Homemade Laundry Soap

We all wish money grew on trees and we could do and buy what ever we wanted, but in my world whenever I can save a buck or two I jump on it!  I came across this recipe for homemade laundry detergent on my favorite new place...PINTEREST!!!   It showed that you spent $20 for laundry soap that lasts up to 9 months.  I happened to find this right when I was running low on laundry detergent which worked out great!  I headed to the store and picked up all the ingredients, came home and made it and have been thoroughly satisfied with it!

Here are the ingredients you will need:

1 4 lb 12 oz box Borax

1 4 lb box Arm & Hammer Baking Soda
1  box Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda 55 oz

3 bars of Fels-naptha soap

2 small containers of oxy clean or store brand oxy clean

I started out by grating all 3 bars of the fels-naptha soap.  It looks just like cheese!  Then I poured a 1/4 of each item in a bucket, mixed and continued the pattern until each container was empty.

I knew I would like this soap knowing that it had fels-naptha soap and oxy clean in it.  Those are two of my favorite products!  Anytime I have a hard stain to get out those are my go-to's.

When using all you need are two scoops (that is what the blog I got the recipe from used) of the detergent. I used the scoops from the oxy clean containers.  It has a nice clean smell, but if you want more use a fabric softener along with it.  Hope this works for whomever makes it!

Valentine Plant Stake

Do you ever wonder what to do with your old sponge paint brush when the sponge has taken a turn for the worse?  Don't throw it away, turn it into a decorative plant stake! 

Simply cut two hearts out of red felt, place the stake in the center of one of them, and stuff with cotton balls.  Then with a hot glue gun, glue the second heart on top and seal the edges.  Add some ribbon to dress it up. 

There you have it, a Valentine's Day Heart Plant Stake!

Valentine's Felt Flower Ball

Such a fun way to dress up you Valentine's decor with this simple to make Felt Flower ball.

You will need:

2-3 sheets of red felt

Scissors

Hot glue gun

Small styrafoam ball

Small tupperware lid for template

Step 1: Draw circle by tracing the small tupperware lid on the felt.  It takes any where from 40-50 circles.  I was able to get 20 circle per sheet, but that will depend on the size of tupperware lid you use.

Step 2 & 3: Fold circle into quarters.  Put glue on corner point of folded felt and glue to the styrafoam ball.

Step 4: Continue gluing folded circles until the ball is completely covered.

And this is what you will end up with--SO CUTE!!!

Valentine's Button Heart Plaque

This by far is my favorite Valentine decoration in my house!  It was fun and easy to make and turned out great!

 You will need:

Old cabinet door

White spray paint

Buttons (red, white, pink, black, or gray)

Hot glue gun

Vinyl lettering (optional)

You start out by spray painting your old cabinet door white (you can pick up old remnant doors at a local cabinet shop for a pretty good deal). As soon as the door is dry gather all your buttons and start arranging them in the shape of a heart.  When you get your desired shape, heat up the glue gun and start gluing them into place.  When finished add a Valentine's expression in vinyl (optional).

Here are the ones my sister-in-law and Mom made.  I love how each of ours turned out to fit our personalities.  My sister-in-law added black buttons to hers and my Mom kept her door oak to match all the oak in her house.  What a fun project!

Baked French Fries & Hamburgers from Pinterest

3-4 medium to large potatoes, sliced into 1/8ths

2 TBS Virgin Olive Oil

1/4 teas salt

1/4 ground pepper

1/4 to 1/2 teas of Johnny's seasoning salt (Greatest Seasoning EVER)

2 TBS of grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 425.  Wash and cut potatoes into 1/8ths.

In a large zip lock bag add olive oil, spices, and Parmesan cheese.  Then add potatoes.  Shake the bag well until potatoes are evenly coated with mixture.  Then dump potatoes onto well greased cookie sheet. and bake for 30-45 minutes or until tender and golden brown.

I also made some hamburgers to go with the yummy fries.  I got the recipe for Pinterest my new favorite place!  They were the best hamburgers I've had in a long time. You've got to try them out!

New Pillows

So I've been searching for new material to recover my pillows with. I was never happy with the material I had on them in the first place.  I came across some fabric at the DI for $2 and fell in love with it (the yellow/gold pillow).  Knowing my Mom was coming for a visit and her being my sewing lady and all, I had her bring her sewing machine along so we could fix my pillows.  While she was here we just happen to come across some pillows (the back pillow with all the colors) at Sam's Club for $4.91 a piece.  I snagged the last two knowing they would look great with my yellow/gold fabric.  We then came home and started sewing. Once the sewing was all done and the pillows were on the couch it seemed to be missing something...the blue color.  So out we went looking for some more fabric.  We ended up at our local craft store, using my 50% coupon I found the color and ended up paying $2 for a yard of it.  I'm so happy with the combination of all three pillows.  It is the best $14 I spent in a long time!

I decided to add a couple of rosettes to the yellow/gold pillow.  Aren't they cute?

Since I changed the color scheme in the room I had to change a bit of my decor.  I picked up a bottle of paint to bring in the blue and painted some of my picture frames.

And I painted this "C" gold to match my yellow/gold pillows.

I'm so happy with how it all turned out!  A big thanks to my Mom for all her help sewing my pillows!

Homemade Chili

Here is a yummy recipe for a blustery winter day...

Homemade Chili

1 lb ground beef or turkey

1 small onion, chopped

1 can pinto or white beans

1 can kidney beans

1 can diced tomatoes

1 can tomato sauce

3/4 cup water

1 cup ketchup

3 TBS brown sugar

1 TBS chili powder

2 teas ground cumin

1/4 teas salt

1/4 teas garlic salt

1/8 teas ground pepper

1 to 2 bay leaves

Brown meat, add onion and cook until onion is soft.  Add spices, then liquids.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 15-20 minutes.  Another option would be to add 1 green pepper, diced.  Serve with bread sticks (from a past post), rolls, or cinnamon rolls.  YUMMY!!!

Re-finished Tool Box

We are renting a home and out in the back yard is a pile of wood scraps and junk.  So I decided to rumage through it and see what I could find and low and behold I found this--an awesome wooden tool box.  It was covered in mud and leaves.  I brought it inside and cleaned it up, put a new coat of stain on it and looky there, it became a new place to store books!  I love it!

It has taught me to never pass up something that is old and worn out.  You never know, if you just put a little thinking and elbow grease into it you've got yourself something useful and great!

Crayon Valentine-Heart Sun Catchers

Aren't they adorable? This is such a fun activity to do with the kids and most likely you already have all the supplies you'll need laying around your house! Perfect! Love that!
These cute sun catchers would work with any holiday really. We usually do it for St. Patrick's Day too and cut clovers instead of hearts. :)

Step 1: Shave up all those old and broken, red, pink, white, purple crayons you have laying around the house. Everybody has some right? :) I just used a sharp knife to make my shavings.

Step 2: Place a piece of wax paper over a brown paper bag. Let your kids spread crayon shavings over the wax paper, using whatever color combo they'd like.

Step 3: Place another piece of wax paper on top of your shavings, then place another brown paper bag on top of the wax paper. Iron on top of the brown paper bag with a warm iron until your crayon shavings begin to melt and spread.
Wa-la! You've got yourself a fancy, colorful, Valentine sun catcher.

Step 4: Let them cool for just a minute or two, then let your kids get busy drawing and cutting heart shapes out of them. My kids especially LOVE this part!

Step 5: Tape all your cutesy Valentine colored hearts to the windows and watch them gleam in the sunshine!

Beautiful, just beautiful!

Now, go gather up all those old, un-wanted crayons and get shaving!  :)

You've Got {Valentine} Mail

I had this fun idea that I did for my kids last year and they LOVED IT!
I thought I'd share...

While browsing the craft store I found this cute little mailbox and some felt heart stickers to decorate it.

Who wouldn't LOOOVE getting Valentine mail???

Each day leading up to Valentine's Day, I'd fill it with sweet treats, little love notes or a fun Valentine activity to do together with my kids.

For one of the days I colored heart paper doilies, wrote a special "love" message for each of my kids on the back, stuck a treat to it, shoved them in the mailbox and put the
"Attention: You've Got Mail" flag up.

My three sweeties squealed with delight every time they noticed the "You've Got Mail" flag was up!
They LOVED it!

It turned out to be a fun and simply way to let my little cuties know how much I love them.  Plus, it's always fun to celebrate the upcoming Valentine's holiday.  Can't wait to pull out our mailbox and get started with our Valentine countdown this year!