New Shower Curtain Liner, Oh Joy!

I have been researching shower curtain liners for quite awhile now. It has been a mini obsession, one that I find has taken too much thought. PVC is the standard material for vinyl shower curtain liners, and it is one of the worst common household toxins, which becomes evident the minute that you take one out of the package. As a pregnant mom with a small child, both of whom spend a lot of time in the bathtub, I have been looking for an alternative. I would love to have a hemp shower curtain, which I am mostly finding available from sites in the states, although as usual, if I want to pay more I can get one in Canada. They seem to run about $45US. However, I like my cloth shower curtain. So, I need a liner. Nylon, polyester, EVA... Found a nylon one at the local Bay, but it is still $30. With many guests visiting our home this month, and the smell of the old liner starting to get to me, I finally read somewhere that Ikea has not used PVC in their liners for over 10 years. We happened to be in Calgary the other day to take my in laws to the airport. We swung into Ikea, and for $1.99 CAD I purchased a PEVA "Nackten" clear shower curtain liner. I took it out of the package today, in the garage so it could do some off-gassing outside of my home, and I must say it doesn't smell. This is a good sign... I am still not totally keen on a plastic liner that will end up in a landfill at some point, even if I am good about cleaning it, but for the price and the time being, this is a solution I am happy with. If I decided to go with something in the future I will post about it here. And if you have found something that works great for you, while also being good for your home, wallet, and the environment, I would love your comments...

Handmade Vitamin E Face Scrub

Today I got around to making myself some new face scrub. I have been wanting to make the Vitamin E face scrub in the Big Ass Book of Crafts by Mark Montano. It is an AMAZING book that I blogged about here.

Making personal care products is super easy. And they are so much better for you than a lot of toxic items you can buy. I have started to make a lot of the products I use. And they make great gifts!

Vitamin E Face Scrub
by Mark Montano

What You Will Need:
~ 1 cup finely granulated salt (I buy sea salt in bulk at my local health food store and it is really cheap)
~ 15 drops vitamin E oil
~ 2 teaspoons olive oil
~ 1/4 bar unused glycerin facial soap (or your regular facial soap)
~ Large mixing bowl
~ Cheese grater
~ Moisture-proof container

1) Grate the bar of soap using the smallest holes on the cheese grater. Don't worry if the glycerin soap sticks together. When you start to mix it with the other ingredients it will come apart.
2) Pour your salt, vitamin E, and olive oil in the bowl and mix well.
3) Add grated soap and mix throughly.
4) Pour the mixture into your container.


I tried this tonight and its great. My skin is smooth from the exfoliation of the salt, and the oils are moisturizing. I won't use this everyday, especially since I live in a pretty dry culture. I will use it once every few days.

No More Teflon

I recently blogged about Ten Toxins here. At the top of the list is Teflon pans, something I have known for a long time but have not had a chance to tackle in our household until recently. Today, I bought a new pan at a local department store. I had seen it online and was curious, and was surprised to see it in this very mainstream chain store. It is a GreenPan. It is made of Black Forged Aluminium which is "designed for high performance and convenience". I think this is meant for people like me who can't quite get the hang of healthy but less-than-non-stick cast iron (I will be blogging about my cast iron pan soon...). While I like cast iron, and I plan to buy more in different sizes, I wanted to give this pan a shot. The store only carried the 8" pan, for some strange reason, but I did need to replace my 8" Teflon pan so I went for it. The normal selling price was $39.99 (Canadian) and it rang up $29.99, which is a decent sale price. The pan is made from a Thermolon non-stick coating which is free of PTFE, (Polytetrafluoroethylene,the chemical name for Teflon trademarked material) is heat resistent to 450C/850F (sheesh, that's mighty hot!!), and it doesn't release toxic fumes like Teflon can. It is manufactured PFOA-free (perfluorooctanoic acid which is in Teflon). The Thermolon coating is not supposed to break down over time or wear out over time.

I am excited to use my new pan, and will be sure to pass along my findings once I do. If all goes well, I may buy one more 12" one, to replace my current crepe making pan...

Natural Silver Polish

Wow, I am THRILLED this worked! I bought two real silver vintage dessert forks at the thrift store for a mixed media piece I am working on. They were tarnished and I wanted to polish them. I wanted to do it gently so the silver glowed more than shined. I have a bottle of Tarnex, which I am not really sure why I bought it. It was expensive and it is a dangerous chemical. I looked up a natural way to polish silver. I took an aluminum cup that I found years ago, which is holding pens, and filled it with warm water and a couple tablespoons of salt. I put the silverware in it and left it for about a half an hour. When I came back, I rinsed it off and buffed it with a dish towel. It looks beautiful! And no elbow grease. I am going to return the nasty tarnex!