less chemicals and less coinage...what's not to love?!

So as I have been travelling further along my journey in a life with less chemicals I have found and tried a few recipes now.  I guess the most important thing in this journey is to be open, to not expect the same results as the chemically laden products produce and that everyone's skin and body is different just like everyone's opinions and perspectives.  I believe there is no one right way or method and that is the beauty about being open and willing to try and discover new things in this world!

Anyway...so I have found a really great combo of face wash, toner and moisturiser.  I found all three recipes in different locations but together, for me and in my experience, they are a fantastic combo that my skin is just loving!!  I have sensitive skin on my face that does not enjoy harsh cleansers and I found these recipes gentle, refreshing and moisturising.
 

 

FACEWASH
 So for the face wash I found the recipe here and it is super easy to make and in my opinion yummy smelling.  My middle daughter however hates the smell but loves the way it makes her skin feel.  It goes against traditional thinking in that it has Olive Oil in it.  We are taught that oil on your skin will make you break out but my skin has never been clearer.  And after some reading I found that oils are really good for your skin and not the reason for breakouts - if you search this up you will find all the facts, I'm not so good on the remembering of these things but I know it was good.  It will leave your skin with a slight oily feel to it, not in a disturbing way but in a moisturising way....try it and you will see what I mean.  Now when I made the recipe I just used Manuka Honey (not the real expensive one) and for 'organic lemon juice' I used an actual lemon from the normal fruit and veggie section of your supermarket.  For the Liquid Castile Soap I use the Bronner Liquid Castile Soap (Almond) which I got from Binn Inn and the Vitamin E Oil I know you can get from your local health food shop but I didn't have any at home so used some Vitamin E Oil capsules and pierced them to get the oil out.  And for the essential oil I used lavender.  Super easy to make and easy on the wallet!!

Side note:  if I want to get my face really clean (like when I have been wearing makeup) I first wash my face with warm water and a splash of my baking soda body wash solution (1 Tbsp baking soda to 1 cup of water) then use the face wash above.  The baking soda mix really cleans like nothing else, it gets that make up really well and then the face wash brings the moisture back.

TONER
Now this is so refreshing for your skin and the recipe is found here.  It's just green tea, Witch Hazel and lavender essential oil.  Easy to make and goes a long way as you don't really use much of it.  I got the Witch Hazel from my local chemist - this may be frowned upon as I'm sure it's not the most organic version of it but I wanted to try the recipe first before committing more time and energy and probably more cash if I'm going to go organic on the Witch Hazel.  It's still got to be better than what I was using!!  Feels fantastic after you've used the face wash above.

MOISTURISER

I just love this moisturiser and found the base for my recipe here.  I have tweaked it a little and here is what I use...

5 Tbsp Olive Oil

3 Tbsp Coconut Oil - can get from Binn Inn or Trademe

1 Tbsp Cosmetic Grade Beewas pellets - can get from Trademe

1/2 cup boiled water

1/4 tsp Baking Soda

20 drops Lavender Essential Oil

few drops of Vitamin E Oil - can use capsules and pierce or get bottle of oil from health shop

20 drops of Tea Tree Oil

Follow the same process as the recipe site above (I use my whizz blender stick thingy) and it is just delicious for your skin!  It is greasy so I put it on at night nice and thick and it soaks in over night and then just a very light amount in the morning.  If you do a normal amount in the morning you will look very shiny and if you wear makeup it won't stay on your face long!  Don't let this put you off because if used at night your skin will be so beautiful in the morning you won't need much on at all, if any.  I use this as an all over body moisturiser too and it just makes my skin feel amazing and the fact that it is all natural makes it even better!

So there you have it, my new beauty regime trio that leaves my wallet sighing with relief and my skin content and happy!

Take care and till then, 

 

the more natural and cheaper side of life...hopefully?!

So for quite some time now whenever I have rubbed copious amounts of moisturiser all over my face and body, washed and conditioned my hair or put yet another load of washing through, I couldn't help but think of all the chemicals my skin and the skin of my children was coming into contact with.

DISCLAIMER:  I am not a chemist, pharmacist, scientist, doctor or expert of chemicals and beauty products in any way shape or form and this is purely my own thoughts and trials and results!

One day I showed up to the work and the boss lady had brought in some books of hers that she thought I may enjoy.  With three daughters , two being teenagers, our grocery bill was going nowhere but up!  One of the books she brought in was a strange little book called 'Pig Tits & Parsley Sauce' by Lyn Webster.  I had never heard of it before but one Saturday picked it up and ended up reading it cover to cover.  Very easy to read, inspiring and thought provoking.  You can find out more about her here and she also has a Facebook page here

And my journey began...

Now to be totally honest the journey began as I tried to find ways to make our limited funds stretch further so that we have a hope of one day owning our own home.  However my back up plan are the three expensive investment projects we currently fund and the not so subtle training programme is already in place as I frequently tell them all they need to do well at school so that they can buy Mum and Dad a house in the future!  Something like these is on my wish list...girls do you think you can swing it??




Anyway after my mind set changed from reading Pig Tits & Parsley Sauce I began searching recipe ideas for household cleaning and beauty product recipes that weren't freaky deaky weird, used regular ingredients that I could easily get hold of in New Zealand and still left me clean and hygienic (not so keen on the chemical free, environmentally friendly, budget friendly but leaves you stinky and dirty products - side note with a name like Kelly you can imagine the fun nicknames that came my way...smelly Kelly being the one I was regularly tormented with and not because I was!  But all my life I have had a particular obsession with never being smelly so as never to give any truth to that horrible nickname.).

WOW what a wealth of information is out there when you look and sometimes it has been overwhelming and confusing and lots of people have lots of ideas and opinions!

I began with the simple ideas and gave them a whirl like...

• body wash - a mixture of 1Tbsp baking soda dissolved in 1 cup of hot water and left to cool and then placed in bottle and put in the shower as body wash instead of soap - now your first thoughts may be that how can that possibly clean, well it does!  I was even using this as face wash (but using everyday made my face a little dry - will expand on this later) and I tell you no other facewash has removed makeup and left my face feeling that clean!
• deodorant - baking soda used as deodorant - that's right just baking soda!  We have a container in the bathroom and I just pinch a bit of baking soda and smoodge under my arms and away you go.  It is incredible, no smell at all!!  And no deodorant stains on my tops anymore.  I have been using only this for 4 months now and won't go back to deodorant.  I was a solid Mitchum user as I sweat a decent amount and no matter what deodorant there was always some odour (not strong but I could still smell it because of my earlier mentioned preoccupation with how I smell) but with the baking soda no smell at all!!  It's amazing.
• washing powder - this is a recipe from Pig Tits & Parsley Sauce and it uses washing soda crystals (bought from your local Binn Inn) put in the food processor with a Sunlight Soap bar and whizzed up.  I use 1.5kg of washing soda crystals to 1 bar of Sunlight Soap and have to chop up the soap first then do the processing in two batches.  I have been using this for three months and love it.  The washing has no smell which is weird and challenges our perception of clean as we always associate clean with chemical laden scents so you may feel like nothing is clean but you just need to re-programme because it is clean.  Whites will probably still need the odd Napisan soak but overall it does a great job and seems to be softer on the clothes - but not an expert just my own thoughts.

Now I have been experimenting more with things like facewash, moisturiser, toner, liquid soap and shampoos and conditioners but I will save that for another day as this post is already a novel.

The coolest thing about this little journey is how quickly and enthusiastically my children have embraced these changes and recipe trials.  Sometimes they really surprise you, one day you're wiping bottoms and snotty noses and cutting up never ending apples and then the next they show a glimpse of the independent member of society they are becoming and it's...silence inducing, leaving me stunned and biasedly proud!! 

Now I am not claiming or trying to portray that our house is all roses and light and never ending moments of proud mummyness.  Only that when those moments come I grab tight and try to absorb as much of it as I can from them because it is those moments that get me through the 'teenage' moments that sometimes make surviving seem luxurious!

Anyway I'll leave it there tonight but will continue my discoveries over the next few posts and I promise to try to get some actual photos of the stuff I've made.

Take care and till then,

pinterest love

I am so thankful to whoever it was that introduced me to pinterest! I think it was my sister but can't quite remember but if you have never discovered the goodness that is pinterest then you really need to take a journey into it's realm because I think you too will fall in love!!  It is bursting with ideas and images that leave me inspired and full of a creative joy and dilerium.

Now I am not a person who enjoys spending countless hours on the old computer but when I am on pinterest nothing else exists, the constant conversations (and lets face it the never-ending questions!) from my children become background noise and time ceases to exist as I am faced with endless possibilities.  I do have to put limits on myself or I may just stop functioning as a productive member of society choosing instead to live in the magical world of pinterest.

I do have a somewhat addictive personality (meaning I get addicted easily not that people become addicted to me!) so your feelings on pinterest may not be quite so extreme but I'm sure for those who have not visited there is joy to be had by all, so head on over to www.pinterest.com and check it out for yourself.

You can also see what things I love by going to http://pinterest.com/kellybonelly/boards/ 
 Take care and till then....

balance???

Work life balance...is it a myth?  I'm beginning to think so.  It is something I never seem to be able to master and always seem to be chasing.

I struggle with being present...enjoying the moment...I am always planning, escaping and dreaming up new things to do.  While this can be a good thing it also makes it really hard to be a present, in the moment, mother and wife.  I am constantly overtired as I stay up too late getting 'me' time and have to get up early for work.  On top of loving spending hours doing crafty stuff I also work a 35 hour week as an Accountant and by the time you add all the driving into the equation, too and from work on the other side of the city and the kids sports practices during the week it would be well over 40 hours.  Being an Accountant is a job that requires brain use all day and some days is very taxing (no pun intended but funny anyway!!)  So when I am home I long for periods of aloneness...now that does not work well when you have three daughters, one a teenager, one nearly and may as well be a teenager and the youngest is one who just never seems to have enough of my attention.  So I try but I just never seem to get the balance right.  Some weeks are good and I feel like I am amazing and a great Mum and loving wife, juggling everything with ease and style then other weeks it is a complete and utter train wreck, toast for dinner most nights of the week, the house is a bomb site, homework is forgotten, a great deal of chocolate is consumed and its just all around a very unattractive state I find myself in. 

I am not writing to moan but just to voice my views on the mysterious balance everyone talks about.  I think the balance may be in learning to love yourself in the train wreck weeks as well as the awesome weeks.  I think it's understanding that up and downs create a balance in itself.  I think that if it was always up it would stop being up and start being boring.  I think sometimes toast for dinner is freeing!  And I will keep reminding myself that hope springs new every morning....

My goals for this year...

#1 - to be present!
#2 - to remember how to play

I will keep you posted on my journey with this.

Take care and till then....

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i love paint...it covers a multitude of sins!

Me again,

Paint...I have discovered just how much I love it...a $5 500ml test pot of interior wall paint from Bunnings, who knew how much joy it held for such a bargain price!  I didn't until just recently when I was so sick of looking at my ugly coloured second hand furniture that I bought for it's 'potential' and just hadn't got round to doing.

I dived into my projects just wanting to get them off my list of things to do (which is never ending!!) and discovered along the way how therapeutic painting actually is!  I am not a painter of pictures and details, best left to my Mum and sisters, but there is freedom in slapping good layers of paint on a piece of furniture that is brown and forgiving of my somewhat lacking painting skills!! 

Side note: - my absolute least favourite colour in the world is brown!!  Coming in close second would be maroon (which all the curtains in the house we rent are!) and beige (which all the walls in the house we rent are!!!).  

So here's a little look at the dining table I have just finished and some of the chairs (the rest still need completing but who would I be without several half finished projects on the go?!).  At first the table was a slightly off white (frosted window) all over which looked fantastic but too clinical for our house and life and I was afraid to touch it so my clever Rob suggested we 'country style' the legs and corners and this is the end result - LOVE IT!!  I painted the chairs black too and when I eventually cover the seat of the chair at the back and to the right it will be with fabric that is red, black and off white.

Another little project I've just about finished, all but the hanging up system on the back, is this whiteboard...

Now this is not a fantastic photo (another skill best left to one of my super talented sisters) and I had a better one for you but deleted it by mistake and had already got comfy on my bed in the sun with the computer on the ready and to be honest, just could not be bothered getting back up again!  I'm sure many can relate!  Anyway this whiteboard idea I stole...er borrowed,  from my creative and clever sister in law and I just love them (because I have done two).  Secondhand frame from the recycling centre, which is a posh name for the dump shop, paint it up and put a fabric on the back board and put back in place behind the glass and there you have it, an awesome looking whiteboard for not much moolah.  Love a bargain!

Take care and till then...

small beginnings

Why hello there!

Where to start....hmmm...I have so many ideas of what I want to create but there just never seems to be enough time.  Common frustration I am sure!  I have set up this blog to record the journey of my 'red delicious' creations, to motivate me to actually finish my thoughts and make them a reality.  'red delicious' is the label I put on most things I make, red because it is one of my favourite colours and delicious because it is a fabulous word.  Fabrics, buttons, ribbons and all things craft, full of vibrant colours and patterns are just 'delicious'!!!  I long to one day own my own craft shop, a hub for all things creative, workshops, information, a gathering place full of delicious craft supplies!  One day....

Righto off to bed I go, work tomorrow and only a few small hours till I have to be onto it and organised and ready to start another day...sigh....



 Take care and till then