Home Made Deodorant

I stopped using 'conventional' deodorant a quite a few years ago. I have tried various natural brands but never found one that I loved.

I have found that the biggest thing was making sure I drink enough water.  Sure, we all stink if we have been doing some serious manual labour or working out but for the most part if I drink enough water I didn't usually wear anything.  I figured that since sometimes I can smell myself I can distinguish between needing or not needing deodorant (hopefully this is true and I don't offend anyone!).

Your body needs to sweat, that's how it gets rid of toxins.  Deodorant can block those pores, actually preventing your body from working properly.

Sometimes I do like to have some on hand and so I decided to make my own.  Its super easy and cheap. I used an old deodorant container for easier application. I just broke off the old deodorant stick, wiped it out with rubbing alcohol. After turning the knob back down, I used a spoon to fill the container and make a traditional curve on the top for easy use.

• equal parts baking soda and cornstarch
• add just enough coconut oil to make it all stick together
• add a bunch of drops of tea tree essential oils

The trick is using the minimum amount of coconut oil.  Since coconut oil is liquid in the summer and solid in the winter, the consistency changes throughout the year which can be a little annoying.  But I now keep it in the fridge to solve any temperature fluctuations.

I have been using this long enough to say that you should try it too.

Anyone else making their own personal care products?

- Lauren

Malm Bedframe Upgrade

As unconventional as it is, my daughter never slept in a crib, she transitioned from sleeping with mom and dad, occasionally in a basinet in our room to a double mattress on the floor. This worked great for us for over a year but then I was ready for the room to feel alittle more finished and alittle less ghetto-student-ish.

We chose ikea's low malm bedframe. It only raises the mattress about 6 inches off the floor which is great for a toddler and I didn't worry about her falling out of bed since it was still very low. (She fell off the mattress twice and after 3 months in the new bed - she hasn't fallen at all).

The only problem is that the side is open at the bottom. This led to alot of lost items underneath, and since its so low it was hard to reach under to retrieve things.

I cut some wood, and painted it black. Then screwed it in place (using the kreg jig to make pocket holes) under the bottom side ledge.

It's great, we can't loose toys/soothers/snacks/water bottle etc. There is only one problem - we should have screwed it further in - so that you can stand next to the bed and not hit your toes.

A quick readjustment (using mega blocks as a square to keep the wood the same distance and perpendicular) and now its perfect.

(I just need to fill in the old hole with black paint or maybe a sharpie will do the trick)

- Lauren

DIY Kitchen Magnet Board

Even though kitchen renovation dreams are still dreams, I am continually tweaking things to make the room more functional - since I spend alot of time in the kitchen.

The fridge was becoming a catch-all and was getting really cluttered and starting to annoy me.

The fridge now is mostly photos and magnet letters - which are played with alot by my daughter.

And for lists, notes, money etc - I hung an old cookie sheet on the wall with a 3M picture hanger strip. I only learned about these recently from here and am loving them.

I also hung a family calendar and a tray on the wall and I think it looks great. Organized and alittle less cluttered.

The tray is awesome, but it's too big to fit in any cupboards. It usually just rested on the floor, leaning against the wall - this meant that whenever you wanted to use it, you usually also needed to clean it. Hanging the tray makes it accessible and it stays clean. The tray is hanging on two screws that stick out of the wall about an inch. There is a lip on the bottom of the tray and it hangs great - no issues so far.

(You may also notice we got a new french door - which leads to the basement and side door. I am loving it, It lets in light from the side door and also allows me to see outside from the kitchen.)

- Lauren

Driveway Gate/Fence

Now that the nice weather is here, we are spending alot more time outside. The only problem is that I am so nervous about our driveway which is open to the backyard. My daughter wants to explore the driveway and I don't want her to. Combination of cars, plus its a shared driveway and on a busy street.

So a few weeks ago we built a gate/fence thing. For most of the time it will act as a fence, but when we want a full driveway the fence part also opens as a larger gate and then you can use the full driveway as usual. (we haven't actually tried opening the larger 'gate' and are unsure if it will actually open since the driveway isn't flat.....but we will figure that out when we need to)

One side (the gate) is attached to our house, and the other fence (larger gate) side is anchored by a massive planter. The planter itself is pretty heavy, plus we filled the bottom with rocks and the top has a planter in it - it is very heavy. We didn't want to attach it to our neighbours garage so this was what I came up with as an alternative. So far its just filled with sticks and fake spring blooms. Soon I will buy some hanging baskets to put in my planters, I find thats the cheapest/easiest thing for all my planters.

The fence is designed to match our deck railing, hopefully tying the two wooden structures together. Although the new fence is cedar and the old deck is pressure treated, it didn't really matter what we built the fence out of since it would look newer/better than the deck. I also chose to build a low and open fence instead of a tall and solid one since I didn't want to create privacy as much as safety. We enter our house through the back door and I didn't want guests to feel uncertain about coming through the gate.

Now we can be outside worry free, and my daughter has much more freedom to explore.

Plus it feels like our backyard has almost doubled in size, I never realized how much the driveway ate up our property - and we rarely have 5 cars in the driveway.

- Lauren

Welcome Spring!

It doesn't feel like spring yet, but I thought a quick update to my winter wreath might help.

A simple switch of thick red (and very faded) ribbon for crisp white, and red berries to yellow forsythia blooms. 

- Lauren

Kitchen Chairs upgrade

We inherited some chairs awhile ago, and they were sturdier than our current ones at the time, so we considered it an upgrade.  There was only one problem : the fabric seats were not my ideal choice (not the worst thing in the world) however I hated the fact that they were also covered in plastic. It reminded me of a friend's house growing up - whose living room furniture had plastic on it. It just seemed weird to me. Plus they were the only blue thing in the room.

Anyways, once my daughter started eating at the table, and spilling at the table, I realized that maybe covering your chairs in plastic wasn't as bad as I first thought. Then I saw that ikea sells plastic coated fabric. With less than an hour of time and two small assistants, we had drastically transformed chairs!

Now I am one step closer to a kitchen that I don't hate.

I have been trying to decide what to do with the rest of the wooden table and chairs.
I plan to leave the table top wood, and paint the base. The only thing stopping me (other than two tiny assistants) is what colour, black? charcoal? red? And then do I paint the chairs to match?

Red table with black chairs? Black Table with red chairs? Red table with wooden chairs? Black table with wooden chairs? I really like the idea of red in there somewhere, I know it will be quite a bit of colour compared to what it is right now, but I imagine something will be painted black or charcoal - only because I know I have some paint in the basement.

- Lauren

DIY Dryer Balls - more HomeMade Christmas

An amazing friend of mine is also onboard with homemade christmas gifts. This year she made dryer balls. As simple as they appear - I can only imagine the time commitment to make for multiple people!

Basically its a ball of matted wool - or rather four balls.

I have been using Nellies Dryer Balls for about a year and a half - they are recommended in the cloth diapering world. But they are starting to show some wear, some of the plastic nubs breaking off - which I have learned may be due to storing them in the dryer - which gets very cold in the winter and then when hard/cold plastic is banging around......they break. Also in comparison the felted ones are MUCH quieter than plastic.

I also got a small bottle of lavender essential oils to add to the balls - for those people who want/need their clothes to smell fresh and clean. I just added it and so far its a nice additional touch

There are lots of online tutorials if you want to make your own dryer balls or you can buy them on etsy.com.

Pros to using dryer balls
- decrease drying time
- decrease wrinkles
- reduce static
- safe for sensitive skin & cloth diapers (which recommend no fabric softeners etc which leave a coating on the materials)

Overall : Fantastic

- Lauren

Customized TeaTowels - Homemade Christmas Gifts

For the past few years our family has tried to do mostly homemade gifts. Its been awesome. This year it was a combination of homemade and 'your favourite things' (ie inexpensive things you love that you want everyone else to have)

Keeping gifts in the $10ish range made things much more creative and thoughtful. Some highlights include  bacon jam, franks red hot, minstrels and roses chocolates, norwex cloths, cookbook, natural soap, cosmetics bag, HP sauce, caramel popcorn, pens, crocheted dish cloths, painted initials for my daughters room door, and I am sure I am forgetting a few others...

I came up with a homemade idea before we decided to do the 'fav things' and so continued along with my idea following a online tutorial on spoonflower.com (a website where you can customize fabric).

Way back in september I asked my mom to handwrite a family recipe for me. She was a little confused since she knew I had a typed version but did so anyways without question. Then after scanning the recipe and creating a file to upload (took a little longer than I would have thought but in the end figured it out). Then I ordered my fabric and waited. I think it took about 6 weeks to arrive - this is the earliest I have ever started christmas projects!

Once the fabric arrived, I cut it up - 4 tea towels per yard of fabric. Folded the edges and sewed some straight seams. I also added a loop on the bag to hang from a hook.

This was super easy and everyone loved it. I think the total cost (with shipping) was around $7 each.

- Lauren

DIY Roman Blinds

Inspired by a friend who recently made roman blinds for her new cottage, I followed the same online blog tutorial and made some for my guest room.

They are alittle too narrow and probably hanging too far out (since I just hung them from the existing curtain rod). But they are much better than what used to be there and I didn't have to buy any new material. I figure I could just add some black trim to make them wider if necessary.

- Lauren

DIY Swing Set

For my daughters upcoming first birthday, my dad built her a swing set in our yard. Not your usual kit from a big store, but just some pressure treated lumber and a shovel.

We bought three ten-foot 6x6 pressure treated pieces of lumber. He knocthed them where they will join at the top corners and used two bolts to secure each corner (only attached one until the posts were in their final position)

He dug two holes alittle over 2 1/2 feet deep with a shovel. It was pretty impressive, and it was interesting to find out that our yard is very sandy.

So about 4 hours and 4 pots of tea later, all we had to do was wait for the cement to dry and get some swings to hang.

- Lauren

Jewelry Storage

A few years ago I got a mug stand to use to hang my necklaces and bracelets from. This has worked okay, but I never really knew where to display it. There was never enough room in the bathroom, and I don't currently have a dresser. Also it seemed to be a mess so you had to remember what necklace you wanted, so I generally just wore the same ones all the time.

In my bedroom, there is a narrow section of wall in our bedroom between two closets which I have been thinking about how to use it for about 5 years, I had always kept my eye out for a narrow mirror, until I came up with the idea of using a shutter to hang my jewelry on.







Last week I found the perfect shutter from Timeless Materials in Waterloo. After a quick wipe with a damp rag, I hung it on the wall. I also put some screws in to position the shutters at a good angle so that I could hang hooks from.

I guess it should be no surprise that I wear similar colours to those that I decorate with.  I love the result and and I can easily see options as well as remember events that I wore certain ones to.

Now the only question is will my necklaces end up on the floor?

- Lauren

Bathroom Upgrades

Its been almost a year and a half since we started our bathroom reno's

This involved ripping everything except the bathtub and surround out. Luckily we have a second full bathroom on the main floor.

The original bathroom when we got the house about 8 years ago had an avocado tub and toilet, dark green wall paper border and sliding glass shower doors. I can't remember 100% but I think it was painted baby blue. (unfortunately I don't have any pictures)

Back in 2007, I removed the glass shower doors, removed the wallpaper and painted the room yellow. This satisfied me for a while. (I couldn't even find pics from this either)

Then in 2008, we replaced the bathtub and surround. (still no pics.....)

Finally in 2011,
- we replaced the vinyl flooring to heated faux slate tiles (heated floors are amazing)
- replaced the green avocado coloured toilet to a dual flush white model
- replaced the light fixture and added a second light to the shower area.
- added an exhaust fan
- upgraded the window
- we designed and had the mirror built
- we designed and had a new vanity custom built for maximum storage and for our new 'wetstyle' double faucet sink.

The room has been so close to being finished for about 6 months now. In March we finished installing the trim and last month I finally caulked it.

We have plans to do a tile backsplash, we have even bought the tile. I guess this is probably a project we should do before the kitchen is started.......perhaps this will motivate me (us).

Does it take anyone else this long to finally finish stuff?

- Lauren

Simple Sewing

So a few months ago, I made my niece a baby sling for her doll. (A sling, very similar to one her mom has)
This was an extremely simple sewing project. I literally took a piece of fabric, folded it, and sewed the edges together to form a circular piece of fabric. The end result, was a really cute way for my niece to sling around her doll (I wouldn't trust my sewing to carry an actually baby in the sling, but a doll... absolutely!)

what a cutie!


- Leah

Kitchen Progress

So I've been thinking about kitchen layouts for about 6 months now and finally thinking I had figured out the best one.  I even marked the floor with masking tape to see where things would move and to be able to see the distance between moved items.  However, I am once again not 100% convinced that its the best for the space.......

In the mean time, I have started painting the walls, since we plan to open up the space to the living room, and since I never loved the orange colour I painted 5 years ago.  I used leftover living room paint to get me in the right direction.  I just did a quick coat for a general vibe.  I don't love the colour, I think its too plain.  It looks pretty good with the white trim, but not great with the wood cabinets or ugly backsplash - both which are going to eventually be replaced.  My next painting project is to paint the adjacent basement stairs area charcoal grey to see if I like the two colour combo.

Also in kitchen reno baby steps, we replaced the light.  The lighting in the kitchen was awful.  You couldn't tell if it was even on or off during the day.  At night it created all sorts of weird shadows and never fully lit the room.  We choose an inexpensive one from Home Depot.  Even if we don't keep it, I won't feel like we wasted any money (plus it could move rooms or we could sell it on kijiji).

Finally we replaced our leaky Kohler faucet.  We debated trying to fix it or get it replaced since apparently it has a lifetime warranty.  I knew I wanted a new faucet in our 'new' kitchen one day, so this seemed like a good time to upgrade. I wanted something with a higher faucet. And my husband wanted a pullout, instead of the side pullout.  We bought a Grohe which was almost 50% on sale (we still plan to fix the Kohler, it seems to have been leaky due to a lot of hard water buildup and it might get put into the laundry room but maybe its too nice to go there).

And finally, I have a new kitchen layout.  It's just a rough sketch but it has some improvements from the previous one.  It has more prep space.  It has a small moveable island/cart plus a table.  It would mean opening up the existing window into the living room instead of fully removing the load bearing wall (this seems cheaper.....).  I am not sure if the table would impede the traffic flow in and out of the doors too much or if it would be fine as long as the chairs were tucked into the table.

I know that I need to finish some other projects before diving into this one, but I think there might be some cabinet removal or bulk head investigation soon (I want to see if there is something in there or if it will be possible to remove them) - I just need to convince my husband to help!

- Lauren

Kitchen Plans

I spend alot of time day-dreaming about our kitchen possibilities. I am trying hard to keep the focus on finishing other projects before starting any new ones, but we all know that one day there is gonna be something drastic done during nap time. Cabinet removal? Fridge moving? Who knows what its gonna be.

The first step was figuring out the new layout. Here is the current state:
(yes, done on graph paper, each square is one foot)

Some good things about the kitchen is the storage.

Some things that could be improved:
- counter prep space
- lightening
- space for a table without hitting the fridge
- room to open the door to the basement
- more open-ness to the rest of the house so that you aren't stuck in the kitchen when people are visiting.
- take advantage of the unused front entrance space behind the kitchen.

After many attempts, this is what we came up with.

Open up the wall behind the stove and take advantage of the unused front entrance. Although this means you are walking right into the kitchen, since we don't use this entrance we are treating it more of getting more window light. (this is not a load bearing wall)

Currently there is a small window opening in the wall to the living room, we plan to open this up quite a bit - this will be more work involved since it is a load bearing wall.

We plan to have no upper cabinets along the sink/dishwasher/stove wall. This should make it open, especially with all the windows (yes, there was a window in the front door closet - weird).

Basically we are switching the 'pantry' wall from the first sketch with the fridge&cupboard.
And then taking the stove section and swinging it 90 degrees to be inline with the sink.

This means that we are approx same cupboard space. More useable counters (no corners which are pretty much wasted - same as counter cupboards, currently ours is pretty sparse)

Since the front door is going to open into the kitchen, I think its good to have a coat closet there - as I said we don't plan to use the entrance or store coats there but for resale somewhere down the line, we will use this as a huge pantry.

People always say you need your fridge, sink and stove within such and such a distance, I don't think our plan quite meets those rules, but this is almost the same distance/layout of appliances as my parents, so I feel good about it.

So what do you think about the layout? anything I am overlooking/forgetting something?
All Opinions are wanted - this is a big project, I don't want to have overlooked something.

- Lauren

Forcing Spring

We have had a very mild winter, and it has felt like spring many times the past 6 weeks or so, I think we are almost there but I couldn't wait any longer. I cut some forsythia branches from my yard, put them in water and in a sunny window and waited for spring to bloom inside.

After some googling alittle, some people say to cut the branches under water, some say cut up the stem, or bash the stem (which is very woody). I just cut them outside and came in put water in a vase and placed them inside. Maybe you would get faster results with some tricks but I didn't use or need them.

I think it was my parents who mentioned doing this, it seems to be pretty common with forsythia which is one of the first bushes to bud in the spring. Its the one that flowers first with bright yellow leaves and then turns green for the remainder of the year.

Here are some pics after 4 days: finally starting to see some buds doing their thing.

After 6 days: green & yellow everywhere almost ready to open up.

Today, day 7. I woke up to open yellow blooms! 

I think tomorrow (and the next week or so) will be more and more yellow!

-Lauren

Bathroom Ceiling Transformation

Unfortunately I don't have a 'before' picture, but our bathroom ceiling was pretty gross.  There is no exhaust fan in there.  It had probably been painted with the wrong paint and was peeling, discoloured, uneven and all around gross.

Since its not our primary bathroom, we decided not to install an exhaust fan.  Plus, there is a window if necessary.  I told my Dad that I was thinking about tin tiles.  I thought it would be a good room to do it in since its small and wouldn't cost too much or be too much work installing.

One day he came over with a roll of wall paper - from the discount bin. It had only cost him $5! and he even installed it for me. I put up the trim, caulked it and painted the whole thing - and I love it! I didn't think it would be as obvious as it is - but a lot of people notice it when they come over.

I am glad that my dad was doing the wall papering and not me.  It definitely takes some skill (he has done alot of wall papering over the years) and the ceiling was extra fun since gravity was working against us.

-Lauren

Good-bye Milk Box

As convenient as it to have a milk box, leaving things for people to pick up if I am not home or having a place for delivery of a package. And it would have been ultra-convenient to have milk delivered (when did that stop?) But currently its very drafty. We are participating is the Government of Canada ecoENERGY program and for part of insulating the house we are also sealing holes etc.

Here are some before pics of the milk box (both from the inside of the house)

and now the work to seal it off

1) cut the dividing shelf (it allowed for mail to be dropped in and only accessed from the inside - but now if the slot is used, we want the mail to still be accessible from the outside since it will be the only access point)

2) Cut a piece of wood to size, I used my new Kreg jig (which I got for Christmas) to drill pocket holes. Then I screwed a screw into the middle to use as a handle. and then screwed it in place. (removing the screw in the middle when done)

3) remove the trim from the inside - ideally with less damage than what occurred......

4) caulk from the outside (maybe i will paint it next summer currently its too cold for exterior painting even if it does feel like spring)

5) patch with drywall and paint with primer.......probably won't get around to painting until we finish the basement and stairway. Patching was a little more work than I think it should have been, my drywall skills are poor, so it took me 4 times, hopefully I improve fast if I am going to help drywall the basement!

One more project that has been completed in 15 minute intervals, sometimes that's all the time you get.

- Lauren

Laundry Room Before and After

The furnace room of our house is huge (almost 12 by 16 feet), so we decided to move our laundry into that space to allow for more livable space in the rest of the basement. The room started with furnace, water heater, water softener in an un-insulated room.

These before pics show the dryer moved approximately into place, and the water softener didn't move, and a new furnace replaced the old one. Otherwise everything else is pretty much changed/new. (note to self : take better 'before' pictures).

First picture: Looking into the room, furnace on the right and then the water heater (just made it into the pic) and then there is a door past there leading to the cold cellar. On the left there is the water softener, then exhaust going up the chimney and then the dryer.

Second pic is taken standing in front of the cold cellar door looking out of the room (you can see the water heater/furnace exhaust and the water softener in the corner.

So now what we did with the room

When we got the new furnace, we had the water heater moved next to the water softener (under the big water rust stain - I believe this was a result of a old damaged chimney liner, we have a new one so no more damage will continue). This also got rid of the exhaust pipe that went across the room which makes the room instantly feel MUCH bigger.

We used the furnace install as an opportunity to  put down a piece of vinyl flooring. Its cheap, washable, and has no seams to deal with for install. We choose a in store option from Home Depot, the pattern looks like tiles.  We might have been able to get something awesome if we special ordered it but we wanted to take it home with us right away and its fine. Sometimes less choice is better because then you can make a decision faster based on the two available options.

We framed and insulated the two exterior walls. We left the two interior concrete walls as is.  We choose not to finish the ceiling since its a utility room and then we still have access to plumbing/gas/etc.

This could still be done at a later date.

New plumbing was added for the laundry and relocated water heater. This allowed us to slowly start replacing some of the old steel water lines and replace them with copper. They were pretty corroded and we have been told that by replacing them we should be able to improve our water pressure (once the pipes aren't full of gunk).

New electrical was also added for the laundry, dryer and some regular outlets.

While we were doing the work in the laundry room, the rest of the partially finished basement was being demolished. The room had 1inch white styrofoam 'insulation' behind wood paneling. I took this opportunity to put some sweet wood panelling in the laundry room.

1) It was free. 

2) It prevented it from going to the dump. 

3) It was essentially already cut to size.

4) It was easier than drywall since we wouldn't have to tape/mud/sand. 

5) I was going to paint it.

6) Its a laundry room so it doesn't have to be a show room

Result - I love the painted panelling!

I have decided to paint the main part of the basement (currently under construction) a charcoal grey. So I painted the laundry room a nice light warm grey. The two colours are 'revere pewter' and 'kendall charcoal' from Benjamin Moore - and then colour matched and mixed at Home Depot.

The cold cellar door - was doctors office green, now charcoal grey. Love it.

The baseboards are wood, and not mdf, just since there is potential for flooding since its a basement and a laundry room. Once mdf gets wet its over. We bought primed finger joint pine and it seemed in the comparable price range although I can't remember the prices and might have just convinced myself. Buying primed was so much easier. Its pretty substantial baseboards but we are trying to match with the era of the house and the original woodwork on the main floor. (the new stuff is just 1 x 6 's with a quarter round along the floor but its pretty close).

Currently there is a square folding table with some boards on it. Still not totally sure where a table should go in the room. where it is or as a continuation to the sink. So thats still in process. I plan to build some table something with the wood - which matches the shelves on the wall.

We hung some shelves on the far wall. They were in the pile of stuff to potentially be thrown out and so I used them. They have a nice warmth to the stain and work perfectly. The brackets seemed kinda expensive for free shelves but probably still cheaper than buying the whole assembly. (I think they were $9 each).

The stuff on the shelves doesn't look too pretty, maybe I should have opted for closed storage, then again this is a utility room. I plan to get a few more boxes/baskets for organization and appearance.

Hung the ironing board - kinda looks like art. Not a whole lot of ironing gets done in our house but when it does, it will happen in here.

 We used our old dirty laundry sink. We thought about buying a new one but since the laundry room is for messy things like washing paint brushed and etching mirrors. There was no need for a shiny new one that we might be mad at ourselves once we make the first stain. I don't think I have ever soaked clothes in it - which I assume was a previous use. I just put something right in the washing machine if I am worried about a stain setting in.

You probably notice that there is no faucet on the laundry sink. Its not a priority yet, so nothing has been done. I don't want a basic utility one and the thought is to use the one from our current kitchen when we upgrade it. Yes I love re-using thing.

The window should be replaced in the near future, complete with window ledge and trim.

And of course my new etched mirror is hung.

So there is no door yet, we haven't made a final decision about what we will put there, re-use a door from the main floor? buy a new door? make our own barn style sliding door? 

There is still some finessing that needs to be done, but if I waited until it was perfect then you would probably never see it!

- Lauren