Winter Storm Nika moved through last night and early this morning leaving us about 6 – 7 inches of snow. This required another snow shoveling work-out and after my work-out I decided it was a good day to enhance some of my homesteading skills.
Since I was down to just enough laundry soap for maybe two more loads of laundry, making laundry soap was my first order of business. I’m now set for the next few months with 6 jars ready to go to work.
My next challenge was making some body butter. Now I say this is a challenge because my past attempts haven’t turned out the way I had hoped, but I just can’t give up so I tried again.
First I measured out 1/2 c each of Shea Butter, Cocoa Butter and Coconut Oil. I put them in the top of a double broiler and melted them down to a liquid form. I put it aside to let it cool and once the pan was cool, I put it in the fridge for about 15 minutes to cool off a bit more.
After it began to thicken along the edges, I stirred in 1/2 c extra-virgin olive oil, 1 t Vitamin E oil, and several drops of lavender and orange bitter essential oils. (Sorry, but I didn’t count the number of drops. I went strictly by scent and quit when it smelled good.)
I mixed in the oils and put the pan back into the fridge until everything began to thicken (about 20 – 30 minutes).
Now it was time to mix.
The moment of truth . . . . . . . .
And success!!!!!
Creamy!
Buttery!
And it smells scrumptious!!!
It seems the problem with my previous attempts was not allowing the oils to cool off and thicken. Which didn’t give me the consistency I desired. I’m so glad I didn’t give up. Of course now I’m anxious to try some new blends, so stay tuned for Debbie’s delightful body butter combos.
And I must point out that I love my canning jars. They have an amazing multitude of uses.
My last homestead adventure for the day is something I’ve been doing for many, many, many years. It was something the girls have been asking to do for several weeks, so we got out everything we needed and created these.
The girls got snowflake cookie cutters in their Kiwi Crates at Christmas and have been wanting to use them and use them we did.
Overall, nice day on the ranch . . . I mean farm . . . I mean a nice day at home.
worldofweeks 
questions about the body butter. 1. does it have a scent if you don’t put the essential oils in it? the kids daycare teacher is allergic to scents and she can’t breathe if we put the lotion that we use in Izzy’s hair. I have been looking for unscented moisturizers but so far I have only found one and the shipping cost more than the lotion. 2. Can this be used on hair?
Shea butter and cocoa butter have a very light, natural scent, with the cocoa butter having a stronger scent then the Shea butter. Of course Shea butter is a commonly used ingredient in moisturizers and I’m guessing their teacher wouldn’t have a problem with it. If you’re concerned about the scent of the cocoa butter you could skip that and increase the amount of coconut oil. I use only organic all-natural butters and they really do have very little scent to them.
And it won’t hurt to try it in Izzy’s hair to see how you like it. I put some on Naomi’s hair and it’s fine.
also can you email me your laundry detergent recipe please?
Will do.