a little making

With hubby and most of the boys away helping his mother move this Friday us ladies decided to make a couple of things. I've been wanting to make some natural chemical free insect repellent for a while now. Knowing I have everything on hand and it being super easy, I've just never done it!

I looked up recipes on line and in this book ~ Urban Farm Projects (I'm quite obsessed with urban farming at the moment) and came up with my own concoction using most of the essential oils I found and just really combined everything I found :) hope it's okay to do that. It smells wonderful!  I hope it works!

Here is MY recipe ~
Joyful Mother's insect repellent

1 cup witch hazel

1/2 cup water

1/2 tsp glycerin

1 Tb apple cider vinegar

1/2 tsp each citronella, Rosemary, clove, lemongrass, tea tree essential oils

Pour all ingredients in a spray bottle and shake well

Shake before using and enjoy being bite free!

Really you can use any of the essential oils in the recipe ,as like I said I used all of what I found. Usually the recipes just used one or two. Also the glycerin makes it a bit greasy but I read it's better to make the oils bond together and to you. 

Little Miss wanted to make some cookies, using the "they're healthy" plot to get me to help her. So we made oatmeal raisin cookies. We very rarely bake with white sugar, mostly using sucanut, honey, or maple syrup in its place, making our baked treats healthier!

This is baby S crawling out on the porch for the first time!  Oh he was very excited to cross the threshold into a whole new world. Now if he would have just stayed on the porch it would have been a lot more fun as he would have been able to stay out, but being very muddy and messy out he had to go back to the normal floor.