homemade laundry detergent

Here's an awesome, easy, frugal and eco-conscious project for you to try.  I love making things and saving money, so this project was great for me.  I got it originally from this lovely blog here. 

To make, here's your shopping list (everything can be picked up in the laundry and baking aisles of your grocery store): 

• 1 - 4 lb 12 oz Borax
• 1 - 55 oz box washing soda
• 2 - 1 lb box baking soda
• 2 - bars Fels-Naptha

Supplies you need from home:

• large bowl to mix in
• measuring cup
• grater
• containers to store detergent in
• label-making supplies (if you want to pretty it up!)

Once you have everything lined up, you just mix together the following proportions and put in an apothecary jar, a mason jar, or any air-tight container:

• 6 cups Borax
• 4 cups baking soda
• 4 cups washing soda
• 4 cups grated Fels-Naptha bar soap 

Then I made it cute with my label-making skills.

You will need about two tablespoons per load.  You can also add a little vinegar to the fabric softener dispenser to make clothes softer and it acts as an antibacterial agent.

Enjoy!

missing tacoma

With so much going on back at home (friends getting engaged, friends getting pregnant, friends starting careers, in-laws buying a new house), I'm starting to feel really nostalgic for the Northwest.  I may have made my homesickness worse by going through some photos I took around Tacoma with my husband before we left for Southern Illinois.  Thought I would share some.  Enjoy!

handmade pillows

I thought I would share one of my old projects.  I made these pillowcases shortly after getting my sewing machine last year.  I wanted to test it out with a relatively easy shape, but added some difficulty with the appliques that I created and sewed on around the edges. I wish I had more pictures of the process to make this post more of a tutorial. 

On the pillows with appliques, I had to do all the applique work before sewing the actually pillow pieces together.  On this birds-on-telephone-wire pillow, I started by hand sewing or embroidering the telephone lines.  On the wrong side of the front piece of fabric I drew straight lines across the pillow and embroidered across those lines using the stem stitch, a basic embroidery technique. 

After that I created all the little bird appliques using felt.  I strengthened the felt with interfacing on each piece.  Then I glued the birds in place with fabric glue.  Once the glue dried, I used my sewing machine to sew along the edges of each applique. They're not coming off, to say the least.

 To finalize the pillow, I sewed the front piece to the back pieces.  This has an envelope pocket.

 These chess-piece/silhouette pillows were very simple to make since I didn't make any appliques for them.  They were so easy, I made two!

 They also were made with an envelope closure.

This octopus pillow used the same technique as the bird pillow. I just had to carefully cut out the eyes after attaching the interfacing and before gluing and sewing the the pillow.  I chose a more complementary/visible thread to border this one. 

Surprise, surprise...I made this one an envelope pocket as well.  I just orientated it differently.  Not necessarily on purpose. 

Hopefully, I will get these guys on Etsy sometime soon.  I just want to get more of an arsenal of goods before I list anything.

easy & free craft: paper flowers

Have to say that I love Pinterest.  I get so many crafting ideas that lead to more crafting ideas.  These paper flowers were super easy.  And free.  I got the tutorial here.  For the vase and branches I just grabbed what I had, searching the backyard for the branches.  I just picked them up from the ground in about a minute.  The entire craft took about 10 minutes and that's with the dog interrupting me to snuggle.

 It makes for a really inexpensive way to bring seasonal color into the house.  I love it in the entry way.

diy onsies

My friends are beginning to have babies, so to welcome their new ones into the world I've been trying to create something original and handmade.  Since I'm not an expert seamstress, I've been making appliques and putting them on store-bought onsies.  So far the recipients have really liked the outcome.

To Make:

   Supplies:

• one plain onsie, any size or color
• small amount of fun light to medium weight cotton fabric, maybe 6"x6"
• double stick fusible web (I have the Steam-A-Seam2 kind) 
• a cute and simple image, preferably a silhouette, that fits within the space of the fabric you have and within the space on the front of the onsie
• a clothes iron & ironing board
• one to two small coordinating button(s)
• a few yards of coordinating thread
• a hand sewing needle

    Steps:

1. Following the directions on the fusible web packaging, trace the image you want onto the fusible web, making sure to draw on the correct side.
2. Iron that fusible web onto your piece of fabric.
3. Cut out your image from the fabric and the fusible web that are now attached to each other.
4. Peel the paper off the web, leaving the sticky part on fabric.
5. Arrange applique onto the front of your onsie, with sticky side down, obviously.
6. Iron applique in place (if you need to, iron the front of the onsie before placing applique down and then iron on top)
7. Sew around the edges with your coordinating thread (this gives it a homespun look and helps keep edges of applique from fraying).
8. Sew button in for eye(s).
9. Give to recipient!

Here are some examples of mine.  I'm thinking of next time getting some fabric paint and putting the babies name on the front as well. 

reorganizing the fridge

Let me preface this with the fact is that I love organizing, but I can be a slob sometimes and get lazy when putting things away.  The fridge was a perfect example of this.  The frustrating part is that it's something that we use everyday, so it would be most useful if it were organized.  For one, I'm generally hungery, and therefore cranky or getting cranky, when visiting the fridge.  Everything should have a place and be in it's place is my philosophy.
Without further ado, let me introduce you to the state of my fridge before I got to it.  Disgusting.

I started the project by clearing everything out of the fridge.  I did both fridge and freezer, but I did one at a time since we're dealing with cold food items.  Working as quickly as I could, I removed everything and then cleaned the entire inside of the fridge.  I removed the produce drawers and washed them in the sink.  I wiped the inside of the fridge with a mild dishwashing detergent.

Once all that was done, I sorted through all the food, grouping together like-items.  And, surprise surprise, I found a few things that were expired and dumped those.

After I had an idea of how I wanted to group things and what I wanted to put in baskets, I pulled out the label maker and labeled the baskets with what food item they should contain.  I made a basket for cheeses because we have a ton.  One for breads including baker's yeast.  I also made one for Asian cooking because we seem to cook a lot of Asian dishes.  When the next curry or stir fry comes up, we'll just grab that basket and have everything at our fingertips.  Yay!

side note: Baskets are perfect for keeping things tidy in the fridge.  I highly recommend getting a couple. You can get them from the dollar store which is what I did. 

I also threw some labels on the inside of the doors for clarification. This is when DH walked in and noticed what I was doing.  He said he really liked it and that this system would really help him out. Make sure the surface is completely dry before putting on the label or it will not work.


Then I put everything away and did more or less the same thing for the freezer, although we don't usually keep much in there besides frozen fruit and a couple other things.

Don't forget to load your fridge with baking soda to absorb smells.

And voila, it looks so much better.  We've had it this way for about a week now and it still looks great, even with a new load of groceries.

our dining room

Alright, it's time for the second installation of our home tour.  Today, you get a look into our dining room.  I got so excited when I saw some photos of a room painted this saturated blue that I knew that I had to have one of our spaces this color.  And what better than the dining room?  I also thought it would look dramatic with the white trim we painted throughout the house and the white lighting pendant that I made.  Like everywhere in our homes, it's a work in progress.  Keeping in mind that this is a rental, so all of our work will have to focus on our furniture, fixtures and decor.  I really would love to paint our chairs.  The finish is the original and very out-dated.  Yellow or white chairs?  Who knows? 

And the before photos: