Organizing Headbands and Brushes

OK, so I have to give credit to my friend, Krystal for this idea. She tweeted with a picture of her crafty oatmeal container, covered with scrap paper, with her headbands around it. What a genius idea! I knew I had to steal it. :)

I didn't have an oatmeal container since I purchase them in bulk at BJ's for baking. I did, however, have a toilet paper holder, (no it's not gross, it's very cute!) that I got for free way back when. It's actually very cute, and you can still get it here with just the cost of shipping.

I totally forgot about using this instead until I went into the bathroom and it dawned on me. I don't know why I didn't think of it even though I already had my brushes inside. It was the perfect shape to put my headbands as well, and they all fit at just the right height.

Then I realized I had a bunch of other containers I could have used too. I always try to reuse something if I can instead of throwing it out!

I bought a few shower gels from Philosophy and it came in this nice container. I couldn't throw it out, so I repurposed it. I thought it looked nice without any sort of wrapping, so I left it as is.

other options:

• empty oatmeal container
• empty coffee container
• old dvd spindle cover (remember those? I saw one in my home office and figured it would work too)
• utensil crock (the cheap ones from Ikea would be perfect!)
  

You probably have something at home that works already! Re-use and re-purpose!

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The Sock Bun

I always been jealous of people with super thick full hairstyles. I've always had fine hair, and not a lot at all, but it was long. If I ever did a bun, it would look super skimpy.

Before I chopped it all off, I tried doing a sock bun. What is it, you ask? It's this craziness right here:

I never thought my hair could do that! It was fun to try it. It didn't look as nice as other people's, but it made me look like I had a lot of hair. Hubby thought it was fake extensions, lol!

Here's how you do it:

And she has a video to teach you how to curl your hair with it too.

Notes:

• I didn't use a sock, I used a pink baby legs. I didn't want to cut up a sock to try it once since I knew I was cutting my hair soon. It worked didn't it?
• If your hair is long, but really layered, it's not going to work right. I tried it on my sister's hair. Didn't work.

Homemade Liquid Hand Soap

bottle from The Container Store ($5.99)

I saw this 'recipe' for soap a while back. I still had some left from the huge gallon jug of soap from BJ's so I waited to make this.

I thought this was genius because how how much waste and fluff was in store bought stuff. There's a little of soap, and a whole lot of water!

Sure, you can probably buy the jugs to refill the bottles, cheap but even then, it still costs about $10 for a gallon. With a $1 bar of soap (on sale), pennies worth of glycerin, and FREE water, I was able to make a half gallon of this stuff.

The original directions called for 1 cup of grated soap flakes. Some people in the comments mentioned that they used the whole bar of soap. I'll probably do that next time so I don't have that little bit remaining.

Homemade Liquid Hand Soap
adapted from Savvy Housekeeping
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ingredients:

• 1 4-oz bar of soap, grated ($.75)
• 1 TBSP vegetable glycerin (used $.45 worth of a $3.69 4-oz bottle)
• 10 cups of warm water (FREE!)

equipment:

• grater (although I'm probably going to use my food processor next time!)
• large pot, at least 4 quarts
• measuring cup and spoons
• spatula or spoon for stirring
• soap container with a hand pump
• a gallon container for remaining soap (I used the bottle of an old refill container
• Funnel

directions:

• Grate the soap in with a hand grater or food processor using the grater attachment. You may need to use the chopping blade to pulse it into fine particles.
• In a large pot, combine soap flakes with water and glycerin. On medium-low heat, stir the water until the soap dissolves completely.
• Let the soap cool completely. Pour into the gallon container with the funnel to store, and funnel into smaller bottles when you're ready to use!

Total cost: $1.20 ($.019/oz) for a half gallon of hand soap. This price is determined by how much your initial bar of soap and glycerin costs.

To compare:

• assuming you buy the gallon refill (like I did), at about $13.49 ($.11/oz). Half would be $6.75. You save at least $5.55!
• or, if you buy the little bottles for $2 each at 7.5oz/bottle, this would cost $17 ($.27/oz!!) for the 8.5 bottle yield from this recipe. That's a $15+ savings!

Notes:

• The mixture seemed to liquidy when it first cooled. I stored it into the bottle and the next day, it was completely congealed and molded to the shape of the bottle. A little shake did the trick to loosen it up.
• Occasionally, there may be a snot consistency with the soap in the pump bottle as well. A little shake will mix it together.
• If your hands are really wet, the soap won't lather too much, but soap is soap, and it will clean your hands regardless. I've used it after dusting and cleaning, and I didn't see lather, but the dirt came off.
• Again, soap is soap, and you don't really need aniti-bacterial anything, as long as you scrub sufficiently. If absolutely need anti-bacterial anything, add a few drops of tea tree oil.

New Year, New Me

It's a new year, and a new me! At the end of 2011, I decided to chop off my hair again and donate.

This time I managed to cut off 12 inches! I've donated once before to Beautiful Lengths. This time around, I donated to Locks of Love, the reason being that they actually accept dyed hair. I had a couple of streaks dyed in after my short bob cut many years ago after the first donation. If that wasn't the case, I definitely would have gone with Beautiful Lengths once again since I've heard that LoL sells some of the hair to offset production costs. If you haven't donated before, try it once! It feels very rewarding and refreshing!

Another goal I want to do this year is to make more homemade things. There are DIY tutorials for so many things around. I would love to start doing them myself! Making my own things would be so much more gratifying, I would save so much more money, and it will also help me be somewhat greener in some cases as well.

I already have lots of recipes posted, but I hope to bring these types of tutorials outside the kitchen as well.