Natural Pacifiers

Our newest addition is quite a persnickety little fella' in comparison to our first child. We've never used pacifiers, in fact, my mother never used one with me. Considering what we know about plastics today I'm extra grateful to her for choosing against one, whatever her reason was.

Uninterested in adding any further plastics to our home, let alone putting it in our childs' mouth we planned on not bothering with pacifiers again. Pacifiers are a great place to find:
- polyvinylchloride (PVC), which creates dioxins which cause neurological, reproductive, developmental, and hormonal health problems
- latex, which many babies may have allergies or hypersensitivity towards
- phthalates, also found in teethers, have been linked to numerous health problems, including cancer, endocrine disruption, development delays, and reproductive system damage

NO THANKS

You see, I am my sons current lovey and as wonderful as that is, being his natural pacifier as often as he wants me to be is very difficult. His fussiness over this matter even had my poor husband feeling like his little boy didn't even like him. The "use of a pacifier" talk was once again revisited.

Still uninterested in adding plastic to our home or our babies body I decided to search for a more natural alternative and found that my options were:
- natural rubber
- silicone
- pthalate-free PVC

I chose to go with natural rubber. The rubber is taken from a tree without causing any harm to it and is made into a totally biodegradable pacifier. On Amazon.com you can get a 2-pack of Natursutten natural rubber pacifiers for your little person for $16.50.

As much as I'm disinterested in having to break my son of the use of his "paci" down the line and fighting my daughter all the way to not steal or adopt his as her own, it looks like this is journey we'll be embarking on as a family.

Plastic Wrap Alternative - DIY Cotton Beesewax Wraps

Plastic is everywhere and it's so daunting that most people seem to decide, "What's the use?" and not bother trying. For a lot of people plastic wrap is an item receiving every day use in their household. How can you kick the habit of using something that has become so integral? By using beesewax cotton wraps.

I learned about this source post from My Healthy Green Family for todays craft while I was perusing the My Plastic Free Life Facebook fan page.

Although I can happily say that we do not use much plastic wrap in our house I can't say that we don't have a regular use for it. How can that be? I've never really bought it so there's never any in the house, but my husband tends to be a lot of leftovers in the fridge completely uncovered. By creating a plastic wrap alternative to provide a man that I sometimes have a hard time getting to put things in our recycled plastic containers I stand a better chance of not finding a bowl of baby cereal/food all dried out on the top shelf of our refrigerator.

I started off with some fabrics that this seemed like a good job for.

The directions say to pre-heat your oven to 185F, but I had to cope with 200F.

Place pre cut fabric on cookie sheet.

Sprinkle evenly and lightly with grated beeswax.  You don’t need a lot!

Place in preheated oven.  Watch carefully!  This should take 5 minutes or less.

As soon as the beeswax is just melted, remove from oven.

Spread wax evenly with paintbrush to cover over any spots that are not yet coated.

The directions say to hang on makeshift clothes line with clothes pegs, to dry. That wasn't really much of an option for me so I laid them out dry on some foil.

They ended up pretty stiff. The author says that once cooled, you can use these wraps. I felt a bit compelled to wash mine before use to see if that loosened them up a bit.

The results after washing were not positive. The wax was piecy, uneven, and cracked. I actually considered throwing what I had left away! But that would go against my feelings about needless waste. I'll have to find another use for this fail.

Wasteful (Solution) Wednesday - Felted Dryer Balls

Recently I was fortunate enough to get my husband to do some cleaning in preparation for the new baby. While he was cleaning in the laundry ball he found a spiky plastic dryer ball - he thought it was a dog toy. Plastic dryer balls may be a slight solution to the reusable problem that disposable dryer sheets and dryer bars create but it wasn't one I felt was really ideal.

This plastic dryer ball seemed like a good example of another plastic my life could really do without so I chose to make some felted dryer balls. Most online tutorials specifically mention the use of 100% wool for the reason that it felts. But there are other fibers that also felt.

Felted dryer balls:
Absorb moisture
Decrease wrinkles
Are safe for people with sensitive skin
Work as a natural fabric softener
Can be used with cloth diapers
Reduce static cling in your clothes
Rotate your clothes, providing better air circulation and cutting down on your total drying time
- making these an energy efficient, green product.

For years now I've had a flower vase that I have been filling with scraps of yarn that aren't really big enough to knit with so I decided to begin there.

I also had a milk crate full of yarns that are tangled and have taken on quite a bit of the dust that inhabits my MIL's house. They have been in that crate unused and untouched for years. Untangling he and cleaning these yarns wasn't really an option.

Making a ball of yarn is super simple. Begin by wrapping it around two or three fingers a good number of times. Enough times that you have a good base.

Remove the yarn from your fingers and wrap the yarn around your bundle the opposite direction.

Then just continue turning the ball and wrapping your yarn until you have a ball about twice the size of what you hope your ball will eventually be.

Some people choose to scent their dryer balls, I didn't because I didn't have any lavender oil yet. I also had plans to test these out like reusable dryer sheets and see how they work in that fashion.

I had a wide variety of fibers that I used to make my dryer balls (angora, baby alpaca, wool). Yarn brands like Noro, Manos Del Uruguay, Malabrigo, and Lamb's Pride were used. 

Place the balls into a pair of nylon panty hose,

 making sure to place a knot between balls.

Take your pantyhose and put them into a pillowcase

 and tie the pillowcase shut.

Place your pillowcase or pillowcases into the washing machine.

As I mentioned some of this yarn had a bit of dust left from being kicked up on the dirt road in front of my mother-in-law's house. So I opted to do my first wash with some of my homemade, chemical-free, laundry detergent.

I didn't want to COMPLETELY waste energy so I threw in some UnPaper towels that needed to be cleaned with them.

Set your washing machine to your hottest setting with the most possible agitation. Mine is set to hot, second rinse

 and heavy duty.

For their second trip through the washer I washed everything on the same settings and added some towels that needed to be cleaned.

For the third trip through I allowed them to be washed on their own.

The amount of efficiency these will increase your dryer by varies from dryer to dryer. Generally dryer balls help cut drying time by 30 - 50%.

Store your finished dryer balls in a well-ventilated location. Inside plastic would not only take away from the intention of reducing the plastic in your life and home but not provide enough ventilation for your dryer balls.

Home-Made Tortillas

I've been trying to cut costs and be as reasonably chemical-free and self-sustaining as possible; and I have to tell you, cutting out all those conveniences has left me with even more work than I had before. Recently I made home-made flour tortillas. Not that tortillas are infinitely expensive but every penny saved helps. This is also one more way that we can cut excess plastics from our lives. Besides, have you ever looked at just how much sodium some companies tortillas companies contain!?

Most tortilla recipes you find online call for lard or shortening and we don't tend to keep either of those around. With a a few minutes more of online searching you can turn up a recipe that doesn't call for either.

This recipe took me about 30 minutes to make from start to finish.

The results were satisfying but noticeably different from  their store bought counter-parts. My husband said he prefers these to the store bought.

I will definitely try the recipe again and in the future see if I can roll my tortillas even thinner than I did on my maiden try.