Homemade Laundry Detergent

I have made my own laundry detergent a few times, but it seems like every time I make it, I get different results. There are so many recipes online, for both powdered and liquid detergent. Recently a friend asked how I make it, and I couldn't give her an answer - it seems like I always make it different. When I ran out of my last (horrible) batch yesterday, I decided to make some more today, and nail down a basic recipe that I like. So this is what I went with today:

1 qt. plus 2 gallons water
2 cups borax
2 cups washing soda
1 bar Lavender scented Dr. Bronner's bar soap, finely grated
        - You can also use Zote laundry soap, which is cheaper, but I wanted to go with a more natural option. If you use Zote, only use about 1/2 bar.

Melt grated soap in 1 qt. water. Bring to boil - WATCH it - it boils over very quickly! Remove from heat, stir in borax and washing soda. Pour soap mixture into 2 gallon bucket. Stir well to make sure powders are dissolved. Fill bucket with water and let sit. It will gel as it sits. You may want to stir periodically to break up any large chunks. Pour into gallon containers. Use about 1/2 c per full load.

Melting the soap

Waiting to gel. Got a little crazy with the water sprayer and ended up all sudsy...

Hopefully this will gel. Last time I used a similar recipe, but for some reason, it didn't work right. I think I used too much water.

You can also make a powdered version - same ingredients as above, just don't melt the soap. Stir the borax, washing soda, and soap together and you're done. I made some powdered with Ivory soap once and it didn't work very well. I would recommend sticking with either Zote or Dr. Bronner's. If I made this again, I would add some generic oxyclean, which I get at Walmart for about $2.

I use the following recipe for my cloth diapers, as it's recommended not to use soap on them:

1 cup borax
1 cup washing soda
1 cup oxyclean

Just mix and use! Only use about 2 tablespoons of this or any other powdered detergent that you make.

All in all, this is a great way to save money, and you don't end up with quite so many chemicals in your detergent. The borax and washing soda are about $3 each, and last for atleast a few batches. Zote soap is less than $1. Dr. Bronner's is about $3-$4. So you will usually end up spending about $.05 per load. We all hate to do laundry, but maybe it will make it a little better if we know we're saving money in the process!

Cloth Diapers - Oh, My!

So I finally talked Nick into letting my buy some cloth diapers for Charlie. I have been talking about cloth diapering since before he was born, but I was blessed with an awesome dad who could get us disposable diapers from his job. And since FREE is better then costing money, we went with the sposies. Now that he can't get them for us anymore, I have my excuse to try out some cloth!

I ended up getting some random things off of diaperswappers.com and the cloth diaper swap on babycenter.com. Yes, they are USED, and yes, that is okay...That is what detergent is made for! I got a little of everything:

1 dozen new prefolds from Little Lions, which I had to prep (that was an experience...)
2 Thirsties Duo covers
2 Thirsties regular covers (I think these are too big...I guess I might hang on to them for later)
1 BumGenius pocket
2 Sunbaby pockets
2 Flip covers

With the covers, you use either a folded prefold diaper or insert on the inside. If the cover is not dirty when baby needs a change, you can just put a new insert/prefold inside the same cover. Less laundry, but more difficult. With the pockets, you stuff an insert into a pocket on the diaper and use it just like a disposable, but more laundry. I think Nick will probably like those better...

So I tried both with Charlie today, and the pockets are definitely easier, but the prefolds are more absorbent. I had quite a time trying to figure out how to put a prefold on a squirming, screaming baby! I think the pockets might be the way to go, maybe with an extra insert... I really want to figure out the prefold thing, though. They just seem way too big...

Charlie in a Sunbaby (with lunch on the floor in the background)

Cutie Booty

Isn't he adorable?!

Oh, well! Here's to learning new things!

Now I'm off to go wake up my child and put a disposable diaper on him for overnight...I am SO not ready to try to figure out how to work the nighttime thing yet...

Christmas Goodies - White Chocolate Surprise Fudge

Caramel Apple Cranberry Pie

On Tuesday of this week, my mom came over and we had a ball making some Christmas goodies. Of course we started out with a huge list of things to make, and my mom had gone to the store and just picked up a bunch of "baking" stuff (cream cheese, butter, chocolate, etc...) without really having a plan. After another trip to the store in the middle of the madness, we ended up making these things:

Clockwise from Left: Trios, Red Velvet Balls, Cranberry Pecan Pretzel Bark

Red Velvet Balls

• Red Velvet Cake Balls - The finished product turned out okay - the cake seemed a bit gooey.
• Cranberry Pecan Pretzel Bark
• Puppy Chow
• Trio Thumbprint Cookies - These are great - just don't use too much jam because it will overflow!
• Caramel Apple Cranberry Pie - This is the BEST Apple Pie ever! I made two of these, and will make two more tomorrow...
• White Chocolate Surprise Fudge

Things I still want to make, but probably won't get to until after Christmas:

• Chex Mix
• Holiday Jewel Bark
• Peppermint Bark

For the White Chocolate Surprise Fudge, I actually took a couple of recipes that I found online, combined them, and made my own. This is not a "traditional" fudge recipe, but boy is it yummy! Enjoy!

White Chocolate Surprise Fudge

3 cups white chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows (or chopped up big marshmallows!)
14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
2 t. orange zest (the surprise!)
1 t. vanilla
1/8 t. salt
1 cup chopped macadamia nuts
1 T butter
6 oz. flaked coconut
1 t. coconut flavoring (optional - I didn't use, but if you want it more coconut-y, go ahead)

Melt chips, marshmallows, milk, and butter over medium heat, stirring constantly, for 10-11 minutes or until smooth. Remove from heat. Stir in zest and vanilla until combined. Stir in nuts and coconut. Pour into 9x9 pan lined with greased foil. Chill until firm. Eat, and eat, and eat, and eat until all gone.

Birthday Weekend!

My birthday was lat Friday, and my hubby decided to take me on an overnighter to Greenville, SC. Not very far from home, but hey, when you have a one year old you take any opportunity you can get to have time to yourself! We had been planning on going to this place called Hollywild with Nick's mom, brother, his wife, and two little girls.  Hollywild is near Greenville, so that's how the Greenville thing came about.

Started off the night at Perkins at Woodruff Rd. Perkins is pretty much the northern/sneaking south rendition of an IHOP. Thought we'd get a quick bite to eat and then go see the lights and animals. BUT I don't think anything can ever be quick with this fam...or this particular restaurant, turns out. But all kinks aside, we had a good (and entertaining) meal. And good pie. All I can say is this- THANK GOD for private dining rooms!

After we finally wrapped things up at Perkins we headed for the animal park. Hollywild is somewhat of a petting zoo/animal safari mix during most of the year. During Christmas, however, they put together quite an impressive drive through light display. Charlie LOVED it. I don't think he knew quite what was going on, but he was having fun trying to figure it out! After riding through the lights for awhile, you come upon this open field/pasture thing. This is where the fun begins, lol... Pretty much this turns into a 'free-for-all chase the herd of deer to try to feed them and don't run over the zebras while trying to keep the giant cow from crushing your car' kinda thing. Like a demolition derby animal safari. I guess that's good old fashioned Carolina fun for ya! Anyway, after we were done with the animal chasing, we headed to this little petting zoo area and got some hot chocolate. After awhile of that, we headed out into an empty parking lot. Once again, in true style, we closed the place down, lol...

"Blurry Whale"

Andre the Giant Cow

Our friend the tranquilized zebra.

Finally, at around 1:00 a.m., we made it to the hotel, took a Tylenol p.m., and promptly slept until 11:15 the next morning, missing the breakfast we had already paid for and the pool we wanted to swim in. But that's okay! We headed to downtown Greenville and got some lunch a this great little cafe called Trio's. I had the BBQ Chicken Pizza, which was yummmmmy! Next we went shopping - Mast's General Store, where we got lots of candy and cool stuff. Next we hit up O.P. Taylor's Toy Store and the Greenville Gem Mine...Then we took a break at a not very good chain coffee shop who I believe had Howard Stern working the intercom. We stumbled upon a little artsy shop where we got my birthday gift - a gold necklace with a pendant shaped like the tree of life. We wrapped it up with coffee and checkers at Brew & Ewe. Spent the rest of the day on Woodruff Road, hitting up some of the seemingly millions of stores they have there, then Anderson, where we ate dinner/breakfast at a real IHOP. Then we headed home!

My birthday "Mama" necklace

The outcome of the funnest checker game ever.

We had a wonderful much needed weekend away. My hubby is so sweet to whisk me away like that...

Pattern - Quick One-Skein Scarf

Looking for a scarf pattern? Look no further.

The Sky-High Scarf I found at Showing Bones has become my new go-to scarf pattern. This scarf, made with bulky weight yarn, works up super quick (I finished mine in 2 nap-times, lol...) and it looks great. Better yet, this only requires one skein of yarn - can you say super cheap Christmas present? I love the mesh - plain crochet scarfs, especially ones with chunkier yarn, seem to always turn out too bulky for me.

If you're new to crochet, I think this would make an easy beginner project to learn on.

Sky-High Scarf

Materials

Bulky Weight Yarn - I used one skein (6oz.) of Lion Brand Homespun in Painted Desert

N (9.0mm) Hook


Instructions

Ch. 17
Row 1: DC in 2nd chain from hook. DC in each stitch to end of row.

Row 2: Ch 3, turn. Skip 1st stitch, DC in next. *Ch 1, skip stitch, DC in next*. Repeat from * to end of row.

Row 3: Ch 2, turn. DC in each Ch 1 space and in top of each DC to end of row.

Repeat rows 2 and 3 until scarf reaches desired length, bind off, weave in ends. I made mine about 6 feet long.

I haven't tried this, but you can use a lighter weight yarn if you like. You just need to use the correct hook size for that yarn, and chain as many as you need to get the correct width. Make sure to start with an odd number of chains. I think it would make a nice lightweight scarf for spring.

I think I might try to make a throw or a shawl with this same pattern, maybe with some fringe...