Super Silky Oh So Fluffy Coco Butter Body Butter Recipe

My latest batch of liquid soap came together beautifully. That gave me the courage to retry making the coco butter soap recipe from this soap making book that I messed up so horribly it came out like Flubber. (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links for your convenience.) I learned from my mistakes and had e a perfect batch of coco butter soap cooking in the slow cooker. I also had a wee bit of melted coco butter and coconut oil leftover – too little to use it for soap, too much to throw away. I am just about out of moisturizer and coco butter is one of my favorite types of lotion and body butter. Hey, let’s make some!

Except.

I don’t like how my previous homemade body butters made coconut oil eventually lose their fluffy texture, the oils started to separate,  and coconut oil turn grainy in the jar.

So much so that I told myself the next time I make it, it will not include coconut oil as an ingredient and that I’d make a lotion instead of a body butter. (Lotion= moisturizing oils/butters+emulsifier+ distilled water. Body butter= moisturizing oils/butters only.)

Which I remembered after I had measured and combined the melted coconut oil, coco butter, and vitamin E oil in the measuring cup I use for water. D’oh!

Can these homemade moisturizer ingredients be saved? Yes! Keep reading to find out how!

All is not lost! First up, using a high speed stick blender or mixer (like a like this KitchenAid Stand Mixer) over a hand mixer will help loads but to really keep the ingredients fluffy and from separating you need to use an emulsifier because well, that’s what emulsifiers were born to do. 

How to Strip Paint the Non Toxic Way

I have a love – hate relationship with spray paint. I love that spray paint will cover almost every surface (if you use the right formula) and easily paint hard to paint areas like indentations and intricate moulding. I hate that many of my spray paint projects en up with paint bubbles and drips.

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The best way to avoid spray paint bubbles and dripping paint is to hold the can further away from object you are painting and use several light and even coats of spray paint rather than blasting a thick coat of spray paint from close up. Using a spray paint handle (you can find several types of spray paint trigger handles here) will help you paint with even coats of paint and not kill your fingers from pressing the can’s spray nozzle. 

Spray paint bubbles are also caused by painting a second coat of paint on an object when the first coat is not completely dry. I know this because 9 times out of 10 I get spray paint bubbles because I thought my last coat of paint was dry after 24 hours and it was not. The joys of living in a humid area!

 

2 Ways to Repair Spray Paint Bubbles and Drips

 

DIY Poo Pourri Air Freshener Spray

I’m sure you are aware of those times when the air in a bathroom needs a little immediate help to clear the room of…uh…um…odor.

Even though I wasn’t thrilled with the synthetic ingredients (although now Scent Fill  makes natural essential oil refills for Glade and other brand plug ins, ) I had scented oil plug thingies in each bathroom for that purpose. Once they became available, I upgraded to pluggable wax melt warmers similar to these and use a locally made vegetable wax and essential oil wax melts for my bathrooms. They work just as well, and I like that I easily scrap the last bit of wax from a dead candle into the smaller wax warmers to keep enjoying the scent. I am the only one who buys a candle and can never seem to find the same scent when I need to replace it? (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links for your convenience.)

Unfortunately, there are still times when your bathroom needs a little more immediate or preventative air quality attention.  Does a room freshener exist without the synthetic ingredients? 

Yep, it sure does and it is the perfect thing for zero waste, natural living, and budget minded folks.

Or you just want something prettier than a can in your bathroom, that’s cool too. *raises hand* 

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DIY Natural  Air Freshener

How to Clean Rusty Chrome the Non Toxic Way!

Taking my bathroom décor que from hotels I stayed in I hung a chrome towel rack shelf in the Master Bathroom shower. It is handy as a towel rack and even better when I need a place to hang some hand washing up to dry. I popped a little plastic tray on top so I can use it as a storage shelf for shampoo and such.

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Unfortunately, the chrome is developing tiny rust spots.

Fortunately there is a quick, easy, cheap and non toxic way to remove rust from metal chrome.

How to Naturally Kill Grubs and Japanese Beetles with Milky Spore

When we bought our condo, the builder planted spirea bushes in front of all of the houses in the neighborhood. Those pretty pink flowers were quite attractive – to Japanese beetles and grubs.

Commercial grub killers from the big box store do not work for me which I only tried as a last resort. I was leery of what the 90% OTHER INGREDNETS listed on the ingredients label actually were since they had a warning about not using the stuff around kids, dogs, and fish ponds.

The only thing that worked was using the all natural, people and pet safe organic grub killing combo of Milky Spore powder and Beneficial nematodes in my flowerbeds. (Disclosure: I am including a few big bold affiliate links in this post for your convenience because I couldn’t find any of these items for sale locally and figure you might be in the same boat too.)

Now if I was smart and applied Milky Spore to my grass and lawn when I did the flower bed years ago, the good Milky Spore bacteria would have been fruitful and multiplied in the soil throughout my property by now.

While the flower beds are naturally pest free but I found a grub in the yard recently and where there is one grub there are a dozen or more. Live and learn  should have applied my organic pest killer to the yard too. But my shortsightedness is your gain because I can write you a quick and easy tutorial.

How to Easily Apply Milky Spore to Your Lawn and Garden

Quick and Easy DIY Non Toxic Carpet Deodorizer

Lacey had a bit of a hair ball problem and spent the day christening every. room. in. the.house. Who knew dogs can projectile vomit?

I do.

My poor girl.

I don't feel so good.

I thoroughly cleaned the incidents with my Bissell SpotClean (I really love this thing and don’t knew where I’d be without it! I can’t recommend it enough and believe in it so strongly I’m willing to use my affiliate links to do it!) 


My priority was making sure Lacey didn’t dehydrate or get worse than pulling out the big Bissell Powerlifter Carpet Cleaner to deep clean the growing number of disaster recovery zones.
Once Lacey kept food down toward the end of the evening, my plan was to thoroughly shampoo all of the carpeting in the house with the Powerlifter to following day.


In the meantime, the former bio hazards on the carpeting were clean but the house still smelled like puke.

How to  Make All Natural Carpet Refresher

The Easiest DIY Laundry Stain Remover You Will Ever Make!

After my allergy test revealed a lovely grid of red dots indicating I’m allergic to even more annoying things than I realized, I got a ton of information from the doctor about things I can change around the house to help me deal with the unpleasantness.

That’s how I ended up with a giant jug of unscented high efficiency laundry detergent that makes my front loading washing machine stink.

Reek, actually.

I can’t return it. I don’t want to use it as laundry detergent but I CAN use it to make a quick, cheap, and effective laundry stain remover spray. Which is fortunate because I’ve been crying in my oatmeal ever since they discontinued the plant based version of my all time favorite stain fighting spot remover Shout.

How to Make Two Ingredient Laundry Stain Remover Spray

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How to Refill a Car Vent Clip Air Freshener

It is not very green or eco friendly, but I use a Fabreeze type vent clip air freshener in the car.

Yes, I know, I know. I’m fully aware of the questionable synthetic ingredients in plug in air fresheners like Glade, Air Wick, Yankee Candle, and the like but I was driving around in a car that smelled like wet dog and gym socks and it was too cold to clean out the car.

Feel free to yell at me and tell me what a horrible person I am in the comments below if you must.

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16 of the BEST DIY Green Cleaning Products and Solutions You Need to Try Right Now!

Often people ask me how I have time to do all of the DIY I do on Condo Blues. My not so secret secrete is most of my crazy experiments happen when I'm trying to find something, anything, to keep myself occupied during my yearly Cabin Fever. 

Otherwise this is what I'm like from mid January until June.

I don't know who made or owns this gif (please let me know so I can credit them)

 but it often the image in my head when I see one.more.gray.day. outside my window

How to Clean an Essential Oil Nebulizing Aromatherapy Diffuser

 I’ve been poking around at upgrading my candle essential oil diffuser. I didn’t realize how many types and choices are available since I bought my ceramic diffuser ages ago:

1. Candle Essential Oil Diffuser – Good for a start but it’s too easy for the candle to boil the essential oil and water dry. Not to mention the whole never leave a burning candle unattended thing.

2. Reed diffuser – Swing and a miss. Slow acting and only good for small rooms like a bathroom. You need new reeds every time you want to use a different essential oil in it.

3. Ultrasonic essential oil diffuser – Uses water and heat to produce a mist of essential oil in the air. They are often made out of a ugly hunks of plastic. The last thing I need (per my allergist) is to add humidity to the air in my home due to my (rather annoying) seasonal allergies which makes it a no go.

4. Nebulizing essential oil diffuser -  Uses an air pump to release the essential oil from the diffuser as waterless mist. Many people feel a nebulizer is a better option because it doesn’t change the makeup of the essential oil with heat or weaken the aroma with water – which makes it the perfect type for me!

18 Gift Ideas for People Who Are Always Cold

I am that person who is always cold and as luck will have it I’m also the one who is assigned the frozen tundra polar ice cap infused office at work. Because apparently most office buildings think you have to keep the IT department people as cold as the servers and computers we work on – or at least it feels that way.

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Influenced by a unseasonable cold snap and freezing while I shuffled around the house while wearing many layers, I put together a holiday gift guide for people who work outside in the cold, inside a cold building, or just like the snuggle up at home when it it cold outside.

Holiday Gift Ideas to Keep You Warm When it is Cold

20 New Ways to Use and Repurpose Old Towels

I swear the amount of towels in my linen closet magically doubles or triples on its own. I bet it is some relic from a science fiction universe (or that I live in a small house with a small linen closet but I’m still blaming aliens because it is more fun.)

If I don’t clean it out my linen regularly the towel population grows to the point it is so large I can’t close the closet door. Which given the size of the linen closet, it doesn’t take a huge towel population to achieve this.

But it also means that I regularly have old towels with a worn spot or edge but overall fairly usable and as such, something I don’t want to send to landfill hell if I can get another reuse out of it.

Luckily, old and worn towels are one of the easiest things to reuse and upcycle to save a little money, the environment, or better yet – time.

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20 Genius Ideas to Reuse Old Towels You Have to Try!

How to Make Compost Tea Fertilizer

Every evening as part of my post dinner cleanup,  I try to dump our kitchen compost collector into the big tumbling compost bin outside to keep the little guy from stinking up the joint.

This particular evening I gave the compost bin a crank like I have done so many evenings before only for the half full bin to suddenly become much easier to turn, like it was practically empty – because it was.

The hinges and latch on the door to the compost bin failed and dumped compost all over the yard.
For the third time.

I didn’t have enough finished compost to fertilize my garden but instead of singing the Condo Blues, I used it to make compost tea. Compost tea is an excellent plant food and fertilizer and well earns its nickname – Black Gold.

How to Brew Compost Tea Concentrate the Easy Way

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How to Naturally Kill Grubs, Fleas, and Fungus Gnats

Japanese beetle grubs decimated our “easy to care for landscaping” shortly after we bought our condo because our builder planted the entire neighborhood with plants that attract Japanese Beetles.  Our final solution was to rip out every bush and plant in the yard and let it lay fallow for a year. It wasn’t pretty but it worked.

They’re back.

Dang it!

Commercial grub killers from the big box store do not work for me (hich I only tired as a last resort.) I was leery of what the "90% OTHER INGREDIENTS" listed on the label actually were next to the warning about not using the stuff around kids, dogs, and fish ponds.  So, yeah. I'm glad it didn't work.

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How to Make Rosemary Mint Salt Scrub

I recently declared a Treat Yo’ Self weekend after buying a massage special from Groupon (so much cheaper than going to the massage school and I got a much better massage too!)

A fun little family adventure with Lacey, dinner and drinks out followed. Sunday, prompted by the desire to wear a skirt on a gloriously warm day, and the state of some winter skin in desperate need of exfoliation, an in home spa day was in order since everything was closed. Otherwise - you guessed it - Groupon time.

Fortunately, everything I need to make a fantastic nontoxic and natural exfoliating skin scrub is sitting right here in my kitchen. I bet you do too!

Exfoliating Rosemary Peppermint Salt Scrub: The Step by Step Tutorial

 

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DIY Allergy Friendly Homemade Furniture Dusting Spray

Dusting is not my favorite chore. I tried to make it easier by using a feather duster to dust the stuff on bookshelves and other hard to reach up too high places.

Until my allergist put the kibosh on that. He says feather dusters push more dust around than they pick up (including my fancy ostrich feather duster as well as the even fancier lambs wool dusters.)
Which for most of you will still work all fine and dandy but not for me. I have a litany of seasonal allergens including and especially dust mites.  So how exactly am I supposed to dust the furniture without commercial dusting sprays or a feather or lambs wool duster?

In this instance, my allergist recommended the best way to clean dust and dust mites is also the most non toxic and cheapest cleaner in the world – water!

How to Make Nontoxic and CHEAP! DIY Dust & Allergen Furniture Spray

 

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How to Clean and Disinfect a Yoga Mat Naturally

My husband and I recently joined the YMCA so I can take their fitness classes to rebuild my balance and muscles for my adult beginner ballet class.

Given my recent history of buying a new stuff for working out and eventually quitting, I’m making do with what I have until I get past my ”what have I gotten myself into? I don’t think I like this” hump. In the meantime, I’m borrowing the yoga mat Husband has to do floor exercises at home. Sharing is working well since we use it at different times. It doesn’t hurt that we aren’t cluttering our space with extra stuff either.

Although there is one teeny, tiny problem with two people sharing the same exercise mat. IT REEKS OF TWO PEOPLE WORKING OUT AND SHARING A YOGA MAT.

I became aware of our problem during my second Face Plant Piyo class.

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