Make Your Own Laundry Detergent

Today I am sharing a Laundry Detergent recipe.
Original recipe here.

It's ridiculously easy and quick!
Basically you buy your ingredients and pour them into a box or bucket and mix it up!
Pardon the above photo as it is not equivalent to the actual recipe amount, but simply the ingredients!
I was simply filling my bucket back up and this was all I had to re-fill it with!
It hasn't mattered how much I put in of each. It has always worked well for me!

So, here are the ingredients:

1 Box of Pure Baking Soda - 4lb

1 Box of Super Washing Soda - 3lb 7oz

1 Box of Borax - 4lb 12oz

1 Container of Oxy-Clean 1.3lb

3 Bars of Fels-Naptha Shredded - 5.5oz

If you don't want to shred Fels-Naptha bars, you can buy some awesome soap flakes 
called Zote at Wal-Mart. Any and all of these ingredients can be found at Wal-Mart 
or your local grocery store on the laundry aisle.

You only have to use one or two tablespoons per load of laundry. It works really really well! I have heard so many awesome things about this recipe! Because you use such a small amount every load, it lasts F O R E V E R! Okay, maybe not forever, but you get the idea! I can hardly remember the last time I made a batch. I think it might have been a little over a year ago. For real.

Again, the photo below and the photo above show the ingredients and NOT the actual amounts.

Try it out and let me know what you think!

Pine Cone Fall (or Christmas!) Decor DIY

This craft is so easy and I am pretty satisfied with it's turnout! I am like one

 of the many who cannot afford to go out and buy holiday decor, so this craft idea was really fun!

All you need is:

Pine Cones

Spray Paint (I had gold in my stash.)

String

Spare Ribbon

Hot Glue

Hot Glue Gun

Scissors

Step 1. 

Spray your pine cones whatever color you want. I have gold in my stash, so I stuck with that beautiful holiday color!

Step 2.

While they're drying, cut the length of your string. I used twine that I had in my craft box. I ended up doing it the long way, but you can attach a pine cone to each end of your string or attach a pine cone to the end of each separate piece of string. I attached them to separate strings (the long way).

Step 3.

Tie a knot onto the end of each string so that there is more to attach or stick to the pine cone.

Step 4.

Hot glue the knots (on the string) to each pine cone.

Step 5. 

Once completely dry, lay out your pine cones in the way in which you want them to fall. Uneven lengths will look best! If you've cut separate strings, then tie the strings together at the top.

Step 6.

Spare ribbon. Tie it to your string so that there's a loop left at the very top. You want the loop so that you can hook it onto a nail or hook in your home. If you've used separate strings, then fold the excess string under the ribbon. It will not be seen, I promise. Let your ribbon fall and cut it at the desired length.

Step 7.

Hang it up and admire your cute new decor! 

You made it! Be proud of it!

DIY: Lamp Revamp

The only products I used: a sharpie and some acrylic paint I had on hand. Talk about cheap!

Okay, so, my parents gave me this lamp. I loooved the body and found the curves and details to be quite beautiful. However, I hated the lamp shade and the color bronze just wouldn't go with anything I have. So I decided I to paint the body and either find a new lamp shade or somehow, try revamp it.

I saw an awesome diy on Pinterest recently that showed a lamp shade in which they wrote on the lamp shade with a sharpie.

Yay! I might like sharpie crafts a bit too much, so that is totally what I did!

This lamp shade is suede. Blech! I figured if this didn't turn out good, I was going to get a new lamp shade anyway. I chose to write Psalm 139 on it and when I realized that I had more room I wrote Psalm 100 down as well.

I painted the lamp body white with acrylic paint I had on hand. I left brush strokes that are slightly visible simply because I like that look. I don't always like a neat painting job.

After writing on it.

Two products: Sharpie and Acrylic paint...wow

 

How do you think it turned out? I really like it!

15 Ways to Re-Use Widowed Socks

A few days ago my dad wrote on my blog: "You'd be rich!" if you could come up with ways to re-use widowed socks. So here I am giving you ideas on how to re-purpose your widowed socks. That is, socks without a match. (Not at all in order to "get rich" but because I thought it was a cool idea!)

Through the help of Pinterest and Google, I found some pretty cool uses for socks! I was not able to find many uses for men, but for women, moms and decorators. If you have any ideas, please post them here by commenting and I will share your ideas!




1. Wine Bottle Cover : This cover costs $12.95 at www.zgalleri.com. I don't know about you, but I seriously think that this could be handmade at a fraction of the cost! You could make something similar for FREE with your own wandering sock!

2. Cozy for Planter : Ange from www.lushlee.com gives the idea of using a widowed sock for a cozy around a planter. How stinkin' cute is that!!

3. Just Hang 'Em Up : It's as simple as that! Have them out in the open, on display so that one day you will find its match! (An unknown source.)

4. The Sock Bun : The famous sock bun. It seems to be a big hit right now and this is definitely for the ladies! Use a widowed sock to give yourself a perfect round bun and when you take it out, your hair might just be in perfect curls! Morgan from www.xoxomeblog.com has another tutorial for this up-do!

5. Snow Man Ornament : Sheri from Childmade gives us a great tutorial on how to make a snow man ornament out of socks! Make yourself an ornament for the Christmas tree! I'm sure after looking at her tutorial you can get even MORE ideas about ornaments!

6. Baby Rattles : Jill at Homemade by Jill has a easy-to-follow tutorial of home-made baby rattles! These are so cute!

7. Baby Mobile: Make a simple mobile out of unused or unwanted socks! Very quick tutorial here at www.spoonfull.com (Courtesy of Family Fun Magazine) This idea is something I'd love to try in the near future! Maybe for baby #2! ;)

8. Sock Wreath : Becca shares with us on www.bluecricketdesign.com how to make a sock wreath! I never would have thought of this but it actually looks pretty cool! I don't know about you, but most of my socks are white and my husbands are black. A solid black or solid white wreath might actually look pretty neat! What do you think?

9. Sock Bouquet : I seriously want to put these in the nursery or in the study! A bouquet of flowers made from socks! Heather from How Does She? provides us with a great picture tutorial on how to make this! Check it out!

10. A Wire Cozy : This is for everyone, including men! Use a sock to hold your wires together. All those wires behind the computer desk you can now hold together with a sock! (Another tip, use the plastic clips/ties on bread bags to label your wires!) This tip needs no tutorial.

11. Bath Mat : Make this bath mat out of socks unused socks! It's looks pretty easy!

12. Another Wine Cozy : This wine cozy is so cute! Use a knee-high sock for this! 

13. Sock Vases : By Grace Bonney. Cover your vases with a sock to add color and texture! 

14. Use an old or widowed sock for dusting your house.

15. Washing/Drying your car.

Currently

Listening to: A WHOLE LOT of "Let it Go", a song in the movie Frozen. Hannah likes to have it on replay...all...day...long...ughhhhhh. Needless to say, I've learned how to tune it out. Every now and then a Little Mermaid song will play, giving me a small break from "go!"

Reading: The 5 Love Languages by Gary D. Chapman. I would LOVE to be reading Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge and possibly a Francine Rivers book. Yep. If only I had the time and if only Hannah would leave me alone long enough to read past a paragraph or two.

Thinking about: I am definitely day dreaming often about how I'd like to fix up our home. What colors I'd like to paint all the rooms. What color pillows to have in the living room. Etc. What can I say? I'm a day dreamer! I'm also thinking a lot about how to better use my time. There is so much I can do to make sure I use my time wisely! So much! I've been feeling crafty, too!

I jerry-rigged my own drawer handles out of twine that I had in my craft box! Haha!

...and spent time re-organizing Hannah's bedroom. Yay for energy!!!

...and as I cleaned and organized, Hannah was emptying out my laundry baskets and dragging stuff all over the floors in my living room...sigh...

Wishing: I am wishing that I had more time in each day to do the things I want to do, need to do and want to pursue! 

I want to finish drawing this zig-zag pattern on Hannah's book shelf. We won't call it chevron, because come on! Look at that! It's SO not symmetrical! Haha!

I want to finish painting this frame black. It's original pastel salmon color just wasn't working for Hannah's room! Blech!

I want to master my super simple weekly to-do list. It's super simple, I should be able to accomplish this, right? Hahahaha... Hannah says "I don't think sooo!"

Thankful for: I am thankful for my sweet, gentle and patient husband. He has been working so hard these past few months to hold our family together. I have not been in my A-game and he has been making up for it. I am so so blessed! I am also thankful for all the family and friends who have been helping us out with Hannah. It has been such a relief and such a blessing to us both.

Where you can find me this week: In the mornings you can find me at play groups. I like to get out and wear Hannah out at the same time! It usually works out well. Hannah will fall asleep on the way home and when we get there, I have plenty of alone time right away (it's nice for a loner/introvert like myself). During the afternoons you will usually find us at home unless we've got lots of errands to run. We have our routine (right now anyway). It's nice.

Eating: Well, Chris and I have been hitting up FATZ Cafe for our date nights and I am starting to crave their chicken. Like, for real, legit preggo cravings for their chicken! I'm also craving cheetos. Mmm. So good! I'm pretty sure I was in love with chicken when I was pregnant with Hannah. It's a good craving to have.

Photographing: Not much lately, due to sickness and depression (pregnancy hormones suck). In fact, I have been forgetting to even take pictures of Hannah! Ack! I've been trying to make up for it now! I'm hoping to get more on top of things now that I'm feeling more like my self again.








All in all we've had our ups and downs. I've battled motivation now for months (I'm thinking it's mostly just pregnancy hormones) but God is reviving me and I'm excited to have my energy and motivation back! Yay!!!

 

 What she does when mommy's sick!

 

Singing to and dancing to her favorite music video of all time... Let it Go from Frozen!!!

 

Isn't she so stinkin' adorable? I am so blessed!!!

DIY: Lace Vase

So, I did this well over a month ago. Took pictures and everything, but it didn't turn out the way I wanted it to. Not that it looks bad, in fact, my sister said it's her FAVORITE yet (of the projects I have done). The idea is BRILLIANT! Attach lace to whatever you want to paint then spray paint over it. It leaves a delicate lace print on your canvas.

I have several empty vases that have been just scattered about my bedroom and I figured it was time to revamp some of them!

I found some scrap lace in my room (haha, yea) and some eggshell spray paint in the garage and I decided I would play around with it.

Here's what I did and how it turned out!

First I put the rubber bands there in order to hold it until I could find a better way to hold the lace down.
 Then I decided it might be neat to seat if the rubber bands leave a cool pattern.

So, I used what source I had (duct tape, haha) to hold down the lace.
I covered the back side, partially because I did not have even lace to cover the enter vase, but then I thought having a clear backside would still be considered cute. I also chose to NOT paint the strip covered by duct tape. AGAIN, just playing around!

Letting it dry.

Not half bad, huh?

Close up. I like what it looks like in detail, but I definitely need to perfect it! :)
It's a little smudgy because I did not wait for it to dry 110%! Shame on me, I know. I'm a little impatient. :)

Whenever I attempt this again and really TRY to make it turn out well, I will post pictures! Bloggers promise! :)


God Bless!

~Mrs. S