DIY Laundry Detergent

I've recently set out on a new endeavor, I decided I was DONE! Done paying those high prices for laundry detergent, with a family of 5 the amount of laundry I do is enormous. It seems as though every day I can do a load of laundry, as soon as I've done my load I turn around only to find that my hamper has been filled again. Okay, okay that might be a small exaggeration but seriously that is the way it feels. I thought I would try something different. Most recipes for making laundry detergent doesn't really call for anything fragrant, and because I just can't let that go I decided to add a few scoops ofdowny unstopables   to my detergent, therefor giving it a wonderful smell. And hey if I have some laundry that I feel needs and extra boost of fragrance I just add a bit more. 

-You will need-

1 LARGE pot

1 long spoon

A grater

A measuring cup

A container to put your detergent in (I used gallon jugs)

-Recipe-

1 bar if soap (any kind)

1 cup of borax

1 cup of washing soda

2 gallons of water

2 tablespoons of downy unstopabbles

 

You will notice I don't have the washing soda, my store was out of the washing soda and instead of driving to another store and lugging my three children with me, I just decided to make my own washing soda. You can do this easily by baking your baking soda at 400 degrees for 1 hour, and just stir it around every now and then. You will know when it's changed because the washing soda looks more course than regular baking soda.

 Now grate your soap in your BIG pot, this really doesn't take long at all. My detergent came out quite thick so you might want to use only half of the bar of soap. That will help out a bit with the consistency.

Fill your gallon jug up and pour that water into your pot, turn the heat on and let the soap melt. There will be a few suds but not enough to worry about.

After your soap is melted, add 1 cup of borax, and 1 cup of washing soda mix well.

Add 2 tablespoons of unstopabbles and stir

Those turned my detergent a slight green color. Add one more gallon of COLD water.

Now put your detergent in your containers, the consistency will still be thin like water. Let it sit over night and it thickens up quite a bit. It's a really weird consistency but it still works :) for extra dirty or smelly laundry you can add some extra Borax, and or unstopables.

While it cost me a whopping  $13.50 plus tax, I can make an immense amount of laundry detergent from this simple ingredients. So when you do the math, I'm saving a HUGE amount of money. 

Congratulations, you have now made your very first batch of laundry detergent. Enjoy and please comment below to let me know how yours turned out.

My Cake, OH MY CAKE!

In all my DIYness I have started to do more baking... Oh how I LOVE baking. One of my favorite things to do is to bake. My love for baking started years ago when I baked scones for a local tearoom. Oh I dreamed of baking bread, cakes, any thing that went in the oven I dreamed of baking it.

My journey began when one day I decided I wanted to make a loaf of homemade bread, the old fashion way. Mix, kneed, let rise, punch down, let rise, braid, let rise, bake....... WOW that was an ALL day chore. After working with this bread recipe for a few weeks I decided for times sake I needed to get a recipe that was a bit quicker... NOW it doesn't take me all day and I so enjoy making bread.

Now you may ask, how did you go from making bread to cake? Well it's simple really, baking is something I LOVE to do... I desperately want to open a bakery but I know I can't do that without practicing and perfecting my recipes. Not only that but I also know I need to expand the things I can and know how to bake.

So I decided to bake my own cake making homemade fondant icing... Probably my first mistake since I have never worked with fondant I didn't know the consistency it needed to be. So needless to say my cake, and decorations were less than perfect. My fondant was pretty dry, and cracked a bit I did add a small amount of water to it but it still was pretty difficult to work with. If anyone has any ideas that will help me out I am open to suggestions. Any how here are some pictures of my first time ever homemade cake :-) ENJOY!

The first photo is edited by Instagram

 Now just cut into it and eat it! So much yumminess! 

Stay Tuned

Hubby and I will SOON be working on a headboard for our bed, I am totally excited to see what it looks like when it is completed. Keep you eyes on the blog for my next DIY project...

In All My Craftyness

Here I am, as a child I NEVER wanted to learn how to cook, sew, crochet, knit.... The list goes on and on. All the things I could have learned when I was young I am now learning in my adult life. I recently learned how to make home made bread, and how to braid it. It's an amazing thing to be able to do. And it makes your house smell so yummy. It is totally worth in it my opinion. My momma is teaching me how to sew now that I'm 26 and have two kids of my own I am interested in it. Oh why didn't I take advantage of this when I was younger I could be a master seamstress now ;-). One of my most recent endeavors is knitting. Looks fun, LOOKED easy, until I started to try it, Uh, think again. It's pretty hard to get the hang of, just like crochet. OK, so I will stop rambling, the reason for my post is so you can take a look at some of my most recent knitting, here are the pics enjoy...

Here is the Black Ruffle Scarf 

There is some shimmer on the edges that the camera just doesn't catch very well

 

Purple Ruffle Scarf

 

So far my most favorite scarf in color but it is unfinished

Click HERE to be taken to my shop on Facebook. It's a work in progress :-)

 

Up-Cycled Coffee Table

I have this recent obsession with wood in my home. But not just any wood, I want the stuff that looks like it's been beat up and VERY worn. I LOVE it. Love the more "rustic" feel if gives to my home.
this project isn't really a DIY project but I now have a pretty neat up-cycled coffee table in my house that I did for under $10.00. Love the things I can get for inexpensive. PLUS this coffee table will last me a lot longer than that silly pressed wood that you would be spending $50.00 for. Especially when you have two small children like me :-) Here are some pictures, Enjoy!

 

Things you will need

• Wire spool (hubby got ours from the local electrical supply yard)
• Any color of stain you want
• Paint Brush

 

Here is a picture of the "table" while being stained

My stain job is less than perfect, I wanted to give it an "aged" look

 

Here is the difference between the two wire spools the one on the left we are going to leave outside as a table to sit at. It's quite a bit bigger than my "coffee table"

 

Now to let it dry

 

 

See the stamp marks, the different color wood, even where the nails have been driven in, love the old-used look :-)

 

A picture of it in my living room although I really need something pretty to put in the center of the table. Maybe that will be my next DIY craft project :-)

 

I toyed with the idea of taking a hammer to the table, or a chain, or even a bag of screws to make it look beat up before I stained it. I decided not to do it and just go ahead and stain it. Boy am I glad I didn't do that to this table. After staining it, it really showed it's imperfections. Looks just fine to me

:-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pallet Shelves

First, I would like to welcome you to my new blog. Hopefully I can fill this blog with tons of new and crafty ideas. Thanks for coming along for the ride!

In all my craftiness (cue sarcastic tone) I decided to do my own little DIY project. The more I am home with my babies, the more I "see" that I want to do... My first real furniture DIY were my pallet shelves, they turned out great and just what I wanted. I seriously had dreams about this the night before I was SO excited.  

Here is what we started out with, I have a friend who works at Wal-Mart and she picked a few of these up for me for free. These are the smaller ones. They also have some that are bigger.

I purchased some stain from Lowes, and just a cheap brush since I wanted more of a rugged, aged look instead of a really nice stained look. I only did one coat of stain, the wood is rather porous so it literally soaked the stain right in.

After cutting them with a saw... it was REALLY simple. Or at least it was to me because I was watching and Hubby was cutting.

We just took another pallet and pulled a few pieces of wood off and nailed them to the underneath to create the "shelf" part. After adding some hooks to the back to hang them, this is what we came up with.

(still trying to decide what to put in them)

 (Finally decided)

Love the look of them in my dining room, I have several more to hang. Can't wait to figure out what to put in them and where to hang them. We actually made a larger one for my sons room so he will have a little shelf to put his books in. Such a great idea, and it seriously costs about $10.00