DIY natural leather conditioner

Since deciding to live a simpler life minimising chemicals around the house is an important part of that.  Sometimes I fall back into the habit of using commercial products, but I try to buy a greener version when I can.  I do however prefer to make my own cleaners from scratch which is simple, satisfying and saves a lot of money.

weekend reads

The heat is scorching here at the moment.  Everything in the garden is getting burnt.  I send the boys out for a little bit in the morning, and again at night so they burn off some energy but our days are consisting heavily of board games, books and movies.  With the odd trip to the beach and runs through the sprinklers.  I do so love school holidays!  I have even learnt to play chess, which was a game I didn't have patience for growing up.  But this family of mine do love a good board game and we are discovering some beauties.  

I hope you are all managing to keep cool for those of you in Australia!  There is some good reads this week, and I have included a couple of books that I really love.  If your Australian and haven't yet, I highly recommend getting onto this free public library app Libby.  I think this might be the best app ever.  Endless free books at your fingertips! 

Ronnie and Henry, best mates!  This dog loves his boys.  

Soap making and sewing!

One of the things on my list to do for a long time is soap making.  I want our family to bathe in good quality, natural soap.  Free from artificial chemicals, poor materials and artificial scents.  Its certainly possible to buy beautiful soap but its quite expensive.  I love the idea of making our own soaps - say lavender and oatmeal for sore skin and to help relax using good quality essential oils.  Perhaps using essential oils to create invigorating soaps in summer.  Our skin is our biggest organ and it's important too look after it.  Grant also has psoriasis so I'm interested to see if completely scentless, simple, nourishing soaps help.

On Saturday Grant and the big boys went to a local footy game.  They were so excited!  Will wants to go to an AFL game but we think he needs to get used to local games a bit first.  Sitting still for long periods is not his biggest strength!  I think they need to find out when the local A-graders play.  Henry went down for a nap and I had an hour or so to myself and all the ingredients I needed so I finally got soap making! 

The recipe I used is from a blog called Down to Earth, by a blogger by the name of Rhonda Hetzel.  Its an fantastic resource of great information.  The link is HERE.  

The soap recipe is from her blog.  

I was careful to organize all I needed, lay newspaper to keep my surfaces, and myself safe from the potent caustic soda. (lye)  It all went hiccup free. 

Weighing the oils precisly and ensuring the temperatures of the lye and the oils are the same is essential in this simple process.

Here is the soap poured into a lined baking tin.  I might grab some silicon molds in the future but for now I just wanted to use what I had on hand to see if I wanted to set myself up for it properly.  Space is at a premium in our house.  I don't want things we don't love or use all the time cluttering it up.  Now I have done it, I know it is certainly something I would like to do again and implement it as a regular part of my "simple living" jobs.  

Here are my "rustic" hand cut soaps.  They may not be the most beautiful looking soaps but I have never been so excited to try a soap in my life!  and the beauty is in the inside so they say.  ;)

After my soap making session I was on a roll!  So I whipped up a quick peg bag as my old one was about to drop its contents on the ground at any stage - and you can garuntee it would have been on the ground, in the mud, at night if I had of put if off any longer.  I had some scrap fabric and an old machine lace doily I had in my draws from goodness knows where.  A peg bag may be boring but everything can be beautiful, yes?

And here is the finished bag and a basket of fresh rags I sewed up for cleaning.  I read something online about the synthetic fibre rags shedding and causing our tiny marine life huge problems and it highlighted the importance of aiming to use cotton cleaning cloths.  I'm not certain how much truth there is in it, I have not researched it any deeper but it makes sense and I do prefer natural fibers.  Its been rattling around my head since.  So 15 mins of boring sewing of some old towels I cleared out of my linen cupboard the other day and my conscience is clearer now Im moving to fixing this problem in our household.

Hope you have a wonderful day!

xx

Working with children.

Its so important to get children involved in the daily work around the house.  Though the reality is it can be slow, messy, and sometimes tedious!

But none the less, I REFUSE to be a mother who molly coddles her sons.  We want them to grow up to be good, strong, practical, kind, generous men.  We do not want them to be big boys who shave.  Because, quite frankly, there are far too many of them about.

The boys tidy their rooms, open curtain, put things away, cart wood, garden, help look after animals, wipe cupboards, the list goes on.  Explaining why we do things to them as we do is an important part of the process.  They don't really get pocket money yet, only occasionally if they work especially hard.  But it is just part of being in our family.  Work is life, it's just what we all need to do.  But they are pretty content and they rarely ask for things.  

We openly talk to our children about money, we always re-assure them we have enough but we explain that their guitar and footy are expensive luxuries.  We explain because we choose to spend money there, we choose to private school Will, that we don't always have money for some of the other things they want.  They have a good understanding of it too for their ages, they don't panic, but when I say, "sorry guys, not this week, we have too many bills" they are just fine.  It makes the special trips to the movies and the odd treats all the more exciting!

Tonight we bough hot chippies and gravy from the local take away shop and they boys had a feast for $11.  Simple pleasures go a long way.   

But anyway!  This morning we made washing liquid.  I have made it many times before but not recently.  My boys are grubs, I struggle to get it to get the tough stains out.  But for what ever reason, perhaps as we tighten our budget with a tough economy and the business slwing a little over winter, I got inspired to try it again.  Though I used more soap, and I use grated SARD soap.  Not as green as velvet no doubt, but none the less I find it more effective. 

Henry supervising me grate the soap.

Pouring the liquid into clean milk bottles.  It's always messier with children helping!  Excuse the PJ's, the boys woke up absurdly early....I do dress them, I promise.....most days!

Making labels with instructions so everyone knows how much to use....(Grant I'm looking at YOU buddy!)

The finished product with Henry telling us all about it.  

Then it was time to tidy up, make school lunch, and get on with our usual morning routine.

Once Will was at school I tackled the linen cupboard.  I saw this blog post HERE on keeping matching sheets together in the cupboard.  It has popped up a few times on various sites I visit. so this morning I decided something needed to be done about my exploding linen cupboard and pulled my finger out and stopped procrastinating.

Look - space!!  I know, not much of my linen matches, its not color coordinated, but it's clean, warm and dry.  Frankly no one in this house cares for anything more, and none the less its REAL.  Im a REAL Mama, in a REAL home on a REAL budget!  

A pile of bits I later sorted to either donate, make into rags, or send to Grants shed for work rags. 

 So that was my morning - exciting stuff!!  HA!  Oh how life has changed, and I wouldn't have it any other way.   

xx