Chemical free DIY rosemary and lemon kitchen cleaner.

I’m slowly moving us away from harsh chemical cleaners etc in the home. The more you look at the ingredients in a lot of store bought products the less you want to subject yourself and your children to the toxic mix that most of them have! I’ve been buying more natural ones but realised that it is very easy and much cheaper to make your own. There are recipes all over the net for everything you could possibly want to make

This recipe is soooo easy if you have rosemary growing in your garden like I do.

Ingredients:

10 springs of rosemary

The outside of lemon (I just roughly chop off the skin – some recipes I read say not to leave any of the flesh but I’ve not had an issue)

White vinegar

A big jar

Instructions:

I hope you can cope with this people! Put the rosemary and lemon in the jar and fill about 2/3 with white vinegar and leave to sit for a minimum of 3 days and up to a couple of weeks. That is it pretty much!

This is what it will look like after about 2 weeks:

imag5042.jpgDrain out the liquid into a bowl – isn’t the colour amazing!? I couldn’t believe how yellow it went the first time I made this – is is from all the natural oils in the lemon I think (although I guess the rosemary probably gives some of the colour too)

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I then used a cloth to strain it back into the jar – there were a few little floaties and I was worried they’d clog the spray bottle if I left them in:

imag5044.jpgI then filled my spray bottle with just over 1/2 of the mixture and topped it up with water – job done – and in good time – my stove was desperate for a spray!

imag5045.jpgWhite vinegar is amazing stuff, it is naturally anti bacterial and degreasing. Lemon and rosemary add to the antibacterial properties of this cleaner as well as making it smell yummy. This is totally safe to use in the kitchen on cooking surfaces and if you have a toddler who likes to grab on run off with things (or is that just me!?) you don’t need to worry that he will come to any harm spraying this around!

If you have been thinking about trying some natural cleaners then this is a great place to start – quick, cheap, easy and it works really, really well. Let me know if you try it!

 

Raclette for dinner!

It was my birthday earlier in the month and J and the boys got me a raclette machine – we’ve wanted one for ages and I was thrilled with it as it is an 8 person one (most are only 6), it also has a stone top for doing meat / veg etc and 2 teflon tops for crepes etc. Through a combination of forgetting to get the ingredients and us all being unwell on and off we only tried it out last night – yum!

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Wintery Winter!

We’ve had some really cold weather this winter. In January we had a couple of weeks with down to about -10c each night! Some of the frosts were so pretty. Sadly the predicted snow never arrived – even if I did rush out and buy sleds at one point.

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I have enjoyed the cold and crisp but looking forward to spring around the corner. The bulbs are starting to push up and my veggie garden plans are well on the way for this year!

 

Quick round up of the end of 2016!

The months have just got away from me and blogging has sadly been what has suffered most!

I thought I’d do a quick catch up of the end of the year and then try to carry on in a more regular manner with my posts!

Summer

Mum spent most of the summer with us so it was pretty busy with lots of visitors around. She headed off via the UK mid September and Rémy and I went across with her so we could catch up with the family and see Dad.

I never posted pics of my 40.5th birthday party in early August – was a great weekend with friends and family from all over the world (mum came from Oz, god-mother and her husband from the UK). I really enjoyed the planning and the night! I may make it a yearly thing to have a big summer garden party – so much fun!

Autumn

I love Autumn – the colours just get me! I wanted to take a picture of the amazing colours on the way to Bergerac (we are now picking Josh and another boy up there every afternoon as he has started Lycée (senior high) there) but sadly the night before I was planning on taking my camera and stopping to take photos there was a big wind storm and all the leaves came down! I will make sure I get some this year!

The Hazelnut crop was fantastic after a very poor crop the year before!

Very sadly my lovely Dad passed away in early October. I am eternally grateful that I went over and saw him less than 2 weeks before he went into hospital. RIP Dad xx

2 of my gorgeous boys!

Winter

We finally got Rémy a créche place in November so the weeks flew by as we have had lots of settling in sessions and I have a 10km drive each way so I spend much of my day in the car it feels like! It has been hard going as he isn’t keen on being away from me but we have now settled on a 4 mornings a week routine and we’ll see if we can get a longer day at some point if he can cope with it.

There was one seriously excited little boy this Christmas – he just loved it and has only stopped singing ‘Jingle Bells’ the last week or so!

Louis almost as excited!

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and a Happy (belated) New Year to all xx