Week #3 ~Backyard Herbal ~Trillium (May flower)

Mosquito trap - No more mosquito!!

Cut the top off a 2 liter bottle. Invert the cone and place it inside the bottle. Glue the two pieces together. Add 1 tsp yeast and 1/2 cup sugar to some luke warm water, and pour the mixture into the bottle. Mosquitoes are attracted to the carbon dioxide that you exhale. The yeast feeds off the sugar and emits the same gas, so the mosquito enters the bottle, thinking she will find food there. FLIES LOVE THIS!!!

www.bearcovevillage.com
RV sites & Cabins
Pigeon Forge, Tennessee

Photo and recipe from http://velacreations.com/waste/inorganic/item/64-pet-bottles.html

Week #2 Backyard Herbal ~ Chickweed

 

I understand there are a couple with the same label but if you look they are used for different things and the ingredients are different. Feel free to share as you please anywhere you please. My hope is simply to get people using natural ingredients that you can find in your back yards.

MAGIC PAIN RELEIVER SALVE

Mix together 1 oz of chickweed (reduces inflammation and aids in healing), 1 oz of
wormwood (a great pain reliever), and 1 ounce of yarrow (an anti-bacterial agent that
also helps relieve pain). The yarrow plant contains achillein and achilleic acid.
These substances reduce the clotting time of blood, so they help stop any bleeding.
Yarrow also has pain-killing and anti-inflammatory properties that are similar to aspirin.
Add the mixture of herbs to 2 pints of olive oil and simmer 3 hours.
Strain and add 3 ounces of beeswax and 1 teaspoon of tincture of benzoin.
Test for consistency before pouring into wide mouth containers.

 From facebook  witches and pagans

Natural homemade make-up made easy

I am out of my element on this one. never use it myself. haven't in over 40 years. I have one recipe that I use and then 4 you can use to create about anything you want

Lip gloss from sample lip sticks or left over bottom of the container lip sticks

But if you want to turn any already bought lipstick into a lip gloss I can help there. take your leftover lip stick or samples and add them to equal parts of cocoa butter. heat in microwave until barely melted and mix well. mix again as it starts to solidify. and place in  a fridge for ten minutes or so. wait until hard before capping it.

You can also do it with 1/3 lip stick, 1/3 cocoa butter 1/3 Coconut oil. This makes it easier to spread like with a pot of lip-gloss and it makes it shinier and nicer for smaller children who love sharing your make up.

Here are links for mascara http://thankyourbody.com/all-natural-homemade-mascara/

mineral foundation http://www.humblebeeandme.com/diy-mineral-make-up/

Lipstick http://wellnessmama.com/5830/homemade-natural-lipstick-recipe/

and bronzer http://www.humblebeeandme.com/homemade-bronzer/

Week #1 ~ blackyard herbal ~Plantain

I was asked to create some recipes for plantain because a friend on JAP has lots of it in her back yard. Here is what I have. Will also make some pretty picture recipes to add here later today with this information. It is the first in a weekly series I will continue each week all summer long.

Plantain
Botanical: Plantago major (LINN.)
Family: N.O. Plantaginaceae

Synonyms---broad-leaved plantain, ripple grass, waybread, slan-lus, waybroad, snakeweed, cuckoo's bread, englishman's foot, white man's foot, buckhorn plantain, dog's ribs, hock cockle, lance-leaved plantain, rub grass, dooryard plantain, round-leaved plantain, (Anglo-Saxon) weybroed, Che Qian Zi (China), Breitwegerich (German), Tanchagem-maior (Portuguese), Llantén común (Spanish), Llantén major (Spanish)

Parts Used---Root, leaves, flower-spikes.
Of course as with all herbal medicines, you are your own best doctor - listen to your body and pay attention to it's interaction with the herb, and you will undoubtedly figure out your own best uses and dosages. Plantain is not associated with any common side effects and is thought to be safe for children, however, some allergy sufferers may have a reaction to plantain pollen, so if you feel this may be a problem for you, you may want to only use the plantain leaves for your herbal preparations.

Uses

It was considered to be almost a panacea - a cure-all, and that is has historically been recommended as a treatment for just about everything including dog bites, ulcers, ringworm, jaundice, epilepsy, liver obstructions, and hemorrhoids!

Plantain is very high in beta carotene (A) and calcium. It also provides ascorbic acid (C), and vitamin K. Among the more notable chemicals found in plantain are allantion, apigenin, aucubin, baicalein, linoleic acid, oleanolic acid, sorbitol, and tannin.

Plantain is a mild anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, anti-hemorrhagic, and expectorant actions. Acubin has been reported in the Journal Of Toxicology as a powerful anti-toxin. Allantoin has been proved to promote wound healing, speed up cell regeneration, and have skin-softening effects.

Historical uses of plantain as a wound healer, and as a treatment for lung conditions such as bronchitis or asthma. Medicinally, plantain is astringent, demulcent, emollient, cooling, expectorant, antimicrobial, antiviral, antitoxin, and diuretic. Plantain is approved by the German Commission E (a sort of German "FDA" that studies and regulates herbs and herbal uses) for internal use to ease coughs and mucous membrane irritation associated with upper respiratory tract infections as well as topical use for skin inflammations. Two Bulgarian clinical trials have said plantain is effective in the treatment of chronic bronchitis. 

 

Information gathered from books, personal knowledge and internet.

Homemade Dishwasher detergent

Check out this link to a dishwashing detergent that requires 2 cups baking soda and borax and 4 pk sugar free lemon aid mix. She claims it cost just 65 cents to make (I think the drink mixes alone cost that) and will do 100 washes (unsure about that). Then she adds if you put some dawn in it works better.  I have no idea if this works or not as I do not have a dish washer (unless you are referring to me). But it is sure worth a look. Please let me know if the recipe works.

http://www.ablossominglife.com/2011/10/homemade-dishwasher-detergent.html

Get Rid of Ants Solution

This is a recipe for getting rid of those pesky ants that come every spring and summer. Mix up the solution, pack cotton balls in a jar cover, put the solution on and they will be gone.

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons boric acid
3 cups warm water

Directions:
1. Mix the sugar and boric acid well.
2. Add the warm water slowly, mixing all the while so it won't be too lumpy.
3. Store in a jar until ready to use.
4. When ready to use, put cotton into the top of a jar lid to fill it and then saturate the cotton to the top.
5. Place it in the location where it is needed.

Natural Insect repellants

Natural insect repellant Oil application
 
1 oz sunflower oil
3/4 oz lavender essential oil

Mix together and place in a squeeze bottle or small spray bottle. Rub on exposed areas of your body in the summer time


Natural Insect repellent Non-oil application
 
1 oz distilled water
2 tablespoons Aloe Vera from a plants leaf
3/4 oz Lavender essential oil
1 teaspoon vitamin E

Blend together with a mixer and put in a small squeeze bottle. To use rub on your skin.

Help for oily skin ~ Lavender to the rescue ~

Lavender is anti microbial, stress reducing, antibacterial,  anti-fungal, antiseptic,  relieves pain while it heals, and both cleans and tones your skin. It even relieves Eczema.

Lavender Cleansing mix

This may sound drying but I have used straight rubbing alcohol since I was a teen. Every day in the morning and at night. that is 42 years of doing that.

1 (16 oz_ bottle of rubbing alcohol
1 teaspoon Lavender essential oil

In the bottle pour the lavender. Shake and use with a cotton ball, Just dip and ring out and wipe across your face. Avoid eye area. fan face to dry.

Lavender Witch Hazel

1 (16 oz) bottle of witch hazel
1 teaspoon Lavender essential oil

Also apply with a cotton ball. Use if your skin seams dry that day  instead of the above recipe.


Lavender Oatmeal Moisturizer

1/2 cup water
1/8 cup oatmeal

Mix the oatmeal with the water and leave over night. Then using the blender, mix one minute. Then put through a sieve or cheese cloth. That you have left is a liquid. Using that liquid add 3 tablespoons Aloe Vera gel from a plant leaf. Now blend that together and add 3 drops Lavender. Using a cotton ball apply to face. Wait 10 minutes and remove with fresh cool water. Pat dry

Faery Bath Salts for your Faery Princess

Earlier in the year I posted white faery, pink faery, blue faery, and green faery bath salts. Today a friend on JAP asked me for some others so here they are. These are wonderful accompanied with a faery doll or even a great polymer clay mother daughter crafting time, make a faery and bath salts to match. Soon I will be starting my Christmas faeries for the lights I plan on making so I will link them to here to see some examples.

Purple faery
1 cup Hawaiian Red bath salt
1 cup blue colored dead sea salt.
3 drops hibiscus essential oil
4 drops jasmine essential oil
1/2 teaspoon purple mica glitter
( or 1/4 each of red and blue mica glitter)

Yellow faery
1 cup Yellow Granule Chromium Acetate Soluble Salt
1 cup any other salt
3 drops evening of primrose essential oil
4 drops lemon essential oil.
1/2 teaspoon yellow mica glitter
2 pinches mica diamond glitter

NOTE: You can also color your white salts by smashing them in dandelions the yellow dye will be faint but if you really work at it it would be quite pretty.

Orange Faery
1 1/2 cups Sonoma Spa Bath Salt it is orange colored
1/2 cup any other salt
2 drops blood orange
4 drops orange blossom
1/2 teaspoon orange mica glitter

The Dark Faery

1 1/2 cups Black Hawaiian Lava Sea Salt
1/2 cup French Grey Salt
3 drops Red Hydrangea essential oil
3 drops Red Calla Lily essential oil
Black mica powder

Red Fairy
1 cup Himalayan Bath Salt
1 cup  Hawaiian Red Bath Salt
1 teaspoon brick red COSMETIC PIGMENT OXIDE COLOR POWDER
1/2 teaspoon Cellini red mica glitter
3 drops Cinnamon Bark essential oil
3 drops Juniper Berry essential oil

Just mix together and place in a pretty glass jar. Decorate as you wish

NOTE (http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/732744567/black_glitter_powder_with_metallic_luster.html)

just mix them together and put into jars for your little faery. Makes a great craft fair item as well

to color bath salts here is a link
http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/bathbody/ss/basicbathsalts_5.htm

Keywords

Oatmeal Soap from used soap chips

Recycle your leftover slivers of used soap by making this moisturizing soap

1/2 cup oatmeal,
1/2 cup small soap pieces, 
1 and 1/2 tablespoons cooking oil, 
1 tablespoon water

Slice or chop the soap slivers into small chunks.
Put chunks in a blender, add the oatmeal and pulse until grainy.
Pour into a bowl and add the oil and water.
Mix with your hands, removing any remaining bigger chunks of soap.
Shape the mixture into a ball or soap mold and let sit until hard, about two hours.
Be sure to wash the blender thoroughly to remove the soap residue.

Thyme Mint healing salve

Thyme ( antiseptic, antibacterial, anti-cancer and a strong antioxidant) Do not use if pregnant.
Peppermint ( respiratory problems, headache, fever, Antispasmodic,  pain, antiseptic, respiratory problems including nasal congestion, sinusitis, asthma, bronchitis, cold and cough.aids immune system and improves circulation.

To make the Thyme Mint infused oil 
Needed items
fresh thyme
fresh peppermint leaves
sweet oil or olive oil
1 pint jar with lid
a dark place where you can store and still remember to shake daily

After you have harvested these two herbs from the garden pack  1 pint jar loosely with half peppermint and half thyme leaves.

In microwave warm olive oil or sweet oil (45 seconds)

Pour warm oil over peppermint and thyme, cover and store in dark place, lightly shake daily. after 2 weeks strain through cheese cloth.

To keep bottle in green or dark bottles. Olive oil will go bad in clear bottles over time. Label and date.

To make Thyme Mint Healing Salve

1/4 cup bees wax

1/2 cup cocoa butter

1/8 cup Thyme-mint oil ( you made above)

in a microwave melt beeswax and cocoa butter in a dish or measuring cup. (I like them because you can pour after into a jar easily ...I use a 2 cup glass one just for these recipes.)

Add the infused oil and stir well and pour into salve jars.

Natural Remedies to quit smoking

Green Lemon Scrubbing Cleanser

Ostara Marks the time of spring house cleaning in my family.

So if you haven't started your spring cleaning yet, you might want to skip the toxic cleaning supplies and make a  Lemon Surface Scrub:

1/4 cup baking soda
3 teaspoons unscented liquid Castile  soap
2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon lemon essential oil
1/8 teaspoon drops lavender essential oil

Mix dry ingredients. Mix in lemon juice and essential oils. Apply scrub to cloth and scrub with gentle, circular buffing. Rinse or wipe with wet cloth.

herbal lozenges

Herbal teas are called decoctions or infusions. Decoctions are made from the bark, root, rhizome or woody parts of herbs. Infusions are generally made from the areal parts of herbs, including the leaves, flowers and stems.

Prepare a 1/2 cup of herbal tea from any herb of your choice. You can also use a store bought herbal tea. Place it in a glass bowl.

Add to the bowl, 1 cup of marshmallow root powder. Stir into a paste.

Add 1 ounce of herbal tincture of your choice.

Add 3 drops of food grade peppermint oil from the health food store. This is to add flavor to the lozenges. Or peppermint Essential oil

Shape them into the desired size on waxed paper.

Label the lozenges and store in the refrigerator for up to 6 weeks.

Borrowed from facebook