creating cooking and essential oils

This weeks experiment is putting together some cooking and essential oils. Pretty basic stuff. It takes about a week so I'll post results next week, but here's how I set it up:

Cooking oils:
use olive oil or grapeseed or something with little to no smell that you cook with regularly
bruise the herbs with a mortar and pestle or another device
put herbs in a jar and cover with the oil
put the lid on and set it in a sunny window for a week.
drain the herbs out and use!
using an air tight container will make them last longer

Essential oils:
It's pretty much the same process. I'm using coconut oil and grapeseed oil.
after soaking, what you do is use a cheese cloth and squeeze the oils off of the herbs or flowers into another jar.
You'll get a small amount of concentrated product which is what you are looking for.
Great for soaps and stuff.

I made two cooking oils; ones one lemon and basil and one rosemary and lemon.
And two essential oils; one lavender and one peppermint

Results will be posted next week!

homemade household cleaners test

So last weekend was my inaugural voyage into trying some DIY projects that I saw, or heard about on pinterest or from friends or just things I wanted to try. I started with cleaning products because everyone in my houses allergies have been horrible this year.....including the dogs and cat. Chemicals can make it worse, so I started with some basic household cleaning products. Here's what I found:

Vinegar will clean and deodorize just about anything. It cuts through grease and dust fantastically. If all else fails, you can clean just about anything with it. You can also mix it with water if you want it less strong but by itself is fine.

Baking Soda: mixed with a little soap (1 cup baking soda, 2 tablespoons dish soap, few drops of essential oils is optional) makes a great paste for cleaning the bathroom. I used a sponge and a cloth. It cleans great. My only complaint is that getting the residue off was kind of a pain. If you add water to it, a little goes a long way. Use the water from a sponge after you put it on the surface you are cleaning. Don't put it in the mixture.

Baking soda by itself is a great option for cleaning the toilet. Put some in the toilet like you would the chemical mixes. Let sit for 20-30 min. Scrub and flush! Deodorizes too! This is probably one of the better ones.

Baking soda and water. Make a paste and spread on greasy stovetop. Let dry and wipe. It gets a lot of the nasty stuff off, even the stuff that's been there for years!

Ammonia- Okay, this stuff is NASTY! The grates on our stove are horribly dirty because the cleaners suck and getting the cooked on stuff off. I saw on pinterest that if you soak them in ammonia over night that it will clean it like new. They aren't kidding! But there's a catch. I would suggest doing this outside. The fumes are horrible and it is toxic nasty stuff. Make sure you have a plastic bag or container with a lid that your grates will fit in. You have to be able to completely cover it with the ammonia. It works great, but I wouldn't do this regularly. Once they are clean, you can use the baking soda mix and it will keep the newer stuff from sticking.

So far, those are the ones I've used with success.