Homemade Foaming Scented Hand Soap

It's been wayy too long since my last post! It's been a busy holiday season...

Happy New Year everyone!! A friend of mine told me that 2013 is going to be my year =) I'm hoping that's the case!

Today I am going to teach you how to make your own scented foaming hand soap. I discovered how to do this about a year ago and haven't used any other kind of hand soap since. It's soo easy I think you'll be impressed!

What you need is...

Some wonderful Dr. Bronners Pure-Castile Soap, any kind you'd like (lavender, citus, peppermint, or original)

Some warm distilled water (distilled is better but tap works too)

And some empty foaming soap dispensers. You can use an old one you already have, or I bought mine (because I like the clear bottle so I can add my own pretty label and give to friends and family) at http://www.bulkapothecary.com/ <---- great website for buying empty containers of all shapes and sizes

Optional:

A lil Vitamin E Oil - or any other kind of skin oil you may have laying around. Great for those bitter cold winter months when your hands are fighting the elements

And last but not least... (also optional - but I highly recommend using some) your favorite essential oil. I match these up to the scent of Dr. Bronners I use and it just gives the extra potency to your soap and I think the scent lasts on your hands a lot longer.

Let's get started...

Step One: Add about 30 drops of the skin oil of your choice (if you are using some) to your empty container

Step Two: Now fill your container with the Dr. Bronner's Castile soap of your choice (I chose Citrus for my kitchen) about 1/8 of the way full ...

Yes that's really all you need!!! =)

Step Three: Add about 15 drops of the essential oil of your choice (I chose grapefruit - much more fun than the usually lemon scented kitchen soap)

Step Four: Fill up the rest of your bottle with the warm distilled/tap water...

Don't forget to leave room for the pump! Those foaming hand soap pumps take up more room in the bottle than regular liquid soap dispensers.

Step Five: Add your own label so you can show off to all your friends how crafty and frugal you are ;)

You can go with a simple design...

Or go all out and fancy it up!

Enjoy your hard work!

I will be back soon with a recipe for homemade chapstick - so order some empty chapstick containers from Bulk Apothecary when you order your soap dispensers =)

Thanks for stopping by Odds & End-ers!

Heidi

ABC.. Easy as 123 Bulletin Board for Daycare, School, or Kid's Space

My sister recently had a little baby boy (my first nephew!). She was a Catholic school preschool teacher, but decided to start an in-home day care so she can stay at home and raise her son. Oh boy, is there a lot involved in running a day care! I helped her with one small project this weekend...

She needed a place to display important documents for parents. Instead of a plan old brown bulletin, I decided to add some color! 

Sorry, this picture is a little blurry. (I have misplaced my camera charger for quite a long time now... so I've been stuck with just using my cell phone! Time to get a new camera =) )

So, all you need for this project is....

• A few pieces of foam paper (I got a pack from the dollar store - I believe it was about 2mm  in thickness, but you can go thicker if you'd like)
• A pair of scissors
• A box cutter (to cut out the inside parts of some of the numbers and letters)
• A hot glue gun
• A bulletin board (we found ours at a rummage sale - $3 - can't beat that price!)
• Optional: Stencils to trace out the letters and numbers (I just free-handed mine - it's not as hard as you would think!)

Finished product...

Well... what do you think?? =)

I will share another photo once she hangs it up on the wall.

Stay creative Odds & End'ers!

Heidi

'See-through' Glass Cleaner with a Spa-like scent

I've been on this home-made cleaning products kick for a while now. I never understood how something was clean yet I couldn't stand to be in the room because it smelled so bad - all those harsh chemicals. Yuck! I would actually get a headache from a clean house!

Here's an easy one to start you off with, and honestly - Windex doesn't even come close.

Equal parts white distilled vinegar and isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol

1 spray bottle (your old, empty Windex bottle works great)

4-5 drops of your favorite essential oil (optional - but... I like to pretend I'm at the spa when I'm cleaning ;) my favorite scent: Peppermint)

Your window may look foggy when you first start wiping it - but don't worry! It dries quickly.

WARNING: Your windows may be so clear that people may walk right into them ;)

I have lots more simple and natural cleaner recipes i'll share with you soon!

Have fun cleaning Odds & End'ers!

Heidi

Under $30 Garage Workbench

So, I'm going to start you folks off with our most recent Saturday project. This is something I never thought could be accomplished in half a day! But my boyfriend on the other hand was very optimistic.

Ever since I moved in to my new condo, the one car garage has been the "dumping ground" for everything that has yet to find its permanent place inside. Me, being the organizing queen that I am (I organize people's homes in my spare time for some extra fun money ;) I love it!) it has been really hard for me to have such a chaotic space in my home. The majority of the chaos is my boyfriends tools. Ohhh the tools... I thought it would be a fair trade for me to let him keep all of his tools and what not at my house since he is my maintenance man and contractor :) and his current living situation doesn't provide him with much storage. Let me give you an idea of what I'm working with...

Time to build a workbench! Yes, this is my grand plan for this space. Looking online, the very basic of the basics in work benches start out at about 200 buckaroos! Time to think outside the box. Did some searching online for some basic home-made work bench plans and showed them to my boyfriend. Should have known... he already had the blue prints in his head. So.. off to the lumber yard we went last Saturday morning. Picked up 8 2x4's and some indoor/outdoor wood screws. Yup, that's it! Total bill: $25.

I finally got to get a lesson on using the miter saw :)

Here is the basic structure:

We had a 2x10 just laying around (leftover from another project) so we used that for the top along with another 2x4. Dimensions of the top are 5ft by 2ft.

We used the palm sander to make the top nice and smooth.... and Voila!

Custom fit workbench! "That thing is solid - It will last 50 years!" says my contractor. My organization skills must be rubbing off on him... it was all his idea to put up the peg boards. We will be adding a shelf on the bottom where you see that extra 2x4 for some more storage.

 

Till the next post Odds & End'ers!

Heidi

Welcome to my hodgepodge of odds and ends!

Welcome to my blog! I'm very new to the world of blogging but I wanted to create a place where I could share all of the things I've been doing lately. I recently purchased my first home! A foreclosure (fun!)... one that needed to be redone top to bottom... so you can imagine how many "little"  projects there have been. And due to my strict budget, my contractor (a.k.a. my amazing, can-fix-anything, can-build-anything boyfriend) and I have had to improvise on a number of occasions. So anywho, since I finally got a name picked out after a few weeks of thinking (had no idea how hard that would be!) it's time to start sharing with you! Hope you will all enjoy and hopefully some of the things I have done with help you out!

Heidi