self-sufficiency, soap, and a GIVEAWAY!

In my little fairy-tale world
we grow pretty much all of our food
and make
all of our medicines
cleaning supplies
shampoos
and bath & body soaps, scrubs & moisturizers.
~
In reality
we haven’t managed to grow much of anything
but we did finally find a source for manure.

*
Doing pretty good in the herbal remedy department.
Of course
I still have so much to learn!

*
Cleaning supplies.
Well
doing okay, there, too
but I have lots of room to improve.

*
I make my own moisturizer.
Just a blend of good -for your-skin oils

and
yummy smelling essential oils
(think orange chocolate)

I
made a batch of
Baby Bottom Grease
(which also happens to be an excellent lip balm!
I should probably rename it)
right before Lexi was born.

It works great.

*
The closest I’ve come to soaps & shampoo, though
is buying a few books
and doing internet searches.
I’ve tried some of the soaps from one of the downtown shops
but I was less than impressed!
And ‘natural’ soaps from the store
turn out to not be quite as natural as I’d prefer….
Then
I got birthday money from my mom and gramma

(thanks!!)
and decided I’d use some of it

to order homemade soap from Cheri.

I couldn’t wait for it to come in the mail!
At first
I was a tad disappointed.
It cleaned just fine
but I was hoping to step out of the shower
smelling

as if I’d bathed in a bottle of Victoria’s Secret’s Lovespell lotion.
After using it for awhile
(and it lasts a long while, I still have a sliver of my shampoo bar left!)
I’ve come to really love it!
Soap scented naturally just isn’t going to be as strong-smelling
as artificially scented soap.
I am okay with that now.

*

My gang prefers body wash to bar soap.

I felt kinda bad, being the only one to use good-for-me soap

while washing the rest of my family with soap

laden with cancer-causing ingredients

But just yesterday

I found a recipe to make liquid soap from homemade bar soap,

so I am excited to finally be able share the goodness!

~
I still want to make my own soaps someday
(Cheri is working on a soap-making book.
Needless to say, I’ll be ordering one
as soon as it’s available and I have some $$ to spare)
but until I do
we’ll be lathering up with
Sweet Hollow Farm’s
Citrus Sensation Shampoo
and
Tangerine Moisturizing soap.

~
Since I already sound like a commercial….
How about I throw in a giveaway?!
Go visit Cheri’s store
and buy some of her good-for you soaps
(may I recommend trying the shampoo?
And, if you have any poison ivy on your property,
or think there may be a chance of your getting into any poison ivy
you really ought to buy a bar of ‘Sweet Relief’ )
Then

come back and tell me how many bars you bought
(you can tell me what kinds you bought, too if ya want to :-)

~
Up for grabs is 1 free bar of soap, your choice.

*
You’ll get 1 chance for visiting her site
(leave me a comment & tell me what you wish you could buy)

*
And 1 chance each, for every item that you purchase.
(again, leave a comment)
If you don’t know how to leave a comment
(you know who you are :-)
e-mail me.
I’ll choose a winner Sunday afternoon,

so hurry!

oh

and tell yer friends!