Bath Fizzies, Soaps, and Soaks OH MY

In my last post I spoke about getting healthier through what we put on, in, and around our bodies. Part of this is having to go the DIY route. While in the past we have cleaned up our act a bit by purchasing more environmentally friendly cleaners and body washes and soaps I feel we need to go that one step further.

By going the more DIY way I am hoping that it will save us some money down the road as well. I currently don't have the items I need to go about making my own body and household cleaners so I am going to have to do some investing. If there is one thing that I have discovered so far about doing things yourself is that you must invest at the start to reap the rewards later.

Luckily I have found a company online (located in BC) that specializes in selling exactly what I need. I have an order made up and hopefully can push the buy button in the next few days. I am really really excited.

Here is what I plan to order so far:
Essential Oils (eucalyptus, peppermint, grapefruit)
Fragrance Oils (muscle and joint blend, island tropics sampler pack, green tea)
Shea Butter Rebatch Soap
Calendula Petals
Calendula Oil
Jojoba Oil
Citric Acid
Epsom Salts
Dead Sea Salts
Goat Milk Powder
Surfactant Powder
Love/Faith/Hope Soap Mold
Witch Hazel Spray

I really had to reign myself in because the web site has so many fabulous ideas. I really wanted the pink rose petals and buds, and some herbs, and some clay powders, and, and, and.... But only so much at once. If all things work out well I will definitely place another order to play around with colours and herbals and such. It would be interesting to see how far I can go with this. I could make lotions, bubble bars, even candles.

Using all these ingredients my project horizon is:
Shea Butter Soap with Calendula and Jojoba oils (for Max's poor eczema)
Soothing Muscle Soak (for Daddy, he works so hard, he deserves a special relaxing treat)
Bath Fizzies (a variety, some with calendula added, some with essential oils added)

The essential oils I will also be able to use randomly for cleaning, for diffusing, putting on dryer balls, and many other things I am sure I can come up with. I am just getting started with learning about all the wonderful properties of essential oils.

All together with shipping my order *should* come to roughly $100. However I am hoping that this investment will last us a while. Especially considering that dropping $100 at Lush (one of my fav places) would only yeild a few bath bombs and soaps. Each thing I am ordering is in a small quantity (so I can test it out without buying a massive amount) but even those small quantities seem to be able to be broken down and used in several projects or in several batches of the same thing.

It seems my childhood fascination with playing with soaps and lotions (lotions and potions my family called them) may just serve me well.

The excitement of going down this path has me simply giddy. I can't wait to order and to receive and to make, and then of course, tell you all about it :)

The New Kind of Fluff

EEEEEEEEEKKKKKK!!!!!!

I was so excited to look out my window yesterday and see a brown box sitting at the front door. I KNEW it was my box of new fluff. And no I am not talking about the cloth diaper kind.

Before Christmas a very dear friend gave me a most generous gift certificate to Knit Picks which is an  online knitting store that we have been coveting the goods of. I very carefully planned out what I needed for yarn and needles for my next few projects and then clicked submit order.

I received the shipping email on the 27th and followed the tracking religiously (I'm a bit obsessive that way). I jumped for joy (almost quite literally) when I saw that it was in my city and then I did a happy dance (very literally) when I saw it was out for delivery.

When I saw the box out front I quickly threw on my coat and boots and went out to get it. I then ripped into it as carefully as I could.

Here are a few peaks at what I ordered...

All packaged up

A box fulla fun!

The whole shebang laid out

My yarn choices (Brava Worsted in Rouge, Dishie Multi in Orbit and Cottage, Stroll Hand Painted in Cartoons, Swish DK in Moss X2 and lastly Stroll Glimmer in Dragonscale).

 The needles sets (Try IT set, Harmony Wood Circular, Zephyr Acrylic Tips, and View Sizer which I like to call a sizermathingy but it's correct name is a needle gauge).

I can't wait to dig into all these things but all in due time. I still have one project on the go and I won't start the new ones until I am ready to roll on them. Each project that I chose to order for will help me develop certain skills. For example the wooden circulars are for making Evelyn's leg warmers with the Brava Rouge and my first time knitting in the round. The Dishie yarns are for making both bath (Orbit) and dish (Cottage) cloths. The cartoons yarns is for making cute little ankle jingles for the kids and will be my practice at knitting and purling. The dark green Moss is for making Max some "Hulk" fingerless gloves. 

My pet project out of it all will be using the lighter green Dragonscale. I will be making a lovely scarf for myself. One Row Lace Scarf is the name of the pattern. I think it will be perfect in the light green for spring. 

Now if you'll excuse me I have some knitting on my current project so that I can wrap it up and start on these new endeavours.