DIY Cloth Safe Butt Cream

My poor dd gets really bad rashes. So bad we always have to take her to the acc (acute care clinic) to get medicated creams. Which means I have to put her in a sposie and lather her up with a heavy thick paste. YUCK! I have been trying to make more homemade natural things for my family, especially for my daughter. Baby products have awful ingredients. HELLO, this stuff goes on our children! Prior to making my own cream I was using Boudreaux's Butt Paste. That stuff works great, but unfortunately it's not cloth diaper safe. Bummer, huh? A few weeks ago I ordered from Lil Tulips (my favorite cloth site) and needed a few more dollars in my order to allow for free shipping. I search sample and came across CJ's Butter so I order 3 tea tree scented samples. The cost was $1.50 for .5 oz. I was excited to get this on my daughter's bum! The smell was amazing I tell you. I loved everything about it, accept the cost. I decided to do some research and came across a few different homemade recipes that I really liked. It is so wonderful and works great on my daughter's stubborn rashes. She is just getting over a nasty virus and was having about 6 dirty diapers a day and it caused a rash. It cleared it up, love love love it. The smell is just incredible too!

What You'll Need
- 1 C of Coconut Oil
- 2 Tbsp Calendula Flowers
- 2 Tbsp Chamomile Flowers
- 1/2 C Shea Butter (raw & unrefined)
- 7 drops of tea tree essential oil
- 4 drops of lavender essential oil 
- Cheese Grater 
- 1 Tbsp Beeswax
- Container

Gather all your ingredients

Grate a tablespoon of beeswax

In a double boiler (I used a thick glass bowl in a pot) Boil a few inches of water. Add your coconut oil. Then place your beeswax, chamomile and calendula flowers in with the coconut oil. Keep the heat going on low/med for at least an hour or until the coconut oil turns yellow and smells of chamomile and calendula. 

Carefully strain the flowers out, carefully reserving as much infused coconut oil as possible. A strainer like this is your best option. Make sure all visible pieces of the flowers are removed.

Add your shea butter into the infused coconut oil. Use a fork to stir/mash the shea butter in

Once all the shea butter is mixed in go ahead and add your essential oils

Your cream is now done, now just give it some time to set and thicken. I personally wasn't a fan of the cream in the tube. Hope you enjoy your all natural butt cream !

DIY Calming Baby Wash & Shampoo

 We all know that I love DIY projects.

I was very excited to make this recipe. Recently I read about Johnson & Johnson.

Could NOT believe what I was saw on the backs of those washes.

All kinds of awful ingredients in their wash. Who wants to put that on their child(ren)?

NOT ME!!!!

The next day, I believe, my friend picked us up some J&J naturals.

I was already using Burt's Bees all natural wash for my daughter's home made wipes.

So, I just used instead of the J&J Naturals.

The company even knows the ingredients are dangerous, that why they have the Natural line.

They keep telling the public the toxic ingredients will all be removed in the next two years! Seriously?

I was on a mission and decided to surf the web for homemade wash that was gentle and truly natural.

I found quite a few recipes. I picked a recipe and tweaked it to my liking.

SUPER easy recipe, y'all!

Let's get started

Ingredients-

Coconut Oil (I use organic coconut oil)

Lavender Essential Oil

Kirk's Castile Soap

Cheese Grater

Container/Bowl

Gather all your ingredients. I used a plastic bowl to mix 

everything. Also used an old foam soap dispenser to put my wash in.

First grate a full bar of Kirk's Castile Soap into your bowl.

I used the side with the bigger holes. While doing this step 

go ahead and boil 6 cups of water.

It didn't take me too long to grate the soap, I would have

 liked to sit in front of the TV while doing so, but my dd

was awake. She would probably try to eat this "cheese" !

Once your water starts to boil go ahead you dump your soap shavings in.

Turn down the heat to medium and stir, stir, stir and stir some more.

Make sure your soap completely dissolves. 

When dissolved remove from heat. Let cool for a few minutes then pour

your solution in your bowl.

This next step you don't want to miss! 

Add however much coconut oil your heart desires.

I advise to at least add 1 Tablespoon.

I added 2 big spoonfuls of it and stirred around until melted. 

It made my dd's skin so smooth. I will be adding more.

Next I add this wonderful lavender essential oil.

Add 5 drops and give it a quick mix.

Lavender is such a calming scent so it's perfect for bath time.

After all the steps above I poured some wash into the soap dispenser.

The wash is pretty liquidity, but this dispenser works perfect and it foams nicely.

The next batch I am going to double boil some chamomile flowers

and strain the flowers out and pour the chamomile infused water in with the wash.

I was just too excited to make this and couldn't wait for the flowers to arrive.

Talk about relaxing bath, right?

I will do an update after I try it with the flowers :)

Cloth Ramble

It's been far too long since I posted!

We've been quite busy with a lot of appointments these past couple of weeks.

Just wanted to post some thoughts & opinions.

We have recently reintroduced cloth diapers in our home. YAY!

When my dd my 4 months old we started using cloth.

I absolutely LOVED it!

Our favorite brand was Applecheeks, just an overall fantastic diaper.

Actually, all of their products are wonderful.

They are a sized diaper, size 1 and size 2.

I really liked that about them because my daughter was born 6 weeks premature and used to be on the small side. They were such a good fit on her. 

About 1-2 months later she developed a rash :(

The diapers were causing it, unfortunately. 

At the time I didn't know much about cloth and so sadly we gave up cloth because the rash didn't go away. 

We decided to reintroduce, which I was ecstatic about!

My dd has very sensitive skin and was constantly getting rashes in disposables.

I don't mean a little pink/red rash, like a big mean red and raw rash.

It always looked so painful. Every time I would take her to the ACC (acute care clinic)

and of course I would then have to load her up with all kinds of creams.

OT for just a second.

Yesterday she had her 18 month baby wellness check up.

She was is a sposie because we only had 5 diapers.

Of course the day I put one on her she gets a rash. Coincident? I think not!

Her doctor told us she was having a reaction to the pampers' diapers.

We normally get Huggies.

So, she put an order in for Hyrdcortisone  .

The cloth has done wonders for us. We now have a few favorites!

Applecheeks is still my favorite. I now really like Grovia AIO and Bumgenius Flip!

They all are such a great fit on dd. Once all our orders are in I will post pictures and do a review/comparison on tthem. That way you can know before purchasing.

If you don't use cloth, but have thought about it, go ahead and try it! You will LOVE it, I promise!

It saves you a lot of money too, who doesn't like having some extra money?

Just my ramble for the day. 

Valentine's Day

I absolutely love getting gifts for my husband and daughter.

Especially my daughter, it's so much fun.

My husband is very difficult to buy for. Typical man, right?

I decided to get my daughter some goodies for Valentine's Day.

My husband was gifted the Xbox One.

He's been wanting it for a long time, before it even came out.

So, that's what he received. I also bought him some Budweiser glasses.

He needs some manly cups for the kitchen, haha.

And of course his favorite candy, reeses. He loves them.

I was going to make my husband something, but I am saving that for his birthday next month.

I am very excited to make it, it's going to be a lot of fun.

My Keira's Valentine's goodies :)

She got a sweet card, a little balloon, wonder wow coloring book & markers, hair clippies, snacks, sippy cup, the cutest pair of shorts, much needed butt paste, light up ball, plates & a couple pieces of candy.

She doesn't get too much candy, but this is an occasion. 

My husband came home from his life guard course with roses and some Godiva chocolate. I treated myself with a four pound container of red vines. Sweet and simple!

We opted out going to dinner. We didn't want to try to fight through the Valentine's crowds. We all just wanted to hang out at home and spend some time together. Plus my baby girl had a fun little photo shoot.

 

Happy Valentine's Day, Y'all <3

DIY Laundry Detergent

How much do you think you spend on detergent?

Well, I spend a lot!

 I have always used Tide, but recently heard it's not good to use with Hawaii's hard water. 

So, I switched to Whisk. It's smells great and it's much cheaper than tide.

 I finally decided to make homemade detergent.

Let me just say I was super excited about making my own :)

I was fishing around for recipes and decided to take ideas/ingredients from each.

Okay, let's get started!!!

INGREDIENTS:

Borax

Washing Soda

Fels Naptha 

Purex Crystals

Grater

Bowl

Container 

Gather all your ingredients!

First I grated two bars of the soap. Does it not look like I grated a block of cheese though?

Anyway, I put grated soap in my glass jar.

Next I poured three cups of Borax and three cups of Washing Soad in my glass jar with the soap.

I then poured my Purex Crystals. Pour until your little heart is content.

VOILA!

I added some color to my plain jar :)

Use 1-2 tablespoons per load. I will update and let y'all know how this holds up to my husband's ACU's that love to be covered in red dirt. Ekk!

Why it is IMPORTANT to clean bath toys

So I am a big fan of Pinterest, I mean who isn't?

While I was browsing I came across a pin about cleaning bath toys. 

Last night I decided to clean my daughter's toys, including her bath toys.

I filled up my sink with HOT water.

I put a couple of caps full of bleach into the hot water and added all the toys. 

I let them sit in the water for an hour or so.

After letting them soak I put them in the dish rack. I took all the bath toys, the kind that you can suction up water and squeeze out, and put them aside.

I then got a paper towel and squeezed the water out of each of them.

A couple of them had black stuff come out (mold) so I decided to cut those open.

I ended up cutting open a total of 7 of the toys. If you look closely there is black mold in THREE of them. 

One of the three didn't have much, but it's still mold. I was completely grossed out!!!!! Luckily my daughter hasn't used them in almost a month. My friend was bathing her daughter in our tub and the washcloth she was using was stuck in our drain, so my daughter was getting sink baths.

Only three of them survived and that's because they were new.

With the remaining three I heating up the hot glue gun and glued the holes on each of them.

TADA!!

If I purchase anymore toys like this, for the bath, I will be hot gluing them before they go into the bath tub. I am so glad I came across the pin. Prior to doing this I would squeeze out all the water and put all the toys in her bath toy holder. Which I also bleached!

Hope this helps y'all like it helped us :)

Toddler Fun DIY Finger Paint

Who doesn't enjoy finger painting? The best part is EDIBLE and I mean it tastes great!

So let's get started.

Ingredients:

Kool-Aid packets

Pudding

Cups/Containers

Make pudding as instructed on the back. Then pour in individual cups. Then add a different Kool-Aid pack in each one, careful not too add too much. Stir and that's IT! 

Next time I think I will do this minus the kool-aid. I will use food coloring instead. I'm a big fan of the pudding flavor. I LOVE me some vanilla pudding, who doesn't though.

My daughter had a BLAST!

Baltic Amber Teething Necklace

Who uses these wonderful necklaces?

I LOVE ours! 

My daughter cut her first tooth at 11 months then they all started coming in. 

At 17 months she has her two bottom front teeth, two top front teeth, the tooth on either side of them and two top back molars. OUCH!

She has always been an excellent teether, but her molars got to her.

She was still doing great, but I knew she is a lot of pain. 

She was very clingy, cranky and wasn't sleeping or eating well.

I found her Baltic Amber teething necklace, we had one (it was a photo contest) and put that miracle to use. 

She has had it on for 4-5 days and she is doing fantastic.

You wouldn't think she was teething.

I take her necklace off before naps and bedtime, the paranoid mom in me.

“Succinic acid is a natural pain reliever, anti-inflammatory, and a central nervous system calmer. It is so effective on babies and small children because it simultaneously eases their pain while also having a strong soothing effect on their nervous system – all with zero side effects!”

The picture that one her the teething necklace. The contest was "fun in the sun"

The necklace! She had a brown colored one that I gave to a friend. I'm a big fan of this one!

It matches very well with her clothes.

DIY baby wipes

I came across this recipe for these wipes about nine months ago. I tried it and NEVER went back to store bought wipes! 

These wipes feel very light & soft. Plus they smell amazing! 

Ingredients:

Paper towel roll (DO NOT use a cheap brand! I use Brawny)

Coconut oil (I use organic virgin coconut oil)

Baby wash (I use Burt's Bees wash)

Now that you have all your ingredients grab a kitchen knife. You're not going to want to use a knife with teeth, or else you're just going to shred the paper towels.

Cut the paper towel roll in half, try to make two even halves.

Then fill your wipe container with 2-3 cups of warm water. Add in about 2 tablespoons of coconut oil and 1-2 tablespoons of baby wash. Stir it around and let the coconut oil dissolve completely. 

While you wait remove the cardboard from the middle of the roll. 

Once the coconut oil has dissolved set your paper towel roll in the solution. Once it soaks up the solution halfway I like to flip it. 

 Now that the paper towels have soaked up all the solution it's time to unravel them. I like to give the roll a gentle squeeze so it's not dripping solution everywhere while I unravel it.

This is how I go about unraveling it.

Then I put them back in the wipe container and VIOLA! 

The next time I make these wipes I will be adding a few drops of Tea Tree Oil :)

Hope you enjoy your homemade wipes. We sure do in my home!

Blog Name

I was sitting here thinking of names when this one came to mind. It was the second one I thought of. In June 2013 I was diagnosed with Hyperthyroidism and the following month I was diagnosed with Grave's Disease. As y'all may, or may not know, last month was Thyroid Awareness month! The symbol is a butterfly.Your thyroid is a butterfly shaped gland in your neck, just above your collarbone.

Hyperthyroidism, also known as overactive thyroid, is a medical condition caused by an abnormally high level of thyroid hormone in the bloodstream. The thyroid gland produces an excessive amount of thyroid hormones. Graves disease is an autoimmune disease in which the patient's own immune system attacks the thyroid gland, causing it to produce too much thyroxine. 

My endocrinologist told me my body was slowing going down this path, but it sped up after I gave birth to my daughter. Everyone was surprised that my daughter was even conceived and arrived in this world with no medical issues. She was born six weeks early, but that has no connection to my disease. It's time to spread AWARENESS, y'all! 


"Every cell in the body has receptors for thyroid hormone. These hormones are responsible for the most basic aspects of body function, impacting ALL major systems of the body.
Thyroid hormone directly acts on the brain, the G.I. tract, the cardiovascular system, bone metabolism, red blood cell metabolism, gall bladder and liver function, steroid hormone production, glucose metabolism, lipid and cholesterol metabolism, protein metabolism and body temperature regulation.
For starters. 
You can think of the thyroid as the central gear in a sophisticated engine. If that gear breaks, the entire engine goes down with it."