I finally tried it, Homemade Laundry Detergent! ANnnnnnnd, it does work. I’m not going to do the math and get all crazy about my costs per load… but I am saving money by making my own! And, why not just make everything? Ha! Seems like that’s what I’m doing for EVERYthing anyway. I’ll share  a quick rundown of how I made this (This is the same recipe I’ve found on 40 billion different sites… so I’m not sure of the original source. I can tell you it DOES work):

Ingredients:

1.5 cups of Borax (a natural laundry booster)

1.5 cups Arm & Hammer’s Washing Soda (NOT baking soda)

1 bar of Castille soap (I used Dr. Bronner’s peppermint bar)

Directions:

- Use a cheese grater to grate up your Castille soap.

- In a food processor, blend your grated up soap and a 1/2 cup of Borax and a 1/2 cup of Washing Soda until blended (you want those shreds of soap to be small).

- Pour the blended soap into a bowl with the remaining Borax and Washing Soda. Stir until it’s all blended really well.

- Pour into a jar that has a seal (keep it fresh) and seal.

- When washing your clothes: Use one to two tablespoons of your homemade powder per load. We usually prefer to wash in cold water, and it’s been working!

Side note: the Dr. Bronner’s Castile Peppermint Soap smells like peppermint chocolate.. don’t eat it. Hee hee. Just kidding! I know you wont eat it. I hope.

- Enjoy all that money you’re saving.

- ALSO: The peppermint smell is wonderful, but sometimes we want must a teensy bit more good smells. SO, we add laundry scent. On occasion. It works.

ANDPLUSALSO:

If you make you’re own detergent, you’re going to need a cute jar to seal it in. It’s pretty easy to add the gold painted “wash” word to your jar… here’s how…

- Wash and dry the outside of your glass.

- Print and cut out a word from my “Wash and Laundry” Printout.

- Tape a small piece (red side down) of Saral Paper to your jar and tape your word over the Saral paper.

- Trace the outline of the words with a ballpoint pen.

- Remove your paper and you’ll notice a wonderful red line to follow while you paint!

- Using some Martha Stewart Multi Surface Paint, paint in your words. If needed add more layers of paint (letting the paint dry for about 1 hour between each layer). I ended up using 3 layers of paint.

- Let dry. NOTE: on the back of the paint bottle, it notes that you need to let the paint cure for 21 days before washing or handling too rough. AFTER that: you should be good! I’ve heard great things about this paint.

If you give this a try, let me know! I’d love to see how it works for you. Happy washing!

- Chelsey

I’m sort of on a rainbow kick (if you haven’t already noticed) and I felt like there was something missing in my life, I couldn’t quite place it. Then, it came to me: my kiddo needs a rainbow heart headband. I made one and now my life is complete! Hee. She was pretty stoked to see what I had made for her… but then she asked me to make another one with ONLY Purple Hearts. That kid is addicted to purple.

Anywho… if you’d like to make this for yourself OR kiddo… here’s how you can make my Rainbow Heart Headband:

Supplies:

- Colored hearts printout

- Mod Podge

- Glitter in rainbow colors (red, orange yellow/gold, green, blue, purple)

- Old brush

- A section of ribbon (measure on your head, or kid’s, and add about 12 inches to tie a bow)

- Optional: Acrylic sealer spray

Directions:

- Print and cut out your colored hearts printout. I chose to use the smaller hearts for my headband.

- Add a layer of Mod Podge to a heart and add a layer of glitter. Let dry completely and repeat a second layer of glue and glitter (if necessary). Do this to ALL of your hearts.

- Add about 2 coats of Mod Podge OVER the glitter on the hearts. This will seal them and keep the glitter in place.

- Let dry completely (maybe a couple of hours).

- Optional: Spray a couple of Acrylic Sealer Spray coats onto your hearts (Mod Podge is water-based, and needs a sealer if exposed to a lot of moisture). I chose to skip this step, since my kiddo pretty much hides from rain. Ha! So, no worry about it falling apart from the rain.

- Hot glue your hearts, in a line, onto you ribbon. Let cool.

- Tie around your head (or your kiddo’s), and dooone.

Enjoy.

- Chelsey

Do you remember my deer paper terrarium from last year? No? Well, here’s a link to my original post (plus check out the photo below).

I had that cute little set up for a year. I loved it (I still love it), but it’s time for a change. That’s why I’ve created my new paper terrarium: over the rainbow. No more deer this year…. time for rainbows, an air plant, and a little blue trailer. Hee.

Even though the deer set up was so cute, I really love my over the rainbow terrarium. Here’s what you need to make your own:

Supplies:

- Glass container (mine is from a thrift store, I think it’s an old outdoor lamp cover)

- Sand (I found my black sparkle sand at a local shop)

- Air plant

- My cloud/trailer print out and rainbow printout

- Floral foam

- Wire

- Toothpicks

- Hot glue

Directions:

- Prep your glass container. My glass container has a hole in the base. SO, I cut out a piece of cardboard and hot glued it to the inside of the hole (I don’t want the sand to sneak out).

- Cut out a small piece of floral foam to fit at the base of your container. My foam was about an inch thick. Just short enough to hide under the sand.

- Pour in your sand. I had a 5 pound bag (from a local terrarium shop) of black glitter sand.

- Cut out your trailer, clouds, and rainbow. I included multiple sizes for you, so you can choose what works best for your jar. Hot glue your clouds to a bit of wire and all the trailer and rainbow to toothpicks.

- Arrange the paper terrarium pieces in your container. I added a teensy bit of moss (from the deer terrarium) to sit under the trailer. Once you’re happy with how it looks, place your air plant. I made sure to place my air plant in a spot I can easily grab it. Air plants require a spritz of water or a soaking in water about once a week, and water isn’t so great for paper rainbows and paper trailers.

- Set your terrarium in a favorite spot.

- Enjoy!!!

- Chelsey

P.S. Please let me know if you make this for yourself! I loved seeing the paper deer terrarium creations from last year. You can add a link in the comments.

Well, I know today is ACTUALLY Valentine’s Day… but I really wanted to share these little necklaces that my kiddo and I made (well, mostly me). It all started on a walk. While on our daily walk, we found a tree that had dropped a ton of acorns, so we gathered a the tops and headed to the yarn shop. We bought some colorful wool roving and started felting some pieces to create little faux acorns.

I did this project with my kiddo, and it was SO messy. Water EVERYwhere. It was actually worth all the water splashing since she had so much fun. She worked on one piece the entire time, and called it her “purple cookie”. It was just a flat 2 inch piece of purple wool. She did a great job and uses it as a blanket for her ponies. I made all the acorn bits.

R really wanted to give a necklace to a couple of her friends, so we decided to turn these guys into little Valentine’s goodies. I made and printed out some, “I’m nuts for you!” tags, cut them and and tied them onto the necklaces. That’s it! If you want to make this for a special someone (mother’s day is coming up in a couple months) here’s a link to the Felt Acorns Directions I used, from Honestly WTF. Check out my “I’m nuts for you” printable, and add some necklace chain. Ta dah!

- Chelsey

P. dot. S. You will get pruney fingers. Bleh. Pruney fingers are like someone scratching a chalkboard for me… I can’t handle it. OMG. Eww. After about 5 minutes of playing in the water, I had to go grab some rubber gloves. Gah. Ewww. Pruney toes and fingers are the worst. Also see: I’m a weirdo.