C'mon Baby, Light My Fire!!

What to do? What to do? Every other day I have a stand off with the lovely, hairy, appetizing lint that comes from my dryer. It says,

"Throw me away. We both know where this is headed."

And I say,

"But I don't want to. You're mine. You're part of my clothes, my dogs, my dirt. I made you for goodness' sake! Can't I use and abuse you in some fashion?!?"

Yes. Yes I can. And so I will.

Dryer lint, sewing scraps, shredded paper for the love!! You can use it all to make your own firestarters!! It's a wonderful idea I tell you, and the ones we just made burned. They burned hot, and for a very, very long time. Excellent.

So here are the steps:

You will need:

Some form of flammable something (dryer lint, bellybutton lint - gross - or sewing scraps - best to use something that will catch easily and burn hot. Flannel seems to work really well)

Egg cartons (We used the kind with a flip top, but if you have the large, open-top flats, they'll work juuuuuust fine)

Paraffin (Paraffin is kerosene in it's solid form - it's the most common type of wax used for candles, lamps, etc. You can buy it online, or at places like Glory Bee Foods - they have a retail location in Eugene and if you've never been there, the trip is a must. Also, if you've got old crayons laying around the house, they're made of paraffin. Use them! Melt those bad boys down and make them work for you!)

Step #1: Gather your material -

Our material came from two places...

The dryer vent... (made up of yummy hair from the girls, and particles from our clothes)

And the wipes project I just finished...

Step #2: Place your material into egg cartons

Step #3: Melt the paraffin - Use crayons or commercial wax (a Number 10 can IN A DOUBLE BOILER on the stove works great for this! Be careful to sink the No. 10 can in water to melt the wax because if you put it on the stove directly it can catch fire. Not good.
)

Step #4: Pour the melted paraffin onto the material in each hole of the egg carton.

(IMPORTANT NOTE: Put parchment paper or some other leak-proof paper under your cartons. They will leak. Oh and don't pour so fast that the paraffin sloshes out of the container and onto your stove and floor. You'll be scraping paraffin for years. Just ask my mom.)

Step #5: Let them dry and voila! It's a fire starter!

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When you need to start a fire, you break a little section off (this is another reason to use egg cartons) and light it on fire! Mom said when she put a match to one after it had dried, it went up beautifully, burned really hot, and stayed burning for over 5 minutes. That's pretty dang good.

Waste Not the Wipes!!

I have been extremely intrigued by a great many things lately... having a baby is an eye-opening experience of the best kind.

Countless topics have been discussed in our home over the course of the past few months, and bless D's heart, he has been right there with me, always supportive, going over pros and cons, always willing to be the other half (the sane half, really) of my "Oh I just read something else that turns my world upside down" conversations. Bless. His. Heart.

I will be posting several blogs over the course of the next few months (years) about eco-friendly kid raising. Yes, this farming, dirt loving, surely conservative woman just said the words (hyphenated word rather) "eco-friendly" and I plan on saying much more on that topic. The main idea is that I would like to protect my children. All of them. Even the girls. : ) As parents-to-be, we worry about some of the same things our grandparents worried about when they were raising their brood. However, we worry about much different things too. Things that, until late, have not reared their ugly heads for parents to worry about. We plan on doing all we can to give the Cherry Clan the kind of wholesome, homegrown, dirt-streaked life we enjoyed and love still.

Project #1: Reusable Wipes!!

I like to save money. "Like" may be the wrong word here... ummmm... I'm so cheap I squeak.

There I said it.

I'm also somewhat of a naturalist. A homesteader. A home-loving housewife.

All of the above.

Back to the wipes...

I first read this recipe on Progressive Pioneer, a wholly inspiring blog written by Amy Thompson. The woman has a soul of gold, to say the least. She shares great ideas for making the most out of raising your children, easy do-it-yourself projects, and if I start now I'll be here all day explaining the benefits of following her blog... so just do it. However, I will give the same disclaimer for her site as I did for the other... I am not responsible for the addiction that ensues after visiting her world. ; ) You can find her baby wipe recipe, among other great articles here.

Reusable Baby Wipes
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What you'll need:

For the wipes -
flannel squares (to fit whatever container you'll keep the wipes in)
a serger (the other day I called my mom's a surge protector and I thought she was going to pee her pants)
a sewing machine (if you have one of the nicer four-spool sergers you won't need the sewing machine)

For the solution -
3 cups warm water
2 T olive oil
3 drops essential oil (mint, lemon, lavender, you pick!)
2 drops tea tree oil
2 T natural baby wash (preferably the no-suds kind... I'll tell you why later. Ugh.)



Step #1: Wash the fabric. You'll always want to wash fabric before you start working with it - especially flannel which can shrink up to 3" in the first wash. Dry on low heat, and you're ready to start cutting!!

Step #2: Cut your flannel into squares/rectangles that will fit into the container you're going to be storing them in. I used a BPA-free plastic container with a flip top lid. NOTE: you will want to cut the pieces about 1/8 of an inch larger (on all sides) than you actually want. The serger will take off about that much from each side. NOTE#2: The wonderful thing about flannel is that, if you start a cut at one end, the fabric will rip easily and give you a nice, quick, straight edge. Excellent!

The golf pattern - my dad would be so proud.


Is this not the CUTEST fabric for a builder's family? I'm in love.

Step #3: Double up the fabric. The flannel I purchased had a print on one side and not the other. The material is also softer on the printed side than the non. Because of that, I serge two pieces of fabric together - printed sides facing out obviously.

Step #4: Serge all four edges of the fabric pieces. Trim the tails.

Come back soon to see what I do with these scraps!! It's so exciting!!

Step #5: Because I was using a 3-spool serger, I ran a straight stitch down each edge (in the middle of the serge) just to insure that these bad boys would not come undone. Ever. If you've got a 4-spool serger you won't have to worry about this step. If you do add a straight stitch, just trim all excess thread from the wipes, and fold them so they're ready for solution!

Step #6: Make the "wet" part of the wipes...

Put all ingredients in the blender. NOTE: This is the reason you want a baby wash that doesn't create bubbles... I had a lovely explosion in my kitchen last night because I thought I could ignore Amy's advice on that.

Curiosity killed the cat.

And foamed the kitchen.

Step #7: Add your liquid to your wipes. I just put half the wipes in (I can fit 12 in each container I bought), added the liquid, squish squish squished, added more wipes, more liquid, etc until they reach desired liquidiness. Yes. Liquidiness.

What's amazing about flannel is that it holds liquid VERY well, but doesn't drip. Perfect.

Congratulations! You have reusable wipes!!

In the past 24 hours I have used mine to wipe a butt, wipe a counter, clean a picture frame, dust a piece of wood furniture, clean a dirty face, and polish glass.

Yes. I used clean ones for some *ahem* tasks.

Happy wiping!!