Homemade Laundry Detergent

I got this idea from http://go.tipjunkie.com/hm/518/www.greatoakcircle.com/homemade-laundry-detergent .  I found it on Tip Junkie but it originally came from www.greatoakcircle.com  go checkout their site they have a lot of great ideas. 

It is super easy to make and seems to work really well.

2 Bars of Fels Naptha Heavy Duty Laundry Bar Soap.  Grated ( I used a cheese grater and a lot of elbow grease it makes about 4 cups)
2 boxes of Baking Soda
6 Cups of Borax
4 Cups of Washing Soda

mix all ingredients together and put in storage containers.  Just an FYI it is very powdery mix it gently.  I actually put mine in a large plastic bowl with a very tight fitting lid and shook it to mix.  I let it settle before opening the top but I still got the taste of baking soda in my mouth from all the dust.

It will make 4 Quart jars of Laundry Soap
I made the tag from a download from http://www.graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/ . I just downloaded one of her beautiful frames that she offers and added my own text.

Instructions:
Use 2 tablespoons per load of laundry.

Homemade Hamburger Buns

I used my new Bread Machine for the first time today. I made hamburger buns from the following recipe.  http://www.breadmachinediva.com/2010/07/hamburger-buns-in-the-bread-machine-updated/
They were wonderful!  They were super easy to make just using the dough cycle.  I did add a little butter to the tops of them when they came out of the oven.  You know us southern girls we love our butter!

Here is the recipe.  I used quick rise yeast and the quick dough cycle on my bread machine.

Hamburger Buns
1 – 1/2 Cups water
1 – 1/2 Tablespoons olive oil
3 – 3/4 Cups bread flour
1 – 1/2 Tablespoons sugar
1 – 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 – 1/2 teaspoons active bread yeast


Use the dough setting of your Zojirushi Bread Machine. When the dough is done put it on a lightly floured board and divide into three equal sections. The goal is to get 9 hamburger buns of appropriate size and shape. When you’ve got the buns the right size and shape put them on a greased cookie sheet. Remember not to put them too close together as they’ll get larger as they cook.
Cover the buns with a clean, light-weight kitchen towel and let the buns rise for half an hour. Then remove the towel and put the buns in a 400 degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes.
Move the cooked buns to a rack to cool.

Fancy Clips (dressed up clothes pins)

Here is another little Christmas goody I have been working on.

They are clothes pins that I mod podged scrapbook paper on, added some embellishments and a strip of magnetic material on the back.

I cut pieces of card stock and added a little description on there to give as a gift. They make great Memo holders, Chip Clips, Bookmarks, or children's artwork holders.. there are 100's of uses...

You can't see it well but these have cute rhinestones!

The Smell of Christmas

I just love to have the house smell like Christmas... I whipped up some simmering potpourri yesterday for my house.  In the middle of the night last night it dawned on me that I could make these up as little Christmas gifts... 

Here is what is in each jar:

3 Slices of Orange

3 Slices of lime

3 Cinnamon Sticks

3 Bay Leaves

12 whole cloves

1 teaspoon of vanilla

enough water to fill the jar

If you didn't notice I am a multiples of 3's kinda girl... It's not rocket science so add whatever you would like. I attached a card with instructions to simmer

I even created you a label to use (minus my name). It is formatted to print on the perforated business cards or card stock for you to cut out, either one. I created it on the Avery website... Here is you aPDF file to download

Ta Dah...

Linking up to:

Skip to my Lou Made By You Monday

Happy Fall Y'all

I needed something to hang on the front door for fall...  I decided to make a burlap pumpkin.

First I took a piece of freezer paper and drew the shape of the pumpkin I wanted and cut it out.  I pinned it on a double layer of burlap so I would cut out both the front and the back piece at the same time, and cut out the burlap pumpkin.



I then took orange acrylic paint and watered it down to where it was just water consistency. I misted the burlap with  water so it would be easier to paint.  I wanted it to just stain the burlap.

I painted both sides. Don't for get to flip the second one over so the stem faces the opposite direction that way when you sew them together the outside is painted on both pieces of burlap.
I am very impatient when it comes to a project that I am excited about.  I messed up here by not letting the orange paint dry all the way before trying to stencil the letters on. So, when you make yours make sure you let the paint dry....
I cut a stencil of letters out of freezer paper.  Once the Orange paint is dry iron on the stencil.  The freezer paper will peel off once you paint the letters on. I stenciled the letters in brown acrylic paint.

Here is why you let the orange paint dry and DO NOT water down the brown paint or whatever you choose to do the letters in.

The top leg of the W in welcome bled because the orange was wet. So, that was a fail.. Never fear though, I have the other side of the pumpkin.  I decided to cut another freezer paper stencil.

I stenciled this one when it was dry and it worked beautifully.  I also decided to water down the rest of the brown paint and paint the stem. Because I am a southern girl... I decided to change the saying to Happy Fall Y'all!

Once the letters are dry (sorry no pictures of this step) I  pinned the wrong sides together so it all matched.  I also took about a 6 inch piece of jute and made a loop that I pinned in the top of the stem so it would be sewn in as a hanging loop.  I sewed all the way around but left about a 5 inch gap in the bottom where I stuffed it with poly-fil.  I just wanted enough to give it dimension, not to stuff it full.  I then went back and sewed up the bottom.  I added a little jute bow around the top of the stem. 

I think it turned out pretty well.

Linking Up To:

Made By You Monday - Skip to my Lou

Tip Junkie

Take a Look Tuesday - Sugarbeecrafts

Sew Cute Tuesday - creative itch

Smurf-Day (Birthday) Party

This Past Saturday we had a 6th Smurf-day party.  I wanted to share some of it with you. 

This was the cake.  It was made by Cakes by Mom and Me. They always do a beautiful job.  I believe in doing business with those that do business with you.  I embroider their logo on items and in turn I always let them make the birthday cakes...

Now let me tell you about the treats. My original idea came from My Paper Pony. I was supposed to use donut holes cut in half, dipped in red candy melt. Go look at the link above.. They are beautiful!  I am obviously not nearly as talented as the lady that did the marshmallow mushroom pops from this site.  I tried... I really did... but they were hideous! So I threw 40 of them away...  and I kicked myself for waiting until the last minute and at the time I had no backup plan.. 
Ahhh but Saturday morning before the party I came up with an idea.  Here is what I did. (note: they are not as beautiful as the donut hole ones but they worked)
I used the recipe on the back of the Rice Crispy box to make Rice Crispy treats.  I altered the recipe by adding red food coloring to the melted marshmallow mix.  I also used about a cup less rice crispys so they would be nice and red.  Here is how they turned out. I scooped them out using a cookie scoop and flattened them on the bottom by pressing them onto a piece of wax paper.  I allowed them to cool a bit and then pushed white chocolate chips in to make the dots on top(note: if you do this too soon they will melt).  I then pushed a jumbo marshmallow onto the lollipop stick and then added the rice crispy treat to the top.
 I bagged them and tied on a bow so the kids could take them home and the marshmallow bottom wouldn't dry out. 

I then put them in a tray with a Styrofoam insert covered in green moss.  I added some of Savannah's little Smurfs from McD's for a little extra touch ( you can't really see them in the picture)

 

Bucket of Burpies

I am so sorry I have been MIA the last month...  We started kindergarten, we have already had colds and a round of strep throat... and have been so busy it seems like there is something always going on.  I also feel like I have hit a creative dry spell.  I hope this project has broken the dry spell...  I am pretty excited!  There is a baby shower tomorrow that I needed a gift for.  I have already embroidered several other peoples gifts for the shower so I needed something a little different.  I made these burp cloths from Chenille and coordinating dot and striped fabric...

here is how I decided to present  the gift

It took 6 of the burp cloths to fill up the clear gallon sized paint bucket.  I hope they like it as much as I do!