Geggie's Page

I arrived in Dallas yesterday after a non-eventful flight and a short shuttle ride to the Rental Car Center.

I cheerfully approach the empty rental car counter and notice one clerk staring into space. She's behind the "Rewards Line" sign, meaning that people who are members of their reward program get served first. I am not a member, but there is no one in line and she's the only employee and she's not doing anything.

Me: "Hi, how are you? I'm here to pick up a reservation."
Her: Rolls her eyes, looks over at the "Rewards Only" sign. Then looks over at another clerk who is sitting down behind the counter texting in his cell phone (who I can't see!) and says, "Bob, help her."
Me: Her? Really? Look at her with a little surprise.
Her: "Are you a rewards member?"
Me: "No, but you appeared to be the only one behind the counter and there was no one else in line."
Her: "Yeah, well, I can only help you if you're a rewards member."

My head wanted to spin around and pop off. So rude. What has happened to customer service. All too often I am so much more polite and gracious to a service person and really, should it be a realtionship of equality? You're nice to me, I'm nice to you.

At which point, Bob comes to help me and he's very nice. He learns that I work for a company that has a great product and asks, "Do you have any samples?"

Sadly, I don't as I didn't check luggage and I don't carry product in my one quart ziploc bag. That's when ol' Happy at the other end of the counter sidles up and says, "Oooh, samples?" Sorry, no soup for you, Grumpy Butt. I did manage to find one little sample at the bottom of my bag for Bob. He was so happy! Boggles my mind, really. That's what being a grump will get you...nothin'.

I could have titled this "Homemade Beauty" or something silly like that, but let's just call it what it is...I'm thrifty. And, I'm trying not to put too many deadly chemicals in my body.

This little experiment started when I had a layover in the Philadelphia airport last week. I wandered into the Body Shop. I'm not really a fan of the Body Shop, but I was killing time. I always walk out of there with a horrible headache, oh, the smells in that place!

Anyway, they were having a special on body scrubs and I need one. The special was buy one get one half off. Seemed like a good deal, until I saw that they're $20! That's 2 for $30 and they're only 5 or 6 ounces each. Yikes! I read the ingredients and wow, it's full of junk like parabens and other ingredients.

Now, you may know that I work in the personal care industry, so I kinda have an idea what I'm doing. I decided to just make my own. I did so this morning in about five minutes and for probably under three dollars.

Body Scrub
Table salt
Olive oil
Canola oil
Essential oil of your choice

That's it folks.

Grab a container with a lid. I used an old glass jar that I think may have started its life as a vessel for bean dip. Perfect to scoop your hand into. I made two batches.

Poor plain old table salt about 3/4 of the way. Add a combination of olive oil and canola oil to make a paste. You don't want it too soupy, but not too dry either. I like it just wet enough that the salt is saturated and the oil floats to the top a little. You'll need to mix it up before each use.

Then you can add the essential oils of your choice. The two I made this morning were Almond and Vanilla/Orange. For the almond, it's just straight almond extract, about 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon for the 6 oz jar. For the vanilla/orange, it was 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract and 3-4 drops of sweet orange essential oil. Yum!

Other options could be lemon or peppermint for energy, lavender or rose for relaxation, or any other flavors your like.

You can substitute the salt for leftover coffee grounds too and get a coffee scrub. I think that would be great with vanilla.

Or you can do sugar or brown sugar. I think that table salt is best as bigger salt would be too harsh, at least for me.

Scrub a dub dub, my friends.

Well, you'll have to do more than just make the recipe.

When I moved, I made the decision to try to make all of my household cleansing products. Surprisingly, it's been very easy and very cost efficient. Dr. Bronner's soap, baking soda and vinegar are my new buddies. There's not much these can't clean.

My all purpose cleanser is in a quart spray bottle. It's 1/4 cup baking soda, 1 tablespoon of Dr. Bronner's peppermint soap and fill the rest with water. Great for countertops and other lil' messes.

For the bathtub and toilet, it's straight baking soda with a few drops of soap to make a paste and away you go. I add some vinegar to the toilet when I'm done and let it sit, swish it and then flush it.

For laundry and the dishwasher, I was just going to use my reliable Bio-Kleen products that I've been really happy with. Well, today I ran out of laundry detergent, so I decided to make my own powder.

Here it is:
1 cup of grated soap (use your favorite, I used a peppermint/rosemary glycerin bar)
1/2 cup of washing soda
1/2 cup of borax

I grated the soap on the small side of my grater, then I combined everything in the blender to get it to a really fine powder.

Here's the kicker....use only ONE TABLESPOON of powder for a load. Yep, just ONE. I've done two loads of laundry today with great success.

Buying the borax and washing soda cost $4 each, but at $8 buck, I bet I have enough to make laundry soap for the whole year!!! Seriously.

Not only have I saved a ton of cash, I'm using ingredients that are more sustainable than traditional laundry detergent and other cleaning supplies. No phosphates, chlorine or other nasty things to worry about.

My camera is dead, so no pics. I'll try to take one with my phone.

Oh, these are so good.

3-4 bananas mashed
1/3 cup melted butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
a good handful of chocolate chips

I freeze my bananas when they start to turn too brown. I just toss them in the freezer in their skins. Take them out of the freezer and give them and hour or two to thaw. Just cut the end off and squeeze the banana and all the juice out. It will be alot of juice and you'll think it's too much. It's not.

Mash the bananas and the melted butter together. Add the sugar and vanilla and mix well. Add the beaten egg. Sprinkle the salt and soda in. Last, add the flour and mix. Don't over mix!

Add the chocolate chips. I prefer the mini chips, but I didn't have them this time.

You can make this as a loaf of muffins. Butter or spray your tin. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes for muffins or 45 minutes for a loaf. Makes 12 muffins or 1 loaf.

Yum! Bananalicious!