i have to say...

surrounding myself

Lately I have felt dissatisfied with my house.  Not so much the actual house, but the way it is decorated.  It feels out of date and not "me".

Let me say right here and now that I am not very good at decorating a house.  It feels overwhelming to have so many walls and blank spaces to fill in an attempt to achieve loveliness.  I prefer the simple route of leaving most of it blank, and when I do add something, it stays forever or at least until we move to another house.

Well, no more.

I have decided to add some beauty to my house, whether or not it matches what I already have.  I want to surround myself with things that I love.  I also want to do this on a thrift store/yard sale/antique store budget because that is all we've got!

My first additions are an adorable yellow apron--all perfectly handstitched--and a cute strawberry tablecloth that doesn't even fit my table, but it works for me.  Both of these were inexpensive and they make me smile. 

To me, that makes them worth every penny!

laundry soap recipes

I love all of the great comments from yesterday!  There are TONS of great ideas for saving money in them and loads of fun, friendly banter.  Just the best!

I should have added laundry soap recipes, but since I forgot I am doing it today.  Click here for the recipe that I use for liquid soap.  The soap comes out like a gel and you just have to shake it to turn in back into a liquid before adding to the machine.  Super easy! There are other household cleaner recipes in that same post, and the blog is a wealth of great ideas and how-to's.   Be sure to linger there a while!

If you prefer powered soap, try this recipe.  I am sure it does the trick too!

***I use ZOTE soap for making my laundry soap.

I wish you all a great weekend!

laundry on the cheap

Woman Hanging Her Laundry by Camille Pissarro

On April 17th I posted about making my own laundry detergent, and now, over two months later, I am finally running out of my first batch and am ready to make my second.  For about $2.00 I have kept my family's clothes (my family consists of 7 clothes-wearing people) clean very nicely, although I will add that I do use Spray & Wash along with the soap and fabric softener sheets in the dryer, so that brings up the two-month cost to about $7.00.

Not bad, if you ask me!

You can find the laundry soap recipe here on the Down To Earth blog.

oh deer!

Well, they got me! 

I have four rose bushes outside my kitchen window and they are were bursting with ready to open buds.  I took the time to spray them with deer repellent, but forgot to re-apply after it rained at night.  Our neighborhood gang of deer must have come under cover of night and snacked until their hearts and tummies were content, because all I have left are a bunch of empty, sad looking branches looking like they are reaching up to find their bud.  They can stop reaching since all is lost.

Each year is a battle between the deer and myself, but even though they have won this first round, I WILL rein supreme in the end.  I WILL!

Before I make this sound worse than it really is, I leave you with a picture of the lone bud they left on one of the bushes.  At least they were thinking of me just a tiny bit!:

on the sewing front or how to take a good picture of yourself in the bathroom mirror

Clothes sewing is not my favorite thing to do.  All of the pieces and giant pages of instructions are overwhelming to me.  Forget it if the pattern calls for a button or a zipper!

I made these shirts (the one I am wearing and the one on the hanger) from Simplicity 3760 and although it said "Easy", it really wasn't.  But that is OK because I made two.  The first one (the brown print) has a number of "oops" spots on it, but the fabric-print seems to cover that up, and the second one (the white one) came out just fine.  That seems to be the recipe for success with sewing clothes---sew more than one!

Now, photographing the subject (me in the shirt) was ridiculous!  Maybe I should have picked somewhere else besides the bathroom mirror to do this (get the tri-pod out next time?), but the lighting in there was the best at the time.  Here are some things that I learned while doing this:

***clean the mirror before attempting to take the photograph
***clear the counter before attempting to photograph
***make sure your hubs doesn't walk in while you are making eyes at yourself in the mirror
***maybe he could take the picture next time?

There is a lot of reality in that last picture!?!

Here is Aubry's latest creation.  A yellow polka-dot wrap skirt made entirely by her (she is easy to photograph!):

And I wanted to show the adorable package that a sweet blogging friend sent me:

I love it all!  The gardening apron is so cute and the bag fabrics are perfect.  Thank you, Cindy! 

Well, that is all on the sewing front.  And just know that if you need your picture taken for a blog post about the new shirt you made for yourself, you can call me! I will be there for you!

small things

My days are filled with small things:

***Making granola

***A watermelon-lovin' dog

***Aubry's plans and designs for a store called Fresh-Squeezed Flowers

***Cleaning--but not quite spring-cleaning

***Weeding the garden (it only takes me a few minutes at this point in the year!)

***Baking bread

***Sewing aprons with a friend

***Josiah telling me all about the exciting book he is reading

***Organizing things for my fabric store (I haven't even gotten the fabric and I am unorganized!)

The small things are where memories are made...

...and I wouldn't have it any other way!

making some changes

I have noticed that many of the things I am doing to save money these days, also turn out to be good for the environment and good for our health.  Once again, getting back to the basics is a good thing.

I took the plunge and made my own laundry detergent.  The cost was about $2.00 for 2/3 of a 5-gallon bucket, and so far it has worked just fine.  The clothes are clean, they smell good and my husband hasn't noticed, which is a sign of success for me!  ;)  It is all natural, with no chemicals or weird ingredients.  The recipe is here if you are interested.

I also found a source for fresh eggs, and the cost is a little lower than the grocery store!  Honestly, I was nervous about trying them because I expected them to taste funny, but I am happy to say that they are downright edible!  Being from Southern California, I am not used to having a connection to the foods we eat.  Bar-coded, plastic-wrapped foods are my norm, but I am learning to like these new, healthy changes.

Saving money, eating better food.

I like it!

laundry news

With a title like that, how could you not read this post?  It drew you in from the moment you clicked on my blog, I know!

I do have some laundry news! 

My boys have been washing, drying and putting away their own clothes for a couple of weeks now and this translates to me doing four loads of clothes per week.  FOUR LOADS!  I only have to put away mine and my hubby's clothes,  because Aubry puts away her own goods.  If I said that I have been waiting for this for years, it would not be an overstatement.  Laundry is far from my favorite domestic chore and tons of it makes me feel buried.

Please note my girl's pile o' pink in the "lights" basket!  She has a one-track-mind for color!

(She wasn't overly happy about modeling her library outfit!)

While it is bittersweet to watch the kids grow, there are some benefits, and this one (FOUR LOADS!) is worth celebrating!

***PS--Don't forget about The Recipe Box Swap tomorrow!

 

we were dreaming of a white christmas!

When you get ready to throw a snowball at someone,

You should be sure that your brother is not standing behind you with a shovel full of snow ready to go.   And the brother with the shovel should make sure that the dad isn't standing behind him with an even bigger shovel full of snow:

In case your Christmas wasn't white, I saved a snowball for you:

ta-da!

The floor is down, the furniture is back in place and we can walk all over our house whenever we want.  Yippee!  It is quite a feat to keep 6 people out of the room that you must step into to get anywhere in the house, although a gigantic pile of movies and snacks was incentive enough to keep the kids in my room for an afternoon and an evening while Craig sealed the floors.

I love the new look and I so proud of the work my hubby did!

I was planning on doing a "Let's Get Real Monday" topic this week, but I remembered that Gibee is hosting the Homemade With Love Holiday Gift Exchange on that day, so I will do something for Tuesday instead---to be announced!

Two great places to look for handmade holiday gift ideas are Sew, Mama, Sew and Cotton Spice.  Really, the tutorials are plentiful and adorable and there is so much to choose from!

Just in case you are wondering what my hubby and I did to celebrate our 20th, I will let you have the scoop:  we went to Walmart for groceries and when we came home I made grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner for us and for the kids.  I know that at this point you are all completely jealous of my life.  Or not. 

What can I say?  We are simple people and just the fact that I have woken up next to the same guy for 20 years is romance enough for me. 

Just so you know, we will be going out this weekend to celebrate and Walmart is NOT on the schedule!

Have a great weekend!