Wonderling

Baking Soda Love

I've always known that baking soda was magical. When I was little my mom treated bee stings with a baking soda/water paste. A few years ago I started to brush my teeth with a baking soda/hydrogen peroxide mix (which actually whitened my teeth!). Now I've been seeing all sorts of baking soda products that can be easily made at home. So when I decided that it was time to remove the moldy, old grip strips from the shower floor (they were there when I moved in) I knew I would end up scouring the entire shower. I decided to see what baking soda and vinegar would do. But why stop there? After cleaning the shower I made some lavender/baking soda deodorant, baking soda shampoo and vinegar rinse.

cleaning the shower was still a pain. I still had to really scrub to get it clean (but this may be because I don't clean the shower until there is a visible layer of soap scum to remind me to clean it!). The deodorant seems to be working well. I put some on this morning and after a day at work I am smell free! I have used all kinds of natural deodorants and none of them worked the entire day. The crystal worked the best, but I still had a hind of BO at the end of the day. I have not yet tried the shampoo and rinse, but I plan on doing that tonight.

Here are the recipes:

Deodorant
equal parts baking soda and corn starch
add whatever scent you want..I chose ground up lavender, but you could use any kind of essential oil as well

Shampoo
1-2 tablespoons of baking soda for every cup of water
use warm water and shake to mix when done

Rinse
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar for every cup of water

so easy!Now I just have to get used to being aroma free. It's a bit strange to not smell like anything.

Lavender

Last summer I realized that there were two huge lavender bushes in my brother's front yard and couldn't have been more excited. So I spent a couple of weeks cutting off sprigs and drying them. I left a few at his house and took a few bundles home. After months of not really doing anything with the dried and lovely smelling sprigs I finally got around to removing the buds and storing them in a mason jar.

I've made a few sachets with the buds, but I haven't really done anything else with them and now the lavender bushes are ready to be cut again. I feel like it would be a waste not to collect the buds again, but I also don't want to collect a bunch of lavender and have it just live in a mason jar until it loses it's scent. So I went in search of easy lavender projects and now I can't wait to start snipping sprigs!

Lavender Fan - I thought this was a nice alternative to the typical lavender wand and there are endless possibilities as far as ribbon color/size/pattern goes.

Lavender Butter - look at the related links at the bottom of this post, there are even more uses for lavender there!

Eye Pillow - I have to say that I'm a huge fan of eye pillows and sleep masks. I really think everyone should have them!

Growing and using lavender - The information down the left side of the article has some unique uses for lavender such as lavender and sage aftershave lotion.

Lavender dryer bags - I will probably go home and make a few of these tonight. So easy and who wouldn't want the soothing smell of lavender sheets and pillow cases?