I am a messy person. There, I said it. I admit it, I throw my clothes on the floor, I leave pots and pans in the kitchen sink for days before I can muster up the courage to clean them, and I hate sweeping with a passion. And yet, every once in a while I find myself in a “cleaning mode” where I just want everything to be tidy, organized and spotless. It usually starts in the bathroom, there is nothing worse than a dirty bathroom. One day I’ll be brushing my teeth and all of a sudden I need to clean. Call me crazy but this sparatic way of living somehow works for me. Recently I’ve been trying to switch over to home-made and natural cleaning supplies instead of the chemical heavy store bought kind. With some help from the wide world of the internet and some green living books that happen to inhabit my bookshelf I have come up with the following ingredients for a clean home.

© MaraDamian @ DeviantArt.

Lemon juice can be used to dissolve soap scum and water deposits as well as shine metal surfaces. Mix lemon juice with vinegar and/or baking soda to make a cleaning paste. Cut a lemon in half and sprinkle baking soda on the cut section. Use the lemon to scrub dishes, surfaces, and stains. Mix 1 cup olive oil with ½ cup lemon juice and you have a furniture polish for your hardwood furniture. A few tablespoons of lemon juice in 2 quarts of water makes an excellent glass cleaner.

Baking soda can be used to scrub surfaces in much the same way as common store bought abrasive cleansers. Baking soda is also great as a deodorizer (as you’ve probably already heard). Place a box in the refrigerator and freezer to absorb odors but change to a new one every few weeks. Put it anywhere you need deodorizing action.

Vinegar naturally cleans like an all-purpose cleaner.  Mix a solution of 1 part water to 1 part vinegar in a new store bought spray bottle and you have a solution that will clean most areas of your home. Vinegar is a great disinfectant and deodorizer. It is safe to use on most surfaces and has the added bonus of being very, very cheap. Never use vinegar on marble surfaces and don’t worry about your home smelling like vinegar. The smell disappears when it dries. Use pure vinegar in the toilet bowl to get rid of rings. Flush the toilet to allow the water level to go down. Pour the undiluted vinegar around the inside of the rim. Scrub down the bowl. Mop the floor in the bathroom with a vinegar/water solution. The substance will also eat away the soap scum and hard water stains on your fixtures and tile. Clean the stovetop, appliances, countertops, and floor in your kitchen, and you can use it as a natural fabric softener.  Add ½ cup of vinegar to the rinse cycle in place of store bought fabric softener. Vinegar has the added benefit of breaking down laundry detergent more effectively.

Those three are pretty much the “it list” when it comes to cleaning as far as I’ve learned. At this point I still have some store bought cleaners left, which I plan on using. I see no need to toss them out when I’ve paid money and throwing the chemicals out would be equally if not more detrimenatal to then environment as using them for their intened purpose. Not to mention I’ll need the spray bottles empty so I can fill them with my own handmade cleaners.

I’d be very much interested in learning about any other cleaning DIY ideas or recipes if anyone has them to offer! How often do you clean your house? And what inspires you to get started?

Life has been throwing a lot of obstacles my way so I’m sorry I haven’t been around the blog much. I had food poisioning which put me out of comission for a few days. I went to the hospital for most of the night, had an iv in me to keep me hydrated. Even after I got back from the hospital I was sick… I imagine I threw up close to 25, maybe thirty times in total. People don’t believe me but I’m dead serious. It was the worst pain I think I’ve ever been in. So, I figure I’ll take it in stride and learn a lesson from the whole experience: junk food can kill you! I’m never eating at Pizza Hut again.

© littlem0 @ DeviantArt.

Serves me right though for cheating on my new years resolution and eating crappy, nasty junk food. But I’m back in the swing of things again and my friend Melissa and I have been going to the gym fairly regularly. She’s a great motivator for me, almost like a competetor really. We both want to get healthy and she pushes herself really hard, which makes me want to push hard too to keep up! My arms are still sore from yesterday’s workout. =)

I bought myself a couple things as a reward/motivation to keep me going. Nothing too fancy just a bracelet which to me represents strength and karma, some earrings and comfy pants.

I have nine days left before I go to Hawaii and I want to push myself hard to get in shape. I am so excited to lay on the beach and soak up the sun, go hiking and diving…. It’s going to be fantastic! Just what I need to rest and reguivinate myself in the cold  of a Canadian February. But I have to make myself earn it, so I’m off the gym again today to burn some more!!

First of all Happy New Year and Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Joyful Kwanzaa, and Blessed Winter Solstice!! I know I have not been around very much recently, and of course, I blame the holidays. There was a lot going on at our humble abode over the past ten days or so and I’m only just starting to wind down. But I hope everyone’s family is happy and healthy over the holidays and continues to be so in 2010!

© erin-lynneee @ DeviantArt.

But back to my topic at hand… I have found myself a little gem on the interwebs. My New Years resolution is get healthy. This does not mean, “loose weight” though that may happen as a side effect. But I want to start eating better foods, keeping better habits and become the person I want to be. So I have set a series of little goals for myself.

For example,
i) Alcohol only 2 nights a week and no binge drinking whatsoever
ii) More fruits and veggies in my daily routine and pizza delivery limited to one night every two weeks
iii) Do some sort of workout or cardio for at least 15 minutes daily.

The last point is very important to me. It’s essential really, I mean how can I make any real progress unless I put forth some real effort? So, being a bit of a novice at how to go about setting up a fitness regim for myself, I of course used my best resource: the internet! And I found a young lady named Zuzana, a Certified Personal Trainer from B.C. who provides daily workouts and fitness tips on her website: http://www.bodyrock.tv
You can browse all of the older workouts and for the most part I have been thoroughly impressed. Not only with the quality and detail of the videos/workouts but also in Zuzana herself. She is such a fit and motivated person who is (as far as I can see) very happy with herself and her life. Something we should all strive for. And I’m not saying purely being fit and healthy will give you that, but it’s a damn good start!

So that’s where I am at right now. I’ll maybe post some updates later in the week with how I’m doing on those intense workouts. My body is going to hate me! Anyone else have a fitness related New Years Resolution? Tell me what yours was/is!! =)

I have been browsing and buying from this wonderful handmade community for just over a year or so and I have constantly been pleased with all the artists and craftsmen I have dealt with, as well as with the quality of things I have received. I have bought a number of items here and there, everything from wall decals, lights and chalkboards to handmade clothing, skirts, pants, headbands etc. A lot of the time stuff is very reasonably priced and communication between you and the vendor is very simple if there is an issue regarding cost.

While it is difficult to choose only a few things that tickle my fancy (I could spend hours browsing at gorgeous stuff I want) the following few are goodies that I really crave. **Hint hint to those who have my name on their Christmas lists….**

Sunstone silver pendant by mkursula

The Love me 2 times Short Skirt (organic hemp/cotton blend) by gaiaconceptions

Peacock and Filigree Earrings by sparklinglotusdesign

The Wanderer Bracelet by Kiss2Keep

Separation - 14x20 Fine Art Print by joereimerfineart

Perfect Tie Dye Tapestry by Emeraldsprings

Branching Out Wooden Bangle-Brown by sparklinglotusdesign

Bamboo Long Sleeve Wrap Dress by consciousclothing

The Evolution Dress (stretchy organic cotton) by gaiaconceptions

A little self centered, perhaps, yes. But I hope that because of my slightly selfish blog post some people will go and give those vendors some lovin’ this Holiday season! =)

While some of the objects have already been purchased (unfortunately not by me) you can still view them and please check out the vendor’s other items for sale. Spread the love people!

It’s that time of year again. Winter has finally settled in. This morning I woke up to a quiet, snow-covered world on the other side of my windows. I’m not much for holiday decorations, but because this year is all about change for me, I figured I should start somewhere and decorate my home a little to get into the winter mood. I don’t have much to work with, but maybe in a few days I’ll put stockings on the railing and more gifts under the tree and it will feel more like the holiday season. But so far, I think I’m failing miserably at this “holiday decor” thing. Thanks to my very frugal and very DIY mother, I have holiday wreaths on my front and back doors and a beautiful centre piece for my dinning room table. We have lights in our windows for people to see as they drive by, and our hand-me-down Christmas tree is decorated with hand-me-down bulbs.

To make a first attempt at decorating holiday style, I managed to get some dogwood from my mother’s farm and put it in a vase with small Christmas balls hanging from it. At first, it seemed like an interesting idea (Martha Stewart did something similar for crying out loud!) but soon enough our kitteh became interested in it as well and now it’s not looking quite so striking…

But I can’t blame her for playing with something to tantalizing. She’s already taken off all the low-hanging bulbs on the Christmas tree. I’ll have to find some other interesting ideas for holiday decor.