Wordless Wednesday - Crafts

Homemade dishwasher detergent.

I have slowly been starting to make my own household cleaning supplies.  It is quite a bit cheaper and is much safer and healthier to have in your house.

I'm not going to preach to you about the dangers of having commercial products, that are filled with chemicals and toxins, in your home.  I am just going to show how easy and inexpensive it is to make your own cleaning supplies.  It only takes a few minutes to do most of them and once you assemble the dream team (my name for the staples needed to make almost any of them) it is quite cost effective.

Today is dishwaster detergent. This is my favorite because it takes three minutes to make and does a fantastic job. I got the recipe here.  I did modify it a little as citric acid can be a little spendy and half the amount still works great.

Recipe:

1 cup Borax.
1 cup Washing Soda.
1/2 cup salt.
1/4 cup citric acid.

The recipe called for kosher salt and I used canning salt, but I don't think it really makes a difference. Use the salt you have.

Borax you can find anywhere.  I have found it at Target, Bimart, Walmart and even my local Lamb's Thriftway. The Washing Soda was a little harder.  The only place I can find it locally is Walmart, but I haven't really tried that hard. It just wasn't at Target, Bimart or Thriftway. You can also find it online, obviously. The citric acid will be in the canning aisle.  It comes in a container that holds a little more than a cup and is about 4 bucks. You can also use Fruit Fresh if you can't find citric acid. I have also found it in bulk (pay by ounce/pound) so check your health food store section and see if they have it.

The first rule is: You need to keep everything completely dry. It's not really the first rule, it's the only rule. I store my detergent in a large mason jar, but I wash it a few days before and let it dry completely.  The first batch I made clumped up really bad.  It was like one solid mass which I had to chip away every time I ran the dishwasher. It made me mad inside my head. But... My second batch is loose and wonderful.

All you really have to do is dump everything into a large mixing bowl and stir it together.  I break up any clumps from the borax and washing soda with my potato masher.

You use one tablespoon in the inner door and if the dishes are super dirty I use 1-2 teaspoons in the outer door. I use an old coffee scoop which is one tablespoon.

It works really well and smells like nothing. No chlorine or perfumes which is kinda gross when you think that you actually eat off those dishes and ingest that garbage.

Another great tip is using white vinegar instead of a rinse agent if your machine has a spot for it. I never used a rinse agent before because I'm cheap and didn't see the purpose. But vinegar is cheap so give it a try.

If you don't have mason jars, just store in an airtight container.  Just make sure it is clean and dry.  Let me know if you make it and what you think.

All is Vanity. And the winner is finally announced...

I should probably announce the winner of my giveaway.  Whoops!  In my defense, I did let the winner know she won two weeks ago.  Patti was the winner!!  Yay!!  Patti and I used to work at the newspaper together.  And then she got smart and moved away.  And then I got smart and moved away.  Congratulations Patti!  You'll be receiving your major award shortly.

Now onto other news.  I went garage saling at the coast a few weeks ago and found this vanity for ten bucks.  I have been looking for a vanity ever since I moved into my new place in March.

Years ago when I was living in a studio apartment, my mom was giving away her vanity.  It was kind of large, solid wood and beautiful.  She asked me if I wanted it and I said no, that I didn't have the room for it.  I've been thinking about that vanity a lot lately.

Here are the before shots.  You can't really tell from this picture, but the fabric covering the stool was stained.

 And here is the finished project, all clean and reupholstered:

 It doesn't really look right though, much too neat and tidy.  This is better:

Thrift Store Finds

I went thrift storing a few days ago with my folks and found this:

Are you jealous yet?

How about now?

It's crazy old and never been used.  It was six bucks which is really expensive for me, especially for something like this, but my clos-i is not tidy and I couldn't resist.  My clos-i is actually like this:

This is my hall closet and it is completely unusable and it drives me mad inside my head.  I just shove the vacuum in and I have all these coats that I never wear and I really just hated this closet.

Until... Wait for it.

The CLOS-I-TIDY!

Much better.  Best six bucks ever spent.  I moved all the coats into the spare room closet.  It's so weird.  When I first moved in I thought I had so much closet space, but now that all the closets are full of junk I'm convinced this place has the worst closet space possible.

My spare room is driving me crazy right now.  With the exception of my desk, there is no order in this room and I basically have it laid out the same as the day I moved the furniture in.  I did buy a new table for the tv I'm putting in there.

I tried to really zoom in, but you can still kind of see the disorder that is this room.  I think I'm going to make it my project this weekend.  Make it look nice in case someone wants to visit me.  The table above was $7.50.  It was half price day at Salvation Army.  Oh yeah.

I also got this cool hamper.

And this teapot I thought was cute and now kind of hate.

Well, I don't know.  It's still kind of cute.  We shall see how it pours.  Don't you hate those teapot that you go to pour and it shoots boiling hot tea 8 inches out.  Don't people test those pour spouts before they send them out?  If it pours funny it is going right in the trash.  That's right teapot.  You have been warned.

The television is calling to me so...  you know.  Smell ya later.

All eyes on me, in the center of the ring, just like a circus.

So last season of Project Runway they had a circus challenge.  They had to make an outfit inspired by the circus.  I loved the idea because I like strips and red and the circus seems to use a lot of that.  I needed to make curtains for my bedroom.  Bad.  I mean really bad.  Especially with the ugly air conditioner in.

Just joking, happiness.  You know I love you!  Happiness is my a/c's name.  We're tight.

But seriously, look at that window.  Doesn't it just make you sad?

I'm kind of broke.  Well... Because... I spend a lot of money.  I had tons of left over fabric from my curtains at my old place and the curtains I made for the living room.  So I just decided to pull out the previous stitches and make it work!  Oh Tim Gunn.  Can you believe he has been to Portland AND Vancouver and I didn't even know about it until it was too late?  Apparently they like the Pacific Northwest because both of the contestants from these two places have won.

Anyway, I wanted to do a play on a circus tent with red and white fabric.  They were quite different fabrics and it turned out to be a giant pain in the neck every time I crossed the seam between the two fabrics as I had to change the top thread and the bobbin.  And man oh man do I hate my bobbin.  I wish I had a machine where you just set it in the top instead of having to remove that stupid metal part off the side and fiddle with it until it pops back in.  Ugh.  It's super annoying.

I think they turned out pretty good.  Here's a photo, please disregard the wonky hem at the bottom.  I didn't feel like pinning.  I did iron the top before I did it so that part is a lot straighter than the bottom.

And here's how it looks when the a/c is in use.

I actually think it looks better like this.  It also kind of reminds me of the Queen of Heart skirt in Alice in Wonderland.  The Disney cartoon one.  I haven't seen the new one yet.  Although, I was told it wasn't very good.

And Birdy where are you?  We miss you here in Portland!  I hope you are doing well!  And making lots of cool stuff!

SOAP. It's what's for dinner.

So Katie came over on Sunday night to make soap.

It was melt and pour soap, so you'll notice in the background (not the messy kitchen background) the chunks of soap we had cut up.  Then you melt it in a double boiler.

Don't we look happy?  Here's a creepy eye shot of the soap cubes.

We also made some shampoo and liquid hand soap.  Right as I was taking a photo of it Katie asked how her arm fat looked in the previous shot.  I said it looked like this:

Doesn't that look like bacon fat? This stuff was really easy.  You just mix it with filtered water.  Watch how Katie demonstrates:

Liquid soap turd.  You just blend that stuff up and put it into bottles.  We added a little orange oil to the hand soap to make it smell nice and just left the shampoo plain.  I didn't make any shampoo so you'll have to ask Katie if that stuff is any good.  Mom says it is fantastic though.

Now here are some cute photos of us cutting the soap.  Hey side-note... You know what's hard?  Writing a blog on commercial breaks from Hell's Kitchen.  Takes you like 1.5 minutes to figure out what you were talking about and by the time you start getting your rhythm again, the show is back on.

These photos are funny because first Katie pretended to cut and then I did.  Oh aren't we just the thing!

This photo is pretty unflattering, but I thought it was too cute to just not post it.  This is what I really look like.  Extra chins and all.  Plus the chef's knife.  I always pack one of those in case of zombies.

Look at the precision cutting technique Katie has.  Yummy.  That soap looks delicious!

 That girl has mad skillz.

Here are some finished pieces.  I made some face soaps.  Hold on, show is back on. Whoa.  Chef was mad!!  Ok, where was I?  Oh yeah, we made some face soaps with oatmeal in them.  Tip: if you let the soap set too long and then add moisture absorbing oatmeal, things might thicken up way fast.  But they still turned out pretty good.

I'm pretty happy with how they turned out and they smell wonderful.

I thought it might be fun to start posting a random photo from my archives at the end of blogs.  So here is this one.  It's our pumpkins we carved last Halloween.  Mine is the clown face at the end.  It started as one that was much more difficult, but I didn't realize how crummy my carving skills were so I just turned the pumpkin around and started over with the "easy" pattern.  Yeah.  I did that.

It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no fortunate son.

You know what is fun?  What is really, really fun?  Taking a hundred bucks to Ikea and pretending you are rich.  You can get a lot of crap there for a hundred bucks.  I'm really trying to resist the urge to list off all the things I got there because I don't think anyone would find that remotely interesting.  Or would they?  Maybe I should.  No.  Definitely Not.

I will tell you this though, I did find an 8 foot long curtain rod for my front window.

And I bought this gorgeous red fabric to make curtains for my front window.

I actually did that thing my mom always does that makes the ruffles at the top of the curtain.  Man, that sure makes them look better than not doing that.  The fabric was $8.50 a yard and I had a 25% off coupon so it actually wasn't bad on the money front.  I bought 5 yards though when I actually only needed 4, but I always worry about not having enough fabric.  Better safe than sorry.  I watch Project Runway so I know what happens when you don't buy enough fabric.  Some poor model has to wear an obscene skirt down the runway.  It's not a catwalk, it's a street walk.  And all because you skimped on the chiffon so you could get more boning for the bodice.  Nobody is looking at the bodice.  We are all looking at that model's behind.

Anyhoot, here's the curtains:

I couldn't get them to look right, so I closed the shades and took one with a flash:

I love them!  I love the color which I am glad because sometimes I will buy fabric and by the time I get it home I am already second guessing my choices, but this is perfect.  The fabric has a good weight and hangs very well too.  Lori helped me pick it out.  Yes, my friend Lori was in town this weekend.  Yay!!  No photos.  Not one.  Can you stand it?  Oh was I bummed out about that after she left and I realized I had no photos.  Luckily I have all my Ikea crap to remind me of her visit.

It was so nice having her here and having a much bigger apartment to entertain.  I also made her watch the North & South British miniseries that I love and we got some crafting in so it was pretty darn fun.  I can't believe all the beautiful sweaters she is knitting.  I remember back when I MADE her learn how to crochet and now she is way better at yarn crafts then I could ever imagine being.

We skipped all over town shopping on Sunday.  Ikea, Michaels, The Mall, Mill End Store, Scrap and Target.  It was pretty fabulous because I had been saving money for the last few months anticipating this and what is even better is I got everything I wanted and I didn't even go over budget.  I even have fabric for the office window and I think I have enough left over fabric to make some curtains for the kitchen as well.

Is it wrong that I totally want to get this set?  I just can't think of anything cooler for my bathroom.  I don't know if my mother would approve.

My conscious and unconscious self.

Sometimes I think about being able to split myself in two people.  And by sometimes I mean, I think about it a lot.  Mostly in ways to remain lazy.  Currently my favorite split personality fantasy is when my alarm goes off in the morning at 5:30.  I set it for that time because what I should do is get up and work-out, but what I really do is reset it for 6 and think about how nice it would be to split myself.  Wait.  That doesn't sound right.

So here is how it would go down.  My unconscious self would get up and go work out while my conscious self would go back to being unconscious.  So I guess both myselfs would be unconscious.  How lazy am I?   My fantasies are of me being lazy.  Wow.  My fantasies are totally achievable!!

I was actually able to drag my conscious self up to finally put that shelf in the pantry.  It was all very technical.  The first thing you have to do is find a stud.  I couldn't find one so I had to do it myself.  HAHAHAHAHA!  Oh goodness, I slay myself.

No, really.  First thing is to get some tools.  I hate this drill.  It drives me insane.  But it was free so I really can't complain.  Well, I really shouldn't complain.  And then you like, drill some holes and screw some screws in.

And then you get distracted by a freakish screw.

Look!  It has a parasitic twin!!  Perfect opportunity to use my cameras macro feature:

Yeah, and then you get back to what you are doing which is really just a lot of screwing and in my case stripping out a lot of screws.  Oh my!  This post sounds so dirty!!

And then viola!  You have a pantry shelf:

It's like magic!!

All the right friends in all the right places, so yeah, we're going down...

It's funny the types of things people obsess about.  It really depends on the person.  My dad had many obsessions when I was a child.  They mostly involved ants.  But there were also the forays into beer brewing, goats, science projects and the all-consuming Volkswagen repair.  Although that was less an obsession and more of a necessity. But since my father spent every weekend since I was 4 until I was 12 repairing our various Volkswagens I'm going to call it an obsession.

My current obsession is my clothes line.  I can't explain it.  I find it fascinating.

Now if my yard weren't such a disaster I could really enjoy it.  But I really enjoy it now.

I love the way the wind blows the cloths around.  I love the sun shining on them.

What I don't really love is finding cherry blossoms stuck in the pocket that fitted sheet makes and then having them littered all over my house.  But other than that I completely love my clothes line.

On to other news.  I finished some Mario coasters for mom's shop.  I made eight of them and they turned out pretty good I think:

I had only made a set of 6 for my sister (see craftster post) so I needed to add 2 more images.  I chose the ghost and the feather.  And yes, I did notice that the feather is off center, but I decided not to care.  But deciding not to care and actually not caring are two very different animals.  My mom will be selling them in sets of 4.  I made the decision on the set and they are as follows.

Set #1:

And Set #2:

So please visit my mom's shop if you are interested in buying them.  All proceeds go to World Vision for helping the people of Africa.  They even have cork backing so it won't drip through the cracks and onto your table that you are trying to protect with a coaster in the first place.

I just had a wonderful lunch with my old co-workers Lynne and Cheryl (I meant to take photos, I even remembered my camera, but I completely forgot as per usual.)  And now I need to hang that shelf in my pantry because cans are starting to pile up on my counter tops.

We shall see how that goes!!