Laundry Day

Today I am going to share how to make "homemade" laundry detergent.


This started as a lark. Something I read about on the Internet. Something for the very frugal, the very poor, or the very "crunchy". But still, I was curious. Would it work? Could I really make laundry detergent in the convenience of my own home with a few simple ingredients?

I certainly didn't NEED laundry detergent. I had recently horded about 4 large bottles of Tide. Still, I bought the ingredients and bided (wait is it bided? bid? well you know what I mean) my time...waiting anxiously to use up all of my Tide. I'll admit some days I used two capfuls per load...but hey, I was anxious to begin my experiment. Finally when the Tide was almost gone I made my first batch of laundry detergent-very loosely following a recipe I found on the Internet. Although I made a few mistakes the first time around, I have been using this homemade detergent for a few months now and I am very satisfied. Try it. It costs pennies a load, reduces landfill waste, and has no phosphates (at least I don't think so). A caveat; I have heard that with some water types (you know-hard and soft etc.) this detergent will not work-so if you have the opposite of whatever type of water we have-maybe you better stick with Tide.

To begin you will need to grate one bar of Fels-Naptha soap. I had never seen this soap before but I easily found it at Kroger (a grocery store). The smaller the "bits" of soap, the easier the next step will be-thus the grating.


Next-Fill a large stock pot about 1/3 full of water. Add the grated soap and heat on medium high until the soap is dissolved.


Stir it every now and then. It doesn't take too long-maybe 15 minutes.


Now you will need to add 2 cups each of Borax and Washing Soda. I have always used Borax so I had some already (it can be found at Target or Walmart). I had never seen Washing Soda before but I found it at Kroger.


When the soap is completely dissolved, take the pot off the heat and SLOWLY add the Borax and Washing Soda. If you add these ingredients too quickly the whole mixture will bubble up and spill all over the stove top. Not like I have ever done that! Stir well until the powder dissolves.


Now if you want to get fancy-add a few drops of food coloring to make it look "real" otherwise the soap will be a snotty yellow color.

Add enough cold water to bring the mixture near the top of the pot (but not so full that you can't lift the pot) and stir well.

Use a funnel to fill old detergent bottles with the detergent mixture. I would divide this recipe between 3 large detergent bottles. Then "top off" each bottle with water and give them a good shake (with the lid on of course). Let the bottles sit over night. The liquid will "gel" but it is a snotty, gooey looking, watery gel.


Use about a capful for each load. You can also add some essential oils if you prefer a "scented" detergent. Oh and it is a good idea to give the bottle shake before you use it.

There are many recipes floating around out there that use varying amounts of soap, Borax and washing soda-but this is a good starter recipe. Go ahead and give it a try-I'll bet Al Gore doesn't make his own detergent-so now you can feel all superior inside-you "green" person-you.

My Favorite Summer "thing"

Summer isn't summer without a windowsill full of tomatoes. Ahhh...that's better. I have been waiting months for this.


Bounty from the garden. It doesn't get any better than this.

I Love this Chair

I have a love affair with chairs. I simply love chairs-especially old wooden chairs. I imagine that each one has a story, a history, a life of it's own. It is for this reason that I could not decide on one particular style of chair to go with my new dining room table. I opted instead for the fabulous 90's trend of putting an assortment of different chairs around my table. I love the look but I wanted a little continuity from the three chairs with fabric seats.

So what do you think? I added a little animal print.


You love it don't you? Now try all 3. Fabulous!


And put it all together.

Another Installment of Blooming

When flowers grow in my yard I am always a little bit astonished. Considering how I used to pop a single marigold in a pot full of topsoil and wish for the best (they always died). Now I photograph every thing in my yard....

The "death" Hydrangea (from my dad's funeral). It is blooming for a second time this year. I feel terribly obligated to keep it alive-that's the trouble with having living flowers at funerals. Don't get me started on the death Spathiphyllum in my dining room.


Day-Lilies are ubiquitous in here in the burbs. You'd be hard pressed to find a yard without them. They are considered an invasive species which means in layman's terms...a plant that you can not kill-making them the ideal plant for me. These lovlies have 3 layers of petals-so they are particularly pretty.

Hydrangeas

I love Hydrangeas-they are one of my all time favorite flowers. Sadly my yard has no shade and these guys don't really love the all day direct sun that is ubiquitous in my yard. I have managed to grow a few mopheads in planters in the approximately 10 square feet of shade in my yard-well more accurately in my driveway. I had always wanted to change the pH of the soil so I could have a pink Hydrangea. Around these parts the un-assisted hydrangea is blue. So I am pretty excited that by some unknown twist of fate the pH in this planter is increasing -as is evidenced by this pink beauty.


Here is a Lady In Red Hydrangea that lived several very unsuccessful years in my back yard before being transplanted to a pot by the driveway.


And a few more close ups of these beauties


Can you handle the sheer fantastic-ness of these flowers....

Rain

Atlanta has been in a drought for the past 3 summers. Our first summer in GA was rainy (our basement even flooded-but that is another story for another day). There was rain and more rain and then a little bit of rain. Everything was cool and green and mossy-even moldy with rain.

The next summer I took up gardening and the rain stopped. It stopped and it never came back. I spent the last 3 summers trying to keep my yard alive. It was nearly futile. The drought was so bad that eventually, as the lakes ran dry, we weren't allowed to water at all. I used gray water to nurture my plants. I took fewer showers. I used bath water to flush the toilets. If anything, the 3 years of drought taught me to live simply and appreciate the small things in life (like water). I learned to live a more earth friendly existence and I taught my children to nurture the earth and protect it's resources.

But now the rain is back. Oh the glorious rain. At first I though it was a fluke. But it keeps coming. I'll admit that after 2 or 3 hot dry days in a row I get a sick feeling in my stomach-thinking it will never rain again...but then it does...it rains...and boy does it rain....our lakes are full and we can water again-but who needs to with all this rain. I hope I can continue to live with the environment in mind-but I am so thankful that we no longer have to.

Too Many Tables

Or maybe I should call this Consumer Excess or Keeping up with the Jones' if the Jones' shopped at Goodwill or There's another table in the basement-too! Either way, last weekend we ended up with exactly 4 tables in our dining room. A beautiful antique drop leaf table that is too old and delicate and "nice" for our family to actually use. A very old walnut veneer table, that many years ago, was being used as a saw horse in the wood shop at the school where my father taught graphic arts before my father rescued and repaired it for my mother. Derek's table, that he bought for his first post divorce-pre Katherine bachelor pad (he is very attached to this one) and finally the new table I purchased at the thrift shop last weekend. It has carved legs. Carved legs!

OK, it seems more than obvious to even the most casual passerby that we did not need another table. And it became painfully obvious to me at the point I took this photo....we have too many tables. And now, even though we have managed to move two of the tables to other rooms, we still have too many tables and may always have too many tables because we are two very sentimental fools, neither of us willing to part with a single table. Can you say "don't all home offices have dining tables." I know I can.

And perhaps worse of all this new table has no chairs....well it HAS chairs-we have lots of chairs. Actually once I counted all our chairs for a school project and we had about 48 chairs in our house. I love chairs. But the new table (did I mention it has carved legs) needs new chairs because nothing we have-no, not even a single one of the 48 chairs we currently own-"goes with" the new table. As much as I luv this table....I am starting to think I should have left well enough alone and just gotten over myself and my foolish need to have my home look a certain way. After all, the dogs are content to beg at any type of table and the children are not picky as long as they can eventually smear it with gogurt and finger paint.