Scavenger Hunt Sunday

This week's scavenger hunt items are:

• Home/Thankful
• In the kitchen
• Couple
• Bubbles
• Trees

HOME/THANKFUL

There is so much to be thankful for...

Photo taken July 2011

Thank You for the cross, Lord.

Thank You for the price You paid.

Bearing all my sin and shame, 

In love You came and gave amazing grace.

~Worthy Is the Lamb by Hillsong

IN THE KITCHEN

Snickerdoodles fresh from the oven...Yum!

I'm including this next photo not for the shot but to share the idea:  this is my "double boiler."  I have a metal mixing bowl sitting on top of heated water in a pan that the mixing bowl will...float...inside.  This worked very well for keeping the chocolate melted!  (I dipped marshmallows in the chocolate, in case you are wondering.)  Just be careful of the steam escaping from the pan!  

COUPLE

These are a couple of mischievous boys.

BUBBLES

Bubbles in a paper weight...

TREES

Um...yeah...this is where I went a little crazy.

Trees seemingly dwarfed by tall grass.

Click on the link below to see others' photographs or to join in the fun!  

WFMW: Homemade Laundry Detergent

I have been making my own laundry detergent for a while now...wanna see?

Here's what you'll need:

• Hot water
• 1 cup Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (not baking soda)
• 1/2 cup Borax
• 1 bar of soap (I used Fels-Naptha, which is a laundry soap and stronger soap than what you would bathe with)

These items can be found on the laundry aisle of most grocery stores, and usually they are on the top shelf.

Why, yes, I had already crumpled the empty wrapper before I thought to take the picture.

Grate the bar of soap.

I have asthma and grate the soap outside to minimize problems with the scent. I have far fewer problems with homemade laundry detergent than I do with store bought. However, I still have to make the laundry detergent on a day when I can have the windows open.

Add the soap shavings to a large saucepan with hot water (about 4 cups or more). Stir over medium-low heat until it dissolves and is melted completely.

Carefully pour the soap mixture into a 5 gallon bucket and add the 1 cup of washing soda and the 1/2 cup of Borax.  Add a few gallons of hot water, too, until the bucket is about half full.

Stir well until all powder is dissolved.

Fill the 5 gallon bucket with more hot water and mix well. 

Cover the bucket and let it sit overnight to gel.

I do not have a lid for our 5 gallon bucket, so I made one with plastic wrap and shoestrings. If I had a younger child or animals who might be in danger of falling into the soap, I would use an actual lid and/or move the bucket out of reach (for instance, on top of our freezer in the garage).

After the laundry detergent has cooled, it will have a strange, watery gel-like consistency--some have described it as looking like egg drop soup. Stir this well, and then you can leave the detergent in the 5 gallon bucket (be sure to stir before use) or transfer it to empty store bought laundry detergent bottles.

Use a handy-dandy scoop to transfer the detergent into smaller containers...a milk jug, of course.


Be sure to pull out the removable spout in the laundry detergent bottles to make filling the bottles much easier! The milk jug funnel will fit nicely and the spout is easy to replace on the laundry detergent bottle.

I do this step outside but forgot to take a picture at the time. Between the funnel and the scoop, filling your empty containers is a breeze even if you have no one to help you!

Here's where the recipes you find online differ dramatically--how much to use? I have seen everything from 1/4-cup to 1 cup per load. What works for me is to use 1/2-cup of this laundry detergent per load, mixing well before each use. However, I have had better results (and have seen other recipes that do this extra step) diluting it with half water and half detergent before using it and then using 1 cup of the diluted laundry detergent.

I don't have the space (or, obviously, a proper lid for the 5 gallon bucket) to keep the diluted detergent on hand, so I dilute it as I need to. I fill my storage detergent bottles with the undiluted detergent,

Storage containers

and dilute the detergent into another bottle that is ready to use. To make this step less problematic, I have my laundry detergent bottle marked at the halfway point to show how much detergent to pour into the bottle, and then a line marked at the top to show how much water to add. Measuring for this step ensures you don't have to measure every time you need to dilute the detergent. 

Pay no attention to the level of the detergent.  This is just to show the lines I've marked on the bottle.  :)

Shake well before using.  I use 1 cup of the diluted detergent per large load.  I measured and found that 1/2 cup of water mostly fills the cap of the laundry detergent bottle I use, so I use two capfuls.  For stains, I pour some of the laundry detergent directly onto the clothing and rub the detergent in a bit before adding the clothing to a load in the washing machine.  Fels Naptha is the original "stain stick," and I've found this to be very effective.

The washing soda and Borax last for a few batches of this laundry detergent, so a $1 bar of Fels Naptha is my only expense for the next few batches.  Inexpensive laundry detergent (and a scent that does not cause asthma symptoms for me)?  That works for me!

P.S.  To brighten your whites, since store bought laundry detergents have ingredients that do this step for you, add Oxi-Clean (follow the directions) or vinegar (during the rinse cycle) to the load.

Shortening Swimsuit Straps

I'm rather long-waisted; therefore, I almost always find a swimsuit that fits me in the torso but has droopy straps.  My solution?  Shorten the straps with a simple stitch.

This is the finished product:

Using a running stitch (also called straight stitch) with two strands of thread like this,

sew through the strap that needs to be shortened (I only did the front straps on each side). 

Sew a running stitch on both the right and left sides of one strap with two strands of thread, like these Photoshopped stitches in yellow (since black on black wouldn't show up very well):

As I sewed along the right and left sides, I left a length of thread to work with (about 3 inches long) on each side.  Repeat the process on the other strap you want to shorten, and be sure to compare the lengths you have sewn before tightening either one.

When you have sewn the length of strap that you think will work, tighten the two lengths of thread like you would a drawstring and make a knot in each length of thread (this is where using two strands of thread for the running stitch comes in very handy).

Side view of the strap

With that, you are finished, and your work adds a small decorative touch to your swimsuit. 

 

This was a cheap, quick, and easy solution to an annoying problem, and that works for me!   (It's also very easy to undo if you need to change how you sewed the straps or if you don't like the results.)

Click over to We Are THAT Family for more Works For Me Wednesday ideas.

Works For Me Wednesday: Homemade liquid hand soap...Take Two

You may have already seen my other post about making homemade liquid hand soap. (If you're interested, you can click here to see it.)  Since that time, I have made another batch of liquid hand soap using a slightly different recipe, and I like the new batch a lot better.


I think for these recipes for liquid hand soap, how your liquid soap turns out really depends on which bar soap you use.  If you have tried one recipe and did not like the results, play around with it a little longer (different recipe and/or different soap) before giving up!

This time around, I used Ivory soap because we always have it on hand, I know I can tolerate it with my allergies to many fragrances,  and it's one of the cheaper soaps out there.

This was the recipe I used, which is from the Raising Arrows blog:

• 1 cup of soap shavings (I used Ivory soap)
• 4 cups of  water
• 1 Tablespoon of glycerin (I omitted this because I was using Ivory and the website said "regular soap" may not need it)

Where do you find liquid glycerin?  The cheapest place I've found it around here has been at Hobby Lobby.  The glycerin (pictured on the right) was in the soap making section of the store and was priced at $3.47.  Remember to go to Hobby Lobby's website and print a coupon for 40% off!

Add all ingredients to a pot and heat on your stovetop until the soap shavings have completely dissolved.  

I should have taken a photo of the mixture at this point, because it looks really disappointing and you would probably think you've done something wrong.  My mixture at this point looked like water with yellow food coloring add to it.  That was it.  (It will look like soapy water with most soaps.)  I thought I had messed up something somehow, and thought I'd better add some glycerin to it because I had heard that would thicken the liquid soap some.  I added 1 tablespoon of glycerin; however, I'm not sure it made much difference and it turned out fine in the end.

I set the pot outside, covered, and let it cool overnight.  This was how it looked after cooling and sitting overnight, after I'd stirred it a little:

I used a hand mixer to blend the thickened soap to ensure a good consistency, since I'd had some complaints with my last batch (see note below)...

and then used a really fancy funnel (a.k.a., an empty bottle from my last purchase of liquid hand soap, cut in half) to pour the soap mixture into my really fancy storage container (a.k.a., a well-rinsed milk jug).

This funnel was a great improvement over the kitchen funnel I used last time.

I doubled the recipe to make this amount of liquid hand soap.

I really like the way this batch turned out!  This batch was a little thicker than my first batch, but not as thick as I thought it would have been since it didn't use nearly as much water.  Again, I really think the results depend on which bar soap you use as well as the amount of water called for in the recipe.

NOTE:   Since this post, I have made this soap again several times.  Instead of letting it cool and thicken, I've poured the soap water mixture into my storage container.  It worked just fine--it was easier to pour into the storage container, I can use an empty Softsoap container for storage (which makes it much easier to refill my soap pumps!), and the consistency of the soap has been just fine.  I've also made the liquid hand soap without glycerin, as well as with less water, and the results have been good.


Have you ever made liquid hand soap?  If so, which soap did you use, and did you like the results?

Do you have any tips to share that work for you, whether it is about liquid hand soap or any other topic?