It’s a crazy week, so instead of sharing some of my recipes, I’m going to share some of my favorite recipe links. Now, here’s the deal. I don’t always find organic body care recipe links. Do I make the item organic – why yes, and you can too. Almost any homemade beauty care recipe can be converted to organic easily. Also, if an item in a recipe doesn’t suit me, I’ll change it up.
Don’t forget to read Homemade Beauty Products – Safety 101 before you get started.
My fave links:
Channel your inner princess with homemade body glitter: I don’t …read more

Honey is awesome for most skin types. It leaves your skin feeling really clean, it can firm, its natural antibacterial properties make it great for blemishes, and as a bonus your skin smells great, very honey sweet, and the scent lingers.
Here are a few plain old honey skin applications. If you’re using it on your skin, I’d use organic.
Plain honey for the honey pat or tap: Pour a little honey into a cup, use your fingers to scoop honey onto your face. Tap your fingers all over your face until the honey stops dripping and becomes tacky (it will …read more

These are fresh face scrubs – meaning you make it, you use it or lose it. I suppose you could refrigerate for a bit, but not more than a day or so.
Both of these work on all skin types except ultra sensitive. If you have very sensitive skin you can omit part of the scrubby ingredients (i.e. almonds or bran) but try a little on your arm before using.
Almond, Apricot, & Honey Face Scrub
You need:

1/2 organic apricot at room temperature
1/4 cup ground almonds
1/2 tablespoon Honey
Optional – a teaspoon of dried lavender

To make:
Put everything in a blender and blend …read more

The other day my best friend and I took our kids to this cool garden area in Washington. There are different gardens – like English, herb, veggie, and more, plus a couple of ponds, a forest, fields, bees, greenhouses, and more. The kids had a great time. Actually we’ve been there before and Cedar always has fun.
In other news, I got a new camera, so now I can take pictures of our little outings – of course, not well. A photographer I’m not. My best friend is, so maybe she should have been the one taking pictures. Sadly her camera …read more

Some recipes for homemade creams and lotions are really complicated. This one below has a lot of steps, but is relatively easy in comparison to most.
Any herb face and body cream:
Pick a herb. You can use most any herb, but I suggest choosing one that’s good for your particular skin type. You can use elderflower, calendula, linden blossom, and more. If you’d like to make a cream for children I suggest comfrey or chamomile, which are gentle.

Gather supplies:

4oz fresh organic herb of your choice (or 2oz dried) – fresh is best
150 ml almond oil, or if olive oil …read more

It seems like people would like more homemade beauty product posts around Tree Hugging Family, which is fine by me. I love homemade beauty products. However, it does concern me a little to post more homemade products without first discussing some basic safety.
I’ve written this basic safety sheet that you can follow regarding the safety of homemade beauty products; products either with or without therapeutic benefits. If you’re going to make your own homemade beauty products, please make sure to read this all the way through. From now on, this important post, will be posted in the sidebar pages to …read more

Many of us are welcoming spring today, so I thought it would be nice to go over some nature loving, tree hugging, eco-friendly ideas that will carry the entire family through the better part of spring and into summer.
1. Quit looking at nature through your frosty windows. It’s warming up, so get out there and enjoy nature in real time, in real life, in full blown color.
2. Throw open your windows wide and let in the fresh air. Natural ventilation is actually a really effective green home goal to aim for. Proper cross ventilation naturally helps to remove any indoor …read more

Journey North is a year-long, free event for youth (or anyone really – but it’s kid-based). Much of the fun kicks off around each February and lasts through May.
Journey North allows kids to participate in a huge “Global study of wildlife migration and seasonal change.” It’s set up so that K-12 students can share their personal field observations with other students across North America.
However, anyone can participate; you don’t have to be a kid in school.
How it works is kids track spring coming by observing the migration patterns of animals, watching for plants starting to sprout, looking for sunlight changes, …read more

Not wildflowers the flowers (although those make a lovely gift) but Wildflower Organics the boutique. Wildflower Organics is a beautiful shop with seriously tantalizing organic, hemp, and other natural goodies for your home and family. They claim at their site to be having a grand opening online store sale. That’s a little odd since they aren’t entirely new. However, it can save you 20% on selected items.
They have higher priced goods that would make great heirloom gifts for a new baby such as amazingly simple yet gorgeous hemp/organic cotton wall prints. My personal favorite is this little turtle:

They also have …read more

Today is my birthday! How exciting. Actually, I’m not that excited but if I could pick my perfect cake it just might be this veggies from the earth loving cake…

There are lots of ways to plan an eco-friendly birthday but today it’s all about cake design. If I decide I should work on my birthday I may be back with tips; if not look for those tomorrow.
If you’re planning an eco-friendly birthday you might as well go all the way and even make it a theme party. Here are some amazing cake ideas that can help.

You have to visit …read more