Household – Page 14 – Plain and Not So Plain

21 days to a more natural home series…part 19…natural bug repellent

amy / 08/08/2013

Bugs, bugs, and more bugs. The one thing I detest about warmer weather is the mosquitoes and ticks that we have around here. The last few years we have been pretty much mosquito free in our area, but we have dealt with ticks. Nothing worse than seeing a small tick on your babies head or behind their ears. Makes me shutter, yuck!

For the most part, I try to thoroughly check my children as best as I can when we come inside, (checking 6 little ones, is not always at the top of my list, sorry to say). Sometimes a little preventative maintenance is the best thing to do.

I do not like commercial brand bug and tick spray. The chemicals inside the spray I know are not healthy for myself nor are they good for my children. But what is worse…getting bit by the bugs and possibly getting a disease, or using the chemicals in the bug spray?? That is a question you are going to have to ask yourself. I will try multiple natural remedies before I will just grab the commercialized product.

Here are a few options for keeping mosquitoes and ticks at bay. Why are there multiple recipes?? Because different types of environments, bugs, and people will respond differently to these remedies. Find which works best and stick with it.

Nutritionally, you can drink a tablespoon or two of organic apple cider vinegar and eat lots of garlic. Vitamin B1 taken daily is also supposed to help repel insects.
Rub vanilla extract directly onto the skin. You can also mix vanilla with witch hazel and water for a spray version.
Rub lavender flowers if you have them or lavender oil on your skin. Pay attention to the “hot parts” of your body like your neck, and underarms.
Rub fresh or dried leaves of anything “mint” all over your skin to repel insects. (peppermint, spearmint, catnip, citronella, basil, or lemongrass are all good choices.)
tea tree oil mixed with water in a spray bottle might do the trick.
In a 4 ounce spray bottle add 1/3 cup of witch hazel, then add to it all or some of the following essential oils(I recommend 10-25 drops of each)———– lemongrass oil, eucalyptus oil, lemon oil, citronella oil, or cedar oil.

Do you have any ways of “naturally” keeping mosquitoes and ticks at bay??

Wall hanging clipboards… creative, clean, cheap, and organized

amy / 08/06/2013

For those that do not know me personally, I don’t like clutter. I watched the show “Hoarders” and it made me cringe. I don’t like stuff. Too much of it is such a waste. You will find me cleaning and weeding out my house 3-4 times per year. Having a large family, I find that things do accumulate and unfortunately things do get messy most of the time. I try and be organized but I realize that there is always room for improvement.

Well this past spring I went through and painted our entire house. It has been 5 years since we have moved into our home and we painted the rooms when we did move in. But with 10 children, walls get scratched, paint gets dull it was time to freshen up the place. For about $100 I was able to repaint our entire house. I decided to go with a more neutral color this time around, the first time I used lots of colors and then found when I needed to touch up something, my paint was usually gone and I didn’t want to go spend $20 for a new can. This time I used the same color in multiple rooms of the home and it has given it a nice neutral, warm feeling. I went with browns–dark brown for the trim, and a lighter tan colored for the walls. Anyways with all that new paint, I decided to redo my wall decorations.

I haven’t had much on the walls, because I have had so many little children in the last few years, who has time to decorate their house when they barely have time to get a shower each day. Well this year things are seemingly getting easier, my youngest is 1 now and life does get better.

I found that within my day, I write multiple to do lists and have different notes and papers for the children. I was so tired of having them all over my counter space in the kitchen. I decided to make these clipboards to hang on the walls, out of the way.

Each clipboard is designed for each person that needs a note. I have one for 8 of my children, as the littlest ones do not need one yet. It was so simple to make and cheap too. I put it together in an afternoon.

For the project you will need

a bottle of modge podge $8 –I used about 1/3 of the large bottle
clipboards to hang $1
scrapbook paper to cover the boards $.25 on sale at Hobby Lobby

First you need to cut a pattern out of your paper. I lined it up to the clipboard and cut out the rectangle to fit. Then made a pattern to see how to cut the top to fit. I put the Modge Podge in a bowl and wiped a layer onto the clipboard.Cover it completelyI then put the top piece of paper on and smoothed it. I then put the large square piece to fit the bottom. I had to put some more Modge Podge at the top over the fitted piece.Smooth out the wrinkles as best as you can. I found the lighter scrapbook pages did bubble up and show a little more than the darker colored ones. When the Modge Podge has completely dried, about an hour, turn the clipboard over and trim the excess paper with small pair of scissors or a very sharp exacto knife.Then apply 3 coats of Modge Podge onto the top of the clipboard. Let them dry in between coats, I did them about one every hour.Then when completely dry, overnight, I hung them up. How do you hang up something that has no hook?? Velcro. I applied 3 small squares to each clipboard and stuck them to the wall. Genius.