Do It Gorgeously: How to Make Less Toxic, Less Expensive, and More Beautiful Products (9 page)

HOW TO

1.
Soak the facecloths in the oil until they are saturated but not dripping with oil.

2.
Cover your bed or couch with old towels or sheets (castor oil does stain).

3.
Have your hot water bottle and plastic ready. Lie down and place the castor oil pack on your belly. Cover it with plastic and place the hot water bottle on top.

4.
Relax! See if you can lie for 15 to 30 minutes as you practice slow, deep breathing.

5.
Wash off the oil with baking soda and warm water—this is to prevent any residue from staining your clothes. You can reuse the pack up to 20 times, so place it in a resealable bag in your fridge.

Achy Muscle Soak

Epsom salts are magical for soothing tired and achy muscles. They are also wonderfully inexpensive and can be found at any grocery or drugstore.

HOW TO

Run a hot tub of water, add the epsom salts and lavender, and soak away.

Hot Flash Reliever

One of my best friends, who will remain nameless, says she can’t live without this tea when she’s having a bad bout of hot flashes. Thank goodness it’s so easy to prepare.

Yields:
1 cup of tea

1.
Place the leaves in a mug and cover with the water, which should be just off the boil.

2.
Leave the tea to steep for 10 minutes. Strain.

3.
Pour half the tea into a glass or teacup and sip every few hours. Refrigerate the remainder of the tea for another day. Store in a covered container for up to 3 days.

Labels

If you’ve gone to the trouble of making all your own skincare products, you want the packaging to be as beautiful as possible. An attractively packaged jar of cream can work like a placebo: Even if it’s filled with rubbish, we tend to imagine that our skin looks 10 years younger after the first application. Given that your new potions are likely better than what you’ll typically find in a store, you want the packaging to reflect the quality of the actual product. All these homemade products make fantastic gifts, and lovely labels will showcase your creative flair, as well as delight your girlfriends.

REUSE

Get into the habit of keeping all kinds of interesting scraps of paper or cards that find their way into your home or office. If you see a brightly colored envelope, don’t throw it away; same with magazines that are made out of that lovely thick matte paper. Remember that you only need tiny squares of paper for each label.

DESIGN

Take a look at all your bottles and jars and decide on the look you want. Do you want a brightly colored eclectic look or something more uniform? I’ve had a go at all kinds of different styles. My favorite is the “apothecary” look, where I find a cream or beige card and write with brown ink in curly writing.

GLUE

You’ll need some good strong glue. It’s very important to buy nontoxic glue, as many of the white glues contain chemicals that are extremely bad for the environment.

I recommend the Natural Glue from Green Crafts (www.green-crafts.com). You can also make your own glue—give it a go, as it’s really easy.

Homemade Glue

Yields:
1 quart

Storage:
in sealed container in fridge

Shelf life:
1 week

1.
Place the milk and the vinegar in a double boiler or in a bowl set over a saucepan of boiling water. Heat on a low heat until the curds separate from the whey. (The curds look like ricotta cheese and the whey is a greenish liquid.)

2.
Drain the whey from the curds in a colander lined with cheesecloth.

3.
Wash the curds in the colander under running water.

4.
Place the curds in a clean bowl.

5.
Dissolve the baking soda in the water and pour over the curds. Stir.

PROTECTIVE LABELS

If you don’t mind your labels getting a bit worn and the ink smudging after a while, I suggest going without a clear sticky protective label. The trouble is that the only clear labels you can get are made from vinyl, the manufacture of which is extremely toxic to the environment. But don’t feel too guilty if you want your labels to remain perfect—it’s only a little bit of vinyl that you need. They can be found at most craft and office supply stores.

PENS

I highly recommend buying some interesting ink pens for the job at hand. If you can find an old-fashioned fountain pen, it’s the most eco-friendly way to go. I love the Safari Calligraphy Fountain Pen by Lamy (www.lamyusa.com). Make sure you order the ink converter so that you can use bottled ink instead of cartridges. The green or turquoise inks are beautiful. If you take care of your pen, it should last for years.

You can experiment with all kinds of different styles of writing. I managed to create the old “apothecary” style very easily.

SCISSORS

Do invest in some decorative-edge craft scissors. These will make your labels look artsy and professional. You’ll find a great selection at Fiskars (www.fiskarscrafts.com).

HAVE FUN

Having assembled your supplies, it’s now time for lots of fun. It’s like being back in a great school art class. I highly recommend getting some friends or kids to join you. Put on some good music and lose yourself in an hour of craft joy.

I recommend making your labels
before or right after
you make your products. You’ll need them at the ready so you don’t get confused as to what’s in each jar. Cut out the paper labels to the desired size and then experiment with writing on a piece of scrap paper before you actually write on the label. You can come up with all kinds of really fun names for your products. Always write the date you made the product on the label.

When I was pregnant with Lola, I became more than a little anxious about the impending expense. By the time I was six months pregnant, I’d been convinced by peers and magazine advertisements that I
needed
a top-of-the-line—and by that I mean super expensive with all the bells and whistles—stroller, crib, mattress, car seat, and a vast number of other things! I was also made to feel a bit cheap if I wasn’t willing to fork over my hard-earned cash for all kinds of lotions, potions, and admittedly adorable outfits. I justified the expenditures by telling myself it was my first and possibly only child, and that once I got over the “baby” stage, I’d start getting a bit more sensible.

That time never came, because all the subsequent stages carried their share of peer product pressure too. Lola’s first pair of shoes had to be from a particular fancy store or I risked deforming her delicate toes. And all her nightgowns had to be 100% organic.

A few years further down the road, after having delivered numerous trash bags full of old clothes to the local thrift store, I began to realize the absurdity of my ways. I remembered a great friend’s advice from years back when I’d been going through a period of terrible financial insecurity: “You don’t really need anything,” she reassured me. “The baby can sleep in a drawer with some
cozy blankets, and all your friends will give you hand-me-downs.” At the time, I’d wanted to say, “Get
real,
” but now I wish I could wind back the clock, as I get palpitations just thinking about how much money I could now have sitting in my savings account!

Since living green is about using as few resources as is humanly possible, the road is narrowing on how much new stuff I buy for my daughter. I want her to realize the importance of leaving a light footprint and to be grateful for every little thing she has. Eco-friendliness aside, the need to save money has become paramount for me and countless others, so it makes sense to get going with the DIY in the baby/child department and realize that you can do it really gorgeously, too.

You’ll be amazed at how much money you can save by making your own. There’s no need to buy any expensive bath or body products for your baby or child. Making your own baby skincare products and baby food from scratch is not only better for your child’s health, but it’s also easier on your wallet and the planet.

I’ve found it incredibly satisfying to make all the projects and recipes in this chapter myself. I can promise you a rather warm and fuzzy feeling when you are able to stand back and survey the fruits of your hard labor. Many things you make for your baby/child will become heirlooms that they’ll treasure forever and probably pass on to their own children, so it’s time well spent.

New Baby

So you’re pregnant or someone very close to you is. How can you start with this DIY thing? What can you actually make that will be of use or save you a ton of cash? Here are some suggestions that will help you to prepare for a new baby, or transform your existing baby/child room into a nontoxic sanctuary. To feather your nest yourself is unbelievably rewarding.

Nontoxic Nursery

It’s staggering how many synthetic toxic chemicals we are exposed to every day. It’s never one chemical at a time, either—it’s a veritable
cocktail
of chemi
cals that become part of our “body burden.” This unfortunate term refers to the synthetic chemicals that persist in the body—some never go away. These chemicals start out in the environment, make their way up the food chain, and end up stored in our fat tissue. This is why we can unwittingly pass them on to our babies when breastfeeding.

It’s impossible not to come into contact with many of these chemicals. However, we can minimize our exposure, and this is really important for our babies—who, due to their size and developing systems, are much more at risk for toxicities. Whether you are expecting a baby or already have one, I strongly recommend creating a nursery that is as nontoxic as possible. The ideas here will also work for any child’s bedroom. You can do it all yourself, and it won’t be expensive, either.

PAINT

If you live in an old home that still has layers of old paint, it’s worth checking for lead. You can purchase a simple lead-testing kit from your local hardware store, or try the Lead Inspector test kit from Abotex (www.leadinspector.com), and get testing. I tested everything when I got my kit—even the soil in the front and back of my house. If you detect any lead in the paintwork, you will need to remove all the old and chipped paint and start from scratch.

Choose low-VOC or non-VOC paint. VOC refers to “volatile organic compounds” that can give off toxic vapors and, even after drying, can “off-gas” (emit gaseous pollutants). Most home improvement stores now stock a good supply and color variety of these safe paints.

Milk Paint

Milk paint is old-fashioned paint made from milk. It’s making a huge comeback due to the fact that many commercial paints can be pretty toxic. I love the finish that milk paint creates—think old Colonial or ancient Tuscany! It’s also a lot of fun to make, and if you’re painting a nursery, you can be sure that your walls and the entire painting process will be 100% safe. This project yields approximately one gallon of paint.