Saturday, February 25, 2012

Homemade Laundry Detergent

Since I was replenishing my supply today, I thought I'd go ahead and take pics and share how wonderful this is! It took my daughter a while to convince me that this was worth doing, but after trying hers, then doing it myself, I was hooked!! Once you get what you need...it's easy! And it saves a TON of money.
So here we go. The utensils you need are: a very large container, preferably with a lid (we use a cleaned out chlorine bucket), a 2 quart or larger saucepan, measuring cups, grating utensil and stirring utensils (notice my very large wooden spoon from Africa! Works perfect!)


There are only 3 ingredients:
1 bar soap, your choice
1 cup Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
1/2 cup Borax

In a large saucepan, boil 3 cups of water. While water is coming to boil, grate a bar of soap. Add to gently boiling water and melt completely (be patient and stir!!) In a large bucket, pour in 4 gallons of hot tap water Dissolve the Borax and washing soda in this. Stir for about 5 minutes. Add the soapy water. Let the mixture cool overnight. It will be very clumpy and kind of gross looking - but works great! I fill an empty laundry soap container to keep in my laundry room and store the remainder in the bucket with the lid on. You could pour all of it into empty containers if you have them. Use 1 cup per average load. I always shake the bottle before pouring. The kind of soap you use will add fragrance or some color. I use unscented sensitive skin Dove. Here's the finished product as it's cooling.
 Enjoy!!

Friday, February 24, 2012

Friends That Scrap's February sketch challenge

Here's the sketch


and this is my layout. The Rwandan children are always wanting to touch Will's beautiful blond curls! I just happened to have my camera handy when this little boy walked over and reached out.

Card I made for a sweet little friend!

Market Street Stamps Block Party Challenge

Here's another challenge completed for Market Street Block Party. I made a card using their freebie Funky Chicken. Isn't he cute?! You can join the fun by heading over to Market Street Stamps.

Friday, February 10, 2012

2 Card Challenges - Digi Darla & Mojo

I'm finally getting some time to participate in a couple of Challenges. Mojomondayblogspot.com has a regular sketch challenge and Digi Darla has a challenge using one of Kim's digital images. So here's my entry for both!!