Reenie's Pinker than Pink Lamp Remake

Pink!

I love pink.

On a recent trip to Goodwill, I found some awesome lamps.

Very retro-tacky, but with a great shape. 

And I LOVE the round, grey, textured section in the center.

Disassembled to paint...

Two coats and a few days to cure...

(see the chicken in the background?)

They add that extra POP of pink that I was looking for...

Since it's a dark, rainy afternoon, I am heading to this exact spot to read.

xo

zzzzzz

Homemade Laundry Detergent~

I have been obsessing about several things lately, one is cutting our everyday costs. 
So many"natural" products are beyond pricey. 
It gets ridiculous really.... so I started with the things that I use every day. 
Like laundry detergent.

I found this recipe on the Why Not Sew? blog... (click for link)
It uses very few ingredients and took very little time to make.
I did not take photos of the process, since WhyNotSew did such a spectacular job of it.

My notes are in hot pink~

Ingredients:
1 bar soap (Kirk's CocoCastile)
1 cup Borax
1 cup Arm & Hammer washing soap (not baking soda)
a big pot (that will hold more than 2 gallons)
a grater (I use my food processor)
a long spoon
a bucket to store detergent in (I use a 2 gallon bucket)


1. Grate the bar of soap. (I used my food processor because I am impatient... it took 30 seconds to grate and the soap rinses off easily)

2. Add 1 gallon hot water to the pot and add the grated soap. Heat until soap has dissolved.
I used Kirk's CocoCastile as my bar soap, only because I hate frangranced detergents... you can add essential oils too for smell, instead of using frangranced soap.

3. Add the Borax and the Washing soap.

4. Bring to a boil. It will coagulate. 
It will also cook over really fast and make a huge mess. Beware.

5. Turn off the heat. Add 1 gallon of cold water. Stir. 

6. Let sit until it cools. If it hasn't coagulated yet, no worries. It will. 

7. Once it is cool transfer it to the bucket. Great tip on WhyNotSew was to store it in the pot you cook it in. Eliminates the messy transfer step. I already added a pot to my thrift shopping list...
Right now I store my detergent in a 2 gallon bucket and scoop out with a measuring cup. 
It is a thick, snotty consistency and I did not want to thin it out to make it pour, because that would mess up my measurement calculations.

I use a 1/2 cup and put it in my front loader dispenser into the powder dispenser. It did not flush out when I put it in the liguid detergent thingy. (thingy is a technical term...haha)

Previously I used the Ecos brand laundry detergent from Costco, which costs around $12 for a 210 oz. jug. 
I used 1/3 cup per load, which came to 30 cents per load!
(I have no idea where they get their calculation on the HE amounts! The Ecos bottle says you can get 100 some loads??!!, but that did not work at all for me. Maybe if you washed 3 towels per load, haha).

After breaking down the math on this recipe, a 1/2 cup per load comes to 
4 cents a load! 1/3 cup comes to 2.6 cents!!

So, on average we do 2-3 loads a day. 

The Ecos brand cost comes to 60-90 cents a day, $18-$27 a month and $216- $324 a year.

This recipe costs 8-12 cents a day, $2.40- $3.60 a month and $28.80- $43.20 a year.

BIG SAVINGS, and more than enough to make it worth the time to cook this up.

I have been using this recipe for about 3 weeks now, and so far have noticed NO difference in the cleanliness of the laundry. 

My clothing no longer has a faint old lady perfumy smell and the Borax makes the whites brighter (I do not use bleach in my l laundry, it is bad for the septic).

I use white vinegar for the fabric softener and if it is a stinky load I put vinegar in the bleach dispenser also with a cup of baking soda inside the washer.

The bleach dispenser goes into the wash load, the fabric softener goes into the rinse.

The baking soda also keeps my front loader from smelling mildewy, something I reallllllyyyy noticed after getting a front loader. It does not seem to empty the water competely out after a load, and here in the PNW it is always a bit damp. Even leaving the door open when not in use did not help. The baking soda/vinegar in an occasional wash load did take them mildew smell away.

SO there you have it.... riveting info from Reenie. ;)
What every day household products do YOU make from scratch?
Please share in the comments~

Cross posted on PeculiarAmbitions.com~

Quick Kitschy Kitchen Curtain~

We have a window in our kitchen that needs replaced.  It is functional, but u.g.l.y.

Since we are still deciding the design of the kitchen (before remodeling), this window is in ugly limbo land, hanging there and irritating me daily. 

It is west facing, so in the evening, the sun blinds us during our evening meal. 

My solution? A tacky, kitschy curtain.... to hide the window, and block the sun.

The floral fabric is from a thrifted, vintage twin fitted sheet.

The bird fabric was about a foot short of the needed length, so I decided to add a panel at the top. 

It extended my length and added some whimsey (whimsey is a classier word for tacky. grin)

  The bird fabric I scored at Ikea several years ago because I loved it.

  I made the curtain short so it easily cleared the shelf below it.

  The panels are minimally sewed and hemmed so I can repurpose the fabric in the future if I choose.

The ring clips eliminate the need for a rod pocket and make the curtain easier to open and close.

  I am in love. Tacky, thrifted, colorful and whimsical. 

Perfection.

Studio Spring Cleaning~

It's t.i.m.e. Time for spring!

Which means spring cleaning.

The studio needed some serious attention, the dust was embarrassing 

and the space needed logically reconfigured.

My space is sort of split into two, since the room used to be a porch (waaaay before we lived here), the front door is in the middle and the room is long and narrow.

The left side used to be for art journaling and crafting and the right for painting and sewing.

I was always moving the sewing machine to paint, or the paints to sew, and when I wanted to paint in my journals, I had to drag one or the other from side to side. duh me.

After several days of knitting and contemplating 

(I get a LOT of thinking done while I knit), I figured it out.

Here are before and after pics of the left side...

(Click on any pic to see larger images)

Before it was for art journaling and crafting.

I always have to include a shot of my helpers.

Now it is just for sewing, spinning and yarn storage. 

The sewing machines do not need to get moved back and forth 

and projects can stay in progress and not be disturbed.

Sewing machine and serger each have a 'place' and do not need to be moved back and forth.

My threads are all on their happy hanger, under my Allen Designs Cat clock! 

 The center wall is directly across from the front door and 

has a doorway on either side that lead into the living room.

Here is the before shot of my ikea cubes, packed full of books, fabrics and paints.

I stole the book shelves from the kitchen (where they were only collecting jars and dust) 

and put them on the center wall.  Extra storage space! yay!

The cubes got moved to the end wall in the painting area (scroll down to see pics of that)

The new shelves now hold only paints and painting supplies... all together in one spot!

Here is a before shot of the painting end...which held the paints & supplies 

and all of the sewing stuff.... a hot mess!

Here are more fun shots of the madness...

We removed the long shelf from the end wall and 

put the white ikea cubes from the center wall in it's place. 

Here it is before adding all of the art journaling supplies...

Here they are all filled up with my magical supplies!

Eve is already spread out on the floor, "arting" up a storm.

Painting table...

View out the window of the painting table.... see the bee hives?

Now the painting and journaling can stay out, works in progress do not need to be moved much.

Time to create and make this room a mess again!

Heart Buntings with Jackie~

Bunting #1... Made with Jackie Sparkles. 

Fun day with a dear friend, coffee and arting.

Simple punched hearts. 

Sewn together on the machine. LOVE.

I especially love the hearts with words.. Friendship, Tradition, Individuality...

We hung them across the beam in my living room.

The start of a mini-obsession. uhoh.

Loving Life...

Things have been quiet on the blog, but not in life.
We lost a dear friend to Melanoma last week, which just... well, it just sucks.
Life lesson is that life is short. and beautiful. even when it hurts.
That's all I have to say.

I leave you with some photos of life these past few weeks...

Making things sparkle with Jackie Sparkles...

Semi-frozen pond... pretty but. brrrrr (ugh).

Twig star...

Latest Hats~ Zoe's Thorpe hat and Ann's Earflap Hat from handspun~

Maureen is molting. She looks horrific and it's cold. Silly chicken.

Measuring the tree height. Tall man ruler.

Hauling to the tree shaker... where they shake out the critters and dead stuff.

MOM! Stop taking my picture!

Mamma likes the barn siding on the tree farm barn. 

Taking notes for OUR barn/studio renovation coming this spring.

Tree on car!

The tree is still in the barn, in it's stand, still bound, 

waiting for us to dig a hole so it can come inside... perhaps today?