Emily’s FOUR SEASON Herbal Tea Parties:

for the DOMESTIC DOLLS!!!

*Wanna be a Domestic Doll? Join us!! For a review of the first party, read as follows!

First Tea Party: Spring Cleaning

Guest Speakers: Jeralyn Franson, and Shyra Jorgenson

~A special thanks to Whitney and her friend, and Autumn, and their mothers, for providing the children w/ babysitting outside!!~

RESULTS: My cute friends showed up dressed just a little on the fancy side for funsies.  We sipped our lovely tea and enjoyed the decadent snacks which everyone brought.  I was so impressed with Patricia’s raspberries in tiny chocolate shells, Jeanette’s tiny pedafor cakes, Melissa’s mini quiches, Miriam’s deviled eggs, and  my recipe of Linsey’s coffee cake (chocolate, I add 3 Tbs more cocoa to this recipe) with soaked flour and pecan topping was a dream!  Jeralyn gave us information on recycling, and inventive ways of conserving water, such as using your hot freshly boiled water from noodles to dump on and kill weeds, or spraying your garden veggies in a bowl and pouring that back onto your plants. We enjoyed Shyra’s Oriental knowledge of Feng Shui which got us into the groove of what energy is created in our homes.  Email your questions to Shyra. For managing finances she highly recommend Dave Ramsey and his Total Money Makeover which includes “living off rice and beans” to get out of debt, coming up with $1000 dollars for an emergency fund as a first step, and snowballing your debts starting with the smallest one first. (Ladies:  SOOOO sorry that I did not take pictures!  This photo of my sister is two years old! )

BACKGROUND: There are many domestic skills that I would like to know, but with other pet hobbies (sewing!!!!), and not much time, I was having a hard time finding the motivation! By inviting friends, planning, researching and learning became so much fun, and thanks to this first tea party~ I have learned many frugal, green, simple and actually fun and passionate ways of living!

HOW it started: First came the desire as a small seed a couple years ago, to know more skills and knowledge in self sufficiency, and basics.  Browsing the internet on completely different topics, I came upon these two Christian women’s websites of which I began to be inspired by.  Passionate Homemaking, Keeping the Home. My initial desire to be more self sufficient and frugal, grew under the influence of good friends like Aundi Balling, and Jeralyn Franson, to taking good care of our lovely Earth as well.  I was also inspired by on-line examples like Linsey and Candy, (authors of the above mentioned blogs) as well as a few more whose sights I chanced upon as well, such as Prarie Mom, Frugal Granola, etc.

ORGANIZATION: My first step for getting ready for the Spring Cleaning party was to get organized.  I was moving, so this was the perfect opportunity.   Attending education week last year, I met Alice Osborne, of whom I was really impressed with.  Her presentation was on making rich and living books a key focus of your home, household and living, but she also let us know that organization was gifted her even since a tiny girl when she would organize her doll house.  I read her book Its Here Somewhere, which was an easy read and gave me a straight forward plan on how to streamline and organize my home.  Fly Lady of course is a great place to go for taking baby steps into organization and cleaning, as well as giving you a plan of attack.  House of Order is a great resource for organizing everything under the sun, cleaning supplies, cleaning plans, (when to do what, how often, making it simple with notecards)

LIVING SIMPLE: If you chose one product to stock up on for emergencies or household storage, it would be Dawn dish detergent, a powerful biodegradable product.  (Courtesy Thea)  With Dawn diluted anywhere from 10:1 to 5:1, you can wash your hair! I modified a shampoo recipe from Passionate Homemaking with a 10:1 ratio water with Dawn, and a little essential oil and 2 Tbs. Apple cider vinegar for conditioner.  Smells terrible, works great.  The smell washes out…  From Thea: “For general purpose washing where it will be watered down more (dishes, shampoo, bubble bath, etc)  I tend to use about 1 part Dawn to 5 parts water.   For spray bottles for household surface cleaners, I use about 1 part of my standard watered down solution to 3 parts water.   This usually works well for even mirrors, however good filtered water, further dilution with water,  about 2 tablespoons vinegar help improve the clarity when it doesn’t look the way I want.    I haven’t found a good ratio, or quantity for dishwashers.   I use about 2 teaspoons of Dawn straight from the original bottle for laundry with an extra boost from Borax or vinegar when needed. I used straight Dawn to clean out my oven when I moved, it was powerful, simple and worked so awesome!

BASIC PRODUCTS: From Passionate Homemaking,  (Part 2, here)I learned that one can run a household quite simply~Baking Soda, Borax, Salt, Vinegar, Cornstarch , Hydrogen Peroxide, Rubbing Alcohol, and Bar Soap (Plain ivory can be used to make a very cost effective laundry detergent, but if you use the laundry bar Fels Naptha, you only have to use 1/3 a bar for 2 gallon recipe:

Click here for 71 cents for 2 gallon laundry detergent) These product’s uses range in uses from shampoo, fabric softener, deodorizer, cleaners, sterilizers, soft abrasives, hair conditioner, etc!  If you chose one product to stock up on here, it would be baking soda, which you can cook with, scrub, wash hair, acts as toothpaste, deodorizes, etc w/.  There are books written w/ 500 uses for baking soda! You will love Lindsey’s deoderant recipe with simply baking soda coconut oil and cornstarch, which can go into your old deoderant containers, (keep in a cool place for summer)

This website sums up in the beginning what  each natural product does, and then gives you many recipes for Kitchen, Bathroom, etc.

Other Websites:

Beauty/cleaning  recipes: Each recipe has 3 ingredients or less.

Home made and safe Cleaning Solutions: Easy to locate what you are looking for

Homemade Simple Recipes: Simple straightforward recipes from a homesteading family

Easy Homemade Recipes: Cleaning and a variety of other home made natural surprises!

If you aren’t into homemade products:

Debrah Lynn Dadd helps you find natural and safe STORE bought products.  (Click on Debrah’s list, then choose from the menu on the side for what kind of product you are looking for.   One awesome soap that is organic and fair trade is Dr. Bronner’s Castile soap.  This comes in bars and liquid concentrate.  Lindsey determines the concentrate is the best buy, in particular the Dr. Bronner’s Sal Suds found here on Amazon.

Secondary Basic Products: needs are Lemon Juice, or lemons, Oil for wood cleansers, (and here) or lotion, and Toothpaste (laundry stain remover, gentle cleaner for shiney chrome.)

More about Lotion: *Lotion can be as simple as your favorite oils, coconut, sunflower, etc. But if you have a hard time w/ not having the creamy texture, here is a great recipe for a cream:

Tammy’s Home Econ. Fool proof Deluxe Creme

1 1/2 C. water

1/3 C Jojaba or Safflower oil

4 Tbs Emulsifying wax

2 Tbs Scant Stearic Acid (heaping for a VERY thick creme)

2 tsp Glycerin

1 tsp Citric Acid (natural preserver)

20-25 drops fragrance oil, or essential oil

Coloring

Mix together in a bowl and microwave about 1 3/4 minutes just till melted.  (If you have a meat thermometer, this should be about 110 degrees.)  Then blend with an immersion blender 15-20 seconds.  (I pulsed on and off lightly with a blender, and then stirred briskly with a whisk.  Its like magic when it starts whipping into creme!)  Add color and scent if desired.  Pour into jars and allow to cool, lid when cool.  Makes 16 oz.

Use any oil you like the best in it.  For the lovely pink color in my creme, I took dead rose petals and steeped them in a pan for three minutes, strained out the pulp, and refridgerated the rosewater.  I used the rose water for the water requirement. The glass jar there is apple cider vinegar rinse with water (1-2 Tbs per 2 cup water, your hair will feel so soft after your shampoo)

Buy bulk ingredients for less than 30 dollars from Mountain Rose Herbs, and then you can make lotion for years, as well as gift cremes to good friends. If you are more about frugal than natural, with your hand mixer, blend 2 or 3 dollar store lotions with vaseline for a healing, frugal lotion.

WHAT NOW? When you find the recipes you want to try, make them in bulk for cost efficiency. Then, put your spray bottles and cleaning supplies in a bucket either put up high and labeled “bathroom, kitchen,”etc, or put the buckets in the house area they will be used in. For example, in my bathroom bucket, I will have a large holed shaker to sprinkle a mix of salt and baking soda as a soft abrasive scrub) I now have a tiny lidded jar in my bathroom with three parts baking soda, one part salt and it is an excellent toothpaste!

For my party, I did something highly useful for myself.  First, I went so far as to printing recipes off the internet, but for me, I wasn’t using them until I wrote these recipes onto 3 by 5 cards, which I put into a notebook w/ plastic sheet protector page card holders that are easy to locate.

I had SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much fun doing this.  It was adventurous and fulfilling and I hope I incorporate my new knowledge more and more into my daily life!  Thank you to all my lovely guests, and the support I have received in this!

Please post any of your fav. websites, recipes and or tricks of the trade!~   Or say hello if you stop by!