Easy Laundry Detergent

Today was a “snow day”, it’s really cold outside and snowed most of the day.  I got a few things checked off my to do list.  I baked cookies, made a nice lunch, cleaned up the kitchen, and made laundry detergent.  The last time I made it was in the fall of 2011. I used the basic recipe I found here but of course tweaked it a bit. 

Last time I used Fels Naptha soap, Borax and Washing Soda.  This time I used Zote, the Borax and Washing Soda, I added Oxy Clean and Baking Soda.  I used the same recipe except I did not add the Purex crystals. 

Instead of grating the soap, I cut it in smaller pieces with a knife and added 3-4 pieces of the soap to the washing soda in the blender, made it smooth as silk!  And I didn’t have to grate it!

Pulse the blender until it looks like this picture.

Then run it a bit longer and presto!  I kept adding the ingredients in the biggest mixing bowl I have stirring. 

See how smooth it is?  The Zote smells much better than Fels Naptha, at least that is my opinion. 

I used a jar funnel to pour the soap into the big jars.  I found one at Wal-Mart and I think it was $5.99.  The second one I found at Goodwill for $2.  So this made a jar and a half, at 1 tablespoon (2 for heavily soiled loads) a load it will last me forever!  Which is nice to not have to buy expensive detergent.  This quantity of detergent cost me about $12, not counting the jars. 

The little blue scoop from the Oxy Clean makes a perfect scoop!

I might be linking to these great parties!

White sweater pumpkins

You know I love me a good pumpkin!

This used to be a whole sweater…found it at the Goodwill store, it’s not wool, but a winter white cabled acrylic/cotton blend. I thought it might make a nice pumpkin or two. 

 

Aren’t they cute?

The difference between these and the orange sweater sleeve pumpkins I recently made is the stems.  I used the ribbing at the end of the sleeves for the stems. 

Since I made three pumpkins and we can all do the math on that (two sleeves per normal sweater, three pumpkins, you get the picture) I used the ribbing at the bottom of the sweater for the third stem. I cut about a 6 inch section of the ribbing off and sewed the short ends together to make a circle.

I just ran my long needle under the part of the ribbing that sticks out…and kept going around the section and pulling the thread snug until it looked like a stem.  Think pull really really tight!

Just sew the stem on the top of the pumpkin and they are set!!

I gave these to my mom for her birthday which happens to be this month. 

I used the sweater which was $3, the stuffing (FREE) which a friend of my mom’s brought her (a bag of batting scraps which I tore up and used as stuffing), a needle and some quilting thread (mom already had) and about 30 minutes.  Very easy and very cheap!

I am going to make myself some as well from the body of the sweater after I get back home.

I may be linking to some of these great parties!

Some flower garden rearranging

I tend to use perennials in my deck containers, so that I can plant them in the ground in the fall and get more bang for my buck at the garden center!  This is what the stump pot looked like a few months ago…

This stump usually has a big pot of plants on it all summer long.  But truthfully it’s a haul from the deck to water and my hose doesn’t quite reach.  So, my pug willing, I planted all around it with perennials that hopefully will make it a low care flower bed.

I get a lot of my plants at Lowes…I do not buy them full price, I wait for them to clearance them.  I found this peach day lily for $1.  It has already bloomed this year, but the regular price was $15.97, since it was a giant pot. 

This guy it my supervisor.  He tells me what looks good where…

Here he’s telling me to trim the willow tree that hangs down over the stump.  I declined, he walked away!

I planted the whole pot of flowers that was on top of the stump around the stump.  I just pulled it out of the pot and dug a hole and dropped it in the ground.  It has two purple fountain grass, a bunch of creeping jenny and some dianthus, so all that will be back next spring!  The purple fountain grass was $1 each for a medium pot, on clearance at Lowes and the creeping jenny was reduced too.  Patience is the key to great buys at Lowes in the plant category.

Since someone I know likes to dig in the dirt, (who shall of course remain anonymous) I put all sorts of rocks and seashells on top of the good digging areas.  If an archeologist ever excavates my little chunk of land they will have to assume this was an ocean.  I have tons of seashells all over the place!  And someone (who shall of course remain anonymous) carries smaller seashells around in his mouth and scatters them all over the yard.

Now back to some tips for plant hunting at Lowes…you need to go routinely to get the good plants.  I go during lunch several times a week during peak season.  There are two things to know…they keep a clearance rack in both the inside plant area, so it is there year round inside.  And they keep a rack, usually at the back of the garden plant area outside.  I believe neither one is watered after the plants are placed on those racks.  I have seen some pretty dry sad plants there, ones that have been wasted, guess it makes good business sense to not spend man hours on things that don’t bring much profit anymore.

I added a few of my cement garden balls to the stump to keep any pug sitting at bay.  You can go here to see how I made them.  So go check out Lowes and see if you can find any cheap plants to plant for the rest of the summer and for next spring too!

After a week or so the creeping jenny has started to take over the stump! 

I might be linking up at these great parties!

The guest bedroom is now open for business!

I have a guest bedroom now!  I got to make over my son’s bedroom since he moved into his own apartment. He is a sophomore now and lives close so I still get to see him.  The room was a bit of a disaster, I deep cleaned and shampooed the carpet and touched up the paint and spackled, and well you get the idea!

I’ve always loved the morning sun this room gets…

This little desk was mine as a child…built by my grandfather in 1965.  I think all five of us girls got one like this and the boys got a more business like desk.  The original stool is long gone but I found this little vanity stool at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore for $1.  I recovered it with some chevron fabric and it was ready to use. I am still looking for the perfect lamp here.

I moved a little bookcase into the corner of the room and added some bright colors in a beachy/ocean theme.

The ombre basket that I painted goes well here!

So does the dictionary page saying in a thrifted frame…

The walls in this room are grey, I didn’t care for it at first, but it goes great with the blue, yellow, cream and red that I used. I bought very little for this room makeover, much of it I had accumulated over time.

I did make the headboard for the bed.  And the quilt on the bottom of the bed.

And these two quilts which I tucked into a thrift store painted basket.

I love this coat rack; I made it from hardware store faucets and actually cost very little.

The little red glass lamp came out of my closet and the embroidery hoops were collected and I used scraps to put in them.  I made the dust ruffle from a thrifted fitted mattress pad and some muslin that was 70% off at JoAnns.

Mom got me the beach sign for my birthday and you can see how I made the wreath here.

You can see the little pine chest here…it is called a “shoe chest” in my family.  Again, my grandfather made it in 1965 and I think all of us had one at one time.  The square pouf I got at Target for $11 (Wal-Mart had them for $20 even)!  It was on clearance and recovering it is on my to do list.

I might be linking to these great parties!  Thanks for stopping by!

Cement Candle Holders

Sounds very romantic huh?  Cement candle holders….hmmm.

It’s no secret that I have been making some of these this year…

The concrete garden balls, not the cat!  So, every time I make the garden globes I end up with a bit of leftover cement.  I hate to just throw toss it, so I found if I fill up disposable containers (usually my recycled yogurt and mandarin orange containers) with the leftover cement and push a smaller container down inside them I have a candle holder that is sturdy!

The round one I made from a cottage cheese container and the smaller one was a discarded storage container.

I made some today and just used a tea light tin to push down into the cement to make the spot where the candle sits.

What do you think?  Cute huh?

I am thinking that I will put some felt on the bottom of these and bring them inside!

I use citronella candles on the deck in the summer to keep the bugs away, so this is a perfect arrangement!

The dual candle holder in front I painted with some leftover chalk paint and wiped some of it off. LOVE the way it turned out!

I will be linking to these great parties!