Home Made Laundry Detergent

I've been making homemade Laundry Detergent for a while now. It seems to get our clothes clean. ;-) I used to buy Liquid, unscented, whatever-was-on-sale, but decided to try this recipe:

http://www.diynatural.com/homemade-laundry-detergent-soap/

1 Cup Washing Soda
1 Cup Borax
1 Bar Grated Soap

I use Ivory Soap, which I unwrap to make dryer. I read somewhere that if your soap is dried out it will last longer. This also makes it easier to grate.  I usually use the box grater to grate, but decided to use our new Ninja Master Prep Professional.  It is great for grating (and also really thick frozen banana smoothies)!

It grates the soap into little balls, which seemed a bit clumpy so I added the powders and re-blended it all together.

I store the soap in an old coffee canister.  This is only one batch as I only had enough washing soda for one. It's easy to double or triple the recipe so you don't have to make it as often.  We have very hard well water, so I use a little less than 1/4 cup per load in our old "uses-lots-of-water" washer.  However, I usually see you can use as little as 1-2 Tablespoons per load.

Today, I am also making Homemade Mouthwash.
http://frugalliving.about.com/od/beautyhealthcare/qt/Mouth_Wash.htm

No pictures, as it's pretty simple. I boil 1 1/2 cups water, add 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda and let cool. Then, I transfer to a bottle to keep in the bathroom.  Easy Peasy!

:-)

Brown Chest of Drawers Makeover

Here is a brown laminate chest of drawers my MIL got for free from her neighbors who were throwing it away! We needed a one so I said we'd take it. It lived in our storage room for about a year (storing too big kids clothes) until we built our back addition and I got to bring it inside to store my clothes!  This project was done in Summer 2011.

Here is the after:

First, I removed the hardware and filled the holes with wood fill. Then I primed with Oil Zinsser using a "disposable" foam brush.  I don't really like the Oil primer as it's not as easy to apply as Latex primer, although the results are fine. After waiting 2 hours, I painted with Flat Cream Latex paint and let it dry overnight. The next day I re-coated with Cream and let dry 4 hours.  I had some Sand colored paint from my favorite store, Habitat for Humanity Restore that I mixed with Latex Glaze. I used a cloth to wipe on the glaze, then wiped it off.  After drying a few days, I dry brushed with Light Turquoise(from a sample pot), sanded the edges, and finished w/ a wax (also from the Restore).

 I think the after is much more light and cottagey!  (The chest of drawers is in the unfinished back room addition).

:-)

Welcome

Welcome to our cottage on the beautiful Prince Edward Island, Canada!  I hope you enjoy!  :-)