Casasugar found out that liquid soaps frequently contain chemicals that aren’t good for you or the environment, and found a way to make liquid soap out of bars. The steps are ridiculously easy - it takes a while because at one point you have to let it set overnight, but the actual labor doesn’t require [...]

Posted in Cleaning, Going Green, Health and Beauty No Comments »

Frieda was always my favorite Peanuts character because she had naturally curly hair like me, and talked about it being a “big responsibility.” I’m not sure hair qualifies as any kind of “responsibility”, but naturally curly hair sure does require more care-taking and know-how than most hair types. I’ve spent several years straightening mine because [...]

Posted in Health and Beauty 1 Comment »

In a recent article about making a new body scrub out of an old body wash or lotion, I mentioned in passing that you could always add some essential oils for scent. Eve asked if I knew of a list of oils that worked for various skin types and so on. I decided to compile [...]

Posted in Health and Beauty 2 Comments »

I recently discovered that my dresser drawers don’t come out. They’re bolted to the track somehow. And there’s a slab of wood between each drawer. Manufacturers make them this way to prevent drawers falling out, but it has a  side effect you’re much more likely to encounter: when something gets jammed behind the drawer, it [...]

Posted in Do It Yourself, Health and Beauty, Organization No Comments »

If you think “fat is bad”, you’re missing out on some good foods. There are different kinds of fat, and some of them have nothing to do with weight gain and everything to do with improving your health. Fats that boost your bad cholesterol are bad. Fats that boost your good cholesterol actually helps keep [...]

Posted in Easy Food, Health and Beauty 1 Comment »

You can give yourself a tattoo that lasts for days with an inkjet printer and some special tattoo paper. All you have to do is create a design or find an image online, print it on the paper, and transfer it to your skin. The design will last for days if you make sure it [...]

Posted in Crafts, Health and Beauty No Comments »

So you bought a lotion or body wash, and after a while you found something that smelled nicer, or the seasons changed and your skin needed something different. Now you have this half-used cosmetic product that’s destined for the landfill.
Instead, make it into a body scrub. Lotions make a rich, moisturizing body scrub while body [...]

Posted in Frugal, Health and Beauty 4 Comments »

I have chronic skin problems: sensitive skin that flares into hives sometimes and a permanent condition that gets better and worse. No dermatologist has ever managed to explain why the problems wax and wane.
Lately my skin has been awful. I’ve also been getting far less sleep (in terms of both quality and quantity) than I [...]

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I naturally build plaque really quickly. When I was a kid with braces and the dentist and hygienists were seeing me a couple of times a week, they knew I was brushing and flossing yet the plaque just piled up anyway. They told me that unfortunately, that’s just how it is for some people.
Every time [...]

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Some quick tips for adding vegetable content when you’re preparing meals for picky kids:

Use vegetable cocktail in a soup. If a recipe calls for stock, tomatoes or tomato sauce, you can switch part of it out for vegetable cocktail and get the added nutrients from the other vegetables in the juice without affecting the taste [...]

Posted in Easy Food, Health and Beauty, Parenting 1 Comment »