DIY Dandelion Salve Bars

One afternoon as I was thinking about making potions, I had an idea to turn dandelion salve into lotion bars. I thought it was an original idea but decided to check my "why buy when you can..." Pinterest board, where I found that my original idea was already taken. Ha! I should have known. The Nerdy Farm Wife is brilliant and one of my favorite blogs. 

Why dandelion? It is great for sore muscles and super dry skin. It really works. Plus, they're readily available throughout the summer for FREE! I like free. I wanted to share my favorite formula for Dandelion Salve Bars with you. I love it!

To start, you need to make a dandelion infused oil. You can get the directions HERE. It's easy! I use the long method, letting them sit in the sun for weeks and weeks. The neighbor asked, "What is that yellow stuff you always have outside?" Ha! That was a good conversation starter!
On my first try last year, I used olive oil and it definitely had a distinct smell to it. This year, I made two batches. One with sunflower oil and the other with sweet almond oil. There is almost no smell to either. 

Making Your Own Plant Shade

By now, I imagine most of you have gone outside and gotten your garden ready for a plentiful harvest. I wanted to share with you a new trick that I incorporated into my garden this year to help my plants. 

If you follow my blog, you may remember that I live in the high desert, where the sunshine can be brutal to young veggie plants. My parents, who are also gardeners, have a fabulous idea on how to combat the harsh sun. My dad made little shade stands for my mom's garden out of various bits and pieces he had laying around. I thought this was a great idea and wanted to incorporate it into my garden. Since KB and I move so much, we don't have a lot of "extras" laying around the house for future use...like you do when you've lived on the same land for over 25 years (ahem! my parents).

10 Uses for Coconut Oil

The other day I was reading some posts on Facebook and kept seeing coconut oil mentioned. People were talking about their favorite ways to use it and others were amazed at the easy ways to use it. 
I thought, what a perfect idea for a blog post! So here are five of my favorite ways to use coconut oil and, as a bonus, I asked Krysta (my behind the scenes gal) her five favorite uses.

Phototoxicity - What does that mean?

Now that summer is here and the days are longer and the sun is shining more, I wanted to talk a little bit about the safety of using essential oils in the sun. More specifically, which oils create phototoxicity because I want us all to be safe in the sun while using EOs.

Vintage Bliss Card Designs

In Joann Fabric and Craft Stores, I can always find great card making products. I try to pick up materials that are part of a set, this way the papers and stickers already go together. It makes putting together your cards much easier.

For this set of cards, I am using products from the Simple Stories Vintage Bliss line. I love the vintage look and the colors are great. 

This card I designed to celebrate the engagement of my friend Mel 

(I sure hope she gets it in the mail before she sees it here). 
I'm calling this card "Always/Forever".

My Own Experimenting

Up until now, I haven't done much experimenting with recipes and essential oil blends. It's not because I don't want to, but because lack confidence in my abilities. Then, one afternoon as I was perusing the interwebs reading blogs, I came across a post by Humblebee & Me, titled DIY For Beginners. Her post made experimenting sound doable and I thought, "I can do that". After reading the post, I shared it on my Facebook page with a comment about being nervous to try to make my own recipes. A family friend commented that I should give my own DIY a try because it was such a creative and rewarding experience. 

That was that, I decided to give it a go...Sometimes you just need a nudge. 

What is Dispersant-Solubol?

When I read Facebook posts, blog posts and even tweets, I like to check out the comments. You can find a lot of internet trolls out there but you can also find some really good information. Why do I mentioning this? Well, the first time I had ever heard about the term dispersant-solubol was in the comments on a Facebook post (I can't remember if it was A Hip & Humble Life or Created2Fly .)
It was referenced as an additive that helps with the dispersal of essential oils onto your skin. How awesome! Another product to add to your collection of products to avoid using essential oils neat (undiluted). Of course, I had to a little digging to find out more. 

Investigation commence...