Eucalyptus EO... Sticky Label Remover

While I was at the store last week purchasing eucalyptus EO the cashier told me it is excellent for removing labels and stickers as well as cleaning.  Who would have knew?  Definitely not me.  No wonder it works so well in my all purpose cleaner.

So I thought I would try it on this bottle our salad dressing came in.

I only intended to put 5 - 8 drops, but it came out  a little fast, so be careful to not get it all over the countertop. I think about 15-20 drops came out.  It's hard to focus when you are also the one taking the picture.  

After scraping for about 20 seconds with a nylon scraper and then wiping away with a

 sponge and warm water the label was totally gone.  Quite superb, don't ya think?  Now I have an adorable vase for my white daisies growing in the garden this summer.

   

Sal Suds Multi-purpose Cleaner

I wanted to post another recipe with Sal Suds that has a little extra power for cleaning messy countertops, bathroom sinks, spills on floors, dirty walls  This works awesome and I love the smell. Weird maybe, I know.  With TTO I find that people either love it or hate it.  This is a recipe I came up with myself after doing some research and talking to one of my green cleaning neighbors.

Sal Suds Multi-purpose Cleaner

• Water (24 ounces)
• ½ cup distilled white vinegar
• 1 TBSP Sal Suds Castile soap
• ¾ cup hydrogen peroxide
• 1 tsp Super Washing Soda
• 1/2 tsp Borax
• 25 drops tea tree oil (TTO)
• 2 drops eucalyptus oil 

Put in spray bottle an mix gently. The Borax and Washing Soda does take a little time to dissolve. Careful, the hydrogen peroxide causes the spray bottle to expand and contents may overflow even though bottle is closed.  Make sure to store on top of paper towel to protect surface from leakage when batch is fresh and bottle is full.   For best results wipe with a wet cloth, then follow up with a dry one.  This cleaner requires very minimal scrubbing and provides a sparkling clean.  Enjoy!
   

Sal Suds....Love!

Have you tried Sal Suds yet?  Well, if you haven't you should.  This is my favorite dish soap, multi-purpose cleaner, and laundry detergent.  For just under $12 for the bottle (at Vitamin Cottage in CO),  it is totally worth it.   

For my dish soap/multi-purpose cleaner I mixed a water filled spray bottle with 1 TBSP of Sal Suds, and 2 drops of Eucalyptus EO, and 25 drops of Tea Tree EO.  Make sure you add the Sal Suds after the water is in the bottle or else you will end up with a bubbly mess, a little goes a long way.   I got this idea from Lisa Bronner's blog.

The dishes came out spotless this morning...and I thought I should definitely post about this and share some Sal Suds lovin'.  

The hubby and I also used this solution to clean the refrigerator over the weekend and it is sparkling.  I have also used Sal Suds to make a stronger all-purpose cleaner and some laundry detergent. I tried it in some homemade dishwasher detergent and it did not work as well as the detergent I normally use.  I don't think my sink, dishes, kitchen appliances and laundry have ever been so clean.  I also used it as a substitute for the Dawn dish soap in my Kick Ass Glass Cleaner recipe.  

If you use Sal Suds, or if I have inspired you to try it, I would love to hear from you.

   

Mac Monday...iPhone App Lovin'...Awesome Shopping

I am totally lovin' my iphone and i'm sure that many of you can relate.  I think what makes the iPhone so awesome and fun are the apps that are available.  God Bless those talented developers who work so hard to make them, which makes our lives so much easier. 

Today I thought i would share my favorite shopping list app that I use and update constantly.  It is so easy to use that my 7 year old is beginning to take it over.
  

It is called Awesome Shopping http://makeshoppingawesome.com/.  If you look it up on the App Store the reviews are 4 1/2 stars and for .99 cents you really can't go wrong.

Read on to see why I love it.... you can customize it more than any of the shopping list apps that I have tried. 

First, you can add as many shops as you need to so each shop has it's own list.

                

 

Secondly, you can add items, and then customize the item you add by aisle, quantity, unit and add extra notes.

          

Finally, once you are done you can cross the items off your list. Then delete them... and then..

Look what it tells you.  How awesome it that!  So for .99 cents you get told how awesome you are over and over again.  Maybe that is the real reason I like it so much. LOL!!

So here is the link if your interested to have that awesome shopping experience.   http://makeshoppingawesome.com. Happy awesome shopping.

   

Kick Ass Glass Cleaner

Please note: I had to repost this because I accidentally  deleted it, which also deleted some lovely comments from my readers.  Please feel free to comment again and know that your comments were not deleted on purpose. I really love hearing from my readers.

Since I ran out of glass cleaner I had to make more yesterday.  I wanted to try this recipe I found on pinterest just for kicks.  If you are interested, here is the link http://www.crazydomestic.com/2011/03/best-homemade-glass-cleaner-ever.html.  It works even better than the one I made up a few days ago (it really kicks ass, lol). The few things I did different were adding Dr. Bronner's liquid soap (love, love Dr. Bronners), peppermint essential oil, camphor essential oil and the drop of blue food coloring.  I find the Dr. Bronner's adds some extra cleaning power to just about anything, but the tiniest amount goes a long way. I increased the essential oils because the increase in alcohol creates a very strong smell and the EO's help tone it down.  If your you don't mind the smell feel free to leave out the EO's.


So here's my version of Crazy Domestic's Best Glass Cleaner.. Ever.  I will call mine Kick Ass Glass Cleaner...well because in my opinion, it kicks ass.

I even took new picture of it, because it looks a little different than my other recipe.

Kick Ass Glass Cleaner

1 Cup of Water

1 Cup of Alcohol

1/2 to 1 Tbsp Ammonia (I use 1/2 Tbsp)

1/2 tsp of Dawn Dish Detergent

4 drops of Dr. Bronner's Liquid Soap

25 drops of Peppermint Essential Oil (Optional)

2 drops of Camphor Esssential Oil (Optional)

1 drop of blue food coloring (Optional)

Combine all about all ingredients in spray bottle, shake and you are good to go.

   

Homemade glass cleaner...that works!

3/27/2012 Please Note: check out my recent post on another glass cleaner that works even better... http://cohippychik.blogspot.com/2012/04/kick-ass-glass-cleaner.html.  The recipe in this post does work well but I just wanted to make sure you knew about this other one that I like even more.  :)

There are so many homemade glass cleaner recipes on the internet. I have tried so many of them that I have lost count.. including the green ones with club soda and vinegar.  I would prefer to be green and most of my homemade cleaners are. However, I am a stickler for clean mirrors and windows, and being green for this recipe wasn't cutting it.  The cornstarch recipe out there was not working out for me at all. That was my worst experience. It actually made a white caky mess on my mirrors that took me 3 cleaning attempts to get it off.  This cornstarch recipe was the last one I tried and I was really hoping it would work, but to my husband it was a disaster, but a humorous one.  My husband thought I was crazy trying all these recipes and told me to give up after the cornstarch incident. So, after much research and trial and error here is the glass cleaner recipe I came up with. Well guess what?  It works and my frustration is over. If you try it out,  I would love to hear what you think. For some of you the cornstarch or other methods may work.  I just hope you don't have to go through the same disaster I did.   

J's glass cleaner

  2 Cups of Water 

  2 Tbsp of Ammonia

  4 Tbsp of Rubbing Alcohol

  1 squirt of Dish Soap (I use the blue Dawn)

  3-4 drops of Dr. Bronner's liquid castile soap (optional)

  10-15 drops of Peppermint essential oil (optional, for fragrance)

  1-2 drops of blue food coloring (optional, just for kicks)

Combine all ingredients, shake and your ready to clean glass.

On a side note with glass cleaner the sprayer you use makes a big difference.  The one I use is from an old  Febreze bottle and which gives the spray the perfect spread.  Kind of like a heavy mist. I also use microfiber cloths, which are the bomb.

   

Lexi's Birthday Gift...

One thing about our daughter is she is definitely the most amazing and special thing that Brian and I share.  We feel so fortunate to have her as part of our lives so we both try to give her the childhood we could have only dreamed of.  Taking a look back at many of the things we have done,  she is definitely one lucky girl, but not nearly as lucky as we are to have her.  As a wife to such a wonderful guy, and a mommy to such an angel,  I am definitely the most lucky gal in world.  

So, for her 7th Birthday we surprised her with concert tickets to go see her favorite musician. Mommy feels very lucky because it is one of her favorite artists too.

It was so fun to plan and prepare a very special way to tell her. To begin with, we picked her up from school with our car decorated.  With all these hints, she still had no clue about her gift...

Sparks Fly.... Enchanted.. Best Day... any guesses yet?

Picture to Burn...  Love Story...  TS Bound...

We had way too much fun decorating...

and Brian designed the cake.

Tickets for all three of us to share the experience of Lexi's first concert.

Lexi was ecstatic with her birthday gift and counted down the days before the concert. The concert itself was one of the best ones we have ever seen and was an experience we will never forget.  That will definitely be another post to share.