Shabby Chic

Life has been busy so this blog fell to the bottom of my list of "to do's". I have had request to post a few items lately, so with some mindless TV on I decided to post away. The title for the post is Shabby Chic because I did not want to call it Thrifty. My new favorite DIY home item, homemade laundry detergent, sounds "cheap" doesn't it? Laundry soap is not cheap (there is not mucht that is today) and have you ever read the back of the bottle, I am not a big fan of things that I can't pronouce. Once I decided that I wanted to make my own soap I searched Pinterest for a recipe. This took some research because I have an HE washer and you have to be careful not to make a detergent that is too sudsy. Here is the recipe that I use:

Fels-Naptha Soap Bar ($0.97)
Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda ($3.24)
Borax ($2.98)
(You will also need one 5 gallon bucket with a lid
(You can also add 1-2 drops of essential oils per 2 gallons once it has cooled)
I used Lavendar essential oil for this round and I love the smell.

To make:
Boil 4 cups of tap water in a large saucepan, grate the Fels-Naptha bar soap into the water. I used by cheese grater and yes it came clean and did not taste like soap.
Stir until the soap is melted takes about 45 minutes...and makes the house smell super clean
Fill the 5 gallon bucket half way with water, add the melted soap mixture, 1 cup Arm & Hammer Washing Soda and 1/2 cup Borax stir well.
Add Tap water until the bucket is full, cover and allow to sit overnight. When you remove the lid it will look like gel....just stir it up. I used my husband's drill with a concrete paddle attached but beware low speed is what you need otherwise you will have a big mess.

This makes a 10 gallon recipe, I would reuse a laundry detergent container, fill it half full with soap mixture and half with water and shake! Ready to use...about 1/4 cup

This is how mine turned out and it makes 640 loads!






The other item to share is acutally my something that my husband makes...Granola. Thought it was fitting since making your own laundry detergent is a very "granola" thing to do!

Granola:
4 cups of rolled oats
1-1/2 cups of sliced almonds
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Mix those all together in a large bowl
On the stove heat:
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup honey
Whisk in 1 teaspoon of vanilla
Preheat oven to 300 degrees
Pour the liquid mixture over the oat mixture and spread over two 13X9 pans
Bake for 40 minutes and stir every 10 minutes or so.
Once cooled you can add raisins, craisins or any other dried fruit

Enjoy!

Half time vegetarian

When it comes to eating dinner I want variety and stuff that taste good. When it comes to cooking dinner I want something that can be made in 30 minutes or less with one pan and no extra dishes. So, needless to say I don't do much of the cooking at my house, that privilege is left up to my husband. He really likes to cook and do dishes so it works out really great..for me!

Our dinner choices had been getting somewhat routine and we wanted to make some changes to our diet. We "generally" eat healthy, there are certain junk foods that you just can't resist and buy organic when possible. So what else could we do? There is a lot of buzz around meatless Mondays these days so we decided what the heck, let's eat vegetarian a couple nights of the week.

I have been pleasantly surprised with the outcomes of the meals we have had so far. My favorite by far is black bean tacos. I will post the recipe below! I am also a big fan of the hummus Abe made last night...he found the recipe in a cookbook we had and it is a copycat of my favorite hummus from Oasis in Iowa City,(again I will post the recipe).

I decided to look into the benefit of eating a vegetarian diet a couple nights a week, of course there is the health benefit but what else? What I found was amazing!

This is from alternet.org
If everyone went vegetarian just for one day, the U.S. would save:
-100 billion gallons of water, enough to supply all the homes in New England for almost 4 months.
-1.5 billion pounds of crops otherwise fed to livestock, would be enough to feed the state of New Mexico for more than a year.
-70 million gallons of gas which would be enough to fuel all the cars of Canada and Mexico combined with plenty to spare.
-3 million acres of land which is an area more than twice the size of Delaware
-33 tons of antibiotics

If everyone went vegetarian just for one day, the U.S. would prevent:
-Greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 1.2 million tons of CO2, as much as produced by all of France
-3 million tons of soil erosion and $70 million in resulting economic damages
-4.5 million tons of animal excrement
-Almost 7 tons of ammonia emissions, a major air pollutant.

For all that 1 day seems reasonable to me!

Here is the recipe for the Black bean Tacos:
1 can black beans
1/2 tsp ground cumin
couple cloves of garlic pressed
1/2 red onion
1 Tbsp olive oil

Cook olive oil, onion and garlic until onions are done, add rinsed black beans and cumin until beans are warm.

For the toppings I use, fresh cilantro, feta cheese, black olives, a little guacamole, a drop of sour supreme ( it is tofu based imitation sour cream, really taste the same to me) and some Frank's hot sauce.

Hummus Copy Cat: We got the recipe from the cookbook Best International Recipes
1(15 ounce) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup of tahini (This is a little pricey at the store but you will get several batches out of one jar)
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup of water
3 tablespoons juice from 1 lemon
1 medium garlic clove, pressed
3/4 teaspoon salt
Simply Organic cayenne pepper.... shamless plug for my company! :-)

Process all the ingredients, including cayenne to taste, together in a food processor until smooth, about 40 seconds, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Transfer the hummus to a serving bowl, cover with plastic wrap and chill to let the flavors meld, at least 30 minutes. Sprinkle the cayenne lightly on top and serve with pita chips or your favorite veggie. Enjoy!

Green Tips!

Cleaning was on the agenda for the weekend. I promised a few followers of my blog that I would post my favorite tips. Researching "green" cleaning is a little bit of an addiction for me because I am always trying to find a better, healthier and honestly, easier way to clean. Another important factor for me to clean green is that my girls always want to help (which I know will not last for long so I have to take it while I can). Making my own cleaners I know exactly what is in them and feel comfortable letting the girls help.

So on with the tips, I will try to cite where I got most of these but I have been researching these for awhile and may not have some of the info...sorry.

My number one cleaning agent....yes, Vinegar. You can use to it to clean almost anything. A couple of my favorites are in the microwave, 1/4 cup-1/2 cup vinegar with 2 cups of water in a bowl and cook for 3-5 minutes. When finished, open the door and wipe out. No heavy scrubbing or scraping. My other favorite is using vinegar in the laundry as a fabric softener. Fabric softener leaves a residue on your clothes, towels, sheets and in your washing machine. Just place a tablespoon or two in the fabric softener compartment and you will have soft items with no residue. It will also clean your washer too! Double duty...my favorite.

I reference www.vinegarcleaningtips.com frequently too. The site has 1001 uses for white distilled vinegar.

Another great site for getting recipes for cleaning is www.herbcompanion.com, they have some great informational blogs too. Here are a couple of my favorites: 

Super Surface Spray

• 16 ounces spray bottle
• 14 ounce - 1:1 solution of distilled white vinegar and water
• 7 drops tea tree essential oil
• 7 drops lavender essential oil
• 7 drops lemon essential oil

Use this aromatic and disinfecting solution for cleaning kitchen counters, cabinets, refrigerator shelves, blinds, painted wood surfaces, painted walls, molding, fan blades, and more.

Natural Lemony Furniture Polish
• 16-ounce spray bottle
• 1 cup olive oil
• 25 drops pure lemon essential oil
• 1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
• Fill remainder of the bottle with purified water
Shake well and spray onto your rag or directly onto furniture. Buff dry immediately.


Read more: http://www.herbcompanion.com/blogs/blog.aspx?blogid=744&tag=Naturally Clean#ixzz1kDuPyffd

An usual product that I became a fan of when cleaning is wax paper. Wax Paper can be used on your chrome faucet in the kitchen or bathroom to remove water spots and bring it back to shiny again. Wax paper can also be used on your swiffer mop to dry dust the floor. I use this when in a hurry but you still have to throw away the paper when done so I prefer to use my cloth cover that I throw in the washer.

 The kitchen cutting board, a high use area that needs regular cleaning. We use our pull out cutting board all the time so when it comes to cleaning it I want to use something that is safe and that gets the job done. My favorite go to...medium to coarse salt and half a lemon. Sprinkle the salt all over the board and wait a few minutes then take the half of lemon and rub it all over the board making a paste. Rub in a circular motion for about 5 minutes and then wipe clean.

Okay, this is my last tip for today. This one that I got from pinterest. I have an airwick plug-in in my laundry room. What motivated me to look at the Pinterest post for making your own refill at first was the cost of the refills. Then, after further research of looking into these guys I realized that it is a health benefit to make my own as well. Okay, up on my soapbox for a minute....These air fresheners contain VOC'S (volatile organic compounds) which are highly toxic. They can cause a whole host of problems with prolonged exposure such as: infertility, headaches, nervous system disorders, memory loss, exaggerating asthma, and cancer for you and your pets. Decided that it was not worth all that just to have my laundry room sell good. So when I found this how-to I was excited. 

All you have to do is: Remove the top with the wick in it. Rinse out the old bottle to remove the last scent. I, of course used a vinegar rinse to fully remove the old odor. Then fill the bottle about a 1/3 of the way with your favorite essential oil and then fill with water but not all the way to the top so you can put the wick back in. And ta da...you have a new plug in without VOC's!

Some great scents are: Grapefruit, Lavender, Peppermint, Orange, Lemon, Jasmine, Ylang Ylang, anything fruity smells great. Try it for yourself and experiment with scents!

Until next time...Have a great week!

Snow Inspiration

Well, it was bound to happen at some point, the first snow of the year fell on Thursday. It was after all January 12th. Once the white stuff arrived my mind instantly started to fear cabin fever. I needed a project and a big one to get over that fear. So Saturday while one girl was sleeping and the other was sledding with her Dad (did I mention the conditions have to be just right for me to play outside in the snow....50-60ish and sunny! :-)

What better place to start a big project then my bedroom. Friday night I painted the room and Saturday I tackled the closet. The closet was a big project and with the help of pinterest ideas I was ready to make the best of the space we have. Here is how everything came out:

The new gray paint

The organized closet :-)

Found the flip flop idea on Pinterest, they are on hangers!

Hanging boots, also Pinterest with curtain hooks.

Amira helping Dad with the first snow!

Another tip, from my mother, which I found useful was to organize the clothes by color. It makes it so easy to see what you have, so like in my case you don't end up with 15 black shirts in about the same style! Not many new sewing projects to share this week...had a cold that kept me down a few days. Until next time, have a great rest of the weekend!

Back to Reality.....

So the reality that the Holidays are over has set in and real life is back. The girls have adjusted back into their daily rountine, although both have asked me how many days till the next stay home day. There is just not enough time at night to get everything done.

I got accustom to staying up later while I was off and I am having a hard time going to bed early now (again I am not the only one having a hard time with the adjustment, as I type I hear little feet running around upstairs, Marina of course!)

So I have been spending my sleepless nights with my sewing machine trying to teach myself some new tricks. With the help of my favorite new website, which I can proudly say I got my sister-in-law and mother hooked on, Pinterest I whipped up a few things for the girls. I may need to seek out a 12 step program to stop spending every free moment I have surfing on Pinterest, it is insane how addicting it is.

Till next time...Good night! (It is 10:15pm and I am actually tired!)

Here are the new items I whipped up this week:




Amira's new Paris Dress



Marina's new dress and headband (She would not stand still for a picture!)

 
   


Amira's Barbie Skirt (She is pretty big at our house right now! :-)







 













Hello 2012!

As 2011 came to a close I realized that there were so many things that I wanted to share and never quite got the chance. So with 2012 starting fresh I decided what better way to share and journal then to start a blog. So here we go....I am hoping to keep up on this but I just had ten days off from work and here I am on the last day working on it.

Amira (5) and Marina (3) had such a great time over Christmas (even though the dreaded flu struck us). The girls have enjoyed staying home with Abe and I over the last ten days that getting back into the rountine tomorrow is going to be tough. I must admit for me too!

The Barbie House

I spent some time over the break reuniting with my sewing machine. My obsession with pinterest.com inspired me to get it out and get creative. Abe and I made the girls a Barbie house for Christmas, which turned out fantastic, thanks to my ever patient husband!

My first sewing endevour was pillowcase dresses for the girls for Christmas and they turned out really cute. I even made one for Amira's, "American girl". The sewing bug had hit and off to Hobby Lobby, Amira and I went. We found some really cute fabric and made another matching outfit set for her and her doll. Although, Amira now thinks that I will custom make all her clothes with a new outfit every morning....not going to happen!

I am hoping to update on the girls, life, projects and recipes (made by Abe of course)! I think 2012 is going to be a great year! Happy New Year!



Girls at Christmas, not thrilled about having to wait to open gifts for pictures!



Christmas Dress I made for Amira!

Christmas Dress for Marina!