"Boo Boo Salve"

It has been a while since I have made my own healing Balms. Mostly because it is kind of expensive to do so. But I must say-I do prefer them. I love knowing what is in stuff, and have a certain pride that comes with doing it myself. Think Tom Hanks in 'Castaway', when he first made fire. It is pretty much like that, when you make something from scratch, use it and then: it WORKS!! Wow. What a rush!

Because of this, I always stock pile recipes for DIY stuff on my computer. Mostly to do 'someday', but this is the first one that I was like, "Hey, I think I might actually make that. Soon!" My boys are always getting scratched up, and I can never find our tiny tube of Neosporin. A glass jar? I can find that.

Here is the original link:

http://www.mrshappyhomemaker.com/2012/11/healing-boo-boo-salve-a-k-a-homemade-natural-neosporin/

Her pictures and directions are top notch, so if you feel like making this, follow her. =)

But since this is ME, with anything that I see, I follow the directions & ingredients; and then add my own spin on it. After reading all of the comments (Which I ALWAYS do. Some of the best suggestions, mess ups, and tips are always in there, as well as any questions/answers that you may have yourself.), I figured out that:

1) You must not add Honey when it is too hot, and you must continually stir it-even throughout the cooling process, so it doesn't separate. Good to know!
2) Adding Vitamin E will keep this from going rancid faster since it does have Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Thanks for the tip! (I have always added Vitamin E before, and I am a big believer in it because I have had fabulous results.)
3) Then, Helichrysum Essential Oil. This was an interesting find. I had never heard of it, but after doing some research, I think this stuff is amazing!

A brief description of it's benefits and uses are here:

http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/learn/eo/helichrysum.html

Properties: Antiallergenic, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antioxidant, antispasmodic, astringent, cholagogue, cicatrizant, diuretic, expectorant, hepatic, nervine, stimulant
Benefits: Acne, allergies, asthma, bronchitis, bruising, burns, colds, cough, dermatitis, eczema, fever, lethargy, liver congestion, muscular aches and pains, nervous exhaustion, rheumatism, scarring, spleen congestion, sprains, stretch marks, sunburn, wounds. The antibacterial and anti-inflammatory actions of this oil make it a wonderful addition to burn or bruise blends.

Wow! So I decided that this would definitely be in my salve. Along with everything she suggests, Vitamin E, and Emu oil. Emu oil is another thing I have fallen in love with when making my own stuff. It has amazing benefits for your skin and has added something special to my Balms in the past.

The kids had a snow day, and since I already had everything here (After shopping at my favorite Natural Herb Shop here in town a few days ago), I thought, "Why not now?". I got off my butt, gathered my supplies, and started. It was very easy, I will say that. I was pleasantly surprised. When it came time for the Balm to cool, I just put it on a plate and sat in front of a fan, constantly stirring-rotating between the 3 until they set. It took about 30 minutes, but since I was watching the Ghost Adventures marathon-I was totally okay with this. It turned out great!

These are my ingredients: (minus the Coconut Oil & EVOO. Those were in the kitchen.) This is dried Comfrey, Dried Calendula, Beeswax, Lavender E.O., Helichrysum E.O., Emu Oil, And Vitamin E.

 

 

 

  

 

This is me stirring them with my tiny whisk, during the cooling process.

 

 

 

 

 

This is them all done. Yay!

 

 

 

 

Since Miles has been congested over the past few days, I made some of her Homemade Vicks Vapor Rub. Link below. I went the Peppermint E.O. and Campor E.O. route, and added a few drops of Lavender E.O. in as well.

 

http://www.mrshappyhomemaker.com/2012/12/homemade-vicks-vapor-rub/

 



 

I LOVE Chuck. The show is brilliant, or was. It's not on anymore. Unless you count the DVD's playing at my house. My kids are even fans, and frankly I am sad for anyone that hasn't heard of-or watched this show. So for my birthday, I decided that I wanted a shirt to show off my total nerdiness. Unfortunately, the shirt selection out there on the world wide web left something to be desired. Either it wasn't what I wanted, not big enough, or cost too much. So what to do, what to do??? Oh, yeah-I could make my own. =) Just figured I would walk you through the process...(There are more than one shirt, since I painted 4 of them tonight, but this is the process.) Ok, I start out by finding a Logo I liked on Google, and drew it onto paper. Then I made copies, so I didn't ruin my original.

Then I drew it onto Freezer Paper, tracing over my original, and cut out with an exacto knife. You put the iron on 'Cotton' setting, and iron on the freezer paper-wax side down. Make sure you put some freezer paper on the inside of the shirt where you will be painting-wax side up-so that the paint doesn't go through to the backside. Once it's on, paint the background...I chose red to match the Logo on the DVD box.

When the background paint dries, iron on the foreground letter freezer paper, and paint.

After the letters are all dry, peel off all the freezer paper. If any of the paint has leaked through, you may have to just touch up a little bit. Place a big piece of freezer paper over all the painting, and iron on cotton setting again for about 20 seconds.

Take the freezer paper out of the inside and done, done, done!!! I love how they turned out, and can't wait for mine to dry so I can wear it!

This is my next one to do....

Another photo album by Smilebox

Open letter to the makers of Eco-Friendly Shower heads...

To the makers of the Eco-Friendly Shower Head I bought:

Stop. Just Don't. You are truly terrible at making shower heads. Really. Have you ever taken a shower with one of your products? Yes? Be honest now. Let me start out by saying- I have. And I was left utterly underwhelmed. I bought your shower head because the one I had was complete crap,  and to satisfy some "green" guilt I have since I am seriously too lazy to recycle most of the time. To tell you the truth, I have a recycling garbage can to make it easy. I don't even have to sort anything! I literally just have to dump things that can be recycled in, and I really just can't be bothered. But, if I buy something with the words "Water Saving" and "Eco-Friendly", I feel justified in taking long showers, because it would technically be like taking a 2 minute shower with all the water that is being saved. Global warming would cease to exist, and peace would be restored to the world, right?!?

Guess not.

Your product said it has a "powerful full stream". Excuse me? If you call standing under a light meadow mist 'powerful', then you clearly went to one of those over-priced creative schools where you did macaroni art to learn Geography, and no answer was wrong because they didn't want to crush your soul. I'm sorry, I only went to public school where we did boring book learning, and were taught that such a word meant something like strong, forceful, vigorous, mighty. Might be my mistake, because I know that it is possible to make one.

The relaxing 'massage' setting you promised? Oy! I felt like I was being jumped into a gang by the beating I took! It was a full 25 seconds of  "Oh, my....what the frick is happening to my face right now?!?", as I got pelted with boulders of water going the speed of light straight into my eyes; and I blindly fumbled around with soapy hands trying to find the switch to get back the useless "full stream" mode. How have you not been investigated for abuse yet? It's either kitten whisper soft, or Muhammad Ali punching drops of water onto your body.

Wait, There is a 'pulsing massage' setting. Good Lord, I am terrified to find out what that feels like!

You also have a 'drip' setting.? I assume that is what you are supposed to put it on while you are lathering shampoo into your hair? To save some of the water you mentioned? The shower head is supposed to do all the "water saving" for me, so don't put extra steps into my shower routine, okay? Though since this is an Eco-friendly shower head, the people making this are probably fairly 'granola', am I right? Your shampoo doesn't lather, because normal shampoo is full of chemicals that are responsible for melting the ice caps off our beautiful planet, so you guys just use hopes and dreams to will your hair clean, correct? I really think your 'drip' setting is a collection of all the people that feel like a total Drip from buying your janky product.

I will be re-installing my completely garbage, water-hoarding shower head ASAP. Because unlike some people who like to use their shower time to solve world problems, I tend to like to use my showering time to get clean. Preferably before the hot water runs out and my hair is still not damp enough to administer shampoo. Silly me, with my high expectations and all. Though, if I kept your shower head in I might have enough time standing around, waiting to get wet to figure out the cure for cancer. In which case I would send you a letter thanking you for making me a multi-millionaire. Hmmm....nope. Still not worth it. Absolute crap, old shower head it is. At least now I can take a 30 minute shower, and not feel guilty at all about wasting any water. Apparently there are suckers out there that buy what you are selling, so I can use up the water that they are saving, right?

As for me? I'm taking your water-saving rubbish back and retrieving my hard earned money, as soon as my sight is 100% returned. You should seriously think about changing professions, or re-marketing your so-called "shower heads" as "produce misters". You could get a big contract with a supermarket or two. Maybe sell just 'massage' setting ones to Firemen, and they could put fires out in record time? You're welcome. And hey: Thanks for all the bruises.

Sincerely yours,

Tammy H.