On my to-do list for this week – making my own laundry detergent. Yes, I make my own laundry detergent instead of buying it at the store, and you know what, I like it more than the name brand that I grew up using. I started making my own laundry detergent about eight years ago, and haven’t had any regrets! In fact, on the rare occasion that something is washed in regular store bought detergent, I notice a difference in the scent (my husband said his shirt smelled like Pez) and in ...
DIY
Homemade Birdseed Cakes
Even though we live in the middle of suburbia, we get a wide variety of wildlife. My children love watching the birds from our living room window. At various times of year, you will see doves, gold finches, blue jays, sparrows, cow birds, phoebes, hummingbirds, chickadees, cardinals, and woodpeckers all hanging out on the feeders in our pollinator garden. The favorite is when the woodpecker comes to the feeder. He (we think its a he) is quite large, and he loves the bugs ...
Simmering Christmas Potpourri
I love everything about the Christmas season. From the shopping to the decorating. All of the delicious food and amazing smells. Sometimes, I want the house to smell like Christmas without having to whip up a pie or a batch of cookies. Let's be honest, freshly baked treats smell amazing, but who has time for that every day. My go to used to be scented candles or wax melts, however, we have eliminated a lot of synthetic scents from our home over the past few years for ...
Handmade Honey Oat Soap
One of my goals for this year was to start making my own beauty products; particularly my own soap. I've already made a luxurious foaming hand soap, so now I want to make an equally luxurious bar soap. There are many soap bases available online and in craft stores. When you use a melt & pour soap base, the soap was created in a factory using lye to transform the fats into soap so you don't have to do that step at home. You melt the soap base, and then you ...
15min DIY Dining Room Chair Makeover
We have a hodge podge of chairs that we've gotten over the years. Some were hand-me-downs and others we purchased from IKEA or yard sales. Even if the chairs were in great shape when we got them, the fabric on the cushions deteriorates over time. Add that to my children being rough on furniture, and it was time to recover the cushions on our dining room chairs. It only takes about 15 minutes to recover a chair cushion. What a quick way to improve the look of ...