looking at all they had the other day and was totally blown away. You can get a 10 mL bottle of lavender oil for just about $10!


I put the essential oils into the bottles first and then I added the alcohol. I added more alcohol to mine than was necessary but it ended up being fine - I think it smells amazing anyway. After I added the alcohol, I shook the bottle and then filled the bottle almost the rest of the way with water.

Adding just a drop of soap helps to mix up the oils. If you wanted to get really fancy, you could buy a commercial surfactant like Polysorbate 20 that will not bubble and foam but in my opinion, dish soap works fine.

Adding food coloring does nothing but make it pretty. I used ONE drop and made my spray look totally beautiful so I was very pleased. And since the food coloring isn't going in or on my body I was 100% good with using it in the spray.


Then the last step is to add labels and/or decorations. (I mostly just did this since they were for Christmas). I would recommend getting waterproof labels in case the spray leaks out. You definitely will want labels because guests who are unfamiliar with this type of spray may think it is an air freshener. They need to know that it must be shaken and then sprayed on the surface of the water in order to be effective. Mine say, "Shake and spray 5 times before you go."


Hope that is helpful to you all! Subscribe to my mailing list below if you'd like to keep up with me!
Follow me on Facebook
Shop for pure, non-toxic household and beauty products at my website: http://shop.maxandmadeleine.com/emily

Affiliate links below: 
 

Emily Cargile is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to (amazon.com).

Subscribe to our mailing list

* indicates required

Email Address *

First Name

Last Name

Max and Madeleine "Cherry Bomb" lip balm giveaway!

If you are like, me you go through a LOT of lip balm (especially this time of year).
I am giving away one of Max and Madeleine's fabulous lip balms in the flavor cherry bomb! This giveaway will be open until December 31. (And head's up - I WILL be doing more of these!)

This lip balm normally comes in a set of three "The Yummy Set" that can be found on my Max and Madeleine website here.

I LOVE that these lip balms are simple and nourishing!
There are only 7 ingredients: Organic Sunflower Oil, Organic Beeswax, Organic Coconut Oil, Organic Cherry Flavor, Vitamin E, Organic Rosemary Extract, Organic Calendula Extract

I would love to spread the word about this blog and my Max and Madeleine business through this giveaway so please share the giveaway with your friends and go take a look at the website! :-) I am currently looking for hostesses to help share these awesome products are earn FREE products at the same time!

http://shop.maxandmadeleine.com/emily

*Please contact me for information about the Max and Madeleine business opportunity. If you have a passion for healthy living and non-toxic products for your whole family, you will LOVE this company!

Without further ado, here is the giveaway!

Begins on December 19 at midnight!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Subscribe to our mailing list

* indicates required

Email Address *

First Name

Last Name

Max and Madeleine!

I am excited to announce that I have become an advisor for a really NEW health and wellness company called Max and Madeleine! I am really LOVING the company and the philosophy!

I have heard a lot about how toxic some of our health and beauty products are. There's parabens, sulfates, fragrances, dyes, and others. Individually and in such very small doses, our bodies can handle them very well. However, since we are surrounded by them every SINGLE day, our exposure to these toxins takes a toll. I mean, there's even fragrance added to trash bags these days!

I have been trying to transition my family to a more natural way of living for a while now. I have most of the essential oils (albeit the less expensive and lower quality brands but hey, it's a start right?). I love making my own scrubs and body butters. I have loved making my own simple cleaners and baby wipe solution. There are certain things that are more difficult for me to make, though. Deodorant, shampoo, and soap are some of the things that I am not set up to make.

 The saponification (soap curing) process takes a really long time and I am not wanting to do that at this point in time. (One day for sure!) I have tried natural deodorant recipes but they never seemed to work well. And shampoo is something I don't even want to attempt!


Max and Madeleine has something called shampoo bars - I had never even heard of these things! I have always used liquid soap for hair and body but I am really excited about using the bar soap for my hair now too. :-)

There are products for everyone -baby shampoo, lotion, and diaper cream, men's beard balm, and facial care products for teenagers! They have essential oil roller balls and balms for lots of different things!

I am really looking forward to being with this company!

Check out the full product line here:
shop.maxandmadeleine.com/Emily

Much more to come about natural recipes, remedies, and products! Thank you for reading and joining me on this journey.

Subscribe to our mailing list

* indicates required

Email Address *

First Name

Last Name

Small plants :-)

Our plants are growing! I have gone out to water once or twice a day (we don't have the soaker hoses set up yet). I am really excited to have some okra growing this year as well as some cucumber plants (neither of which came up last year). Our unexpected pumpkin plants are doing well and the nasturtiums are growing fast. I have not seen any carrots or marigolds yet but that is not concerning because I know they take a while! :-)

Lots of pumpkin plants. I don't have the heart to pull them. We'll see what happens :-) 

Pretty Pumpkin Plants

Watermelon

Sunflowers and cucumbers 

Squash

Okra 

Sugar snap peas 

Beets

Nasturtiums

Sweet Pea

Zinnias 

 And... last but not least: Our crabapple trees are doing well! I'm not sure if the other trees are alive or not but we have two trees at least! YAY!

A crabapple tree!

Planting Trees and Other Things

A few days ago, I received some trees from the Arbor Day Foundation. They come with very thorough planting instructions and a color coded guide to what kind of trees you have been sent. The only problem is that the guide is intended for people who are planting the trees in the ground (in their permanent location). We will be buying a house next spring and so we wanted to be able to take these trees with us. I called the Arbor Day Foundation (they were very nice and helpful, by the way) and the woman I spoke to told me that it was acceptable to plant them in pots for a short period of time (1 year or less).
So I had my husband go get some buckets from the store and then my brother in law drilled some holes in the bottom. After the tree roots had soaked for about 5 hours, I divided them up into their buckets. I am really very excited about it and I hope they will do well.

We have 2 each of: American Redwood, Japanese Dogwood, White Flowering Dogwood, Crape-myrtle, Crab-apple, and Hawthorn.

Trees soaking to get the silica gel off.

Filling the buckets with soil. 

Trees with dry leaves for mulch.

 


While the trees were soaking for five hours, I got started on our main garden. Today I planted beets, kale, carrots, marigolds, nasturtiums, zinnias. sweet pea plants, a gogi berry plant, and coneflower plants (dormant I hope, otherwise I planted something dead).

The tilled garden

I would like to show you what the garden looked like this morning when I got started. Daniel tilled not too long ago and then we have had a lot of rain lately. The soil here is just fantastic. I kept digging up earthworms and there are pieces of pond scum and grass clippings scattered throughout. However, there were like literally a MILLION rocks. I spent a few minutes picking them up and then I just decided to do that as I planted my rows.






There were rocks galore all over the tilled area as well as a lot of ants. I got bitten several times.

A closer picture of the soil. SO MANY ROCKS!

 

This is only some of the rocks I collected from a very small area. It got to where I could not even move the wheelbarrow!

 Since the soil was tilled and moist from the rain, I just quickly went through with a spade and loosened the soil in a few rows. Then (this is always my favorite part) I sifted through the soil with my hands to separate out as many rocks as I could. Then I put those seeds in the ground!

From right to left: Tomatoes (not planted yet), beets, kale, peppers (not planted yet), purple coneflower, carrots, beets again, sweet pea plants, gogi berry plant, peppers (not planted yet), and further to the left (not in view) zinnias.   

 Here is a lovely photo of the baby sweet pea plant:

 And here is the gogi berry plant:

 I also planted some cherry lemonade coreopsis and zinnias in front of our apartment.

 

Meanwhile, Mr. Mistoffelees played in the trees. :-) He's a jungle kitty! 

A beautiful picture of a rainbow.

Smudged with dirt - but I had a great day!  

 This is what I looked like after six hours of gardening...
I'm going to be sore tomorrow! Now I'm off to take a shower! I am hoping to plant watermelons, cucumbers, okra, green beans, potatoes, herbs, and gaillardia tomorrow.

Our Garden - 2015

I went out on Saturday to break ground in the land that we will be using for our garden! I did not have a tiller available to me so I just used a spade. I didn't get much finished, but I plan to go out again in a few days and "hand till" a little more. Hopefully, my husband can help me this year at some point!

The un-tilled earth that I will be working with! Its about the same amount of space as last year, just arranged differently.

The lineup this year

Vegetables: 
Goji Berry                                  
Tomatoes: Mortgage Lifter and Climbing Tomatoes            
Zucchini                    
Carrots           
Bell Peppers          
Red Russian Kale              
Watermelon      
Green Beans                  
Hot Pepper Mix               
Pickling Cucumbers        
Blue Potatoes                               
Cylindra and Detroit Dark Red Beets 
Okra

Flowers:
Gaillardia, Arizona Red Shades             
Sweet Pea                                  
Coneflower, Purple                        
Coreopsis, Cherry Lemonade
Marigolds
Nasturtiums
Bee Balm

That's the plan! I may add more flowers as I plant. I am going to plant the flowers in the rows of vegetables this year instead of planting separate rows of flowers. I think the compost that we worked on making ALL LAST YEAR may finally be ready this year. :-) 

Essential Oils: My experiences so far and some of my recipes!

Recently, I have become really interested in essential oils.

 It all started when I was researching recipes for homemade baby wipe solution. There are a lot of recipes out there on the internet, but the one that stuck out to me was fairly simple - it had lavender and tea tree essential oils, castile soap, olive oil, and water. As I was looking on Vitacost for the oils that I needed, I was impressed and a little overwhelmed with how many essential oils there are available (and Vitacost really does not even have that great of a selection). My family has used tea tree oil (or Melaleuca oil) in the past, but other than that, my exposure to the world of essential oils has been fairly limited. It seemed like something only massage therapists or people who were really crunchy used. 

So I ordered some lavender and sweet orange oil first. A couple of weeks later, I got some tea tree and peppermint oils. By this time I was thinking that essential oils were the bomb-diggity, so I ordered lemon, eucalyptus, and cinnamon leaf (which is really not very pleasant, but I didn't know it was different from cinnamon bark oil). Then, over the next 8 months or so, I added geranium, cederwood, rosemary, grapefruit, oregano, clove, cinnamon bark, sandalwood, myrrh, and frankincense. I recently bought a diffuser necklace in which I can put a few drops of whichever oil I feel like using that day! 


There is a LOT of information about essential oils on the internet, but everyone uses them in their own way, so I want to share with you what I have done with them! Here are some of the recipes I have used and things that I have learned. 

Baby wipe solution: This website has a LOT of good information and recipes for baby wipe solution http://www.zany-zebra.com/cloth-wipe-solution.shtml. I liked the "Castile Solution" (which has lavender and tea tree oil) because my family has really enjoyed and benefitted from tea tree oil in the past, and I had heard good things about castile soap. Here is the basic recipe: 
1 tablespoon almond, apricot, or other oil
1 tablespoon Dr Bronner's Liquid Castile Soap
2 drops tea tree oil
1 drop lavender oil
1 cup water
When I make mine, I usually make a large amount at a time, I altered it slightly and I mix it in a certain way so that the essential oils blend in well with the other organic ingredients. 
1. Pour in 8 cups of purified drinking water
2. Measure out a quarter cup of olive oil, put 8 drops of lavender essential oil and 8 drops of tea tree essential oil into the measuring cup with the oil. Dump all of this into the container with the water.
3. Using the same measuring cup, measure out about 1/8 cup of castile soap. Pour that in. 
4. Put the cap/lid on and shake. The soap will bubble and pressure will build up, so be careful not to spray yourself in the face when you open it up again. :-) 

General Cleaning Solution: A great all-purpose cleaner that I use is simply a mixture of purified water, white vinegar, and essential oils. Everyone has their own preference as to how much vinegar to use. I like to use equal parts water and vinegar. Put in about 5-10 drops of essential oil for a typical 32 oz. spray bottle. 
** A lot of people seem to really dislike the smell of vinegar when they are cleaning. However, in my experience, the vinegar smell does not linger for very long, the smell of the essential oils (depending on purity and concentration) does tend to stay though! 

Some essential oil mixes I have used for cleaners:
-Peppermint and oregano.  At my house, we have spiders literally coming up through the floors - they are everywhere. Peppermint is thought to deter pests in general, but especially spiders. Oregano is also used as a pest deterrent. 
-Lavender, sweet orange, and lemon. Citrus and floral essential oils go well together. This is one of my favorite mixtures to use. Lemon has antibacterial properties. 
-Thieves. Thieves is a mixture of lemon, eucalyptus, rosemary, clove, and cinnamon bark essential oils. The buzz about thieves is that it is great for protecting your immune system. Using thieves can help keep you healthy - and I really do like the way it smells. 
Something I would NOT recommend is to mix cinnamon leaf oil and vinegar, simply because the result smells just like ketchup in my opinion! My house smelled like McDonald's when I did this. 

Vicks VapoRub alternative: My husband has pretty bad seasonal allergies that bother him frequently. I concocted a mixture that did seem to help him sleep. I kind of threw it together, so there is no real recipe with actual amounts. Generally, when I make a mixture with coconut oil, I don't use more than 1/2 cup of coconut oil at time because it is relatively expensive and if the lid gets lost, our lovely kitties like to stick their paws in it. :-) For the essential oils, a good rule of thumb is to mix 1 drop of oil for every teaspoon of carrier oil (in this case, the coconut and olive oil) This website has a great chart for diluting oils http://www.nourishingtreasures.com/index.php/2013/06/25/essential-oil-dilution-chart-dilution-guidelines-and-measurement-equivalents/ 
Here are the ingredients for my allergy-sinus rub:
-Eucalyptus
-Lemon
-Peppermint
-Clove 
-Lavender
-Olive oil
-Coconut oil
This website goes into a bit of detail about why these are good for the sinuses: http://www.organicauthority.com/health/essential-oils-to-relieve-hayfever-allergies.html   
This mixture works especially well when rubbed onto the chest before bedtime. Chamomile tea with honey and lemon are also wonderful to consume at bedtime to help you sleep, especially if you are feeling crummy. 

Body Butter: When I got started with essential oils, I also became very interested in coconut oil and all of its benefits! I started to use it by using it as a moisturizer/lotion - all by itself! But then I realized that it was a great opportunity to get some of the benefits of essential oils. Again, there are bukus of recipes for body butters and moisturizers, but this is the one that I like to use. As before, there are no amounts listed. When I make this, I put in a large spoonful of coconut oil, drizzle some olive oil, and squirt several drops of the essential oils into a very small container. (A small jar would work well). The ingredients:
-Frankincense
-Lavender
-Sweet Orange
-Sandalwood
-Coconut oil
-Olive Oil
Frankincense is excellent for the skin, it is said to reduce scarring and help healing. Sandalwood  and lavender are very relaxing, and sweet orange is antibacterial (it is also my favorite essential oil) and it causes your brain to release endorphins - making you feel happy! 
There are so many health benefits to the essential oils - COMING SOON.. a more detailed list of essential oils and their benefits.  

Thanks for reading!