Homemade Deodorant

I’ve been playing around with natural alternatives to antiperspirant for almost two years now. I’ve always been a little on the sweatier side, so your everyday deodorants don’t really do the job. Salt crystals didn’t do much for me and tea tree oil was a little too harsh and expensive.

So when a fellow counselor at the farm led a homemade deodorant workshop during our training week, I eagerly jumped at the chance. It was simple to make and we all had fun choosing essential oils to scent our final products. Since farm camp is my excuse to get my hippie on (my leg hair was glorious last summer), I was able to test my new concoction over the course of several weeks of limited showers and high activity.

It worked better than anything I’ve ever used before.

At the end of the day, my armpits didn’t smell terrible. There was a faint sweatiness to them, but that’s understandable when you haven’t showered in a few days and you were mucking a barn all morning. I felt drier, too.

Now that I’m back in the real world, I’m still using this recipe. 

Homemade Deodorant

• 1/4 cup baking soda
• 1/4 cup cornstarch or arrowroot powder
• 1/2 cup melted coconut oil
• Several drops of essential oil

Combine all ingredients and store in an airtight jar.

Adjustments and considerations

• If you have sensitive skin, decrease the amount of baking soda and increase the amount of cornstarch or arrowroot powder. 
• I used tea tree oil to scent my batch as well provide anti-microbial properties. Cinnamon and lavender are good options, too. You can use any scent you prefer as long as it is safe to use on skin.
• Make sure you wash this off at the end of the day. The baking soda can be harsh on your skin if left on too long. As long as I shower or clean my armpits once a day, I'm fine.

Simple Knits: Ribbed Headband

Warm headbands are one of my favorite accessories for cold days, because it's easy to throw them on over a ponytail or bun. This headband is a great gift because of its versatility and how quickly you can make it.

To make this headband you will need to know how to cast on, bind off, and knit in the round. This pattern works best with a long tail cast on and Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy bind off. I've included video tutorials at the end of the pattern, but you can use other techniques as well. If you're new to knitting in the round, check out this piece on avoiding and correcting mistakes when joining in the round.

Chunky yarn makes this project knit up quickly, and you can easily weave the ends in using just your fingers.


Ribbed Headband

Yarn: Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick and Quick
Needles: Circular 16-Inch Knitting Needles, Size 11

Gauge
14 stitches and 15 rows in stockinette = 4"

Cast on 64 stitches.

Place marker and join in the round, being careful not to twist the stitches. 

Knit 2, purl 2 around for 10 rows

Bind off.

Paper Flower Bouquet DIY

Jesse and I deliberately tried to avoid getting bogged down in crazy wedding details. We didn't hem and haw over silverware and plates (the fancy plastic kind), nor did it take too much effort to choose the color for the table linens (burgundy ended up looking great).

There were a few things, though, that we did put a little bit of extra effort into. One of these things was the bouquets.

Photo by Amanda Green

Photo by Sarah Hannon/Bryon Triglianos

The best part of my bouquet was the two craft nights my friends participated in to help me make them. At times it felt like a sweatshop, but it was much better because there was wine and food.

We impressed ourselves with how well the bouquets turned out. It took some time, but the actual construction is pretty straight forward.

To make the bouquets you will need:

• Origami paper
• Scrapbook or other printed paper (we used maps, too)
• Scissors, pinking shears, and/or paper cutter
• Floral wire
• Coflex
• Ribbon
• Buttons
• Hot glue

To make the 5-petal flowers:

1. Using the origami paper or other paper cut to the same size, make five petals using these origami instructions.
2. Gently fold, but do not crease, the petals inward and glue. Let sit for a moment as glue cools.
3. Glue the petals to each other, leaving a small space in the center. Take your time with this step, as moving too quickly will cause the petals to pull away from each other.
4. Glue button over the top of the gap in the center of the flower and let sit for a minute.
5. Turn flower over and apply a small drop of glue to the gap at the base of the flower. Insert one end of the floral wire gently while the glue is still warm. Do not go too far, as you may dislodge the button. Let cool.

To make the rosettes:

1. Using scissors or pinking shears, cut a standard sheet of scrapbook paper into a large circle.
2. Starting from the outside edge, cut the paper into a spiral. The width of the strip of paper should slightly increase as you near the center. Leave a half-dollar sized circle at the end of the paper.
3. Tightly roll the strip starting with the outside end.
4. Once rolled, allow the rosette to unravel slightly in your hands, until it is a size and shape you like. 
5. Apply glue to the end circle and gently press the cut ends of the bottom of the rosette into the glue.

To make the bouquet:

1. Choose 9-12 5-petal flowers for your bouquet.
2. Arrange them together, holding the stems. You can carefully bend the wire to position the flowers.
3. Once you are satisfied with the arrangement, bend the bottom half of the wires up, twisting them slightly to secure the arrangement.
4. Wrap the stem/wire in Coflex.
5. Find areas in your bouquet that have slightly larger gaps and gently widen these spaces.
6. Spread glue along the outside of a rosette and carefully place between the existing flowers, pressing the glue against the exterior of the petals. Repeat until the bouquet looks full.
7. Wrap the stem in ribbon, securing with hot glue as you go. Wrap until the ribbon is about a half inch past the end of the stem. Fold the end of the ribbon into itself before you glue the end.
8. Glue the bottom of the ribbon inward as though your wrapping the end of a present or package. Cover with a button.

I am so glad I chose to use this as my bouquet. Thank you, again, to my friends who helped.