Mmmm, I love the taste of vinegar in the morning...! Apple cider vinegar - Fact or fiction?

Ok, so that's not true. But I have been absent for reasons linked to being EXHAUSTED... all the time... possibly a tiny teeny bit related to having a toddler running amock... is that how you spell it? Oh you know what I mean anyway... to put it simply, with Autumn arriving, it has just cemented my tiredness.

My low enthusiasm for much more than couch-potatoe-ing. And that's definitely not a word but more of a state of being past Toddler-O-Clock. One glass of red wine, dinner, some Greys Anatomy or Breaking Bad episode (one or half a one), and I am dead to the world. What weekend excitement eh.

So, this got me thinking about food, nutrition, exercise etc. Note I said thinking, not necessarily doing...
So as I love research, I researched some of it, to at least get me into the mood of 'getting to' the doing. Actually, all jokes aside, food isn't the issue, it's the thinking time involved! Between work, toddler, my business run from home, and house, and of course hubby, sometimes we just survive the day.

Is that enough?

So the point is, what can I do that's easy, quick, and will boost energy on those hardest days when the sofa is calling?

Drink yummy(ish) apple cider vinegar, that's what. Here are 15 reasons why you should. 

My main faves are:

1) easily regulate your PH balance (ie, that extra Costa coffee you had made your body more acidic, and you didn't know or care).

2) easily gets a selection of good stuff - b vitamins, potassium - which it turns out you need lots more than 1 banana a day to get the right amount (in a top 10 potassium foods list, banana comes 10th, I thought it was top 3 at least but no!!!) You need potassium every single day, because what you got, or had, gets used in a flash. So this vinegar gives you something towards that and other good stuff too. Banana vs Apple Cider Vinegar. - ok so the banana is bigger but will put more weight on if you tried to get all your potassium there...

3) Save a bunch of money cleaning the house, and even as a lovely hair rinse and other beauty uses. Like a (ok slightly smelly) facial tonic, great hair, added to sugar scrubs, cupful in the bath and more.

There is alot of fact vs. fiction out there, old wives tales, wishful thinking, and marketing hype. So what about facts - let's check out some:

Facts you didn't know?

• Use it as a natural 'personal lady wash' to balance things down there.
• Rinse with it as a mouthwash to naturally get rid of dental plaque. You may also get rid of romance though. And less enamel.
• You might lose weight - there's lots of talk out there that this works. Why? Because it helps you feel fuller for longer, and stabilises your blood levels, so less snack attacks hopefully!
• Give it to your pets - staves off allsorts and they won't notice it in the water supposedly. Less fleas = happy everyone. 
• Good for diabetics and lowering cholestorol - one of the key facts,
  See here for more facts.

Ok, as you expect, I have got some fab links for you to save you any work in looking into this stuff. 
But let me leave you with this:

• ONLY buy the apple cider vinegar - regular vinegar or regular cider vinegar won't do.
• Only buy it if it has the Mother in it. The Mutha baby. This means all the good stuff has not been processed out. The label should state this clearly. I personally buy Biona in the UK, but over in the USA the Braggs brand is popular.
• Drink it with honey and lots of water. Only other way is neat on salad. Do not take as a shot unless you want painful throat and no more tooth enamel. I love it with water and molasses - that way I get my potassium and my iron for the day in one drink.
• As with anything, do not overdo it! You still want some teeth, and stomach lining!

Combined with a healthy diet I'm sure it can't help to try, and at less than £3 for a big ol' bottle, I'm sure going to give it a go. I know it's not a miracle food but worth trying as an addition to my salads etc.Let me know how you get on!

My experience so far:

- I do feel more energetic - this could be down to anything, but seems to have helped somewhat.

- As a face tonic, this has smoothed my skin, so I have made a tonic with green tea and apple cider vinegar as per the link below, I'm sticking with that from now for sure, as a bottle of toner now costs me pennies.

Before I forget, a special thank you to Aurora from Freya's Rainbow for your link, much appreciated, and so nice to be in the ethical/green-minded community - thank you!

Youtube links:

Benefits of apple cider vinegar

Apple Cider Vinegar Toner (skip to around 1m 40 seconds to skip the intro)

Apple Cider Vinegar Facts

Braggs Video (ok so it's self marketing, but interesting to watch. I love that Paul Bragg was a Life Extension Specialist. What a job title!)

Have a great weekend all!

xxx

£0.15p recipe to save money on your pearly whites...

Ok, so the best way to save money on your teeth is to not eat sweets, no wine, no coffee and no smoking. However, if you have no way of giving those up (most of us have little addictions that get us through the working week)... then how about making some toothpaste and saving a little money that way? On average a tube of the stuff costs £2 - I am pretty sure we could cost the recipe below at, ooooh - £0.15p max?

Even if we said £0.30 it's still a huge saving and it's freshly made compared to a tube of the stuff packed with preservatives and all sorts of other stuff.

The reality is, most toothpaste these days has a) sodium Laureth Sulphate which many people prefer to avoid, and b) Fluoride which can supposedly be toxic.

So making your own is not only better for health but also for your pocket, as you can make some from fresh for pennies. Will it have the same brand factor as Colgate? No. Will it look as exciting as stripy mint fresh? Probably not. However, next time I run out I am prepared to give it a go, as our current £2.99 Tom's of Maine toothpaste is fluoride free but it's also very expensive...


So here's the source website:
http://www.ehow.co.uk/way_5278502_recipe-natural-toothpaste.html

And here's their suggested recipe if anyone wants to test it our and report back with results:

Ingredients to make toothpaste

For this gentle toothpaste, you will need:

6 tsp. baking soda
1/3 tsp. salt
4 tsp. glycerin
15 drops of peppermint oil


The baking soda works to whiten and cleanse your teeth. The salt has the same effect as an antiseptic, cleaning the teeth. Glycerin is a base to help with flavoring and make the mixture thick and creamy. The peppermint is used for flavoring and to provide fresh breath.
Process

Combine the ingredients in a small storage container. Stir the mixture until it forms a thick consistency. This natural toothpaste can be used daily, just like other toothpastes. Store at room temperature in a plastic storage container or jar.
Use

Put a small amount of the toothpaste on your toothbrush. Begin at the back of your mouth and go forward. Brush your teeth for at least two minutes.

I still have a couple of tubes of om's toothpaste left, but the money saving bug is calling on me to try this recipe very soon as I like the fact that it would have no SLS.

The £0.10p bar of soap extravaganza

Ok, so you all know I love it when I make things for £0.10p... for a litre of home made washing up liquid, for a litre of home made liquid soap... well now I have done it for bars of soap as well...

Goat's Milk, honey & Oatmeal Soap

This soap is ideal for sensitive skin...
I bought 6 bars of plain Castille soap for £0.99p at the £0.99 store - any inexpensive soap you can find will do (Tesco do some I think)
I then used two of those bars, £0.32. Each bar is 100g.
I grated down all of the soap into a glass bowl. I placed this bowl of grated soap inside a pot of hot but not boiling water (bain marie method).

To the grated soap, I then added a little over 100ml of goats milk (basically, half of the volume of the soap), plus one tablespoon of honey, a teaspoon of ground oatmeal and half a teaspoon of cinammon for texture. You can judge for yourself how much liquid to add, just don't make it too liquid or the soap may end up softer than you would like.

Once completely melted, this is when you would add essential oil if you wanted and mix well.
I then poured it all quickly into a clean used butter tub (the 500ml size is good). If you don't pour it quickly, it may start to set in the glass bowl so act fast... and don't overcook!

Once in it's 'mould', this was left to cool some more and once cooler, then placed in the fridge for 3 hours.

I then removed it gently and sliced into 5 soaps, which are perfect hand soap sizes...

A fun thing to do on the weekend and if you have kids it's lots of fun. You can experiment with any soap and any 'flavours', just remember if you are adding aromatherapy oils to add these when the soap is close to cool (but not yet hard) as otherwise the oils evaporate... also do not add too much liquid (milk, water, lavender water etc) as otherwise the soap could end up too soft.


Ideas to add:
- Ground almonds
- Orange / lemon / lime / grapefruit zest etc
- Aromatherapy oils
- Dried lavender etc
- Old soaps you want to melt down and reuse
- Chocolate powder

This process is what is called the 'Melt & Pour' technique, so no scary lye is involved, just a fun quick 10 minute project to multiply 2 bars of soap into 5 nicer, gentler ones...

As these simply involve melting down and re-shaping with some added nice ingredients, you could give these to friends and family as a thoughtful gift. Wrap with some nicely edged brown paper or card, with a little sticker and even maybe a dried flower or emboss the soap with a shape you like.

If you were to turn all your soaps from 2 bars into 5 bars - that will keep you going a long time, and soap improves with age!

Shabby Chic... from unloved to much loved!

Here is what I was up to this weekend - an old 2nd hand table we have was always kept in a corner and covered with a linen tablecloth, as it was marked... I sanded it down, bought some Crown paint for metal and wood in 'Crochet' cream and I will next post the resulting table... took around 30 mins sanding and another 2.5 hours to paint and dry. I then dinished off with a light sanding once it was all dry. So in 3 hours and for around £9, we transformed it into something we now love and will cherish for years to come...




I also found a teacup at a local market for £0.50p, so am using this as a laundry scoop, with a glass vase I found at TK Maxx. The powder is 50% normal laundry powder and 50% soda crystals (Dripak - around £0.70p for 1Kg from Tesco). This saves cash and also softens the water which is greas our water is very hard in this area. So not only is it maintaining our washing machine, it's also softening our clothes more and also saving us money!

Washing Up Recipe - £0.10p per litre

Hi all, as promised I am also now putting up the recipe for homemade washing up liquid - very eco friendly and cheap! I got it from our office cleaners, greenmop.co.uk who have just won a green award so I'm dead chuffed to take their recommendations on being a bit greener.

Washing Up Liquid Recipe:

3 x litres boiling water
6 x drops tea tree or lime or lavender essential oil (or just use lemon or lime juice!)
1 x heaped tablespoon soap flakes (DriPak make these)
1 x heaped tablespoon of soda crystals (DriPak again)
1 x tablespoon white vinegar


Mix together and place into containers with a funnel - again the 2 pint plastic milk bottles are good for this as they have handles, and you are re-using rather than recycling!
Add the drops of essential oils once the water has cooled down as otherwise the oils will evaporate with the heat of the boiling water.
Shake before use, add water as needed.

This is a guideline and you can adjust to suit your preferences. I find I can usually dilute with a little more water in the container near the sink too.

I worked this out at £0.10p per litre but costs may vary according to what you pay for the dry goods.

I also came across this interesting site for greener cleaning tips:
http://www.savingadvice.com/blog/2008/06/24/102178_recipes-for-homemade-cleansers.html

So £0.10p for 1 litre - compared to around £2.40 for 1 litre of fairy liquid, which is full of other chemicals. Saves £2.30 per time, perhaps say £2.00 a time if you allow for your 5 minutes work.

Homemade Laundry Liquid - around £0.10p a litre!

Thanks so much to Heidi for her homemade recipe - here it is for us all to try in 2009 and save a bunch of cash!

HOMEMADE LAUNDRY LIQUID


• 1 x bar of pure soap
• 1 x saucepan {an old one if you have it}
• 1 x cup soda crystals
• 1/2 cup borax
• 0.5 litre + 5 litres water
• 1 x large plastic clean bucket
• wooden or steel spoon

I use the American cup for measuring as I find it easier.

Method:
Grate soap with a cheese grater & place in the saucepan with the ½ litre of water. Heat this while stirring until soap dissolves. Take saucepan off the heat.

Fill bucket with the 5 litres of water. Add soda crystals & stir until dissolved.

Then add soap mixture from saucepan & stir until fully dissolved.

This will thicken as it cools - Adding some essential oil makes a nice scent.
Add more or less water depending on the consistency desired then transfer liquid into bottles using a funnel.

Use one cup per wash.

Note: this liquid does NOT make suds. It has no foaming agent that is usually added to commercial liquids. Despite this it’s an excellent “green” cleaner that contains no phosphates.

Takes about 30 mins to make 10 pints.

Cost approx £0.49 pence per batch.


Wow thanks Heidi! I will start saving suitable containers now. In fact I have a 'cubit' (5 litres wine) which is from France and empty from the Christmas season, that may well do the trick so I will 'recycle' it for this purpose...

I made some more washing up liquid this weekend (see right hand menu re 'Cleaning') - 3 litres and poured it into 3 empty 2 pint plastic milk bottles. Lovely scent in the kitchen as you 'cook' it and let it cool!

Christmas & Plans for 2009

My thoughts are now turning to the Christmas break, a lovely time to relax, spend time with family and just enjoy the time off from the 9-5.

There's wrapping to be done, mince pies and mulled wine to enjoy, friends to see - so much on! Yet I still try to find time to plan my ideas for the year ahead.

My plans at the moment are as follows, just whilst they are fresh in my mind. 2008 has been a year for 'homemade' and I have learnt so many skills. From lemon curd, rice pudding, chutneys etc, to more usage of my slow-cooker and spending more time planning ahead. In 2009 I am hoping to:

- Fine tune these aspects even more - this includes: Shopping for more items in the 'Reduced' section, whereby I will freeze more items to slow cook with. My husband loves cooking bread so hopefully we will experiment lots of new and tasty varieties in the new year.

- Make my own liquid soap (easier than making normal soap, which seems far too scary for me!)

- Make my own washing up liquid (more natural and less expensive than shop bought).

- Only buy new if really needed - otherwise search the Freecycle site, local second hand markets and re-using items we already have if they can be repaired.

- Save all coppers into a 'Food for Christmas 09' pot - and the same for silvers. We did this this year and it's great as December is so much cheaper then.

- Save all vouchers earned from surveys etc for Food & Drink next Xmas. We have done this for 2 years now and December is actually our cheapest month of the whole year as a result.

- Do even more 'Free Clicking' online - see right hand menu for details - as this earns me over £350 per year, for a few clicks a day in any spare time I may have.

- Eat less processed food - we make most of our own food as it is, but to cut out what we can in terms of 'lazy' eating when in town shopping.

- Buy second hand clothes if they are good quality, rather than new. I am a petite size, so this is hard for me but I have found a few bargains here and there. Whereas I was spending £15-£25 on a top, I have found items for £5 for example. It does not need to be on every item, but at least where possible.

- Make more chutney, learn how to make jams and jellies, cordials etc. These add such a fantastic element of luxury and cost so little compared to processed store bought.

- Buy more good quality bedding items that may last 10 years rather than one or two and try to choose items that will wash/wear well no matter what.

- Grow more of our own herbs and vegetables. Learn about seeds / best tiems to plant etc.

These are just what I can think of so far.

What are your ideas for the coming year?

Making Liquid Soap

I'm on a roll! Yes, a couple of nights ago I used a £0.20p bar of soap, to create 2.5 litres of handwash - and it worked!

- One grated bar of soap (I used Castille, from the £0.99 store - 5 bars for £0.99)
- 2.5 litres of boiling water (maybe more, add if needed)
- Aromatherapy oils
- Jojoba oil or olive oil (if desired)

Pour grated soap into water, melt. Check next day and if still not liquid enough, remelt and add more water if needed. I used a potato masher to mash the liquid get it quite smooth!

At the point when it's cooled down add jojoba (or oilive oil, which you may already have), as well as some drops of your favourite essential oil. Do not do this whilst still hot as the oils will evaporate.

I used lime which I love for a handwash smell. I have also purchased soearmint, grapefruit, tea tree, jasmin and honeysuckle oils on ebay for my future projects involving soap and washing up liquid etc.

Next use a funnel and pour into handwash pumps or squeezy bottles (if you intend to use more as a shower gel)...

Might be a little messy, but for the same of some time, you can make enough for yourself and friends and family too. I found a nice bottle in a charity shop for £0.99p which I will fill and then seal with a cork and nice ribbon and a tag. The handwash will have to be quite liquid for this to work. Alternatively you could buy or re-use a squeezy bottle and put a homemade plastic label on. Might be a nice gift for someone, and saves them £2-£3. Plus less plastic, and less chemicals too - everyone wins!



So for £0.99p you could make 12.5 litres of handwash - makes you realise how much money and plastic is wasted by buying storebought all the time!

I also use this as shower/body wash - you could add jojoba oil or olive oil for extra luxury moisturising qualities.

My next project will be to make some washing up liquid - anyone have any deas? Do drop in and comment x

Clean, Clear and Crystal!

Today I’d like to focus on saving money on household cleaning. We used to use liquid tabs in each wash, without even thinking about it – very expensive! I then started to read up on reverting back to washing powder after reading a few posts on MoneySavingExpert and thought I would give it a go. The reason I had stopped using washing powder was the fact it left white marks, and I guess, the marketing for cute liquitabs had worked on my feeble mind… so pretty, so easy, no mess!

Once we switched back, I thought our savings stopped there – but after more reading and research, it seems folks cut their washing powder in half and top it up with half of soda crystals. I knew nothing of this but started to buy the stuff too – and it’s saved us a fortune! We now add half a measure of washing powder and half of the SC, this works a treat. As we live in a hard water area, it also softens the water which is good for the washing machine too.

More info can be found on the DriPack site:
http://www.dri-pak.co.uk/soda-crystals-for-laundry.html




I buy mine from Tesco online for roughly £0.50p for one KG and it lasts a long time, although this will vary of course as to how many washes your household does per week.

An excerpt from the above DriPack site:

“Soda Crystals should be used in every wash. Simply add the required amount to the detergent drawer, along with your usual washing powder, or directly in to the drum. Soda Crystals soften the water, so that less of your detergent is needed to do the water softening. This not only saves you money on detergent, but it will also help remove stains from your clothes and fabrics.

But the benefits don't stop there. Soda Crystals will help prevent limescale and other build up in your machine and hoses. Using Soda Crystals instead of biological washing powders, also helps minimise the impact on the environment.“

You can use SC all around your household from the washing machine, to cooking (!) and preserving colouring in your veg! And all for £0.50p – who knew! So get out there and spend (under) £0.50p for your wallet and the environment too…

Clearout for Autumn

With the UK weather treating us to wind, rain and flooding again, it seems a good time to admit that Summer is truly finished - I don't want to pin my hopes on September!

I have now collected some items round the house to donate to charity, and promised that we will not buy many new things for September and October unless we really, really, really need them. Given that we need nothing desperately, this should go ok, although clothes are excluded from the deal... in any case, we have cleared lots of old unwanted clothes too, to allow space for new items.

This the perfect time to review dvd's, cd's, clothes and books that may be sellable, and that we don't want anymore. It might even be taht we can make enough profit for example, so we can put this towards the cost of Christmas.

In saying that, I am also happy to buy items, if and only if, I believe I can sell them on ebay or Amazon. I recently purchased a £2 brand new terramundi ceramic piggy bank jar with tags, which sold on ebay for £7 plus postage. I made £5.20 clean profit right there... needless to say this has gone into my snowflaking account!

As I read recently in a book, imagine that the clutter you have at the moment is actually taking up valuable space and so it's 'costing' you £70 a month, which you could be making in food and gift savings on purchases, or ebay sales. That made me sharpen up my act pretty quickly, as we live in a small flat!

Anyway, my recommendation to you is that given the current weather, you take the time to make space for the new season. Space to start buying Christmas presents you might see at a good price, to stock up on food that may be on special offer, to buy items to sell on and generally get yourself some more value from space in your home.

Good luck!

Small steps, big payoffs

Well September has started without a hitch – new budget, new start.

Shopping wise, we are again taking part in MoneySavingExpert’s monthly grocery challenge and have set ourselves £120 budget for the month, covering 2 adults. This includes food, wine, any cleaning materials. However, as my hubby won lots of wine last month for reaching sales targets, we should be ok, and as I bulk shopped for quite a few things in August, that will also help. Cleaning wise we don’t spent much in supermarkets, as you will see below.

Small stuff we have started to do in the last 2 years, that doesn’t ‘hurt’ much:

Downgrading from brands – I have never been a brand lover but trying the supermarkets own has started to feel easier, we try bread, tinned items, and much more. I find that especially with tinned items there’s much money to be saved.




Using Freecycle and other networks – when you need something, you ‘put the word out’ on networks like that and you may find someone has it as junk that they need to get rid of!


Squirreling / snowflaking savings – At the end of each month, if we have any money left, it gets put into savings. Sometimes I even do this during the month and save as I go… makes a surprising difference, the odd pound here and there. I used to do it so that £53.89, would mean I would transfer £3.89 to savings. I have an IceSave savings account for this and keep tabs of what that total is made up of in a spreadsheet. For our joint account, anything in there at the end of the month goes to our ISA.

Printing vouchers – It’s true that so many more restaurants, bars, brands and leisure companies are trying to get our attention now. I have found more eat out vouchers in my e-mail inbox than anything else recently. So when I want to go out to one of our favourite eateries, we choose the place that has the best vouchers on at the time. This for us is Yo Sushi, Ha Ha Bar and Strada and you can’t turn around these days without at least one of them having an offer on. My friends are all into this as well now to save some cash, I like to think I have converted them! Of course there are also supermarket vouchers and other money saving opportunities on travel and more...




Household cleaning – A while back I discovered a) soda crystals and b) that washing powder is cheaper than liquid powder overall for washing your clothes. So by pouring boiling water into the tray prior to washing, and mixing half the normal amount of powder, plus half soda crystals, my washing is much, much cheaper, and with the boiling water treatment, no white marks.



I am also a huge fan of Stardrops if you can find it – around £0.70p for one bottle and as it is concentrated it will last you a long, long time. Use is sparingly diluted in water for most household cleaning. I like to add a little to a spray bottle with some aromatherapy oil, fill up with water, and use this for all kitchen cleaning. SD is also great used neat for stubborn kitchen stains and so much more. Just type in ‘Stardrops usage’ into Google and you will get the idea! Best £0.70p you have ever spent and I have even given it to friends and family!


I am also a convert to baking soda, now available in 500g boxes from Tesco for £0.99p. I order mine online and save on carrying it home…

Making your own – We have started to make our own bread and yoghurt, as well as keeping our own basil, parsley, thyme, a chilli and a red pepper plant. It’s a small start in a small flat, but we’re happy and will see what else we can do in time.

Top notch savings – We ensure we both have the best ISA account rates, so that interest is growing on our savings at the highest level it can. Once both our ISA’s are full, and we have therefore kept the taxman from taking any of that money, we then save to the best instant savings accounts. I rarely have the patience for fixed term deposits, the only exception being a deal that IceSave did recently, and my account matures in November on that one. I will then return to normal instant savings with them. By transferring money electronically each month, the transfer hits faster and so starts to earn quicker. I can’t recommend highly enough that you start transferring a small amount per month into savings, as soon as you get paid. ‘Paying yourself first’ is an essential building block in getting some money saved up for rainy days. You never notice it, and it should be a priority for anyone who has no debts to pay off.

I will add more tips as I can think of them but do drop your own comments here so we can share money-saving ideas!

Lavender dreams... and cotton luxury?

I have recrntly started to read a book called 'Home Comforts' which is a classic home-keeping book. I am far from the traditional homekeeper, so I was interested to learn more - you know, the questions you *can't* ask anyone else as you want to seem like you know it already... and I should, really!

Anyway, I rented it from my local library, and have it for at least 3 weeks. The chapters are all clearly defined and although I have skipped some (as they are not relevant to our small flat), I can see it being a valable resource so may try to see if I can buy it sometime as an investment. I was given Delia's 'black' basic recipe book on that basis too and have found it extremely helpful.

The main thing I was interested to read today was about the importance of the right bed linen. We have never spent that much, often going on price rather than anything else, as you often wash and replace that I have found a few fitted sheets do us fine, having lasted several years. But it has made me re-think this - are our sheets that great at £5.99?

I find one is too thin and I hate having to use it (in fact I generally leave it til last if I can) as it is skinny, scratchy as a result and I could feel the matttress underneath. Even last year when we invested in a matress protector (from Argos, around £7 I think), we still find it our least favourite. This has happened with a duvet cover too, which has gradually lost colour and is less soft than I would ideally like, regardless of adding any softener to the wash. However, I should add that it must be 3 years old now - or is that just me being a modern consumer and not expecting it to last more than that?

For Summer we mostly use cotton (a mix of cotton and poly) like most folks, then in Winter I like flanelette.

So now that Summer seems to have deserted us here in the UK, I am wondering if now is the time to try and find some bargains for next Summer's bedding, as what we currently have will do us fine for now.

It might be that Egyptian cotton really is worth the hype, I don't know, but that's probably where I will start researching. It seems that a set for a double bed can be bought for around £25 - including the fitted sheet, flat sheet and 2 pillow cases.

However, then there are the different 'levels' - 180, or 400 threads per inch? It's a minefield! Anyone with any thoughts on this please do share them, as I'd love to treat us to something new but don't want to spend too much, or in contrast, too little on something that is near-enough what we already have.

In the meantime, I have followed the book's advice on airing the bed all day whilst I am at work. I have pulled back the covers fully and opened our window at the top as far as it will go.



I also have a lavender spray that I made with water and a few drops of essential oil. I keep this by the bed for nights when I cannot sleep of just need something soothing or refreshing to help feel sleepy and relaxed. This is also good lightly sprayed in the air above the bed to freshen things up until the next wash.