Perfect!

Yep my homemade toothpaste really made the grade with the dentist and he gave Gabriel a perfect checkup. Yep, mama's happy.

So today is Gabriel's first dentist appointment, time to find out what he thinks of my homemade toothpaste. :)

Woohoo Google +

Oh man google+ is awesome now to find a way to link everything about the communities to this page and life would be grand. :_

So the butter got made and I have to say I think I am spoiled.  It was so easy and took less than 20 minutes and tastes wonderful.  I am going to outline the steps here but sorry there are no pictures (I was kinda busy lol)
1) chill in the freezer a metal or glass bowl big enough to hold double the size of the amount of whipping cream you have.

2) Make sure the whipping cream is at room temperature.

3) Pour cream into bowl and beat with a mixer.  It will turn into whipped cream but don't stop there.  Keep beating until the butter milk starts separating and it all turns into curds.

4)  Keep going until the texture is creamy just like butter and make sure you drain the milk into another container during the process.  It is yummy and too good to throw away.

5) Once it is nice and thick, make sure you get all the milk out or it will spoil quickly.  You can squeeze it through cheese cloth or use a fine strainer.  Either way works well as long as you remember to run it under water while you squeeze it around to get all the milk out.

Once all the milk is out and the water runs clear (don't worry it will take a few times) you have your wonderful butter!  I used 1 litre of whipping cream and that gave me about 2 - 450 gram blocks of butter!

Now, don't forget the buttermilk!  There is enough for a recipe of your choice, me, I'm thinking buttermilk pancakes!  Yummmm

And last but certainly not least, I finally got the iconizer program today so that I can view my embroidery files in windows 8.  It may not cost much, only $25 but right now we are not working and on a limited (very limited) income.  At least now I can embroider my stuff and start selling it :)

Then there is the most awesome recipe for toothpaste I found at DIY Naturals by Matt.  With again, my undying gratitude to these guys for their awesome information.  http://www.diynatural.com/how-to-make-toothpaste/

When I did mine this afternoon, I used the baking soda and water because it is for my little one, but I didn't put in any oils because I used up what was left in his kids toothpaste container.  Waste not, want not right.

So in the end it still tastes like regular toothpaste but of course it is sooooo much healthier, safer and cheaper! 

Homemade butter!

So for today's post I want to say how wonderful I feel. :)  I found a wonderful recipe/technique for making butter and I am definitely gonna try as soon as I get into town to get the crème.  For this wonderful idea you can check it out at keeper of the home at http://www.keeperofthehome.org/2012/10/make-it-yourself-homemade-cultured-butter.html

A bit thank you to Courtney!

So a funny thing happened on the way to the computer, life.  I realized today that I am using this blog just to talk and showcase the stuff I am making, but I need more than that.  So starting today I am also going to writing about the stuff that is impacting me.  Like it or not, here goes.
I am realizing just how bad this world is getting, political crap and favoritism has taken the place of common sense and good will.  Now I am looking at making my life and my families more sustainable. I planted tomatoes and garlic this year basically because I love both but they are not working out.  So far anyway but maybe I am rushing things we'll see at the end of august if I have anything.  Today I want to sew up some ironing board covers to sell so hopefully I can get some of that done.  The heat is killing me and the room I use for sewing has quite a few windows which makes it so much worse.  I had to stop yesterday because the heat was just so bad :(  then the hubby and I decided to run out to Frenchy's used clothing to try and find some curtains.  I really don't care that they don't match I can make something better when things get cooler but for now they work :)  So off to sewing I go :)

So I am making pincushions now and I plan on selling them at our local market this summer :)  Here is the pattern which is super easy to do and the pictures are a much needed bonus for me.  I will post pictures as soon as I have one complete.

Today is a busy day, but the kind I like. I get to spend the morning baking muffins and cookies :)  Now for the afternoon I guess I will be finishing some cross stitch because my sewing machine is in the shop for a well needed cleaning.