Naturally Repair Wood – With Vinegar and Canola Oil. So, for a super cheap, use 3/4 cup of oil, add 1/4 cup vinegar. white or apple cider vinegar, mix it in a jar, then rub it into the wood. You don’t need to wipe it off; the wood just soaks it in.
Clean Silver – Clean ALL of your silver at ONCE! Line your sink (or pan) with aluminum foil, shiny side up. Pour 1/2 c. baking soda 1/2 c. salt into the sink. Fill sink two-thirds full with almost-boiling water. Submerge silver for about 2 minutes. Rinse with hot water, and then immediately dry with a soft cloth – Good as new!
Clean Your Towels – Stinky towels aren’t a result of using too much detergent and fabric softener. More isn’t better and over time soap residue accumulates in the fibers of towels and not only do they fail to absorb water as they can but they don’t dry like they should. When towels get a funky smell immediately upon getting wet again, failure to dry completely thanks to soap residue is usually the culprit. Run towels through the wash 2 times in hot water. DO NOT use detergent or fabric softener. In the first load use one cup of vinegar and in the second load use one cup of baking soda. The goal is to strip the softener and detergent residue from the fiber of the towel.
CLICK HERE FOR HOMEMADE LAUNDRY SOAP
Make Vitamin C From Citrus Peels
You can use a variety of citrus fruits – e.g. lemons, limes, oranges, tangerines and grapefruits. It is important that fruit is organic. You don’t want to eat peels sprayed with chemicals. Wash fruit and peel off the skin. Cut the peels into small thin squares, place on a cloth and put by the window in full sunlight. Allow peels to dry and shrivel a few days. Once dried, use a coffee grinder or similar device and turn the peels into powder. Store in an airtight container. You have homemade vitamin C powder. Mix one teaspoon into your morning smoothie or juice to get more than your required vitamin C dose for the day.
Natural Room Scents
Add ingredients to a pot of boiling water and simmer on the stove. Add hot water if needed to cover ingredients as the water in the pot evaporates. Higher heat = more fragrance.
Scented waters may be refrigerated between uses. Reuse for 2-3 days, or as long as they still have a pleasant fragrance. Ingredient suggestions:
1. Orange, Cinnamon & Spice. 1 orange, 2 cinnamon sticks (or 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon), ½ tablespoon whole cloves (or 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves), ½ tablespoon whole allspice (or ¼ teaspoon ground allspice), 1 anise star (optional)
2. Lemon, Rosemary & Vanilla, 3 sprigs of fresh rosemary, 2 lemons, 1teaspoon vanilla extract.
3. Lime, Thyme, Mint & Vanilla. 3 limes, 3-4 sprigs fresh thyme, ½ teaspoon mint extract, 1 teaspoon vanilla.
4. Orange, Ginger, & Almond. 1 orange (or peel from 2 oranges), 1 4″ finger of ginger, sliced (or 1 tsp ground ginger), ½ teaspoon almond extract.
5. Pine, Bay Leaves, & Nutmeg. Handful of pine twigs or needles, 4 bay leaves, 1 whole nutmeg, outer layer grated into mixture.
The time to pack up those woolens and sweaters and think about spring is almost here. This is a good all natural moth deterent recipe. Tie a few tablespoons up into little decorative cloth balls to protect sweaters and woolens from becoming “holey”.
Homemade mothballs
10 Tbsp dried lavender flowers
20 drops Lavender essential oil
20 drops Cedar Wood essential oil
5 pieces of fabric, cut into squares
Ribbon
Scissors
In a bowl, combine lavender flowers with essential oil. Stir well, until lavender fully absorbs the oils. Transfer to a glass jar, cover and store for 24 hours.
Homemade Beet Powder
12 fresh beets
1/8 C. sea salt
2 Tbsp cracked black pepper
Scrub beets clean. Cut the greens off beets and put aside to use in another dish. Peel beets and grate or put in food processor. Place thin layers of grated beets in a food dehydrator and dehydrate until crisp, about 2 hours.
In a coffee grinder or blender, grind beet shreds until you have a fine powder. Stir in salt and pepper and transfer to a glass jar to keep up to one year. Sprinkle on top of salads, popcorn, fish, and more.
Colorful Flames
Soak logs in an alcohol solution or a water solution containing the following chemicals and then dry them. The various chemicals or salts required for specific colors of flames are as follows:
Violet flames:
3 parts Potassium sulphate (Chromealum)
1 part potassium nitrate (Salt Peter)
Red flames = Strontium chloride
Blue flames = Calcium chloride (bleaching powder)
Magnesium sulphate (Epson Salts) for white flames
Yellowish-green flames = Baronsalts (Borax)
Green flames = Copper sulphate (blue vitrol/Bluestone)
Yellow flames = Sodium chloride (table salt)
Colorful flames:
1/2 lb. baking soda to 1/2 gallon of water,
or 1/2 lb. borax to 1/2 gallon of water,
or 1/2 lb. salt to 1/2 gallon of water.
Soak pinecones overnight and put in mesh bag to dry
Sawdust – Dissolve the chemical in water. Stir in your base. When the solution is completely absorbed, spread the base out in a thin layer to dry.
Cork-based chips – Add 1 pint of liquid glue to 7 parts of water. Crush the chemical to a fine powder and add 1 pound of the powder to each gallon of glue-water. Put into the liquid as much of the sawdust, cork waste or pinecones that it will take, stirring and adding more base until all the liquid has been absorbed. Spread out on a rack to dry. It is better to treat separate portions of your base with the solution of a single chemical than to treat the base in a single mixture of various chemicals.
After drying separately treated portions of sawdust or cork waste, mix them together in order to achieve distinctly colored flames. There is no fixed proportion of chemicals used to a given amount of water. The powdered chemical should be mixed with water as will dissolve, until solution is saturated. Except for ordinary table salt (sodium chloride). You should use 1/2 ounce of salt to a pint of water.
Coarse hardwood sawdust is best as a base. Cork waste makes an excellent base.
Firewood Essential Oils
Sandalwood, Cedarwood, Frankincense, Myrhh
To diffuse the smell around your home add one drop of a “Firewood” essential oil onto one log, allow enough time to soak in and then put the log on the fire. You only need one oil-log on the fire to diffuse the scent around your home. One drop will be enough to create a wonderfully aromatic scent.