"100 Thing" Challenge!

Are you up for it? A growing phenomenon has been attracting new believers since last July, when a blogger guynameddave came up with the concept on his site.

We actually came upon a reference to the article not more than a week ago through Time Online, after dave announced he'd be rebuilding the site to show his progress towards the 100 piece goal. I personally think it's a fantastic idea, though a little bummed that we haven't heard of it sooner. It seems to have fallen into our hands at the right time, as we are trying to make sense of unused items to make way for baby.

As far as our own personal revisions, clothing isn't too much of a clutter issue, it's the rest of our junk sitting in a closet that is. Realistically, we don't make use of most of the stuff. Those items have just been getting shuffled back and forth to make room for more junk that's never used. So with this in mind, I'm going to spend most of my time this week making a list of what's important to our family. Whatever doesn't fit on this list, well...it's going to be hard. I'll let you know what happens along the way.

MSG does home facials.

There’s nothing like a treat for both your face AND your bank account! For today’s post, I have decided to share some really easy facial scrub recipes that can be found in the kitchen. I’m not sure about you, but I have personally jumped between homemade and commercial scrubs for as long as my face has needed attention, mostly to find something that actually works!

Quick background: I’ve learned a ton over the years that I should have been sticking to the natural regimen the whole time. Being a teenager in a wasteful town it was hard to stick to my “real guns”. I remember it was the poor person’s way to use homemade facials (which my mom ALWAYS made me try to stick with, but whenever I saw a fancy colorful bottle at a friend’s house I got really needy and embarrassed when they poked fun at my plain reusable jar.) But ever since I’ve come to my senses for a few years now (a big WTH-were-you-thinking here, and an apology to my mom there), my complexion has never been better!

Here are some recipes that I’ve used throughout my life. Some from the family, an antique cookbook, and one from a cosmetologist friend of mine. Enjoy! (Notes: These aren’t intended for everyday use. Most of the time your face only actually needs specialty scrubs two or three times a week. My personal preference is to rinse with water only every other day. I need to also mention that these recipes are not perfect for every single skin type. If you feel weary of breakouts, try a test patch first.)

1) Set aside at least 10-15min (or 20min to include mask) to take care of your face, as most natural scrubs and masks need to set before you rinse.

2) Always rinse/soak/steam with comfortably hot water to open your pores.

3) (optional) If you have small children, let them help you mix it up…It’ll keep them occupied, give you help, and teach them about being MSG! J


Peppermint Steam:
1 peppermint teabag
1 1/2 – 2 cups boiling water

Boil water. Add teabag and water to large bowl or container and allow to steep 3 minutes. Lean over bowl; cover head with towel and sit for 10 – 12 min. while breathing deeply.


Simple Exfoliating Salt Scrub:
2 tbsp. sea salt
2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

Mix two ingredients together until a textured paste begins to form. Apply to face with circular motion, avoiding eye area. Once salt fully dissolves, rinse remaining oil from face with warm water. Pat dry. (I have also been told that lemon juice is a good substitute for olive oil but have not tried that method myself.)


Honey Mask:
1 egg white (normal/oily skin) OR 1 egg yolk (dry skin)
1 equal part honey (1 – 2 tbsp.)

Mix ingredients together. Spread evenly over face, avoiding eye area. Leave on 10-15 min. or until dry. Rinse with warm, then cool water.


Easy Oatmeal Scrub:
1 tbsp. baking soda
1 tbsp. plain oatmeal

Combine ingredients by using enough water to form a paste. Apply to face and neck using circular motion. Rinse off. Pat dry.

New Aspirin Mask:
1 tsp. water
1 tsp. honey
3- 4 uncoated aspirin

Dissolve/crush aspirin in water. Should mix with honey to form a thin paste. (If not, crush in another aspirin) Apply to face and let sit for 15-20 min. Rinse with warm, then cool water. Pat dry.


Last word...all of these recipes can have substitutions and/or additions, so don’t feel limited. Bananas can be added for wrinkle prevention, avocado for its moisturizing attribute, or yogurt for pore refinement. Feel free to let me know what works, as I’m always up for something new!

You tried it, you hated it. Now what?

Now that Wisconsin finally seems out winter, spring cleaning is upon us! While cleaning out my bathroom cabinets, I found several open bottles of health and beauty items that for one reason or another I no longer use. Throwing them away would be wasteful, both for the environment and for my checkbook. Here's a list of ways I've come up with to deal with these products:

Re-purpose it
-Mediocre conditioner works well as shaving cream. Be sure to rinse your skin well afterward. (I can't speak for whether it would work to shave your face, but it seems like it might clog pores.)
-Bar soap can be made into laundry detergent, if you're feeling adventurous. The Simple Dollar gave some detailed instructions recently. (You must check this out!)
-Liquid body wash makes great foaming hand soap, as I recently discussed.


Mix it
Combine a so-so product with a different brand (of the same type of product) can stretch the good one. I did this with a toner that left my skin feeling tacky. I mixed it with a different toner, and ended up with twice as much toner that I did like. Do a small amount of this at a time. You don't want to send good product after bad, and waste an entire bottle of something you really like.

I also used to do this frequently with nail polish. When a color lost it's appeal, I mixed it with other colors to create something one-of-a-kind and really fun.


Change the scent
Add some soap fragrance to liquid soap. This works best with lightly-fragranced soaps or by adding a compatible scent. As with mixing it, try this with a small amount before pouring an entire bottle of fragrance into something stinky. I last did this with a generic brand body wash, which smelled vaguely of toilet paper (kind of dusty, not bad, but not what I want my skin to smell like). I was able to cover that smell easily with citrus soap scent.


Pass it on
If there is nothing really wrong with the product, but you just didn't like it, there's no reason you can't give it to someone else. One caveat, be sure you know the person won't take offense. And offer the item in the right way. You don't want to come off as sounding like, "I can't stand this product, but it's good enough for you," or worse, "I thought you could use this anti-wrinkle cream." I'd stick to family and very close friends for this.


I hope the above tips help you clear out some cabinet space in your bathroom. Plus, you can act like a mad scientist, which is always fun.

Make Your Own Foaming Soap

When you buy foaming soap you're paying for a lot of water and a foaming pump. So, if you've already purchased the pump, you may as well use it again (and again), by mixing foaming soap at home.

Step one, decide what kind of soap you'll be making. I make both hand soap and dish soap (think Dawn Direct Foam). After that, you need to get your hands on a foam pump. You can buy these through Pampered Chef or online, but I'd just buy a bottle of foam soap at the store and save the bottle. Or ask a friend for one, if it was just headed for the recycling bin.

Next, it just comes down to proportions.

For handsoap:
Start with one part liquid soap to about five parts water, and adjust until you get the consistency you like. Hand soap is a little more forgiving than dish soap. The best part is that you can use up all kinds of liquid soap leftovers. Bubble bath works great, as does any body wash that does not have any "bits" in it. You can also add soap scents to mix it up. I personally like to use a bit of Soft Soap style hand soap and a squirt of bubble bath.

For dishsoap:
This can get a little tricky, and will depend on what brand you use, as some are more concentrated. I use Palmolive, and put 1/2 ounce of soap with 12 ounces of water. If you use too much, the soap will clog the pump. Too little and it won't have any cleaning power. The dish soap is great for when you have just one dish you need to wash (for me, that's when I discover the pan I need to make dinner is dirty) and you don't want to use a lot of soap or water. Of course, you can use dish soap to make hand soap, too. In fact, it smells really nice and cleans well!

Once you've mastered your perfect proportions, use a marker to note how high to fill the soap. That way, you don't need to measure every time.

I'm sure you can guess why this project is MSG, but I'll give you the rundown anyway.
-Reduced packaging by not buying all those pumps
-Lessen the carbon footprint of your soap (imagine truckloads of single-use bottles of foam soap traveling across the country, and smile as you refill your bottle)
-Saves LOTS of money
-Use up small portions of soap that might otherwise go wasted
-Less trips to the store to buy soap = less temptation to consume

Pretty significant impact for one quick project!