Back to Nature Part 1 - Soft as a baby's bottom...

Hello everyone :) How are you on this rainy and miserable day?? We've been having a sleep over with little miss and her big cousin.. Lots of painting, colouring, dancing in our pyjama's, baking cakes, picnics and a soak in the tub!

Now I don't know about anyone else but these two little girlies have very sensitive skin and there are certain products aimed at children that cause a nasty rash and dry skin - bubble baths, sun cream and various other "sensitive" kids bath products. Until recently when I just happened to come across a recipe to make our own laundry detergent, I had no idea that you could make all your own cleaning and beauty products at home - no harsh chemicals and no hidden nasties! I don't know if you've looked at the back of a bottle of shampoo or body wash lately but can you even pronounce the names, never mind understand what the ingredients are?  Now I happen to know Sodium Laureth Sulfate is added as a foaming agent, you know that clean feeling you can sometimes only feel from lather? Well that's a chemical added, which is also a skin irritant.. so if you do want to switch to natural products I'm afraid you may have to sacrifice your lather.. but what you will gain is much better - skin as soft as a baby's bottom :)

                                                 The ingredients in my "sensitive" shower gel

 

Well it's safe to say over the last few weeks, I have become just a little obsessed with replacing all of my cleaning and beauty products, especially those that are coming into contact with my little girl's delicate skin.. I'm almost there and it hasn't been too difficult, in fact I'm having fun - I feel a bit like a scientist with all my bubbling creations.. Today I'm just going to share the first two things I've switched, the two things that come into contact with skin the most often - Laundry Detergent and Baby Wash (which can also be used make disposable and reusable wipes!!)..

At first I made the dry version of the detergent but I found it wasn't getting our clothes as fresh as we were used to - that wasn't something I was willing to sacrifice.. so I went on another Pinterest hunt and found a liquid which is perfect!! Here goes...

Liquid Laundry Detergent

(this recipe makes over 4 litres and you still have enough left for another 8!)

You will need:
1/3 bar of laundry soap, organic soap or any perfume free, sensitive soap (I used simple as I had it to hand)
1 tbsp Borax / Borax substitute (I got mine on ebay)
1 tbsp Washing Soda / Soda Crystals (Try the laundry aisle or I bought some Dri pak off ebay)
1 tbsp Oxy Clean (optional - laundry aisle)
20-30 drops of Essential Oil (optional - again try ebay but make sure you choose therapeutic grade - at least £3 a bottle - any less than this will not be the purest)
250ml of water in a saucepan
4l of hot tap water in a large bucket/dish washing tub
Empty containers with lids

Now of course this recipe isn't chemical free but it is a lot kinder, more economical and a huge amount cheaper than the £7-8 a bottle I was buying before! I skip the oxy clean and just use a scoop in particularly dirty loads.. and I also like different smells for different washing so I use different essential oils - lavender for pyjamas/bed linen to help encourage peace at bedtime, lemon for my tea towels, cleaning cloths etc and sweet orange on our clothes as it smells nice.. you can increase or decrease the amount according to how strong you like the smell but do be careful using essential oils for babies - I am obviously not a trained aromatherapist so be aware of the pros/cons of each oil.

Ok so what you need to do..

* Grate your 1/3 bar of soap
* Heat the 250ml of water in a saucepan until it simmers
* Add the grated soap and stir until it dissolves
* Add your borax and washing soda (also add oxy clean here if using)
* Once dissolved, remove from heat
* Fill your bucket with 4l of hot tap water
* Pour your saucepan solution into your bucket and give it a good stir
* Let sit for 24 hours uncovered, giving a good stir occasionally
* After 24 hours, it should be what I would describe as a snotty consistency (sorry!)
* Now add your essential oil.  If you're using different oils like I did then at this point I filled my three bottles then added the oil and gave them a good shake (after I'd put the lid on of course)

Now the liquid might separate so give the bottle a good shake before each use.  You need about 1 cap per wash (I use an old Ariel cap).  For extra clean and as a natural softener, you can about 100ml of white vinegar direct to your washer drawer during the rinse cycle (make sure you have white vinegar from the cleaning aisle, not white malt vinegar as I originally thought - wilko's sell it for £1 a bottle)

You can of course play around with quantities until you get a detergent you're 100% happy with, I did make my own little adjustments and this works great for us.

Baby Wash (for sensitive skin of all ages)

The beauty of this one is that it can be used as a bubble bath, body wash, shampoo, hand wash and in disposable and reusable wipes - for baby's bums and mammy's makeup too!

You will need:
1 bar of Organic Castille Soap (preferably Dr Bronner's Baby Mild - remember this is going a long way - again around 4l - so worth the £5 price tag.  Get this from ebay, amazon or some Holland and Barrett stores)
400ml of water in a saucepan
2 tbsp vegetable glycerine (available in some cake/specialist food shops or good old ebay!)
4l of hot tap water
20-30 drops of essential oil
Empty containers with lids

* Grate your bar of soap
* Heat 400ml of water in a saucepan until it simmers
* Add the grated soap and stir until is dissolves
* Add your glycerine
* Fill your bucket with 4l of hot tap water
* Pour your saucepan solution into your bucket and give it a good stir
* Let sit for 24 hours, giving a good stir occasionally
* Add your essential oils and pour into containers - again I use different scents so I add to each bottle and shake.. Lavender for night time baths, lemon/orange for morning showers and a few drops of tea tree is nice too - also stops the solution from getting any mould in it!

Now remember lather does not equal clean so if you're looking for suds you won't find them here.. if you really can't give up the suds I would advise adding a little more water to your bottle once finished and finding a foaming pump (although I'm not having much luck finding one of these so if you use a foaming face or hand wash then remember to keep the empty bottle) I should also say at this point this wash IS NOT tear free so keep those peepers closed.

Phew.. are you still with me??? Now I'm just going to quickly finish with those wipes and that's it for today..

Baby Wipes

So.. you will need your baby wash you've just made (or if you don't have the time any baby wash will do) along with:
A glass jar with airtight lid (I got mine from Poundland)
Large cotton pads OR microfiber cloths cut in half (for reusable)
200 ml Warm water
Coconut oil/Baby oil or any other oil for that matter - you could try sweet almond or even extra virgin olive oil but results may vary.  I use extra virgin coconut oil in everything and buy in bulk (1kg for £9.99 on ebay - I should be on commission by now)

* Fill a jug with 200ml of warm tap water
* Add 2 tbsp of baby wash
* Add 1/2 tsp of your oil and give it a good stir
* Either roll up your microfiber cloths and pour the solution over OR add small piles of cotton pads, soak then keep layering and adding more solution so it is equally distributed
* Pop the lid on and use when needed - for the reusable clothes just ring out excess water, use for mucky faces or waterproof makeup, rinse and put in the washing with your towels

Once you've used them all just start over again. I'm extra stingy with my reusable ones - I use one for little miss then on myself too, I mean how dirty can that little face be anyway? I've also stopped using bubble bath and started using the homemade baby wash in there too and a microfiber cloth to clean her down, that way I know I'm not stripping her skin of its natural oils.. Which leads to my next post which will be all about keeping yours and you little one's skins soft, plus some more recipes for soft hair..

Hope you've enjoyed reading this weeks post - I'd love to know if you try any of the recipes and if they work for you.. I'm still very much a beginner at this so if you find a better way of doing something I would love to hear about it..

See you all next week :) xxx

Mary Mary Quite Contrary

Hi Everyone...

Well this week I am writing from my sick bed :( both us girls are full of cold so its honey, lemon and lots of snuggles for us this weekend... we're missing ballet class too which makes us very sad..

One thing I am thankful for is that the cold held off until after our first Decote Diggers class yesterday. After getting our own garden a couple of weeks ago we were really looking forward to this and we weren't disappointed! I've never had my own garden before so me and little miss are very much beginners and we were looking forward to learning all about different flowers, which was the theme for our very first class.  Our lovely teachers Jo-Anne and Charlotte started by telling the class about flowers and giving out very pretty cards for us to take home.  We then did some gardening themed dances to original songs made especially for Decote Diggers which was a lovely change from the usual songs you hear again and again! After that the little ones were taken over to a really fun garden set up where everything was ready for them to create their own mini garden.. But first they had to decorate their garden with lots of lovely stickers and sparkles...

Afterwards was the messy part - getting stuck in to a big bucket of compost to fill up the mini garden (little miss was promptly stripped to the waist.. she loves to make a big mess!) Once that was done, it was time to pick some pretty flowers however by this point she had discovered a big bucket of water so it was left to me to actually plant the flowers... but she had lots of fun watering :)

After the gardening was time for free play and there was lots to choose from - crates of soil, sticks and stones for sensory play, brushes and rakes, tents and tunnels and a selection of garden themed story books and soft toys.  We had a lovely morning and can't wait to see what next week brings.  Would really recommend this class if you're looking for something different to the usual music and crafts classes which can get a bit repetitive - with a different theme every week I'm sure this will keep us entertained!  We also got to take our mini garden home to take care of and bring to next weeks class so we will look forward to watching it grow..

Feeling crafty??

Inspired by our garden activities over the last couple of weeks, the fact that we're feeling poorly today AND its raining outside, we've tested out this cute little craft to make an indoor garden..

What you need:
Paper doilies/plates
Paper/Plastic cups (we cut the tops off ours to make them shorter)
Large Buttons (optional)
Sparkles
Stickers
Paint
Glue/ sticky tape (you can use hot glue here if you are using plastic and need something stronger but obviously this will need to be done by an adult)
Wooden dowel / lollipop sticks / straws
                                                        Plant pots / Vase / Bottles


 Instructions:

Paint your plates and cups all different colours and/or decorate with stickers
Use glue and sticky tape to attach a cup to your plate then stick your button or sparkles to the bottom of your cup (inside)
Use sticky tape to attach the dowel or stick to the back of your flower
Pop it in a pot and there you have a pretty indoor garden..





Don't forget to send me your photo's - I'd love to see your indoor garden :) Hope you like ours...

 

Thanks for reading and see you all next week where we will be keeping in with the nature theme and making some homemade soaps and lotions xxx

An introduction

Hello everyone.. and a big welcome to my blog page :)

So first of all I'd just like to tell you a little bit about me and what inspired me to start this - I hope you enjoy reading it and do remember to be kind because this is my first ever blog.. and i'm a little bit scared..

Ok about me.. well I'm 30 years old and I live in a little apartment in Wallsend (Newcastle) with my husband (6 years in July eeek!), my beautiful, tiny but very loud almost 3 year old girl and my hairless Chinese Crested doggy, Hugo...

This is us watching Peppa Pig and the Golden Boots at the pictures :)

I'm not ashamed to say that since becoming a mammy my life has changed so much and absolutely for the better. While I have virtually no social life of my own, her calendar is always full!! My life absolutely revolves around this small child - she is my reason for getting up in the morning (just way too early for my liking), my inspiration for everything I do and I am a very proud (maybe sometimes pushy) mother..

When I became a mother, I swapped nights out for days out.. instead of shopping on Saturdays we have ballet class, soft play parties and princess events.. I swapped late night online clothes shopping for late night online baby research - recipes, activities, crafts, parenting tips.. you name it I've googled it! I dived head first into motherhood and tried to do everything by the book - baby classes, cooking baby food from scratch, planning the perfect birthday parties - but at the end of the day we can all put pressure on ourselves to be "the perfect mother", all that really matters is having fun and celebrating them being little while it lasts..

                                                    The simple things - lots of laughs on the slide

This is where Looking for Rainbows comes in.. I want a place to share all of the fun things I have found on my many hours spent trawling through Pinterest, Facebook, Google, etc and I want to document all of the activities me and my little miss have done together.. We hope to inspire you to embrace creativity, encourage imagination and most of all find fun in every day.. keep looking for rainbows <3

My next blog will be all about our recent adventures in our new little garden - we aren't lucky enough to have a garden and after finding out there is a 3 year (!!!) waiting list for an allotment in our area, my lovely generous Father-in-law has loaned us a little patch at the bottom of his garden.

                                        Relaxing in her new garden after a hard days work!

Little miss starts a brand new class next week - Decote Diggers - a brilliant new idea from two local ladies, where children learn all about gardening in a fun environment.. We are hoping to practice what we learn in class in our new garden patch and look forward to reviewing the class next week - hope to see you then :) Thanks so much for reading xxx