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Saturday, June 30, 2012

Garden pictures

I'm living with my parents for the time being, so I don't have much say in the things that get planted...regardless, I enjoy watching everything grow day by day, and the different blooms come and go. I'm so looking forward to the day that I have my own garden, and I can embark on my own adventures with planting. In the meantime, here are some pictures of what's currently growing in the O'Beirn family garden.
Honeybees love the lavender.
A lovely white rose growing on the trellis, and the one bloom on our hardy little bougainvillea.


Love our garden, we do.
The sound of water from the fountain is so soothing.

Delightful Delphiniums
The squash plants that took over the wooooorld! These were "volunteer" squash - there were only supposed to be tomatoes in the garden, but the squash seeds were living in the compost over the winter, and have decided to pop up and take over the garden. Mystery squash! We have no idea what kind they are! There are 4-5 plants here.














Giant pot of spearmint...left in the garden it takes over worse than the squash, so it all got pulled up and planted in this pot. Two weeks ago there were only 1-2 sprigs of mint, and now the pot is almost full. There's also a volunteer pepper plant, courtesy of the compost :)
Adorable little cherry tomatoes
A close-up shot of a squash blossom. They open wide in the morning, but close up in the afternoon when it gets hot
Large green tomatoes, just a little longer until they're ready to eat!


Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Vinegar cleaning solution - Day 1 update

Well, colour me shocked!

I was incredibly skeptical that soaking the orange peels for 1 night would have any effect on the vinegar, but it actually did! You could still smell the vinegar, but it was balanced with a citrus-y orange scent.

I cleaned a small section of the kitchen counter with it, and it did just as good as the all purpose chemical cleaner that we use.  The vinegar scent was a bit stronger when I spritzed it on the counter - although it did dissipate within a minute or two of cleaning. For someone who hates vinegar as much as I do, 1 night soaking probably won't be enough. However, for a quick(ish) solution, it definitely gets the job done.

I was actually quite surprised at the colour change. It's kind of hard to tell from this picture, but the colour change is quite a bit more drastic than my camera was able to pick up.

Last night                                                  Today           

Last night, the vinegar was basically clear. A few orange floaties, but no real colour to it. Today, it's the almost the same shade as Pine-Sol.

I'll keep checking it day by day until I figure out how long it needs to sit for optimal scent and cleaning power.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

First attempt at vinegar cleaner

That is to say, a vinegar cleaning solution. I'm pretty sure the vinegar is already clean.

Anyhoo! As I mentioned in a previous post, I've been really inspired by my good friend over at Poor Man's Wife. She has blogged a few times about how much she loves cleaning with vinegar, and she recently posted her recipe for a citrus vinegar cleaning solution. (Is it a recipe if there are only two ingredients?) I love the idea of adding citrus to the vinegar...not only does it add a little extra cleaning power, it helps mask the scent of vinegar.  

I HATE THE SMELL OF VINEGAR. I mean, truly loathe with the fiery passion of a thousand suns.

------Background story time!  When I was 12 or so there was a lice (EWWWW) outbreak and my little sister and I ended up with it. So gross. My mom's solution to this was to wash our hair with lye, and then rinse it with vinegar. I wasn't crazy about vinegar to begin with, just never liked it much. So then it got dumped all over my lousy head and there were definitely some negative connotations associated with it.  Later that summer, we came up here to Canada to visit my dad. Unbeknownst to me, his girlfriend (later to become my amazing step-mum) kept vinegar in a water bottle in the fridge for making salads with. You can see where this is going. Crept downstairs in the middle of the night, dying of thirst, and saw a water bottle in the fridge. Gulped down about half of the bottle before my brain registered what I was drinking, and spent the next 20 minutes gagging in the sink and rinsing my mouth out. Vinegar is no longer kept in water bottles, by the way. So - two traumatizing vinegar stories from my youth, and you can probably see why I hate it so much. End background story.-------

I know that vinegar is an excellent cleaner. I've used it myself and had excellent results, but I just can't stomach that smell. However, I really want to switch to natural cleaners...so that means I either need to learn to deal with the scent, or mask it. Enter the citrus!

Poor Man's Wife says to soak your orange peels in vinegar overnight, and voila! Orange cleaning solution. I'm definitely willing to give it a try, but I'm a bit skeptical about how much vinegar smell can be covered up just overnight. So here's what I've done...


I've been saving my orange peels for a few days now (sticking them in a baggie in the freezer until I had enough for a batch). Turns out I actually had enough for two batches...but unfortunately didn't have two glass jars on hand. So, I used a clean, empty spice container. The lid isn't air tight so that's the batch I'm going to use first. I'm going to give it a whiff tomorrow and see how much of the vinegar scent has been masked, and then strain a bit out to see if I can stomach cleaning with it. I'm guessing my hatred of vinegar might be more than the average person, therefore 1 night probably isn't going to cut it. If it needs more time, I'll give it another go in about a week. The glass jar is going to sit for a month. I read another blog where the woman gave it a month and said that she couldn't smell the vinegar at all. I'm still skeptical, but again, willing to try.

Fingers crossed! I'll update tomorrow with the results of 1 night's soaking!

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Coffee scrub...yes and no.

 I love coffee. 

So, when I saw a recipe for a homemade body scrub using coffee grounds, I was pretty excited. What's not to love? I get to drink my coffee, and then use the leftover grounds to exfoliate and soften my skin, and on top of that the amazing aroma of coffee while I shower? Yes, please!

The result was...well, so-so.

But first things first! Coffee scrub recipe! I didn't measure anything here, just kind of eyeballed it until it looked right to me. Feel free to adjust the recipe for your own purposes. 

Use the grounds leftover from a pot of coffee. I'd say there was a little more than 1 cup of grounds in my batch. Spread the grounds out on a plate/dish/baking sheet/whatever for a few hours until they're mostly dry.

In a bowl, mix the grounds with a few heaping spoonfuls of regular white sugar (maybe 1/4-1/3 cup?), and about 2 tablespoons of massage/body oil. I used sesame oil, because that's what we have. (I use that as a moisturizer after showering anyways - it's wonderful, try it sometime.)

And that's it! Mix until well combined, and then slather it on yourself to exfoliate in the shower....

...in theory, anyway.

In practical use it made a ridiculous mess. Yes, my skin was exfoliated. Yes, my skin was lovely and soft. And yes, I spent 20 minutes cleaning coffee grounds from all over the shower. If you've got a fully enclosed shower with a glass door and a hand-held shower head, then it probably wouldn't be a big deal for you. But I don't. I have a stationary shower head, and a worn, old, enamel tub (everything sticks and stains), and a water "resistant" cloth shower curtain that definitely doesn't resist water being poured directly on it while trying to wash off coffee grounds. Also, it didn't really smell like much of anything. So, boo on that.

When I took this for a test run, I just rubbed it on my hands in the sink. It was nice and relaxing and my hands were definitely softened. For my own personal use, I'd say hand or foot scrub only just because of the mess that it makes.

Live and learn!

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Bloggy ideas are brewing...

A friend of mine recently started an excellent blog called "Poor Man's Wife".  In it, she talks all about making do with what they already have, and making things at home that are cheaper, healthier, and better for the environment. With 4 kids, a husband, and a menagerie of animals to take care of, I was hugely impressed to see her writing about things like making your own laundry detergent and shampoo.

I've always had it in my head that I wanted to do things a little more naturally - I've always been interested in things like making my own soap and growing and preserving my own food, that sort of stuff. But it's always been a "someday" goal. Seeing my friend doing these things made me realize...now is the time to do it. You make it work, and you're better for it. "Someday" never comes, so take action today!

The last few days, I've been doing a lot of research on living a healthier, more natural lifestyle. I started discussing it with my parents, and my dad pulled out this book for me to look at.

According to Dad, this book (along with Madame BenoƮt's cookbook) are my inheritance.

Granted, it's from 1981 and a little bit of the information is outdated...but there is SO much good stuff in this book! Combined with my online research, I'm really inspired to start living a simpler, healthier, more natural and eco-friendly life.

Yep, it's going to take a while for me to get my dream of having a farm out in the country. Heck, it might never happen. But I can still make the best of what I have now.

I haven't decided yet if I'm going to start a whole new blog, or if I'm going to just shift the focus of this blog and change the title. I've got some planning and prep-work to do, but I'll keep my readers (all 2 of you) updated. :)

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

I need a camera!

After several months of blah feelings towards my little blog, I've decided to give it another go. My problem seems to be that there isn't much direction to it. (sort of like me!) I need something for my blog to focus on! All the best blogs have a solid idea to revolve around...mine is just sort of a hodge-podge of ramblings about my day...and who cares about that?

So, while I'm figuring out what I want for the future of my blog, here are some more hodge-podge ramblings!

BIG changes! We've moved! Hooray! Out of the frying pan and into the fire! Or...the ice-box possibly. We've moved from the brown, dry, stupidly-hot, nothingness of the Arizona desert to lush, green, gorgeous, albeit humid, southern Ontario.  I'm enjoying every minute though. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. I can't get enough of the green...it's a feast for my senses! I know I'll miss the green come winter, but honestly I'm really excited about the changing leaves, and snow, and all that. Ask me again in February, and I'll probably be sick of it. But the way I see it, there are trade offs for every place you live. Yes, I have to deal with snow and cold now. But as I mentioned before, it's GORGEOUSLY green here...it's actually possible to have gardens and flowers and lovely leafy trees...and summer is relished here, in a way that it certainly isn't in Arizona. As soon as it's even slightly above freezing, everyone opens up their patios to soak in the sun, plant things, and just enjoy being outside. Summer is special here. Summer is dreaded in Arizona. Can you tell I'm happy to be here?

The downside is that John had to stay behind to wrap things up. We're hoping he'll be able to come up in the next few weeks, but it's been really hard without him here for the past 2 months. Thankfully my family here has been amazing, and that makes it a little easier.

Unfortunately, I left the camera at home with John. So, no pictures for the time being.