Worst blogger ever?

I may be the worst blogger ever! lol I have been doing some small projects, and will go over a few of them more in-depth, but for now, here's a link to my Pinterest board on things I've tried from there! I've also been getting back into crocheting a little. Made a bunch of "dice bags" and now have no idea what I'm going to do with them. I'll include some pics on that in a later post, though! A friend suggested using Etsy to sell some stuff, and I may look into that. I enjoy making the laundry detergent, but don't need to make it very often since it takes so long to go through! So I may look into selling some either locally or online as well.

That's it for now, and I will make an effort to do better posting!

"Grab and go" travel bag

I have something in my house that I haven't seen on any other site yet, and it's so simple and useful I thought I would share. I can it a "grab and go" bag. Inside of it, I keep the cords and adapters We would use while traveling that go to the various electronics we might take with us. Right now it has an extra ipod shuffle charger, 2 extra UBS charging cord that fits the various e-readers in our house (a Sony e-reader, a Kindle keyboard, and 2 Kindle Fires) as well as both my phone and Philip's, 2 USB wall plugin adapters, a car USB adapter, and a travel surge protector (that has 3 regular plugs and 2 USB). It usually also has at least 1 battery charger and some extra rechargeable batteries as well. Depending on where we're going, I can also toss in all 4 e-readers and my camera. I personally use a small backpack for it. Because we usually have at least 2 cords to everything (somehow) or cords that can be used for multiple devices, this works really well for us. Keeping it all in a small backpack means it's all kept together and easily grabbed on our way out the door, and doesn't get left in the car where the heat can mess something up. Since we've started taking the dogs with us more, I may add in an extra leash as well.

Since we don't do a lot of long-distance travel, it may seem odd that I have this put together, or that it wouldn't get much use. It actually gets used a lot. Whenever we have appointments that may mean a wait in a waiting room, I take it with us, and make sure the readers are all in it. I don't always make sure they are charged, though. Oops. Yeah, I'm an imperfect mom, I admit it, and I'm ok with that lol. All we have to do is find a plugin and we're set, though. The battery charger is kept in there mostly so I know where it is. I have another one I keep in my desk drawer as well.

Does anyone else have something like this? What do you keep in it?

Simple organization tip!

So, I went to Dollar General with a simple goal in mind: finding myself some sort of cheap small tubs to organize the hall closet's piles of junk. In one corner was a pile of bar soaps, with a mound of spare toothbrushes and extra toothpaste next to it. Shaving kit bags were piled on the top shelf filled with extra disposable razors, and there was a large bin in the top of the kids' closet with even more spare toothbrushes and toothpaste, as well as disposable travel toothbrushes (just add water... toothpaste is already applied in a powder form) and hotel-sized soaps and shampoo/conditioner/lotion bottles. mixed in among the entire mess were the few perfume/cologne bottles we own, and a few samples of others. It was 2+ shelves worth of MESS. So, at Dollar General, I found some "shoe-box" sized tubs for $1 each. I got six, and only used 4 in the closet. I even condensed the hair clipper blades (and one of the clippers) down into a tub with my razors. I wish I had some before pics! I didn't even think about it, though! 

Whew!

What a fun evening! Had strawberry shortcake with the kids.... A first for them! Then, I had fun showing them how Ivory soap puffs up if you microwave it. It cools off really quick, and then crumbles into powder really easily. We're low on body wash, so I melted the powder into a pot of water (roughly 4 cups of water? IDK, I just put some water in the pot.) and added what was left over from my last attempt at body wash. The last time, it came out chunky and snot-textured. After some reading, I realized this means I didn't melt the soap well enough and there wasn't enough water. That batch is cooling right now. I'll know tomorrow how it comes out!

I was inspired by the Ivory, and looked up if Fels-Naptha soap would react the same way in the microwave. It does, kinda. It's not as dramatic a PUFF (it ends up looking like slightly over-risen bread) and it takes a LONG time to cool down, but IMO, it's worth it. After it cooled off, I broke it into small pieces and run it through my (tiny) food processor to powder it. It doesn't crumble quite as easily as the Ivory. As I was powdering it, I slowly added in the other ingredients for making my laundry detergent (super washing soda and 20 Mule Team Borax) and then mixed them up really well when I was done. Still have Borax left over from the FIRST batch of laundry detergent I made in January. I've made 3 batches so far this year, only needing to buy the fels-naptha for the second batch. So far this year, counting this batch, we've spent roughly $20 on laundry detergent, and I think this will last us until August, at least. Still had about 1/3 of the last batch left, so maybe a little longer than that even. Sure beats the hell out of spending $15-$20 a MONTH on laundry detergent! Considering making some to sell, but I am so getting a cheap-o microwave to use out in the garage and a bigger food processor if I do! The smell is HELLA potent.

I can't remember if I posted about it or not, but Philip and I got the guts ripped out of the old console TV we got. We were also given another one with a swiveling base. Not sure what we're gonna do with #2! I'm thinking shelf, but not sure just yet. Need to get sanding on #1 and figure out what colors I want to paint it. Debating between a medium stone-grey or a more brown-grey color, and no idea on what color trim yet.

Hmm... I should start making this blog a once a week goal, at least to start out with!

Tired!

EXHAUSTED! Finally caught up on my homework. Garage is almost civilized again. Kids are sweeping and picking up trash in there now. The dogs kinda trashed it while we were all sick. Bathroom.... is almost done. The toilet is defunkified, and man it was AWFUL... has been since we moved in: black hard water deposits, for instance... It's now an acceptably white toilet, thanks to baking soda, lemon juice, vinegar, comet, toilet bowl cleaner, a scrub brush, a steel wool pad, and a couple pairs of gloves. I said it was bad! To further my insanity, I got most of the tub cleaned before getting distracted by how horribly gunky the water handles were, and the white water deposits all over the gold (GAG!!!!) faucets. Yes, replacing all the gold crap IS on the to-do list... Someday. I was planning on just replacing them, but they were SO funky. So I sent Marissa after a flathead screwdriver, popped off the caps, and pulled off the handles. They are now crystal-clear hunks of cheap plastic again! Still on tonight's to-do list:

• Finish the tub (I ran outta hot water. Boo!)
• Clean the bathroom sink, and try not to rip the funky handles and faucet off of that!
• Bathroom floor, and then the bathroom will be done! Yay!
• Get a couple loads of laundry finished up and maybe folded.

I'll probably actually only get the tub finished.... and pretend I'm too busy to do the rest tomorrow! lol Baby steps towards a more motivated me, right?

I didn't forget!

I didn't forget about the blog! I just haven't had much to say lately. Getting ready for my daughter's birthday party this weekend, and I plan to make a bunch of food from Pinterest ideas to celebrate. And since the local WalMart has decided to stop carrying pinatas, a friend has very kindly offered to make one for us! That's a relief to me, because the artistic skills in my family tree didn't get passed on from my mom! So far, that leaves me with the cake and meal to make tomorrow through Friday (not getting started TOO early!) and decorating early Saturday. Very doable!

In other news, I found a bunch of spray bottles in cute and fun colors for $1 each at WalMart! They were in the gardening section, and they will work great for making my own sprayable cleaning supplies! I just need to snag something to print them some labels on so I can get started!

That's all from me today... More soon!

2 years?!?

I've had this damn blog for about 2 years now. What?!?! Nobody knew I had a blog?? Oh whew, good. Because it was mostly vapid whining about how life kinda sucks, and how much I hate cleaning. Good thing I deleted all 4 of those posts, huh?

This year, I actually plan to use this darn thing. Why? Because I discovered Pinterest, and have become a huge fan of the DIY beauty products and household cleaners. So far, I have made my own dry laundry soap (according to a recipe from The Duggar Family's website. They have a liquid version as well! and body wash from a bar of soap and water (still perfecting that one! Idea from here, link is to the "improved" method!)

With all the DIY laundry soaps out there, I'm sure you wanna know why I chose the one I did. Um, hello. They have like, a gazillion kids! I guarantee they have a ton of laundry, and they always look so neat and tidy. As such, I felt it safe to assume (hahaha) they knew their stuff. Let me say... I love it, love it, love it, and I will NEVER EVER EVER buy pre-made crap again. I do still use a Bounty dryer bar though. I love that thing, and I have such a bad memory that trying to remember to add a dryer sheet or add vinegar to the rinse water? Just not happening. As a result, my clothes simply smell clean, and FEEL clean too.

Oh, and for anyone on a super tight budget? DIY cleaning stuff is super cheap. Seriously. Lemon juice. Baking soda. Heck, the laundry soap I made we've used 6 bars of fels-naptha, 1 box of washing soda, and maybe half a box of borax so far. I won't need to make more for a few months at least (unless I give some away!) and have spent around $15... with Borax still left over. I had a piece of furniture that had dirt, grease, and crud (technical terms, yay!) caked onto the top of it. One swipe turned my rag into a blechy black mess. So I wiped down the top, had my daughter get me a half-bucket of water, sprinkled in some baking soda, sprinkled a tiny bit more onto the surface, and wiped. No hard scrubbing, and WOW it's clean. Anyway, as I was saying... SUPER cheap cleaning supplies, and if you're like me.... and on food stamps (I HATE admitting that, but someday we won't need them any more!!), then most of the supplies are COVERED BY YOUR CARD (The laundry soap wasn't, but the mats are still cheap!). Which means you won't need to set aside money for comet or whatever you use now. Huge savings? Not in some cases, depending on how crazy you are about cleaning, but if you're on a tight budget, you know every penny counts.

Also: Please comment and let me know how you think I'm doing. My purpose in this is to start my own home & self improvement blog, and share tips on stuff I personally make or use. My ideas generally come from stuff I find on Pinterest (my account here!) and some sound amazing, but not all ideas work well for me, and well... I'm lazy!!!