BABY WIPES
Ingredients: Large, sealing container, good quality paper towels or washclothes, 2 to 2 1/2 cups of warm water, 5-7 TBS baby oil, 3-5 TBS liquid baby bath soap
Directions: Start with an empty, large, sealing container for your wipes. You'll want to be able to open it easily with one hand. I like to use a gallon ice cream bucket. Use a good quality paper towel. The cheap ones just tear up and are a mess. I like Bounty. The Bounty Select-A-Size towels tear off to perfect size, but are expensive. You can use a regular sized roll by sawing it in half, making two narrow rolls, or tearing each one in half. There will be some lint mess if you saw it, but just brush that away.
Use half a roll for each batch of wipes. Tear off, then fold towels like an envelope to make dispensing easy, and make a stack. (this is a good job for the children to do for you!) If you use a sawed roll and an ice cream container, you don't need to tear or fold at all. Just put the roll into the container, and tear off sheets as needed.
Mix together warm water, baby oil, and 3 liquid baby bath soap in the container, then add paper towels. Wait a minute, then close the container, and flip it upside-down for about 30 minutes, to let fluid saturate entire stack.
You can also make this with 3-4 dozen plain white washcloths, then toss in with your cloth diapers to clean.
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BATH SALTS
Ingredients: glass mixing bowl, 3 cups Epsom salts (available at drugstores)
1 TBS glycerin (available at drugstores), Storage container, some essential oil or perfume (optional), a few drops of food coloring (optional)
Directions: Blend all ingredients, except for the salt, in the mixing bowl. Slowly add Epsom salts, mixing thoroughly. Store in a sealed container.
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BLUSHER
Ingredients: lipstick, moisturizer
Directions: If you want your lipstick and blush to match, rub a little lipstick in the palm of your hand, and mix with a couple drops of moisturizer cream. This is also a great use for leftover lipstick at the bottom of the tube.
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BOO-BOO BUNNY
Ingredients: sponge, scissors, marker, water, plastic baggie
Directions: Draw a simple shape of a bunny (or bear, or whatever) onto a sponge. Cut out shape. Soak sponge with water and squeeze out excess. Place wet sponge in plastic bag and keep in the freezer. Use on boo-boos for small children. Keep a few wet but squeezed out washclothes in baggies for your older kids and yourself.
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COMPACT FACE POWDER
If your face powder gets too hard to use, gently rub the top with an emory board to loosen powder. If you store the puff with the soft side up, this won't happen. It is the oils from your skin that harden the powder.
This is one of my favorite tips! If you drop your compact and break the powder into dust, put about 1/4 -1/2 teaspoon of isopropel rubbing alcohol into the powder mess in the compact. Stir around with a toothpick. The broken powder will turn to a pastey consistency when wet with the alcohol. Smooth with toothpick and set aside - opened - for a few days. After about three days, the alcohol will evaporate, leaving your powder almost as good as new!
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DEODERANT
Ingredients: baking soda
Directions: If you are sensitive to commercially made products, or if you find you are out of deoderant, you can use baking soda under your arms instead.
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HAND SANITIZER
Ingredients: 1/4 cup aloe vera gel, 1/4 cup isopropal alcohol, 10 drops essential oil or perfume (optional), 2 tsp. glycerin (at the drug store), 4 oz container to hold it in
Directions: Mix all ingredients and put in an airtight 4 oz container to carry with you and sanitize your hands after touching things at public places.
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HEAT PACK
Ingredients: 2 cotton sport socks or 2 identical sized pieces of felt, uncooked rice, potpourri (optional), needle and thread.
Directions: Fill one sock with rice. Mix in potpourri for a nicer smell (Raw rice smells yucky when heated the first few times). Sew top together. Slip into second sock. This can be heated in the microwave, and applied to sprains or other injuries. The rice keeps hot a good long time. The second sock keeps the inside sock clean, and can be taken off and washed. You can also make a large pad out of sheets of felt filled with rice, and cover with a pillow case.
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LIQUID SOAP
Ingredients: leftover bits of soap, water, blender, squirt bottle
Directions: Grate leftover bits of bar soap in your blender with some water. Pour into squirt bottle and keep on your sinktop for hand washing.
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REUSABLE ICE PACK
Ingredients: zipper-lock freezer bags, isopropel alcohol, water, food coloring, permanent marker
Directions: Mix equal parts water and alcohol in a freezer bag. Add some drops of blue or purple food coloring. Write on bag in permanent ink: FOR INJURIES. DO NOT EAT!! Then place into another bag and write the same on the second bag. Keep in freezer for bumps and bruises. It will freeze into a "slush" and be soft and flexible for injuries.
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TOOTHACHE
Ingredients: ground clove powder.
Directions: Rub a little ground clove powder into a cavity or painful tooth for instant relief.
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TOOTHPASTE
Ingredients: baking soda
Directions: Out of toothpaste, or don't like it? Sprinkle a very small amount of baking soda in the palm of your hand. Wet your toothbrush and dip into the baking soda. Brush as usual. Cleans, whitens, and makes your breath sweet! It may be too strong for young children. If you use baking soda exclusively for your toothpaste, keep it in a jar with a few whole cloves inside to sweeten it a little.
