Homemade Laundry Soap

So, in my journey to reduce our exposure to harmful or at least unnecessary products I thought the first place I would begin was our choice in laundry detergents. In my mind this would be one of the simplist ways we can step into a healthier home. Typically I would use Surf or even Tide. And honestly I don't have many "bad" things to say about these products, except for the obvious reasons.

no.1
Packaging {one less item that is needing to be recycled, so often}
Yes, even with your homemade detergent you will have items to
recycle, but be mindful that you will only be using 1-2 tablespoons
for each load. Therefore, way, way less on the containers needing
to be recycled. Another plus {+} is that most of the items are in
cardboard containers, and easier on the recycling process.

no.2
This is way less harsh of a detergent. So, if you have family
members with sensitive skin, this is the way to go.

no.3
Less is more. Like I mentioned you'll only need to use 1-2
tablespoons {1/8 cup} per load. So, your homemade batch will
last FOREVER {In fact I plan to update as soon as I have to
make a new batch}

no.4
Less money spent for a product that last longer! And right
there..I'm sold. I actually had the Borax & Baking Soda on hand,
so I can't honestly quote an exact number, but I'm thinking for all
ingredients your looking at $12. or less.

Now, before I step off here & give you the magic ingredients for your laundry potion, I need to give credit where credit is due. In one of my late night Pinterest obsessions I found this recipe. You can visit "Being Creative To Keep My Sanity" if you would like as well. She has some awesome stuff on her blog. Definitely worth the time to check out.

Okay, back to your laundry soap...

So,simple...you will need...
A bucket {or something large to store the bulk of your laundry soap}
A trash bag {to put all ingredients in & to mix together}
1 - 4lbs. 12oz. box of Borax
1 - 1lb. box of Baking Soda
1 - 3lbs. container of Oxi-Clean
2 or 3 bars of Fels-Naptha heavy duty laundry bar soap {5.5oz. each}
1 - 3lb. 7oz box of Arm & Hammer All Natural Super Washing Soda

and there you have it!

You'll put your plastic bag into your bucket...

Then put all the ingredients into the plastic bag/trash bag. Now, the next step is you'll need to grate your Fels-Naptha soap bars. I used my cheese grater and it worked perfectly. Absolutely no worries about the shredded pieces being a little chunky. After you've grated the soap bars, run your hands under water & you will see that the slivers just melt away. This will also occur in your machine.

Now, put your shredded Fels-Naptha into your trash bag. Secure it somehow {I used a twisty-tie} and then mix together by swishing the bag around. You'll probably feel little balls of the Borax, just use your finger to break them up. I put some into a smaller container that I will keep on our laundry counter top with a 1/8 cup scoop {just makes it easier for the other humans in the house}.

Personally, I chose to only use 2 bars of the Fels-Naptha just because I was concerned that over time the soap would build up and actually cause "crunchy towel" syndrome {but, as of yet no problems}. I would love to hear if you've used a homemade recipe for laundry soap & how is it working out for you? Or if you had to switch things up a bit for the right recipe. Also, just a side note...supposively this is HE machine safe. I still have the ancient top loader, but others have said that its very low suds & HE safe.

xo, shannon

Holy toledo, Batman..we have progress!

design & have bathroom tile complete

Over the course of 2 days, Wes & my father-in-law completed the Wainscoting tile work where the tub will be placed. This is exciting news! The only step thats needed to complete this task will be the sealant & then is officially checked off the "honey-do" list (:

I'm done stripping all the doors & drawers of the cabinetry in the bathroom, and next is the actual wood work & sanding everything to prep for paint. The color of the cabinets & wood work {base boards & doors} is going to be "Pale Bloom" {7002-8} by Valspar in a soft gloss finish {semi-gloss}

{Visit "Desirees Day Dreams.com"}

Now, the actual walls {other than the area where the tub will be} will be "Delicate Bliss" {7001-8} by Valspar in a satin {matte} finish.

{Visit "Color Buzz: Valspar Blog"}

And of course like I mentioned wall above the tiling will be Raspberry Wine {1009-9} by Valspar in satin finish as well (:

{Visit "Lowes" to see Valspar's line of paints}

And then after all painting is complete its the task of staining the concrete that is next..and oh, my I'm dreading the prep for that job. But, I know in the end its going to be exactly how we want it to be & it will be worth all the work.

I could use a little help in finding one main piece of art for the room {probably on the wall colored, Raspberry Wine}. I want something that has a little bit of a color pop, but also masculine, since I am having a more feminine color on the wall I don't want to totally make it "my bathroom"..lol. Any suggestions??

Rain,Rain..Can you stay??

We're under a tornado warning & that's not necessarily welcomed...BUT the rain is desperately needed! Please let the sky stay open & fill our poor lake! Since the incrediably long drought this summer, water was taken from Lake Conroe to fill Lake Houston. So, combined with no rain it left our lake looking void & just sad to say the least. We love when heavy rains finally come our way, cause we know how badly its needed. Now, granted watching the sky swirl around with crazy colors its necessarily exciting, but watching that invaluable H2O fall is priceless.

Baby Girl Feeling Icky

Last week Peyton had to deal with an outbreak of staph on her inner left thigh. It was terribly painful for her. It was our first experience with a staph infection, but from the get go you could tell this wasn't a normal boo-boo. So, off the the Doc we went & started her on Bactrim & now 7 days later it is all but a small red area. Then, while dealing with that she developed a nasty cough..no fever, just a congested cough. And now Miss Piper has this nasty cough, but it seems to really be bringing her down. Shes constantly rubbing her left ear, but doesn't seem to be a lot of pain. I went ahead & made an appointment for 1:00, just to have him listen to her & look her over. Peyton had pneumonia at 14 months & that was after being told it was viral for almost 2 weeks & then she begun retracting & just completely drained of energy. So, I just would rather be proactive & make sure Piper is ok.

So, we went to see Dr.Mac {incognito name}. Who of course listened, tickled & played with Piper. He looked in her ears, but at 1st couldn't get a good view of her left ear due to wax. So, he used the puffer on his otoscope to move the wax & he said he could finally see. He said it's red & "not moving". Dr.Mac hates rx'ing antibiotics in the 1st year of life due to the association with asthma, but he explained that if it was only red & mobile he would suspect drainage associated with a viral illness, but because it's non-mobile, red & she has fever, then it needs treatment with antibiotics. I'm a little disappointed, but I don't want my little one hurting or uncomfortable.

On a side note she's 21.8 lbs! She's an exact image of her sister. Dr. Mac even said that he wasn't even worried about it because of how lean Peyton is now {5 yro. 39lbs}.

Funny thing is all my babies are little chunkers & then I'm fighting to put weight on them later in life:)

Stripping {and of course its not our clothes}

We've removed all the wallpaper. Patched up & leveled out the walls with wall mud. Sanded them all down & ready to get started on getting the tile set. Since we've decided to do the wainscoting tile work; painting is on the back burner till that is complete.

{ Danny Lipford Wainscoting Bathroom Tile }

We're still a little up in the air to which pattern we will choose with the wainscoting, but we are really leaning towards the left pattern with the mosaic tiles.

The color chart we are really trying to stay with is a classic, but earth tone affect. A friend of mine {Ana} really said it best, "a spa room feel". And thats really what we are trying to achieve. Relax, unwind, breath a little deeper with a tad of a vintage twist to it.

We've started pulling the cabinetry into the garage for stripping & have actually tried 3 different types of stripper to see which was the easiest & most effective with getting the job done. We really like the Jasco brand. It has a jelly consistancy & only took 2 applications to really get down to the wood.

So, the next step will be to really sand them smooth & get them prepped for painting. We are still moving forward with wanting to stain the concrete, but after looking at so, so many options we are going to wait till the tile & paint is complete to ultimately make the decision to which stain. We have to consider that this room as very limited natural light & don't want to turn it into a cave, but do want to make it a very soothing environment.

We've pulled the tub into the garage and Wes will be wet sanding it tomorrow & getting it prepped for the epoxy treament to refinish it. I'm really excited about that. Its been a LOT of prep work & will required loads more, but I'm so eager to see the finished product. The house is like a huge ash tray. I've had to dust probably at least every other day from all the sanding settling around the house. In fact that reminds me that I probably need to replace the AC filter just to help in keeping the air clear. Thank goodness the weather has been cooperative and we've been able to open doors & windows to allow circulation.

Its definitely going to be a process, but so worth it all!

The daily battle...

CHORES.CLEANING.ORGANIZING CHAOS..lol
If there is one duty I totally want to rebel against as a full time mama is CLEANING. I have several friends and even family that have had maids that come in and clean once or twice a week {and yep, they are SAHMs too}. I used to think, "how crazy, you stay home, lose an income & yet still have a maid??" {maybe I was a bit envious} But, now all said and done I can completely understand to why they did or do.

If you ask me cleaning takes such a huge chunk of your day & in turn it takes away from spending time with the kids. And to be honest thats why I'm staying home in the first place. But, needless to say, "we all have to clean" at some point, whether we like it or not.

I'm all about finding solutions to making the daily grind a little simpler & absolutely love getting advice and suggestions {bring it on, I did 'em}.
I really like finding home solutions to help make the job easier and cheaper! Pinterest has been a great resource {here it comes to save the day }. I found out that mayo gets water rings out of wood. If you want to get pesky armpit stains out of white shirts just put in water on stove with lemon halves..and wa-lah!

So, what have you used & proven to be a more "natural" way of cleaning or even tricks that come straight from our pantries or refrigerator?

I want to hear about them...

Restored.Refinished.Renew

As many of you already know I've begun the seemingly neverending renovation of our master bathroom. It is in desperate {DESPERATE} need of just a complete overhaul {que extreme home makeover...please}

The poor thing had powder blue doily patterned wallpaper..from floor boards to ceiling {whoa}. So, down the paper came.

We will not only be painting the whole stinking thing, but also refinishing the cabinetry, installing new light fixures..

And also we plan to stain the concrete. So, this means we will be pulling up the insanely ooogly laminate flooring.
We have a beautiful clawfoot bathtub, that we are going to refinish & actually paint the exterior of the actual bath.
Pinterest has been a HUGE help in finding the sources we need to really make this a successful DIY project, but never-the-less its going to be a whole lot of work.
In the mean time I still have to love, nurture & of course feed these little humans that call me, "mom" {seriously, kidding..well, maybe not..lol}
This will be a project in the making for probably a month, but I'm super excited to see the finished product. This is one room I've wanted to tackle for about a year now. Next on the "honey do list" is the kitchen. There too we have a border along the ceiling and a light fixture that probably dates older than me :)

Embraced moments...

I'm a horrible vlogger, blogger and anything else that is "ogger" related at this point. I definitely still lurk in the dark corners of the web & check on all of my favorite blogs & vloggers, but I've just been a complete slacker on mine. That can pretty much sum up my personality though. I completely over commit myself..lol.
#1 thing that has kept me over stimulated & over committed:
I've started to tear apart our master bathroom. Everyday as I got ready in my powder blue doily patterned wallpapered bathroom, I would say, "someday I'm going to make this an oasis, not a nursing home". Well, "someday" is here & OH MY GRAVY this is a project. Especially when we are a penny pinching family. So, can we all say in unison, "DIY"?
I've actually got all the wallpaper down & have applied the wall mud to smooth out all the creases left from the razor that they used to trim the paper itself & of course the nail holes left. On that note, let me say a huge "THANK YOU" to Pinterest .. you've made this project much, much easier! Chair railing has been removed, so today I will will to sand down the wall mud & next step I am removing the quarter round from the base boards since we are planning to stain the concrete {removing laminate..ugly egg shell, basic square laminate}.

On a lighter note I was looking over my "to do" list for today; when I left it on my laptop to get little miss P up from her morning nap & I returned to such sweet little note from my sweet Peyton. Peyton is 5yro. going on 13yro. This little girl is a quick witted, sometimes too smart for her own good firecracker. She is definitely the cause of many grey hairs {but I forgive her}. She keeps me on my toes & has proved to me time & time again; that you can't parent each child the same even within the same household. She requires extreme patience, perseverance & consistancy. She is a master of finding a weakness and utilizing it to its full potential {arn't most kids??}. Point in case...if she knows that I am destracted {talking with someone on the phone or even if someone is over visiting}. She will push the limits to exactly what she can get away with. I was visiting with a friend at our front door that had come to pick up some cloth diapers she had bought from me. Peyton started shutting the door ever so gently on me saying, "mom, its cold we need to shut the door". 1st attempt: "Peyton, if your cold you can move away from the front door and go play in your room". FAIL. Peyton: "mom, its too cold, we need to shut the door" At this point I'm trying to talk to my friend & at the same time ignore this ever persistant bumping of the front door on my heels. I turned around, {2nd attempt} "Peyton, you need to stop being rude & go to your room". Then its the lovely, "No, I'm not" response that we all just adore, especially in front of guest. My response, "Missy, your not going to tell me "no". If you want to stay out here, then stop shutting the door. And if your cold you need to go play in your room. Thank goodness we all have our own space". I get the beautiful smirked face & she finally stops. The fact is with Peyton..she knows that when mom is destracted this is where I'm going to push & push just to see how much I can get away with. But, on the same note she can be the sweetest, most compassionate little girl. Shes just a determined little girl trying to find her place in this big world.

So, when I come aross things like this little note...

I know that even through the winds of parenting..and during the days that you feel like you've reached a road block with these little humans..they are just tip toeing into an ocean of crazy emotions & overwhelming freedom. But, through it all...she loves this nutty mama. And God knows I love her every millimeter from here to the moon.