Thursday, November 19, 2009

Check out this Giveaway!




Over at SimpleMom (one of my favorite blogs of all times!), Tsh is hosting a giveaway- and the prize is a $50.00 gift certificate to Lisa Leonard Designs!

Lisa's jewelry is just fabulous and I've been drooling over her stuff for sometime now. This Sweetheart Tree necklace is what I would buy if I won!

So go over and sign up. Good luck!

Thursday, November 5, 2009

How NOT to do your laundry frugally


I've been trying to find ways to cut as many unnecessary purchases from our budget. Normally, this means skipping the prepared foods and making stuff from home. Sometimes this means making something you wouldn't think of making, at home. Laundry soap is one of those things.

Yes, you read right- LAUNDRY SOAP. You can make it at home, in either liquid or powdered varieties, and there are even ways to make homemade stain removers too! I was very excited! So off to Harris Teeter I went and bought the necessary ingredients, Ivory soap, 20 Mule Team Borax and Arm and Hammer Washing Soda. The total cost was $12.00 and I estimated it should make enough to last us all year. What a savings!

I shredded the bar of soap, using my food processor (made for easy cleanup at the end ;)) and mixed the Borax and washing soda together with it. The next load, I threw in my scoop worth and voila! The clothes were not only clean but my hubby commented that they looked even cleaner!

Encouraged, I moved on to stain removers. Here I have to stop and profess my love for OxiClean. What amazing stuff it is! Since most of my stains are of the organic variety, it works wonders on them and gets the whole load cleans because of its very presence in the water. Am I nuts? No I just love the stuff. So when I found a recipe to make OxiClean at home, I was on top of the world!

I had all the needed ingredients on hand (water, baking soda, Borax and peroxide)so made it up in one of my old OxiClean bottles. It came together just the way the recipe said it would. A few days later my son put it to the test.

Dismal failure. The stuff was rock hard and wouldn't even come out of the bottle.

My sweetie pie husband gave me some explanation involving scientific reasons it had turned rock hard but I was in no mood to listen. I just wanted OxiClean. And to add insult to injury, after days of soaking the spraybottle, I had to throw it away.

So in conclusion, you CAN NOT make OxiClean. :(

P.S. I still make my laundry soap and it work beautifully. I encourage you to try it.

My Color Personality is...


...Sun Kissed!

I confess- I'm surprised.

While I do like all the colors suggested, they seem too dark for me. But I guess if paired with lots of white or off white, I would like them all very much. Now that I think of it, a lot of these colors do show up in my home. So maybe it's the photo that's throwing me- it seems too dark and modern so not very friendly.

Take the quiz! It's fun and they ask you unexpected questions!

Art by MeganTheilman