Green Housekeeping vol. 2: Free Recipes

Baking Soda and white vinegar have multiple uses around the house. Vinegar is a natural disinfecant and baking soda absorbs odors, so they make a great natural cleaning duo.  Here are just a few recipes:

Drain cleaner
1 cup baking soda plus vinegar (about a quart)
          Pour baking soda down drain.  Slowly pour vinegar down drain.  Allow to fizz and then continue to add more vinegar until you've used up the quart.  Let sit for about 15 minutes, then flush with hot water.  This is a good maintenance cleaner for drains and it will assist with clearing up soap residue that contributes to clogs.  However, it will not clear big clogs caused by hair.  The best way to tend to hair clogs is prevention!  Use a drain catch and empty it daily.  You can also use this recipe on kitchen sinks.

Soap Scum Scouring Cleanser
Spray bottle filled with white vinegar plus 1 small box of baking soda (this will last you quite a while...)
         Spray area to be cleaned heavily with vinegar (sink, tubs, tiles, showers).  Vinegar is a solvent, so allow it to do some of the work for you by letting it sit for a few minutes before scouring.  (But not so long that the vinegar dries up or you will have to spray it again!) Then sprinkle some baking soda on the area to be cleaned.  Using a wet scrubbie pad (you can buy "green" ones in the store now) or a loofah*, apply elbow grease to the area to scrub off the soap scum.  It will come off just as easily as if you had used a toxic cleaning agent. Rinse well to remove all the baking soda.  You may even want to wipe the area down with a little all purpose cleaner (see vol 1 recipe). 
*A loofah is the inside of a gourd that has been dried out.  Commonly used in the shower on skin as an exfoliating device, it can also be used as a household scrubbie.  To get more use out of your loofah, slice a piece off about an inch or 2 thick and save the rest for later.

Laundry Booster
Add 1/2 to 1 cup baking soda to the wash cycle with your soap.  Add 1 cup vinegar to your rinse cycle in place of fabric softener.  Note:  your laundry will come out smelling mildly of vinegar if used in the rinse cycle.  To combat this (if you are offended by the smell as I am) add about 10 drops of essential oil as well.  I like to keep a separate gallon of white vinegar aside just for laundry and I pour a few tablespoons of lavender essential oil directly into the container.  I just shake it up each time before I pour it.  This makes my laundry smell like lavender and vinegar, but the vinegar is less offensive!  It will fade nicely if you dry your clothes on a clothesline outside in the sun.

Litterbox Deodorizer
Clean out empty litterbox with vinegar.  After you add your litter, sprinkle some baking soda* in the box and mix.
* Save an empty plastic jar with a lid from your grocery shelf and poke some holes in the lid.  Add baking soda and 1/4 tsp essential oil.  Stir well to mix.  Sprinkle onto litter to freshen.

Green Housekeeping vol. 1: Free Recipes

Did you know that essential oils such as lavender and lemon contain antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral properties?  This means they are perfect for cleaning naturally without all the harsh chemicals and artificial scents that go into conventional cleaning products.  Here's a recipe for an all purpose cleaner that you can use in any room of the house on any surface.  No rinsing required, just shake, spray and wipe!
In a 32 oz spray bottle combine:
1/4 tsp lavender essential oil*
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 to 3 tbs castile soap (such as Dr. Bronner's)
Enough water to fill bottle

*Note:  Essential oils and fragrance oils are NOT the same thing!  Fragrance oils may be diluted essential oils or artificially scented and will NOT give you the antiseptic cleaning properties of pure essential oil..

Other essential oils that are great for this recipe: lemon, orange, eucalyptus, patchouli, sandalwood, thyme, tea tree.  Try mixing your own unique combinations of scents!  I like lemon and peppermint, rosemary and thyme, or orange and patchouli. 

Stay tuned for more Bohemian Farmgirl Green Housekeeping recipes...

Urban Farming: Eagle Street Rooftop Farm

Who says you can't be a farmer in the city??  I just discovered Eagle Street Rooftop Farm in Brooklyn, NY and can't wait to visit when the season opens once again to visitors. Their website describes the farm:  " On the shoreline of the East River and with a sweeping view of the Manhattan skyline, Eagle Street Rooftop Farm is a 6,000 square foot green roof organic vegetable farm located atop a warehouse rooftop in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.During New York City’s growing season, the farmers at Eagle Street Rooftop Farm supply a community supported agriculture (CSA) program, an onsite farm market, and bicycle fresh produce to area restaurants."  All this in New York City!!

Enough

I'm reading this great book about being, having, and doing enough. It seems in this life we never feel like we are enough to our friends and family, have enough to be happy, or accomplish enough in one day to be satisfied. I took this book to Ocean Grove this past weekend to read on the beach. The day was overcast and cool (not ideal beach weather). Yet it was enough. The salty air, the sound of the waves, my husband beside, long walks to empty my mind of thoughts, the best ice cream in NJ, and a day to just Be--it was plenty and I felt rich.
I envisioned this blog to be a chronicle of living an inspired life, not just me posting pictures of the things I create. My dream is to live a creative life, and I have to acknowledge the small ways that I am doing that now. I still dream of living that creative life on a small farm, with a small family, and a barnside studio stocked full of fabric and yarn. But if I wait until I have all of the perfect environmental factors in order to feel happy and content, I'll be waiting for the rest of my life perhaps--and missing out on the joy of today in the meantime. To me, living an inspired life means enjoying each day as much as I can, doing something that nourishes my creative spirit. I learned from Julia Cameron (The Artist's Way) to take myself on "artist dates" in order to fill the creative well. Going to the beach this weekend, despite the less than perfect weather, was just the artist date I needed to reconnect to that inner peace that had been stifled by all the DOING I have done in the last 9 months.
I have made time for myself this summer to have more nourishing days full of inspiration and relaxation. My wish list for this year had included taking classes at FIT, learning French, and going to San Juan. But instead I'll go to Cape Cod (want to stay close to home due to baby on the way...) and take a class with Julia Cameron at the Open Center (FIT had no interesting summer classes this year.) I want to save learning French with my daughter so we can both be bilingual. :) I will make "playdates" or artist dates with myself, friends, and family to enjoy my own backyard (NYC). Riverside Park is at my doorstep for daily walks, Central Park has the zoo and summer stage, there are museums everywhere, Brooklyn has the Renegade Craft Fair this weekend, there's a boat to Sandy Hook from Midtown, and I'm a short 2 hour ride from the Hudson Valley. Best of all, I carry with me all the time the greatest gift I have ever been given: a child of my own. I'd say I have more than enough.

Socks!

I'm finally going to learn to knit socks! (Trish, I know you'll be happy and you'll get my first wonky pair....) I just signed up for a 2 day class at White Barn Farm in Gardiner, NY. http://www.whitebarnsheepandwool.com/ Ironically, I discovered White Barn Farm by chance on the day I moved to the city while I was dropping off some stuff at my friend's house to store in his attic. On my way back to the thruway, I spotted the tiny sign and some green Adirondack chairs out front. I skidded to a stop (dust clouds and all), backed up, and drove down the driveway. I walked out with an armful of delicious smelling local wool yarn and a smile. I'm so looking forward to driving up for a couple of Sundays to take this class. Yay socks!

Woodland Cottages

I finally got moving on these little wool gnome homes, and now I can't stop! The little pile of tartan wool I picked up at the Sheep and Wool Festival is being transformed into woodland cottages, each one of a kind. There will be 6 in the series when I am done, and with the day off from work today, I may be done tonight! Although products for the spring are popping up on Etsy daily, I can't help but love these little winter pillows and will post them as soon as they are all finished. Hope you enjoy them too!

Goatsong book review

If I can't have a farm of my own yet, at least I can live vicariously through others who do. Lately my favorite kind of books to read are the memoirs of farmers who are stumbling through learning how to do what they do. Most have never farmed before and are transplants from some other career found to be unfulfilling. Such is the case of the author of Goatsong. Brad Kessler and his wife move to Vermont and begin their adventure in raising goats. Brad poetically catalogs his days of milking, breeding, cheesemaking, protecting his small herd, and connecting to Mother Earth. He even takes a pilgrimage to France to learn from the cheesemakers of the Pyrenees mountains firsthand. I admit, I am jealous. Thanks Brad, for allowing me to learn from your experiences and to imagine in full color what it will be like to someday do what you do.