Homemade Deodorant - Oh Yes I Did

I've been inside all day with a horrible sore throat and nasty cough - no bueno. Poor Copain didn't sleep at all last night, because I was up every five minutes pouring honey down my throat. Note to self: keep throat lozenges in the house at all times.

In any case, this morning he was a papa poule (a "father hen"), as they say here in France, and got me meds, made me tea and covered me up with a quilt on the taupe couch. We watched some TV, had some soup for lunch and then, when I realized that I had basically been horizontal for the past 15 hours, I decided that it was time to actually do something.

I got dressed (boo), walked up the street to my local organic market, BioCoop, and bought everything that this blogger told me I needed to make my very own deodorant. Why on Earth would she do that, is what you are probably thinking to yourself. Well, I had used a bit of Copain's deo that morning and had my annual revelation that I should really stop using anti-perspirant. 

This happens to me every so often, like when I decided to go shampoo-free, or 'poo free as the hippies call it, using just baking soda and apple cider vinegar to wash my hair.  Copain just about had a mini flip out about that one. 

But I digress...back to BioCoop...

I gathered all of the necessary, organic supplies, but got coconut oil instead of cocoa butter (they didn't have any at that store). Once back home, I sterilized my tools, melted the butters, added my baking soda and arrowroot, threw in some vitamin E, lavender and clove essential oils and 10 minutes later, BOOM! Homemade, totally organic deodorant!

All of my ingredients, plus my little pot of deo, down right.

It's sitting in the fridge right now and I'll be testing it out tomorrow. I'm admittedly a bit cynical - I've tried it all in terms of natural deodorants...but I have high hopes for this homemade one. Plus, it's always more fun to try stuff you've made yourself, right? Apparently, this one will go on like a cream and I'll smell like a daisy (or a lavender bush) all the live long day. Ca à l'air pas mal n'est pas?

Je vous tiendrai au courant! (I'll keep you posted!) Worst case scenario, I'll just have really moisturized armpits right? 

Want to test it out with me? Here is the recipe I used:

- 3 tablespoons of shea butter (beurre de karité)

- 2 tablespoons of coconut oil (huile de coco) or cocoa butter (beurre de cacao)

- 3 tablespoons of baking soda (bicarbonate de soude)

- 2 tablespoons of arrowroot (arrowroot) or cornstarch (maizena)

- 2 vitamin E capsules (you squeeze the oil into the mixture)

- 5 drops of lavender essential oil (lavande fine)

- 1 drop of clove essential oil (clous de girofle)

Note: you can use whatever essential oils you like. Many websites recommend tea tree oil for its anti-bacterial properties. I unfortunately didn't have any. 

Sterilize all tools, including the jar that you will use for the final product. I placed a glass cup in a pot of  boiling water, added the butters, baking soda and arrowroot, then mixed it with a wooden stick until it was smooth. Once I took the glass out of the water, I added the vitamin E and essential oils, then gave it a final stir. Finally, I poured the mixture into my specially purchased container and popped it in the fridge to harden. Voila! This took me a total of 15 minutes, tops!

Has anyone ever tried this before? Am I a total weirdo? Wait - don't answer that.

Bunny Cupcakes, and my Big (not going to happen) Hopes for Easter

Remember my candy troubles on Easter last year?

Well this year, I was determined to make it a better holiday - a holiday full of parks and joy and sunshine. Copain and I planned to go to Deauville (the Cannes of the North), and enjoy being on a beach, eating on terraces and taking photos of the adorable houses at the station balnéaire.

Then we saw this:

A weekend away to a cold and rainy destination - ummm, I'm good.  And so stuck in Paris we are...

After stressing over alternative destinations that all seemed to require a car (crap!), I thought, come on Cannes Cannes, chin up, think lovely thoughts just like Peter Pan said and make Easter fun anyways! And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how I came up with Bunny Cupcakes:

Just humor me and tell me that they look like bunnies.

Yeah, we ate them on the couch while watching Kohlanta last night (the Frenchie version of Survivor), so it wasn't exactly the parks and joy and sunshine that I had imagined, but it was all I could muster up. Easter just isn't the same when you are over the age of 8, and it's totally bumming me out.  I could definitely use some children for rent - just for the day- to re-live all of my childhood Easter memories. Waking up to Easter baskets, egg hunts, Easter hats and dresses, finding the special egg with money inside that my Uncles left, and then changing into bathings suits and swimming at my Aunt's house like all little Californian kids did....

Paris, you are letting me down!

I guess I never learn...

Cannes Cannes' Creations - Muffins with Coconut Oil

I wanted to give you a coconut oil update! I just tried making muffins, and while I was a little concerned at first (can I microwave coconut oil to soften it?!), they turned out great!

Check it out:

It was really an improv recipe - some coconut oil, brown sugar, vanilla, salt, baking soda, 1 egg and some milk for the base; then I added raisins, softened pears, cinnamon, oats, flour and corn flour. Since I eat these for breakfast, I added various seeds on top for a little more va-va-voom to my morning (flax seed, sunflower seeds). Voila! I baked them until they looked done and then promptly taste-tested one.

FCC says: trop bon! They were fluffier than my normal muffins that I usually make with butter, but the taste was richer somehow.  I'm so happy that my coconut oil adventure worked! Merci Alt-Mama!

Cannes Cannes' Creations - Rock A Bye Baby

Behold! The completed baby blanket that I started all the way back in November!  Funny story about this baby blanket...I was so busy before leaving for vacation that I decided that I would just work really hard on it during the 12 hour flight. This became even more necessary when my Copine called to tell me that she was going to be induced on Friday morning. I was flying out on Saturday and the blanket wasn't even half-finished! Yes, I would work on it during the flight and I'd be almost done by the time our Airbus landed at LAX. What I didn't think about was the fact that a crochet needle could be used as a weapon on a plane. You know, because they are so much pointier than pens...

Cannes Cannes' Creations - Holiday Cards

I've come to learn that the Christmas or Holiday card to the American is the New Years card to the French. Americans send holiday cards in December, the French send them in January. So I guess this means I will always be ahead of the game in my adopted country.  

As much as I'd like to take a chill pill and just not send holiday cards (finding the card, buying the stamps, writing the cards, addressing them, going to the post office!) - I just can't. I love sending a card to the important people in my life each year. Even if we don't catch up much, even if I only see them at family events.  It's a touchstone in the whirlwind that is each year.  

This year, I decided that on top of all of the other stress in my life, I wanted to make a holiday card. At first I was going to go the easy route and design a photo that I would just have printed by Snapfish or Kodak Gallery (note to self: you are an idiot for not doing this!).  But then, I just couldn't get it together to actually upload my design and order it.  Here was one of my ideas:

Cannes Cannes' Creations - Crocheting for Baby Update

I'm still chugging along with my baby blanket - my copine is due in just 7 days!!   I'm not nearly as far along as I would like to be, but I figure I have a 10 hour flight to work on it as well...

My old granny crocheting bag...ps - I just discovered the store COS (I'm in love).

Cannes Cannes' Creations - Crocheting for Baby

I've told you about my lifelong copine who is pregnant with her first baby. She and her mari recently came to visit us in Paris and we had a great time running around in the rain and eating lots of amazing French food.  It was so fun to show them where I've been living and what our lives are like way over here in France.  

Now, I'm gearing up for my trip home for Christmas and guess what - she is due the day before I land! The timing couldn't be better, especially for someone like me, who generally misses the big family "life events" since I'm so far away.  This copine is my first close American childhood friend to have a baby.  So exciting!  Since I missed the baby shower, I'm planning on showering her with gifts over Christmas and I already have one gift in the works...(don't worry, she doesn't even have Facebook, I doubt she's reading the blog!).  I decided that I wanted to make her a baby blanket.  Here is the tricky part - my friend is the pickiest person on the face of the planet.  She is a self-declared picky person, so she won't mind that I'm telling you.  The woman knows what she likes and that is that. 

She is very set on "keeping with the color palette" of the baby's room - a room that includes only one pink thing. One. pink. thing.  So, I dared not make a pink blanket - she hates the color pink.  Instead, I went on the hunt for yarn in  grays and blues to match the bed set she purchased at Dwell Studio. After a bit of Googling, I found a place that sells yarn at great prices (since I didn't know how many skeins I'd need and I also didn't know if I'd get it right the first time, I wanted to get something affordable but good quality and soft for baby).

I went to Cat'laine, 19 rue Saint Marc, 75002 Paris, metro Bourse or Richelieu Drouot.  Let me tell you, it was THE place to be on Saturday - the place was packed! They had lots of fun colors and textures to choose from, but I went with something simple - gray and this light blue/turquoise that also has little flecks of gray weaved throughout. 

My pelotes de laine from Cat'laine

I hadn't crocheted in a really long time, so I searched for a little "how to" guide on Youtube - wealth of knowledge I tell you! I got started with this video (thank you Knit Witch!) and then I learned how to do the basket weave pattern using this video (Thanks All Free Crochet!) - not bad if I do say so myself:

I think I'm going to do a stripe of gray and then a stripe of blue, but who knows, I claim artistic license :-)  I'll keep you posted as I move along in my blanket creation. I've already messed up a bit - I made my initial crochet chain too long and now this baby blanket is going to be more like a toddler blanket. But hey, I guess that just means that she'll get more use out of it!

Crocheting baby blankets - it's a dying art, don't you think? I'm bringin' it back!